༺ Confrontation (2) ༻
Amidst the coexistence of three conflicting emotions within the same space, Annalise harbored suspicion due to the blatant dissonance she sensed in the conversation between the two individuals.
It was a well-founded suspicion. She hadn’t been observing them for long, but she already felt clearly that the Apostle of Oath was someone who couldn’t do anything against the Saint’s words. So, the current situation seemed strange in a way.
Annalise didn’t erase the rising suspicion, and her mind raced to find the cause.
‘Did they fight? No, that’s not it. To say that they fought, his temperament itself felt different… Then, it’s probably a more fundamental problem than that…’
Magic that interferes with a person’s personality or disposition.
Unique abilities that can interfere with cognitive processes.
Annalise weighed all these possibilities in her mind as she continued her thought process, and managed to come up with an inference.
After all, she was none other than the Tower Master of the Aurillac.
Though she relied on the power of the serum, her deep understanding of unique abilities had allowed her to even interfere with Vera’s powers during their fight. Hence, she could entertain such a hypothesis.
‘…Cognitive distortion?’
To be precise, the process of treating cognitive distortion.
Since cognitive distortion was meant to be used on a sleeping target and not on someone who was in an awake state, there was a high probability that it would be correct.
‘A spell, huh…’
Recalling the contents of the papers she had been flipping through while researching Alaysia’s serum, Annalise vented her irritation.
‘…But it doesn’t fit.’
Trying to fit what she knew into Vera’s current state led to an unexplainable discrepancy.
If Annalise were in a human body, her face would undoubtedly show a deep frown. Her thoughts were becoming more complicated.
‘If they’re trying to cure cognitive distortion, they should’ve brought up the memories from when he was a very young child…’
Obviously, that bastard must have been in the Holy Kingdom the whole time.
Wasn’t it the case? If his cognition was distorted in the Holy Kingdom, wouldn’t he try to treat it together with Renee?
Thinking about it, the part they were fixing was undoubtedly something that happened before he had an attachment to the Holy Kingdom… In other words, it must have been from his childhood, but the way he spoke and acted was eerily close to that of an adult, even though he should have been just a little kid at the time.
Continuing her thoughts while integrating the information revealed so far, Annalise suddenly felt a spark in her head.
‘…Wait.’
The Apostle of Oath claimed that he was chosen by Orgus.
The attitude that seemed to know the future.
On top of that, the appearance of deliberately mentioning the rewinded time.
To Annalise, who was once hailed as the continent’s greatest intellect, integrating those clues with her existing knowledge to arrive at a meaningful conclusion wasn’t a difficult task.
[…Hah.]
An unintended sound escaped her lips due to her sense of disbelief.
At that, Vera and Renee’s heads turned toward Annalise.
Staring into the eyes of the two individuals focused on her, Annalise was consumed by profound confusion.
“…Could they have overwritten memories from before the time was rewound into this lapse?”
She wanted to say that was nonsense, but… Such thinking explained both his current appearance and what she had been suspicious about.
Was that all there was to it?
‘Maybe…’
The key to protecting the future that she thought was already twisted and beyond saving might be right in front of her.
The moment she realized that, Annalise felt hopeful but also a deep emptiness.
‘…It wasn’t me?’
Salvation might be possible.
However, she was not the one who would make it happen.
The fact that a brat who was still wet behind the ears might be the key to salvation and not herself, who was praised as the greatest intellect, the one who reached the door of Providence, and called the giant of the era, was something that made Annalise who was the embodiment of self-righteousness and arrogance felt such emptiness.
Silence descended.
For Annalise, it was a silence caused by the feeling of being denied her entire life, and for the other two, it was a silence caused by the tension at the sudden change in Annalise’s behavior.
Annalise stared blankly at Vera.
‘A bastard like him?’
Once again, she negated the idea.
However, even amidst this denial, deep within her heart, there was an answer that whispered, ‘Yes.’
No matter how much she tried to belittle him, the fact remained that the final move Vera showed during the battle in the Aurillac was of a realm she had yet to reach, even touching upon Providence. At least she couldn’t deny that fact.
It dawned on her that maybe the key to salvation was really that clueless kid and not her.
[Fucker…]
Renee tilted her head at Annalise’s vehement curse.
‘What is it?’
It was a gesture that came out by itself as she wondered why that damned old hag had suddenly become like that.
Just as Renee was about to say something, Annalise let out a word that was close to a curse.
[…Scram.]
“What?”
[Didn’t I tell you to get lost? I guess besides not being able to see with your eyes, your ears are also dull?]
“What…”
An empty laugh escaped from Renee’s lips.
“Grandma, did you have dementia? But, why are you being like this to me all of a sudden?”
When the unyielding Renee answered without flinching at all, Annalise felt her irritation soar and said.
[Little girl, don’t you have something you want to hear from me? My head is cluttered right now, so I told you to get lost. Why can’t you understand?]
“I’m sorry. Is it because an old bitch is saying it? I can’t hear the words very well.”
[You fucking bitch.]
Renee’s body flinched.
It was a reaction she made because she had never experienced a raw curse directed at her like that.
Quietly listening to the conversation between the two, Vera smirked at Renee being pushed back, and Renee’s eyes burned with anger when she heard it.
“Are you laughing?”
“…”
After unconsciously managing his expression, Vera belatedly realized that he had been acting like a ‘dog bastard’ as Annalise had said, and felt his pride was hurt.
It was a reaction that the body remembered and not the mind, so this was also something that the current Vera had no clue about.
