Chapter 64 :

Episode 64 - Selection (2)

What should one do when ordered to push one’s own neck into the mouth of a beast?

“Lord Tollin, you must return to the mansion right now.”

Pale urged Tollin, who stood motionless as if his feet were stuck to the ground.

But Tollin still could not take his eyes off the young duke, who was looking at him with anxious eyes.

He could not go back now.

If he went back like this, everything would come to nothing.

He might be detained to be reprimanded for his crime, or he might be tortured.

Until the crime was proven, there was no knowing what would happen to Plin.

Vesper’s face, wearing a benevolent smile, entered his eyes.

He had acted as if he had known everything from the beginning.

He had known things would turn out like this.

Since when? Since Tollin had expressed his intention to agree to the business he proposed? Or long before that?

No, that was not important.

What mattered was the fact that if he left Plin here and returned to the mansion, something irreversible would happen.

Tollin ground his teeth and glared at Priest Vesper.

“I will return before the ritual begins, Priest Vesper. Until then, please take good care of the young duke.”

Even as he spat out the words, Tollin felt as though he could not breathe.

“There is nothing to worry about. The temple is generous to the citizens of Abiran who are not sinners.”

Letting Vesper’s meaningless bullshit flow out one ear, Tollin turned his gaze to the young duke, who was forcing himself to make an expression telling him not to worry.

“I will return soon. Please do not worry too much.”

Likewise forcing himself to reassure the young duke, Tollin bowed once to the young duke, who nodded, then turned around and climbed back into the carriage.

The door closed, and the carriage departed.

The carriage set off immediately, even without Tollin’s order.

Inside the box that ran as if being chased, Tollin stared blankly outside.

His heart was pounding, and his head was a mess.

He could not tell whether he was afraid of being personally reprimanded by an imperial family member, or whether he was afraid of losing Plin.

Inside his confused mind, one thing gradually became clearer.

The youthful face that had tried to reassure him until the very end. The neat eyes and gray pupils full of intelligence. And someone else’s deep eyes overlapping with them.

At the same time, someone’s gray eyes, shaking as if writhing in pain, came to mind.

At that moment, Tollin felt as if someone had poured cold water into his head, and he grew cold.

His pounding chest cooled, and everything became clear, as if a film that had covered his corneas had been peeled away.

It was not that he had suddenly become stronger, nor that an excellent plan had appeared.

Only courage welled up in him.

The courage to do anything right now.

Though someone might call it recklessness.

Tollin calmly opened the carriage window.

“What is the matter?”

Jack, who was riding his horse beside the carriage, asked.

“Before we reach the mansion, I need to wet my throat for a moment. Stop the carriage briefly at a nearby restaurant.”

Tollin answered calmly.

Once he set foot inside the mansion, he would not be able to come out again, so he could not head to the ducal residence.

He had to return to the temple.

As Tollin ordered, the carriage stopped in front of a cheap restaurant doing good business.

Tollin refused Jack’s kindness, saying there was no need for him to enter such a cheap restaurant himself and that he would prepare something to drink, then stepped down from the carriage.

The shop selling cheap food had no lighting.

Even so, the dark shop was packed with people.

Because on the day the Tinas ritual began, many wanted to enjoy the festive mood even if they had to overdo it a little.

Naturally, gazes followed him as he entered the shop dressed in only a shirt, without even a jacket, but Tollin calmly ordered mead from the shop owner and soon found an empty seat.

Among them were some who recognized Tollin, who had caused a great commotion with Priest Vesper in the square not long ago.

It was the moment they were struggling to secure a view, turning their heads this way and that to confirm his face through the crowd of people.

Crash!

A rather loud shattering sound that silenced the commotion echoed through the shop.

Everyone’s gazes gathered toward the source of the sound.

“Wh-what?”

Startled by the attention that had gathered in an instant, a man who had taken a seat at the table near the shop entrance and was already heavily drunk in broad daylight kicked the bottle that had fallen by his feet.

The man sitting across from him cackled and pointed at him.

“Looks like you’re so drunk already that you can’t even hold a bottle.”

“What are you talking about! The bottle moved on its own! It definitely wasn’t here until just now!”

At his mockery, the man flared up and shouted. But no one listened to the excuse of a drunkard.

The shop soon regained its commotion.

And only a few among them noticed that the person who had ordered mead had disappeared, but nothing changed.

In Tollin’s hand as he came out through the shop’s back door was one shabby, foul-smelling robe.

Without hesitation, Tollin pulled it down over his head and moved quickly.

Perhaps because of tension, or perhaps because of something else, his heart pounded and his breath rose to his throat, but there was no time to cry.

Before the ritual began, he had to return to the temple like this.

Once he extracted Plin by any means necessary, the Feedus family would no longer remain.

He might face a miserable and painful death as punishment, and after death, something even more miserable might be waiting, but such things no longer mattered.

He could no longer stand by and lose family.

Tollin was not used to running, but he diligently stretched his legs.

In order to offer his life even a little faster.

But there were too many things in the world that could not be done with resolve alone.

In a world where one could not even live as one pleased, there was no reason death would be free either.

Thud.

Tollin was pulled backward as if falling by a rough hand that firmly grabbed his shoulder.

“Where are you going?”

Before Tollin could even come to his senses from the sudden shock, a cold, hard, and familiar voice settled above his head.

