Ch.487Don’t Do Things Like This.

Thanks to Agnes’s treatment, Lacy, who had barely regained consciousness, immediately thrust her head into my cleavage as soon as she got up. As if staring with all her might would somehow make the stigmata disappear.

Unfortunately for Lacy… no amount of staring would make the already engraved stigmata vanish.

She eventually had to accept the unbelievable reality of my stigmata, leaning back against the bed with an expression like a strangled cat.

—-

“Explain yourself.”

After crossing herself and praying to Elpinel, Lacy finally calmed down enough to speak to me.

“I’d like an explanation.”

Her voice was exhausted, like someone who had been running for three days straight. Her eyes had shrunk to dots. Her expression carried an eerie aura, like a woman who had arrived at her cheating lover’s house with an axe.

“To think that a descendant of the Great’s Twelve Knights would abandon Elpinel and choose Astraea… this requires an explanation.”

…I neither abandoned nor chose anyone.

To begin with, saying I abandoned Elpinel was inaccurate since I never served her in the first place, and as for Astraea, I didn’t choose her—I was forcibly chosen.

“Well, you see…”

I rewrapped the chest bandages I had partially loosened and told her the detailed story. From the moment I discovered the stigmata to the conclusion where I resolved everything and left Arad with Ceylon.

I revealed everything truthfully, except for the part about receiving a direct revelation from Astraea.

I explained everything—the drawback of having the stigmata but being unable to manifest holy light due to lack of faith, and the desperate measure I took to keep Ceylon with me without revealing the stigmata.

Though Lacy’s expression changed dramatically throughout my explanation, she patiently listened to my story without interruption.

After my explanation, she looked up at the sky and made the sign of the cross with trembling hands.

“Oh Elpinel, is this truly right…?”

It was a historic moment—the first time she had ever expressed doubt toward her deity.

—-

“Anyway… congratulations… yes, congratulations are in order. After all, receiving a stigmata is a great blessing, regardless of the circumstances.”

“Um… thanks?”

Her congratulations, offered with such a bewildered face, didn’t really resonate with me.

“I suppose Astraea must have cherished Baron Median’s beliefs and actions. Enough to go to such lengths.”

Lacy forced a smile and offered words of praise once more.

Her way of addressing me had changed from Sir Median to Baron, probably because I could no longer remain a paladin of the Church of Elpinel.

I shrugged and smiled silently, thinking to myself that Astraea must have been cross-eyed.

Lacy took another deep breath as if to compose herself, then glanced at the closed door. As if thinking about Ceylon who might be beyond it.

Then, lowering her voice significantly, she spoke again.

“…I never imagined the Goddess of Justice would stoop to stealing a knight from Elpinel.”

“Haha…”

Though she had reluctantly accepted it, she was clearly still dissatisfied. Lacy had always been eager for me to become the representative paladin of the Church of Elpinel.

She probably had some happy vision of the future where a descendant of the Twelve Knights would help her exterminate all non-humans.

Unlike me, who only sought to eliminate non-humans who showed hostility toward humans, Lacy considered all non-humans to be threats to humanity.

In Lacy’s mind, there were only two types of non-humans: those who bared their fangs and those who hid their claws.

Either way, they were all beings that would eventually harm humans, so they should be exterminated before they could strike… or something along those lines.

Moreover, this ideology seemed to be something of a secret doctrine of the Church of Elpinel. An extreme human-centrism, you could say.

Anyway, Lacy had been quite dependent on me with those expectations… but even she couldn’t embrace someone with another church’s stigmata as a paladin of the Church of Elpinel.

This meant saying goodbye to the grand title of “Radiance.”

From Lacy’s perspective, it must feel like a treasured possession being snatched away by the neighbor’s parent.

“A stigmata… I still can’t believe it. You weren’t secretly worshipping the goddess Astraea behind my back… were you?”

“Of course not. I believe only in myself.”

I tapped my sword hilt and smirked.

Secret worship? The Church of Astraea isn’t a cult, so why would I do something like that? I’m not a husband cheating behind his wife’s back.

“S-Sister…? Then what about me…?!”

What now?

Lena’s arm, clinging to my side, tightened as if interrogating me. Though a girl’s strength couldn’t leave marks on a steel pillar.

“No, of course I believe in you, Lena. You’re my sister, aren’t you?”

“Hehe, that’s right?”

I placed my right hand on Lena’s head and ruffled it to comfort her.

…The child seems to be growing increasingly dependent. Is this what a sisterly relationship is normally like? I wouldn’t know, having never had a younger sister.

But I couldn’t ask anyone else if this was normal… because I didn’t have anyone reliable to ask. Not a single person.

Among my acquaintances with sisters, there was only one crazy woman who infantilized her older sister, and another crazy woman who tore apart her younger sister’s maid in front of her and then wondered why her sister disliked her.

…Come to think of it, when is Hersella going to wake up?

