Chapter 29
“Fool,” Tamitarte muttered, pressing his forehead as if nursing a headache. “I should have followed, even if it meant being caught.”
Whether she was truly a ghost or merely a woman with a haunting resemblance, he needed to confirm it for himself.
However…
“No matter how alike they may appear, such a likeness is nearly impossible.”
“Do you really believe Lady Bernice is alive?”
“…”
“We all witnessed her death. Even if, by some miracle, she survived, there isn’t anyone in the temple with divine power potent enough to revive someone in her state.”
The only one within the temple possessing significant divine power was Tamitarte, and even he did not wield enough to achieve such a feat.
Daniel, who had escaped the temple with Bernice Devine, was the only other with such power.
Tamitarte thought briefly of Daniel, the man who had shown not a trace of his face since Bernice’s capture.
Time had passed, yet Tamitarte still could not fully accept Bernice’s death. He understood this sentiment better than anyone.
“Even if Lady Bernice has passed…”
“…”
“…he has not been found.”
“Tamitarte, or rather, Tata.”
Bliss gestured for Tamitarte to watch his words in case someone in the temple was listening.
For a holy knight to act this way toward a priest was unconventional, but it was necessary.
Bernice Devine had been executed, but the one they had not found was bound to be more unsettling to the temple.
At Bliss’s caution, Tamitarte stilled, his lips pressed tightly shut.
He took a deep breath, glancing around the office he paced through aimlessly.
“If… if by some chance…”
Though no one else was around, he lowered his voice.
He feared even the smallest whisper might reach a rat in the temple who would carry it back to the High Patriarch.
“What if… he’s alive?”
“Impossible. His head was severed. How could he be alive…?”
“But he had a gift.”
Bliss shook his head at Tamitarte’s desperate hope.
“Divine power can’t reattach a severed head. Maybe if he’d mastered alchemy or magic…”
He thought of the banned texts on corporeal transplantation, restricted even within the temple.
The one who had escaped had divine power but nothing beyond that. If Daniel had possessed both alchemy and magic, he would never have been bound to the temple in the first place.
Tamitarte’s shoulders slumped.
He knew better than anyone that it was merely a look-alike, not Bernice herself.
Bernice Devine was dead. He had seen it with his own eyes.
If the woman he saw last night wasn’t Bernice, then the possibilities were twofold: either she bore a striking resemblance or she was Bernice’s child.
“I have to find her.”
“The woman from last night?”
“Who knows what might come of it?”
Bliss exhaled a dry sigh at Tamitarte’s anxious expression.
“The bird… it might still be alive.”
Bird. It was their code word, shared only between Tamitarte and Bliss.
The bird referred to one man: Daniel, who had fled the temple with Bernice Devine 25 years ago.
“Tata.”
The temple had hunted Daniel for over 20 years since his escape with Bernice. And while they hadn’t caught Daniel, they had managed to find and kill Bernice Devine.
“If they haven’t found him in 20 years, he’s likely dead.”
The reverence in his voice gave way, speaking as a brother who had served alongside Tamitarte for years.
What could someone like Daniel, raised as a caged bird within the temple, accomplish in the world?
If there were no rumors of miraculous healers, he likely lived quietly, hiding his divine power.
And by fleeing with Bernice, he had entrusted his life to her.
“Yet no body was ever found. That suggests he’s alive.”
“…”
“Anyone in the temple with authority knows the abilities he possessed. If there’s been no trace, it’s because he’s dead.”
Indeed, the temple’s pursuit was relentless.
Had Daniel died, the temple would have hunted down his body. But ideally, they wanted him alive, bound and brought back.
“Yes, that’s likely… but…”
It would be better if both of them were dead, yet Tamitarte’s mind kept gnawing at the possibility.
“What if, against all odds, he’s alive?”
“…”
“And if… the two of them…”
The thought he most dreaded crossed his mind, and Tamitarte shut his eyes tightly.
“If they had a child?”
In this temple, one’s devotion was meant to be solely to the High Deity, yet only those blissfully ignorant could adhere to such a simple creed.
For Tamitarte and those who had seen what lay behind the temple’s facade, Bernice was as close to a deity as anyone could be. And surely Daniel had felt the same.
The only one to open the cage door for him was Bernice.
“If, by any chance, they had a child…”
Tamitarte resented Daniel for endangering Bernice and Bernice for taking that risk, yet the child was innocent.
“We must find them before the temple does. Before they fall into the hands of that man, Rozian.”
He hoped fervently that no child had been born to face the fate the temple would impose.
“Therefore…”
“I understand.”
Noting Tamitarte’s intent, Bliss nodded, allowing Tamitarte to release a shallow sigh, a slight smile ghosting his lips.
“If it’s Tamitarte, how about ‘Tata’ as a nickname?”
He recalled Bernice’s bright voice from his memories.
If the child was Daniel’s, the temple would undoubtedly seek to claim them.
“Please, look into it.”
And that was precisely what Bernice would not have wanted.
Tamitarte sank into the chair nearby with a sigh.
Since seeing the woman who looked exactly like Bernice Devine, he had loitered around the temple, claiming ill health to avoid attending the palace, yet he hadn’t caught another glimpse of her.
He hoped the woman had some connection to Bernice and simultaneously prayed she didn’t.
If the temple learned of Bernice and Daniel’s existence, it would open a Pandora’s box of complications.
As he closed his eyes, Bernice’s smiling face remained etched in his memory.
Even on the day of her execution, she had smiled until the end, the one pillar of solace in the wretched prison of the temple.
Lost in thought, he was interrupted by a soft knock.
“Come in.”
His voice was steeped in melancholy.
The gilded door opened slowly, and a cautious priest peered in, gauging his mood.
“What is it?”
There was not a trace of kindness in his voice.
“The Lady of Rise has arrived at the temple.”
“What?”
Tamitarte’s brow furrowed slightly.
“The Lady of Rise? For what reason?”
“She claims she’s here for an ointment for a cut…”
Judging by his nervous glance, he seemed to imply Tamitarte should pay a visit.
“Shouldn’t you go and see her?”
“She didn’t ask for me specifically, did she?”
“It would be more fitting for you to greet her, for the Duke’s sake.”
They already thought he clung to the emperor’s favor, so what reason did he have to visit her?
It wasn’t as if she’d requested him personally. Tamitarte turned his head dismissively.
His disinterest made the priest pout as he stepped further into the room.
“It is rather peculiar. I thought if she came to the temple, it would be for treatment.”
True enough. The carriage accident had led her to convalesce in a villa.
“The news said it was a serious accident, so it is unusual.”
Hearing the priest mutter to himself, Tamitarte glanced at him from the corner of his eye.
“A carriage accident in the rainy season… if she convalesced for months, it must have been severe.”
“…”
“Why didn’t she seek help from the temple?”
It was a question any temple member might have.
Tamitarte replied coldly to the priest, who still hovered, chatting incessantly.
“Are you planning to linger here?”
The irritated tone made the priest leap to his feet.
“Apologies, I’ll return to my post immediately!”
Finally, the priest exited the room, and Tamitarte rubbed his neck.
“Hah…”
He let out a weary sigh.
It was indeed odd. The Duke’s household hadn’t sought the temple’s aid before, yet here was the lady herself.
“For an ointment, she says.”
He rose from his seat, his face tinged with curiosity.
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