TNDOBM 29

Chapter 29

“Cecilia!”

Cecilia turned her head toward the person who had made a grand, noisy entrance.

At some point, Nox had returned to the temple and was cheerfully waving his hand.

“I heard you were doing a ceremonial robe fitting, but you look pretty worn out.”

“Why are you here?”

Surely he hadn’t come all the way just to watch her suffer.

As she wrinkled her face at the uninvited guest and asked, Nox tilted his head in puzzlement.

“Huh? Didn’t you say you missed your big brother and asked me to come?”

“As if I’d ever say that.”

“But this kid—well, whatever.”

He glanced briefly at Riri, then shrugged.

“Hmm, aren’t you happy to see me? I even brought you a snack because I thought you might be hungry?”

Nox grinned and rummaged through his pocket. Soon, he held out his palm, where a few round brown candies lay.

“See? Only your big brother does this for you, right?”

“……”

For someone on a forced diet, sweet snacks were a great temptation. But Cecilia didn’t readily accept the candy—she just stared at him silently.

*’Does he think I’ll fall for that?’*

Maybe if he were the brother from the book, but there was no way this guy would so obediently look after his sister.

As she continued to shoot him distrustful glances, Nox exaggeratedly dropped his shoulders.

“This big brother was so worried his little sister might starve to death that he went against God’s will! While feeling pangs of conscience! I snuck these in for you… but if you don’t need them, I’ll just take them back—”

“Give them.”

“What? Your words are too short, I can’t hear you?”

“……Please give them to me.”

Even though it was obvious he had some ulterior motive, it was too tempting to turn down.

With a smirk, Nox popped the round candy straight into her mouth.

Cecilia, full of anticipation, rolled the candy with her tongue. But what spread through her mouth wasn’t the sweetness of simple sugar—it was a bitter, root-like taste that reminded her of red ginseng candy.

*Crunch.*

Cecilia chewed and swallowed the candy, then wordlessly gathered holy power in her hand.

With the gleaming holy power right before his eyes, Nox finally broke into a cold sweat.

“Cecilia, I think I’d actually die if you hit me with that.”

“Yeah.”

“……Cecilia?”

Instead of answering his panicked sister, he turned his gaze to the knight beside her.

“Miguel, aren’t you going to stop the Saintess from committing murder?”

But the holy knight he’d counted on simply stood with his hands clasped behind his back, staring off into the distance.

—

In the end, before her fist—strong in destructive power but lacking in accuracy—could reach its target, Nox had annoyingly run away.

On her way back to her room, trudging along after having successfully survived the robe fitting and even the holy water through sheer rage-fueled strength, Cecilia opened her mouth weakly.

“I’m sorry. I made a spectacle of myself in so many ways. As you know, my brother’s personality is like that, so…”

“It looks good.”

“Pardon?”

Had the dictionary definition of “looks good” been changed?

As Cecilia blinked in bewilderment, Miguel let out a clear laugh, just like a young boy.

“It seems like Your Saintess smiles much more than before.”

*’No, it’s you who looks good, not me.’*

Cecilia swallowed the words that threatened to pop out foolishly.

More than that—”more than before.”

The subtle atmosphere from earlier, the excessive kindness… Could it be that Miguel had been close with the “real Cecilia”?

But…

[So……]

[I am Miguel, vice-captain of the Holy Knights.]

Back when they’d exchanged names, hadn’t he introduced himself as if they were meeting for the first time?

Calmly concealing her confusion and doubts, Cecilia casually asked.

“I must have been quite reserved before, huh.”

“No, that’s not what I meant… Though I’d only seen you from afar occasionally, you always seemed lost in thought…”

*’So the real Cecilia had a quiet personality?’* But judging by Nox’s attitude, that didn’t seem entirely true either.

Either way, she needed to be more careful before raising unnecessary suspicion. *Ahem.* Cecilia cleared her throat lightly and naturally changed the subject.

“Anyway, I have no idea why my brother even came here. It can’t be just to give me that red ginseng—I mean, that weird candy.”

“Today, he’s probably here to see his mother.”

At the unexpected remark, her steps came to an abrupt halt.

*’Nox’s mother… the Marchioness?’*

She’d never seen her at the mansion, and there’d been no mention of her, so Cecilia had assumed it was a single-parent household with the mother absent for some reason, as was common in romance novels.

“Is his mother currently at the Great Temple?”

Cecilia asked without thinking, then quickly bit her lip. Wasn’t that a terribly strange question for “Cecilia” to ask?

“Ah, no—she was, yes. Right.”

As she gave an awkward laugh, Miguel nodded lightly without any suspicion.

“Yes, the Weberdin family tomb has traditionally been enshrined in the Great Temple.”

*’……So it was just like those romance novels after all.’*

No wonder there’d been such a conspicuous lack of mention.

Well, surely it wasn’t that cliché backstory where she died giving birth to Cecilia, the Saintess.

