Chapter 22

“Consecration…?”

“Yes.”

Unni nodded carefully.

The presence of consecration meant that someone had used divine power.

Unlike magic, which was merely subtly looked down upon, divine power was completely taboo. Occasionally, hidden priests or saints were said to bestow blessings in secret, but I had heard it was never an easy thing to do.

“They say that simply carrying an item blessed with consecration can bring good fortune. It also improves your vitality.”

“If it could help your health, I would’ve sought it out long ago. I never realized divine power was that important. I just thought he was one of the annoying men who kept following me around.”

As if recalling one of the men from her previous life, unni pressed her fingers against her temple and sighed.

“A priest liked you?”

“…That happened in the past, so I’ll tell you another time when I’m ready. Tie, open it first.”

“Okay.”

She never gave me the chance to dig deeper into anything.

Still, I was curious about what was inside too. With trembling hands, I opened the case.

Yes, up until that point, everything had been fine.

The divine power overflowing from it felt sacred just to look at. Merely breathing near it made my lungs feel purified.

“So this is divine power…”

“It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen such pure holy power myself.”

“Is it really that amazing?”

“It’s incredibly powerful. At minimum, the person was either a candidate for High Priest or a saint with holy power strong enough to rank among the very few at the top. An item consecrated by someone like that… just who could have…”

Only after speaking for a long while did unni finally seem to realize it.

There was only one person in the Empire who would obtain such a precious item and send it to me as a gift.

The moment I heard the word consecration, I had naturally thought of him already, so without surprise I opened the letter resting on top of the case.

I heard you ultimately returned from the auction without purchasing anything.
Of course, it was likely because you were busy acting on my behalf, but there were many rare treasures there, so I cannot help feeling disappointed that you came back empty-handed.

Thus, since I happened to acquire one item myself, I decided to gift it to you. It reminded me of the color of your eyes.

If it burdens you, think of it as repayment for your assistance.

Or perhaps as a commemoration of our friendship. Personally, I find the latter rather more appealing.

As you likely already guessed, refusal is not among the options.

— Lucian Edvain

Together with the short letter came a necklace beautifully adorned with violet pearls.

“Ah, this…”

Wasn’t this the one said to have been made from mermaid tears?

I had run out midway through the bidding for it because I heard Deneb’s voice. I hadn’t realized it was this beautiful.

The moment I absentmindedly stared at it in fascination, my frozen unni suddenly exploded into chaos.

From “How dare he target my little sister?” to “This absolutely cannot be tolerated!”

“I’m returning it immediately. I’ll pay double what he spent for it! Or at the very least, let me start a rebellion!”

“U-Unni, it must’ve cost an absurd amount! And rebellion is far worse!”

“We’re absurdly, absurdly rich, so it’s fine!”

“But gifts carry feelings with them!”

“That’s exactly the problem! That! Tie, you still don’t understand what the core issue here is! Do you know what kinds of rumors are spreading through the capital right now?!”

After shouting at the top of her lungs, unni was finally calmed down only after Elian rushed over in alarm.

Ever since the auction, rumors had spread throughout the capital that Flotie Rosena was a candidate to become an imperial princess.

Unni had been in a terrible mood ever since hearing that.

Even though I explained everything, she only kept asking, “Did it really have to be done that way?”

After a long while, she finally sighed and spoke again.

“If you truly have feelings for that prince, tell me. I’ll move more aggressively.”

“Huh?”

“If it’s my little sister, then naturally you should stand at the highest position possible. I’ll make him Emperor no matter what.”

The sheer reliability of those words almost made feelings appear where none existed before, and I found myself nodding unconsciously.

Come to think of it, maybe we had been relaxing too much lately.

“Unni, if you were me right now, what would you do first for him?”

Without hesitation, unni pointed toward the necklace.

“We need to find the owner of this divine power.”

Most of the time, I naturally believed unni’s judgment was more correct than mine, and I followed her opinions without complaint.

Not only had she lived far longer than I had, but she also possessed immense knowledge and experience from meeting countless people.

But that statement just now made absolutely no logical sense to me.

Wouldn’t Lucian already know who the owner of this divine power was? Wasn’t that why he had the necklace consecrated in the first place?

“…You mean we should find the person who imbued this with divine power?”

“Yes.”

Unni looked at me as though the answer were obvious.

Had I somehow missed an important part of the conversation without realizing it? Had the discussion suddenly leapt ahead while excluding only me?

“Unni, I’m really sorry, but can I ask one question?”

“If something confused you, then that simply means my explanation was lacking. Ask anything.”

“It’s not exactly that your explanation was lacking, it’s just… wouldn’t His Highness already know who the owner of this divine power is?”

I loved unni dearly, just as much as she loved me, but because of that I couldn’t help secretly suspecting her motives.

Wasn’t she trying to identify the person who had cooperated with Lucian in approaching me?

Or perhaps she intended to kidnap them outright and use them as a living divine-power tool for my safety. Unni was the kind of incredible woman who truly could accomplish anything she set her mind to…

“Of course he knows. That’s why he secretly had such a precious item consecrated before sending it. Unless he wanted our entire family annihilated, there’s no way he’d send an object of unknown origin.”

“……”

“If this were discovered, not only would he lose his position as prince, he’d also have to prepare himself for horrifying retaliation, so the chances of that are low.”

“Low?”

Did that mean there was still a tiny possibility?

The moment unni noticed my face turning pale again, she hurriedly corrected herself.

“There’s no chance. None at all. Tie, are you alright? Should I get you some water? Or perhaps calming medicine right now? Did unni scare you too much? My little sister, calm down. Don’t panic. If your breathing feels tight, inhale slowly, exhale slowly. Good girl. What should I do? I’ll go get an elixir immediately.”

“Calm down, unni. I was just startled for a moment. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with my body.”

Right now, she looked far closer to fainting than I did.

Minabel had once said that the “Serphina Rosena” in the original story was a truly cruel villainess.

The female lead had pursued revenge with absolutely no possibility of redemption, throwing herself toward destruction without regard for goodness or justice.

“Your sister can become far stronger and crueler than you can possibly imagine.”

“But my unni isn’t a bad person.”

“Of course she isn’t! I thought that while reading too! If only they hadn’t taken her younger sister away, none of those tragedies would’ve happened! At the very least, if Serphina had possessed the power to return to the past, this novel might have reached a beautiful ending like an ordinary romance fantasy!”

And now that had actually happened.

I still didn’t fully understand what kind of “ordinary and beautiful ending” Minabel had wanted.

But at the very least, I hoped unni would never become some revenge demon king who kidnapped people and turned them into holy-power monsters or blocked every man from approaching her younger sister.

Of course, this situation alone wouldn’t openly justify revenge.

Still, the excessive protectiveness unni held toward me was honestly terrifying at times.

Surely harming someone with divine power would be an unforgivable thing to do.

“I’m really glad you’re alright. You scared me for a second there.”

“I was also scared you might faint, unni. But still, please don’t joke about things like our family being in danger or terrible things happening.”

“If it’s not real danger, I’ll never mention such things carelessly again. Anyway, back to the main point—His Highness may know who the owner of this divine power is, but we don’t. Tie, what I mean is that we ourselves need to discover who that person is.”