Episode 39 – After the Performance.

*

Mella bowed her head, seeing off Baron Salvia as he boarded the carriage, supported by Mena, at the entrance of the mansion.

Perhaps due to the massive blood loss, Baron Salvia’s already pale skin looked even paler than usual.

Mella was worried that the Baron might die, and persistently urged him to receive treatment, but he only repeated that he wanted to leave this mansion quickly, so she had no choice but to send him away.

She didn’t even properly convey her apology and gratitude for the damage he suffered due to Rose and Daniel’s conspiracy, and today, once again, the Baron was seriously injured while trying to protect Dena.

Mella couldn’t bring herself to lift her head due to guilt.

Gaetan, the mansion’s butler, fidgeted and begged Mella to lift her head, but she didn’t even acknowledge him.

Until the carriage departed and disappeared from sight, Mella stood there with her head bowed.

Only when the dust raised by the departing carriage had settled did Mella lift her head and discover the bloodstains left by the Baron on the ground.

Perhaps the hemostasis was loose; the blood on the ground was an alarming amount at first glance.

Is Baron Salvia really going to be okay?

Will there be a chance to offer an apology?

Mella called Butler Gaetan, who was trying to wipe away the blood on the ground, and asked where Edward had taken Dena.

Upon hearing that a servant was wiping Dena’s blood in an empty room on the first floor and waiting for the doctor to arrive, Mella nodded and entered the mansion.

“Everyone, get out of the way! It’s urgent!”

“Don’t we have any more clean bandages?! Bring them quickly!”

“Bring me a sealed bottle of strong rum! We need to disinfect the wound!”

“No! If you pour alcohol on the wound, it will leave an indelible scar!”

“Then, are you going to let the young miss die like this? She won’t be able to hold on until the doctor arrives! Hurry!”

“We need to tear the young miss’s clothes, so only the maids should stay, and all the men should leave!”

The mansion was in utter chaos.

The servants were running around the mansion frantically, bringing the necessary items,

and a maid holding a handful of blood-soaked bandages would open the door of the room where Dena was lying and shout something.

Mella was able to find her son, Edward, amidst the mess.

Edward was kneeling in a corner of the hallway outside the room, so as not to obstruct people’s movements, and praying with his hands clasped together.

“Goddess-nim, forgive us, and watch over us with mercy and love…”

“Edward… Ah,”

Mella lamented.

The miracles brought about by the divine power bestowed by the Goddess are different for each priest, and no one knows who will gain what abilities.

Edward, who became a priest with the goal of healing divine power to heal Tess, how desperately he must be hoping for that miracle at this moment, now that Dena is injured.

At least as far as Mella knew, there were only one or two people in the entire empire who possessed divine power that could manifest healing abilities.

Twenty years ago, Mella, who was the ‘Saintess’, was able to handle all kinds of miracles manifested by divine power.

But unfortunately, that power has long since disappeared.

Mella felt the despairing powerlessness that had been seeping into her heart all day finally engulf her entire body.

These were situations that she could have easily resolved if she were the person she was 20 years ago.

How great a power and blessing that strength was, which she had given up to overcome the grief of not being able to bear the pain caused by the death of her lover,

She already knew it clearly, but today she felt it even more keenly.

The sight of her son, completely immersed in prayer and completely unaware of the commotion filling the chaotic hallway, stirred a reverent ripple in the heart of Mella, who was once a Saintess.

Since Edward was still an apprentice priest without divine power, he had no choice but to pray, earnestly hoping that the Goddess-nim would hear his prayers.

Even without divine power, anyone can pray.

Even if he can’t perform miracles, earnestly asking the Goddess-nim is something that even an apprentice priest, and even she, who has returned to secular life, can do,

Mella knelt down next to him and clasped her hands together.

The servants and maids who were busily moving around the hallway paused for a moment when she, the mistress of the mansion, knelt on the floor without even a cushion, but soon resumed their movements.

Prayers repeated hundreds, thousands of times.

Even though it was the first time in years, Mella’s movements were so natural and reverent.

Mella assumed the prayer posture that was ingrained in her body, recited the prayer that her son was chanting, and closed her eyes tightly.

“”Watch over us, grant us the courage to overcome crises, the mercy to forgive mistakes, the will to uphold faith, and the opportunity to help our neighbors…””

The sound of their prayers filled the hallway.

How much time had passed?

A servant’s shout that the mansion’s doctor had arrived was heard.

*

Mena’s face was dark as she rode in the carriage returning to the White Glass Tower.

She didn’t find Banata during the time I bought her.

Well, she hadn’t seen her while living in the mansion all this time, so it was obvious that she wouldn’t be found right away just by looking for a short time today.

I spoke to Mena.

“Don’t blame yourself too much; it was only about forty minutes.”

