Something pale and indistinct was coming this way. At a glance, it looked like the saint.

‘There’s no way the saint would come back, right? What business could he have in this side room?’

Her eyes widened as she muttered to herself, and then the doorknob turned with a clatter.

‘No! If they catch me hiding here, the manager might scold me.’

Lev hastily squeezed herself into the sacred objects cabinet. The cabinet door slammed shut just as the side room door opened.

“…….”

The gap was quite large, so the girl could see outside. As expected, the person who entered the room was the saint. She could tell from the way the light streaming through the tiny crack seemed so grand. The scent of pure chrism reached all the way inside the cabinet.

‘He doesn’t seem to know I was here. Thank goodness.’

Unlike what she’d thought—that he must have some purpose—the saint just stood there silently. 

He stood with his back to the beam of light pouring through the palm-sized window. For a while, he remained still, facing the wall and breathing peacefully. It was somewhat strange.

‘Ah…….’

Lev, who had planned to wait quietly until the stranger left, encountered a major obstacle. It was a strange sensation tickling her arm. Dozens of wriggling movements felt through the white fabric of her novice nun’s habit. Based on the feeling, it was a centipede with at least thirty legs.

Gasp. Lev clamped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming. Then she shook her arm in small movements, hoping this wretched creature would lose interest and crawl down. 

No, it didn’t even need to go down—she just wished it would stop moving. But it stubbornly climbed up her arm, opposite to her hopes.

At this rate, it might climb to her shoulder, then her neck, and finally leave its disgusting trail all over her face.

Her unlucky imagination amplified her childish fear. 

When Lev squeezed her eyes shut, moisture seeped out. Rustle, rustle. Even as this soldier from h*ll nearly finished climbing her arm, the saint didn’t leave the room. He was probably staring at the mirror hanging on the wall. 

She felt like she’d die from frustration that the boy wouldn’t leave quickly.

When the dense, packed movements reached her shoulder, her breath caught so sharply she nearly choked.

Bang—!

The girl burst out of the sacred objects cabinet without realizing it.

What she faced was Saint Solaith wearing a bewildered expression. The boy stared at her with round eyes. Lev kept her hand clamped over her mouth, breathing heavily through her nose. 

Teardrops hung beneath her thin eyelids.

Seen up close, the boy radiated the most difficult aura of anyone she’d ever met. The air around him felt cool, like some kind of barrier existed. Fortunately, his overwhelming presence that demanded immediate prostration neutralized the disgust of the insect.

The silence stretched on. Realizing things had gone wrong, Lev had no room for pretense. She removed the hand covering her mouth and barely managed to speak.

“On, on your shoulder… in… sect…….”

Her pale lips quivered, producing a tearful sound.

Then the saint quietly approached. He slowly reached out and carefully removed the caterpillar stuck to her shoulder. Then he placed it gently on the nearby wall. The insect began crawling upward along the beam of light from the window.

Looking at it now, it was a very tiny green caterpillar. The way it curled its belly and wriggled seemed earnest, like it was searching for lost family.

‘It… it wasn’t a centipede?’

If she’d known it was such a small caterpillar, she wouldn’t have burst out of the cabinet. Lev stood dumbfounded with emptiness and self-reproach.

“Are you alright?”

Then the saint asked the girl carefully.

The face that had felt cool enough to slap her cheek was actually warm like sunshine when seen up close. The boy’s eyes curved with concern upon discovering her tears.

“Th, thank… no. Sorry…… no. I apolo…….”

Lev stumbled over her words like she was broken. 

The person before her was royalty—someone before whom citizens must not hold their heads high, and even monks must not look at directly. When she squeezed her eyes shut with belated instinct, the teardrops that had been forming fell with a plop onto the brick floor.

“Ah…. Please don’t cry. And there’s no need to apologize. But why were you trapped in the cabinet?”

He spoke to Lev in a very mature tone, seemingly trying to comfort her. He looked concerned that she might have been locked in there due to some unfortunate incident.

Lev couldn’t confess in the slightest that she’d been hiding in the side room to spy on the saint’s service and had hidden in the cabinet to avoid him, so she tried desperately to make excuses.

“I, I came in to clean, and… I ended up here by accident……. I missed my chance to leave, so I just stayed.”

But the saint was quick-witted. There was no reason a young servant girl would clean the chapel side room during mass.

