‘Should I return to the capital? Can I do that? But if I go back, Lady Leticia said I would make her unhappy. I can’t disobey an order that was given so explicitly.’
She was just looking at the receding black castle walls, unable to decide, when from a distance, a blurry wolf joyfully flew towards her.
“Behemoth!”
Noel quickly leaned out of the window.
“Behemoth! Come quickly! It’s urgent!”
Behemoth immediately increased its speed.
In the blink of an eye, it approached and swooshed into the carriage.
It then sniffed the sleeping Ahwin’s face, then pressed its nose against her. It looked up at Noel, tilting its head.
[Master Ahwin seems fine, though?]
“It’s not about Ahwin. We need to go back to the capital right now. There’s something I must tell Prince Calisto.”
[Prince Calisto?]
“Yes. But Behemoth, do you have the ability to hide a note?”
[Hmph]
Behemoth, with the note in its mouth, shook its head in difficulty. The note was clearly visible in the translucent spirit’s mouth. To others, it would look like a note just floating in the air.
“What to do.”
Behemoth nudged Ahwin’s hand with his nose while he whined earnestly.
[Whine! Mph!]
“Ah, it’s difficult alone, but it might be okay once Ahwin wakes up?”
Behemoth wagged its tail excitedly. Noel carefully interlocked fingers with Ahwin.
“Okay. Let’s try waking Ahwin.”
At that moment, her divine power began to flow into Ahwin’s body.
* * *
In the divine palace, spies planted by Calisto still lingered. Thanks to them, Calisto could monitor Josephina’s movements as if looking into his palm.
“Your Majesty, it is as you said. Josephina failed to summon the beasts. Not a single one appeared.”
“Josephina claims that this incident is due to the wrath of the goddess. She insists on performing rituals to appease the goddess’s anger.”
“Several paladins and clerics have been summarily executed. They were said to have provoked the goddess’s wrath. No evidence was shown, however.”
The informants spoke admiringly, internally impressed. Everything was unfolding as Calisto had predicted.
Listening, Calisto grimaced. The praise from his informants should have been directed towards Leticia, not him. The grand divine palace should have belonged to Leticia, not Josephina.
Yet she had enjoyed none of it.
Not once in her life.
Each time he thought about it, his stomach churned. Thus, he tried to distract himself.
‘I think I understand why Noel Armos said such mad things.’
The words about enduring the agony of the oath to protect Leticia. To Calisto, who had suffered from this pain all his life, it had sounded like madness. Now, he understood.
‘Having lived a life being constantly deprived, it’s only natural she’d be overly dramatic.’
Gradually, Calisto began to feel the same emotions. His reaction was the exact opposite of Noel’s. He found these intense emotions to be dangerous.
‘This is dangerous. I must be wary.’
Calisto had fought against the power of Josephina, who tried to control him his whole life. Even though Leticia was different from Josephina, being an agent of the goddess, the idea of her power dominating him was intolerable.
‘Perhaps the new saintess is more dangerous. I have no desire to resist her at all.’
Therefore, he struggled more to keep his rationale. He hated the idea of losing himself to the whirlwind of his feelings. He had not sworn loyalty to her, despite being fiercely attracted to her, precisely for this reason.
“This fate of the wings, truly detestable.”
Calisto frowned slightly. The first thing he had done after learning magic was to seal the divine power within his body. Since then, he had never used the goddess’s power. He was sick of living as a winged being.
‘I’ll help her in the divine palace for now, and afterwards, I need to distance myself.’
Since Leticia had saved him, he owed her a debt, and he would help her in this place.
‘I will ensure that whatever she desires, she can achieve it perfectly.’
So that she could return to her Principality without any worries, and if possible, continue to live comfortably even after that.
His plans had far exceeded merely “repaying a debt,” but Calisto was not aware of it.
* * *
Preparations for the ritual to be offered to the goddess typically took a whole month.
The bodies of the clerics participating in the ritual had to be purified, and the temple had to be tidied. There was also a period when the entire capital prayed to welcome the goddess.
However, Josephina skipped all these steps. She rushed the preparations for the ritual as if roasting beans on a lightning bolt.
“The price of violating causality will be paid after manipulating the oracle.”
Manipulating the oracle was tantamount to intervening in the fate of the gods. Many lives had to be sacrificed, but Josephina felt not a shred of guilt.
All she needed was to regain her authority. And she believed it would happen, until Calisto came to see her.
“I will also participate in the ritual.”
“The prince himself?”
“Yes.”
Calisto leaned back in his chair, crossing one leg over the other and casually lifting the corner of his mouth.
“Didn’t you say that the troubles at the divine palace were a sign of disaster? Since the disaster occurred due to the goddess’s wrath, the royal family should also participate.”
Josephina clenched her teeth. She looked as though she might unleash a torrent of curses if she opened her mouth.
“Damn you, what are you plotting?”
Calisto was not supposed to be able to interfere in her affairs. The pain of the oath still weighed heavily on him. But his mere presence was an irritation. More so as her authority as a saintess was crumbling.
“There must be a cause for the goddess’s wrath. Someone must have sinned. The imperial family, representing the Holy Empire, is not free from guilt and must bear responsibility.”
“The guilty have already been beheaded! I tell you, corrupt clerics and knights have been summarily executed. The royal family has no business interfering!”
“How many times must I say the same thing? It’s not interference; it’s taking responsibility.”
Calisto spoke arrogantly.
“I ask you, saintess, does the death of sinners erase all traces of their crimes? I think not.”
“How can you be so sure!”