“…But,”

Mena looked at me with trembling eyes.

Her gaze reached my arm, which was gushing blood from two or three large holes, and her face hardened even more.

Mena didn’t know what had happened at the mansion or what I had done, but she didn’t know what to do when she saw me, covered in blood.

“It was an opportunity you created while hurting yourself… I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it’s really okay. You know I’m undead. This is a wound I made on purpose.”

“Ah? Is that so?”

“Yeah, you don’t have to worry. But when you get off the carriage, pretend to support me so that rumors spread to the people around that Baron Salvia is injured.”

“Yes… I understand.”

“More than that, didn’t you find even one trace?”

Mena nodded, her mouth tightly shut.

Could I have been wrong?

Is Banata’s disappearance unrelated to Voldiras’ mansion?

Is Banata really not in the mansion?

I was practically certain that Robin or Jennifer were the culprits, so where on earth did Banata disappear to?

Blue hair flashes through my mind.

Damn it,

Do I have to meet that monstrous teacher-nim again after all?

It feels like a sigh is coming out of lungs that don’t breathe, and goosebumps are rising on skin that has lost its sensation.

I closed my eyes and swept back my hair.

The day we agreed to meet again was the night after tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Mena thought about something intently and then slowly opened her mouth.

“There was one strange thing, though.”

“Oh, what is it?”

Mena pointed to her nose with her finger.

“If the daughter is locked in a hidden room, I wouldn’t be able to find her no matter how hard I searched, so I tried to find her using her scent, but I couldn’t find her at all. But,”

“But…?”

“There was a place where there was no smell at all. As if all the smells had been erased.”

Erased the smell?

I nodded.

It was a plausible story.

Robin and Jennifer must have known that Mena is a wolf beastman who is sensitive to smells.

If they had kept Banata locked up in the mansion without Mena finding out, they would have naturally used some kind of method to erase the smell.

A room with no smell at all.

Maybe that’s the decisive evidence that they’re hiding Banata.

I asked Mena.

“…Where was it?”

“Jennifer’s room.”

“…”

“But, no matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find it.”

“If so…”

At that moment, the carriage stopped.

It seemed we had already arrived at the White Glass Tower.

A hotel employee was seen approaching to open the carriage door.

I stopped talking, winked at Mena, immediately leaned back in my seat, and started groaning.

Robin would definitely want to hide the fact that her son had awakened as an undead.

But my appearance, covered in blood, is proof that something terrible happened in that mansion.

Sioreland was a city where rumors spread quickly.

And even the smallest rumor would surely not be missed by that ‘Princess’.

Mena nodded, then threw open the carriage door before the employee could grab it, and shouted.

“Bring a stretcher! The Baron-nim is injured!”

*

Lara screamed in horror at the sight of me being carried into the room on a stretcher by the hotel’s male employees.

Lily was also surprised by my appearance and covered her mouth.

After putting down the stretcher, the employees, who were sweating profusely, said they would call a doctor, but Mena politely refused and sent them out, closing the door.

At the same time as the door closed, I suddenly raised my upper body.

“Ed? Are you… okay?”

“Calm down, you idiot.”

“This bastard… Ed!”

Lara stared at me blankly with a dumbfounded expression.

And as soon as she realized I was okay, she started hitting my chest, pok pok.

My body swayed every time I was hit; if I weren’t undead, it would have definitely hurt a lot.

Lara shouted at me in an angry voice.

“You scared me!”

“No, there’s no reason for you to worry about me getting hurt.”

“Of course I’m worried when you get hurt!”

“No, why? Are you stupid?”

I raised my left arm in front of Lara’s eyes.

Lara stopped punching and looked at my horribly mangled arm.

Golden light slowly gathered on my left arm, shone brightly, and instantly filled in all the large wounds that had covered my arm.

“Ugh! Ed, you really!”

Lara, who had seen the flash of divine power right in front of her eyes, covered her eyes and got angry.

I chuckled and got up from my seat and spoke to Mena.

“I want to wash off the blood; could you fill the bathtub with water?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Ed! Explain what happened!”

I stroked Lara’s hair as she rubbed her eyes and got annoyed.

Lara, who was still huffing and puffing as if she hadn’t fully calmed down, was obediently accepting my touch, unlike her sulky face.

Lily also came up to me and spoke.

“Ed, that wasn’t an ordinary wound; what on earth happened?”

“I bit my own arm.”

“Yes?”

“What?”

“Oh, so…”

How can I best explain that I bit my own arm to create the fact that Daniel, who was resurrected as an undead, attacked an eight-year-old girl, and Baron Salvia was seriously injured while saving that girl?

I decided to buy myself some time to organize my thoughts.

“I’ll tell you after I take a shower.”