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Chapter 42
When it comes to dressing up as someone, there’s no one as easy to imitate as Leviathan. Even when the High Priest spoke to him, he only talked when he wanted to. Moreover, his pentagram was painted on his tongue, so it was not easy to ascertain.
Not only that, even though he was the chief priest, he was always wearing a hood that did not suit his priestly uniform. According to Phileal, as he gains strength, his resistance to light becomes stronger, he said. But even so, Leviathan was frequently wearing a hood.
Besides, the priests of death all had eyes of the same color after being baptized.
“That foolish woman is just getting hit by this.”
“…….”
“Really, she’s so stupid.”
The empress smiled gleefully, bowed her head, and looked carefully at Phileal, who was pretending to be Leviathan. Then, as she tried to reach for his hood, Anais pulled at the empress’s sleeve.
“That is rude.”
Anais sighed and pointed her finger at her swollen cheek wanting her to apologize for the slap.
As the empress laughed, the lady-in-waiting behind her stepped forward and struck Anais again.
Slap!
“You’re still not coming to your senses with this.”
“Please stop.”
“Oh, don’t touch my lady-in-waiting, Priest Leviathan.”
“… ….”
“Your voice sounds familiar.”
She doesn’t know if it was because Phileal was in a hurry, or if he came this way because there was no one to help her. However, the reason he came here was because he was worried about Anais, Anais knew very well herself.
So, she was very uncomfortable with this situation. She felt uncomfortable when he told her about his unfortunate family life. She didn’t want to do anything that would remind him of his mother now.
Grab!
So this time she grabbed the lady-in-waiting’s raised arm in cue with the empress’s glance so she couldn’t hit Anais.
“Ha. Are you trying to resist? How ridiculous.”
With the empress’ silent permission, her lady-in-waiting became more vigorous, so she spoke without hesitation.
When the empress’s lady-in-waiting threw off her arm and tried to hit her again, Leviathan opened his mouth.
“If you hit her more, I will have problems taking her energy from the saintess.”
“Chief priest.”
“…Yes.”
“I am looking after the chief priest. You know?”
“…Yes.”
Phileal answered like that, bowing his head, not even having time to pay attention to the empress’s tone of voice.
“Camaraderie? Or is it love?”
“…….”
“Either way, I hope you don’t pay attention to my husband. It’s because of my energy that you’re staying in the palace anyway.”
Anais’ cheeks were tingling so much, and the ringing in her ears made it hard to understand what she was saying. But she could tell that the empress was warning her.
* * *
“What about my husband?”
“His Majesty is currently resting his eyes for the afternoon.”
“I see.”
The place where the empress took Anais was the emperor’s audience chamber. The emperor, Kylian, mostly conducted government affairs there. At about this time, he was usually scheduled to oversee government affairs with the ministers.
However, it was clear that there was something else that he didn’t like, as ‘resting his eyes’ meant that he had kicked out the ministers from the audience chamber, not accepting their opinions.
Anais thought so, and it felt strange to think that Kylian’s old self was still there.
“It’s no use pretending to sleep like that! Are you going to braid my hair again when I fall asleep?”
“…….”
“Kylian! If so, I have no choice but to do so! Don’t regret it!”
It was the day when they had to spend their first night. They didn’t do anything that day, and he avoided her. While she was asleep, he braided her hair. She had pretended to sleep when he tried to argue after returning from the breakfast meeting.
“Wife! What is this?”
“It’s makeup. It is beautiful, very very.”
“Are you a monster or a person? Who draws ears to the mouth?”
“Is that a problem now?”
“Haa.”
Anais smiled unconsciously, probably because she remembered what had happened at that time.
“Hey.”
“…….”
“Go in. Tell His Majesty that I have come.”
Anais looked at the empress who was giving orders to her, then pointed her finger at the silver-rimmed magic tool around her neck. Then the empress smiled even brighter and motioned for her to enter.
Maybe she knew. After becoming emperor, Kylian always set an example and punished those who would wake him up.
Of course, Anais knew it because she had seen it in the original story, and anyone who knows that now would know what he did after becoming emperor. How could she not know Kylian’s sleeping habit? Could it be that the soul of a stranger has entered her body?
While she was deep in thought, the door opened.
“Go in.”
Asking if the empress really wanted her to go in, she turned around. But the empress pushed her body into the audience room. Anais had to face an embarrassing situation while looking at the empress’s blue, half-lidded eyes as if she was having fun, without a chance to resist.