“If this issue could have been resolved by their deaths, the beasts that fled would have returned by now. But have they? No. That leaves only one answer. To appease the goddess’s wrath, something greater than the lives of those sinners is needed.”
“Talk is cheap! You’ve just stood by all this time and now you claim you want to take responsibility? How exactly do you plan to take responsibility?”
“I intended to participate in the ritual and offer sincere prayers of atonement to the goddess. But if that’s not enough.”
Calisto smirked, lifting one side of his mouth.
“Then I must confess my sins before everyone.”
“Sins?”
“Despite being the First Wing, I have never felt any reverence for you, saintess. I intend to reveal this to all the people. Born a wing and yet I rejected the fate of the wings. What greater sin could there be?”
Josephina nearly twisted Calisto’s neck. His so-called ‘confession of sins’ was really a threat of mutual destruction.
“You’re going to reveal that the First Wing has been ignoring me all this time? Are you telling me to die?”
As soon as Calisto declared that, suspicion toward Josephina would turn into a massive wave.
She could see the future where this wave swallowed up everything she had. Rage surged to the tips of her hair as her body trembled.
“That would indeed be troublesome, wouldn’t it?”
Calisto said in an exaggerated tone.
“Then there remains only one path.”
Calisto rose from his seat. He placed a hand over his chest and arrogantly bowed his head.
“I’ll see you at the ritual.”
* * *
“Are you really going to attend the ritual ‘in that form’?”
“Yes, I am.”
Leticia nodded. Calisto, taken aback, asked incredulously,
“Your wings will go mad if they learn of this. Knowing that, you still intend to proceed with such a dangerous act?”
Josephina was going to open the ritual to manipulate the oracle. Then, with Leticia’s help, who was well-versed in the oracle, Calisto planned to expose its vulnerabilities.
That had been the original plan.
However, just before attending the ritual, Leticia suddenly proposed a new plan.
“I would like to attend the ritual in my true form. Could Your Highness cast an illusion spell for me?”
That meant Leticia intended to reveal her true form in front of Josephina and the other clerics.
Entering the temple in the guise of Yerina was risky enough.
But to reveal her true form…
To Calisto, Leticia’s choice seemed like suicide.
Just the thought of Leticia making such a dangerous choice was agonizing.
“This is madness. Josephina will not leave you alone.”
“How many times have I told you? Lord Sigmund is supporting me.”
“Yes. Maybe you’ll be safe from Josephina this time. But what about next time? What will you do then?”
If Josephina learns that Leticia is truly an agent of the goddess, she certainly won’t sit idly by.
“She will stop at nothing to trample the Principality. She might even declare war.”
“That’s likely.”
“Is this something to be so casual about?”
“I can’t spend my life running from my mother.”
“There is a right time for everything. But why choose now?”
“Your Highness, do you know what I vowed when I first returned to the capital?”
“A vow? Why bring up a vow all of a sudden…”
“I vowed to become a calamity.”
“A calamity?”
“If my mother manipulates the oracle to accuse my loved ones as the harbingers of disaster, then I vowed to become a real calamity for my mother.”
Leticia stared calmly at Calisto.
“I had to protect my people, even if it meant becoming a calamity.”
“To protect your people, even if it means becoming a calamity.”
Calisto grimaced sharply.
“It sounds like you’re completely disregarding your own safety in the process.”
“I appreciate your concern. However, I don’t think it’s your place to interfere.”
“I don’t have the right to interfere with your well-being?”
“No. You are not my wing, Your Highness.”
Leticia smiled gently as she drew the line. Calisto glared at her. His heart ached every time Leticia smiled like that.
“So, you’re saying I should swear loyalty if I want to interfere? What a way to coerce a vow of loyalty.”
“Your Highness, do you wish to swear loyalty to me?”
“No.”
Calisto denied it outright.
“I’ve cursed the fate of the wings all my life. Helping you now is just a way of repaying my debt. So…”
“Then don’t do it.”
“…What do you mean by not becoming your wing?”
“It’s okay not to be a wing, Your Highness. Please don’t.”
Leticia smiled warmly.
It was an incredibly tender smile.
Calisto felt his heart sink.
“You really don’t need to make any vows of loyalty.”
“What’s your angle?”
“There’s no ulterior motive. I just hope that you can finally be at ease. You’ve suffered enough as a wing under my mother. I understand that you don’t want to live as a wing anymore. I really do.”
Calisto’s mind was in disarray at these completely unexpected words.
A saintess telling me I don’t need to live as a wing.
Is it sincere? Can I trust it?
Can I really escape the fate of the wings?
Would he have hated his destiny as much if he had initially met Leticia as his master instead of Josephina?
No, the question was unnecessary.
He had known the answer in his heart all along.
He wished for the woman before him to be safe.
He hoped that not even a fingertip of hers would be harmed.
He didn’t have time to ponder the reason for his wish.
Hesitation could lead his only savior to walk into danger herself.
Calisto closed his eyes.
He sighed softly and then whispered,
“…It seems I must make a vow after all.”
“What?”
“If I become your wing, then I have the right to stop you.”
Calisto stepped forward towards Leticia.
He gently grasped her wrist and bowed deeply.
“I ask you, true agent of the goddess.”
His lips lightly touched the back of her hand.
A gesture of perfect submission that made Leticia’s eyes widen in surprise.
“If you permit it.”
He lifted his gaze slightly.
“For you, I will become the calamity of this divine palace.”
At that moment, the divine power he had long sealed away awakened. It began to mingle with a mighty magical force.
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