“Were you perhaps hiding to listen to the service? Because you’re not allowed to have a seat?”

Caught red-handed, Lev reflexively confessed the truth.

“Well…. Yes. Actually.”

The boy made a sorrowful expression. He recalled that there had been no lower-class believers or servants when he conducted the service. But there was nothing to be done about customs that continued like laws in the temple. Sadness appeared in his clear eyes.

“That’s truly heartbreaking. I’m sorry. Let me apologize.”

His manner of speaking was so mature you’d wonder if he was really a fourteen-year-old kid. 

Though Lev was two years older, she blushed with embarrassment at feeling so much more awkward than him, and squeezed out words of thanks.

The saint smiled gently at her stiff greeting, then asked her name.

“I, I am called Lev, Your Holiness.”

Lev was the name of a sinful woman who appeared in scripture. Though she was a woman the divine loved dearly, her sin of betraying him disrupted the world’s order. 

She didn’t know why she’d been given this name, but it left her uncomfortable every time she introduced herself. But what she heard was an answer she never imagined.

“Lev…. It’s a progressive name, and a beautiful one that conveys the Holy Spirit’s affection. I am called Solaith.”

If someone else had said it, she would have thought they were mocking her, but since it came from the saint’s mouth, she felt no resentment. 

Instead, her heart brightened considerably. Affection? Could it really be a name that conveyed such a grand emotion? 

Feeling pleased, Lev wanted to compliment his name too.

“Solaith……. Your Holiness’s name is truly beautiful. Is that your first name? I heard that royalty have multiple names.”

Solaith flinched in surprise. Ah, a mistake. It was the moment when it became clear she secretly knew he was a prince. Servants, after all, weren’t supposed to gossip freely about people of high rank.

“You know of me?”

“W-well, actually, I heard it the day Your Holiness arrived. The rumor that Your Holiness was a prince. I heard it at dinner, but please don’t tell the priests that we talked about such things…….”

When she bowed her head deeply and pleaded, he waved his hand slightly.

“Not at all. What does it matter if you know? I was simply curious, that’s all. Please don’t worry.”

And he said that Solaith was indeed his first name, and when combined with his second and third names and family name, it became ‘Solaith El Magnus Yusdainut.’

It truly was an incredibly long name. Lev murmured it softly, repeating it once more, and the saint smiled at the sight.

“If it’s too cumbersome, just call me Laith.”

“No. I couldn’t possibly.”

How could she dare call His Imperial Highness the Prince—no, His Holiness the Saint—by a shortened nickname? 

Even Lev, a temple cleaner with little education and narrow experience, knew that would be a great discourtesy.

“I’ll memorize it perfectly, Your Holiness…….”

When Lev said this while blushing, Solaith smiled brightly, showing his straight teeth. His crimson lips were like strawberries holding dew, and his white teeth beneath were as white and clean as the silk clothes he wore.

It was a moment when admiration naturally arose.

“How old are you, Lev?”

“I’m sixteen.”

“I didn’t realize. I thought you were younger than me or the same age.”

The diet provided by the temple wasn’t lacking in nutrients, but Lev had a small appetite and was a picky eater. Added to that, her frame was thin and small compared to her peers, so she looked three or four years younger to others. 

Seeing as she hadn’t even gotten her first period yet, her growth must be slow somehow.

“Ah, I’m sorry. Was that rude of me just now? Then I should call you older sister.”

Lev was about to get somewhat indignant at him poking a sore spot when she was startled by a term she’d never heard in her life.

“Older sister? That’s absolutely not appropriate, Your Holiness.”

She’d never been called “older sister” even by the kid next door who worked the fields. 

Lev had only encountered the word “sis” in a babbling voice full of playfulness at best, so the highly respectful term “older sister” was even more unfamiliar. Moreover, to hear such a thing from His Holiness the Saint.

Lev shook her head and palms at almost the same speed, firmly refusing.

“……I see, it would be rude to call you that?”

“…….”

“Actually, I’m just so happy to meet someone my age—no, someone young—here.”

He spoke in a lonely voice, like he was confessing a secret. Then suddenly, she seemed to understand why he’d come to the chapel side room without saying anything. So she asked to confirm.

“Your Holiness. The reason you came to this room, could it be…….”

“Ah, actually…. I came to calm my trembling heart. I’m going to conduct an outdoor Eucharistic procession later, and I’m scared I might make a mistake.”