I Just Wanted to Avoid Death - Chapter 186
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Only when Adelio pulled back slightly and met his eyes could Yeshion continue.
“……Let’s go out again.”
“Just the two of us?”
“Uh… all of us together?”
“I want to go with just you.”
“We can go with everyone first, and then just the two of us later.”
Adelio chuckled and ruffled Yeshion’s hair before pressing his forehead against his.
“When spring comes, there’s this beautiful spot behind the Imperial Palace where the flowers bloom beautifully. There’s a lake too, and you can sail a boat. Everyone says having a picnic there is their dream.”
“There’s a place like that?”
“Yeah, it’s a place only royals can enter.”
Adelio didn’t avert his gaze as he looked steadily into Yeshion’s eyes. His expression clearly urged Yeshion to say what he wanted to hear.
Meeting his gaze, Yeshion let out a small laugh and said,
“Then let’s go there, just the two of us.”
“Leave the others behind?”
“Yes, leave everyone else behind.”
Adelio pressed a satisfied kiss to Yeshion’s lips.
“Eek!”
And only then did Yeshion realize it.
That they were standing at the temple entrance. The temple entrance, where countless people came and went, and where all eyes would inevitably be drawn.
* * *
A week passed after that.
And an eerie current began to flow through the capital.
“T-The well water……!”
The water from wells near the Imperial Palace had turned as red as blood, and in more distant places, the wells had dried up completely.
Every flower in the park where the Empress often took walks with the Emperor had withered.
Rumors even began to spread that a plague had broken out in remote regions.
Speculation ran rampant among the people.
Among them, the theory that gained the most traction was that the temple had hosted a long-forbidden festival, and it was one that had angered the gods.
Especially since the figurehead of the event had been none other than Adelio, whose reputation was already fraught with scandal. It was only natural, they said, that the gods would be enraged.
But Eldis responded firmly.
“Since someone who should never have taken part in the festival appeared. Of course the gods would be furious.”
Though he never said who that someone was, many guessed it was the Empress. She had been the very reason the festival hadn’t been held for so long.
With Eldis’s statement, it was as if someone had hurled a great stone into still water. Ripples surged outward.
“There’s been an anonymous tip-off. The Empress tried to have me killed through a proxy.”
“I-I received one too! It seemed like it came from someone who once followed her. There was even evidence attached!”
Thanks to the evidence Yeshion had held, the nobles exploded.
Normally, Veronica would have stepped in and quelled such a disturbance immediately, but now, she was nowhere to be found.
Even Baine, who had served under her, and the rest of her followers… every one of them had vanished without a trace. Only the evidence of the crimes they had committed remained.
Within less than a month of these rumors spreading, the Imperial Palace grasped the gravity of the situation. They summoned every member of the nobility, even regional lords, provided they claimed to have proof.
And with them, they called for Archpriest Eldis as well.
“It’s all going according to plan.”
Eldis smiled faintly as he spoke.
As everything unfolded with stunning speed, Yeshion couldn’t hide his astonishment as he looked up at him.
“How did you do it? The evidence, sure, but the natural phenomena……”
“I simply stopped praying.”
“……Praying?”
“Yes. I stopped praying for the peace of the Empire. Didn’t I tell you? One can do more than you think with divine power.”
Eldis had warded off the malice that crept through the Empire by offering daily prayers. He subdued all manner of plagues and even suppressed emotional disturbances in the people.
He could quell the impulse for rebellion, purge disease, and even manage water quality.
“……Isn’t divine power just…… too powerful? If you wanted, you could practically shake an entire nation.”
“That’s why priests don’t involve themselves in worldly affairs. Especially the Archpriests.”
Eldis smiled as he said it.
But for some reason, that smile felt cold enough to make Yeshion swallow dryly without realizing.
“If someone really wanted to kill…… could they?”
“They could. Probably the easiest thing for a priest. After all, it’s just a matter of taking back the divine power that sustains life.”
Yeshion’s lips trembled faintly.
……No matter how he looked at it, the strongest person in this world wasn’t anyone else but Eldis.
