Chapter 118: Ashes and Prayers
“Oh my, you’re the one who came last time. Hehe, you’re back. Would you mind writing your name in the register?”
Sue, knowing she would regret it, had returned to the chapel. She had Nine and the two escort knights waiting behind the abandoned building, as before, but this time, it wasn’t for Ten.
Nothing was going her way, but Sue Byron couldn’t give up on everything in front of her.
She had confirmed with Melaine that the high priest of the Holy Demon Religion would be leading the service today. She had come, hoping to at least catch a glimpse of the high priest, even if she couldn’t find Ten or Melaine.
To see what the face of the evil that would plunge Löhn into chaos looked like.
“I didn’t expect to see a familiar face here.”
But what Sue Byron saw wasn’t Ten, Melaine, or the high priest of the Holy Demon Religion. It was someone completely unexpected.
She had just scribbled a random name in the register when she heard an unbelievable voice behind her.
“Acr-”
She instinctively turned around and started to call out his name, then gasped.
“Hmm, you’re here too.”
She blinked, but the unbelievable face was still there.
The boy named Woo Acrea wasn’t dressed in his usual attire. He was wearing old clothes, his face covered in dirt. His handsome face still looked out of place, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been at the Founding Festival.
“What are you doing here?”
Her voice came out as a mosquito’s buzz, involuntarily.
It was obvious that he was trying to hide his identity. But why was he here, hiding his identity? A hypothesis flashed through her mind, but she dismissed it as impossible.
Acrea smiled gently. Even though his face was covered in dirt, his usual emotionless smile was still dazzling.
“Could you step aside for a moment? I haven’t written my name yet.”
He pointed at the register behind Sue.
Sue, her body stiffening, moved aside like a robot. She watched him write his name in the register, not missing a single detail. She glanced at the register and saw the name “Louis.”
Acrea, after finishing writing, handed the register to the woman and turned to Sue. He slowly scanned her from head to toe.
Her unkempt hair, her old clothes, her dirty face.
Acrea, reaching the same conclusion as Sue, said in a gentle voice,
“Let’s talk, Marie.”
***
Sue stood in a corner of the cobweb-infested stairwell, her face pale, like a suspect being interrogated.
Her mind was blank.
Melaine, Ten, the high priest of the Holy Demon Religion. They had all vanished from her mind the moment she saw Acrea’s face.
Why was he here?
Acrea, as if to untangle the mess in Sue’s mind, slowly spoke,
“I’m here on my brother’s, Duke Reeves’, orders.”
“Orders…?”
“Yes.”
Acrea nodded. He whispered,
“I was ordered to investigate the Holy Demon Religion.”
“Even so, why are you here yourself…? It would have been easier to send someone else.”
Sue asked, unable to understand, even though she had come to the chapel herself because things had gotten out of hand.
But Acrea’s answer was a little different from hers.
“It’s an order.”
“What?”
“The Grand Duke ordered me to visit the Holy Demon Religion myself. When I receive an order, I have to follow it. There’s no reason.”
His words were stiff and formal, but his gentle voice made it sound plausible.
“Grand Duke Reeves ordered you to investigate the Holy Demon Religion…”
Sue repeated his words, touching her hair. It made sense that he was acting under Reeves’ orders, as there was no way Acrea would investigate the Holy Demon Religion on his own.
But why had Reeves suddenly ordered an investigation of the Holy Demon Religion?
“Is it because of Lady Melaine?”
Sue blurted out the name that came to mind. Acrea didn’t deny it.
“That must be the reason.”
“I see…”
Sue nodded, pretending to understand. But in reality, she had countless unanswered questions.
He sent his own son, the second son of the grand duke, undercover as a commoner to investigate a subordinate religion?
Well, it wasn’t entirely out of character for the Grand Duke Reeves Acrea she knew. He was an eccentric man.
‘But still…’
The unanswered questions multiplied, one after another. Sue was struggling to decide what to ask next when Acrea spoke first,
“I told you, now it’s your turn. Tell me why you’re here.”
“What?”
Sue looked up at him.
“Why are you here? You’re using a fake name, so it must be for a similar reason as me. Right, Marie?”
Marie. That was the name Sue had written in the register.
Sue, after racking her brain for a moment, couldn’t come up with a lie and touched her neck.
“My personal maid is obsessed with the Holy Demon Religion and won’t come back. I just wanted to get her out.”
“Get her out? Why not just send someone else?”
His tone wasn’t accusatory. But it wasn’t a genuine question either. But Sue didn’t realize that.
“If it’s that important, you could just reveal your identity and use your family’s influence to bring her back.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Acrea didn’t know that Sue was still clinging to ‘Melaine Vava’ and the scenario of Beyond the Tiny Droplet.
If she revealed her Byron name and forcibly took Ten away, the Holy Demon Religion would likely become even more secretive and closed off. Something similar had happened in the novel.
Sue Byron was still clinging to various possibilities.
Sue, without saying another word, gently stroked her unkempt red hair. Acrea, observing her patiently, smiled again.
“Right, since we’ve run into each other, let’s work together for now, Marie.”
***
Sue and Acrea entered the main hall and sat at the very end of the Fifth section. New followers, whose class hadn’t been determined yet, had to sit in the very back.
Perhaps because the high priest was leading the service today, the crowd was even larger than when Sue had first visited. The hall, which was the size of a banquet hall, felt cramped.
‘It’s already this crowded, even though they haven’t grown that much yet.’
Sue bit her lip. It was impossible to find Melaine, let alone Ten, in this crowd.
“So this is what a subordinate religion is like.”
Acrea, sitting next to her, his chin resting on his hand, observed the scene before him. It was his first time attending a subordinate religion service.
Acrea’s beauty didn’t fade even when he was covered in dirt. Some of the followers were glancing at him curiously. But most of them didn’t even spare him a glance.
Because they were already obsessed with the Holy Demon Religion and didn’t have the time to care about a mere human.
“Soul level. Interesting doctrine. Although it’s hard to believe they worship the same god.”
“Haha…”
Sue chuckled awkwardly at his subtly barbed words.
“The subordinate religion policy was bound to end up like this. All that matters is that they appear to be the same.”
Sue just listened, unsure if he was talking to himself or to her. Acrea suddenly called her name, “Byron.”
“You said you were worried about Melaine before.”
He turned to her.
“Why were you suspicious?”
Sue looked straight into his platinum eyes and replied,
“It’s only natural to be worried when a Skia, the second daughter of the Vava marquis family, suddenly joins a rural subordinate religion. What if they’re using brainwashing magic or something?”
She sounded quite ‘Sue-like’. Acrea opened his mouth to say something, then stopped. His gaze had fallen on the accessory on Sue’s wrist.
“Is that a Holy Demon Religion symbol?”
A silver raven was dangling from the silver necklace on Sue’s wrist.
“Yes, that’s right. A silver raven.”
She had worn the necklace Elizabeth had given her, hoping it would help her blend in.
Acrea continued to stare at her necklace, his gaze unwavering even as she tucked her hand away.