A subtle scent of incense filled the corridor brimming with divine power. At the corridor’s end stood a massive silver door. Opened only by divine power, it led to the Hall of Holiness—the most strictly guarded of all the purification chambers.
Originally, only authorized high priests could open it, but Luan was an exception. He possessed divine power vast enough to open the door himself.
Before stepping into the corridor, Luan glanced back. There stood Kirian, arms folded as though something displeased him, Aiden, fists clenched as if tense, and Kael, watching him with a complicated expression. The priests had all been dismissed, but there was no shaking these three goldfish-droppings.
“Well then, I’ll be off.”
“I’ll come with you.”
Kirian stepped forward as if it were the obvious thing. Luan poked a forefinger into the solid chest moving toward him and stopped it.
“You can’t, Your Majesty. You promised in the carriage, remember? Bad luck.”
“…I’ll only stand at the door.”
“Not even the door. Go sit in the waiting room over there.”
Luan pointed to the guest waiting room set off to the side of the corridor. Kirian clearly didn’t like it, but there was nothing for it. The detox was such a noisy ordeal that if he stood at the door, he’d hear every bleeeegh of blood being retched up.
As it was, Kirian was already in overprotective mode, going on about how weak Luan’s body was; if he saw him vomiting blood on top of that, it’d be a disaster. And there was one big task to take care of. Luan turned his head.
“Aiden.”
“Yes, Lord Luan.”
“You wait in the waiting room with His Majesty too. I’ll call when the rite is finished.”
Aiden’s eyes widened.
“But I’m supposed to attend you—”
“No. I want to do it alone today.”
Originally Aiden was to begin assisting with the rite from today, but he’d decided to push it back another week. He had business to settle with the god, and Aiden had something more important to do.
Luan looked back and forth between Kirian and Aiden, wearing a meaningful smile. If I clear out, the two of them can have a cozy little chat and get something going, right? As for Kael… let’s just pretend he’s not there for now.
“Right then, I’ll be off.”
Before turning away, Luan gave them a heartfelt reminder.
“No fighting while I’m gone, you two.”
It worried him a little, since they were still awkward with each other. The original relationship developed from rivals-to-romance, so he didn’t expect it to go smoothly right off the bat.
Frequent contact is the answer at times like these. But since Aiden hadn’t awakened his divine power yet and came up a little short in raw strength, he had to be firmly cautioned.
When the waiting room door opened, the three men went in reluctantly. Thud. Luan swiftly shut the door.
That’s one thing done.
Having stuffed all three men into the waiting room, Luan went into the Hall of Holiness at the corridor’s end. Once the massive door closed, he was completely cut off from the outside. He shucked off his clothes any old way, changed, and slipped into the basin brimming with holy water. The moment his preparations were done, his empress-mode shattered to pieces.
He ground his teeth and jabbed an accusing finger up at the round opening in the ceiling.
Hey, God! You hearing me up there?
Since he didn’t know how soundproof the place was, he couldn’t bring himself to actually shout it aloud. He looked like a man flailing at empty air, but he was dead serious. Just then, a single beam of light descended.
[Affirmative]
The light, grand and benevolent, was answering that it understood—but unlike last time, it trembled slightly, as if guilty about something. Luan protested, veins bulging.
A two-day detox—does that make any sense? Are you kidding me? It’s like giving something and snatching it back—I’m fine for a measly two days, then it’s back to feeling like death, it’s driving me insane! At least a week, no, you should be giving me a month!
He’d nearly died, stuck in a situation where he couldn’t even get to the temple. Another beam of light came down.
[Mistake] [Finest] [Burden]
The gist was that, in trying to give him the very best, the god hadn’t accounted for the strain on his body. With his garbage of a body unable to handle even the top-tier option, the output had apparently been excessive.
Luan narrowed his eyes. The god’s surprisingly sloppy too. Or rather—surprisingly human. He even had his own bias—a favorite he couldn’t bring back to life on his own, so he’d summoned a soul from another world to ask the favor; and this time he’d gone and turned Luan into an anemia patient by mistake.
Hah. Sure. A god like this is exactly why a jackpot of a chance like mine comes along. Luan waved a hand.
Just give me something manageable. I thought I’d become a dead battery, I swear. Make it last decently long—you got any low-power mode?
[Acknowledged] [Affirmative] [Duration]
A single beam came down to say that in that case, it would lengthen the duration.
Oh, and—
Luan clutched his throbbing chest.
Get rid of the blood-vomiting, would you? I’m not some terminal patient. I’m terrified someone’ll see.
This time the beam was slow to descend. Is the detox impossible without the blood-vomiting? While he was wondering, the beam came down again.
