Blair suppressed the sudden surge of longing that rose in her chest and began reading the storybook.
At first it was difficult because Asiel came to mind, but gradually her heart settled.
Perhaps her body had mistaken the small warmth in her arms for Asiel.
Even so, she liked the sense of stability and peace, so Blair did her best to tell the story.
Fortunately, the child seemed interested in the story Blair was telling and listened attentively.
The peace was broken the moment a prince appeared in the story.
“I want to read the book too.”
A boy who looked about five or six approached while holding a storybook.
Right behind him, a girl who seemed to be his age ran up.
“Hey!
That’s my book!
Give it back!”
“No!
It’s mine!”
“No it isn’t!
You left yours over there!”
The girl grabbed the storybook the boy was holding and pulled on it.
The boy stubbornly refused to let go.
“Um, children?”
Seeing the two arguing, Blair stopped reading in confusion. The child in her arms frowned deeply and shouted in clumsy pronunciation.
“Loud!”
But the older sister and brother showed no intention of stopping their tug-of-war.
Finally, unable to watch any longer, Blair placed the child in her arms onto the chair and stood up to approach them.
“Children, if you pull like that the book will get hurt.
I’ll read it for you, so let’s—”
The moment she grabbed the book they were pulling on, the girl suddenly let go, and Blair’s hand was cut by the sharp edge of the paper.
“Ah.”
“Gasp.”
The two children stopped fighting the moment they saw blood coming from Blair’s finger.
At the same time, their faces turned pale.
“Madam?”
Melly, who happened to be coming over, witnessed the situation and hurried toward them.
“Oh my, your hand…!
Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.
It’s nothing serious, so please don’t make a fuss.
You’ll frighten the children.”
Blair quickly wrapped her bleeding finger to calm the frightened children, but the child who saw it burst into tears.
“You’re hurt!”
“Hurt?
Who is?”
Miela approached after hearing the commotion.
It seemed Blair’s plan not to make a big deal out of it had already fallen apart.
The boy pointed at Blair and said in a timid voice,
“Th-the Princess got hurt.”
“I’m fine.
It’s just a small cut from the book.”
Blair tried to reassure them, but the children would not calm down.
It seemed to be because they felt guilty.
Then, as if remembering something, the girl approached Miela.
“Big sister Miela, can’t you treat her?”
“Th-that’s right!
Please help her, big sister.”
“Alright.
Then I’ll treat the Duchess, but you must promise not to fight again.
Promise.”
The children nodded vigorously.
After making them promise by hooking fingers with her, Miela sent them away.
Then she approached Blair.
“You came all the way here, yet you ended up experiencing something unpleasant.”
The feeling that those words carried a hint that her visit was unwelcome was probably just Blair’s personal bias toward the woman.
Blair concealed her emotions and replied,
“It’s alright.
I’m just glad the children weren’t hurt.”
“If you feel that way, then I’m relieved.
Then Duchess, may I see your wound?”
Miela held out her hand to Blair.
Blair placed her hand, which had begun to sting, onto Miela’s palm.
At the same moment, a memory from her previous life overlapped in her mind.
In her previous life as well, on this same day—though for a different reason—she had been treated by Miela.
In the main temple building, for the heels of her feet that had been rubbed raw by new shoes.
Then the memory followed of Miela’s hands touching Herdin’s abdomen to heal his ribs.
As that memory surfaced, Blair’s fingertips began to tremble.
In that moment, Blair unconsciously pulled back the hand she had offered to Miela.
“…No.”
Miela looked at Blair with a puzzled expression.
“Duchess?”
“Now that I think about it, I don’t think it needs treatment.
It would use up the priestess’s precious energy.”
Blair clasped her own hands together as if hiding them, as though Miela might try to grab them again.
For some reason, she had an inexplicable feeling that she should not receive treatment from her.
“I’m fine with it, but if you don’t wish for it, Duchess, then there is nothing I can do.”
Just as their conversation was about to end—
“Princess!”
Several children came running breathlessly.
Blair and Miela looked at them with confusion.
“What is it?”
“The prince!
The prince is here!”
“…The prince?”
“Someone who looks like a prince!
You said he’s the Princess’s husband!”
When they looked in the direction the children pointed with their tiny hands, they saw Herdin approaching.
Blair’s eyes widened in surprise.
‘We were supposed to meet at two.’
Today he had a morning state council meeting, so he was supposed to stop by the imperial palace and then come to the temple afterward.
