Blasphemous Grace - Chapter 71

And before word of this could wind its way back to Lekia’s ears, Ian and Crown Prince Aldenas intended to begin their operation.

The final preparation for this was to move Delonas to a place of safety.

“Here, you will be secure.”

Her location, of course, had to be far from the Archion capital and the main temple—places that would become the primary battlefields. The answer, then, was Crown Prince Aldenas’s safe house, situated in what would be the deepest rear. A place known only to Aldenas’s most trusted confidants.

Anticipating her unease, he had stationed female knights to guard her—women whose identities and loyalty to Aldenas were beyond question.

“And you, Your Holiness—”

“Ian, if you please,” he interjected softly.

Delonas tried again. “……Ian, will you be going to the battlefield?”

The name still felt unfamiliar, yet the more she turned it over in her mouth, the better it tasted. She asked, and Ian nodded.

“That is my promise to the Crown Prince. But I will not be harmed.”

The battlefield, he explained, was one where they held an overwhelming advantage. He thought of the holy water he had carefully spread like a protective veil over the entire safe house.

“The enemy has no holy water. We do.”

Holy water potent enough to heal anything short of instant death. Even as he said this, she could not help but worry.

Delonas looked up at him.

Ian smiled gently. It was a smile different from those she had seen in that hellish temple—a smile that seemed both refreshing and sweet.

“Even saying this, you must be terribly anxious.”

Carefully, he extended a hand toward her.

When others had reached out, her body would flinch unbidden. Yet somehow, with his movements, it did not. Instead, she hesitated before raising her own hand—uncertain whether he had truly wanted her hand, or had simply offered his own.

But her interpretation, it seemed, had been correct.

—Shhwush.

Gently, he guided her into the safe house. Even a safe house, being the Crown Prince’s property, lacked nothing in essentials. While the furnishings were not ostentatiously expensive or fine, they were nothing that would cause Delonas discomfort.

Leading her to the inner bedchamber, Ian seated her upon the bed.

—Poof.

His touch was as soft and careful as though he were handling something that might shatter at the slightest pressure.

Delonas was not ignorant. She knew he was being extraordinarily careful. She knew he feared she might recall what had been done to her in the temple.

He had deliberately worn nothing that might remind her of that place—only a plain shirt and trousers. Were it not for the bright gold hair that marked him as one of the Consecrated Bloodline, no one would have taken him for the Pope. And even that, he had temporarily dyed black with a magical artifact to escape notice.

For her, there was nothing in his appearance to evoke those terrible memories.

But still, he seemed to weigh every action with care.

“Here, you may sleep without a single thought,” Ian said.

“…….”

Delonas could not let go of his hand.

If she did, he would leave.

Of course, she knew he had to go. But she did not want this moment to end—this moment when stability, warmth, some soft and formless emotion flowed through their fingertips.

So she could not speak. She simply held his hand.

He should leave soon. He was a man with much to do. Outside, time was flowing swiftly, urgently.

She knew all this, yet she could not release her grip.

And Ian, who understood better than anyone the urgency of the world beyond, did not speak of needing to go. Instead, he sat down beside her.

“……!”

The warmth that radiated from him as they sat side by side stirred something deep within her—a memory of childhood.

Back then, Ian had been a boy of similar age, often sitting just like this. A child who had seemed smaller than her in those days, yet had now grown so suddenly tall, becoming a man who could envelop her in a single arm.

My first friend.

A friend she had met by chance, who had grown close to her with no regard for her status or background.

A gentle smile blossomed on Delonas’s face.

“Are you feeling a little reassured?”