I Thought You Were A Sweet, Kind-Hearted Person! - Chapter 49

2.

When I opened my eyes. The dimly lit space felt strangely unfamiliar. The time must have been, just before dawn, after the darkest night had passed.

‘So, this is…….’

Beyond the neatly draped velvet canopy, I could see the ceiling beautifully decorated with a sacred painting. The silk wallpaper wasn’t particularly flashy, but its subtle reflective sheen looked quite luxurious, and everything from the paintings on the walls to the ornaments on the console was made with religious motifs.

Yes. This is the largest guest room in the Grand Temple.

Why am I here again? Yesterday…….

‘I came to the holy kingdom. Why did I come…… Ah, because Mishael had to attend the ordination ceremony.’

It was just last night’s event, but everything felt so unfamiliar for one reason.

I reflexively touched my hair and wrists. As always when I sleep, my braided hair felt soft to the touch, and my wrists were slender but not skinny, and they didn’t ache. When I reflexively touched my face, neither my cheeks seemed overly plump nor did my jawline or cheekbones stand out.

‘Ah…….’

It was wet. My cheeks were completely soaked.

Because I had been crying in my dream.

‘Right. It was a dream. I had a dream……’

Every single moment of that long period I experienced in my dream felt vividly alive. It was painful, shameful, miserable, terrifying, and hateful.

And……

Guilt, longing, and love…… such emotions still swirled beneath my throat, making it hard to breathe as if my chest was tight.

Perhaps because the only light in the space was moonlight seeping through the curtains, or because I had just woken up from a dream and was still groggy, or because the dream was too intense. It was hard for me to accept reality. It felt like coming to the holy kingdom with Mishael was something from the distant past, and yet, I could vividly see Mishael shedding tears with empty eyes as if it had just happened.

‘So…….’

―A chance to turn back life.

It means Mishael turned back time with the power of the apostle Mysiel after falling into despair.

―To repeat life while remembering it, there’s no choice but to bring along and overlay memories from a past life.

That I remember my previous life on Earth, and that I remember the life before the regression in my dream as ‘the original’…… It was all arranged by Mysiel and the Supreme God.

And……

‘I will never let her go. No matter how many times we meet again, I will always fall in love again.’

Gulp, I swallowed dryly. The overwhelming truth was too much to even put a period in my thoughts.

So, it wasn’t a dream. I hadn’t woken up from a dream; I had returned to this life.

That was reality, and what I had casually referred to as ‘the original’ was actually my first life in this world, and ‘she,’ Lionella, wasn’t a being from a different ‘original’ but was myself.

Mishael, who had loved me in my first life, turned back time after losing me.

The truth that I had never thought of during the past twenty or so years living as Lionella left me breathless. Before I knew it, my cheeks were soaked again.

***

Early morning, in the chapel of the Grand Temple.

The novitiates who would be ordained today were lined up in the central aisle of the chapel in their formal blue robes. And at the front of that line, a few priests including the Pope gathered at the altar to bless and pray for each novitiate in turn, kneeling before them.

Mishael was also at the altar with the other priests.

“In your mother’s love, you are reborn as your mother’s staff……”

As the Pope recited the prayer like a chant and anointed their foreheads with holy water, Mishael placed his hand on their heads to emit holy power. The light seeping into their foreheads was so white that if they had their eyes open, it might have blinded them.

Just like in the last scene of my dream where Mishael summoned the apostles and filled the oracle room with white light……

‘Ah, again.’

As my thoughts reached that point, my eyes began to well up again. I blinked rapidly to dry the tears welling up in my eyes.

‘Brother Anton has worked hard for me.’

Perhaps because I had cried all night while sleeping, even I was surprised by how swollen my eyes looked in the mirror. Fortunately, Anton, one of Mishael’s colleagues who Mishael had asked for help, was able to heal me with holy power, so he managed to reduce the swelling. Although it was considerably slower than the healing power Mishael showed in my dream, it still sufficiently subsided without issue.

‘I, I, I, I’m so relieved……. If this hadn’t settled down, what would have become of us…….’

Another of Mishael’s classmates, Lena, was greatly relieved when he succeeded in healing, looking like she was about to burst into tears. As soon as the morning sun rose, she came to the guest room to check on me, and it was she who was shocked at my appearance and called Anton. Would anyone think that if even a slight flaw appeared on me, Mishael wouldn’t find it amusing and might even threaten them?

Anyway, since the two of them took such great care of me, I had to finish my schedule in the holy kingdom without any problems. I quickly composed my expression and straightened my back to watch Mishael pouring holy power into the forehead of another practitioner.

Thanks to my seat being arranged at the side of the altar, right below the choir seats in the VIP section, I could enjoy the side view of Mishael without any obstructions.

Mishael, who had changed into a beige ceremonial robe and wore the ceremonial shawl and the ceremonial hat he had worn yesterday, was truly the embodiment of a priest. His sculpturally beautiful profile goes without saying, and despite likely being tired from staying up all night, his complexion was neat, and his lips were solemnly sealed, which only made him feel noble.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve never seen Mish use holy power before.’

Now that our meeting place in Trydon’s villa has become my possession, he said he had cast a mild hypnotic spell, but I had never seen him casting it.

