How to Live as the Terminally Ill Younger Sister of the Villain - Chapter 45
Angelina looked up at the magnificent building before her with an expressionless face. The tower was so high its top couldn’t be seen, and the countless sculptures covered its walls.
In the past, she might have just thought it was beautiful and impressive, but now she felt irritated thinking about how much ‘donation money’ must have gone into building it.
Whether it came from squeezing innocent commoners or from the back pockets of nobles who supported their misdeeds, she didn’t like either option.
Angelina pursed her lips in displeasure, but soon let out a small sigh and shook off her uncomfortable feelings.
‘Right. In the end, I’m just a bystander too.’
She might point fingers saying it’s bad and wicked, but she wasn’t in a position to speak loudly since she had no intention of stepping up to stop it herself.
She didn’t have grand ideologies or will strong enough to fight that massive organization, nor did she want to become a hero.
‘I absolutely detest that kind of self-sacrificing life.’
Angelina was well aware of how self-centered she was.
Rather than worrying about strangers whose faces and names she didn’t know, she preferred giving one more candy to the precious people within her own circle.
With a life that would end soon anyway, wasn’t it a more efficient use of time to maintain peace and prepare gifts for her brother?
‘In that sense, I need to meet the female lead somehow today…’
Angelina slowly moved her feet while tracing the grand walls of the Grand Temple.
She could enter through the main gate, but she wanted to draw less attention if possible.
She was walking slowly like a tourist admiring the temple walls when it happened.
“Huh…? Flaubert…?”
Someone recognized her and called out. Their face wasn’t visible under a hood.
Angelina tried to think of who might recognize her around the Grand Temple, but no one in particular came to mind. She didn’t have many acquaintances since she didn’t socialize.
“Oh? It is you, right? You’re really Lady Flaubert, aren’t you?”
The person approached, acting familiar regardless.
But when a magic circle activated at Haley’s fingertips and Laura hid Angelina behind her, the person stopped and hurriedly raised both hands.
“Whoa, w-wait! It’s me! It’s me!”
They quickly took off their hood.
Only then did Angelina recognize the person’s face and her eyes widened.
“Lord Mason?”
Blake’s right-hand man waved awkwardly with an uncomfortable smile.
***
The four of them moved to a new location.
They entered a cafe with a good view of the Grand Temple.
“What brings you here, my lady?”
Mason asked in a small voice.
There was no one else in the second-floor room they occupied, so it was impossible for anyone to overhear, but Mason was unnecessarily cautious after hearing the conversation between Angelina and Blake at the “Path of the Tower” inn.
“Sightseeing.”
“Ah… Sightseeing… Huh?”
Mason’s eyes widened as he repeated her answer in a serious voice.
“Sightseeing?!”
He asked again with a bewildered expression.
He had wondered why she, who should dislike the Sun God Order, came to Solamor where the Grand Temple was, but she said sightseeing. Should he believe this nonsensical answer?
“Um, really just sightseeing?”
“Yes, sightseeing.”
If it had been Sean here instead of Mason, he might have suspected what she was trying to hide.
But Mason was far from being clever.
“Ah… Right… That’s possible…”
He accepted it quickly.
Laura looked at him pitifully from behind, but Mason didn’t notice as his mind was in confusion.
“So why are you here? Did you come alone?”
Angelina spoke slowly while scanning the surroundings and outside the window.
If her brother went to the Black Land in the Duke’s territory, it meant the deal with the male lead was successfully concluded. Shouldn’t the male lead have gone there too?
“Yes, I came alone. His Grace had other business, so Sean went with him.”
Mason answered immediately, realizing she was looking for Blake.
“Why didn’t you go with them?”
“I was told not to come. That I… wouldn’t be much help.”
“…Ah.”
Angelina let out a slightly delayed sigh.
‘Right. Lord Mason was a holy power user.’
Unless one was a strong holy power user like a Saint or High Priest, it would be difficult to enter the center of the Black Land.
According to the original story, it seemed possible after he discarded the object blocking his holy power, but not now.
‘…But isn’t that the same for the male lead?’
He doesn’t have holy power, but he doesn’t have magic either. Even a normal person would have difficulty handling that dense magic.
Angelina was puzzled for a moment but soon dismissed her worries.
‘Well, the world setting will take care of it.’
Whether it gives the male lead a buff, or there’s an item passed down from ancestors, the story will protect the male lead because he is the male lead.
The most useless thing to worry about in a novel world is the male and female leads. She should worry about her own life with a time limit instead.
“So I came to take care of some personal business.”
“I see.”
“…Aren’t you going to ask what it is?”
He had expected her to be curious about what it was.
“Do I need to?”
But Angelina sipped her tea as if uninterested.
“…I thought this before, but you’re unusual, my lady.”
“Am I?”
“You seem uninterested in worldly affairs, yet you know so much. About the Magic Tower, about Sean and me.”
“….”
She really was uninterested in worldly affairs.
She was only putting in some effort recently for her brother’s well-being, but if she hadn’t recalled the novel on her birthday, she would still be just admiring flowers in the mansion garden.
“You just don’t say it, but you must know so much more. Perhaps even the reason I came here…”
“….”
No, she didn’t know such things. How would she know other people’s personal circumstances?
Angelina looked at Mason with an expression of disbelief. But Mason, with his gaze lowered, didn’t notice.
Lost in some complex worries, he habitually fiddled with his necklace.
“I see you decided to keep the necklace.”
“Ah! That is…!”
She had only mentioned it because the necklace was visible, but Mason jumped so violently it would startle anyone watching.
Then he grasped the necklace tightly as if trying to hide it.
“I know you’re not the type to lie, my lady, but it’s too precious to me to just throw away immediately…”
He spoke as if making excuses.
“So I was contemplating, and since I had some free time, I came to the temple to check. I thought a high-ranking priest could definitely confirm it for me.”
Ah, so that was his personal business.
“So I came all this way but haven’t entered the temple yet. I was worried I might run into a familiar face if I just went in…”
Angelina quietly looked at Mason’s hand holding the necklace with deepened eyes.
As he said, a high-ranking priest would be able to confirm the identity of that necklace.
But Angelina suddenly thought she might be able to use this for what she was trying to do now.
“The… people here don’t look favorably on me quitting as a holy knight to work under His Grace.”
Feeling pressured by Angelina’s silence as she stared intensely at the necklace, Mason darted his eyes around and continued speaking.
He seemed to feel her silence as unspoken pressure and started revealing things she hadn’t asked about.
“Well, recently the relationship between the Order and House Kadenhart hasn’t been very good…”
If provoked he probably wouldn’t be able to hold back, and then he’d surely cause trouble, and that would bring harm to His Grace…
Mason’s mumbling continued.
Laura looked at him as if he was pathetic again, but Angelina suddenly had a brilliant idea from his mutterings.
“Then, Lord Mason.”
She interrupted his gloomy mumbling to ask.
“If there’s a way to check that without meeting anyone you know, will you come with me?”
“Is there such a way?”
Mason’s eyes widened.
“I’m thinking of using a prayer room.”
“Ah…”
