“What?”
Ronove, who had met eyes with Belled, hurriedly lowered his head.
“The decorations were being made awkwardly. But the Saintess intervened and started talking about Your Highness the Grand Duke’s name.”
“My name?”
Belled tilted his head.
“Yes. Since I am the one who will be the wife of His Highness the Grand Duke, I am to follow orders... It was something like that.”
Ronove looked a little uneasy.
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand. Even if this was a land of humans, it wouldn’t be awkward to listen to the words of the one who would become the wife of the Duke of Vine, its master.
However, she should have been prepared to provoke some degree of resistance. Especially in a place like Vine, which was soaked at night and had a completely different culture from most of the empire.
However, the Saintess acted as if ‘She was certain.’
As if it was natural for them to listen to her. No, as if she didn’t even think that they would reject or feel resistance in the first place.
As if... As if she understood the physiology of the demons who absolutely submit to power.
Of course, he heard it from Helbas. She might know his identity. No, she knows.
It must be certain since it is the judgment of the demon Belled of the mind’s eye. However...
Putting aside how she knew that he was a demon, how could someone who had never been to this land understand the physiology of demons so quickly?
As if they had met before...
That was when.
“Is that so?”
A low laugh leaked out. Ronove’s gaze was fixed on Belled. He stopped putting on his pure white gloves and started laughing.
“Is that so?”
The Saintess used her authority to suppress the demons... Where could there be a sentence as interesting as this?
She did not mention her divinity or her position in the empire. She simply used what she had in this land...
The meaning and weight of the name Belled von Vine in this land. She used exactly that. As if her position in the empire was unnecessary.
As if she knew it was repulsive.
“That’s why the wedding hall was so beautifully decorated.”
He became a little curious. Was Saintess Beryl really looking forward to this wedding?
Even though she knew her partner was a demon? To the point of personally touching the decorations?
He thought over his conversation with her. His conversation with her, who didn’t seem to feel much of a sense of belonging to the temple.
Why? Was it a means to deceive him?
“...”
Belled slowly shook his head.
Thinking that way... the two deaths he had seen in her eyes weighed on his mind.
In particular, she seemed to have been sacrificed in the second death. The one who performs the opening ceremony that the temple and the humans are waiting for is the Saintess. And the exact date is known only to the Saintess who performs the ceremony when the time comes.
However, no matter how he looked at it, the space that he had seen with his abilities was the altar where the opening ceremony was being held. The Saintess was not performing the ceremony on the day that she was to become the main character but was instead the sacrifice.
In other words, it means that the temple betrayed her...
Maybe, really.
He laughed.
“What will the priests do?”
The demons were still thinking of waging war if necessary. Even though they had been ordered to lay down their battle preparations, they couldn’t help but feel tense now that the priests had come in in droves.
“The priests need to be on guard.”
Belled said, understanding that. Tension filled Ronove’s face.
“Then...”
However, Belled’s words were not over.
“However, I don’t know what the Saintess is thinking.”
He didn’t know she would adapt to the ‘demons’ atmosphere’ so quickly. Furthermore, the fact that she touched the decorations was not an act of doing something on her own...
Doesn’t it seem like she intended to eliminate any suspicion that the demons had decorated them?
Not only that, she said that she was wearing a wedding dress that he had prepared. Even though the priest had come to her personally and opposed it.
She was serious about getting married.
“Marriage.”
Belled felt strangely dry. Beryl came to mind again and something welled up inside him.
It was desire.
‘Basically, this is marriage.’
A Saintess who put her own life before her work. Someone who wanted to learn about desire.
She was nothing like the abominations of the temple. Belled wondered what she was thinking.
Was she planning to expose his identity to the priests in the middle of the wedding hall, or...
was she really interested in marriage?
He thought it was interesting either way. It was a life that was already unnecessarily long.
Wow!
He looked into his eyes in the mirror again. He saw that his ability was showing him his future. He still saw himself lying on the hem of her pure white dress, smiling.
It was a future that had changed since she came. That was why he couldn’t take his eyes off her, even if it was just because it was strange.
What are you going to do today, you?
He smiled. He thinks whatever she gives him will be fun.
