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***
At that moment, the man’s eyebrows went up.
What is it? Did he notice that I was forcing myself to smile?
It reminded me of the dark struggle in the palace I had imagined when I rode the carriage. Perhaps these people were far more witty.
Oh, this was no palace.
“Then Grand Duchess………..”
What do you mean ‘Grand Duchess’? It was an increasingly awkward designation as it left his face.
“You can call me Evelyn. We haven’t had a ceremony yet.”
“All right, Lady Evelyn.”
But what do you mean ‘Lady’? It was not a word that came out of a priest’s mouth.
“Did Lady break the curse?”
What? I couldn’t stop my body from shaking at that moment.
I looked at Devon as if to ask for help. He just looked around the room with a carefree expression on his face.
‘’How did you know about this?”
“It’s true, isn’t it? He said you’re the hero of the prophecy!”
The priest grabbed my hand and shook it up and down.
“So how?”
“Oh, because even though I don’t look like it, I’m quite talented at sensing divine power. In fact, I was able to become a priest thanks to my ability.”
Even when I was in the temple, I’m pretty sure I had met a priest who could perceive divine power.
Those with such abilities were not common in the temple.
And he was able to grasp divine power just by holding my hand?
I narrowed my eyes, since the man didn’t seem like that great of a figure.
“By the way, Lady Evelyn.”
He gave me a suspicious look.
“It’s not just the power, is it? What is this?”
I guess he didn’t want an answer, he mumbled, touching my hand.
A curse? I don’t think that’s right. It’s not magic, this is….”
He let go of my hand and ran to Devan.
“Hey!”
He then grabbed Devan’s hand in a tight grip. Devan’s expression instantly twisted.
“What are you doing?”
“Please be patient. It’s not like I like doing this.”
He rubbed Devan’s hand exactly like he did to me.
Then he put his face close to Devan’s face this time. It was all too much for me.
He opened his eyes wide and studied Devan’s eyes, especially his right eye here and there. Surprisingly, Devan didn’t stop him. But he looked like he wanted to kill him right away.
“Ha…….”
The man shook his head excitedly.
“What the hell happened?”
“Do you know anything about it?”
I finally understood why Devan had come here.
Beyond financial assistance, he was sure to try to get a clue of a transcendent being from the interest.
Is he really that great?
“The right eye, it’s the same as the Lady’s.”
Devan’s eyes got a little bigger.
“So what’s the deal?”
“So what?”
“What?”
The priest shrugged his shoulders, this time moving closer to me.
“Oh I haven’t said hello to you!”
Then he held out his hand again.
I blinked at the unpredictable sudden action and held his hand again without a choice.
The man chuckled. It was a gorgeous smile, seemingly without a speck of dust.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady. I’m Pelos Kibeon.”
Kibeon?
I opened my eyes a little wider.
I had heard of Kibeon before.
I had seen the youngest daughter of the Duke of Kibeon when I lived at the Count’s house at a social gathering. It was only once, though.
The Duke of Kibeon was the most noble family in the Empire.
It was no exaggeration to say that they were the highest-ranking noble family aside from the royal family.
Such a person became a priest? I couldn’t hide the absurdity of it.
Of course, being a priest was a highly-prized profession in this world.
The only people who could become priests were commoners who were fortunate enough to be born with divine power, or lower class nobles from wealthy families.
In other words, it was a profession that only such people were treated well.
No matter how much more powerful the priests were than the emperor, the priests who worked under him were merely temple servants.
It shouldn’t be a place for the children of a Duke… How on earth did this man become a priest?
I stared at Pelos, observing him.
It wasn’t the most polite thing to do, but he seemed to be generous to others.
He didn’t care how I looked at him, he just smiled and made some tea.
“So how much do you know about that?”
Pelos asked as he handed the teacup to Devan. We were swept away by Pelos and had an unintended tea time.
“It’s not much of a divine or magic, but all I know is that it’s a transcendent being similar to that.”
“I don’t know it well, but it’s powerful.”
I interrupted him from the side.
Pelos shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“It’s powerful.”
“What do you know about it?”
“Isn’t it black magic?”
Black magic? Is that all he knows?
I sat back in my chair, disappointed.
“Of course it’s not magic.”
I raised my head again.
“Are you sure that ‘black magic’ isn’t magic?”
Devan interrupted.
