Rosie sat in silence, her breath trembling with fear.
Caliban, watching Rosie unable to answer, knelt down and gently grabbed her shoulder.
“Is it true? Is it really... really true that you were experinted on? Huh? Why won’t you answer?”
Rosie’s lips trembled. Then, barely managing to speak, she stamred,
“G-Grandfather... H-how do you even know about... e-experints...?”
“You were! Weren’t you? You were experinted on, weren’t you?!”
Caliban shouted with a face full of anguish.
“AHAHAHAHAHA!”
At that very mont, Cecil burst into wild laughter.
“What is this? AHAHAHAHAHA! You were one of the wretches too?! AHAHAHAHA! And you sohow got lucky enough to survive and even leave the Temple?”
Cecil’s voice was now tinged with madness.
“Damn it, I can’t believe this is actually happening... Those worthless fools must’ve made a mistake, huh? Or maybe Julian Noart played so kind of trick from the start?”
Caliban clicked his tongue in disbelief.
Cecil had ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) conducted so many experints on wretches that she didn’t even rember whether Rosie had been among them.
“AHAHAHAHA! Then even if you’re pretending to be fine, you must be broken sowhere! AHAHAHA!”
Cecil’s voice was utterly deranged, trembling like a dance of madness.
“You’d better watch out.”
A chilling curse spilled from her lips without restraint.
“The Temple is going to wipe out every last Noart. You’re just a Temple slave who used to mop up the laboratories. You’ve grown far too bold.”
At those words, Rosie finally ca to her senses, panting as she shouted back.
“Yes, I’ve grown a lot. And I’ll keep growing.”
Her legs were still trembling violently. Fire gently propped up her swaying body.
“And the Noarts will survive to the end. But you... you’ll die first, in disgrace, as the Temple’s sha.”
“What?”
“Do you really think the Temple is going to save you? I seriously doubt it.”
And as she finished speaking, the Imperial Guard burst in under royal decree to arrest a black magician.
Julian caught Rosie as she staggered and nearly collapsed.
“...Experints...”
His eyes blazed with fury. He was so enraged, he couldn’t even raise his voice.
“How dare they... experint... on our little girl...”
Then, as if the tension had finally broken, Rosie slumped into Julian’s arms.
Zahid, watching it all unfold, stared in disbelief.
His clenched fists were trembling.
* * *
I jolted awake.
The morning sunlight stread brightly into the room.
“Ah!”
Startled, I sat up—and heard a groan.
Right beside my bed, hunched over in a chair, was Zahid.
“Huh? Zahid? Zahid!”
“You’re awake?”
His complexion looked even worse than I rembered.
As I blinked in confusion, Zahid swept his sweat-drenched hair back and said,
“Count Noart and Julian went to the royal tribunal. They haven’t co back yet.”
“The royal tribunal?”
“Well, they’re the central figures in this case. And the Empire is strict about black magic.”
Finally, mories of last night ca rushing back.
I had trembled helplessly again in front of Cecil, but at least I had managed to say what needed to be said in the end.
That I was human, too.
That even though I ca from a slave’s bloodline and had worthless divine power, it had been wrong of her to treat like that.
In doing so, it seed Grandfather had realized sothing about the connection between and Cecil.
‘Of course, the experints happened before I regressed... but she must’ve done so many that she didn’t even rember whether I was one of them.’
Not a bad outco for , honestly.
‘But how did Grandfather even know about the experints?’
Of course, there were slaves with even lower status than us in the Temple, but they had no divine power.
So only wretches were ever subjected to the experints.
‘Laboratory cleaning... was that the slaves’ job?’
Now that I thought about it, the priests would never have done such work.
‘Maybe they avoided letting wretches clean the labs so word wouldn’t spread...’
Most of the wretches had no idea about the experints.
If they got adopted or found family along the way, they could leave freely.
That’s why orphans with a bit of divine power often ca to the Temple without hesitation.
‘I really didn’t want to talk about this...’
Especially not to Julian. I’d been afraid it would break his heart.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
But now, there was nothing I could do about it.
‘Still, this isn’t all bad. I won’t have to explain to Grandfather how I recognized Cecil.’
The reason I hadn’t told Grandfather from the beginning was because it all happened before I regressed, and my story could’ve ended up sounding inconsistent.
And it wasn’t just any story—it involved the Temple. I was a forr wretch myself. If anything sounded off, and he started doubting , that would’ve been a huge problem.
Still, it seed he had found Cecil suspicious from the start. He had taken a lot of guards when he went to confront her.
‘Thanks to Grandfather being so cautious even in his own ho, we now have a ton of witnesses.’
Plus, Zahid’s silver mirror still remained as evidence.
‘But still... with the Temple controlling everything, can we really drag them into this?’
The Temple would almost certainly claim Cecil had acted alone.
Especially since it involved black magic.
Even Grandfather, who had always opposed the Temple, was deeply shaken by what happened.
‘And... they’ll probably kill Cecil before she can say anything that incriminates them.’
It was obvious. Cecil, who had been so loyal to the Temple, would now be eliminated by them.
‘This is just the beginning of our fight with the Temple.’
But at least now, Grandfather wouldn’t die from illness and despair.
That alone felt like a heavy burden had been lifted from my heart.
“But Zahid... why are you still here...?”
“Fire refused to leave your side.”
Zahid, still slumped beside the bed, grumbled sullenly.
“So I had no choice but to stay, too.”
“Woof! Woof woof woof!”
“So annoying. Unbelievable. Really. If it weren’t for Fire, I would’ve left imdiately.”
“Woof! Woof woof woof woof!”
...Fire looked like he had a lot to say in protest.
Just then, our eyes t quietly.
The iron bars that had always stood between us before the regression felt like a lie now.
Zahid probably couldn’t imagine how overwhelming it was for to simply be here with him.
‘If you rembered too, you’d feel like every second was a miracle, just like I do...’
As I gazed at him with a wistful expression, Zahid suddenly asked,
“What are you thinking about so hard?”
“I’m just... so happy to be with you like this. I wish ti would stop.”
“W-Why are you suddenly saying things like that...”
Zahid’s ears instantly turned bright red. He avoided my gaze and muttered,
“What’s so great about just sitting around on a bed...”
“Hmph. So I guess you don’t like it.”
“Humph.”
He bit his lip as if holding back pain, then asked,
“Anyway... you’re not hurt anywhere?”
“My heart hurts a little... Physically, you’re probably the one who’s hurting.”
“...”
And then, with a soft smile, I said,
“Thank you, Zahid.”
“...Huh?”
“Thanks to you, I was able to reach Grandfather in ti. I never even thought about riding Fire.”
“Hmph, whatever.”
Zahid scowled and grumbled.
He looked so cute doing it that I burst into a bright smile and added,
“Thanks for falling for at a ti delay and coming all the way here the day after the engagent. Thanks to you, everything turned out okay.”
“Why did you have to say ‘falling for ’ like that?”
“Oh, am I wrong? Then why did you co?”
I stared at him intently, as if I were genuinely curious. Zahid turned his gaze away, flustered.
“...Well, that is...”
A mont of silence passed.
Still leaning over beside my bed, Zahid let out a shallow breath and t my eyes.
“...Honestly, I ca because I was suspicious of you.”
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