Noticeable?

“I heard you closely served my fiancé.”

Riana noticed the intention in Giselle’s gentle eye smile.

‘She’s concerned about my relationship with Sched.’

Well, with the maids gossiping so openly, Giselle was bound to know.

She must have wanted to check, worried about the rumors.

It was a natural reaction as his fiancée.

But what was clear was that their relationship wasn’t one Giselle needed to worry about.

Riana quietly lowered her gaze.

Sunlight filtering through the window settled on Giselle’s white shoes.

The clean, brightly shining shoes gleamed with polish.

In contrast, the maid’s old shoes standing in the shadows were dirty and noticeably worn at the heels.

The line between saint and maid was clearly drawn.

Riana didn’t want to ruin Sched and Giselle’s relationship.

This was rather fortunate.

There could be nothing better for cleanly settling the relationship.

If she lowered herself sincerely before Giselle, Giselle would also realize that Sched and Riana’s relationship was ultimately nothing.

“If she’s a maid my fiancé keeps close, she must be capable of serving her superiors.”

“Thank you for the honorable opportunity, High Priestess Giselle Marlhein.”

Riana calmly bowed her head.

At least it wasn’t for reasons related to black magic, which was fortunate.

Giselle narrowed her eyes as she observed the submissive maid’s attitude.

The ‘Riana Serpens’ she had heard about through the maids’ mouths was quite ill-tempered and stubborn.

She’d already caused several incidents despite not being here long.

Moreover, she was said to be quite close to Sched and received some special treatment.

She didn’t mingle with other maids and walked around alone haughtily.

The Riana known only through rumors was a woman with delusions of social climbing, relying only on her pretty face.

She even thought Sched’s eyes must be truly vulgar to be interested in such a woman.

If Riana didn’t know her place and held her head high, she planned to break that pride to fit her position.

But the maid before her eyes was different from the rumors.

She was calm and polite.

Rather, she lowered herself as if to show she was on the same side. Yet she wasn’t excessive, remaining poised, which was quite clever.

A maid whose expression, gestures, and tone were neatly composed without being bothersome.

If she hadn’t heard the rumors about Sched, Giselle would have wanted to formally hire her.

‘She must surely know that I’m his fiancée…’

Though Giselle had met and dealt with many people, it was difficult to know what thoughts were in that small head.

Well, she would find out in time.

Giselle, who had been quietly looking down at Riana, shifted her gaze and turned to leave.

“I’m thinking of going to the temple today.”

Giselle said as she put on the High Priestess’s cape with the help of her maids.

“The temple… you say?”

For a moment, Riana’s heart sank.

She had never visited the temple until now.

When she was young, she couldn’t go to the temple because she was sick.

Looking back, it seems her father Felix Ideana deliberately prevented her from entering the temple.

Even after leaving Ideana, she couldn’t go to the temple.

She was afraid to dare enter that place with a heretic’s heart.

“As the High Priestess. I must fulfill my duties.”

Giselle muttered that she had to take care of such matters herself since Dietrich was busy with heretic matters.

Riana carefully observed Giselle’s expression and actions as she thought.

Could this be a test to probe me?

Looking at the atmosphere, it certainly didn’t seem that way.

Even Dietrich only noticed the black magic after flowing sacred power into her body.

She just needed to be careful about physical contact with Giselle.

“Let’s go.”

Giselle, wearing the cape, put on her shoes and began to walk.

Riana followed silently behind her, hiding her uneasy feelings.

It was weather where the bright sunshine seemed like it would sweetly ripen fruit.

As Riana set out on the road to town with Giselle, she thought.

‘Right. This is my first time going into town since coming here…’

“Soon everyone will leave here to hunt heretics. Our side is prepared, so let’s watch over the city.”

The time was approaching.

The time to completely leave Paradel.

Riana thought it would be good to look around town once before saying goodbye to this place.

She was curious how the city walls that were said to be reinforced had turned out, what had become of the collapsed downtown and buildings, and what the Leche River flowing through Paradel to Ideana territory looked like.

‘People say it’s changed a lot since I first arrived here.’

In a short time, quite a few people had gathered, new servants were hired, and manpower to restore the city was gradually being recruited.

Riana was lost in thought as she walked following the High Priestess’s carriage.

