Episode 139
The sun was high in the sky at the Luneus estate. Duchess Luneus, surprised by an unexpected visitor, blinked and asked,
“Caroline?”
“Oh, Clemens, long time no see.”
Caroline waved cheerfully, but Duchess Luneus frowned.
“You abandoned all your responsibilities and ran off, and now you’re waltzing back in as if nothing happened?”
“I didn’t come here for leisure. I have an urgent report for the princess, and I heard she was here.”
“Did you learn magic just for show? You could have contacted her with a spell.”
“I wanted to see my favorite disciple, and you, her aunt, are scolding me for it?”
“You’re a disgrace to our family.”
The reunited sisters bickered like they had just seen each other yesterday. Another visitor, watching their argument, apologized awkwardly.
“I apologize for the intrusion, Duchess. It’s an urgent matter.”
“…High Priest?”
It was Valerian, accompanying Caroline. Duchess Luneus welcomed him warmly.
“High Priest, you’re always welcome.”
“That’s quite a difference in treatment.”
Caroline pouted, and Duchess Luneus, ignoring her, asked Valerian,
“What brings you here? You’re not here to treat Cielun, are you?”
“I have a report for Her Highness regarding the task she entrusted to Professor Caroline and Professor Julietta.”
“Ah.”
Duchess Luneus understood. Caroline clicked her tongue.
“Such a nice estate, wasted on someone so incompetent.”
“Coming from you, who abandoned her estate to rot at the academy?”
“Haha… Please, calm down.”
Valerian chuckled nervously, trying to mediate. He knew Caroline was eccentric, but he hadn’t expected Duchess Luneus to be so childish.
Caroline, with a snort, leaned on her staff and asked,
“Where is the princess, anyway?”
“In Cielun’s room.”
“…Your adopted son’s room?”
Caroline’s jaw dropped.
“Why? She came to see you, didn’t she? Why is she in his room?”
“She came to see Cielun.”
Caroline scoffed.
‘Wait a minute. There were rumors about them being interested in each other at the debutante ball.’
And Cielun had even given Elonia a ring.
She normally wouldn’t pay attention to such rumors, but it concerned Elonia.
And Cielun, despite having never met him, was her nephew.
She could always resign from her professorship and return to her family.
‘So Her Highness might become my niece-in-law.’
She suddenly felt a surge of affection for her sister’s adopted son, the boy she had never bothered to meet.
The thought made her heart flutter. She had been reluctant to let Elonia go after her graduation from Lucid Academy. She had wanted to send her to Gaia Academy and keep her there for at least another forty years.
A mischievous grin spread across her face.
Duchess Luneus, who had been on the receiving end of Caroline’s pranks countless times, recognized that grin.
“Caroline, what are you thinking?”
“I’m just curious about what my nephew looks like.”
“Caroline!”
Duchess Luneus tried to stop her, but Caroline was faster.
“Wait, Caroline!”
Where did she get all that energy from, despite being older than her? Did she absorb the life force of her students at the academy? Duchess Luneus, groaning, chased after her, followed by Valerian.
Caroline, without any directions, somehow found Cielun’s room.
“Your Highness, it’s Caroline. Are you there?”
“Caroline!”
“What? Am I not welcome? I have urgent business.”
Knock, knock. She knocked again.
There was someone inside, but there was no answer.
“Is she even in there?”
“She must be…”
Duchess Luneus, catching her breath, also looked puzzled. She was about to knock when,
“Let go of me!”
A loud voice, unmistakably Elonia’s, echoed from inside the room. Both Caroline and Duchess Luneus flung the door open.
“Your Highness! …Oh dear.”
“Cielun! What are you—…Huh…?”
Both Caroline and Duchess Luneus, their eyes widening in shock, quickly averted their gazes.
“What’s going on…?”
Valerian, who had been standing behind them, also quickly turned away.
Elonia was unbuttoning Cielun’s shirt. It was a compromising situation, but Cielun, not Elonia, was the one who seemed to be in danger.
Elonia, blinking innocently, looked up at them, then, realizing their misunderstanding, quickly said,
“…It’s a misunderstanding.”
Click. And at that very moment, a button popped off Cielun’s shirt.
This was what had actually happened:
“Your Highness?”
Elonia, startled by Lucius’s voice, snapped out of her daze. He was looking at her, his eyes blinking slowly. She quickly asked,
“…Sorry, where were we?”
“We were talking about the holy relic being brought to Ravanta relatively recently.”
“…Right.”
Elonia nodded, but she couldn’t focus.
She sighed, her gaze dropping to the floor, and Lucius, his voice filled with concern, asked,
“Did something happen yesterday?”
“No, nothing happened.”
“You said you met with Princess Olivia and Prince Simon. Is it about them?”
…He was perceptive. It had actually happened earlier this morning, not yesterday, but he was close enough.
Her younger brother had proposed a marriage of convenience.
It wasn’t an unreasonable request. Marriage was often a political transaction, and smaller nations would offer their children to larger nations in exchange for peace.
‘Heilan is no different.’
