Chapter 102
“Don’t worry. You’ll be rewarded for your efforts.”
After roughly finishing the conversation, she turned her attention to the items displayed in front of him.
“What’s this?”
“You like that?”
What Angelina’s fingertip was pointing at was an earring.
The reason she became interested in it was simple. The shape attached to the earring resembled Mason’s necklace pendant.
“That’s more dangerous than it looks. The cute young lady has unusual taste.”
Angelina stared at the earring. As she looked at the decoration, she felt nauseated.
‘This feeling again.’
She had felt a similar queasiness when she first saw Mason’s necklace. It was a different kind of irritation than indigestion, more like the unpleasantness of having a bowl of foul-smelling filth placed in front of her.
‘Could this be the suppression device I’m looking for?’
Though it was an unpleasant feeling, it was identical to what she had felt before, so she was also excited that she might have found what she was looking for.
Would touching it allow her to hear more voices from the past, like with the necklace?
“Ninety-nine thousand shillings.”
The man, noticing that she liked it, said with a sly smile.
Haley, who was standing beside her, frowned.
“It looks pretty, but isn’t that price too high?”
But he paid no attention.
“The black market is sensitive to supply and demand. Price ultimately depends on the buyer’s heart.”
He smiled again, resting his chin on his hand without taking his eyes off Angelina.
“Haggling is welcome.”
Though Haley and Laura were annoyed at what seemed like a provocation to lower the price, Angelina didn’t mind and reached out her hand.
“It doesn’t cost money just to touch it, right?”
“As long as you don’t grab it and run, feel free.”
With his permission, Angelina lightly touched the pretty earring with her finger.
And in an instant, she was pulled into the past.
“It’s a bit ugly, but.. .”
Angelina smiled at the boy’s voice, which now felt welcoming.
“It doesn’t taste good. Don’t expect too much. ”
“Is this really enough? ”
Though the tone was blunt, the content was never cold.
“Want me to do something else? ”
“You might get hurt if you stay close. ”
The order of memories was jumbled, but all the blurry scenes flashing by were of one person.
As she was sinking deep into those memories, someone struck Angelina’s hand.
“Miss!”
It was Laura, alarmed by Angelina’s unfocused gaze and unsteady posture as she held the earring, who had knocked it away.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes.”
Angelina smiled as if nothing had happened.
She was actually happy because she had found what she was looking for.
“Give me that.”
She pushed aside Laura, who was examining her face, and spoke to the shop owner.
But his face was different from before. The greasy smile he had been wearing since they entered the place was gone.
With narrowed eyes, he stared at Angelina and stood up. Then, turning his back to the wary Haley and Laura, he took out a box from behind the curtain.
The man opened the box and handed a small bottle from inside to Angelina.
“Actually, this isn’t for sale, but since you showed interest in the earring, I’ll give it to you for free.”
The fact that he said this while knowing Angelina already intended to buy the earring was significant.
“I’ve heard it’s best to avoid unknown drinks.”
“It’s holy water containing the power of a sacred object.”
“…?”
“That’s also why I was expelled from the temple. I kept experimenting because I found it fascinating how the color changed every time I filled holy water with the power of sacred objects, and I was mistaken for a thief.”
It was suspicious that a mere priest would know the identity and location of sacred objects in the first place, but again she didn’t ask.
The deeper one questioned, the deeper one had to get involved, and that was quite troublesome.
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“I think you’ll need it.”
“Why do you think that?”
“When I was at the temple, I saw symptoms like yours a few times.”
“What symptoms?”
“Do you know what this is?”
He answered Angelina’s question with a question. What he held up was the earring Angelina had touched earlier.
“A holy power suppression device?”
Angelina threw it out to test him. Also, to confirm if she was right.
He chuckled.
“Well, it’s easy to confuse it with something like that. Because the end result is the same—it prevents proper use of holy power.”
He placed the earring on his palm and explained.
“This isn’t a device that suppresses holy power, but an item made to steal holy power.”
“Steal?”
“It absorbs and stores the wearer’s holy power. If the intensity is severe, it sucks up the holy power as soon as the wearer tries to use it, making them unable to properly use their power, so it’s easy to mistake it for a suppression device.”
Angelina frowned.
“Such a thing exists?”
“It was originally developed to cure holy sickness, but somehow it began to be misused in other ways. It’s a pity.”
He sighed and put the earring and the bottle of “holy water containing the power of a sacred object” together in a small pouch.
“The earring will temporarily drain your overflowing holy power that has nowhere to go, creating space for you to breathe, and the holy water will purify the blood vessels in your body that are about to burst from being unable to handle the overflowing holy power.”
“Wait.”
Angelina, who had been listening quietly, raised her hand to stop him.
“Are you saying I have holy power?”
She pointed this out because the premise of this whole conversation was absurd.
He smirked.
“The blonde Saint who’s been causing a stir in the capital lately. Isn’t that you?”
“…?”
Angelina’s eyes widened at the unexpected remark. Interpreting her reaction differently, he smiled that same sly smile from before.
“With power overflowing enough to react to such a small device, it can only be the Saint, right?”
“No, you seem to have some misunderstanding, I…”
“I’ll pretend I don’t know. So take this. Seeing that you’re still just being chased by the Order and not properly appearing, it seems like you can’t control your holy power yet. When the power is too strong, everyone goes through such hardships at first.”
He had completely mistaken her for Catherine and rambled on about various things.
“You’ll get used to it soon, so don’t worry. Just make me one promise, will you?”
“What promise?”
It was a ridiculous misunderstanding, but Angelina thought there was no need to correct it. So she pretended to go along and asked.
“Keep giving the Order a hard time, like you’re doing now.”
“….”
“As someone who also serves the Sun God, I can’t forgive those bastards who play politics with people’s faith and goodness.”
He placed the pouch containing the items in Angelina’s hand.
“This is payment in advance, along with my belief that you’ll keep the promise.”
Just when he was expressing his intention not to take money, despite having said earlier that he would charge ninety-nine thousand shillings:
“This bastard set up shop here again.”
Suddenly, the tent flap fluttered, and several men in armor entered. Their large builds were threatening.
The shop owner’s face hardened instantly, and he reflexively pulled up the hood Angelina was wearing to hide her face.
“Are you here to interfere with my business again?”
The man blocked the guards with his body and indicated the location of the back door to Angelina’s group behind his back.
“Are you stupid, or just unable to learn?”
Those who entered the shop spoke to him in a confrontational tone. Fortunately, they didn’t pay much attention to Angelina’s group.
“When you know we serve as black market security, shouldn’t you be more careful?”
“Why should I?”
“How can someone be so shameless? You, who diverted the power of sacred objects from the temple?”
Those who entered the shop were Holy Knights.
They tapped the shoulders of the “fallen priest” and showed their temper.
“I told you. This bastard shouldn’t just be expelled; his eyes should be gouged out or his tongue cut off.”
“It couldn’t be helped. At that time, the Grand Temple was in such disarray that the High Priest didn’t have time to pay attention to this guy.”
Their malicious gossip was so insulting that it made one’s expression crease.
But since she didn’t know the man well enough to intervene, Angelina thought it best to leave the place as quickly as possible.
She was moving stealthily toward the back door, trying not to catch the Holy Knights’ eyes, when:
“Even now, we should give him proper punishment…”
The knight who was about to draw his sword frowned at the restraint of another knight beside him.
“Why are you stopping me? Are you on his side?”
“That’s not it, look there.”
What the knight who had stopped him was pointing at was Angelina’s group, who were sneaking away.
“Ha, so he’s still managing to attract customers even in this situation?”
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