If You Devour Poison / Doku wo Kurawaba Sara Made

Chapter 23: Encounter

In the faintly lit room, the morning breeze blew from the window.
Waking up, Lutora stretched and let out a short yawn.
It was early morning. Seeing how he couldn't hear the morning prayers, it must have been quite early.
But Lutora promptly leapt out of bed and washed his face and mouth in the basin he had filled with water the night before. Throwing away the used water, he rinsed the basin and filled it with fresh water. Returning to the side of the twins sleeping soundly on the bed, he lightly tapped their heads.

“Cain, Abel, wake up!”
“Mn-...”
“Uhmn...”
“Hey, wake up quickly! Don’t you know what day it is today?”
“Hm...?”
“Huh...?”
“Wasn’t someone going to come today?”

The twins opened their eyes with a snap.
The two young ones leapt out of the bed in tandem, waking up to Lutora’s words.

“That’s right! Today...”
“Lady Julieta!”
“That’s right. Lady Julieta was scheduled to come today for a visit.”
“Yes!”
“Yay!”
“Hey, wash our faces and dress up. Don’t forget to brush your teeth too.”
“Aye sir!”
“Roger that!”

As the twins scurried about, Lutora, who had gotten ready before the twins, left the room that had become his sleeping quarters for the past three months. He gave a quick glance across the hallway.

“...”

En route to the chapel just beyond the hallway, a very familiar man spotted Lutora standing beside the door and gave him a small smile.

“Good morning, Lutora.”
“Morning, Malacia.”

The Head Priest, on his way to the morning prayers, had a peaceful expression as always.

“Are Cain and Abel in your room again? I told them not to sneak into your room under the cover of night too, for your lover would get angry.”
“I’m telling you, Morino isn’t my lover… might as well have you sneak into my room at night.”

Malacia heartlessly laughed off Lutora, who had inadvertently revealed his inner desires.

“Hahaha, what a funny joke.”
“Good morning, Reverend Malacia.”
“Good mornin’!
“Yes, good morning to you too.”

As the twins, who rushed out of the room next, clung to Malacia, the words, “I’m not joking,” that Lutora spoke as he scratched his head, did not reach Malacia.

“Both of you woke up early. Well done.”
“You see, today’s the day Lady Julieta comes to visit.”
“Yeah, she’s praying right now. After that, she told me that she would come to play with you all.”
“Yay! I love Lady Julieta!”
“...Me too.”

Standing beside Abel, who raised both his hands and jumped, Cain nodded as his cheeks turned crimson.

“My my. Lady Julieta seems quite popular.”
“That’s because she’s being considered akin to a [Saint] right now...Sigurd’s overprotectiveness is scary even from afar.”
“Well, it’s great if brother and sister get along,”

It had been more than a month since Anderheim and Julieta, the father-daughter pair, had left the Prime Minister’s residence.
The mansion the two moved to, was on a corner of the hill that gently extended from the west gate of the capital.
Surrounded by a small forest, the mansion was not that large, but was nevertheless enveloped by verdant greenery and flower beds full of roses. Led by her father and brother, Julieta happily strolled in the garden, brushing her face against the roses and cheerfully smiling. Rumours of her beauty soon spread far and wide.
The anecdotes that accompanied it were, ‘The former fiancée betrayed by the Crown Prince’, ‘the woman who was forced to become the Sacrificial Priestess instead of the Crown Prince’s beloved lover’, and ‘the descendant of Sage Asbal that endured bitter pain for ten long years’. These half-truths soon manifested as gazes of sympathy towards Julieta and the simultaneous sense of hatred towards the Crown Prince and his fiancée.
Young noblemen, unceasingly came uninvited in the hopes of interacting with Julieta. Seeing Sigurd flatly reject them, indignantly muttering with a mask-like straight face, “I won’t let anyone catch a glimpse of Julieta,” made Lutora’s blood run cold.
After the four of them offered their morning prayer at the altar and had lunch together, Malacia left for the chapel for his usual morning duties, and the twins left for the orphanage, saying they had to make preparations for the reception. Left alone, Lutora decided to go to the outer court to meet the two who were visiting.