[Ease]
Honestly, the blood-vomiting had already been fully exposed, so even the god faltered. With no way of knowing that, Luan was satisfied enough with the answer that the symptoms would at least be eased.
Phew, thank you. Then I’ll just quietly meditate a bit and head ou—
Right as Luan was about to smile in satisfaction, a tremendous heat erupted from the pit of his stomach, and stale divine power began surging up violently in reverse. You said you’d stop the puking!
[Hereafter] [Effort]
At the last beam to come down, Luan’s eyes went wide. The updates would only take effect after today’s old buildup had been expelled! And on top of that, leaving him with a parting “good luck” before withdrawing every last beam of light—it was enough to drive him out of his mind.
“Wait, what? Hey, you crazy son of a—mph!”
Forgetting his earlier plan to relay everything silently in his head, he blurted it out loud. Luan scrambled to climb out of the basin, but too late. Gripping the rim, he bent over.
“Bleeeegh—!”
Today, without fail, dark-red blood poured out. No excuses—I’m really going to get anemia. Physiological tears welled up at the corners of Luan’s eyes. Right. Atheism’s the way to go. The damned god can’t be trusted.
“…”
“…”
Silence. A suffocating silence.
Kirian sat on the sofa, legs crossed, chin propped on one hand; Aiden stood ramrod-straight by the door. Between them, only Kael endured the discomfort, reading the room.
Your Majesty the Empress, why have you visited this trial upon me!
Kael, who’d witnessed the earlier standoff, just wanted to faint on the spot. The emperor who’d abruptly picked a territorial fight was one thing, but the delicate-looking priest was no pushover either. By any measure, Luan was the one at fault.
“Your name was Aiden, was it.”
It was Kirian who spoke first. He lifted his teacup with an air of studied ease.
His voice was calm and weighty. Kirian, who’d shouldered the throne at a young age, had always dealt with people rationally. He’d lost his composure for a moment earlier, but reason and magnanimity had been the shield that protected him until now. There was no need to get emotional over some mere boy of a priest.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“The empress seems quite fond of you. A personal priest, no less.”
Kirian’s eyes narrowed.
“But it’s a bit strange. Normally a venerable, high-ranking cleric serves as the empress’s personal attendant—that’s the convention. And yet a green rookie like you has snatched the post…”
Kirian deliberately let the words trail off, pressuring Aiden. The boy wasn’t even overflowing with divine power. The insinuation was that, lacking ability, he must have gotten the position through some other intent—or by seducing his way in with a pretty face.
Aiden pressed his lips tightly together, then answered calmly.
“His Majesty the Empress chose me himself.”
“Chose?”
Kirian set the teacup down with a soft snort.
“I doubt it. The way I see it, the empress is just soft-hearted and took you in. The way one scoops up a stray puppy with nowhere to go.”
With that single remark, Aiden was demoted from an equal man to a pitiable dependent. His red lips paled. It was an insulting thing to say.
“Don’t misunderstand, priest. The empress looks after you because you’re young and inexperienced. He goes soft for things like that.”
Honestly he had no idea whether Luan went soft for such things, but he threw it out there anyway. Saying it, he realized something anew. That for all the empress he’d faced over the past five years, he’d truly only been looking at Luan for less than three weeks. Somehow that galled him.
But Aiden was no easy mark either. He lifted his head slightly and met Kirian’s eyes head-on.
“…Even if it’s pity, it doesn’t matter to me.”
“What?”
“The right to be at his side is what matters more.”
I got pity, at least—but you?
Watching Luan treat Kirian with such nonchalance, Aiden had been able to see it: that Luan held no expectations of the emperor, no feeling for him at all, not even enough to bother showing emotion toward the man who’d treated him so coldly. And if that was so—wasn’t having even pity better than having nothing at all?
Kirian’s brow twitched. Watching from the side, Kael screamed inwardly.
Eep! That priest’s out of his mind! So the lunatic of this whole district was you!
Kirian’s gaze turned vicious in an instant. But he managed his expression right away. Losing his temper here would make him the immature one. Even an emperor couldn’t lay a careless hand on one taken into the god’s embrace.
“Hah. You’ve got quite a mouth on you.”
Kirian rose from his seat. The slow steps he took toward Aiden carried an air of intimidation.
“The seat beside the empress is mine. There’s no room for a toy who doesn’t know its place to wedge itself in.”
Kirian brushed the dust off Aiden’s shoulders—a gentle gesture, with a chilling warning underneath.
“Don’t cross the line. My patience isn’t like the god’s mercy. It doesn’t run nearly so long.”
Aiden clenched his fists and held firm, while Kirian, his insides boiling, returned to his seat. The only one left to wither away was Kael, forced to watch this childish but fierce battle of wills up close.
