For Sale: Male Lead, Obsession Included - Chapter 153

The solemn and rapturous colors poured out by the long stained-glass windows beneath the high arched ceiling.

The long red carpet stretching from the door to the innermost area, the candles lit along it, and the noble children seated on chairs arranged closely on either side, each wearing splendid clothes. The brilliant light streaming down from the stained glass shattered vividly over their faces.

The atmosphere inside the temple was very quiet and solemn, even sacred. It was because of the hymns sung by the priests lined up in a row behind the senior priest standing on the innermost platform.

The clean, beautiful voices of the young priests softly wrapped around the inside of the temple, and the dignified voice of the priest reciting prayers before them lingered heavily.

At the quiet baptism ceremony where I couldn’t even breathe comfortably, I entered alone in the plain dress I had worn yesterday, feeling like ink splashed onto a pure white sheet of drawing paper.

Dust. Filth. As if I had become something dirty of a similar kind. I stepped back from the stride I had taken forward.

Because I had waited for ages in the line where commoners stood, I ended up entering in the middle of the baptism ceremony while it was in full swing, and I had no choice but to endure the uncomfortable gazes of the nobles.

As if by agreement, they all turned around at the same time and scanned my appearance up and down.

Their gazes seemed unable to understand how a girl like that had entered this place. Among them, there were even some who spoke in irritated voices, asking why I wasn’t being thrown out already and what they were doing.

I flinched.

I was bitterly regretting every second since entering the hall, especially after I had flung open the temple doors without knowing anything.

If I’d known it was this suffocatingly quiet inside, I absolutely! Absolutely wouldn’t have done anything like this!

For no reason, the urge to curse Feyden surged up in me. Because if it was him, there was almost a hundred percent chance he knew full well it would be this kind of atmosphere and still hadn’t told me.

‘What should I do. Should I leave…?’

I looked around. Hoping someone would help me. Hoping they would see the red wooden piece in my hand, realize I had come to the right place, and tell me to sit comfortably.

But no matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t see any priests managing this place, and the priests’ hymns continued. The stinging gazes toward me did too.

It felt as if a streak of cold sweat was running down my back.

‘Is there an empty seat anywhere?’

But I couldn’t go outside like this. If I didn’t receive baptism, I wouldn’t be able to open my store, and I would have to wait a long four months until the next baptism.

In this Empire, there were far too many restrictions on what someone who wasn’t an adult could do, so I wanted to be recognized as an adult as soon as possible.

Because of that, I decided to participate in the baptism ceremony even if I had to endure humiliation, pressure, or fear.

‘An empty seat, an empty seat…’

My eyes busily rolled around, searching for an empty seat among the chairs packed with noble children. Perhaps the nobles didn’t want to sit through this boring baptism ceremony either, because there were no empty seats in the back where I was standing. Left with no choice, I started checking from the very front, and soon I was able to find an empty seat.

Although it was in the very front, that one pew alone had plenty of space.

Walking quickly in the posture one takes when going to the bathroom at a movie theater, I was able to sit down safely.

‘Phew.’

Just as I was about to feel relieved, if only inwardly, since I couldn’t even let out a sigh through my mouth.

I belatedly realized someone was sitting in the middle of the long pew.

‘Wasn’t the whole pew empty?’

I was so embarrassed that I had only looked roughly, so I might not have noticed someone sitting there. Judging by the height and impression I could see from the corner of my eye, it seemed to be a well-built man.

I pressed myself as close to the aisle as possible and fixed my gaze forward. If I needlessly looked at the noble sitting beside me, I might hear him say something unpleasant, asking why some commoner was sitting next to him.

The inside of the temple, which had become slightly noisy because of me, soon quieted down. My heart, which had been trembling in fear that I might be thrown out, finally regained a steady pace.

Only then did the priests’ beautiful hymns reach my ears, and I was given the leisure to admire the works of the genius sculptor decorating the inside of the temple.

How long had I spent looking around the inside of the temple?

The priest, who had done nothing but read prayers endlessly at the front, finally cleared his throat and said he would call the names.

‘Finally!’

Now the young people whose names were called by him would go forward, receive the blessing prayer given by the priest, and have holy water touched to their foreheads. Then it would be over. After that, an official ID would fall right into my hands!

I gazed at the priest desperately, praying for my name to be called as quickly as possible. The priest’s lips opened, and the first name that came out of them was…

“Lord Declan Ragnar.”