She tried to hold her breath and regain her composure. Somehow she could save him.

If she acted right now, she could save him.

Before this thought fully formed, Evelyn was already backing away from the window. Her legs were moving first, trying to get outside the castle.

At that moment, Norton’s sword sliced through the monster’s ankle, seemingly reassuring Evelyn. Freed from the weakened claws, he jumped down from the castle wall and slashed through the wings of the large monster struggling on the ground.

Having lost its wings, the creature immediately loosened its grip on its claws, but unable to fly with torn wings, its neck was pierced straight through by Norton’s sword.

“Waaaaaah!”

Cheers erupted from everywhere. People shouted from both inside and outside the castle toward Norton standing atop the monster’s head, and the knights raised their morale again to face the remaining monsters.

Evelyn exhaled in relief.

“Ah. No…”

But before she could fully exhale, her breath caught. Just like a beak had pierced her own heart.

The moment he jumped down from the large monster’s head, a small creature plunged its long beak into his heart.

Watching him fall heavily to the ground, Evelyn made choking, gasping sounds.

Screams of despair echoed from all directions, but to her, everything seemed muffled, like being submerged in deep water.

“No! Miss!!”

Her breathing became labored. Her heart felt ready to burst, but it seemed more likely to leap out of her throat than remain in her chest.

She staggered and fell but rose again. Before she could even process everything, Evelyn reached the Border Count who had fallen to the ground, gasping for breath.

Uriel and knights who had followed behind her quickly surrounded her.

Seeing the monster still flapping its wings while embedded in his chest, Evelyn trembled violently, unable to touch it or move away.

“Y-Your… Excellency… Aah.”

“Evelyn. I told you not to come out…”

“Aah. No. Aah. Why are you like this.”

“You really never listen.”

“Uuu.”

Norton, blinking his fading eyes, ordered the knights surrounding him to take the drowsy woman who had just awakened back into the castle. Though his voice didn’t come out.

Evelyn grabbed his hand and poured out her circulating divine power. Norton tightly grasped her hand and closed his eyes.

“Ah.”

‘Screeech!’

‘Screeech. Screech!’

The monsters’ howls suddenly intensified. Blue and red lights shot up into various parts of the sky. When dozens of clusters wandering through the air began connecting their lights to each other, monsters flying within them started to struggle.

“Your Excellency!!”

The surrounding knights slashed at incoming monsters while crying out for their lord.

Evelyn grabbed the body of the monster that was still flapping its wings, trying to pull out its beak.

A murderous intent she had never felt before rose within her. Before being a priestess, she too was human, and her opponent was merely a monster that killed people. Though her k＊lling intent might not be half that of the knights, she trembled with the urge to tear the monster apart.

The monster, feeling the force pulling on its body, pecked harder at its beak to avoid losing the heart of the person it had impaled. Though small in body, its sharp, long beak was designed to extract the hearts of beasts and humans alike.

If it came out now, pulled by Evelyn’s hands, the Border Count’s heart would likely be extracted with it.

A knight who witnessed this reached out to stop Evelyn, but she broke the flapping wings, placed her hand over his heart, and forcefully pulled out the monster.

“Stop!”

Amid the knights’ shouts, Evelyn saw the heart that was caught in her hand after being partially pulled out. Where the monster’s beak had been extracted, there was a round hole that grew pointed deeper inside. Covered in bl＊＊d splattered from the wound, Evelyn buried her face on Norton’s heart and wailed.

“Your Excellency! Nooooo!!”

“…”

“Aaaagh! No. Don’t leave me alone. No. Aaaagh!”

“…”

“Auu. No. No. Together… with meeeee!!”

Everyone shed tears watching the small woman wailing on top of the large body. Golden smoke gradually rose from her body. By the time someone began to notice it, she and Norton were surrounded by an intense light. So bright that no one could properly open their eyes facing it.

The light spread wider, reaching inside the castle, causing even the servants clinging to the windows to close their eyes. It was a powerful light strong enough to blind.

A humming sound in the air made everyone’s ears feel muffled.

After a warm breeze blew once, and the light reduced in size, condensing back to Norton’s chest where Evelyn had buried her face.

People couldn’t believe the current situation.

Looking around, looking at each other, they gazed at the small priestess who had emitted the golden divine power.

The priestess, collapsed on top of the large man, had her eyes closed with a tired face covered in tears.

Someone slowly stroked her back that was slightly rising and falling.

Tears welled up in the knights’ eyes, and servants watching from inside the castle raised their hands to cover their mouths.

The Border Count, whose heart had been pierced and half-extracted, was slowly raising his hand to comfort his woman.

By the time they exhaled their held breath and began hugging each other, sobbing loudly, the numerous monsters that had occupied the sky above the castle were trapped in the divine power barrier created by the holy knights and falling with a thudding sound. Soon after, the sky cleared up.

The monsters piled abundantly on the ground would normally need to go through stages of butchering, extracting magic stones, incineration, and land purification, but the knights watched in disbelief the ground, soaked in green bl＊＊d and black demonic energy, purifying itself.

It was a sight that left them speechless.

How was this possible?

The slaughtered monsters were turning to ash, scattering in the wind. Golden particles floated among them.

The knights looked again at the small priestess lying on top of their lord. She was breathing softly, tightly clutching the Border Count’s clothes, perhaps having fallen asleep.

Pat, pat.

Norton comforted her even in sleep when she occasionally made hiccupping sounds.

Sighing, he felt choked up, unable to scold Evelyn who had saved him and purified this land.

* * *

“Please have me moved to the priests’ quarters.”

“No.”

After all matters were settled, the lord’s castle regained its vitality. The servants who had previously glanced and whispered when passing by became friendly, and the head maid personally took care of Evelyn.

