Rumors circulated that the High Priest was refusing all visits from believers and secluding himself alone in the Room of Declaration. When he didn’t show his face for several days, rumors even spread that he had fallen seriously ill.
Visitors who came without appointments hoping to catch even a glimpse of the High Priest’s toes had to turn back with disappointed faces.
Those who had made appointments in advance by sending letters to Jes were equally disappointed. Nobles pressed Jes, demanding why they couldn’t meet him despite having prior appointments. Most of them said if he would just tell them where the High Priest was, they would go find him themselves, but Jes remained consistently silent, unable to disturb the High Priest’s prayers.
While doing so, he conveyed that they should send prayers to him instead that they wanted to say or couldn’t convey to the High Priest. With the letters piling up before him, Jes felt like his already presbyopic eyes were shrinking.
It wasn’t just Jes’s eyeballs that were shrinking. Jes, Yan, and Het—all of them were worried about the High Priest who stayed only inside the Room of Declaration. The only news they could get of him was when empty teacups and plates came out from within.
Meanwhile, Mac, perhaps thinking Brukisel would be pleased to hear the news, babbled lightly beside him.
“Your Majesty, have you heard the rumors that the High Priest has gone into hiding?”
“……”
“He’s probably too ashamed to show his face after spouting nonsense at the banquet. He hasn’t shown up for appointments, so the nobles are complaining……”
“You’re noisy.”
“Hik.”
When the red eyes took on an even more murderous light, Mac closed his mouth in terror. He quietly stepped back and moved his body to a corner. It seemed he thought at that distance, he would be safe even if a blade came flying.
Brukisel roughly swept his forehead. He had been ignoring rumors about the High Priest, but to bring it up in front of him and remind him of it. He was angry. Unable to contain his irritation, Brukisel pointed at the door with his chin and issued an order to leave.
“If you came to report such useless news, get out.”
“B-but. I didn’t come because of that……”
“Get out.”
Mac hesitated while holding a bundle of papers, seemingly having documents that needed approval. However, unable to dare defy the Emperor’s words—especially those of an Emperor who seemed about to tear him to death in his fury—Mac had to flee from the Emperor’s office without any gains.
“……Damn it.”
Brukisel was angry. Well, someone with a disposition as delicate as that pretty appearance would naturally be shocked by his past. He was an idiot for casually mentioning such things to someone who looked like they couldn’t even kill a baby fly.
‘So, you’ve decided never to see me again?’
Calling it seclusion—there was no way to know if he was planning to run away, or cursing him in secret. At least if he were somewhere visible, he would know what he was doing, but hiding like this was even more irritating.
The first few days weren’t like this. Since he wasn’t visible in the Imperial Palace, his mind was actually comfortable and pleasant. No one dared mention the High Priest’s existence in front of Brukisel, so for a while, he even briefly forgot there had been such an existence as the High Priest.
Thus, for several days, quiet time passed as before the High Priest had suddenly fallen from the sky. With no irritating existence in the Imperial Palace, everything was quiet. Only the summer days that grew longer day by day, the shadows that shortened and lengthened repeatedly, told of time’s passage.
That quiet time was broken one day when he encountered Het in the corridor.
Het was running while preciously clutching something with guilty eyes. Moving carefully while looking around, he hesitated in place when he came face to face with the very person he wanted to avoid.
Brukisel ignored his presence and passed by, but the golden-gleaming hair inside the accessory seemed to sparkle especially brightly. So without realizing it, he suddenly looked back, but naturally, the High Priest wasn’t there.
He thought he saw softly rippling hair and a clear smile. A refreshing voice seemed to linger in his ears. Brukisel turned his head to check again, but only Het, hurrying his steps to the treasury installed in the depths, could be seen.
It was from that day.
The more he tried not to think about it, the more anger toward the High Priest filled his mind. Even when he tried borrowing the power of strong liquor because it was irritating and frustrating, it only showed the High Priest’s image more clearly.
The sight of him with sparkling eyes as if wanting to know more, unable to bear his curiosity, became increasingly vivid. The face laughing without even thinking about the disadvantages he had suffered, or the sight of him approaching without caring about any threats, flickered before his eyes.
So he really had no choice but to believe.
This clear-eyed madman. His eyes were truly clear, and his mind seemed clear too, but that he liked him. Perhaps that’s why when he demanded to know about his past, he had confessed to him without hesitation. When he listened to his story with spotlessly clear eyes. Yes, he might have harbored the emotion called expectation.