Quite some time had passed since the Church of Grimnir incident, but she still showed no signs of waking. Was she hibernating like the half-beast woman she was?

I used to wish she would just shut up… but somehow, I’d grown attached enough to miss her now that she was quiet.

—-

More difficult than getting Lacy to accept the stigmata was convincing her about my pretend relationship with Ceylon.

Though Lacy initially protested vehemently, calling it blasphemous, I convinced her by repeatedly emphasizing the practical benefits I could gain from this. For just spreading one false rumor, there was quite a lot to gain.

The point that I could secure the complete loyalty of a hero-class paladin.

The point that being treated as a lover was far better than being treated as a prostitute.

And the point that I could block the interference of nobles who would persistently cling to me with issues of succession for the marquis family and the inheritance of the Twelve Knights’ bloodline.

Though things were quiet now, these issues would inevitably arise once I became the head of both families and started aging.

“Sigh… but to go to such lengths… And if it’s been officially recognized in the cardinal’s name, it can’t be undone now…”

In the end, Lacy nodded while pressing her temples. She had no grounds to interfere with my personal choices in the first place, so there was nothing she could say once I took this stance.

“I should have gone with you after all…”

Though she lamented once more.

—-

After all the discussions were over, Lacy sent everyone away except for me and Agnes.

She said the candidates for sainthood needed to talk privately, and told the others to go downstairs to inform Demian of the situation and build rapport with Ceylon.

“So, what did you want to discuss that required sending everyone else away?”

As soon as the footsteps on the stairs faded, Agnes looked at Lacy and asked.

“Well… let’s call it a discussion about the future of the Holy State…”

Lacy trailed off, smoothing the side hair that hung below her cheek.

…This sounds like it’s going to be a long conversation.

I rummaged through my pocket and pulled out a cigarette case.

The commotion so far had left me feeling drained, so I thought I’d smoke one to clear my head.

“Baron Median.”

Lacy turned to me and called out. With a title I still couldn’t get used to.

…Is she planning to call me that for the rest of her life?

“…Just call me like you usually do. Don’t create this distance between us.”

“If it makes you uncomfortable, I will.”

I shook my head and took out a cigarette from the case. The last one. The empty cigarette case felt extremely light.

“Then… Sir Median.”

Lacy nodded and pointed at my left hand with her outstretched finger.

“Could you give me one of those?”

“What…?”

Those? Does she mean this cigarette…?

I nearly dropped the last cigarette I was holding. That’s how shocking her words were.

I wouldn’t have been more surprised if I’d witnessed an orc ballerina dancing.

“Lady Elmaine…?”

Agnes seemed to share my sentiment, looking at Lacy with slightly bewildered eyes.

Lacy smoking?

That was like plump Leopold, kind-hearted Isabella, or popular Frider—words that shook the foundations of the world just by existing.

Beings you’d only see in nightmares, not reality. Like Satan Claus.

Anyway, I looked back and forth between the cigarette between my fingers and Lacy extending her hand to me with trembling eyes.

“Lacy, have you smoked Mana Herb before…?”

Though cigarettes in this world aren’t treated as harmful as in the original world, is it really okay for a candidate for sainthood to do such things?

“Who knows. Anyway, just give me one. And lend me some fire too.”

“Uh, sure… Here.”

I ended up handing over the cigarette I was about to smoke to Lacy and struck a match to light it for her.

“Thank you. Now…”

Lacy took the cigarette from me, put it in her mouth with an expressionless face, and deeply inhaled the smoke….

“Kup…! Kehek! Kek, krhah! Kehuk! Elpinel…kehek! Oh Elpinel…! Krhuh! What is this…?!”

She coughed violently with a reddened face.

So much for having smoked before. It was obviously her first time.

I gently patted Lacy’s back as she bent over coughing, and took the cigarette from her fingers.

“Ukek, keyuk…! No, how does anyone smoke this? It’s more toxic than the smoke from a pyre…!”

“What kind of comparison is that… Everyone’s like this at first. You’re filling your lungs with burning plant smoke—of course it’s going to be harsh.”

Why did she ask for something she couldn’t handle?

Look at Agnes’s expression over there. She’s looking at you like you’re an idiot.

I chuckled and brought the cigarette in my hand to my lips.

Habits ingrained in the body naturally emerge unconsciously.

With a lit cigarette in my hand, smoking it was simply the most natural course of action for me.

“Ah, no, why are you…!”

“Hm? What, did you want to smoke more? You should stop—your body’s already weakened.”

Perhaps still clinging to her failed smoking attempt, Lacy blushed and reached out to me. As if trying to take back the cigarette I was holding.

Sorry Lacy, but once it’s back in my hand, it’s already mine.

I dodged her by leaning back teasingly, and exhaled the deeply inhaled smoke with a whoosh.

White mint smoke rose like a Christmas chimney.

Ah, how sweet.