On the other hand, in my dreams, he had no hesitation in using holy power. The night before last in my dream, he made my hair grow instantly, and last night he healed me repeatedly or hypnotized others so they couldn’t see us. Even in the last moments in the Room of Oracles…

‘Ah, this.’

My tears sprang up foolishly again. Because I realized it a bit late and wasn’t able to suppress them, the tears that overflowed from the corners of my eyes eventually streaked down my cheeks. I quickly wiped my cheeks with as expressionless a face as possible so others wouldn’t notice.

‘He would worry if they saw me like this.’

What immediately came to mind was Mishael’s tearful face…, but soon it turned into that of a man crying tears in the rain.

Maybe because I spent more than a year in my dreams. My Mishael is only a few steps away from me, yet he felt so distant. The appearance of him dressed neatly as an honorary priest overlapped with the cardinal who hurriedly climbed the bell tower looking for me in my dreams. He was five years older than the current Mishael and was wearing the red ceremonial robe of an cardinal with all sorts of decorations…

It was a moment when my heart beat strangely in the familiar unfamiliarity that was hard to define as just distance.

‘…Ah.’

Mishael, who had just poured holy power over the head of a practitioner, looked this way. A bit of liveliness appeared on his face that had been solemn all along. His eyes rounded and narrowed sweetly, and a slight smile spread across his lips with a faint arc… It was a smile only I could recognize on a face that could be considered God’s mace for its seriousness.

It was my Mishael that I know well, my Mishael whom I love.

***

“Lily.”

After the sacrament. Mishael briefly greeted the priests who came to greet him as though he was brushing them off and hurriedly approached the VIP seat. His face was filled with deep concern.

“Lily, are you okay?”

“Huh?”

“Why are your eyes red? Did something happen?”

“Oh, that’s…”

I blinked rapidly in surprise. Are my eyes still red?

“It’s because I was so moved.”

I quickly made up an excuse.

“Moved, you say…”

“When you were blessing those would-be priests earlier. It’s the first time I saw you using holy power. Watching that made me think if it weren’t for me, you would have become a proper priest.”

“Hmm…”

Mishael’s eyes narrowed as he listened to my hastily made-up excuse. He reached out to caress my cheek and then slowly wiped under my eyes with his thumb as if wiping away tears. The touched area became hot.

“…I can feel another bastard’s holy power.”

Uh, what? I flinched at his growling tone. He suddenly turned his head to look at the back of the chapel. Anton and Lena seemed to have suddenly had urgent business as they hurriedly exited through a door at that side.

“Really, nothing happened?”

“Of course. What could have happened?”

Mishael looked down at me with an unsatisfied expression for a while. Finally, he held my face with both hands and swept under my eyes with his thumbs, seemingly tracing them. His repeated gestures cooled the area under my eyes.

“…I’m better at it.”

“Huh?”

“Healing.”

I know that very well.

“Anything to do with using holy power.”

“Yeah…”

“Because I’m better at everything related to you… Don’t let other bastards touch you, okay?”

His admonishing tone was full of dissatisfaction. It seemed he had noticed that Anton used holy power to reduce the swelling in my eyes. With such powerful holy power, could he feel the traces of others? After all, in our first life, Mishael had sensed his own holy power within me and found me.

As memories of my past life naturally surfaced in my dreams, my heart felt heavy again. Did I unknowingly make a gloomy face?

“……As expected, I should talk to the order and tell them I won’t be coming next time.”

Mishael, who had been intently looking at my face, muttered in a grim voice.

“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t… think such things…”

“Oh, no, no…!”

Startled by his voice filled with indignation, I waved my hands frantically. Having seen Mishael’s sharp criticism of the order yesterday and today, I was worried he might go to the Pope right away and speak rudely.

“Just, it suits you too well, that’s why I thought so. That’s not true, okay?”

“Not true……?”

“Yes, really! My fiancé, how could I have gotten you back from the holy kingdom? I’ll never send you away. It’s just something I imagined because it won’t happen. Didn’t I say I would take care of you for life, hm?”

As I poured out words cheerfully like a machine gun, Mishael looked at me skeptically, narrowing his brows. Then, seemingly satisfied, he relaxed his solemn face and lowered his eyebrows.

“We’re both tied to the holy kingdom for one day each year, you and me.”

“It’s bothersome, but……”

Mishael was originally a being abundantly loved by the deity. Whether he became a priest or not didn’t seem to bother the deity. In his past life, Mishael reincarnated to dive into the political world of Lycius, and in this life, he actually reincarnated without any issues. If the deity had wanted him to use the powerful holy power bestowed upon him solely for himself, he wouldn’t have been left to reincarnate so easily every time.

The answer lay in a dream, that is, in what Mysiel said before Mishael turned back time.

―There is neither cost nor qualification for Mother’s love.

The deity loved him not as a being who briefly visits this world in the cycle of reincarnation but as a soul she crafted herself. There was no reason for this love, nor did it seek anything in return as compensation. There was no particular path prepared for him.

Born with immense holy power, he could stay in the holy kingdom if he wished, but he was free to go anywhere at any time.

Among those numerous choices, Mishael chose me.

All he wants is to be by my side.

In his past life and in this one too.

To the point of using all his power at the end of his life to fiercely rebuke the apostle.

“Mish.”

“Yes.”

“Do you really not regret it?”

“Lily……!”

Mishael exclaimed as if it was unfair for him to jump up.