That he would be somehow different from others.
But the revealed reality was not that at all. The High Priest was no different from others. No, rather, he was worse in quality. Those who had lost their fear before at least approached using love as a pretext with clear goals. It was a visible scheme.
But what about the High Priest? With a benevolent smile and eyes full of love, whispering that there was no cost to liking him—when was that?—he had obviously left.
He had been played by emotions. He couldn’t stand how detestable the High Priest who had gone into hiding was. If he couldn’t handle it, he shouldn’t have touched it in the first place. He had clearly satisfied only his curiosity, then got scared when he actually opened it up and ran away.
‘Ha.’
How could the Goddess and the High Priest who served her be so exactly alike? In reality, they couldn’t do anything, yet made one harbor vain expectations. He even felt sorry for those who prayed to them.
Brukisel continuously gulped down strong liquor. It was the first time he tried praying to get drunk.
Mac, who had been driven out earlier, knocked on the Emperor’s office again. Though he terribly didn’t want to enter that space again, he had no choice because there were documents that needed the imperial seal by today. Mac resolved to avoid grating on his nerves as much as possible, then carefully pulled the door handle when permission was granted.
“This is the list to send invitations for ‘the Day When the Sun is Most Intense.'”
“Are you already preparing for that useless noble game?”
The Empire’s ‘Day When the Sun is Most Intense’ was no ordinary banquet. As it was one of the Empire’s premier events, being invited to it was an extremely glorious thing. To disparage as a useless noble game the banquet that countless nobles waited for with outstretched necks!
Mac was overcome with indignation, but not having the nerve to report such things to the Emperor, he quietly closed his mouth and held out the list. Brukisel clicked his tongue as if conducting useless business.
Yet he couldn’t take his eyes off the first line of the list. In the list written in order of status, naturally occupying the top was the High Priest’s name.
Mac quietly watched for signs. Though that High Priest was beautiful enough to make one think the Goddess had carefully crafted him, he was a person utterly unhelpful to the noble faction and himself. For their side, naturally, it was welcome that he wouldn’t show his face at such an official event.
If the Emperor showed such signs, he was ready to quickly remove him from the list, but it wasn’t easy to read approval or disapproval from the Emperor’s expression. Due to his fierce impression, he generally looked displeased.
He was glaring at the High Priest’s name as if pondering something.
“Rou?”
He even read that name aloud. His already cool impression doubled when he narrowed the space between his brows. From the fiercely glinting eyes, it was clear the relationship between the High Priest and Emperor had soured. It was good news for the noble faction.
Mac thought he had seized an opportunity and readily picked up the quill. Then he carefully asked.
“I suppose it would be better not to send an invitation to the High Priest?”
“……”
It would be good if he said to do so. The Emperor just glared at Mac with sharp eyes. Mac closed his mouth and smiled obsequiously, trying the opposite suggestion.
“Th-then. I suppose it would be better to just leave it……”
“……Get lost.”
“Pardon?”
“……”
Mac stood there stupidly and asked back. What returned was the Emperor’s cool gaze. If anyone had been killed by someone’s gaze, the Emperor would be the culprit.
Having grown up gently as a young master all his life without hearing a single vulgar word, Mac didn’t immediately realize it was directed at him and dared to question the Emperor’s words. Soon realizing his mistake, he turned pale and fled in haste.
Brukisel drove out the intruder and gazed at the list again.
‘Rou.’
Was this his name?
Perhaps because he always called him by the High Priest title, he had never thought deeply about his name. No, even if he knew the name, he would never have called him by it. Though the High Priest himself had called his name surprisingly easily.
It was a name that suited that small, slender bastard who looked like he would break if he took even one wrong hit on the battlefield. Brukisel was suddenly seized by a premonition that he would remember this name tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that too.
To even remember the name of someone who was already disturbing his mind.
Brukisel irritably picked up the quill. He intended to erase Rou’s name from the list without hesitation. He thought if he did so, the image of him dwelling in his mind would also disappear. However, the moment the quill touched the list, Brukisel’s hand hesitated.
“Hoo……”
Brukisel put down the quill as if throwing it. He kicked back his chair and stood up, fastening his sword to his waist again. He thought it was rather a good opportunity. With this feeling, he could subjugate the small tribes in the west that had been irritating him for months.
Brukisel sent a messenger bird to the knight order and immediately left the Emperor’s palace.
Rou’s name on the list remained unerased.
