EIITAB - Chapter 116 < Leave Me >
Even if it is Trampled and Broken
Aslan quickly returned to Hestia's room. She still couldn't come to her senses.
While he was away, a lot of things ended up on the bed where Hestia was lying. Items mainly used to keep her warm included a hot water bath wrapped around her body and a simple brazier.
"Your Excellency, are you here?"
Dr. Vito quickly got up from his seat and greeted him. Aslan paused to sigh, which he almost let out inadvertently, and he looked at Hestia with a slightly bewildered look. He knew without asking what the condition was. Probably not much has changed.
However, thanks to the hot water and the furnace, the cooling rate of the body could be slowed down.
Hestia's face, whose blood was instantly fading in his arms, came to mind. His helplessness and confusion at that moment came to mind again, and Aslan clenched his fists even more at his helplessness. Then, as if he was suffocating her, he also stroked her thick neck until her skin turned red.
After a while, he spoke in a strained voice.
"Everyone is out."
"But..."
Angela, Hestia's maid, looked at Aslan with an expression of desperation to remain. But he shook her head before she could finish her sentence as if Aslan would make no exception.
"It'll only take a moment."
Madame Philippa, as soon as she noticed, put her arms around Angela's shoulders and walked away. Dr. Vito was the same. Only then did Aslan call the high priest, who was waiting in the next room.
As Dr. Vito said, if the cause of Hestia's health problems was her divine power, then the High Priest would know best about her.
However, he thought that there was no need for many people to see the High Priest examining Hestia. He's smart.
"Excuse me."
The door opened with a small knock. Jerome, who was watching the High Priest, personally let him in and closed the door again. Aslan swallowed his tired heart with difficulty.
The moment the High Priest saw his face, he thought, 'What on earth is going on?', 'How much trouble must the Saintess have suffered!'
Aslan thought he would pour out such words and try to blame all the mistakes on him and Kalathi, but...
"Hmm?"
Aslan's eyebrows rose upward. This was because, contrary to his expectations, the High Priest remained quietly silent.
"I'm going to bed...... Can I come closer?"
Aslan nodded at him. The High Priest walked in front of Hestia, holding his hands together tightly in front of her, so slowly that it was frustrating for anyone watching him. The High Priest, who was standing at the bedside, just stared down at her with eyes that could not tell what was inside it. He then let out a deep sigh.
"Whoa... Lady Hestia, this is what happened in the end..."
The voice behind him was so small that it almost seemed impossible to hear. However, the room was so quiet that the High Priest's words reached Aslan's ears. Aslan's eyes turned to him. He checked just in case, and as expected, he didn't seem that surprised.
'At last?'
No matter how much he thought about it, at this distance, there was little chance he had heard wrong.
Golden eyes looked at the face of the high priest who was looking down at his wife with a keen light. It was furthermore... It doesn't even make an really strange. He doesn't look at all surprised that Hestia has fallen. He didn't make an effort on his part to heal her. That seemed to mean that Hestia could not be healed with the High Priest's power.
Aslan put his hands in his pockets and stood crookedly. A long breath came out softly from his tilted head. Aslan, who was facing the High Priest with Hestia in the middle, quietly turned his body around and walked away. He walked in front of the High Priest, looked down at him intimidatingly, and asked in a cold voice.
"What?"
The High Priest's gaze lifted towards Aslan's face.
"What do you mean?"
"What can I say? It seems like the high priest is acting like someone who knew this person would fall."
"Oh, I didn't know. What are you saying...."
"You say 'in the end.' Doesn't that mean Hestia already knows what caused this?"
The High Priest was shocked at Aslan's point, and his face hardened. Only then did he seem to realize his mistake.
"Hmm. Well, that's because Saintess Hestia has been in very poor health since she was young...."
He came up with excuses with a somewhat helpless expression. However, Aslan just grinned viciously and did not pay attention to a word of what the High Priest said. Because it wasn't worth listening to at all. That was why, Aslan cut him off mid-sentence.
"No. That's not it, High Priest."
"......"
"Did I take you out of the dungeon just to hear such obvious things?"
Jeez. As he took a big step forward and closed the distance between him and the High Priest, he reflexively bit his body. But soon the High Priest's back was against the wall and there was no room for him to run. Aslan looked down at the man with arrogant eyes and opened his mouth again.
