Why is it doing that?

Not knowing what was going on, I exchanged glances with Poppy for a while, then subtly glanced towards Her Highness the Princess.

I was worried that Poppy’s earlier squawking might have woken her up and disturbed her sleep.

‘Thank goodness.’

However, contrary to my concerns, Her Highness was still traveling through dreamland, snoring softly. Relieved, I turned my head back to look at Poppy again.

Even though that little one was the guardian doll assisting Her Highness, I couldn’t let it disturb her peaceful sleep, so I intended to tell it to be quiet.

“Quack quack!”

But when our eyes met, Poppy, who had jumped down from Ronowe’s lap, didn’t run straight to me but went in an unexpected direction. The place where its feet stopped after waddling energetically was next to the soundly sleeping Her Highness, at a basket piled high with snacks.

Poppy kept raising and waving one of its short arms towards the snack basket, hopping in place, then looking at me once with sparkling eyes, repeating this sequence.

‘Was it not enough even after eating so many snacks?’

I finally realized that Poppy had deliberately cried out roughly earlier to get my attention.

However, knowing that Ronowe and Berith had fed it quite a lot earlier, I was worried that overeating might cause problems.

I glanced at Poppy’s belly, but due to its naturally short limbs and round body structure, it was impossible to tell if its stomach was bulging or not.

“No, Poppy. I can’t give you that.”

Besides, I couldn’t dare touch Her Highness’s belongings. I added a few words to the dejected Poppy.

“I’ll ask Her Highness when she wakes up later, so wait until then.”

I understood that it might be tempting to look at Her Highness’s basket, which had taken almost everything including my share as a result of the bet with the children. But stealing someone else’s property was wrong, so I tried to explain this to Poppy as simply as possible.

“Quack quack, quack quack quaaaaack~”

But perhaps angered at not getting what it wanted, Poppy gradually increased its volume despite my warnings to be quiet.

Worried that this might wake up Ronowe, Berith, and Her Highness, I urgently looked around and fortunately spotted some snacks in my basket that Her Highness had returned to me earlier, telling me to eat them if I got hungry.

“Her Highness shared these earlier. Would you like to eat these instead?”

“Quack!”

Oh my, it must have been really hungry. On one hand, I was relieved that Poppy had quieted down with just this much.

Afterwards, seeing the little one hop back onto Ronowe’s lap, make a small sound, and fall asleep, I finally felt at ease and closed my eyes for a brief moment.

* * *

Setting foot on Randel’s land after several decades brought back memories.

In my previous life, the only time I visited this place was when I was desperately searching through ancient books for answers from the gods, even to the point of igniting war.

In short, it wasn’t a place with many good memories, so I was uneasy and worried that the excessive amount of snacks I had eaten might upset my stomach.

Creaaak-.

As the carriage stopped, I inwardly cursed the clear weather, reluctant to get out.

Somehow, I felt as if I was exposing my flaws before the gods and being mocked, which put me in a foul mood.

“Woooow~”

Meanwhile, Ronowe and Berith, who had just woken up, were plastered to the window, constantly exclaiming in awe at the grand scale and solemn atmosphere of the Ariel Temple.

“I am honored that you have come all this way in person.”

As I sluggishly exited the carriage last, I saw someone addressing Jeff, who had gone ahead.

“I am Diomer ar Men, the High Priest of the Ariel Temple.”

Feeling like I should hurry at this point, I quickly walked to stand beside Jeff, only to be surprised when a young man wearing the most splendid and beautiful ceremonial robe introduced himself as the High Priest.

“I’m the one who should be grateful for the High Priest personally welcoming us.”

I responded reflexively, then carefully observed the new High Priest again.

With platinum blonde hair and golden eyes, his gentle impression was vastly different from the old High Priest I remembered.

‘It’s strange for the High Priest to be doing such menial tasks. Usually, greeting guests is a job for lower-ranking priests.’

There were many suspicious things.

However, the most surprising thing was that the conservative temple I knew had selected a young person around Jeff’s age as their leader.

“Dio, have you been well?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. It’s all thanks to your care.”

Moreover, during my time as Emperor, we were always at odds, rejecting each other’s requests. Seeing them laughing and shaking hands joyfully was even bizarre.

‘What? Have they become close enough to shake hands?’

What on earth happened in the meantime?

‘Has the era changed? Was there a deal between the temple and the empire?’

I couldn’t understand what was going on.

But one thing was certain: the relationship between the empire and the temple was not bad compared to before.

‘It’s amazing that such changes occurred just by changing the High Priest.’

It seems that as Jeff took the imperial throne, the relationship improved in the process of tidying up some of the misdeeds I had committed.

“Please come inside. I have something to show Your Majesty.”

I had been worried that we might be treated coldly or with suspicion, but it was all needless concern.

Feeling embarrassed at my excessive wariness, I hurriedly ushered the children along as I followed Jeff and the High Priest into the temple.

The temple’s interior was restored exactly as it was in the past, and even after about ten years, it looked brand new, from the walls, pillars, and doors to even the stairs, intricate patterns, and decorative items, as if meticulously maintained.

‘Looking at it this way, they seem like friends.’

While it’s one thing that the Ariel Temple poured an enormous budget into restoring what I had destroyed in my previous life, I realized that the unexpectedly close relationship between the High Priest and Jeff might have led to a positive resolution in the relationship between the temple and the empire.

That’s not to say I regret invading Randel in the past, just that seeing the future carved out by someone who took a different path from mine left me feeling conflicted.

Thud, thud-.

“Your Highness. Since this is your first visit here, how about we take a tour of the temple first?”

