Chapter 170

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Since they continued to stay at Berg’s residence, they were not much affected, but the social scene, including the Imperial Palace, became noisier than before.

In fact, all the male groups, including the two Princes, were handsome and attractive, and were perfect for the role of husbands. However, they all collapsed because of the divine power….

Moreover, Prince Jun was going to come tomorrow.

It seemed that the emperor felt he had to open everything and arouse the social atmosphere. Or perhaps Queen Ekizel requested it.

So the news was that the hunting banquet, usually held in the fall, was going to be held earlier. It seemed that they wanted to arrange the hunt on a larger scale before the summer social season was over when the nobles were still in the capital.

It seemed that they had decided to hold the party at the Imperial Palace. There were many carriages in the large area outside the palace. Seria took Lesche’s hand and got out of the carriage.

A huge line of barracks, awnings, and cabanas surrounded the area. Countless servants were moving busily.

Seria was looking around with her hand on Lesche’s arm, and she suddenly noticed a small commotion. Her eyes widened a little as she turned to look in that direction.

The temple’s carriage. And the person who was getting off was…

“Lina?”

The emperor’s attendant was approaching her with a smile.

‘How did she get here?’

Lina was dressed in an elegant red hunting suit. The shoulder-length hair was also braided with a ribbon with jewels and tied neatly.

‘It’s strange. I don’t think Lina could hunt.’

Behind Lina’s carriage, many of the Great Temple carriages were rolling in. Many high ranking priests were getting off….

Why are these priests at the hunting banquet? Everyone seemed to be buzzing for similar reasons. Seria strode toward the cabana.

“Grand Duchess.”

As expected, a priest, who must have been the High Priest’s direct assistant, came to see Seria secretly. He said, breaking out in a cold sweat,

“The Emperor sent an invitation directly to the Saintess. We declined, but the priests who worshiped the Saintess secretly replied that she would attend.”

“Secretly?”

Setia lifted her eyebrows. The high-ranking priest shook his shoulders.

“We can’t lock up the Saint who is still on official business. Instead, we will take her back as soon as the hunting banquet is over. The holy knights are also standing by. I have the letter prepared by High Priest Joel.”

“I see.”

Seria told the High Priests that she wanted an informal meeting with Lina so that she would be as unaware as possible. Frankly speaking, who would have expected the emperor to throw such a surprise hunting banquet?

Unless it was High Priest Amos or High Priest Jubelud, who oversaw the business outside the temple, others were expected to be lacking.

When Seria left the cabana and returned to the barracks, the emperor had already arrived.

The emperor was dressed in his hunting outfit along with a golden cloak, and after a short opening ceremony, he rode directly on horseback.

Lesche was on horseback behind the ceremonial riders, who were following behind the emperor.

‘Many people from Berg are participating.’

Abigail, Alliot, and the familiar knights of Berg were all on horseback in their hunting gear.

It was then that Abigail jumped off her horse. She hurried straight back to the awning.

“Bibi?”

She ran toward Seria in the blink of an eye and whispered in a small voice.

“Miss, I see Haneton.”

“What?”

“The right front.”

As Abigail spoke, Seria shifted her gaze and saw dark blonde hair. Kalis was looking toward the forest on his horse.

“The emperor has really called all the nobles here, hasn’t he?”

Seria couldn’t see him well because his back was facing her, but she could see that his chin was very prominent. Kalis seemed to have lost quite a bit of weight.

‘Did he cough up a lot of blood?’

He even went so far as to secretly call a healing priest to the Haneton estate. He must have been badly purified.

Seria turned her gaze away with a frown on her forehead. Meanwhile, the whistle blew loudly three times.

“I have to go, Bibi.”

“Lady.”

“Yes?”

Abigail looked at Seria silently and took a dagger out of her pocket. It was a very small dagger, smaller than her palm. By all accounts, it was for assassinations.

“You don’t like human corpses as trophies?”

Seria burst out laughing.

“No.”

“Then I’ll catch you a beast.”

Abigail handed Seria the dagger and turned to get back on her horse. Seria put the deadly weapon inside her sleeve. Then excited voices were heard.

“Grand Duchess!”

“Is that the famous Knight of Stern?”

“Yes.”

Among the expectant voices, she could hear a lot of information.

First of all, the fact that the forest here was particularly flooded with ravenous beasts.

Normally, they enjoy letting the beasts loose on the hunting grounds, but the emperors of this country had emphasized efficiency for generations. Therefore, they put people in several places in the forests and mountains where ravenous beasts breed and cause damage to private homes, and every year they send people to select the hunting ground for that year to catch the animals in the place where they thought many ravenous beasts were present.

