Returning to Heden, Leticia and Dietrian shared many stories.
She had been chosen by the Elixir, and Noel and Ahwin had become her wings.
Wanting to reassure Dietrian even a little, Leticia laid bare everything that was in her favor.
Dietrian finally nodded, as if his questions were answered.
“So Ahwin, he was trying to help you.”
“That’s right.”
“It’s really fortunate. If they are your wings, they will continue to be a strength to you.”
“Yes. And actually…”
Leticia gently opened her hand.
A very small white flame flickered at her fingertips.
Dietrian, surprised, grabbed her wrist.
“Leticia! It’s dangerous!”
“Don’t worry. It’s not hot at all.”
Leticia laughed. She was excited to show Dietrian her new ability.
“It can be cold too. Would you like to try?”
“The flame is cold?”
Despite being perplexed, Dietrian touched the flame as Leticia guided.
The cool sensation at his fingertips brought a fascination to Dietrian’s eyes.
“Amazing. Is this flame also your ability?”
“Maybe. I’m not exactly sure. Ah, I can burn demons with it.”
“Demons?”
“I found out by chance. I also threatened Balenos with this flame earlier. So…”
Leticia whispered.
“It seems a new wing has appeared.”
Her newfound ability to use this power meant a new wing had sworn loyalty to her.
“A new wing. Do you have any idea who it might be?”
“No, I have no idea.”
Worry clouded Leticia’s face.
“I’m actually worried. I fear they might suffer like Noel.”
The awakening of a wing would surely be considered by Josephina as her own.
The thought of the new wing suffering beside Josephina like Noel did already made her heart heavy.
“Soon, I will send someone to the empire to check which wing has appeared. Do not worry too much.”
Dietrian comforted Leticia.
“Besides, you already have two wings in the temple. They will recognize the new wing and lend their strength. There won’t be any suffering alone like the first wing.”
“Do you think so?”
“Of course. Trust me. You have nothing to worry about.”
At the entrance of their lodging, Banessa, who had been sitting on a large sack, sprang up as soon as he saw the two.
“Your Highnesses.”
He bowed deeply and then coughed, his face turning red.
“Cough, cough.”
“Banessa, what is it?”
“Well, cough. I have something urgent to tell Your Highnesses.”
He was twisting and turning, seemingly embarrassed.
The other knights watching found it absurd.
They had just witnessed him rampaging through the market.
Unaware of the situation, Dietrian nodded.
“Understood, follow me. Leticia, let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Banessa groaned as he hoisted the sack onto his shoulder, indicating it was quite heavy.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a gift for you.”
Banessa grinned.
“A gift for me?”
“Yes. You will like it very much.”
Banessa beamed with a smile. Dietrian cocked his head in curiosity, and Leticia also had no idea what it could be.
“Your Highness, may I change my clothes before we meet?”
Before entering the lodging, Leticia held on to Dietrian.
“I’m covered in dust… and various other things. I also want to wash.”
The problem was more the blood than the dust. Every time he saw the bloodstains, Dietrian’s eyes filled with too much pain.
“…Understood.”
As expected, Dietrian’s eyes filled with torment upon realizing her intent. His fists even trembled slightly.
Seeing this, Leticia bit her lip hard. Her heart fluttered with the thought of his concern for her. She felt her love for him reaching its limits again. Even the thought of parting briefly to wash was unbearable.
‘Asking to wash together… would that be too much?’
Her ambitions were sky-high, yet she couldn’t help herself.
‘First, to solve the matter of separate rooms…’
Leticia looked at Dietrian with a full gaze of reluctance and said,
“Your Highness, then I’ll see you later.”
* * *
While Leticia was changing, Dietrian and Banessa entered the room first. Banessa, carrying the sack on his shoulder, dropped it with a thud.
“A gift for me?”
Instead of answering Dietrian’s question, Banessa threw another question at him.
“Your Highness, did you hear that Her Highness was seriously injured earlier?”
Dietrian’s expression changed instantly, filling the room with a chill.
“Do you know about that?”
“Yes. I saw it with my own eyes. What happened was…”
Banessa recounted everything he had seen and heard. He remembered mentioning before how Leticia had bled profusely when she cut herself on a relic. This incident was thousands of times more severe, and he felt it was necessary to report it.
As Banessa continued, Dietrian’s grip on the mahogany desk tightened until his knuckles turned white.
“…The bleeding was tremendous. The doctor said it was a miracle she didn’t die.”
Dietrian closed his eyes tightly.
Even though he had guessed from the bloodstains, what she had endured was more horrific than he had imagined.
It was beyond an attack; it was torture.
He wondered if this was what it felt like to have blood boil.
“…Where is Tenua?”
