EITAB - Chapter 5 Let's Play A Little Bit
Even if it is Trampled and Broken
Hestia's head was still confused. She took a few deep breaths as she took time to think.
"First, let's go back one by one."
Pulling her long hair into her hand and brushing it behind her, she opened her mouth with a heavy heart.
"Today...... The oracle will announce that I have only one year left before my death."
And Anette is going to add one more clue, as if out of favor. The way Hestia can live is to get married within a year. She could see that she was making a contract with her partner on the basis of her wedding vows. Hestia, who was quietly rolling the contents in her mouth, bit her lips bitterly.
When she's happy or when she's sad when she's sick or in pain. Will she live a life of sharing all the highs and lows with her partner?
At the wedding, if Hestia's husband-to-be makes an 'oath' in front of God that he will do so, Hestia's life is guaranteed. However, in this case........ A contract is immediately signed between the two of her, and Hestia must live the rest of her life as a subordinate to her husband.
"But I didn't even get that right."
A bitter smile was drawn on Hestia's lips before she knew it. It was because she remembered the face of Stephan, who looked at her kindly and smiled.
After the oracle was announced, several suitors for Hestia appeared. She chose the man who seemed the most sincere of them all, whom Anette herself had even blessed. That was Stephan Cheretto.
"Why on earth did Sir Stephan go after Anette on our wedding day?"
Hestia buried her face in her hands, unable to overcome the agony of being betrayed. Her stomach was throbbing and hot, but strangely, her tears did not come out.
After catching her breath like that for a moment, she painfully bit the cheek in her mouth.
"It's not the time for doing this. I have to turn the tide first."
Hestia's slender legs slipped out of the bed. As she braced herself firmly against the floor, she finally felt a sense of reality. She took a deep breath as if to renew her resolve. The focus was on her purple eyes.
Hestia did not want to confront Anette. But as in her previous life, she didn't want to be let down. So she swallowed her sigh and muttered with her heavy heart.
"I'll have to see it with my own eyes."
***
Hestia, who simply finished her preparations, tried to reflect her face in the mirror before leaving her room.
But she reflexively closed her eyes. She took several deep breaths, but it was still difficult to lift her eyelids.
'Is there still nothing to see...... ?'
Shortly before her death, she could count on her hands the number of times she looked in the mirror. It was because her energy rapidly declined after she was sentenced to death by Anette.
As her divine power began to decrease noticeably, she also lost a lot of weight. She didn't mean to refuse to eat, but she often regurgitated later on at the smell of her food. Because of that, she was skinny. The mirror that captured my image as it was approaching the day of her death was fear itself to Hestia.
Of course, that didn't mean that her unique aura that encompassed her had disappeared. Rather, her stern beauty added to her mysteriousness, but it was true that she was getting thinner day by day, so it was hard to see even herself. Her peers also looked at Hestia with pitying eyes.
So, if she happened to see her reflection in the mirror, she would hurriedly drop her head or turn her body in fright. It was difficult to open her eyes as if her body had not forgotten her memory.
'Just in case. It was hard to face it because I feared that death would keep appearing on my face.'
"I can't take any more time. I am okay. So let's see."
Hestia finally made up her mind and bit the tender flesh in her mouth and lifted her eyelids with a spleen heart.
"...... Ah."
She let out a short sound involuntarily. It was different from the past. Shiny skin, and silver hair that glistens in the sunlight. Even pink lips that are not rough and even shiny. Hestia stared at her own reflection in the mirror, but she couldn't feel it all, so she stretched out her arm and touched the image in her mirror.
It wasn't the same as touching herself, though. The Feeling was different. The more she touched the reflection in the mirror, the hotter Hestia's eyes grew.
"I...... I was like this. I looked like this."
She felt as if she had regained something she had forgotten for a very long time, and something hot welled up inside her. Hestia, who hurriedly wiped the single tear that had flowed down her face with the palm of her hand, calmed down her emotions.
"This is not the time."
Hestia pressed her lips together and left her room with her back to the mirror. Very good. She wants to live differently from her past life.
