"Mother, travel safely. And if you need anything, send us a letter. This is Ben, the mage who is going to go with you to ensure your safety. He will also deliver any letter to us if you need to," I said.
Mother was going on the vacation she ntioned to Dem in a letter. Dean and I saw her off. Dem was reluctant, but I forced him to co with .
"Yes, I will. You two should be careful as well. The rebels are very active these days," Mother said. No matter how many tis I looked at her, I still could not get used to the fact that she was Dem's mother. She looked just too young. "Detrius, take care of Blue.
She is a frail child."
"I take care of her, Mother," Dem said.
"And take care of your health as well. Blue, please take care of this son of mine. He doesn't listen to . But at least, he listens to you."
"Don't worry, Mother. I will take care of him," I said.
She hugged and kissed my forehead. She did the sa with Dem. Dem did not like being touched by others, even if it was his mother. But he went along with it with an expressionless face.
"I don't know when I will be coming back. Perhaps after a month or two or more," she said.
"Why are you taking the carriage? Just use teleportation. The mage is going with you anyway. That would be faster," Dem said.
"But I want to enjoy the scenarios on the way. I think it's because I am growing old that I want to enjoy such things. Well, then, goodbye. Stay safe, okay?"
"You too, Mother," I said, waving.
The carriage slowly went out of sight. For so reason, I felt bad. When I had co to this world, I thought I would get close to Mother. But it did not happen for many reasons. Perhaps it was just never ant to happen.
Even at Luc's wedding, we talked briefly. These days, she also seed quite lifeless. It was like she had lost the purpose of life. Was this why she wanted to go to that faraway island?
"What's wrong?" Dem asked, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.
"I feel bad for so reason."
"You do? I guess you wanted to see her as your own mother," he mumbled. "It might sound harsh, but do not do it. If you want to see soone like your mother, let it be Luc's mother. But not her. I know it.
No matter what, I just know that she will never see you as her daughter. She doesn't even see her own daughter that way. She is a selfish person. I am never forgiving her."
"Yes..."
"There is no news from Luc or his new wife."
"You talk like Luc is soone who just keeps marrying and now found a new wife."
"Well, he is too much of a workaholic to do that," he said. "It's a surprise that he even got married."
"They married just four days ago. They are probably still in bed. Ruby should not be on her period anymore," I said.
"We did not stay in the bed after four days?"
"Our situation was different. You are the one who kept a distance. It was because you were being considerate of though."
"Were you waiting for all those days?"
"... Why do you make everything sound flirty?" I mumbled as my cheeks heated up.
"Judging your expression, you surely were waiting for . Don't worry. I will be more active from now on," he said.
'How more active can you be?'
"Let's just go inside. Everyone is looking at us."
"That said, what about your investigation about the temple?" he asked as we went in.
"Reece is supposed to report to today. Want to check it with ?" I asked.
"I have to go to a eting after an hour. I can do it now then."
Flint also made the potion I asked for. He said that he practiced on a rat and it worked. Knowing him, it surely was not a dead rat.
We went to my office where Reece was waiting for . He greeted us and I motioned for him to show the report.
"There is so shocking news that Your Highness will find in the report. I gathered everything there is and I am sure that I did not miss much of a thing," Reece said.
"Hmm... There are so dark rumors about the temple, it seems. The priests take money from ignorant mothers taking advantage of their beliefs and offering them fake treatnt for their ill children, one of the priests started a fight with a young man just because he stated his different thoughts, and a priest committed suicide after killing his mate...
Oh my, these things are really...," I muttered, reading the report.
"These are the top rumors. But not all of them are true. Well, the first one is accurate. Two priests mainly took money from twenty-one mothers. The amount is not less either. Most of the mothers are young or widowed and poor.
Among them, only one has a good financial condition, yet is dumb," Reece said.
"What about the other two rumors?" Dem asked.
"They are not entirely true. It's true that a priest got into a fight with a young man. But it's because that man was drunk and was telling bad things about that priest's mate. His mate is a priest as well and she was often harassed by that man before entering the temple as a priest. That's why the priest beat him up."
"He did a good job," Dem mumbled. "I would have killed him."
Priests did not marry and remained a virgin all their lives. So, even if they found their mates, their mates would either enter the temple as priests as well or get married to soone who did not care about the mate thing. There were a lot of marriages where the couple were not mates. The duke and the duchess were an example.
"And about the third rumor- the priest actually committed suicide and also killed his mate. First of all, it started with his mate going to a market and getting sexually assaulted there. The priest did not like it and killed her because of it instead of going to the People's Justice Sector. He was actually forced to be a priest by his parents for so reason and he did not like it at all.
After finding his mate, he was planning on giving up his title as a priest and marrying his mate. But well, this happened. He hung himself right after killing his mate by slashing her neck with a dull knife. Since the knife was dull, he did it several tis."
"That's... His mate is pitiful... She did nothing wrong, yet those bastards and her Satan-like mate...," I mumbled. "Dem, can you find those bastards who did it?"
"Sure, it's not impossible," he said.
"Then kill them. I don't care how you do it, just make sure that they suffer enough," I said.
"Don't worry, I will," he nodded and kissed my forehead.
"These things are written in the report as well. You can check again," Reece said.
"The newspaper ntioned the temple quite a large amount of tis in the last three months. But most of these are about them helping poor people and so quotes of the priests about faith and the goddess. There are a few that ntioned so rumors, but they are not sothing major," I said, checking the report. "The temple last hired a new priest a month ago. Nothing special about these things...
But the activities of a few priests are a bit strange."
"Three priests were spotted carrying three sa-looking suspicious little bags. Spy Raven reported that he found an illegal tablet that fell from one of their bags. This tablet is sothing that's used to hypnotize people and it has been banned by King Detrius two years ago right after discovering it. It was made by a mage who committed suicide after being found out in the sa year it was banned.
He burned himself, so his identity is unknown. The head priest was also suspiciously seen with a couple and a little girl," I read the report. "And the young girl is said to be the saint. There are saints here as well? Why did I never hear about sothing like this?"
"Well, isn't that because neither you nor your husband is religious?" Dem grumbled. "Such bullshit! What saint! They are just taking that little girl away in the na of her being a saint and having divine power! It's just plain bullshit! It's not divine power, she just has oddly gray hair and matching gray eyes that make her look blind.
They say that those eyes are the eyes of the moon goddess."
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