Episode 171
“Then what are you going to give me?”
Lucerne growled. Elisha sighed.
“…… As you said, there was no trust between us……. I was very sick. I also felt betrayed. So if you go one step further. If you push me further, I won't have the confidence to live.”
Said Elisha.
“What are you going to do? Do you really want to tie it to a cliff and just drive it or not?”
Elisha whispered.
“Do you want me to do whatever you ask me to do?”
Lucerne's movements stiffened. Elisha continued her words before Lucerne's anger spread.
“But other things……. Like. I will.”
“…….”
“I told you. If I trust you, you can interrogate me……. That promise was broken, but you have a right to know me. Interrogate me.”
Elisha swallowed her dry saliva. Her body was tense.
“In return, I also have a condition.”
“Keep talking.”
Lucerne had an attitude of wanting to see how far it went.
“I will decide the method and timing of the interrogation. Please get me a confession. Then, I will bring up the story of the day I had it and became determined in my heart. And please specify the number of questions. It should be three or fewer.”
“Is that all?”
“There is one more condition. That's what I'll tell you the day I take the confessional. Until then, I will keep the confession.”
“…….”
Lucerne had no answer. Elisha thought that was not a good sign. She calmly spoke her words.
“I can't run away now anyway. Please let me go out sometimes. Once a month. That's enough. If you do.”
Elisha bowed her head.
“I will live in peace here. Until you get tired of it.”
“…….”
“And if you will. I will have a child. You are right. I wanted to have a family. If you have children……. I will never be able to escape you.”
Although Lucerne could have abandoned Elisha, her words. Unfortunately, Elisha always lived a life thirsty for her love. If you have a child with Lucerne……. And if Lucerne takes the kid.
Elisha would hang around her Lucerne all her life. Even if Lucerne treats her Elisha as more than her concubine. Even if she were asked to become a lowly maid, she would not be able to escape. Because the child will miss you.
'This person still had something to take from me. To make it finally come out of my mouth. What a person. After all, I can't do business with someone from the Cartier family.'
Lucerne said she would respect her wishes as long as she had a child with her. So, she had no intention of having children right away.
Anyway, it was Lucerne who broke the rules first. But she still has to throw him the sweet bait he likes. Unfair trade always had to bet big.
But is it because there is no place to retreat anymore? Elisha was more comfortable with her. On the contrary, she seemed a little nervous about Lucerne.
He frowned as if faced with a great temptation.
“Why do I feel like I am being cheated on?”
Elisha's hand twitched.
“Why? It's a deal you have nothing to lose. If it's not in your hands anyway……. I want to do it when I can compromise even a little bit. Is it strange that I want to get anything out of it?”
“When you say something sweet, there's usually an inner meaning behind it.”
Elisha smiled faintly. Lucerne stared at that smile as if possessed. It was her smiling face that Lucerne hadn't seen in a long time.
“Look at my situation now. Even if I have an inside, can it threaten you?”
Instead of answering, Lucerne asked a question quietly.
“What if I refuse?”
Elisha calmly replied.
“Then do your best…….”
“…….”
“I have to dry up and die in here.”
Lucerne looked at Elisha. His eyes twitched.
Elisha thought that was very rare. He was like someone who had been given orders he couldn't refuse.
* * *
So Elisha was given confession in a small bottle.
“Get my permission and open it.”
Lucerne said.
“I don't know how well you know about confession pills, but they can hurt you if you take them incorrectly.”
“I know.”
Elisha meekly nodded her head. Elisha asked that she obtain a special kind of confessional.
Like most confession drugs, it had side effects, but it was the safest drug among them. In addition, it contained the hallucinogen Moritiana flower, so it was the kind that had the least impact when eaten.
'If it's at this level.'
I had to keep a secret about 'it' as well as what happened in the past. Elisha aimed at the right moment. Lucerne does it if it can. He will interrogate Elisha by any means. It is as if she lay naked beneath him, spreading her limbs.
'Can I survive?'
