The abused merchant’s daughter – 66 | Sousaku – 創作

Chapter 2, Episode 20: Fear (Others’ POV)

"……Hmm."

Farne woke up with a sense of weight.
The room was a little dark, and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep.
When he noticed, Riese was sleeping with her head resting on Farne's shoulder, with a chair next to them.

(Oh, did I oversleep?)

Farne thought to himself and moved Riese onto his lap so as not to wake her.
He was supposed to be welcoming Riese home, but it seemed he had fallen asleep without realizing it.

Farne smiled as he gazed at Riese sleeping peacefully.
The fact that Riese was sleeping next to him without waking him up was both characteristic of her and endearing.

"Welcome home, Riese."

Farne smiled when he said that.

■□■

"……So, Riese-sama wants to go to the ball?”

"Right. What should we do?”

Lars's reaction to Kyle's report was to put his head in his hands.

The 36th day of the Harvest Festival.
There was indeed an event where children from wealthy families aged 10 to 18 took part in a ball.
It was not a compulsory event like the coming-of-age ceremony, but……
It was also a ceremony where children of noble families and merchants would compete to wear the most dazzling outfits, showing off their wealth and fashion sense.
For the young people, it was an event they looked forward to as a chance to meet new people.
If Riese said she wanted to go, there was no way they could stop her from going.
Otherwise, there was no guarantee that the Sacred Tree Kardiana would not appear in their dreams, blade in hand.
They didn't think that danger would be approaching Riese, who had the protection of the saint.
Even if there were any remnants of the Darsha cult, Kardiana said that the knowledge of the forbidden spell had been buried by the sacred tree Faralina and that none of it remained.
What worried him was…… Riese going out of control and killing someone.
There was no other way than to have Lars stay with her at all times, pretending that she was his niece.
It would be hard to imagine anyone being rude to the high priest's niece.
If―― someone still directed their hostility towards Riese even after learning that she was the high-priest's niece, then they were nothing but an enemy.
There would be no problem if they were killed.

"I understand. Let's make sure that security is thorough.
Arrange things in a way to avoid contact with people as much as possible."

Lars let out a huge sigh.

■□■

"Hey, did you hear? I overheard that Priest Varnois was sent to a remote region."

In the dining hall inside the temple, one could hear the priests talking.

"Well, it can't be helped, since Grasil did that.
It seems that all the priests of the Varnois faction have been sent to quiet posts and are being treated with close supervision."

"It's to be expected, considering what they did."

The two priests were talking about the Varnois faction while eating their meal.
While listening to the story, Priest Volte was internally clicking his tongue.
Volte was originally a Varnois priest and a close associate of Grasil.
If things had gone smoothly, he was promised a high position at the temple.
Grasil was judged for divulging the secret information of the Holy Tree and for worshipping the false Saint.

Normally, Volte of the Varnois faction would have been sent to a quiet post and would not have been able to serve in the Grand Temple, but since he had infiltrated the Lars faction as a spy from the Varnois faction, it was fortunate that no one knew that Volte was actually from the Varnois faction.

This allowed him to remain in the Lars faction.

However, for Volte, who was devoted to Grasil, this situation was nothing but painful.
Certainly, Grasil was greedy and often shouted at people.
However, he treated my family well and provided us with generous compensation.
He also had a kind side that would share his precious medicine with my sick mother.
Is there any way to take revenge on the temple and the sacred tree that unjustly judged Grasil?

As he was thinking about this, the priest's duties were over and Volte was on his way home when a man stood in his way.
Although his face was hidden by his robe, his body language suggested that he was a capable swordsman.

"You're Volte-san, right?”

The man asked.

"What if I am?"

Volte asked the gentleman-like man back.

"I've come to grant your wish."

Saying this, the man smiled.