What’s this? The High Priest, who had been in deep conversation with Jeff, suddenly paused and walked towards me.

“Sure, why not.”

I nodded casually, realizing that this was probably why a priest in blue robes had been following behind us. Sensing that the children were about to be dismissed, I decided to leave quickly.

‘So the Ariel Temple sending me an invitation was just a convenient excuse to summon Jeff.’

Although I’d have to ask Jeff later for the truth, I inwardly chuckled at the irony of sending the invitation in my name but intending to have substantial talks only with Jeff.

Because it was obvious that the High Priest couldn’t openly show his friendship with Jeff, so he used me as a sacrificial lamb for a good pretext to call him.

Wink-.

Amidst this, Jeff, whose eyes accidentally met mine, creepily winked one eye, almost making me go “Ugh!”

‘That’s creepy.’

Goosebumps rising, I grabbed my shoulders with both arms and slowly backed away. Once the High Priest and Jeff disappeared into the conference room, I took a deep breath while rubbing my forearms.

“Your Highness, the Ariel Temple is famous for its beautiful scenery. Shall we start by looking around the annex?”

“If possible, show me the backyard too.”

Afterwards, I slowly walked down the wide corridor, exchanging various questions with the blue-robed priest who had been watching and waiting to speak.

As if Jeff had informed them in advance that I was physically weak and couldn’t move quickly, the blue-robed priest walked at an unusually slow pace for an adult, trying to adjust everything to my pace.

“This place is so much bigger than our house and everything is white!”

“It’s like we’ve entered a world made of clouds!”

Meanwhile, the children, who had been keeping their mouths shut and behaving more quietly than usual, finally couldn’t contain their excitement and shouted loudly. I thought the blue-robed priest might scold them, but he just smiled gently, looking at the rascals as if they were cute nephews and nieces.

Seeing this, I considered nagging them myself, but I didn’t want to create unnecessary trouble, so I pretended not to notice.

“Oh right! Mom said we shouldn’t make noise in the temple.”

“Let’s be careful from now on, sis.”

Eventually, as the children started whispering to restrain themselves, we had arrived at an unfamiliar place.

It seemed to be a new building, with an architectural style different from the restored interior, closer to recent styles, characterized by more flower pots and angel statues placed abundantly.

“Be careful over there!”

As the children and I showed interest, the blue-robed priest explained more enthusiastically in simple terms, when suddenly the surroundings became noisy as several priests in brown robes moved a large cart carrying some stone statue to the opposite side.

“Wait a moment.”

I was about to pass by without much thought, but the statue clearly had the face of someone I had seen when I was the primordial human, so I urgently asked a question.

“Why are they removing that statue? It looks like it was made recently.”

“Ah, about that.”

An angel with long hair reaching down to the waist, skillfully wielding a spear – I knew there was only one such being who was God’s representative, so I couldn’t understand why they would remove such a statue in a place that revered God so much.

“As you can see, this building was completed just a few days ago. However, there was an error during the construction process, and one statue was incorrectly made.”

“Why?”

The blue-robed priest sighed while looking at the statue, then turned his head to look at me and continued.

“It’s because the sculptor in charge of making the statues mistakenly thought there were 12 representatives of God. They should have made 11, but they included one that shouldn’t be there, which caused the problem.”

The blue-robed priest cleared his throat and said it was truly regrettable.

“It seems the sculptor was from a province far from the capital and was taught from old literature. Until about 100 years ago, it was incorrectly recorded as 12, so it’s understandable that they made this mistake.”

The God’s representatives I knew were 12, but if they had become 11 at some point and that spear-wielding angel was excluded, did that mean he left God’s land on his own like Lilith after I was banished from paradise? I nodded with a serious face.

“Well, in the countryside, they pass around old books among villagers, so that could happen.”

Of course, I couldn’t share these inner thoughts with the priest, so outwardly I speculated on why the sculptor might have made such a mistake.

“These kinds of mistakes have been frequent lately as we build new temples. Many records were lost during the last war, after all.”

Ah, so all of this is actually because of me, isn’t it?

I had been serious until just a moment ago, but now I felt embarrassed and at a loss for words.

The “last war” mentioned by the blue-robed priest referred to the conquest I had waged in my previous life as Emperor.

“Berith, are you crying?”

“N-No! When did I ever cry?”

What now? I turned around sharply, feeling irritated as the uneasiness I had been trying to forget resurfaced.

“I just remembered something I had forgotten.”

“What is it?”

Why are you about to cry now!

“It’s a secret!”

“What? Tell me!”

If he had really started bawling over there, I might have scolded him harshly. I watched the siblings running away with linked arms and Carlyle chasing after them to catch them, pouting my lips.

“Your Highness, His Majesty is looking for you.”

It was then.

“He says he’s thinking of returning soon as the sun is about to set.”

“That’s a shame, I was planning to see the backyard too. Alright, I’m coming now.”

A priest in a dark beige robe appeared to inform me that Jeff was looking for me.

“Please tell the High Priest to send me an invitation again next time.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Perfect! Eager to return quickly, I gave some perfunctory praise to the blue-robed priest, asking him to pass on some flattering words, then hurriedly came out with Ronowe, Berith, and Carlyle. After exchanging farewell greetings with the High Priest, we boarded the carriage.

Clatter, rattle-.

As it was well past afternoon, the sky was already turning crimson as evening approached.

‘That Berith kid, his expression has been off ever since we visited the temple.’

Did something change in his mind after seeing the angel statue?

I thought that he wasn’t the type to have such a serious and solemn face, but worried he might turn his head if he felt my gaze, I quickly looked out the window to admire the scenery.