Elisha closed her eyes. When Lucerne learns the whole truth, then…….
* * *
The next day Lucerne left for a business trip. Elisha was able to get away from Lucerne for two days.
Neither in her previous life nor in her current life, she had never been so free. She always worked as hard as she could on herself. Elisha was often dazed, and her mind was as uncomfortable as her body was comfortable.
Elisha has been showing a compliant appearance lately, so Lucerne allowed a few more things.
One of them was the newspaper delivered daily from upstairs. The other was embroidery and sewing. This was also a good way to pass the time.
Besides, every time Sophie picked out books that Elisha might like, she sent them back upstairs if she didn't touch them.
“Lady! Did you see the article? The whole empire is in an uproar. The saintess was born. The oracle has come down!”
Elisha was idly looking at the newspaper on her table as she embroidered her embroidery.
[The saintess descends to the empire. The priests of the empire are praying for a saint as beautiful and powerful as Undine to descend.]
“If we go outside, that will be the only story.”
“Yes. People went crazy trying to find the saintess. In poor families, they say that they are thrilled because they fear that my daughter might be a saint.”
The saintess was the greatest miracle in existence and the greatest moneymaker of her temple.
She was considered to be the reincarnation of the lower gods of the main god. She could be born into any class, from beggars to nobles. She could be a newborn child, or an ordinary person could be awakened as her saintess overnight.
When a saintess is born, her family receives generous rewards, and the saintess is enshrined in the most precious and secret palace belonging to a sanctuary or temple.
She and she live like a god, worshiped all her life.
When the saintess appears, the number of people who offer her offerings increases and the number of events increases. Even a prophet like Lystal Poe was a great miracle, but it was nothing compared to her saintess.
The temple will do its best to find her saint. However, finding and verifying her saintess was not an ordinary task. Normally, it would take up to several years after the oracle of her birth for a saintess to be recognized.
“There is also a rumor that the holy body of Saint Undine is being released to the public. To think that the opening ceremony of her expensive saint's coffin is open to the public!”
“It must be double congratulations.”
“Yes! Undine-nim was a very popular saintess. Because she was incredibly beautiful. But she didn't show much in public.”
“Sophie, do you often go to the main shrine? I didn't know you were a believer.”
Imperial people often visited the temple. However, it was for her own wishes, far from her religious beliefs. There were also many priests who did not have religious beliefs. Just as wizards don't worship their magical powers.
“Yes, when I was tormented in the temple of the evil god, I secretly prayed to the god in my heart. Ask for help However, since the general appeared, I was in debt. They even make donations!”
Elisha wanted to shake her head.
“Why is that, madam?”
“I don't know Sophie very well.”
Elisha spoke calmly as she embroidered her.
“Before, when she was my lady-in-waiting, she had completely different interests and seemed like a normal girl. So I wonder if what Sophie is doing or how she speaks is sincere.”
“But there are many sides to people. Everything I did when I was the lady-in-waiting, Sophie, was sincere…….”
Sophie didn't know what the problem was. Elisha wanted to bite her tongue. But she, Elisha, couldn't hate Sophie. Sophie was really loyal to Elisha while she was trapped inside.
“I want to go outside and see.”
Elisha muttered as she threaded her needle.
“The General will change his mind soon, madam! Turn his heart a little more.”
“…… I don't know if I should.”
Elisha said calmly.
By any means she had to. What a fucking compromise she was, thought Elisha. Unfortunately for her, she had to buy even a handful of freedom in this using her Elisha body.
Elisha shook her head.
“Madam, if you are bored, can I tell you a funny story? Madame likes to talk about the relics of evil spirits. It's a pretty awful place though. Mmm. It's a story you won't hear anywhere else in the world! Besides, what about their smuggling methods…….”
Elisha said yes. She sewed slowly while listening to stories about the relics of the cruel and terrifying demons.
Perhaps Lucerne did not know that her subordinates required quite a variety of knowledge. It was because Sophie was quite good at living.