For a moment, I actually considered giving in to Callis’s request.
That is, until I felt the faint aura of divine energy radiating from him.
This was a symbol of his marriage to Lina, and the realization sent a wave of despair washing over me.
“Callis,” I said, “I can feel the divine energy of another Sterne emanating from you.”
He pressed his hand hard against his chest, his face twisted in agony.
“What?” I went further.
“You will not speak your accusations and excuses in front of Lennon?”
“Seria, I—”
“Callis!
There you are!” Lina’s voice echoed along the corridor.
Speak of the devil.
Lina was being carried up the corridor by a knight, piggyback style like a child.
But it was no game.
Both of her feet were wrapped in bulky bandages.
Even though she was a heavenly messenger of the gods, she was not free from earthly burdens.
It was possible for the Saint to become beset by physical injuries and maladies, just like all the rest of us.
I had wounds on my arm, but it was clear that the heaviest price for all of this had fallen to Lina.
But such things were not my concern.
I stepped between them and was on my way down the corridor when Callis grabbed my wrist again.
I swear to God, if you grab my wrist one more time…!
“Callis?” Lina said.
“Lina, I must speak with Seria.
It would be best if you leave for now.”
Tears seemed to well up in Lina’s eyes, but she did not cry.
Instead, she looked at me and Callis while speaking in her inimitable innocence and obliging manner.
“Okay, I understand.
I’ll leave.
I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.
But I came because I have something to say to Lady Seria as well.”
Lina stared at me as though awaiting my permission to speak.
But then, without waiting more than a couple of breaths, she politely asked the knight to bring her closer to me.
The knight did as he was asked and then turned so her Lina could see me more easily.
“Please, Lady Seria, don’t be too hard on Callis.
I’m the one who insisted on going to the glacier.
I had no idea there would be a blizzard.”
I stared at Lina without any form of response.
As the silence stretched on, I noticed that even the knights standing around us began to hold their breath.
Finally, I’d had enough.
“Lina, were you not aware that Callis was my fiancé?”
“Of course I knew!
But Callis is such a precious friend.
I just wanted to create one last beautiful memory together.”
“Is that so?” I sneered.
I spoke slowly, stopping at nearly every word so they would jab at Lina all the more sharply.
“Very good, I suppose that is fair.
And now that you have made your last memory with Callis, you will not have to see him again, will you?”
“Se-Seria…” Lina stammered.
“Swear to me, Lina, upon the Star of Sterne, that you will never see Callis again.”
Lina’s lip quivered, her eyes pleading and filled with tears, and her immense effort to hold them back showed.
Her eyes were pleading with me, and they looked to Callis for advice.
While Lina was looking at Callis with deep, affectionate sadness, the knight carrying her turned to me accusingly as though I were being too harsh on the poor, injured girl.
Wait a minute.
A villainess tormenting the innocent female lead…
Was that what I was becoming?
Was it inevitable?
I thought about the way it had happened in the story, how Callis had beheaded Seria for tormenting Lina, much like I was doing now.
As if on cue, Lina started to cry.
She was still weeping when she patted the knight on the shoulder as if instructing him to set her down.
Despite her obvious pain, she steadied herself and found her balance.
Grasping the hem of her dress with trembling hands, she made a deep bow to me, a common form of greeting amongst ladies of the nobility.
“I am truly sorry,” she said through her sniffling.
“In the name of the Saint, I formally ask your forgiveness and—”
“Lina!”
“Lady Saint!”
Lina’s legs had suddenly given out.
Callis rushed to her side, helping her up off the floor.
He lifted her and placed her on the knight’s back again.
“Seria, can you not leave her alone?” Callis said.
“How can you speak that way to her when she is incapacitated?
This is a matter between you and me, anyhow.
And the Saint knows no better, so there is no point in being so strict with her.”
“So Callis,” I said, with a piercing gaze that fell on both of them, “judging by what you have just said, I take it you intend to continue seeing the Lady Saint.”
“That is not what I meant!”
“Then what?”
“Why are you being like this, Seria?
You were never so petty!”
What a day I was having.
I had only just woken from my own coma, and it had been nothing but embarrassment since.
Standing around and causing a scene in the corridor right outside my chambers was so humiliating.
It might not have been so bad if it had only been the three of us.
But the knights were there along with Lennon, and now even a few passing nobles had been drawn to the commotion.
No doubt the nobles were eager to witness the continuation of the whole disgraceful saga.
I just couldn’t understand why I was being portrayed as the villain here.
Just because I refused to accept their half-baked apologies?
It was not fair, and I felt my hurt emotions reeling back towards anger.
“Marquis Hanneton,” I said firmly, standing tall and staring directly at Callis.
“This ends today.
I never want to see you again.
Enjoy your life with the Lady Saint.”
“You really are—”
“Marquis Hanneton, please step back.”
The voice was deep and unexpected.
All of us turned to where it had come from.
It was Rouche.
“Is your hearing defective, Marquis Hanneton?”
Everyone in the corridor froze.
Callis glared at Rouche, who was glared right back.
The standoff went on this way with the rest of us too terrified to move a muscle.
It seemed that, especially with those two, it could go on forever.
Then, Rouche noticed my arm.
“My lady, your wound has reopened.”
“Yes, I know,” I glanced around, noticing that all eyes had shifted to me.
“I meant to…”
“Come,” Rouche said, “we shall have a priestess take a look at it.”
Just as Rouche offered me his arm, Callis stepped forward.
“Your Highness, I will escort Lady Sterne.”
“Oh?
Is that how you think this works?”