The empress was so strong that she fell through the door as soon as she entered. She fell down and her leg was rubbed on the cloth. but she could feel that her energy had returned a little bit. The pain was recovering right away.
Anais sighed and looked inside. The audience room had changed a lot. It wasn’t this neat until she worked as a substitute in the past.
There was a stench everywhere, where sewage treatment was a mess. But now there was no smell anywhere. Even though there was no magician, it seemed that scientists and doctors were recommended and brought into the imperial palace.
One wall of the audience room was made of stained glass. However, it is quite a bad taste to be made only of blue compared to applying all natural colors.
Come to think of it….
“What color does Kylian like?”
As she asked, he answered while staring at Anais.
“I like blue. It’s a blue that’s close to sky blue.”
“Then it’s not blue, it’s sky blue. You mean a lighter shade, right?”
“Yes.”
The reason Anais asked was to choose the color of the sheath when presenting the sword to him. Since Kylian was not allowed the greatsword he usually uses, Anais had to order her own sword and pretend to pass it on to him out of annoyance.
She thought the all-blue stained-glass painting was pretty, like looking at a mermaid in the sea. And even the large, ornate chandeliers.
Not a single remnant of the former audience room remained. The throne, which seemed high in authority, had been replaced with a splendid but wooden one, perhaps because the golden one had been removed. Looking at this, it seemed to follow 〈 Beneath the Water’s Shadow 〉.
He smelted the golden throne and used it to recruit magistrates. And he helped the poor people of the capital city and allowed them to settle down. Of course, all of that came after Lilith healed him and brought him back to his senses.
Anais walked slowly to the throne. As she changed into a handmaid’s uniform she received shoes to go along with it, footsteps clattered whenever she walked.
The inside was really bright, probably because the priests of death never came this far. The chandeliers were all lit up in red.
She stomped slowly on the white marble until she reached the throne. Her heart was pounding, perhaps because the strange scent of osmanthus from the throne resembled Kylian.
She was both afraid and excited to see Kylian. She didn’t have enough time to escape because she was afraid, and she had no time for excitement and joy.
So she walked over the throne and lifted the veil. Behind the throne was a bedroom.
Quite unusually, Kylian had a bedroom in the audience chamber. In fact, he had made it this way to pass the time when he didn’t like it, kicking out the attendants and not going to his room. At least the ministers outside the door wouldn’t be able to tell whether he was reading papers or lying there.
It wasn’t very big, but it could accommodate four people. Kylian was lying there, probably asleep. In the original story, Kylian had difficulty falling asleep because of the aftereffects of the gunshot wound, and he punished those who disturbed his sleep.
However, according to rumors within the imperial palace, Kylian now seems to be suffering from the side effects of alternating between lethargy and drowsiness since that day five years ago. However, rumors were just rumors, and it was difficult to be sure of anything about Kylian.
“That is a lie.”
He said that the fact that he was afraid of spiders was also a lie. Anais carefully sat on the edge of her bed, her arms crossed, looking down at the defenseless sleeping Kylian. A ray of sunlight streamed in through the window.
It was a beautiful face. His straight nose rose in sculptural perfect proportions. Besides, even with his eyes closed, she seemed to be able to see the brilliant golden pupils that would be under his eyelids. It could very well have been the sunlight falling over his eyes.
Even in the sunlight, his black eyelashes were shining. Unlike black with a reddish tinge, it looks red when exposed to sunlight.
Even his hair gleamed like that, as if it were completely black. Like looking at obsidian.
His lips were also beautiful. Anais suddenly touched his lips with her fingertips. Ever since before, whenever this wicked mouth said something, she wanted to do this.
“…….”
She laughed under her breath, but no sound came out.
Poor thing. He was still beautiful without any flaws. Something caught Anais’ eyes as she sighed slightly.
It was the papers he threw away carelessly, along with the ink and fountain pen lying next to it.
Fountain pens were not suitable for pranks because they had a pointed tip. So she looked around more. There was a small table next to the bed. She gently opened it.
It contained a small brush. Used for watercolor painting. He opened a bottle of fountain pen ink, moistened it, and held it in his hand. He might have remembered this prank in the past and might listen to what she had to say. Then, with a grim face, she brought it to his face.
“What are you doing?”
Kylian said in a half-asleep voice.
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