MHMMS 18

Chapter 18

Acleare watched the droplets fall from her hair to the floor, then slowly raised her eyes.

“So, it seems you’ve received some kind of salvation from the Goddess?”

“No, it’s the opposite.”

Tilda said, setting her teacup down on the table.

“I’ve decided to fall to the very bottom, just like you.”

……She said she’d decided to fall to the very bottom.

The steaming tea was hot, but Acleare felt as if she’d been doused with ice water—her mind snapped awake.

Seeing Tilda changed like a different person, a warning rang in her head: she must not show weakness here.

It was true that Tilda’s return had ruined many of her plans, but so what?

What could a divorced, penniless noblewoman with nothing but the halo of being the Pope’s successor do?

She must know that even the successor position she barely held was unstable.

Acleare wiped the tea dripping down her chin carelessly with her sleeve. The tea was hot enough to make her face burn, but that was for later.

Acleare twisted her lips into a smile.

“I suppose you thought you could face me if you fell to the bottom?”

“…….”

“Don’t make me laugh. You can never face me.”

Saying she’d fallen was just words.

Did she even know what it meant to roll in the mud—she who had never had a speck of filth in her nature from birth?

She’d been admired since childhood for her born silver hair. She’d only ever been slightly melancholic from self-pity.

Acleare herself had torn out her own fingernails, and been desperate enough to sleep with a man who had no heart.

This noble saint before her could never do that.

“Do you know what I’m grateful to you for?”

Tilda suddenly asked Acleare.

Grateful……?

At the ambiguous question, Acleare raised an eyebrow and pressed her lips together.

“That you confessed all the truth before you tried to kill me.”

Tilda looked at Acleare.

Those unwavering eyes.

Just looking at them made her want to retch with disgust. Yet she had returned without changing in the slightest.

Yes, you’re exactly the same as before.

You can never face me.

“I spent my whole life tormented by the guilt of killing my mother. But you took that weight away.”

In that moment, Tilda’s eyes swirled like a vortex, and Acleare’s eyes widened.

“It means there’s nothing holding me back now.”

She’d thought Tilda was the same, but not only her actions and words—even her atmosphere had changed slightly.

In those always-calm eyes, a strong desire flashed for an instant. That naked desire struck Acleare as quite shocking.

Acleare belatedly came to her senses and retorted.

“So what?”

“I’m going to take back everything you stole from me, one by one.”

“What a amusing imagination.”

Even as Acleare spoke mockingly, Tilda merely gazed at her quietly.

“Have you ever made your imagination reality?”

“…….”

“Or were you almost there?”

At the calm words hiding mockery, Acleare’s instincts writhed convulsively.

Acleare’s hands trembled, wanting to roughly grab Tilda’s hair and yank her neck back.

“You can look forward to it.”

“…….”

“I’ll show you my imagination—the one you mocked—becoming reality.”

With those words, Tilda passed by Acleare and left the reception room.

Even after Tilda disappeared, Acleare stood there for a long while, unable to move.

* * *

After Tilda left, Acleare hurriedly had a carriage prepared.

With Tilda—who was reported dead—appearing, she had no time to silence the servants who were whispering as if they’d seen a ghost.

The place Acleare headed was Windsor’s office.

Fortunately, Windsor was in his office, not out.

But even when Acleare entered, he didn’t acknowledge her and was staring intently at a newspaper as if his soul had left him—it was strange.

“What are you looking at so…….”

Before Acleare could approach and ask, Windsor spun around and grabbed her by the shoulders.

“She was alive!”

At Windsor’s sudden shout, Acleare’s brow furrowed. Soon Windsor thrust the newspaper in front of Acleare’s eyes.

[Tilda Valinea Nokhilla, Returns from Death!]

She hadn’t known he’d already notified the newspaper of her survival.

Probably to prevent her from doing anything secretly, she’d announced it officially first.

Attention would be focused on her for a while, and if used well, it could also suppress the rumors circulating.

She’d made a clever move.

‘……She has changed.’

Acleare gazed at Windsor’s eyes trembling with excitement.

Fool.

He couldn’t even think about what he’d lose with Tilda Valinea’s return.

Tsk, Acleare clicked her tongue inwardly but maintained a calm expression outwardly.

“So Tilda was alive.”

“See! I told you, she just disappeared for a moment! There’s no way that Tilda Valinea would run off with another man!”

At Windsor’s attitude—looking as if he’d grab Tilda’s ankle and kneel at any moment—Acleare grabbed his cheek and made him lower his head.

When their eyes met, Windsor seemed to come to his senses a little.

Perhaps embarrassed by his excitement, Windsor cleared his throat unnecessarily.

Acleare stared at Windsor and spoke.

