Didn't Plan to Become a Companion (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 52

I looked once at the door coldly shut against me, then once at the man standing beside me with an indifferent expression.

Even now, it was hard to understand why Ricardo had made such a troublesome decision—the man who had coldly and resolutely declared there would be no engagement, his face utterly devoid of warmth.

“Happy ending….”

I softly murmured that final word—the one that could never come to pass between us. Thus, for me, this was the terminus. The best possible ending Ricardo and I could ever create.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

I steadily stepped forward onto a path that might well be the worst possible beginning. The door swung open as if leading to an entirely new world, and light poured in through a window so vast it filled an entire wall, blinding me.

The first thing one did upon entering the temple was place a hand upon the Temple Scripture and offer a reverent bow to the deity. Though Resotia worshipped the same god as Dermayer, and I knew the ritual well, this was my first time visiting the temple to pray as if performing a sacred rite.

“Place your hand upon the Scripture and pray in the name of the divine.”

Following the command of the priest assigned to our house, I slowly laid my hand upon the Scripture. A sudden tremor rose in my chest, as though I were committing sacrilege. Was it truly permissible for someone like me—who defied the will of the divine—to so carelessly invoke the god’s name? Goosebumps rose on my skin at the cool touch of the soft goatskin surface.

“El.”

“Now.”

The moment I uttered the first syllable of the divine name, Ricardo quietly whispered its meaning—a meaning entirely new to me.

“Ri.”

“Here.”

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