CHAPTER 03
Yankeller looked at Everett with a worried expression.
“Her clothes may be plain, but they suggest she’s from a noble family. Did she come to the temple alone?”
He gave a faint smile and spoke.
“I should have come earlier… I was observing in case you were in conversation. That was my mistake.”
Though he had rescued her, Yankeller was apologizing for being late.
When Everett gave him a soft smile, a small dimple appeared just above her left cheekbone.
“I thought she’d be bold, since she didn’t seem intimidated by the priests… But she’s like a little fairy.”
Yankeller couldn’t take his eyes off the smiling Everett.
“But why is she only smiling and not speaking? Could she be… mute?”
Yankeller had spotted Everett earlier, climbing the temple steps ahead of the trainee priests.
He had witnessed everything — including how they whispered and pointed at her.
“Now that I think about it, she didn’t scream even when they threatened her.”
He thought that any normal noblewoman wouldn’t have reacted that way — remaining calm and silent even under threat from unfamiliar men.
Everett quietly observed Yankeller, who was frowning in thought.
Her eyes, a lighter shade of brown matching her hair, sparkled transparently.
Her curly hair, gently covering her forehead, looked soft enough to brush aside with a hand.
“Even wearing an undecorated priest’s robe, she still looks this beautiful. Truly fitting for a sub male lead.”
Feeling her gaze, a bashful smile spread across Yankeller’s face.
“Apologies, I was momentarily lost in thought… My name is Yankeller Fennaio. As you can see, I’m a priest. Were you startled by those trainee priests? I’ll make sure they’re properly disciplined.”
His face radiated like the warm spring sun.
Yankeller waited for Everett’s reply, but she only smiled contentedly.
“Still no answer. Just as I suspected, she must be unable to speak.”
Hesitating a bit, he cautiously opened his mouth.
“Well… I don’t know how to use sign language. But maybe if you read my lips, you’ll understand me? I’ll speak slowly.”
At the unexpected words, Everett blinked rapidly.
“Sign language? Lip reading? Wait… he thinks I can’t talk?”
She almost opened her mouth to correct him — but swallowed her words.
“No, think carefully. This might be a good opportunity. Yankeller misunderstands me as a pitiful noblewoman who can’t speak. If he remembers me like this… maybe three years from now, he won’t send me to the underground prison?”
Resolving herself, Everett gave a slight nod instead of speaking.
“Ah, I’m relieved you understand. Did you come to the temple to see Lady Anish?”
“Yes, but I was lucky enough to meet you, too — the sub male lead.”
Everett tilted her head and looked into the temple.
“That’s right. Lady Anish is inside. I’ll guide you. Please, follow me.”
Everett entered the temple, following Yankeller’s lead.
“I didn’t get the warmth just from reading the story… This priest is so kind and gentle in person.”
They passed through a long corridor into a circular central hall.
In the center of the arched ceiling was a round opening, through which sunlight poured down onto the floor.
There, bathed in the radiant light, stood the statue of the goddess Anish.
“This is Lady Anish, a revered prophetess and goddess.”
“Hmm, not as tall as I imagined.”
The original work didn’t describe her height.
Everett had just assumed that a deified prophet would be enormous.
“About two meters tall, maybe?”
She stepped closer to the statue.
Yankeller tapped her shoulder as she looked up at it.
“You know who Lady Anish is, right? She prophesied beside the emperor during the unification of the continent.”
“Of course — and she made those prophecies using the Arcana.”
Everett’s eyes moved toward the outstretched hand of the statue.
“Yes, what you see there is the Arcana. She used it to make countless prophecies, though unfortunately, no one today can interpret it.”
Everett’s eyes sparkled more than ever.
“So it wasn’t just a borrowed name…”
One of the statue’s hands held three tarot cards, and the other held the rest.
Everett stepped back a few paces to better see the cards.
“The designs are different from the ones I used, but it’s clear — the Emperor, the High Priestess, and the Magician.”
In the original, the saint’s tarot interpretations were strange.
She had worried that maybe the cards were entirely different, just using the same names.
“But they really are tarot cards.”
Everett smiled slightly as she stared intently at the Arcana.
Watching her, Yankeller let out a quiet sigh.
“You must be very interested in the Arcana too. I just don’t understand why people are so curious about something so vague and mysterious.”
