33.
“……It wasn’t even because of the orders I was given to ruin Mayous. It was because your presence in this house was so unbearable to me.”
Only then did fury shimmer in Bart’s eyes.
Ekian was momentarily taken aback by this raw, primal hatred. Had Bart really had a reason to despise him this much? He had been nothing but kind to the servants, and at the time, he had only been seventeen years old.
Bart heaved a ragged breath.
“Because Sarah loved you.”
Ekian furrowed his brows. Sarah? Here? Why on earth?
“Because Sarah…… only looked at you. She never looked at me.”
There was an age gap of over ten years between Bart and Sarah. Ekian let out a hollow laugh at a truth he had never even imagined.
Sarah was exceptionally beautiful and clever. There was no reason for Bart, who spent his days in her orbit, not to have developed feelings for her.
“It was hard to watch Sarah dream of you.”
Bart spoke, his voice cracking with strain.
“I couldn’t bear to see it anymore, so I sent you away. And then……”
Of course, even after Ekian left, Sarah never turned her gaze toward Bart.
“I hated the Mayous that she dreamed of.”
Ekian looked down at Bart in silence. At seventeen, when he was being systematically dismantled, this doctor—who had seemed so composed and towering—now looked like nothing more than a pathetic, foolish man.
“In the end, I hated you, and I hated Mayous. All of it.”
A heart forced to harbor secret feelings while watching the person they could never have chase after someone else. The reality, mired in ugliness, vulgarity, wretchedness, and desire, lay exposed behind the shadow of love.
“I wanted to kill you…… but I couldn’t, for fear that I, too, would be cursed by the Priestess. That is why I simply drove you out.”
Trapped in the Mayous prison, Bart would eventually die after being tortured in agony. The same went for Sarah.
“Yes, I did it because of love. I loved her so much that, in the end, I even ruined myself.”
Both of them were the same. The absurd motive that ruined everything that had once been stable was, indeed, ‘love.’
What even was that? Truly…… what even was that?
After learning the horrific truth, Ekian turned away without a shred of lingering attachment.
Later that night, he had gone to Judith’s room, finding comfort in listening to her nonsensical chatter.
Even then, he had thought.
Love…… what even is that?
Why does it make one abandon every purpose, and in the end, leave a person looking so ugly and wretched?
That entire night, watching her jabber away while lying on his bed, he had been consumed by the thought of love.
Having learned the most terrible truth of his life, he had truly hated his own existence, yet because of her, the memory of that night was not entirely unpleasant.
Perhaps that is why.
Even now, standing before the traces of the biological mother who cursed him and died, she is the only thing that catches his eye.
* * *
While he watched the small shrine and Judith in silence, the line grew shorter and shorter. Finally, it was Judith’s turn.
It was just as Judith carefully stepped inside the shrine.
*Boom.* A thunderclap struck. At the same time, the candles flickering in front of the shrine were suddenly extinguished.
It was the first time such a thing had occurred since the last priestess had disappeared.
“Good heavens, what is happening?”
“Oh my, oh my!”
The Marquis and Marchioness Shoden behind Judith were so startled that they toppled over, and Ekian lunged toward the shrine without realizing it.
But at the same time, with a sharp *whoosh*, Ekian was sent flying backward. The shrine, which had swallowed Judith, was rejecting not only Ekian but everyone else.
“Judith!”
Ekian attempted to enter the shrine once more, but this time, a massive gust of wind swept through, preventing even a single step forward.
* * *
Judith had been waiting in front of the shrine since dawn. Naturally, she had pinpointed the location of the Marquis and Marchioness Shoden and had lined up directly in front of them.
‘I’ll just say I heard a revelation while I was praying,’ she thought.
Since she had received permission from Isabella, everything seemed to fit perfectly. It was easy to act, as almost no one knew her face.
It was Judith’s first time visiting the Shrine of the Last Priestess, and the mystical atmosphere surrounding it made everything feel strange.
The candles that shone silently without flickering in the wind, the flowers in full bloom despite the season, and the shockingly pristine exterior of the shrine—it all felt a bit eerie, even to Judith.
Suddenly, she wondered if selling the name of the last priestess was a bit of a low blow. Still, she steeled herself.
‘No. Don’t be scared.’
Judith took a deep breath.
‘The priestess won’t mind, as her name is being used for a good cause.’
She didn’t know much about the rumors surrounding the last priestess, but she hoped she wasn’t a malicious spirit.
‘And I know something even scarier.’
Faced with a primal fear, Judith thought fiercely.
‘Debt is scarier.’
She was the one who had resolved the loan shark debt that felt like it would swallow her whole. She endured the current terror by imagining things that were even scarier and sadder: the laughter of a loan shark delighted to hear she would fetch a good price in the back alleys because she had a pretty face; the news of her father’s death; the back of her mother’s figure, turning away and ignoring her final gaze.
When her turn finally came and she entered the shrine alone, she froze.
‘Huh?’
The moment the back door slammed shut on its own, Judith realized something had gone wrong. The candles that had been illuminating the surroundings were extinguished in an instant.
Judith prostrated herself on the spot. Thinking that the spirit of the priestess must be enraged, she cried out immediately.
“I am sorry!”
Because she had a guilty conscience to begin with, she judged that begging quickly was the best strategy.
“I was wrong to think I could dare use the priestess as an excuse! I’ll leave right away!”
Even so, she didn’t forget to add a pathetic justification.
“B-but…… I really! I wanted to do something good! I happened to find out about the future by chance, and it wouldn’t be right if I were the only one living well, would it? If as many people as possible can be happy, that’s a good thing, so…….”
A *whoosh* sound echoed, and she could no longer see outside. It was clearly engulfed in a gale.
Looking up at the window, the sandstorm had made everything hazy. Judith swallowed dryly at the surging fear.
‘Is this… impossible to leave?’
As the small shrine shook, a voice rang in Judith’s ears.
Trembling as she prostrated herself at the bizarre, supernatural phenomenon, she heard a soft voice in her ear.
[Judith Aylan.]
She knew it instinctively. This was the voice of the owner of the shrine, the ‘Last Priestess’ Chaska.
[We finally meet.]
“Yes?”
Even while trembling, Judith peered up at the portrait of Chaska and said, “I—we’ve never met before…….”
Even though she had heard much about the last priestess, she had never sought her out or taken an interest in her. Living her own life had been more urgent.
“But…… are you still alive? Then where are you…….”
While Judith was rolling her eyes and rambling, the voice continued.
[I am not alive. As a priestess who can manipulate time, only my lingering resentment exists within the tangled, knotted flow of time.]
In short, she was a ghost. The realization sent a chill down Judith’s spine.
Faced with the supernatural phenomenon, she became even more flustered.
“I, I…… I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I just…… um, I mean, I happened to know the future by chance? So I wanted to do some good deeds while I was at it, and so…….”
[You have done nothing wrong. You may do as many good deeds as you like. And it was because of my power that Judith happened to know the future.]
“……Yes?”
[I told you. I wander through time. So, I lent Judith the eyes of another person with a clear soul to let you know the future.]
If it was the eyes of another person with a clear soul……. Judith’s brain worked rapidly.
‘Does she mean the heroine? The original protagonist I thought I had come up with?’
It made sense if this was the power of the last priestess who manipulated time.
[Judith.]
The voice continued with a complex tone.
[I have a son.]