Holy Night: My Husband is Definitely a Paladin - Chapter 52
Translated by Elphie
‘It seemed like an impossible task, requiring an absurd amount of magic absorption.’
As a test, Irene tried purifying the blood of a demon stored in the fortress. She wanted to see how much magic was needed to increase her purification power. But even after purifying several large vats of blood, her purification power didn’t seem to change much.
When Irene was about to collapse from exhaustion, the priest who had been evaluating her power expressed his pity.
“There’s barely any change with this amount of magic. If you want to improve your rank, you’ll have to purify thousands of demons by yourself.”
In other words, it would be nearly impossible to improve her rank.
Irene looked at the ring with a bitter heart—how sorry she felt for Michael now that she knew what the ring could do.
“If I knew something like this would happen, it would have been better for someone else to get it. At least, if I hadn’t…”
Even though he encouraged her to wear it, the feeling of ruining something precious made it hard for her to lift her head.
At that moment, Michael spoke.
“No, things find their way to their owners. Someday, that ring would have surely found its way to you.”
He said it firmly, as if he knew from the beginning that something like this would happen.
‘Well, he wasn’t the type to hold a grudge just because someone else took something from him.’
He wasn’t someone praised for no reason. Michael lived a truly altruistic life, freely giving without expecting anything in return. Irene couldn’t imagine him resenting anyone.
Irene collected her thoughts and looked at the princess sitting next to her. The unpleasant emotions from her past life still vividly lingered within her. The problem was the events that caused these feelings no longer happened.
‘Of course, it’s hard to accept that I was given false information, but…’
She couldn’t find a reason for the Princess intentionally misleading her in her past life.
‘If she wanted to kill me, she had thousands of opportunities before that day.’
Besides, even though she’s not the nicest person, Irene didn’t think the Princess would resort to murder. With the power she had, there were plenty of ways to make someone suffer without having to do that.
So, maybe she genuinely didn’t know when she provided Irene with inaccurate information.
Unfortunately, there was no way to confirm it anymore. She couldn’t go back to the past.
‘Alright, so let’s leave that incident out of the equation and focus on the rest.’
Then, frankly, Irene didn’t need to be at odds with Princess Cecilia right now. In fact, becoming friends might be better for everyone involved.
Unlike in her past life, the Princess didn’t ignore or belittle her. If Irene adjusted appropriately, the Princess might include her in raids and generously share a portion of the rewards.
‘If she does that…’
Perhaps she would just give away around 100,000 gold.
Should she follow what her emotions were telling her or go with logical practicality?
Irene agonized over what she would choose.
“Oh, thank you for inviting me.”
As Irene was lost in thought, someone appeared at the entrance, late to the gathering and expressing gratitude for the invitation.
It was someone Irene vaguely remembered from her past life, a 7th-grade purifier. Although of a higher rank than Irene, she was still considered low-ranked in the grand scheme of purifiers. Irene and this person had stayed in the same building and the same kind of small room. She had fairly divided the rewards with her partner, but due to being paired with a weaker knight, they didn’t earn much.
‘I remember she struggled because she sent all the money she earned to her family.’
With hesitant steps, the newcomer entered the room, bowing slightly towards Princess Cecilia.
The Princess took one look at her and returned her greeting curtly.
“Thank you for the invitation. This may not be much, but as a small token of my appreciation…”
“It’s certainly not much,” interrupted the Princess.
At that moment, another Grade 1 purifier sitting near the princess sighed upon seeing the gift-wrapped box. The people next to her laughed and covered their mouths to hide their smirks.
The moment Irene saw that, she froze.
Someone else was going through the same thing she had gone through.