She had planned to head to the temple’s main building according to that schedule.
But because he arrived early, he ended up encountering Miela.
At the unexpected situation, her heart began beating rapidly.
“Blair.”
Herdin strode over with large steps. His gaze lingered briefly on Blair before turning to Miela beside her.
The moment he recognized her, his eyes narrowed.
According to Blair, she was the woman he would fall in love with in the future.
He still thought it was a ridiculous story, but imagining Blair chatting and laughing happily with such a woman just moments ago made his mood sink.
Unaware of his feelings, Miela greeted him brightly.
“Hello, Duke.
We meet again like this.”
“Yes, we do meet again.
What brings you here?
I heard a priestess has quite a lot of duties.”
Herdin deliberately responded to Miela while watching Blair’s reaction.
“Oh, it’s my day off, so I came to see the children, and I happened to meet the Duchess.
She seemed to need an extra pair of hands, so I helped.”
“So you took care of my share of the work. Thank you.”
“N-no, it’s nothing.
I do it because I enjoy it.”
But Blair simply watched the two of them talking quietly.
With that same expression that revealed no emotions.
As if the unwelcome guest in this conversation was not Miela, but herself.
Even while talking with Miela, Herdin kept his gaze fixed on Blair, and eventually he reached out and took Blair’s hand first.
“Then we have something to do, so we’ll be going now.”
Blair was helplessly pulled along by his hand without even having the chance to say goodbye to Miela.
“Ah…”
As she watched the two of them walk away, a trace of regret and pity appeared on Miela’s face.
“…He really doesn’t smile when he’s beside the Duchess.”
What a pitiful person.
You must be happy.
‘I have to save him.’
From that hellish political marriage.
* * *
After leaving the orphanage, the two went to the temple annex.
Most nobles of the Ardel Empire were buried in their own territories.
However, nobles spent many days living in their townhouses in the capital, so it was not easy to visit their family graves on death anniversaries.
For those people, the temple built an annex where souls could be enshrined, calling it the Hall of Spirits.
From the temple’s perspective, it was a way to receive donations, while from the nobles’ perspective it allowed them to enshrine the deceased nearby and visit them easily.
Paladins stood guard strictly in front of the building that had been created for that purpose.
The bodies were not actually here, but since it was a place that housed the spirits of the dead, strict security maintained its solemn atmosphere.
“Please come inside.”
After confirming their identities, a paladin guided the two into the annex.
After climbing several flights of stairs, they reached the room where the ancestors of the House of Delmark were enshrined.
The family crest was drawn in front of it.
After the paladin finished guiding them and withdrew, the two entered the room.
Inside was the portrait of the previous Duke and Duchess of Delmark.
Blair, who had been about to step into the room, suddenly froze when she saw their portraits.
‘Is it really alright for me to be here?’
In her previous life, she had naturally stood by his side here, but in this life that thought came to her first.
I will soon be leaving this house.
Wouldn’t I be disturbing the time he should have to talk with his parents?
Blair looked at Herdin’s back as he entered ahead of her and spoke cautiously.
“Herdin.”
He turned at her call.
“I’ll step outside for a moment.”
“Why?”
“…I thought it might make you uncomfortable.”
Herdin looked quietly at Blair.
His fake wife always created distance from him at decisive moments like this.
He did not like that.
“What is there that a husband cannot show his wife?”
Herdin strode toward her and took Blair’s hand, pulling her to his side.
Blair obediently followed the pull of his hand and stood beside him.
Standing side by side in front of the portrait while holding hands made it seem as though they were a real married couple, and she felt a guilty sense that they were deceiving the former duke and duchess.
But the hand holding hers was firm, as if he had no intention of letting go.
Blair looked up quietly at Herdin standing beside her.
The expression on his face as he visited the place where his parents’ souls were enshrined was terribly emotionless.
It was as if he had come to visit the grave of complete strangers, not his parents.
But Blair knew.
She remembered the boy who had pretended to be fine when hearing about his parents’ accident from others, yet slipped away from the banquet hall and suffered alone.
How much pain he must have numbed himself to in order to become the man he was now.
Once, she had even loved that loneliness.
She had believed she could fill that emptiness.
But now she knew that had been an arrogant hope.
“Let’s go back.”
After staying there for a moment, the two offered a final prayer for the dead and left the Hall of Spirits.
Just then, someone could be seen walking toward them from the far end of the corridor.
Blair’s eyes widened when she recognized him