I Just Wanted to Avoid Death - Chapter 181
Did you get hooked and started binge reading too fast? IJWTAD has advance chapters now available on ko-fi! Check it out!
With a thud, Veronica collapsed to the floor.
As if struggling to comprehend what had just happened to her, she looked up at Rosaline with a stunned expression.
Her face looked ready to leap up and kill him at any moment, yet she remained on her knees, unable to rise.
An invisible, overwhelming force held her down.
“Let go of me!”
Veronica screamed, her voice ragged with rage.
But Rosaline only looked down at her, his expression unchanged.
“How dare you… do you even know who I am? You lowly saintess, how dare you!”
“‘How dare,’ huh.”
It wasn’t Rosaline who answered.
The deep voice of a man cut through the room, and Veronica, who had been shouting so hard veins bulged in her neck, froze in place.
Slowly turning her head, she exhaled in disbelief. No one was touching her, yet it felt like something gripped and pressed down on her shoulders.
She vaguely remembered that she heard that the Archpriest was powerful enough to perform strange feats with divine power. That was why the Empress had never laid a hand on him so easily. Why Veronica had always kept her guard up around the temple.
“Every time I hear it, I wonder. You’re the one who should know your place. So why are you the one saying things like ‘how dare’?”
Eldis, speaking smoothly as ever, handed a rope to Rosaline. As if waiting for it, Rosaline immediately began binding Veronica tightly.
“You think you can get away with doing this to me?”
“And what if you don’t? You won’t even remember this happened.”
“…What?”
Veronica snapped, demanding to know what he meant, but Eldis gave no reply.
Instead, she turned a venomous glare toward Yeshion, standing a distance away.
“Stupid Yeshion. Do you really think you’ll survive after betraying her? Once they notice I’m gone, Baine will surely come for your head!”
“Oh, you mean that woman who inherited your lovely temperament?”
“……”
“That’s strange. You haven’t seen her lately, have you? If she can’t even find Priest Yeshion, how could she possibly hurt him?”
At Eldis’s words, Veronica’s face drained of color.
That alone made it clear: the Archpriest had already made his move.
“W-Why…?”
Until now, the temple had always turned a blind eye to both Yeshion and Veronica’s wrongdoings.
Even when something suspicious happened, they never intervened, maintaining a hands-off stance when it came to matters between nobles and the Imperial Family. They let them resolve things internally.
So why now, why block her path like this? And worse, why take Yeshion’s side, of all people?
“…It seems you haven’t heard the rumors yet.”
“……”
“Isn’t it only natural to want to help the person you care about?”
At Eldis’s words, Veronica scoffed.
She knew full well that the Archpriest had kept Yeshion alive because he couldn’t kill him himself. What a ridiculous excuse this was.
But Eldis no longer cared to explain anything to her. He turned his gaze instead to Yeshion.
“You did well. Yeshi—wait, you…”
As Eldis’s eyes found him, Yeshion was crouched at the door, leaning weakly against the frame.
Striding toward him, Eldis gently examined his cheek. During the process of bringing Veronica here, she must have struck him, as his cheek was now swollen and darkening with bruises.
Eldis’s face twisted, as if he’d been the one hit. He reached up and gently touched Yeshion’s cheek.
“……Are you all right?”
“I-I’m fine.”
Though he said he was fine, his voice trembled thinly.
With Veronica tied up, it wasn’t as terrifying as earlier, but just being in the same space with her still filled him with fear.
Eldis seemed to sense this, and he gently pulled Yeshion into his arms, shielding him from Veronica’s view.
Veronica let out a bitter laugh.
“……So that’s what it was. Foaming at the mouth telling everyone not to touch the Archpriest. It figures, if you two were this close.”
But no one answered her muttered spite.