He asked in a sinister tone.
Banessa had paid back Tenua, but it was not enough.
It was only natural.
Tenua had harmed his wife.
Not once, but tormenting her throughout her life.
It was only right for him to repay the debt. Leticia had suffered, and so Tenua should pay back a hundred, no, a thousand times over.
“You haven’t killed him already, have you?”
“Of course not.”
With a murderous tone, Banessa grinned and kicked the sack on the floor lightly.
“Here, I told you it’s a gift.”
* * *
When Leticia returned from her lonely bath, Dietrian and Banessa were not in the room. Asking another knight, she learned they had stepped out due to some business.
“Just wait in the room for a moment. I will inform them that Her Highness has arrived.”
“It’s okay. I can go to them.”
From the knight’s words, it didn’t seem they had gone far. She thought it better to move herself. The knight smiled and shook his head.
“No. There were strict orders not to overexert yourself under any circumstances. I’ll go and inform them.”
“Alright, I’ll wait then.”
Leticia complied with the knight’s advice, not because she felt particularly burdened but warmed by Dietrian’s consideration. The loneliness that had accumulated while she washed alone seemed to melt away.
“You must have waited for a long time.”
Not long after, Dietrian returned. His hair was still damp, as if he had just washed himself, and he carried a pleasant scent.
“No, I’ve just arrived too.”
Leticia’s eyes widened slightly as Dietrian entered the room, looking very relaxed. This was a stark contrast to how troubled he had been earlier, upon learning of her injuries.
“Your Highness, did something happen?”
“What do you mean?”
“You seem to be in a good mood.”
Dietrian softly lifted the corners of his mouth and then lightly pressed his lips to her forehead.
“Yes. I received a wonderful gift.”
“A gift?”
Leticia perked up her ears, but Dietrian just smiled without saying anything.
‘The gift… Is he talking about the sack Banessa brought earlier?’
She was curious about what it could be, but Leticia didn’t ask further. If it was something she was meant to know, Dietrian would have told her already.
‘Anyway, as long as Dietrian is happy, that’s what matters.’
Leticia smiled broadly. Dietrian’s happiness was her happiness. And it was Banessa, who had brought happiness to him, who now shared surprising news.
“Hmm, cough. I have become the Her Highness’s… wing.”
Banessa’s face turned tomato red as he spoke.
* * *
Meanwhile, as Banessa was informing Leticia of her awakening, a small commotion broke out among the imperial troops crossing the desert towards the empire.
“Lord Ahwin, are you alright?”
A knight asked with concern.
“…Do not worry.”
“But your complexion is still…”
“Enough.”
Ahwin’s face was pale as death, resembling a corpse. He gave the knight a cold look.
“Leave. There’s no need for concern anymore.”
“Ah, understood.”
Ahwin’s complexion was pallid, but the imposing presence of a wing remained.
The knight quickly bowed and stepped back.
After sitting against a tree for a moment, Ahwin stood up.
He felt intense pain in his broken leg.
Yet, he walked as if the pain in his leg was nothing.
A more terrible event had occurred half an hour earlier.
He was riding at full speed when suddenly he felt as if his heart was being ripped out while still alive.
The pain was so excruciating that it momentarily blinded him.
The shock caused him to tumble off his horse.
Because he was galloping at full speed, he lost consciousness for a moment.
When he regained his senses, the excruciating pain had subsided.
Although the shock from the fall remained, being a wing, his physical wounds would soon heal.
The problem was the sudden, soul-shaking pain he had experienced.
Ahwin looked towards the Principality with a pale face.
‘Something has happened to Lady Leticia.’
The nature of the pain he felt.
It was what a wing experienced when their master faced a crisis.
As the agent of the goddess, the soul’s master of the wing, any crisis encountered is transmitted to the wing.
It was a principle similar to how the agent’s emotions are conveyed to the wing.
‘To feel it despite such distance.’
Ahwin clenched his fist.
From where he was to the Principality, it would take at least a week’s ride on horseback.
For such a terrible shock to be transmitted over this long distance meant one thing.
‘It means Lady Leticia’s life was nearly lost.’
Given the severity of the pain, it was not an ordinary crisis. It was clear someone had tried to kill her.
‘At least it seems she’s gotten better now.’
This fact, too, he could discern because he was a wing.
If Leticia had indeed perished, Ahwin would not be in his right mind by now.
The shock of the master being assassinated would have driven him mad or caused him to go on a rampage, killing everyone around him.
But he was intact.
The excruciating pain had completely disappeared.
Instead, the power of the wing flowing within him had grown stronger.
It meant Leticia had completely overcome the crisis and become stronger.
Yet, Ahwin could not find it in himself to be at ease.
Leave a Reply