Heilan was a vassal state of Ravanta, but they were clearly not subdued.
Even if she killed Tristan and Felix, there was no guarantee of peace without a suitable successor to the Heilan throne. They would eventually forget that they had conquered other nations and only remember Ravanta’s subjugation.
‘But if Ravanta annexes Heilan through marriage, that won’t happen.’
Simon had made the proposal, unaware of her true identity. But Elonia knew she was Chelon.
She had rejected him, but the emotional impact hadn’t faded so quickly.
If she hadn’t been Chelon, she might have considered it.
‘Or if Lucius had made the proposal, I wouldn’t even have to…’
She stopped mid-thought.
What had she just thought?
“Your Highness?”
Lucius’s voice made her look up at him.
He was looking at her with concern, his eyes blinking slowly. He had grown into a handsome young man, his languid eyes now holding a certain allure.
‘Chelon, you’ve finally lost it.’
How could she be attracted to Lucius? Especially now, when she had no time for such thoughts.
‘He was a baby when I was fifteen! Snap out of it, Chelon, Elonia! Do you want to become like Dolce?’
Her conscience, finally asserting itself, scolded her, and she shook her head, clearing her thoughts.
“No, nothing happened. Continue your story.”
“…”
“I said nothing happened! Just continue!”
Lucius’s suspicious gaze didn’t waver. Elonia’s acting skills had improved, but they weren’t good enough to fool him.
But he knew she would be furious if he mentioned it, so he reluctantly continued,
“Only Tristan, the first apostle, has seen and used the holy relic. So I can’t be certain about its exact form, but the fake relic I saw was a golden chalice.”
The chalice’s design hadn’t resembled anything from Ravanta or Heilan.
But it had been exquisitely crafted, its intricate carvings and embellishments far too elaborate for a fake. They could have used any ordinary object, but they had gone through the trouble of creating a masterpiece, which meant there had to be a reason.
“And the fact that the Church of the Resurrection God stole the wrong object suggests that Tristan hasn’t revealed its true appearance to his followers. So it’s highly likely that the holy relic is indeed a golden chalice.”
“…Then it’s unlikely to have been imported.”
Ravanta was wealthy, thanks to its numerous mines, including gold mines. Their goldsmithing skills were far superior to Heilan’s.
Even Lucius had admitted that the chalice was well-made, but Ravanta had far more exquisite and luxurious items. There was no reason to import a chalice from Heilan.
There was only one possible way for such an object to enter Ravanta.
“Sixteen years ago, when the war ended.”
Before Chelon Heilan’s appearance, Heilan had been a small, insignificant nation, too afraid to even challenge other nations, let alone Ravanta. They had been confident before the war, but after Chelon’s death, some of the more pragmatic nobles had tried to flee Heilan.
Lucius, his memory enhanced by his apostle’s power, nodded.
“Vermon and Felix executed them. Their assets were supposed to be returned to the royal family, but…”
“Some of them must have been lost or misplaced during the chaos.”
The border had been in disarray after the war. The Tite Knights, tasked with stabilizing the border, would have confiscated any abandoned valuables and presented them to the Imperial family. But there was no record of such a chalice in the Imperial treasury. It hadn’t been found.
“Perhaps someone hid it near the border… Or someone found it later and took it.”
It was all speculation.
But at least they knew where to start searching.
Elonia wished she could detect the holy relic as well. She sighed. Artius was busy dealing with the potion of luck, and she couldn’t afford to wallow in her emotions.
She stood up.
“Thank you for the information, Lucius. I’ll start searching the border. I’ll contact you if I find anything. Focus on your recovery for now.”
“Wait, Your Highness.”
“What?”
Lucius, pushing aside his blankets, made a suggestion.
“May I accompany you?”
“…You?”
“Yes. I can’t detect the holy relic, but I can confirm its authenticity.”
His presence would be reassuring, but he was still recovering. Valerian’s treatment had improved his complexion, but he was still frail.
Elonia flicked him on the forehead.
Lucius, startled, fell back onto the bed.
“W-what was that for?!”
“You collapsed from a flick? Stay in bed and rest.”
“But…!”
He had fallen because he was on a soft bed. Lucius, speechless at her illogical reasoning, was about to protest when,
“Lucius, that scar on your chest…”
Elonia’s gaze was fixed on a scar peeking through his open shirt.
Lucius, flustered, quickly tried to button his shirt.
But it was a large scar. Elonia wasn’t going to let it slide. She reached out and tugged on his shirt, trying to get a better look, but Lucius resisted.
“Let go of me!”
“I can’t do that…!”
He tried to protect his modesty, but a ripping sound echoed through the room as his shirt tore under Elonia’s relentless tugging. And at that very moment,
“Your Highness! …Oh dear.”
“Cielun! What are you—…Huh…?”
Both Elonia and Lucius turned towards the door.
Caroline, Duchess Luneus, and Valerian were standing there, their faces a mixture of shock and disbelief.
Elonia, realizing their misunderstanding, quickly said,
“…It’s a misunderstanding.”
Click. And at that very moment, another button popped off Lucius’s shirt.