Episode 133: Spread the Word (X)
Even though Noah was joking, Damon couldn’t help but feel the thorn in his words.
“What do you mean? I can’t believe you said I laced it with drugs. You have to say something that makes sense.”
Damon pushed the coffee cup away, barely looking Noah in the eye.
It was a poison that wouldn’t take effect immediately after eating. It slowly builds up in the body little by little, so even if he drank the coffee right away, it wouldn’t hurt him.
However, Damon was not the kind of person who would accept a buildup of poison in his body.
“What? It makes no sense.”
Noah’s doubts turned to certainty when he saw Damon, who was greatly agitated by the slightest poke.
Tapping the table with his long, white fingers, Noah said with a smile.
“Then, can you take just a sip? It’s not difficult.”
Unnerved by Noah’s request, Damon began to retort, smearing saliva on his dry lips.
“…Are you doubting me now? Huh? What would I do to my brother?”
Befitting of the saying that the thief’s conscience was numb, he raised his voice and even got angry.
It was an awkward situation for anyone to see.
Noah smiled and tilted his head.
“Calm down, Brother. It will seem even weirder if you run wild like that.”
“You are the strange one. What on earth is this coffee that makes me suspicious and strange?”
Damon, who had been huffing and puffing alone for a long time, suddenly snatched up the coffee cup.
As he spoke, he shook the cup up and down, and the coffee in it shook, overflowed, and splashed around.
“Can’t you drink it?”
“No way. I can drink it, but what you say is too absurd.”
At Noah’s provocative words, Damon’s grip laxed, and the coffee cup flew in the air.
Eventually, the cup fell to the floor and broke. Shards of glass went in all directions.
Of course, all the coffee inside spilled and wet the floor.
“Ouch, ugh. My hand slipped. To think I made this mistake… Are you hurt?”
He was pretending to be sorry, his tone and behavior was too unnatural.
“You should’ve been careful.”
Noah squinted and brushed off his clothes.
Fortunately, the distance was far enough that the coffee or cup fragments did not reach Noah.
Hearing the noise from outside, the maids rushed in, quickly removing the pieces of the broken cup and wiped away the coffee.
Meanwhile, cold glances passed between Noah and Damon.
When the maids left the room and all the evidence was gone, Damon regained his composure and smiled.
“You’re so excited that you’re talking nonsense?”
“Is this because of me?”
Noah’s expression changed to contempt. He now looked at Damon like he was an insignificant worm.
All the while, he thought of him as his family, but he erased all of that.
Thinking he didn’t have to treat him like a older brother anymore, he clasped his hands and lowered his voice.
“Brother Damon. I’m telling you because you seem to have forgotten, but I’m the crown prince.”
“What?”
“I came here because I was curious, but next time, if there is something, Brother should come to me.”
“You…”
Noah rose from the sofa as he watched Damon tremble, his pride hurt.
“And let us not do mean things to each other. Aren’t you ashamed?”
Steadfastly, Noah stared into Damon’s eyes, then turned around and left the room with a soft smile.
Overwhelmed for a moment, Damon rubbed his eyes, disbelief creeping up at Noah’s suddenly grown back.
“What’s with that?”
He stomped his feet in anger at the situation that was not going his way.
“Ahhhhh!!”
Alas, the sole of his foot was pierced by a piece of cup that the maids missed.
“A-Are you okay?”
The servant at the door was startled by the scream and hurried inside.
“Hey. The floor isn’t properly cleaned! Bring all the maids who came in earlier. How dare they injure my feet?”
Looking at the sole of his foot that was bleeding profusely, Damon couldn’t hold back his anger. He screamed and shouted.
While waiting for the maids to enter, he grinded his teeth.
“He is a quick-witted guy, so I can’t feed it to him myself. I’ll have to find another way.”
There was still more than half the liquid left in the vial he had received from Rabienne.
Walking out of Damon’s palace, Noah swept his hair with an expression of disgust.
“I knew he was that kind of person, but I’m still disappointed.”
“Are you okay? If you were really poisoned, I fear you might have been poisoned without knowing it.”
Palen, who always follows Noah like a shadow, said worriedly.
“I didn’t drink it, so it should be fine.”
Still, he couldn’t be fully certain of the extent of Damon’s scheme, so he headed to the storage room where the holy flowers were sorted.
Noah plucked some petals from one of the holy flowers he was preparing to send to the areas where the temple was closed.
“This should be enough.”
The effect was greater if it was heated with medicine, but every petal of the holy flowers could be considered as medicine.
Noah put the petals he had taken into his mouth and chewed them thoroughly.
“Hmm… What is Esther doing?”
Overhearing Noah’s longing-filled mumbles to himself, Palen cautiously asked as they walked out of the room.
“Your Highness, I have a question.”
“What?”
It wasn’t often that Palen asked something first, so Noah blinked, wondering if there was something urgent.
“Since when did you start to like her so much?”
It was pure curiosity because he had been watching Noah constantly.
