The Princess's Spectacular Abduction - Chapter 21
“She touched my shoulder.”
“What? When?”
“Just before you creepily showed up.”
Meaning, Ravian had been awake since before Mercy appeared, catching every bit of their tender exchange.
Mercy flashed an awkward smile.
“Is that so?”
“Is it fun to share the same rhythm with the kid?”
“She seemed more mature than you guys. Anyway, you were pretending to sleep and all, thanks to our little princess, I’ve seen it all now.”
“B******t. Anyway, she touched my shoulder. The left one, at that.”
“That’s worth waking up for… Wait, she touched it and you stayed calm?”
Mercy looked genuinely surprised.
Touching the shoulder might seem trivial, but Ravian’s shoulder is a forbidden zone, to put it mildly.
In particular, as soon as you touch his left shoulder where the burn is located, it wasn’t anything like magic being lifted… … It wasn’t anything grand like that, he just loathed when someone touched my shoulder.
This peculiar quirk, no exceptions even for dates, has driven Smokey, a chronic singleton, to secretly clench his fist and cry, ‘Even someone like him never lacks lovers!’
If Nina had been unlucky, Mercy might have had to report the esteemed boss to the guards for child abuse as soon as he entered the room.
“That’s right. I did wake up then, but it didn’t bother me at all.”
“How peculiar. Is it because she’s your blood relative?”
“You’re joking, right? Did you forget that I hurt my younger brother’s ear just recently?”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Still, being brothers and a Grand Duke of the Empire, Mercy couldn’t help but wear a mournful expression when recalling the incident where the Grand Duke’s eardrums nearly burst in the middle of a banquet hall, all because he had simply grabbed his younger brother’s shoulder after a long absence.
“None of this makes any sense.”
Ravian’s expression twisted peculiarly as he grumbled in a growl.
It was evident that he had a lot on his mind.
“It all doesn’t make sense. This little brat, could she possibly be some kind of ultimate weapon created by the Imperial Family?”
“Um… For what purpose…?”
“To deal with me, obviously.”
“That sounds like an overly self-conscious delusion…”
“If that’s not the case, then how else could this tiny thing grate on my nerves to such an extent?!”
Ravian rambled on with more nonsense, but Mercy wisely let it go in one ear and out the other.
“Maybe it was fine because she’s just a child. And if the Sally issue bothers you that much, why not ask the Little Princess directly later?”
“…..”
Mercy smiled gently, looking down at a suddenly silent Ravian.
“Remember to visit the temple when you have time. Once the little princess feels a bit better, take her out for some tasty food. She hasn’t eaten anything since arriving here.”
“What? Why…”
“You don’t know where they ordered food from yesterday?”
* * *
“Sally Juice, you say? Thanks to Lord Ravian, even our well-provided nursery occasionally encounters such individuals. Of course, our policy is to dismiss them immediately upon discovery.”
The Invisible Temple, dedicated to the Invisible Goddess.
Preaching their mantra of ‘What you see is not all there is’ since the founding of the nation, this temple has risen to become the most authoritative religious organization on the continent, offering the Anubis, who pays a hefty tithe monthly, an indefinite lease of the ‘Invisible Hall,’ a sanctuary considered inviolable.
In essence, while not exactly transparent, the ancillary facilities of this place, serving as Anubis’s money laundering operation, were considerably better off compared to other businesses.
Thus, the emergence of the not-so-transparent High Priest of the Invisible Temple at Ravian’s visit proved Oscar’s theory as an undeniable reality.
The reality that deranged caregivers exploiting Sally Juice did indeed exist and, surprisingly, in significant numbers.
“I just heard an interesting story. I guess you’ll handle it appropriately here.”
“It’s only natural, given Lord Ravian himself is keeping an eye on this place. But about this month’s tithe, how much will it be…?”
After Ravian roughly finished negotiating a tithe increase with the less-than-transparent High Priest and returned, Nina was doing exactly as told, quietly sitting in a corner of the café, staring at the cup of cocoa provided by the waitress..
