It Seems Like The Infamous Trash Can is Right Here! - Chapter 26
Lionel tilted his head slightly toward me and asked.
“Do you have any intention of leaving the priesthood?”
“What? Why are you asking all of a sudden…?”
“You suggested I consider marriage, didn’t you?”
To be precise, I hadn’t really suggested it. I had merely remarked that, if there were anything left for him to accomplish in life, marriage might be one of them.
But what did that have to do with me leaving the priesthood?
The conversation was so perplexing that I felt a cold sweat forming.
For some reason, I had an inexplicable sense of foreboding….
“If you were to marry me, Priestess, wouldn’t that mean you’d have to abandon thoughts of returning to the monastery?”
Oh.
Oh…?
For a moment, I was utterly speechless.
“Wh-What do you mean by that…?”
Did I hear him right?
“I want the priestess to stay in my mansion. And I also need a spouse. If you and I marry, we can solve all these problems at once.”
Suddenly, Lionel’s pleasing voice sounded like nonsense barking in my ears.
“This seems like the best option I can choose. What do you think?”
What do I think? What am I supposed to think?
If my patience were just a little thinner, I might have said something like:
“Why on earth would I marry you? Are you out of your mind?!”
Even if I toned it down, my disbelief would still have been glaringly obvious, so I chose to keep my mouth shut instead.
“You seem flustered by the sudden proposal. I understand completely.”
That’s a lie. A blatant, bald-faced lie.
Lionel didn’t look like he understood a thing.
“Your Grace.”
After finally calming myself, I asked a question.
“Do you know my name?”
“Your name, Priest?”
“Yes, I’ve told you before. Did you perhaps forget?”
There was no hint of awkwardness on Lionel’s face, no sign of embarrassment at having forgotten my name.
He simply stared intently into my eyes, as if trying to discern the purpose of my question.
Sasha. Or Serenia Solen.
It seemed he was deliberating over which name would be more advantageous to use.
“It doesn’t make sense to marry someone whose name you don’t even know. If we were madly in love, it might be different, but I’m just a mere priestess and you are the head of a great noble house.”
I stared directly into Lionel’s eyes, waiting for his response.
A long silence stretched between us.
During that time, the sun dipped lower, bathing the world in a warm, reddish glow.
For some reason, as he stood there against the backdrop of the setting sun, he seemed achingly lonely. Or perhaps, just utterly exhausted.
“…Love.”
His lips, which had seemed unlikely to part, finally released a single word.
And then, after another beat of silence, he spoke again.
“Do I just have to love you, Priestess, so much to the point of death?”
This time, I couldn’t find the words to respond.
I couldn’t bring myself to argue that love wasn’t the issue—not when he looked like someone truly cornered, someone at the edge of desperation.
I slowly lowered my gaze.
Lionel was still holding my hand.
His grip was gentle enough that I could easily pull away if I wanted to, but he cupped my hand lightly between both of his, as if cradling something fragile.
Unable to reject him outright, nor give him an answer, I murmured softly,”I don’t know.”
The problem was that my response made him smile again.
Why?
Why does he keep smiling like that?
The man described as expressionless, emotionless—why is he so generous with his smiles now?
“Priestess.”
“…Yes.”
Half-turned away, I replied curtly.
“Now that I know your name, may I call you by it?”
I glanced at him, and his faintly smiling face lit up slightly as he parted his lips.
“Serenia.”
Not Sasha, but Serenia—he called me by my name.
“Serenia Solen.”
He repeated it, this time with my full name, and then added:
“You already know my name, Priest. So we aren’t strangers unaware of each other’s names.”
As if the only thing left now was to love me to death, he stepped closer, linked his arm with mine again, and smiled.
He really was… just a little insane.
