“Ah, I stopped by for a moment and thought of Miss Riana, no, Lady Benesi… D-did you enjoy the Harvest Festival?”
She nodded at Dietrich, who seemed to be drawing out all the eloquence she lacked.
“Yes, thanks to the temple’s good preparations…”
“I’m glad to hear that!”
“But what brings you here…?”
Louise asked with a guarded voice.
It was far too late at night.
“Ah, s-since it’s the Harvest Festival, I suddenly thought…!”
Dietrich, who had been hesitating, abruptly held out a flower to her.
A round cluster of purple-blue flowers.
“It’s allium.”
It was the same flower Dietrich had given her long ago.
“But why are you giving this to me…?”
“T-that time… Lord Lester took it away, so I couldn’t give it to you properly. So… I-is it too late? I was going to come a bit earlier, but I had a lot of work today and by the time I finished, it was this hour.”
Dietrich rambled on with excuses, holding the flower.
Louise was confused about how to interpret his gift.
If he had given her a bouquet of roses, white lilies, or at least blue cornflowers, she would have doubted his sincerity, but what he offered was allium.
One would not give allium, with its slightly bitter chive scent, as a gift to a loved one.
Moreover, the High Priest would not likely reveal personal affection to a married woman with a child.
‘But…’
It was also difficult to understand the behavior of coming all the way to Louise’s secluded room in the duke’s residence at this late hour to offer a flower.
“I-I’m not trying to make you feel burdened…! It’s to welcome you back to Paradel.”
Dietrich broke out in a cold sweat, holding the allium.
“I appreciate your words, but why would the High Priest welcome me…?”
“Oh! T-that’s… is it strange for me to do this? A-am I doing something wrong? I’m just happy to see you after a long time…”
His blue eyes behind the glasses rolled around, not knowing where to look.
“I’m just a maid, and you’re the High Priest. I don’t think there’s any reason for you to care for me.”
“Ah…”
When Louise drew a cold line, keeping her distance, Dietrich shrank back, crestfallen.
He shrank so much that even the allium he was holding seemed to have withered more than a moment ago.
He looked as pitiful as a rain-soaked puppy.
Louise regretted it for a moment.
She had spoken coldly, thinking it was rude and excessive for him to visit at midnight when Eve was there.
But as she said, he was the High Priest.
Even so, he was the High Priest, yet she dared to speak to him coldly?
To someone who was already clumsy at socializing?
Louise swallowed a sigh.
Maybe she had been too defensive and attached too much meaning to that single rough and bitter allium…
“I-I brought it all the way here, can’t you accept it?”
Dietrich asked in a meek voice.
His transparent blue eyes behind the glasses looked like they would shatter and shed tears at any moment.
In the end, Louise accepted the allium he offered, just as she had done long ago.
Either way, she couldn’t kick out the High Priest given her position…
“I’ll accept it this time. But next time, even if you bring such a gift, I can’t accept it. It’s burdensome for you to single me out like this…”
“Ah, yes, yes! Of course!”
Dietrich nodded.
A smile bloomed on his face, which had been tense with fear of rejection.
He was a simple person.
Looking at the luscious flower, Louise suddenly asked.
“By the way… does allium bloom in autumn too?”
Allium blooms around the same time as roses and lilacs.
It’s a flower that can be seen roughly between spring and summer.
It would be difficult to see in autumn…
“Ah, that, I grew it in the greenhouse. I-I like growing flowers and herbs.”
Dietrich smiled shyly, saying there was a small greenhouse in the temple suitable for growing flowers.
It seemed that after he became the official High Priest of Paradel, a personal greenhouse was built for him.
Growing flowers, somehow it seemed like a hobby that suited Dietrich well, and in that moment-
‘Huh…?’
Suddenly, her head spun.
Louise leaned against the wall, her vision swaying.
Her head felt hazy and dizzy.
At that moment, someone tugged on the hem of Louise’s dress.
Looking down with a barely calmed mind, she saw Eve, who had gotten out of bed at some point, holding onto Louise with frightened eyes.
“Mom… that man isn’t a bad man, right?”
Eve, recognizing Dietrich in his priest’s robe, asked.
It was the man her mother had once told her to be wary of.
Louise glanced at Dietrich and soothed Eve.
“Ah, High Priest. It seems the child is sleepy, so I need to put her to bed quickly…”
As she hurried to send Dietrich away and tried to hold Eve, the pungent scent of allium pierced her nostrils.
At the same time, her body swayed greatly.
“Mom?”
A hand grasped her tilting body.