Anyway, her death can't be prevented by human power. This is because it is not a disease, but a fate determined by God's will. But even so, she didn't want to wait meaninglessly for the day she would die, locked in a temple like her past life. Even if it was a predetermined future, rather than walking down the same path, she wanted to walk around a bit.
'What is the most valuable thing to do in my short life? The first thing that came to mind was only one. '
At the last moment, the warm arms hugged her without hesitation. Even though all the senses were distant, it was so clear.
'I owe him.'
So the decision was easy.
'My life....... I think it can be used for him, no, to pay off his debt.'
It wouldn't be easy, but if she did that, she felt like she could leave the world without leaving any regrets or regrets behind.
***
The closer she got to the banquet hall, the warmer, greasy smell permeated her nostrils.
'How long has it been since I felt hunger?'
Hestia's smile flashed on her lips for a moment, then she swallowed it. As she followed her memory. She came across a familiar place.
'It's been a while since I came here.'
After that Prophecy, feasts at the temple always centered on Anette, excluding herself.
After exhaling lightly as if to ease her tension, Hestia opened the door herself and stepped inside.
"Saintess Hestia?"
Her priests saw her and stood up in her seat. There is only one person who does not get up from her seat. There was only her and her classmate, Anette. Hestia smiled lightly, hiding her expression.
"Thank god. I don't think it's too late."
Belatedly, High Priest Bosswa walked out and escorted Hestia to her seat of honor.
"Saintess Hestia, I heard that you are not feeling well."
At those words, Hestia pulled up her smooth lips.
"That's true, but isn't it Saintess Anette's feast day? It was my duty to show my face even for a moment."
High Priest Bosswa nodded her head.
"As always, you are considerate."
"You're welcome."
"Come, come this way."
Hestia's seat was across from Anette. Anette, who confirmed Hestia's face, greeted her with delight as they clapped their hands together.
"I was sad that I wouldn't be able to see your face, but you came! I was worried that you might not want to see me again!"
It was a subtle way of blaming Hestia. She said, 'She must have told Nacia that she was not feeling well.'
Hestia swallowed a laugh inside herself. Maybe it was in her previous life, but the current Hestia didn't want to listen to Anette talk as she pleased. She looked at Anette with a smile on her lips.
"I came because I thought you would say that."
"Yes?"
Anette's eyes twitched. Hestia watched her silently, then deliberately bent her eyes half a beat late.
"It is the feast day of Saintess Anetta. No matter how ill I am, I thought it would be better to say congratulations face to face."
"Ah......?"
Anette stupidly closed her eyes several times before opening them. At this time, Hestia should have said 'I'm sorry', but when she didn't, she looked embarrassed.
Hestia looked at Anette, raising the corners of her mouth even more. She gave her congratulations, and at this point, she tilted her head slightly as if she had something to say in return. Then Anette stuttered her voice with her bewildered face.
"Thanks....... you?"
Hestia nodded as if she had done well.
"You're welcome. Please continue to work hard on behalf of God."
"..... Yes, I will try."
Anette's voice fell even lower. After briefly watching her face distort, Hestia pretended nothing was wrong and sat down across from her. Soon, appetizing and warm food began to come out in front of her one by one. Anette quickly captured her expression in that brief moment and returned to her seat.
As if resentful, she glared at Hestia for a moment, then, with her secret gesture, handed something to the priest sitting next to her. Hestia immediately recognized that it was a copy of her oracle, and she held her breath. She said,
'Yeah, it's just like the day I remember. Is it true that I really went back in time?'
As soon as she realized it, her heart sank. There was no time to calmly plan and verify what to do in the future. It was because when this meal was over, Anette would announce the oracle she had received, and from then on everything would go their way regardless of Hestia's will.
'It's okay if you don't mess everything up. But I won't be afraid of dying anymore.'
Hestia's waist naturally gained strength and her posture straightened.
'I just want the rest of my life to be completely mine.'
So let her fool around just a little bit.
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