The boy who had never once given his heart to Rabienne.
At that question, Noah stopped walking and looked up at the sky with a smile.
“When do you think it is?”
“The day she came to draw?”
“No.”
Noah smiled softly as he spit out the remains of the petals he was holding in his mouth.
“A lot longer than that. It must have been around the time when I first entered the sanctuary or had just passed the four seasons.”
In fact, even Noah himself did not know the exact time.
Just as it was not known exactly when the season changed, his feelings for Esther naturally changed.
Moments of despair while waiting to die. The girl which he had seen in his dreams then, seemed even more unhappy than he was.
At first, he took ugly comfort in the fact that at least he wasn’t in that situation.
But after he found out that the girl, who repeatedly appeared in his dreams every night, was a real person, he became worried and distressed.
“Did you know the lady before then? As far as I know, that must have been the first time you two met…”
“It’s a secret that Palen doesn’t know.”
Squinting one of his eyes, Noah’s smirk turned into a grin.
‘I am alive now because of Esther.’
He endured every day he wanted to die to meet the girl in his dreams.
Some days, his energy declined and he fell unconscious, not knowing when he would wake up next, but he was not afraid because he was able to meet the girl.
“I just woke up one day and thought that I like her.”
A fine day, one which he woke up after a long sleep. In a daze, he lifted his head and gazed at the sunlight coming through the window.
‘I think I like that girl.’
His chest was so numb that it felt like it was throbbing with pain.
Esther, who started permeating little by little, took control of everything about Noah and dug deep into him.
“Have you seen Esther lately? She smiles and laughs happily.”
“Yes. She has changed a lot.”
Palen also felt that Esther was not the gloomy girl he saw when she first came to draw.
“I want to let her be able to keep smiling like that.”
“The reason why you suddenly decided to become the crown prince…”
“That’s right.”
Palen nodded when he learned why Noah, who had never shown any interest in power, had changed after recovering from his illness.
“I’ll make sure no one can take Esther’s smile away.”
Noah thought the rest of his life was for Esther.
All he wanted was her happiness.
It was also the reason why he could never forgive Rabienne and the temple for trying to block that happiness again.
Rabienne and the temple, both of which committed an irreversible sin against Esther, must be punished.
They didn’t commit it in this lifetime?
Such excuses wouldn’t work.
Weren’t they terrible people who have repeated the same thing not once, but 14 times?
“The trash needs to be removed quickly.”
Noah muttered in a cold voice that seemed to drip ice.
For the first time in a while, Esther, the twins, and Deheen were huddled together for a family meeting in the living room.
The sound of peanuts being peeled mixed with the chatter of Esther, spreading throughout the living room.
“…so I thought it would be good to spread rumors, but what do you think?”
Esther, who worked hard organizing and voicing out her thoughts, looked at Deheen with bright eyes.
“That’s a good idea. Let’s do it.”
“Don’t you have to think about it a little more?”
“See. I told you Father would agree right away.”
Esther was surprised to hear an ‘okay’ at once and Dennis grinned, saying that his prediction was correct.
“It’s something you want to do, why will I say no?”
Deheen told Esther to not worry about anything and picked up the peanuts he had peeled nicely while listening to her.
And he put it into Esther’s mouth, which formed in a circle with surprise.
“…It’s good.”
Esther chewed on savory peanuts and recounted the plans she and her brothers had made.
“First of all, we made a song together with a child we take care of, his name is Jerome.”
“Singing is a good way. I guess I should call my vassals and teach them.”
Esther started to peel more peanuts. As Deheen looked at her do so, he raised a question.
“If you spread rumors and the current saint resigns and all the high-ranking priests are replaced, the temple won’t be able to touch you anymore. Is that enough?”
In an instant, extra force entered Esther’s hand, and peanut shells flew around.
“Oh, sorry.”
Stunned, Esther bit the insides of her mouth as shook the peanut shells off her clothes.
She stared at the family picture in front of her, and fell into deep, troubled contemplation.
‘It’s not enough.’
14 regressions. Confined in the temple. And the misdeeds of Rabienne.
It couldn’t be over simply with Rabienne stepping down from her position as a saint.
However, in order to make this feeling understandable, she had to tell his family about what she had been through.
“Rabienne is a monster.”
Deheen’s eyes narrowed he she watched Esther’s expression darken.
He still vividly remembered how distressed she felt on that thunderous night.
“What have Rabienne and the temple done to you?”
“That…”
Esther’s big eyes started to shift in all directions.
“Esther, we are definitely on your side. Won’t you trust us and tell us?”
Esther’s heart was moved as she heard the warm voice of Deheen, which seemed to push away any darkness.
She now believed that the three pairs of green eyes who looked at her firmly were on her side.
“There is something I want to show you.”
After making up her mind, Esther brushed off the peanut crumbs on her fingers and closed her eyes.
The extra-long eyelashes, like a doll’s, cast deep shadows over Esther’s convex cheeks.
