Chapter : 08
The image of Anelli stood vividly in Samuel’s mind.
With a frown, Samuel strode forward. The fist he had clenched remained stubbornly tight.
He could still clearly remember the look in her eyes when their gazes met for the last time.
Those indifferent, cold eyes.
This had not been a kidnapping.
She hadn’t been startled by the wyvern’s appearance.
She hadn’t tried to flee.
Instead, she had climbed to the most conspicuous place possible and deliberately drawn attention to herself.
At that moment, she had not looked like a saint preparing to sacrifice herself.
If anything, she had resembled a villainess who didn’t care in the slightest about the chaos she had caused.
Samuel was certain.
From the very beginning, she had been the one who summoned that wyvern.
She had intended to escape using it.
* * *
“Have you heard the news?”
A sharp voice echoed through the office.
“Sit down, Frigian.”
“We need to find her first.”
“Sit.”
“Father!”
Despite his daughter’s obvious impatience, the Duke of Roam remained expressionless and silent.
Frigian bit her lip before reluctantly taking a seat.
Already present in the room, the Duchess of Roam pressed a hand to her forehead with a weary expression.
“What in the world is this mess?”
“Those idiots from the temple. If they couldn’t even protect her properly, they should have handed her over to us from the start.”
Muttering irritably through gritted teeth, Frigian threw herself back against her chair.
The Duke stood with his hands behind his back, deep in thought.
The events of the past few days had left him unable to sleep.
The fact that the daughter they had cast out had been resurrected as God’s chosen one was unbelievable enough.
Before he even had the chance to meet her, he received news that she had disappeared once again.
“Did you see the recording orb?”
“Yes.”
Someone had apparently recorded Anelli moments before her abduction by the monster.
The footage had eventually made its way into his hands.
The distance was considerable, but the silver hair fluttering in the wind was unmistakably Anelli’s.
Until then, the Roam family had harbored a sliver of doubt.
Now they could deny it no longer.
Anelli Roam had truly become God’s Resurrected One.
The very daughter they had abandoned.
The very daughter they had ultimately sent to the execution block.
The Duke glanced toward Frigian.
“What about the family registry?”
“I restored it. There was some opposition, but the overwhelming opinion was that we can’t allow God’s Resurrected One to remain outside the family.”
After convening an emergency meeting of the family’s retainers, Anelli Roam’s name had been reinstated in the family register.
The same people who had once demanded that the disgraceful villainess’s name be erased immediately were now insisting that they couldn’t allow others to take the Resurrected One away.
Frigian shared their opinion.
Her younger sister had always been the child who best embodied the Roam name.
Even after being abandoned by the Crown Prince, she had somehow carved out a new path for herself.
Roam had raised her.
Naturally, she belonged with Roam.
“I’ll organize a search party using the family’s knights.”
The Duke swallowed a sigh.
Then he slowly asked,
“What does Lilia say?”
“…She can’t see anything.”
The Duke frowned.
They hadn’t abandoned Anelli and chosen Lilia simply because Anelli was terminally ill.
Lilia possessed the gift of foresight.
Compared to a dying daughter who could no longer become the Crown Prince’s fiancée, that ability held immeasurable value.
And yet now, when they needed it most, she couldn’t use it.
“How is the Imperial Family responding?”
“Her Majesty the Empress still summons Lilia. But His Majesty…”
The Duchess shook her head as though suffering a headache.
It was obvious what the Emperor was thinking.
He intended to seize the Resurrected One before Roam could reclaim her.
That was precisely why they had restored Anelli Roam’s surname.
But if the Imperial Family secured custody of Anelli first, they would never let her go.
“Did that child really not know God’s intentions before she died?”
The Duchess spoke as if talking to herself.
When she first heard that Anelli had been resurrected, she had actually fainted.
Though it wasn’t quite the emotional story the public imagined, she had still felt joy that the child she had carried and given birth to was alive again.
But as time passed and reason returned, another feeling emerged.
Resentment.
Did Anelli truly have no idea she would be resurrected?
“Surely there had to be some sign. If it’s Anelli, she might have deliberately kept silent.”
Frigian shared the same suspicion.
After silently listening to both women, the Duke let out a deep sigh.
“What use is there in dwelling on the past? We need to form the search party first.”
Running a hand over his exhausted face, the Duke spoke coldly.
“As always.
What belongs to Roam belongs to Roam.”
* * *
“This is an opportunity!”
The Emperor slammed the armrest of his chair and exclaimed.
After calmly reading the temple’s official document, Maxel nodded.
“I’ll send a reply stating that we’ll actively participate in the search.”