Though a priest, Yankeller didn’t believe in the divine.
He had no choice but to become a priest to inherit his father’s position as High Priest.
But his real dream was to become a magician — one who wielded mana.
“I understand building a temple to honor Lady Anish for unifying the continent. But if we’re going to honor her, shouldn’t we do it properly? This place looks like a temple from the outside, but inside it’s just…”
He cut himself off, startled by his own bluntness.
“Am I crazy? What am I saying to a noblewoman I just met?”
Meanwhile, Everett looked at the flustered Yankeller with sympathy.
“So you already know how corrupted the temple is. That’s why you asked Kyle to abolish it first when he becomes emperor.”
Forced down an unwanted path, he would one day be made to do something he didn’t want.
At 24, with many dreams, the weight on Yankeller was heavy.
“Yankeller!”
Just then, someone called his name, running toward him.
“What is it?”
“Yankeller, excuse me—”
It was his assistant priest.
“I’m afraid I must leave due to an urgent matter. Will you be all right looking around on your own?”
Everett nodded enthusiastically to say of course.
“And… might I ask your name, Lady—”
“Yankeller, it’s urgent!”
At his assistant’s prodding, Yankeller turned to leave, his face full of regret.
Everett waved at his retreating figure.
“Please… when you meet me three years from now, remember this beautiful encounter.”
Having fulfilled her purpose for coming to the temple, Everett walked away with a light heart.
“So it was tarot. If no one could interpret it, then it probably wasn’t used publicly. But I should still check with the fortune tellers in the plaza to be sure.”
As she descended the temple stairs, an unpleasant voice echoed in her ear.
“You! Stop right there!”
It was the two trainee priests Yankeller had scolded, now running after her.
One stood in front of her, glaring as if he wanted to kill her.
“Because of you, we got in trouble with Priest Yankeller — even though we didn’t do anything! That’s not fair, and we’re not letting it go.”
The trainee grabbed her delicate shoulder roughly.
“Oh? These little punks…”
Everett narrowed her eyes and glared at them in turn.
“Oh? Giving us a look? Come quietly.”
He pulled her toward him with rough, forceful hands.
As he began dragging her back up the stairs into the temple, Everett didn’t go quietly.
She raised her hand and slapped his arm away from her shoulder with a sharp strike.
Surprised by her unexpected resistance, the trainee flinched — then grew even angrier.
“Oh, I see. You want to do this the hard way.”
He reached for her again, more aggressively this time.
Everett stepped back, trying to avoid him — and suddenly felt her foot miss the stair behind her.
“Oh no, I forgot these were stairs!”
She hadn’t accounted for the narrow temple staircase.
Her foot hovered in midair, unable to find support.
“Ah… ah…!”
As her body tilted backward, the trainee reached for her — too late.
“There’s no orthopedic clinic here either.”
If she fell, she’d definitely break something — probably in several places.
She flailed her arms to regain balance, then gave up and shut her eyes tightly.
Even a mild concussion would be lucky.
“Please… just don’t let it be serious…”
She braced for the pain — but instead, it felt like she was resting against a wall.
She peeked one eye open and saw the trainee priest gaping at something.
Then she felt it — the steady palm supporting her back.
“Who is this?”
As she tried to turn her head, the person who had caught her gently but firmly wrapped an arm around her and lifted her.
“Wait, am I… being carried?”
Suspended in the air in the man’s arms, Everett looked up — and gasped.
“Kyle… it’s Kyle Thorne Bartmann!”
His eyes were a deep forest green, filled with a chilling clarity.
His reddish hair burned like flames — living up to his nickname, the Sun.
“I thought Kyle wasn’t even in the capital — he was off in the borderlands. I didn’t expect to meet him until three years from now. But here he is?”
The Frozen Sun.
That was the term used for him — dazzling in appearance, but cold to the core.
“He really is the Sun. So bright, I feel like I might go blind.”
Kyle looked down at the dumbfounded Everett and asked,
“Are you alright?”
Her eyes widened in shock.
“The Sun of Bartmann… just spoke to me.”
Dazzled by his radiant looks, Everett was too stunned to even reply.
Kyle tilted his head in confusion.
“Why isn’t this lady saying anything?”