"If you have a brain to think, shouldn't you tell me something more useful?"
His bass sound hit the floor. To the High Priest, that voice felt like a snake. He even had the illusion that a scary poisonous snake was crawling up his ankle and slowly crushing him with its strength.
Because of this, the High Priest was unable to speak or even breathe. When the High Priest kept swallowing his dry saliva and making no reply, Aslan looked at the man and spoke once more.
"For example, about the 'oath' that Hestia and I should have made."
"..."
Without realizing it, the gaze of the High Priest, who had been looking down, suddenly lifted upward.
Looking at that surprised face, Aslan clicked his tongue inwardly. In any case, the Southerners probably have no intention of obediently telling him anything.
So is there any other way? He had no choice but to ask with force, as he always did.
"I'm asking. What is that oath?"
This time, as expected, there was no answer. As expected, Aslan had no patience at this point. He sighed lightly and placed his hand on his waist.
"Ha, what are you doing now..."
A black sword that seemed to absorb all light emerged from its sheath without a sound. Before he knew it, the tip of the sword was aimed at the neck of the High Priest. He couldn't move because he felt like he would get stabbed if he made even the slightest mistake.
Aslan began in a simple and slow tone.
"My patience runs out so I won't have to ask you a third time. If you don't want to say it, then so be it. At the same time, that useless mouth will fall off your body."
Aslan said his bloody words so calmly. However, anyone could see that he was sincere, so the high Priest had no choice but to close his eyes tightly and reveal the secret he had been hiding.
"Saintess Hestia... She's losing her divine power."
"What does that mean?"
"If you look at it as an ordinary person, I am saying that she was given a life-limited sentence. That's why she hastened to marry the Duke."
The High Priest's lips, which were tightly closed as if they had been glued together with wax, spilled out many secrets as soon as they opened.
"Saintess Anette secretly received an oracle, and it was about Saintess Hestia's whereabouts. She said that El Rapha would take away her divine power and her life from Saintess Hestia in one year. She wanted Saintess Hestia to remove her name from the sacred list, but she changed her mind based on the earnest wishes of His Majesty the King and us."
"That is... What do you mean? She, Hestia, will die in a year?"
Aslan's voice trembled terribly. His breathing gradually became heavier. He now had to organize and put the words together, and it wasn't easy. His mind was a mess. Now that he thinks about it, he remembers what she said before the wedding that she would soon come out of the temple. At that time, where Hestia had enemies was not that important to Aslan and he just ignored it.
After repeatedly taking deep breaths, Aslan finally regained his composure, frowned, and clicked his tongue.
"By the way, Your Majesty and you both like plotting plots, both past and present. Well, since you get along so well, you must have built a friendship for a long time."
It was clearly sarcastic, and he had an expression of displeasure with the High Priest on his face. The High Priest was upset and thought about keeping his mouth shut, but then he thought that Aslan would not end there and move on, so he continued his next words.
"Then Saintess Anette received a new oracle. It was an oracle that said that in order to save Saintess Hestia, she had no choice but to marry and live until the age of her spouse. And the prerequisite for that was an oath."
At that moment, a scene appeared in Aslan's mind. On the day of the wedding to Hestia, he entered the boudoir with her. The priest guarding the place spoke in a very troubled tone.
'You haven't sworn yet.'
'Is that what you said?'
The sound of teeth grinding could be heard from his clenched jaw. He should have thought it was strange to gloss over it. If she was hiding this important fact from him and trying to get her to marry him, then she was saying that she had no intention of living from the beginning.
'Did you come to me looking for a place to die?'
Ha. Aslan's face became more and more distorted.
"What is that... Haa!"
The High Priest muttered with a sad face.
"We found out too late and had doubts. She wanted to marry you so much, so why didn't you make a vow? She must have realized better than anyone else that death could not be avoided otherwise...."
Tsk. The click of tongue broke in the mouth of the High Priest. Aslan's hand holding the sword grew stronger, and soon white bones stood out on the back of his hand. Really, what kind of bullshit is this? Is it an oath, a deadline, or something?
Aslan's gaze glanced back to Hestia and caught her in his eyes. Hestia's face, completely white and without even a single trace of blood, was painfully stuck in his eyes. He felt like his airway was blocked as if someone was strangling him.
'Dying? You?.... Leave me? How can that be?'
A bitter smile hung precariously at the end of his lips.
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