I’m A Villainess, Can I Die? - Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Eunji closed her lips. Her eyes were looking through the air and her lips were quiet for a moment. It took a while for the eyes to turn towards me again.

“Actually… Selena’s soul and Sister’s soul are one. You both are one person, but in this space, your souls have been separated temporarily.”

“Separated?”

Eunji nodded her head vigorously at my question.

“Yes. Separated by Sister’s memory. Sister only remembers her previous life. So, Selena’s memories… It was made into the soul and got separated. In the end, all the words that the soul ‘Selena’ said came from your true feelings.”

‘To be happy? Selena’s words for me to pretend to be her and be happy were my true feelings…?’

Could it be that I thought that way without knowing my own true intentions? It was strange to believe, but the memories of my past that my sister suddenly showed were the only truth.

“Sister, the life I gave as a gift, is another life for you, so live happily until you die. You can live happily for a long time, and then see me again after a while. Sister, will you grant my wish? Sister always listened to me.”

Eunji held me in her arms once again and whispered softly. At her voice that seemed to imply we were parting soon, I held the child in my arms.

“Yes. Okay… So, I’ll see you later.”

Eunji laughed with a pleasant feeling. The sound of laughter echoed in my ears and then gradually disappeared. Like the sound of laughter that disappeared, Eunji in my arms became a fog again and disappeared.

I stared blankly into the air for a while, at the space where I was holding the child in my arms.

*** 

“This is the prayer room.”

Going back in time, around the time Selena was getting ready to go out to the square, Aaron and Lucas arrived at the temple and were being introduced to it by a high priest named Isaac.

Upon hearing the news of the Duchy’s visit, a high-ranking priest hurriedly rushed out.

However, the inside of the temple was not clean enough for it to belong to a priest.

As the power of the temple gradually weakened, the priests continued their work in such a way that they belonged to noble families.

Putting it simply, it was a kind of employment with monthly pay or offering prayers and staying in the mansion.

And to them, the Duchy, which had not yet had an exclusive priest, was like a golden cord.

Besides, if they did well, they might’ve been able to support this temple entirely. Occasionally, high-ranking nobles who did not have an exclusive priest formed a relationship with the temple in that way… Either way, it must have been a wonderful thing to have a relationship with the Duchy.

Isaac thought so and showed him the most splendid place in the temple.

“The prayer room at the back of the building is open to everyone, but only the nobles can use it.”

Unlike the simple prayer room he had seen before, it was quite a gorgeous place.

What kind of god divided the nobles and the commoners?

Lucas clicked his tongue briefly and turned his head away from the noisy priests.

It seemed that Aaron was also very bored with this conversation. He couldn’t even see where the priest aimed at in the first place… He thought he was listening to this useless explanation of the temple for over an hour.

“After all, it’s Ariana’s temple. Having it close to the duke’s estate is such a good thing… It really is like a blessing from God.”

In the end, Lucas, unable to bear the boredom and impatience, cut off the priest’s words as he had been explaining the traditions of their temple for a long time.

Aaron noticed Lucas’s actions, but in fact, it wasn’t bad for him either. It was because he was worried about how long he would be listening to this grand epic.

“Yes! This is a blessing. This is proof that the great Ariana cares for all of us!”

The priest, who had forgotten that his words were interrupted, was excited by the words that came out of Lucas’s mouth and stumbled in excitement.

Lucas, who satisfiedly looked at him as if he was pathetic, mouthed to Aaron,

‘Now it’s your turn.’

He didn’t know what it would be like.

“You’re right. All of this is the will of the great Ariana. A few days ago, my younger sister said that she received help from a priest here… Isn’t that also Ariana’s will?”

“Help from a priest?”

“Yes. The name… is… Ian.”

“Ian… ? That idiot… ? No, no. Are you talking about Priest Ian?”

The priest’s attitude, who became puzzled when he heard Ian’s name, was strange.

Those who claimed that everyone was respected under the name of God denigrated those who have the same title as priests as an ‘idiot’.

“Can we see the priest named Ian?”

Lucas raised the corners of his lips to hide his sly intentions. At the friendly smile, the priest nodded his head.

“Ian… ? Yes… Well. You can see…”

“Then I want to talk to him. I haven’t been able to say thank you to him properly yet… I wonder if we will be able to strengthen the relationship between this temple and the Duchy family through good words…?”

“Oh… Yes! Yes! You can strengthen it well! What a great idea! Noah! Bring Ian to the parlor right now.”

“Yes, Priest Isaac.”

A young priest named Noah turned around and headed to where Ian was. Priest Isaac, who looked back with satisfaction, guided the two of them to the parlor with a very refreshed face.