If it’s an attack by the priest, it will be fun in its own way.
But the next moment, he thought. If there’s a battle, even if it means killing all the priests in the room.
He has to get Beryl in his hands.
Because he was curious about how she would change his future.
With that, the preparations up to Belled were complete, and the wedding began.
***
The priest stood as if it was natural to officiate at a simplified wedding.
My gaze turned to the guests. The atmosphere of the guests was subdued, unlike a normal wedding.
No people were greeting each other warmly, and the nervous faces of each other glancing at each other across the Virgin road reminded me of a battlefield rather than a wedding hall.
The demons were trying their best to pretend to be human and not be hostile to the priests, but the priests were different.
“If Duke Vine is a demon, are the servants of the Vine also demons?”
“Of course. Don’t they say that demons live together? Then the knights too...”
They also paid attention to the knights of the Vine who were known to move in small groups.
“Well, if they’re demons, then that makes sense. Since each one is strong, there’s no need for many to move around.”
The priests tried to fit in, but it wasn’t far from the truth.
Since the demons needed the negative emotions of humans to survive, many demons couldn’t be active.
“But didn’t you say that demons don’t hold back their desires? With so many priests, they’re killing their belligerent nature?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Then you’re saying that the Saintess made the wrong choice?”
“We’ll have to wait and see...”
The demons thought as they listened to the story.
We’re going crazy too, aren’t we?
If only they could wipe them all out. They wanted to pluck out those eyes that were looking at them with disgust.
In particular, the insolent gaze directed at the Demon Grand Duke Belled made them unbearable time and time again.
However, what took priority over their desires and hostile instincts was the powerful demon’s command.
The Demon Grand Duke Belled ordered them to stay quiet, so they stayed still.
Thanks to that, they were acting more demonic than ever, but they were avoiding the priests’ suspicions.
“Then, we will hold the wedding.”
The voice of the priest who was acting as the officiant rang out in the strange atmosphere.
“The two who are the main characters of the ceremony, please come to your seats.”
Imperial weddings end with the bride and groom walking down the aisle, making a vow to trust each other and spend their lives together, and the bride leaving in the groom’s arms.
However, this time was a little different. First.
“You must hold this and scatter it accurately. Do you understand?”
The priests gathered around me like soldiers glaring at the enemy.
They firmly held a bottle of holy water in my hand and urged me. Unlike the old days when the power of the Gods was abundant, the holy water was rare and hard to obtain these days.
“Understood.”
This was the third time I had heard this request, so it was strange. However, looking at it again, I felt it.
There was already madness in their eyes. From this point on, they had no other thought than to go to heaven.
As if they sprinkled the holy water and revealed that the other person was a demon, it didn’t matter what would happen to the Saint in front of them.
It made me sick. I tightened my hand holding the holy water bottle. The priests stepped back as if they were satisfied with the sight, but my thoughts were different from theirs.
I’d rather pour it on your heads.
I think they’ll react anyway. If those called priests are only looking out for their interests, what else are they if not demons?
And I heard that Belled was late to the wedding hall to deal with the monsters in the territory.
No matter how much Vine was a demonic land, not all of the people in the territory were demons. In other words, he had entered the battlefield for the sake of the humans.
But the priests.
During my last two marriages, the priests did not deal with the demons within the empire for the sake of the greater good.
The temples that should have been the center of stopping them were all gathered at my wedding.
If a greater demon existed, wouldn't it be right to stop it?
In the meantime, so many people had died. Was it the same this time?
The hand holding the bottle seemed to tremble.
“Then, the bride and groom enter.”
At that moment, the officiant’s words were heard. The gorgeous wedding dress that the priests didn’t like sparkled in the light.
“Whew.”
I don’t know why that sight gave me such a sense of liberation. This was the first time I’d seen such a sparkling wedding. Silver decorations, symbolizing the bride’s happiness, adorned every inch of the veil, from the tips of my fingers.
These were all prepared by the devils. Not the priests.
-Swish.
Not only that, the ones holding the hem of my long dress were also the devils. The priests glared at Belled from afar as if they didn’t want to even approach the aisle.
“..."
Belled’s eyes met mine across the small platform set up on the aisle.
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