At that time, Sidhar Hautean fled wearing a shabby cape, leaving behind his old aide who had always stood by him at the palace. Then he ran west with the black sorcerers.
The dog that lost the fight. Prince Sidhar could not believe his situation had turned out that way.
“Damn it…”
On a running horse, he thought about what could be the main reason for all this.
Killing Sonnet was a walk in the park. That was how it should be. His opponent was a 14-year-old child, and he even had the fake saintesses set up to be good sacrifices. Even if things went wrong and failed, he thought he could get rid of or cover up all the evidence. But it all went wrong. Everything was in tatters.
‘Lara.’
This was all because of her. The woman who horribly hated Prince Sidhar—whom everyone loved—and treated him as her enemy.
What is the reason? Why does she hate me so much? We haven’t had any contact so far. Why in the world? Why did she always look at me with eyes full of resentment? Why did she show up at the banquet hall and block Sonnet’s way?
Lara was like a trap made to hunt Prince Sidhar. She was like a snare that could neither be ignored nor skipped. He felt like he had met his natural enemy for the first time in his life. For someone who had always felt like the predator, Lara made Prince Sidhar feel like prey, while simultaneously giving him an intense feeling of curiosity.
Lara, the daughter of Isadora.
Prince Sidhar’s mask was broken. A smile as soft and firm as a saint was shattered. He crumbled away, ruined, and turned vicious. Intense hostility infested his gentle eyes, and cursed words flowed from his mouth, which had only poured out sweet words, along with harsh breathing.
It would not end like this. There was a hideout for demon worshippers in the west. Prince Sidhar was going to join hands with them and take over the throne. Then, he would tell those fools who the real owner of the land was.
That woman would be great as the spoils of war. Lara. He would dress her in a cheap, red dress befitting someone of her nature and make her kneel before him to beg.
<ol start="16">
<ol start="16"> You in the Lamp
After the Prince abandoned everything and fled, the weight of the throne leaned completely toward the Princess. Now Sonnet established herself as the heir to the throne. The King promised to hold a successor announcement banquet for the Princess when the autumn and winter season had passed and the warm spring came.
The capital was noisy every day due to the banquet hall’s explosion, the search for the fleeing Prince, and the black sorcerer and fake saintesses incident. It was a festival for those who supported Sonnet, but the captured criminals suffered torture day by day in the royal palace’s dungeon.
Those who were involved with the Prince either hid or fled. The Temple of Glory also suffered greatly and went into a long silence.
Sonnet kept Lara’s secret. She did not tell anyone that Lara was the real saintess. Lara’s friends, who felt anxious every day as to whether the 14-year-old girl would be able to keep the secret, could only feel great relief long after the incident.
Lara stayed at Sonnet’s palace while acting as a fake patient for 10 days. When she thought the time had come for her to be able to avoid some doubt, she returned home.
“How fortunate I was to wear a red velvet dress that day. God must have given me foresight.”
“Can you please shut up?”
“Why are you so chatty when you almost died?”
Lara came out of Sonnet’s palace with the help of Eunice and Ximena. She was just pretending to be sick, she actually only had a backache because she lied down too much.
“It’s such a nice day.”
The sky was blue and high. Lara was praised by the King as the hero who saved the Princess’ life. He even gave a promise to grant her whatever she wanted. He also made an extreme offer to give her a new peerage title as she had abandoned her father’s family name.
The woman who saved Princess Sonnet’s life twice. Now all the nobles in Hautean knew for sure whose side Lara and Isadora were on. But, apart from that, Lara’s notoriety had risen to the point where it could no longer be raised.
Eunice said while shaking her head.
“Everyone is only talking about how you grabbed the saintess’ hair with one hand and shook it up and down.”
“She’s a fake anyway.”
“Some said a witch in a red velvet dress grabbed the angelic saintess violently, some said you went round the banquet hall while holding the screaming saintess’ hair, and some said you insulted God out loud, asking him to descend.”
“What? That was too exaggerated.”
“Congrats. You have established yourself as Hautean’s troublemaker.”
Grabbing the fake saintess’ hair was a spontaneous act. She was disgusted when she heard how the fake saintess talked to Ximena and she wanted to get them out of the place where the incident was supposed to happen.
Lara said with a smirk.
“I learned that from Ximena.”
“Learned what?”
“That when you grab hair to fight, the first one to grab has the advantage. She told me not to get caught, and to just think about grabbing hard and to pull the hair down as soon as I grab it.”
Ximena only told Lara to do that if that happened one day. Ximena mumbled, saying that she did not expect that Lara would use it for real.
“What good things have we told the saintess all this while.”
Eunice recalled the past one by one and frowned.
“We turned the saintess into a troublemaker…”
“Are you uncomfortable because I’m a saintess?”
When Lara asked the question, Eunice shook her head and took a deep breath.
“I am just…thinking if I should convert my religion.”
“Me too.”
Actually same here.
Lara muttered.
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
Lara was still not completely relieved even after the Prince was driven out far away. She was sure that he would join hands with the demon worshippers in the West.
Lara searched for God’s name as soon as she had time. She started studying theology—which she had never done in school—and went in and out of the temple to read old records. But there was no name that stood out to her. There were dozens of beings defined as Gods in the Temple of Glory and all of them used to appear only in very old legends.
Feeling frustrated, Lara even visited the temple prayer room and stopped a priest who was passing by and asked about the statue that she kissed.
“What do you mean by name? Names are only for humans. God is just God.”
The priest told her that there were no records of the forgotten God.
Later, she went into the royal library and looked for old books. She even asked Sebastian to buy forbidden books for her. But she still could not find it. She felt like she was playing a never-ending game of hide-and-seek.
“I have no idea.”
“About what?”
“…Hey, Demian.”
“Yeah?”
It was one day in the midst of autumn. Lara, who was out by the river with Demian, asked.
“What should I do to find a record of the forgotten God?”
“Is it difficult to find?”
“It is. Old relics or hidden records… Maybe I should look for something like that.”
“Items like that are all in the Empire.”
“I know. Hautean is a small country on the border, so there’s nothing to look for here. But I can’t go to the Empire right now.”
“Lara, I know the perfect guy that you can use.”
“Who?”
“Acerus.”
Lara, who was standing by the river and looking at the autumn sky, turned her head and looked at Demian.
“The Crown Prince of Tarragon?”
“Yeah.”
“How can I dare to use the Crown Prince of the Empire?”
“You have me.”
Demian was smiling like a villain.
“Usually, those who are sitting at the top would just give orders to their underlings. This means they can easily find something like that.”
She could not refuse. Because he was right.
