“What?”
Elise stared blankly at the empty space where he had vanished.
“He just left? Without giving any response at all…?”
Ha! Disbelieving chuckles kept escaping between her lips.
She was by no means the type to initiate skinship first.
In her relationship with Leonhardt, which lasted a little under two years, hadn’t holding hands been the absolute limit?
For Demian, she had squeezed out every ounce of her courage out of a sense of gratitude.
Then, whether he liked it or disliked it, shouldn’t he at least have shown some kind of reaction to her gesture?!
“No wait, did he show a reaction? By giving no reaction at all?”
Suppressing the surging annoyance that welled up inside her, Elise sneered under her breath.
“Haa…”
Her shoulders slumped listlessly as she let out a sigh.
Barely dragging her body, which felt as heavy as iron, Elise made her way into the bedroom.
A large, comfortable bed came into view. Yet this temple, which had always felt peaceful and pleasant, could no longer serve as a place of refuge for her.
“Only sighs come out, seriously.”
The situation thrust upon her could not possibly be any filthier.
Elise threw herself onto the bed just as she was and pulled the blanket all the way over her head.
She had no intention of leaving the temple right away anyway. Without a valid reason, Eshit wouldn’t permit it either.
Inside her head, which kept spinning without rest, various thoughts became tangled in a complex web.
The three men who had betrayed her for all kinds of reasons, and even Demian, who had died while trying to save her.
Then, in an instant, the moment she had kissed him flashed before her eyes.
Elise kicked the blanket away with her feet, letting out a silent scream.
“Saintess?”
It was right then. Bell, who had returned from the Imperial Palace, opened the door, stepped inside, and approached her.
Elise subtly pulled down the blanket as if nothing had happened.
“Are you still feeling unwell? Here, I brought some medicine. It took time because I boiled it myself using fine medicinal herbs.”
“…Ah, is that so?”
Her gaze turned toward the glass bottle Bell brought. A sparkling, golden potion was sloshing inside the glass bottle.
“By the way, Lady Elise.”
Bell handed the bottle to Elise, subtly trailing off her words upward.
“Did you, by any chance, visit the Imperial Palace?”
For a moment, she barely managed to suppress a hollow laugh from bursting out.
Just how stupid of a pushover did they take her for, to go so far as to lie about being late due to brewing medicine, only to confess out of her own mouth that she knew about her visiting the Imperial Palace?
Elise merely stared fixedly at Bell, offering no answer whatsoever.
At that, Bell added further with a triumphant attitude:
“No, it’s just that the cart carrying the medicinal herbs arrived in front of the apothecary a short while ago. But people were whispering about it.”
If it had been her past self, she would have brushed it off as if it were no big deal without paying attention or turning a glance, saying, ‘Is that so?’
However, thinking that all of them were in cahoots to betray her, she could not possibly let it pass by like that.
“What were they whispering about?”
She asked, gently crinkling her eyes into a smile.
Once again, Bell failed to notice Elise’s altered reaction and began to babble thoughtlessly:
“They said they saw Lady Elise together with Sir Leonhardt. And also…”
She did not harbor the slightest inkling that the person she was running her mouth to was no longer the Elise she had known up until now.
“They said that guy Demian was also together with you…”
Bell’s voice gradually trailed off. At the same time, Elise could feel her stealing glances to gauge her reaction.
Elise raised one eyebrow leisurely.
The place where she had conversed with Demian was deep inside the garden, and Leonhardt had been in the exact same spot.
A man with a pride as strong as Leonhardt’s would never have gone around blabbering that he had been dumped by her, which meant there was only one answer.
Someone who had eyes placed all over the Imperial Palace—the very person who had gifted her the temple and even procured the servants to work here.
‘Bell was Eshit’s person.’
Her eyes narrowed sideways.
“Were there no other words? Any other interesting rumors?”
“Rumors? Well… other than that…”
Bell tilted her head with a puzzled expression, then shook it shortly after.
Fortunately, it seemed she hadn’t heard about the conversation she shared with Demian, nor the fact that she had declared a breakup to Leonhardt.
Had she known that fact, she would have spread malicious rumors first to tarnish her and Leonhardt’s honor.
‘They saw the three of us together, but they don’t know what kind of conversation we were sharing?’
Eshit was a smart man. If one spread sheer lies, someone would eventually notice it was false.
However, rumors subtly blending falsehood with truth were bound to snowball out of proportion.
‘Still, he might spread some other rumor. For example, that the three of us are in a love triangle.’
It was displeasing, but to avoid Eshit’s watchful eyes for the time being, it seemed she would have to embrace Leonhardt once more after all.
‘I’ll have to meet Leonhardt again before long.’
Forcing back a sigh that threatened to push past her lips, Elise slowly raised her head and met Bell’s eyes.
Cleaning up the mess regarding Eshit and Leonhardt could wait until later.
Right now, it was time to replace those who treated her like a pushover.
“By the way, Bell.”
She opened the gold-plated clock placed on the side table to check the time.
“Wasn’t the arrival time for the cart carrying medicinal herbs supposed to be an hour from now?”
“…P-Pardon?”
Flustered, Bell’s jaw trembled violently.
She seemed to have assumed Elise wouldn’t know the arrival time of the cart.
“It’s always the same, isn’t it? Isn’t the arrival time for food ingredients 10:00 AM, and the arrival time for medicinal herbs 1:00 PM?”
She pointed out the flaw in Bell’s words by citing the exact arrival times of the supply carriages.
“T-Today, it arrived early.”
“It arrived early?”
A faint, mocking laugh leaked through Elise’s lips.
“If that were the case, I would have seen it on my way back from the Imperial Palace. I didn’t see a thing, though?”
“The timing might not have aligned…”
Cold sweat began to form in beads over the forehead of the stammering girl.
Bell tried to make excuses to somehow resolve the situation, but her words no longer worked on Elise.
“Bell!”
A cold, icy glare was directed at Bell alongside a shout that neared a scream.
“Stop with the lies already. I know you’re the Emperor’s spy.”
“E-Lady Elise…”
Breathing rapidly in and out continuously, she collapsed right onto the floor where she stood.
“So did he tell you to feel me out? As to why I was with Demian, and what kind of conversation I shared with Leonhardt?”
Elise slowly stepped closer toward Bell.
“T-That is… actually…”
Ignoring the flustered Bell, she walked right past her. She then moved her feet at a brisk pace.
Her destination was none other than Bell’s living quarters.
“Lady Elise!”
Behind her back, Bell called out to Elise in a piteous voice.
Yet she did not stop her steps.
Finally, Elise stepped inside Bell’s quarters.
Because there was never a reason for the Saintess, the head of the temple, to visit a maid’s quarters, this was naturally her first time coming here.
Her narrowed gaze swept through every corner of the room.
The inside of the quarters was filled with furniture that appeared far too luxurious for a mere maid working at the temple.
“It’s a misunderstanding! I am not His Imperial Majesty the Emperor’s spy…”
Soon, Bell, who had chased after her, blocked Elise’s path.
Into her field of vision came the carpet Bell was standing on.
Elise gritted her teeth tightly and tapped the back of her other hand with her finger, then promptly shoved Bell aside and lifted the carpet.
Beneath the carpet was a hidden space, perfectly suited for concealing something.
“How sloppy.”
No, if it came down to sloppiness, she herself had been the most foolish for never suspecting such schemes until now.
Blaming her own innocence, Elise began pulling out all the documents stashed inside the secret compartment.
And the moment she took one of those documents and brought it into her sight, her pupils trembled violently as if an earthquake had struck.