“When they stole her corpse, I was truly worried. But God has not abandoned the Imperial Family.”
Maxel stared silently at the satisfied Emperor before looking back down at the document.
It contained a brief explanation of how the Resurrected One had supposedly been abducted by a wyvern.
Below that was a request for all citizens of the Empire to cooperate in finding her.
Throughout the document, the subject was referred to only as “the Resurrected One.”
An intentional choice, no doubt.
A way of emphasizing that the woman who had returned to life was no longer merely an Imperial citizen, but a being who existed solely to carry out God’s will.
“Anelli.”
The name rolled across his tongue for the first time in a long while.
It felt rough, as though lined with thorns.
“I will do my utmost to support Your Highness without fail.”
His former fiancée, always upright and composed.
“You are destined to become a ruler. You must maintain a clear and firm attitude when dealing with your subordinates.”
A woman who remained rational and calm under any circumstances.
“She is the daughter of a fallen family. Do you wish to take her as a mistress?”
Even after receiving a terminal diagnosis and growing physically weaker, she had remained mercilessly pragmatic.
“…Maxel. Though our relationship did not begin with love, I believed we could grow to love one another.”
By the time she finally revealed those feelings, Lilia was already by Maxel’s side.
So Anelli’s cold, restrained love had neither moved him nor seemed especially valuable.
“Didn’t she care for you quite a bit? If you personally go to rescue her, she’ll surely be pleased.”
The Emperor smiled as he encouraged him.
After a brief silence, Maxel set down the document and lowered his gaze.
“I have a new fiancée now.”
“Ah, Lilia Roam.”
The Emperor clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
“Haven’t I always said she seems far too delicate? She may bear the Roam name, but her origins are different.”
There had once been a time when the Emperor welcomed Lilia’s sweet smiles and affectionate demeanor.
He often made time for tea with her.
“Anelli is a woman blessed by God and brought back to life. If someone chosen by God joins the Imperial Family, the Empire will grow even stronger. Even if she doesn’t become Crown Princess, there are many ways to draw her to our side. Make every effort.”
If necessary, they could even adopt her into the Imperial Family.
Maxel easily understood the implication.
He silently bowed his head.
“Yes, Father.”
* * *
Not long after my successful escape, I heard a completely ridiculous rumor.
Apparently, the Resurrected One had bravely offered herself as bait to protect the people and had been abducted by a wyvern.
Ever since I came back to life, I’d been thinking the same thing.
This world had completely lost its mind.
To make matters worse, recording orbs containing footage of me were spreading everywhere.
From now on, my silver hair absolutely had to remain hidden.
I’d abandoned the temple’s treasure, so the best I could do was attempt a crude dye job.
Since I’d never done anything like it before, my skills were terrible.
Instead of turning brown as intended, my hair ended up covered in strange blotchy patches.
Still, it was better than silver.
“I don’t know who filmed that recording, but when I find them, they’re dead.”
Search parties were apparently being organized all over the place using the recording orb footage.
People endlessly praised the courage of the Resurrected One who had supposedly stood against a monster.
They prayed for her safe return.
Everyone was becoming crazier by the day.
This must be what people mean by the spread of evil.
[Anelli! Big brother told me to thank you!]
“No, it’s fine. He got turned into a kidnapper because of me, after all. This much is the least I can do.”
Traveling with a giant wyvern that attracted attention everywhere was no longer feasible.
As repayment, I’d told the wyvern about a habitat filled with small monsters.
They looked something like oversized rats.
Since wyverns were carnivorous creatures that hunted small monsters, I figured it was suitable compensation.
Judging by what the eagle was telling me now, the wyvern had been quite pleased.
Well, that made sense.
A whole monster habitat was certainly better than eating one scrawny human like me.
Thanks to the wyvern, I had reached a rural region far from the city where the Grand Temple was located.
Finding a place large enough for a giant wyvern to land while still remaining secluded had been difficult, but we eventually managed it.
Honestly, I would have preferred to be dropped off even farther away.
But hanging onto a flying wyvern for that long had been exhausting enough.
At least nobody in the countryside recognized my face.
My blotchy dye job was hardly a convincing disguise, but it was something.
Even with my hood pulled low, Samuel had recognized me immediately.
That made me suspect there was something about me that could somehow be sensed.
Soon, search parties would begin estimating the wyvern’s flight path and moving accordingly.
Compared to them, I was far too slow.
At this rate, all I’d accomplished was taking a scenic walk before being dragged back.
Wasn’t there some other way?
“Hey, Eagle. Do you know any other monsters?”
[Nope!]
