He was still concealing his identity, but for now, just the name was enough.

From that point on, Haven stopped questioning everything Ella gave him. Occasionally, when their eyes met, he would flush and look away.

Even when his back was turned, she could feel his gaze following her.

Compared to Marian’s memories, it had taken twice as long as before the return.

‘I suppose I should be grateful it was only two weeks.’

She had expected it to take even longer.

Since she had saved him through medical treatment rather than healing ability, she had prepared herself to wait far longer. His recovery speed being this fast had been entirely unexpected.

Either way, she had managed to shorten the time, and that was a relief.

Ella picked up a clean bandage and antiseptic and said, “Could you take off your shirt?”

Haven, who had been drinking water, abruptly started coughing.

Whether it was from choking or some other reason, the back of his neck and the curve of his ear went red.

“……W, what do you mean by that……”

“I need to clean the wound.”

“Ah…… yes.”

His answer came slowly, but Haven fumbled out of his clothes with considerably more haste. The bandages unwound, and the solid lines of his body came into view.

Ella brought her face close to his bare upper body.

Every time her hands touched him, his muscles flinched. His chest, held full as though he were holding his breath, would occasionally go completely still.

“Hmm, the wounds have definitely closed up a lot.”

When Ella’s breath grazed his skin, Haven’s throat moved in a deep, visible swallow.

When she blew softly on the antiseptic she was applying, he stopped breathing altogether.

“Does it sting?”

“……”

Haven managed a small shake of his head, and she slowly wound the bandage around him.

Silence settled between them. Nothing but the soft, whispering sound of the rolled bandage wrapping and grazing skin.

‘He’s not even breathing.’

She could feel his tension. The heat-laden gaze that brushed against her cheek from time to time was something Ella welcomed.

Only after the bandage was knotted did Haven let out a long, deep breath.

“……I don’t think this kind of treatment is necessary anymore.”

“Not yet. It would be serious if it festered.”

“I’m really fine. It won’t fester even if you leave it alone.”

“……”

It wasn’t an empty claim. His color had clearly improved compared to before.

But that was exactly what worried Ella.

If he recovered any faster, it would become a problem.

‘I’ll have to cut the medicine.’

For now, it was better if he depended on her for everything. Everything he received or consumed needed to pass through her hands.

She also needed to be the only source of warmth he could feel.

“I’ll keep watching for a few more days.”

“……”

As Ella prepared to leave for the temple, Haven asked, “Why did you help me?”

He must have been turning it over in his mind for some time. The look in his eyes as they met hers was serious.

She had prepared an answer for exactly this question, but the anger knotted inside her made it come out a beat slower than planned.

“……It was the duty I owed as a priest who serves the divine.”

“Duty?”

The hand Ella had curled into a fist went white.

She measured her breathing carefully so that nothing worse would slip out.

“S…… Solea…… loves all people regardless of their station.”

Even that wasn’t enough. She had rehearsed the line many times, but there was no stopping the goosebumps.

D*mn Solea.

A lunatic who chose humans in the name of being a chief god, played with them for a while, and then discarded them.

Rather than believe in something like that……

‘I’d sooner sell my soul to a demon.’

Ella’s hatred for the chief god Solea ran deep. She had loved her sister Marian with everything she had, and that love had doubled her hatred in kind.

“Does that answer your question?”

Haven nodded with an unreadable expression.

“Then I’ll come again tomorrow night.”

Ella smiled lightly and turned away.

In an instant, that smile vanished without a trace.

***

Because her conversation with Haven had run long, she was leaving later than usual.

The deep blue of early morning had almost entirely faded.

“I need to hurry.”

Running with everything she had, Ella barely made it back to the prayer hall of the Grand Temple. She was already beneath the temple building, but the saintess‘s room was still a little further.

The fact that the Hooly Forest was connected to the saintess‘s room was something only the saintess herself, the room’s owner, could know.

There was a passage beneath the saintess‘s bed that led underground, and following it brought you to another cave within the Hooly Forest.

Marian had loved praying at the heart of the Hooly Forest, where the light particles gathered.

‘That was how she met Haven too.’

The image of Marian’s bright, cheerful smile as she walked this path back and forth surfaced in her mind, and something surged painfully in her chest again.

In her memories, Marian had been the perfect saintess in every sense. A faithful representative who answered the chief god’s call dutifully, day or night.

And they had worked her to the bone and let her die.

They had forced holy power onto her whenever it suited them, then stopped answering Marian’s prayers the moment she became crown princess.

‘D*mn Solea.’

Cursing the chief god of Becarto under her breath as she ran, she finally spotted the ladder.

The mechanism that would take her up to the saintess‘s room.

Ella began to climb.

***

“Phew.”

She crawled out from under the bed drenched in sweat. She had changed into her nightgown in the secret passage, but her hands and face were a mess of dirt.

She needed to wash first.

Ella had just filled the bronze basin with water when,

Knock knock.

Before she could even wipe down her sweat-soaked body, there was a knock at the door.

“Miss Mariella. I’m coming in.”

It was the voice of Priestess Doris, the woman assigned to watch Ella’s every move.

Ella’s eyes sharpened.

Doris was one of High Priest Capuasia’s people, the eldest daughter of a minor baron family, someone who sorted people by rank and wealth and treated them accordingly.

To a woman like Doris, a saintess of common birth was a thorn in her side.

‘She was the one who led the charge against Marian.’

She had invented and spread the absurd rumor that the saintess had lain with a demon, and she had given false testimony.

Suppressing her anger, Ella spoke in a calm, measured tone.

“My prayer is not yet finished.”

At her answer, the door handle turned and stopped.

Even Doris couldn’t argue with that. There was no greater act of disrespect toward the chief god than interrupting a saintess in prayer. It was only natural.

But not today.

“Please make haste. Word has come that His Highness the Crown Prince will be arriving shortly.”

Ella’s expression turned serious at once.

‘That piece of trash is coming here?’

The two of them had had no contact beyond official meetings since the engagement ceremony. This would be the first time Ella had come face to face with the crown prince since returning.

On top of that, he was supposed to be traveling with the crown prince’s consort right now. Rolling around in the southern coastal villa he had supposedly built for her.

‘What reason would he have to come to the temple? And today of all days……’

It was the Grand Temple’s monthly day of rest. The one day with no visitors, no events—the saintess‘s only day off.

Of course, a day off in name didn’t mean she could actually rest fully, but it at least meant no official visits.

Even turning it over quickly in her mind, nothing came to her.

Then,

‘I’ll just have to meet it head-on.’

Ella moved quickly.

She wiped her hands and face without making any sound of water. She poured the dirty water into the potted plants nearby and refilled the basin with clean water.

She checked her reflection in the mirror.

She looked no different from someone who had just woken up and washed their face.

“Come in.”

The door opened as though it had been waiting.

Doris walked in with a sullen expression and gave a perfunctory bow. A thoroughly graceless greeting.

If that was all she could manage, she might as well not bother.

Her arrogant manner seemed even worse than usual today.

Clicking her tongue inwardly, Ella’s gaze moved past Doris’s shoulder.

‘That girl……’

The novice priest trailing behind Doris was someone she had seen not long ago.

“By Solea’s grace, I greet you, Miss Mariella.”

The young priestess bowed with proper form, and her eyes were full of reverence for the saintess.

‘Her name was Molly, wasn’t it.’

Before entering the palace, it would be wise to leave at least one loyal person behind at the Grand Temple if possible. She would need eyes and ears here even after she was gone.

She had been looking for a suitable candidate, but finding the right person had been difficult.