“Would you like to visit as well?”

Just as she was trying to shake off her uneasy speculation, Miguel readily suggested it.

As “Cecilia,” she would have gladly nodded here, but she ultimately shook her head.

Not only did she not feel like paying respects to someone who wasn’t her real mother and whose face she didn’t know, but above all, wearing her daughter’s skin and doing that felt like a deception.

Smiling bitterly, she silently averted her eyes from the woman reflected in the carriage window—a woman she had now grown used to seeing.

—

They say humans are creatures of adaptation. In just one week, Cecilia had grown accustomed to a diligent lifestyle of waking early and sleeping early.

The proof was that despite being held captive all morning by the ceremonial-robe-obsessed archbishop for fitting torture, she was still relatively intact.

That didn’t mean her heart wasn’t weary, though. The moment she was given a break, she’d fled to her room and collapsed onto the sofa.

Lying there in broad daylight like a total slacker, Sena—who’d been orbiting around her like a satellite—hesitantly spoke up.

“Um, Saintess, are you very tired?”

“Yeah, I guess a diligent lifestyle doesn’t agree with me.”

“Diligent?”

“Waking up early and being slammed with work all day.”

“Why?”

“Eung?”

“The priests said that being diligent makes both body and mind healthy… Isn’t that true?”

*’There it is—the cruel question from a kid who’s never been ground down by a 52-hour workweek.’*

Cecilia’s eyes instantly went dead as she vaguely agreed.

“Haha, right. Being diligent is good.”

It’s just that she herself was born as a lazy human being.

Cecilia hid the uncomfortable truth. The child seemed to take her soulless reply as something positive, brightening up and clapping her hands together.

“Oh! Speaking of which, it’s already mealtime! I’ll hurry to the dining hall!”

Though her appetite had vanished along with her motivation, Sena didn’t wait for her answer and noisily rushed out of the room.

Left alone, Cecilia melted back into the sofa, becoming one with it.

With the sole resolve to do absolutely nothing more vigorously, she rested her head—when something cool and hard bumped against her jaw.

That “something” was the pendant of the necklace hidden beneath her clothes.

Cecilia traced the mineral that had succumbed to gravity with her fingertips.

[*If you don’t mind, I’d like you to keep wearing it even at the temple…*]

[*So you mean you want me to think of Lien often while looking at this necklace?*]

[*Th-that’s… if you could, just a little bit…*]

It was an irresistible force that brought to mind that shy voice fading softly, those violet eyes trembling like a ferryboat before the waves, and those reddened cheeks painted by the sunset.

“……I miss him.”

Cecilia muttered without realizing it, then flinched and rubbed her lips with the back of her hand.

*’What was that?’*

So this was just her needing the appearance of that man—who, like Charles, was healing just by looking at him—and it didn’t mean anything else. Really.

Just as she felt heat rising to her face for no reason and sat up from her slumped position—

*CRASH!*

A sharp shattering sound made her whip her head around. Riri, who must have dropped a glass while bringing water, stood frozen with an empty silver tray in her hands.

“I-I’m so sorry!”

“Riri, stay there. You might get hurt.”

After briefly warning the flustered child, she hurriedly picked up the glass shards. As she was clearing away the larger pieces, a trembling voice came from beside her head.

“Um, Saintess. Th-that necklace… is it… precious to you?”

Had she heard Cecilia’s muttering earlier? Her neck suddenly felt hot. Leaving her embarrassment as it was, Cecilia nodded slowly.

“Yeah, it’s precious.”

Among the dazzling jewelry filling her dresser, the reason she’d specifically brought this one might be because it was the first gift “Cecilia” had received not as the original, but as “me,” after coming to this world.

She herself was a little surprised at how easily the answer had come out.

“……Why? Because it’s expensive?”

“I don’t know the price since it was a gift? Though it does look expensive.”

Leaning toward the child, Cecilia whispered playfully, as if sharing a secret.

“Actually, it’s because the person who gave it to me is someone special.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie. Even if it was a decision she’d made on her own, Lien was supposed to be her male lead. Besides, he had an appearance that naturally purified body and mind. If she had to attach “special” to anyone, it was only natural that it belonged to him.

“……I see.”

The child’s muttered voice was muffled, as if submerged in water.

At the unusual reaction, Cecilia tilted her head slightly. Though her expression was hidden by her veil, the exposed earlobe seemed to have flushed red.

“Um, would it be alright if I step away for a moment? I suddenly remembered something I need to do…”

Hesitantly taking a small step back, the child asked rather urgently.

*’Hmm, I guess she’s not interested, then.’*

“Of course, take your time.”

The moment Cecilia readily agreed, feeling a bit awkward, Riri left the room.

Left alone again, Cecilia plopped back onto the sofa. Finally, silence had returned—yet somehow, she felt more mentally exhausted than before.