“That’s better.”

After all, it seemed that the continent’s most powerful people were not the only ones who did this.

At that moment, the sound of a whistle echoed loudly through the forest.

With the sound of horseshoes ringing the earth, many nobles, including the emperor, disappeared into the forest.

The nobles who were not on the hunting grounds moved from place to place with champagne glasses in their hands.

Perhaps because of the large number of people, there were few reserved seats under the vast barracks.

Even then, only seats for high-ranking nobles of marquis rank and above were reserved; the rest were non-reserved seats.

Sitting leisurely in the top designated seat, feeling the taste of power, Seria thought it was a pity that Marlesana was not here.

“I can’t believe she has a summer cold.”

After sitting there for an hour or so and taking stock of the situation going around the social circle, Seria slowly got up. There were many nobles trying to get in the mood without having to go into the deep woods to hunt the wild beasts.

Thanks to this, no nobles wondered why or where she had gone to.

Walking into the deserted forest, Seria saw Lina and spoke.

“Lina.”

Lina’s back, which had been dragging a horse, was greatly startled. She slowly turned around.

“…….”

It was very strange to see Lina up close.

It was because the hunting outfit she was wearing was very similar in detail to the clothes Sterns wore when they inspected the glacier.

The only other thing was the material of the fabric. Glaciers were cold and required thick layers of fabric, but it was summer now.

Besides, it seemed like Lina had come all the way here alone to practice horseback riding. Seria could tell by the grass on her feet. When Seria’s gaze turned in that direction, Lina’s face turned red.

Seria looked at the reins Lina was holding in her hand and asked, 

“Do you want to go on a glacier tour?”

Lina’s hand on the reins tightened.

“Well, I’m a Stern too.”

“I’ve already told you that I’ll be in charge of the glacier.”

“…….”

“You really want to go?”

It wouldn’t be a very good experience. Didn’t she see her coming home every day shivering like she was freezing to death?

Moreover, Lina was a vessel that Liegel had created. The sacred power and Stern’s power were Liegel’s. If she was purified by the explosive divine power, she would probably lose all that power.

“I have a question.”

Seria asked, looking at the horse.

“Do you know how to get away from Liegel?”

“……!”

Lina didn’t expect Seria to mention that name out in the open. Startled, Lina looked around as if scared. Even her complexion turned as pale as a corpse.

Just as Seria had trembled when she saw Cassius when she knew nothing about him, Lina began to tremble all over.

So much so that she even missed the reins, which she was holding with all her strength.

“You should confide everything to the priests and take refuge.”

“Refuge?”

“Since the temple has all kinds of precious holy objects in their possession, they’ll be able to protect you from the evil spirits.”

“…….”

Seria did not like Lina. Of course, it was much closer to dislike. But now the essential center of this madness was Liegel. Frankly, she felt uncomfortable because she kept thinking about the past when she was thoroughly used as a tool.

She was cornered in the position of a doomed evil woman who ended up dead.

Hence this…

It was an action to ease her mind, so to speak. She reached out to Lina one last time.

“Then….”

Tears began to flow down Lina’s cheeks. Lina wiped her wet cheeks and asked.

“What about my status as a Saint? My status as a Stern….”

“It’ll be gone.”

No matter how many amazing holy objects there were in the Great Temple, there was no holy object that could truly turn a fake Saint into a real Stern.

Lina fell silent and lowered her head. How much time passed? Seria waited without haste, and after a while, Lina lifted her head.

Her brown hair shook violently.

“I don’t want to.” (Lina)

***

Left alone, Lina looked down at her arms in her red hunting suit and gripped the sleeves.

She wiped her tear-stained eyes as she held them.

Originally, she wanted to wear the clothes Stern would wear when they went to the glacier. Last winter, Seria always wore it.

But it was too thick and not suitable for summer. So she tried on a similar hunting outfit.

When she tried it on, she liked it. She came wearing it with a lot of willpower, even though she had no weapons to use.

She had been practicing riding hard the other day, and she thought it would be good to try riding a horse once in such a big forest….

Lina recalled a time in the past.

When she was the main character, she once inspected the glacier in Berg herself.

She wore clothes similar to these.

She felt light in winter embracing the frozen lake, and never felt cold at heart. Because of her too-strong divine power, she was sick for a while but did not find it hard.

It wasn’t hard to live her own life proudly, not as a substitute for anyone else.

She survived this long among hundreds and thousands of Lunas.

She finally managed to have a life as the main character.