Chapter 13

Thanks to that, despite nearly dying in an instant, my physical state was perfectly fine, but because of the people around me who viewed me as extremely fragile, I couldn’t escape bed rest for the time being.

“You have no idea how shocked I was. I was so afraid you might not open your eyes again…”

Anne couldn’t continue her sentence and dabbed at her reddened eyes with a handkerchief.

“I’m sorry for making you worry. I’m truly fine now, so please don’t cry.”

Anne poured out even more tears at those words. Tears that suddenly gushed from her wet eyes fell in droplets onto her dress.

It was unfair to be viewed as a weakling who was so fearful and frail that even a loud noise could make my heart stop. But since there was no way to explain this, I had no choice but to remain silent.

Soon, she forced back her sobbing and grabbed the arm of my father, who had been sitting next to her, dragged along like a wooden statue.

“It must be because her health weakened in the North, a place that didn’t suit her. I told you so back then! I said that the Lallanne territory is too far and cold, so we should look for someone closer, even if their status is a bit lacking!”

“…Ahem.”

“She wasn’t like this before! She was so healthy! What are we going to do now?! This is all your fault!”

“Calm down, my dear.”

“Ha… I’m so upset, truly. Husband, why don’t you have a proper word with the Count of Lallanne this time. Tell him to let Meriel live in the capital instead. Will you?”

“…”

“Husband—”

“…”

My father was trying his best to keep his expression under control, but to my eyes, he looked extremely troubled.

He couldn’t help it. What Anne was saying right now was just driven by emotion.

When I received the marriage proposal from the Count, I wasn’t in a position to pick and choose in the marriage market because of the label of being a former Saint candidate.

To be used for the temple, a “Saint” was a woman married to a god. Of course, that was just how it was phrased; it was more accurate to view it as the female version of a high-ranking priest.

No matter how much a priest might have pledged their life to a god and maintained purity for their entire life, there are certain things difficult for a biologically male body to handle.

The Saint took on those duties. Mostly, it was dealing with noble ladies.

Therefore, because of the nature of the role, they placed restrictions on status right from the candidate selection process.

The reason why those rejected from the Saint selection are shunned in the marriage market boils down to an issue of representation. The image of the word “marriage” makes the rejected candidates appear like women who were sent back due to some flaw.

Furthermore, during the selection process, all candidates check their divine compatibility, and there were no few “pen-pushers” (writers/journalists) in the world who would write about them as if they had lost their purity at that point. Even while knowing that it was just provocative writing meant to grab attention, a negative image toward the rejected candidates would form before long.

In noble families where reputation is paramount, how shameful would it be for a woman’s image to be tarnished?

Of course, it wasn’t as if there were no other issues, but that was the gist of it. After such vicious cycles overlapped and time passed, in the current era, being a rejected Saint candidate had simply become a “flaw.”

If I hadn’t accepted the Count’s proposal, I might never have been able to get married. Then I, too, would have had to shed all my status and do adventurer support work, just like the other rejected candidates.

Because a noblewoman who doesn’t marry at the appropriate age is also a disgrace to her family. Even if her family wraps her in love, the world already views her that way. Unless she plans to live holed up alone without forming any social relationships for the rest of her life, she herself has to make the decision.

In truth, adventurer support isn’t bad. Compared to my current situation, it was obviously a much better choice, but that was just hindsight.

How unclean and unfortunate would it look in the eyes of the nobles for a grown woman to stay among drifters without a place to settle? Any noble with a daughter would have made the same choice as my father did. Whether for the sake of the daughter or themselves.

Besides, no matter how much she is his own daughter, it required quite a bit of courage to go poking one’s nose into the residence of a woman whose surname had already changed.

So, once Anne calmed down, she would realize that everything she said right now was nothing but a tantrum. She was emotional right now, but she was originally a very wise person.

Therefore, my father had no choice but to wait for Anne to calm down.

I knew all of this, but I had no intention of resolving my father’s trouble.

Haha. Serves him right. Let him be troubled to his heart’s content.

Unlike Anne, he was my blood relation, but what did I care? If it weren’t for Anne, I would have stopped being a person in this world long ago.

The only reason my father was still alive was because of Anne’s personality, which had even reformed a murderer.

A few days after my parents visited, the master said.

“I’ve decided to bring in more security guards.”

“…?”

A very human-like thought for a god. He looked annoyed, but he sighed as if he had no choice.

“It’s been concluded that the hunting grounds incident was an act of terrorism. Besides, I am the victim, so I must pretend to be somewhat cautious in public so there’s no sense of unease.”

So said the suicide bomber.

“As it happens, since the perception that your body is weak due to that incident has taken hold, I’ll have a few attached to you as well.”

“Understood.”

“Oh my. I’m annoyed to death.”

Just as I was starting to find the master—agonizing over mere human affairs—ridiculous, my mood sank heavily. Even though he had fully taken over the Count’s body, it was still nothing more than a clone, not the master’s true body. It was impossible to fully contain a god in a human body from the start.

The reason the master went through the trouble of meticulously remodeling a human to house a clone was to blend into this world without raising suspicion. It was a preparatory step to summon his true body. Therefore, he had no choice but to sync with the atmosphere of the humans to some degree. In other words, he had to be mindful of his social status as a Count.

The master is an otherworldly god, after all. No matter if it’s a clone, if it’s discovered that he infiltrated this world while retaining his divinity, he would immediately become a target of the main god’s attack. If that happened before the main body descended, it would be a guaranteed defeat.

The power of the clone contained in the Count’s body is one-tenth of the true body. Even just with that, he became an immortal being that lost the concept of lifespan. If the true body were to cross over and use its power, it wouldn’t end with just one human body bursting, as it did at the hunting grounds.

People still don’t know. Now, with the war of the gods almost upon them, even this moment, they knew nothing.

Even though this was foreseen from the moment the rifts between worlds occurred, it was the result of the ruling class humans being blinded by the profits they gained through those rifts, closing their eyes and ears to the anxiety, and leaving it ignored.

The master is likely the vanguard. Judging by his cruel tendencies that flash through from time to time, there is no doubt he is a quite ferocious god.

I don’t know how many other otherworldly gods will follow when the master’s true body finally tears through the boundary and crosses over. Since this is a question I cannot ask and must not ask, all I can do is guess on my own.

The moment a slave forgets their duty and oversteps, their ego would be completely crushed by the master’s hand, like the Count right in front of me, so I chose long ago to keep my mouth shut and exist as an easy-to-handle idiot.

For me to say I’m going to do something now would be hypocrisy.

A few more days passed since then.

The new security guards entered the study under the maid’s guidance. I lifted my head from my book.

It was just for show anyway. Since they weren’t people I was bringing in with any expectations, I had no real interest. I just intended to check their impressions lightly.

It should have been just like that, but this world is full of things that never go according to my plans.

“…”

Once our gazes met, my eyes wouldn’t easily fall away. Without realizing it, I put tension into my eyelids, and my facial muscles began to tremble.

I soon slammed the book shut and stood up. I had never even considered something like this. I tried hard to hide my panic, but I couldn’t be sure if I was doing a good job.

There were four security guards given to me. Among them, the person who seemed to be the leader offered a greeting. His face, trying to look serious, was unfamiliar.

“I am Felix. Countess.”

Why are you here?

Instead of the words I couldn’t bring myself to say, a blurry gasp crawled up from the back of my throat. As if mocking me for that, he asked slyly.

“Countess, is there anything uncomfortable?”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

Felix briefly introduced the other three, stating that they were all hired from the same group. He then said they would take turns standing guard around me from now on, so please treat them well.

What on earth is happening right now?