The weather, which had been quite cool when coming to Ideana, had somehow become warm enough not to need an outer garment.

After walking a bit, it seemed to be getting a bit hot.

It was full spring.

Riana took a deep breath of the air filled with the scent of lemon blossoms. She thought she might not be able to smell this fragrance again in the future.

It took about thirty minutes on foot from the mansion to reach downtown Paradel.

Following the carriage for a short distance, the town soon came into view in the distance.

The moment she took in that sight, Riana stopped in her tracks.

Her round emerald eyes were filled with surprise, as if seeing the world for the first time.

‘It was desolate when I arrived in Paradel…’

A land ruled only by death.

The land that seemed like no one would ever visit had completely changed.

Countless people were bustling about, and the sound of people’s conversations was almost deafening.

Horses and carts traveled on the newly maintained main road, and temporary houses set up in rows lined the streets.

Though still far from being called a city, it was full of vitality.

‘I didn’t expect there to be so many people…’

Just then, the carriage that had reached near the square came to a stop.

“Let’s walk a bit from here.”

“Yes, High Priestess.”

As the coachman put down the footstep, Giselle got out of the carriage.

Riana followed behind Giselle.

Giselle headed very familiarly towards Paradel’s central square.

In contrast, Riana had become a stranger, only following behind Giselle.

It was an odd feeling, like being introduced to my own home as a guest.

A hometown that had become unfamiliar.

Riana felt completely alienated and detached from this place.

This was no longer the ‘Ideana’ she knew.

No, perhaps she was no longer ‘Ideana’…

Just then, Giselle turned back and smiled.

“You worked at House Lester, yet you find this so amazing?”

She must have found it amusing how Riana was looking around as if seeing the world for the first time.

Riana nodded awkwardly.

“It wasn’t like this when I first came here.”

It had only been just over a month.

She couldn’t have imagined so much would change in that time.

“I don’t know what it was like when you first came here, but Paradel is now the only place in Ideana with a protective barrier.”

Giselle pointed to the sky.

A barrier that looked like mother-of-pearl patterns drawn on the blue sky was visible.

In the span of just about a month, tens of thousands had flocked to Paradel.

“Because of Ideana’s heretics, this place was constantly hell. Now they are finally regaining peace under God’s protection.”

The word ‘hell’ stuck like a thorn.

“Look. At the pitiful state of that temple.”

At Giselle’s words, Riana raised her head to see the temple situated at the front of the square.

“Who would think this building is the central temple of the Grand Duke’s territory?”

Giselle spoke in a voice mixed with lamentation and anger.

Riana looked at the small-sized temple.

In the past, she didn’t know how small this temple was.

But in her 8 years of traveling around, she realized.

Temples in other cities had massive domes visible from anywhere, or tall bell towers that awakened the world with beautiful sounds, or endless marble colonnades that seemed to reach the sky.

Temples always played a symbolic role in renowned big cities.

In contrast, the central temple of Ideana territory was pathetically small.

A small temple that novice priests might oversee in a rural village.

Among the many buildings, it was just a triangular-roofed structure slightly larger than a house, with a crude bell tower perched on top.

“The temple being disregarded like this is why heretics ran rampant.”

Giselle’s words were right.

The Paradel temple wasn’t originally this small.

But Felix Ideana reduced the size of temples in his territory and drove out priests while researching black magic.

‘I once thought it was because of my illness…’

She had believed her father gradually cut ties with the temple, blaming the incompetent priests who couldn’t cure Louise’s illness.

When she was very young, priests used to visit to try to heal her, but even that stopped around age ten.

But in reality, Felix had used his daughter as an excuse to cut ties with the temple.

To research black magic.

Lost in thought, they had already reached the front of the temple.

Riana stopped behind Giselle, who was walking ahead familiarly.

White marble steps leading into the temple interior lay before her feet.

Riana looked at the temple facade standing before her.

Though old, crumbling, and pitifully small, it seemed overwhelming to Riana’s eyes, almost taking her breath away.

And.

『 God created humans above paradise.

But the devil cast a dark shadow over paradise,

Thus humans came to know sorrow and anger, fear and hatred. 』

An old prophet’s verse remained on a broken stone tablet.

It was a tablet she had seen before.

8 years ago, the day she left Ideana.

Louise Ideana had been standing in front of the blood-stained tablet.