[These fucking things…]
Feeling even more self-deprecating as she witnessed the two acting like street clowns for a brief moment, Annalise sighed and uttered those words. Renee, feeling embarrassed for some reason, lowered her head.
Subsequently, Renee blurted out a dialogue that would befit a third-rate villain.
“…Well, we’ll back off for today.”
Renee said this because she sensed that Annalise was not willing to talk right now, and also because she felt that Annalise was having a change of heart for some reason.
[Yes, please. Please get lost. Because I want to organize my thoughts.]
Renee pushed herself up.
With a mixture of frustration and irritation, she turned her back with a snort of disdain.
“Hand!”
When she suddenly cried out, Vera put his hand over hers as his body remembered this time as well.
It wasn’t until after they had walked out the door that Renee realized that she had shown him an ugly appearance.
***
Vera frowned at the appearance of Renee, who had been tearing her hair out ever since they had met the Tower Master.
‘What the hell is she doing?’
Is she manic?
Is the Saint of the Holy Kingdom not just physically but mentally ill as well?
They were thoughts that came to him because he couldn’t see anything consistent in the appearances he was seeing throughout.
But Vera, who couldn’t bear to say it, just kept his mouth shut this time as well and just stared at Renee.
“Euugh…”
A pained groan escaped Renee once more.
Her flushed face, accentuated by her white hair, obscured Vera’s vision.
‘…Her face looks perfectly normal.’
Thoughts that Vera had never pondered in his lifetime, such as how living together might be so exhausting, floated through his mind.
“How much longer will you be like that?”
“Euugh… Yes?”
“I wasn’t able to interrogate her properly, so the deal is still valid. Is there anything else you want from me? If there’s nothing, I want to leave. Wouldn’t it be better for the Saint too, if I am not by your side?”
“What do you mean? Even if I’m with Vera all day, it’s not enough.”
Vera’s gaze narrowed.
“What?”
“Ah, it was a slip of the tongue. Pretend that you didn’t hear that.”
What was the point when everything had been already said?
Vera let out an involuntary sigh at the incomprehensible creature called Renee, and then he felt frustrated.
There was no other reason.
It was because of something he was doing before coming here.
‘It’s going to be a problem if I’m gone too long.’
The auction season would start soon.
That meant it was the season to sort the newly brought-in slaves and appraise the relics.
Therefore, wasting time in a place like this, where there was nothing more to gain, was out of the question.
‘How do I get out…’
Aside from the fact that this place was the Cradle, the Saint used an unknown method to change the content of the oath so that he couldn’t move without permission.
‘If she knew how to change it, she would also know how to reverse it.’
And so, Renee, whose body was shaking with shame, and Vera, whose leg was shaking with impatience, sat facing each other in the reception room.
“Renee!”
Aisha opened the door and came in.
Renee’s head snapped up.
Vera’s gaze also secretly turned to Aisha.
‘A beastkin?’
At the end of his line of sight was a cat Beastkin girl with forsythia-colored hair.
‘Ah, an errand girl?’
Realizing the girl’s affiliation through the priest uniform she was wearing, Vera took his eyes off her, and Aisha’s eyes lit up.
It was a reaction that came out when she realized that the conversation Norn and Miller had before she came here was true.
– It seems Sir Norn can get some rest today because the Saint is in charge of Sir Vera while he is conscious.
– Ah, that’s good. Would you like to have a drink?
– Sounds good~!
Today was the day Vera had the ritual.
Aisha, whose mind had already made ‘Vera’s ritual’ synonymous with ‘a chance to find something to tease’, could not pass up the opportunity.
“Aisha?”
When Renee called out to Aisha in a surprised voice, Aisha made a triangular mouth shape unique to cats, pulled out something in the air and shouted.
“I brought Jenny too~!”
“Hueeek…!”
The thing in her hand was Jenny, the Apostle of Death.
Vera looked at the brightly smiling Aisha and Jenny, who was sweating coldly as she rolled her eyes anxiously, then said provocative words while only lifting one corner of his mouth.
“Did the Saint set up a nursery in the Cradle?”
Aisha’s face brightened even more.
Leading Jenny with bouncy steps, Aisha sat next to Renee and stared at Vera with sparkling eyes.
Vera felt his mood sour at Aisha’s sparkling gaze.
“What is it?”
“Huh? Nothing!”
She looked really happy while shaking her head vigorously.
It was such an expression that made Vera want to ‘flick her forehead’ without even realizing it.
Seeing Aisha’s obvious behavior, Renee realized what Aisha was thinking and responded with an awkward smile.
“Hm, how about Hela?”
“She’s training!”
“How about Krek and Ma…”
“Drinking with Norn and Miller!”
‘That’s it, there’s no guardian…’
Renee quickly gave up.
In fact, sending Aisha away was the right thing to do, but she didn’t do it because of the personal greed that came to her mind aside from that rational judgment.
‘…I can’t be the only one to feel ashamed.’
She had shown a pathetic sight in front of Annalise.
Unfortunately, Vera would probably remember that sight when he returned.
So, to avoid being hit one-sidedly, wouldn’t it be fair for her to see Vera’s embarrassing appearance as well?
“Uhm, ehem…”
Renee turned her blind eyes to the ceiling and cleared her throat.
Meanwhile, Aisha’s words continued.
“You know, Vera, don’t you have something you want to say?”
It was a statement delivered with the face of a predator eyeing its prey, looking for any weakness to exploit.