“You’re not thinking of withdrawing the divorce, are you?”

“…….”

“That would be a foolish act.”

Windsor’s lips moved.

Saying he wanted to withdraw the divorce would hurt his pride, and if he left things as they were, he was afraid Tilda might disappear somewhere again.

As if reading Windsor’s inner thoughts, Acleare added.

“If you withdraw the divorce now, you lose forever. You’ll never have her.”

The calm voice carried persuasiveness.

Windsor knew what Acleare was trying to say, but for now, he wasn’t keen on divorcing Tilda just like that.

“There might be another way…….”

“There is no other way. If you want your wife to keep looking down on her husband, withdraw the divorce. Tilda will live her whole life with her head held stiffly high.”

Just imagining it made Windsor feel gloomy.

As Windsor’s face hardened, Acleare slowly stroked his unshaven, rough jaw.

“Think carefully. You want to make Tilda kneel beneath you, don’t you?”

“…….”

“You just need to endure a little longer.”

At the whisper that sounded like certainty, Windsor found himself succumbing to Acleare’s persuasion before he knew it.

“……Will the day really come when Tilda clings to me and begs?”

Acleare smiled.

“Of course. You just need to do as I say.”

“What do you plan to do?”

“We need to make it so she has nowhere to go.”

Windsor pulled away from Acleare’s grasp and looked at her.

“……She won’t be able to stay at the Belmont ducal residence anymore, so she’ll go to the Vatican.”

Acleare drew a captivating smile.

“What if she gets driven out of the Vatican too?”

Windsor thought that even so, Tilda was nominally the Pope’s successor—would her maternal grandfather and the priests really despise her to that extent?

Reading the hesitation in Windsor’s silence, Acleare smirked.

“It seems you don’t trust me.”

“…….”

“Choose here. Divorce Tilda, remarry me, and tame her—or withdraw the divorce and serve her for the rest of your life.”

At the extreme choice, Windsor swallowed dryly.

When he’d thought Tilda might be dead, it felt like the sky was collapsing. Thinking that Tilda might have died because of his foolish choice made it hard to breathe.

But he had already notified her of the divorce.

Even if he held onto her again, he couldn’t be sure she’d return.

Actually, he was a little afraid. What kind of eyes would she look at him with?

“I’ve bet everything on you.”

“I know.”

Acleare replied in a sweet voice.

“So no matter what happens, you must carry out the plan.”

Yes, a man like you.

It’s easier than looking into a child’s innocent mind.

If only Windsor cooperated, it didn’t matter if Tilda had returned as a different person or knew the truth—they could start over.

Though the Valinea family would be ruined as the link between Windsor and Tilda was severed.

‘That much is nothing…….’

Acleare lightly kissed Windsor’s cheek without long deliberation.

“Of course.”

* * *

After Tilda’s return, the world was noisy for a while.

Where on earth had she been hiding before reappearing?

Among the rumors: she’d run off with another man, realized reality, and returned. No, someone had kidnapped her.

Various rumors followed, but Tilda herself—the very subject of the incident—offered no explanation or clarification.

Then an official article announcing Tilda and Windsor’s divorce appeared, and society was turned upside down again.

It was already a circulating story, but no one had expected Tilda to divorce Windsor as soon as she returned alive.

Everyone wondered where Tilda would go then. To the Belmont ducal residence? Her biological father was dead, but it was still the family closest to her.

However, the place Tilda chose was the Vatican.

People thought that with nowhere else to go, she was coveting the Pope’s seat.

Strictly speaking, that wasn’t an entirely wrong guess, so they read the public opinion indifferently.

Not only the people but even the priests of the Great Temple connected to the Vatican watched Tilda warily.

Was it really right for a woman without divine power to covet the Pope’s seat now?

“That can never happen.”

At Tilda’s story that flowed out during the council of priests, High Priest Glen Godlo asserted with a solemn face.

Glen was an influential figure within the Great Temple.

He was the oldest, and as a priest who was appropriately worldly, he had wide connections.

He was originally the third son of a prestigious noble family.

But foreseeing he wouldn’t inherit the title, he entered the seminary and became a priest, straddling the noble faction and the Pope faction appropriately while maintaining neutrality.

‘Please isolate Tilda Valinea within the Great Temple.’

Recently, in exchange for being guaranteed a comfortable retirement from the High Priest position, he had even received secret orders from Acleare.

“She is indeed the only direct descendant of the Sacred Family, but not only does she lack divine power, she has many scandals for serving the pure Goddess. If such a person becomes Pope, the Goddess will someday abandon us.”

As Glen shouted excitedly, the door to the great conference room opened. Startled, Glen cleared his throat and closed his mouth.

“It’s been a while, everyone.”

Tilda appeared in the great conference hall.