Knights greeted her respectfully, and healing priests from the territory visited her almost daily.

The vassals who had criticized her fled at the mere sight of her hair, unable to decide how to face her.

No matter how she had saved the dying Border Count, she was still a healing priestess.

Because she couldn’t become the mistress of the lord’s castle while enjoying the room that should be used by a married couple.

Evelyn felt nothing but anxiety. She wasn’t shameless enough to pretend not to know she didn’t belong and stay put.

Moreover, even the volunteer group she had belonged to had left for the capital.

She had been constantly anxious since being unable to leave with the volunteer group.

On the day the monsters appeared, Evelyn had no memory of how the Border Count had come back to life, had no idea what power had exploded within her, and even wondered if the monster swarm attacking the castle had been a dream.

There were no traces of monsters left, and the Border Count was healthy without a single wound.

“Your Excellency. I’m a bit afraid. I might be dismissed from the temple. So.”

“That’s what I want.”

“Pardon?”

“What has the empire ever done for you that they act like they own your divine power? If that’s the case, dismissal is better. So you can never be a priestess nonsense again.”

“Oh, my.”

Gabriel, who was sent to the capital with various accusations, was put on trial.

On the day he was caught harassing Evelyn by Norton, terrified by the Border Count’s harsh treatment, Gabriel had to bow to Evelyn and apologize, but he threw away his last chance for redemption.

On the day of the monster attack, if he had come out of the annex with the volunteer group and shown sufficient quality as a healing priest, Norton might have withdrawn the accusations.

But Gabriel made the mistake of confusing crisis for opportunity, then failed to recognize the real opportunity before him. 

Norton was a thorough person and had meticulously investigated his past, gathering evidence of all sorts of corruption to send to the capital. He wouldn’t be dismissed, but that would make him suffer even more.

The volunteer group returned to the Central Temple with letters and reward money given by the Border Count. 

The letter describing their achievements and expressing gratitude from the border region was addressed not to the Archpriest but to His Majesty. 

It was a reward Norton had personally written with emphasis, allowing them to leave the volunteer group and be assigned to the temples they desired.

“Tell me, Evelyn. Do you want to return to the temple?”

“My thoughts don’t matter. No, I don’t even need to think about it. I’m a servant of the deity. I must go where I’m told to go, and come running when called.”

“Now I see why you’re in the volunteer group.”

“Why?”

“You can’t control that chatty mouth of yours.”

Evelyn slapped his thick arm. He burst into a small laugh, but Evelyn didn’t soften her expression.

“What about you, Border Count? What’s different? If I didn’t have the divine power that matched you, you would have found me annoying and driven me away as soon as the service ended.”

“I can’t deny that.”

“I’ve seen someone lose their divine power. I don’t know why. They said it just suddenly depleted one day. Without divine power, they were dismissed and driven out. That person couldn’t even return home. Because from the moment they weren’t a priest, they were just an illegitimate child.”

“…”

Norton tilted his head, examining Evelyn’s expression. The young priestess’s face was filled with fear, unable to bear the criticism that someone with divine power was occupying the couple’s bedroom.

Moreover, the idea that divine power could be lost.

Having relied solely on healing divine power since childhood, she would hardly be immune to being criticized for it.

“Are you worried?”

“It probably won’t happen, but you never know. If one day my divine power suddenly disappears, then.”

“Then.”

“I would no longer be useful to the Border Count.”

“…”

Moreover, since that day, Evelyn had not been able to manifest the golden divine power even once. 

While there hadn’t been a moment as desperate as Norton’s death, even when they had s*x and she writhed in org*sm like before, her womb no longer shone with golden light.

Evelyn had purified this entire land, yet she had reverted to being a low-ranking priestess of the white light aura with limited operational power. 

Though her white light could heal Norton to some extent, she couldn’t help feeling anxious. She wanted to move to the priests’ quarters before becoming unnecessary.

“I can’t go back to the temple either. I don’t know who my mother is, and my father gave up his rights by entrusting young me to the seminary in exchange for money, benefiting from having a priestess daughter. So, Your Excellency. I don’t want to live worrying about insecurity. As long as I have divine power, I’ll purify you. So please move me to the priests’ quarters. I want to work just like other priests, receive a salary, and live peacefully. I don’t want to spend my days struggling with the fear of being abandoned by someone again.”

Hearing Evelyn’s heart, Norton’s eyes grew heavy.

“Who’s abandoning you?”

“You and the temple. I know you’re being nice to me because of the purification. But I can’t be certain it’s really because we’re truly compatible. Someone else might appear. I don’t want to be a special person. I wish my heart wouldn’t ache even if I had to leave this place. I want to work without attaching any meaning.”

“That’s impossible, Evelyn.”

“Why?”

“I’m going to keep pouring my seed into you. Whether you have divine power or not.”

She opened her eyes wide, trying to understand the man’s words.

“You’ll eventually get pregnant. And give birth to a child who resembles both of us.”

“That can’t happen! I don’t want the child to become a priest either. I don’t want to create an illegitimate child. Everyone looks up to priests, but the reality is different. We’re just abandoned people clinging to the empire because we have nowhere to go. A priest without a family backing them is just a slave pouring out divine power.”

While Evelyn’s eyes welled up with tears, Norton pushed back her hair, trying to comfort his woman.

“The empire would collapse without the Norton family. Who would dare make a Norton a slave?”

“Who knows. Your Excellency might personally reject that child.”

At her sulky answer, Norton laughed softly. He pulled Evelyn onto his lap, then buried his nose in her cleavage where a soft, fresh scent lingered, and breathed in.