Don't Be Holy! - Chapter 62
“You’ve never heard of witches whose marks disappear either, right? Both are firsts for you, so why can’t you believe this one? Is it because it’s not what you want to hear?”
She shot him a challenging look. Rubel stared into her clear green eyes and then nodded slightly, as if saying, “Fine, if you insist, let’s hear it.”
“So, when does this usually invisible mark reappear?”
“When the curse is about to break. It flashes three times, and then it’s gone.”
“How does the curse break?”
Eir thought back to what Grandma had told her and rolled her eyes slightly.
“I don’t know the details. But Grandma told me that if someone who remembers me vividly recalls me, or if I stay outside the village for too long, it happens. But I hadn’t been outside the village for long back then……”
Her gaze, which had been looking upward, returned to Rubel in silence. He frowned under her steady gaze.
“So?”
“Yes. You’re the one who remembered me. You must have remembered me vividly.”
At that, Rubel forgot his resolve to play along and laughed.
“Are you saying we’ve met before?”
“Yes. I told you I was a priestess.”
Eir, on the other hand, was completely confident, as if she were telling the absolute truth.
She looked at him without blinking and continued.
“We met back then. I was part of the monster purification squad three years ago. When we were first attacked by the witch, I fell off a cliff, so I don’t remember what happened after that, but I still remember everything before that. It was in Holsnain.”
She deliberately mentioned a specific location to make her story more believable. But even that was something a witch could easily know, since the witch had been the one to attack them first.
Instead, Rubel asked about something a witch would find harder to know.
“Then tell me this. Why did you run away in the first place? Which temple did you belong to, and who was your superior?”
Eir’s mouth clamped shut as if she couldn’t speak. Rubel, as if he had expected this, lowered his voice and continued.
“There’s a saying, isn’t there? That a fragment of the truth is better than a lie. So if you’re going to be punished, wouldn’t it be better to be punished for something you actually did? For your real mistakes.”
Rubel was a little surprised at himself for speaking so sincerely.
He wasn’t the type to preach to others, especially since he believed everyone had their own path to follow under God.
But to Eir, whether he was speaking sincerely or not, or whether he usually preached, didn’t matter.
Eir remained silent for a moment before speaking.
“You don’t know what shame is.”
Rubel unconsciously furrowed his brows at her cold tone. Was she telling him to feel ashamed?
The girl, who usually cowered in fear whenever his expression changed, calmly said what she had to say this time.
“That’s because you’re a great person, you’ve lived a good life, and everything you’ve done has been right. But don’t you think that’s a blessing? There are people in the world who can’t have that.”
“So, are you saying you’re a corrupt priestess who ran away?”
Eir noticed the faint bond of childhood camaraderie in Rubel’s eyes fading, replaced by contempt.
“Or did you make a deal with the witch?”
But that only proved how narrow his world was. Eir shrugged, feeling it was pointless to argue, and closed her eyes.
“Anyway, I’ve said my piece. So let me sleep. As promised.”
Soon, the sound of even breathing filled the room. Rubel looked at her disheveled hair on his pillow and her peacefully closed eyes, then let out a hollow laugh.
How could anyone sleep in this position?
Well, he was the one who had told her not to see him as a lecher and that he wouldn’t stand.
He couldn’t blame her. He clicked his tongue and sat down on her stomach, his tension easing. The softness of her stomach pressed against him through the thin fabric, and he felt strange.
A peculiar, tantalizing heat pooled below his stomach.
Wondering if this was what an e******n felt like, he pressed his g***n against Eir’s stomach, but it didn’t harden. Rubel lay down beside Eir and stared at her face for a while before closing his eyes.
He was tired too.