“There is no such thing as demons. Or, more accurately, there’s no God.”
I looked around carefully at the shocking statement.
No demons could make sense, but a priest denying the existence of God…
“What do you mean there’s no God? The divine power exists.”
“Divine power does exist. Because magical power exists! If divine power is God-given power, mustn’t there also be a being that gave us magical power?”
“Magic power is natural…………..”
“Umm, yes it is. Divine power is similar. Like nature, it is a power given by an idea. It’s just that people have created a concrete being called God.”
He made up a bunch of words that I couldn’t understand. Sometimes it sounded like sophistry.
“Anyway, the ‘black magic’ is not done by magic.”
“What makes you so sure?”
We thought so too, but Pelos looked exceptionally confident.
“I’m just as good at sensing magic as I am at divine power. The Grand Duke says I’m a genius.”
He smiled, showing his teeth. I had an illusion his teeth were sparkling.
“So you’re saying that no magic is detected from black magic?”
“That’s exactly it!”
He pointed at me.
It was as if he was an enthusiastic teacher teaching his students.
“That’s all we could think of. What more do you know about it?”
Devan put his teacup down. He seemed to be used to the commotion.
“More than that? What if it’s more than that?”
“…They’re using black magic in the temple, no, they’re using the power of images.”
Pelos’ eyes grew so big as if they would pop out of his head.
“Really? The temple?”
He looked more amused than surprised.
“Ah! You’re going to the capital to investigate that! Do you want to get rid of that thing in your eyes?”
“Yes.”
“But what’s more urgent is this one.
Pelos stared at me.
“What do you mean, more urgent?”
“That’s right. It’s inside Lady’s heart. It’s in the Grand Duke’s eye so he’s fine. But the Lady….hmmm.”
With his hand on my chin, Pelos squinted as if to gauge something.
Then he said in a light tone, as if he was consulting the menu for dinner.
“The Lady will die if we don’t get this sorted out soon.”
“What?”
I couldn’t say anything and just blinked.
It was Devan who asked back, and he looked much more serious.
He seemed to know that Pelos was not a man who made up impossible things, even if he seemed to do so lightly.
I guess that’s why his face was more hardened than mine.
Pelos kept a light demeanor the whole time.
“Let’s call it black magic for convenience. The more of it is in your body, the faster you’ll die. Furthermore, the Lady has a lot of it inside.”
“What do you mean it’s inside?”
“I’m talking about your power.”
He yawned and sat down in his chair, his chin sticking out.
He looked passionate earlier, but in no time at all he was drooping like a deflated balloon.
“I didn’t sleep all night last night.”
I glared at him with a litany of excuses.
“Tell me. Why do I die if I have more power?”
“Well….”
He scratched his head.
“There is a lot of space inside a lady, so to speak. Let me give you an example.”
Before I knew it, he was a teacher again, and he brought a teacup and a teacup saucer in front of me.
He poured clean water into each.
“Here is a deep teacup. And here is a very shallow saucer.”
The shallow water was flowing freely on the table.
“If each of these two… …….”
He picked up a pinch of tea leaves and dropped it on top.
“The tea leaves are in. What will happen to it?”
“The leaves will get bigger.”
“Yes, it will. They will get bigger. As time goes by, it will grow more and more.”
That was why he was comparing me to a teacup.
It meant that black magic spread more because there were many places inside me to enter.
“The amount of power is simple. In the end, the divine power you have depends on how much space your body can accept.”
“I’m aware of that.”
I remembered that when I was treating Devan’s eyes, I poured the divine power into his body first.
I had to create a space for it first, otherwise the new power couldn’t enter.
Of course, the space created for the treatment was not permanent, unlike the inborn one.
In other words, the fact that I possessed enormous divine power just meant that my body had a large space to receive it.
“The Lady has a large space to hold, so the space for black magic to spread is also large, right?”
I looked at the teacup and the saucer, which were turning brown.
The water in the teacup was as thin as it could be, almost clear, and the saucer was dark brown.
“But the larger the space, the thinner the concentration. So, the less space there is, the more dangerous it might be?”
“Of course, if you add this much tea leaves, that’s right. But the problem is that the tea leaves that fell here….”
Pelos suddenly opened the bucket of tea leaves and poured it over the cup.
The tea leaves absorbed all the water and piled up like a mountain and fell to the outside of the cup.