Tollin raised his head and looked at the owner of the powerful hand still gripping his shoulder as if it might break.

“I asked where you are going.”

Eyes dizzy with betrayal, anger, and various other emotions were glaring at him.

* * *

“Something feels strange.”

Seya, who had been leaning against the wall, suddenly lifted her head.

“The strangest thing here is you.”

Nihil, who had become sensitive from not being able to drink water, snapped back.

Though after two of Seya’s fists flew at him in succession, he had to hold the crown of his head again and shut his mouth.

“It feels a bit quieter....... Why?”

Leaving Nihil, who was suffering while holding the top of his head, Seya pressed her ear close to the wall and muttered.

“What are you talking about? It was always quiet here. Look, you can’t hear anything.”

Perhaps the pain had already faded, because Nihil pressed his ear to the wall after Seya and muttered in dissatisfaction.

“That isn’t what I mean by quiet....... I can’t really express it in words, but there is something like that. Like there aren’t many people around...... Ah, anyway, there is something!”

Seya, who had been frowning as she tried to describe her senses, soon gave up and waved her hand around.

“Seya has good instincts. Most of the time, she is almost right. Did the number of people watching us decrease a little? Why all of a sudden?”

Mir stood in front of the firmly closed door and muttered quietly.

Water and meals were handed out once a day.

Unless those bastards had done the petty thing of reducing the amount of food, it had been two days since Seya was captured, and three days since Mir had been brought in.

Naturally, one thing came to mind.

The day the Tinas ritual began.

Was it a coincidence? Or.

“Mir! Someone is coming!”

Bang!

At the moment unease was beginning to creep up, whether fortunately or unfortunately, the door opened roughly almost at the same time as Seya’s urgent warning.

The one who entered with gleaming eyes gave a chilling smile toward Seya, who was standing awkwardly beside Nihil.

“It’s finally today, you rat-like brat. You’re ready, aren’t you?”

Mir swallowed dryly as she watched Seya clench her fist tightly.

Fortunately, there was another person who stopped the man who was about to immediately grab Seya and drag her over.

Two more people who seemed to be the man’s companions entered the room.

Among them, the man who looked as if he were one step away from drying up completely seemed to have even a little more authority than the man who held a grudge against Seya.

“Stop acting up and back off. If you make another mistake today, I won’t let you off either.”

The man who had been grabbing Seya by the back of the neck and lifting her clicked his tongue at the scrawny man’s words and threw Seya back onto the floor.

And before Seya, who had landed safely on the floor, could take even one step back, he kicked the child once more.

“Then please check this one first. If she doesn’t pass......give her to me. I’ll show her exactly what it means to think death would be better.”

The scrawny man looked down once at Seya, who had fallen forward from the man’s rough kick, sighed, and gave a glance.

The man chuckled and reached out to Seya.

Then he rolled up the child’s worn sleeve as if tearing it.

“Ah!”

At the pain that felt as if her arm were being twisted, Seya let out a small scream.

Of course, the men would never have cared about that.

Mir watched them, feeling a drop of cold sweat run down her back.

It is fine. It will be fine.

If my prediction is right, Seya definitely will not fall into that man’s hands.

While she calmed her anxiety with words like self-hypnosis, time like eternity passed.

The man who had been gripping Seya tightly clicked his tongue loudly and threw Seya back onto the floor again.

“There is no doubt. This one passes.”

The scrawny man’s mocking voice followed from behind.

“Damn it.......”

Muttering as if his blood was boiling, the man pressed his foot down on Seya’s arm as she lay sprawled on the floor.

“Get this off me!!!”

Because Seya, filled with fury, bit the man’s shin, he had to remove it immediately.

The wound on Seya that the man had been stepping on was revealed.

The wound, which had not even left a scab, had healed with only a faint knife mark remaining.

Perhaps they found it amusing that someone who did not know what would happen after being dragged away was happy about being chosen.

But Mir did not care.

The more the opponent underestimated them, the higher their chances of winning would become.

Among the dozens of children who had been captured and brought in, only three were chosen by the scrawny man.

Seya, Mir, and Nihil.

The scrawny man did make a slightly ambiguous expression after checking Mir’s wound, but after looking over Mir’s body, which was large for her age, he passed Mir along with Seya.

Of course, this was only possible because Mir had lied and lowered her age by four years to hide the fact that she was smaller than her peers.

Nihil’s wound also did not reach the level of Seya’s recovery, but fortunately, Nihil was chosen together with Seya and Mir because he was larger than children his age, even without lying about his age.

The men openly laughed at the three who sighed in relief.

* * *

While the children continued their quiet and fierce fight, the capital, in contrast, was boiling with joy and anticipation.

Because the carriage carrying the First Princess had departed from the imperial castle and begun racing toward the central temple.

Mentil never revealed herself outside the carriage.

Even if she bestowed such a blessing, it would probably be difficult for people to look directly at her.

Despite that, the people had been waiting eagerly for this day that came only twice a year.

For today, one of only two days in the year when they could come closest to God.

Countless imperial citizens, who did not dare approach the racing carriage, bowed their heads in reverence toward the carriage heading for the temple.

What the imperial family member inside the blindingly luxurious golden carriage was thinking was not very important.

One day before the start of the ritual, anticipation and anxiety were swirling together.