Somehow, that touch felt chilly.
“Are you alright?”
Dietrich asked with concern.
Louise thought she should shake off his hand, but her strength-drained body wouldn’t listen.
Through her blurred vision, she saw Eve’s worried face.
“Eve. Go back to bed…”
Eve shook her head as if she didn’t want to leave her mother.
Dietrich supported Louise, who had lost her strength, and helped her stand up.
“You know, I-I like flowers. Do you know why…?”
Dietrich muttered softly while supporting her.
Louise raised her head, enduring the dizziness.
In her swaying vision, as if looking into a fish tank, she saw blue eyes.
“Ah, High Priest…”
“Because they’re fragrant and beautiful, they make you defenseless like this.”
Dietrich took the allium from her hand for a moment and held it out to Eve.
As Eve smelled the scent of allium, she collapsed onto the carpet.
“Eve…!”
She tried to reach out and grab the child, but her body wouldn’t move as she wished.
Only then did Louise realize that everything had gone terribly wrong.
In her hazy mind, the dagger Sched had given her came to mind.
She barely moved her body, which felt as if bound by chains, and reached into her bosom.
She fumbled inside with her hand, but the imprecise movements only made slow, futile gestures.
Seeing this, Dietrich grabbed her white hand that was fumbling inside her bosom.
“Foolish humans are easily captivated by appearances.”
Dietrich smiled leisurely as he took off his glasses.
The beautiful and clumsy High Priest approached Louise, who was barely holding onto her senses.
“I’ve waited a very long time, Louise.”
A shiver ran down her spine at the voice filled with rapture.
[Timeline separator]Eve woke up in an unfamiliar place.
It was a dark room with a strange smell.
The surroundings were dimly visible in the sparsely lit light.
“Mom…!”
As soon as scary thoughts flooded in, Eve sat up and looked for her mother.
“You’re awake, child.”
Instead of her mother, an unfamiliar voice answered.
Eve turned her head in surprise.
Beyond the metal bars, she saw a man with beautiful silver hair.
It was the scary man her mother had told her about.
Dietrich, who had been searching through ancient books, grinned at Eve.
But Eve was so scared of that pretty face that she quickly ran far away.
Even though she ran away, all she could do was press her body tightly against the stone wall.
“W-where’s Mom?”
Eve’s heart pounded.
She was so scared that tears welled up and her voice trembled.
Beyond the bars where the scary man was, there were many papers and books stacked.
And there were also many strange objects piled up that she couldn’t identify.
“Mom…! I want Mom!”
Eve cried for her mother in the dark space.
“Be quiet, child. Your mother isn’t dead.”
He ordered gently and closed the book.
“I’m quite curious about you too. You could be a valuable case study of black magic being inherited like saintly power.”
He mumbled, adjusting his glasses.
It wasn’t something he said expecting a 3-year-old child to understand.
Eve stopped crying and curled up into a small ball.
It was an instinctive fear that if she angered the scary man further, she might be subjected to who knows what.
Dietrich looked at the child and chuckled, moving to one side of the room.
An old underground laboratory in Paradel.
A place unknown to others, where Felix Ideana had once conducted experiments.
“I’ve had quite a hard time hiding this place.”
Dietrich laughed, stretching his back.
Then he went to one side of the laboratory and removed a long curtain that had been hanging there.
An ominous red light flowed out from behind the curtain.
“Mom!”
Eve ran towards the bars, forgetting her fear.
A strange diagram glowing red was drawn on the floor, and her mother was standing still on top of it.
Around it, the purple flowers the scary man had given were growing tall with their heads stretched out, reflecting the red light and creating an eerie atmosphere.
“I was quite angry when Louise disappeared a few years ago… But since she brought back something so interesting, I forgive her.”
Dietrich nodded, alternating his gaze between Eve and Louise.
“Mom, run away!”
Eve shouted at her mother in the distance, but Louise didn’t move an inch.
Her mother’s eyes were different from usual.
Dull green eyes, like a lifeless doll that couldn’t hear any sound.
“Mom…”
Realizing that something was wrong with her mother, Eve slumped down on the spot.
It felt like being trapped in a scary dream.
Dietrich laughed at the child who had turned pale with fear.
“It’s a brainwashing spell. I’ve done it a lot, and it’s not dangerous. Your mother should be quite familiar with it too.”
Dietrich took off his glasses and recalled a very old memory.
“It’s been over ten years already.”
The old days when Dietrich had just finished his training at the monastery.
The first place he was assigned to was Ideana Paradel.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