“Please, wait here and he’ll be here right away. In the meantime, shall we talk about how the relationship between the temple and the Duchy can get closer?”

Oh my, another boring conversation has begun. The two smiled as they prayed in their hearts that they would find the priest named Ian as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the place where the priest named Noah went to find Ian was the most remote and the oldest area of the temple.

“Ohh… I really don’t want to come here…”

Noah grunted, wiping the dust off his shoulders, and looked at the cracked pillar with disgust.

“Ian!! Ian!! Are you here, Ian!? Priest Isaac is looking for you!! Come out quickly!”

Noah moved forward, waving his hands in the dust that covered his eyes, shouting with a reluctant face. He didn’t want to go any further, but he couldn’t hear Ian’s voice. ‘This idiot is really not helping.’

Reluctantly holding his breath, Noah entered the prayer room that had last been used a long time ago, knelt down on the marble floor, and slapped the back of the head of the man who was praying.

“Hey!!”

“Ah!”

After being hit in the back of the head, Ian blinked and looked back at Noah.

“Priest Noah?”

“Do you think I couldn’t tell that you, you bastard, pretended not to hear me?”

“What? N…No. How dare I do such a thing…”

“Well, now that Priest Isaac is looking for you, come quickly. I’m going to die because of all this dust.”

“Yes… yes.”

Noah, who had been staring intently at Ian, plucked the dust and lifted his finger, signaling Ian to follow him.

“There are very, very important nobles in the parlor now. Apparently… I think you helped them. Don’t say useless things, just reply ‘yes, yes’ when you need to. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good, do what you did just now. Seriously, I wonder what more the idiot bastard would have to say.”

Noah, who casually spit out abusive language, chuckled. Although it was a joke that was not pleasant at all, Ian could only nod his head and smile.

“If you can, don’t be annoying. Huh? Just keep your head down. You have the line to our temple’s money. Behave.”

“Yes. Priest Noah.”

Noah was younger than Ian and had a smaller runtime as a priest.

However, this was very natural here. Ian could be ignored, beaten and insulted by anyone. It was the strange proposition that lied here.

Those who had become new priests harbored doubts at the sight, and also rejected it. But that was only for a short time, and soon everyone naturally melted into the habit.

Adapting to the position of the priest of Ariana Temple meant that it became natural to ignore Ian.

“Shake off the dust! Dust!”

Rather, as they watched the tall, terrifying-looking Ian hastily listen to their words, they even felt an unknown sense of bliss.

Noah looked back happily at Ian chasing after him, dusting off the dust, and stopped in front of the parlor.

Noah looked at Ian once more and nodded, as if the supervisor had sent his subordinate a pass.

Knock, knock.

‘Oh thank heavens!’

Lucas and Aaron exclaimed in their hearts at the same time. Both of them felt they were reaching their limit in the story full of useless rhetoric.

“I have brought Priest Ian.”

“Oh, come on in!”
Soon, the door opened, and the young priest whom they had seen earlier and a tall priest bowed their heads.

There was a black crown over his head as he raised it, revealing a sharp face through his hair.

“Ian.”

Lucas took a step closer, feeling like he was being rewarded for the insane amount of time he had to listen to the high priest’s praises of the temple.

“…Ah… the… Last time, you, a knight of the Duchy…”

Ian was stuttering as if he was thinking of what to say.

“Ian! What are you doing? You have to say your greetings first!”

Lucas, who was prepared to nod his head and welcome Ian’s acquaintance, looked at Isaac with cold eyes. How could a person be so ignorant and stupid?

“Ah… that… ah… Hello. My name… My name is Ian.”

As Ian spoke, Isaac’s eyes constantly stared into him. As if someone was looking into the eyes of a scared person… If he was looking at Ian now, he should have looked into his eyes, but he didn’t even pay attention as if he didn’t care.

And it seemed… There was dust all over his clothes.

It was the same with Noah’s clothes. It hadn’t been there before, but now that it had appeared, it seemed like he had been to a place full of dust.

Lucas turned away from the person that had been glaring at the other and showed a friendly smile.

“Yes, Priest Ian. I was waiting.”

“Come on, Noah, go and get some tea. Lord and Sir Lucas. What kind of tea would you like?”

“I’ll pass on the tea.”

“Me too.”

Aaron took the lead and Lucas followed. After being rejected by the both of them, Isaac coughed and said,

“Oh… Then Noah can go.”

“No.”

Before Noah could answer, Lucas answered first. Lucas’s eyes curved as he slowly looked back at the priests who were looking at him blankly.