‘Calm down, Jung Yeseo.’

“Benjamin, Ganael.”

‘Stay calm.’

“It looks like I’m about to become a slacker.”

I could not be completely calm.

After assessing the situation, I had the divine beasts dangling on me as I proclaimed that, witnessing the two attendants’ faces going dark.

The teary Ganael flailed both hands around saying that something like that would absolutely not happen. ‘You’ll get your ether back soon, your highness!’ He commented.

Benjamin calmly nodded his head.

‘Huh? Hold on.’

“How did you know?”

I blinked in confusion.

I never told them about my ether not coming out but the two of them already seemed to know about my condition.

Benjamin and the young boy exchanged glances before struggling to speak.

“Your highness…… Our dreams returned to normal since you lost consciousness. All of the staff in Juliette Palace have been clearly feeling that. However, nobody dares to speak about it.”

‘Ah. I forgot there was something like that.’

“It is not that we are suddenly struggling with nightmares. It just became similar to how it had been during the winter before you entered the palace, your highness. We have not said anything about it because we thought you might get shocked if we told you first.”

“……”

“We have simply returned to our old normal, your highness. Please do not feel apologetic.”

“In fact, we have been benefiting from such an esteemed individual until now. Thank you very much for everything until now, your highness.” The middle-aged man smiled benignly.

Ether truly was not flowing through me and the regular people around me knew about it as well.

In that case, that damn Imperial Crown Prince obviously knew about my condition.

I barely managed to flick my chin as I worked hard to gather my scattering thoughts.

I could not continue to live in a shocked state. I needed to calmly plan for the coming days.

“Did her Eminence leave anything for me?”

I asked. My teacher should have been the first person in the Imperial Palace to inspect me.

There was no way that she would not know about such a peculiar situation, and the Imperial family might be even more desperate than I am right now because her godson needed a priest partner.

Benjamin and Ganael both nodded their heads at my question. I had been correct.

“She left behind a few books for you to read and a letter, your highness. She also said that she would come again when she has time.”

Ganael cautiously answered. I humored the harp seal on my back and solemnly clenched my teeth.

Yes, it was time to return to my basic schedule since I have finally returned to the Imperial Palace for the first time in a long while.

I needed to stay as a hermit in Juliette goshiwon, studying and eating hard. (TL: Goshiwon are a kind of single room occupancy class of building found in South Korea. Originally designed for students preparing to take exams, they are characterized by low rent, shared bathrooms and kitchens, and very limited private space.)

I could not let my will be broken because my superpower has disappeared.

I already made up my mind to survive and return home no matter what it took.

*

Then it was the next day. It felt as if I returned to March when I first transmigrated into this world.

It was like that first week where I had no abilities and studied my butt off to survive.

“The priest will end up dead…… Nope, not that one.”

I received the warmth of the autumn sun as I sat out on the first floor terrace.

I heard that the weather in the Imperial Capital was pretty gentle other than the heatwave season, and it really was the case.

It was the middle of October but the air was pretty warm until the sun went down.

The wide table was full of snack plates and my teacup, with the < Biweekly Riester >, a guide to the Church of the Almighty God, and other books opened as well.

The page of my notebook where I had summarized the < Kaboom! Yves’ Great Adventure > fluttered up and down from the breeze.

The message my teacher left for me was at the center of the table.

“Listen to this, Tithé. There are two main reasons a priest would become unable to use their ether.”

– Aarf

I explained to the harp seal on my knees.

“One is because their heart stops. Then the body is unable to create anymore ether. They die.”

– Oo……

It must have been too scary of a story for the little guy as Tithé moved his black eyes and nose away and flattened himself on my knees.

The red pandas, who had been biting on the lamp on one side of the table, ran over and smacked me with their fluffy tails.

Outsiders didn’t know about this but the divine beasts of the Empire were so ferocious and violent.

I scoffed and apologized.

“I’m sorry, I scared your youngest bro. I didn’t do it on purpose.”

– Cruuu.

“I’ll reflect on my actions. The second is the ether disappearing because they broke a Promise of Ether. This is a similar reason to a Holy Knight.”

I recalled a few facts about the Promise of Ether of a believer of the Church of the Almighty God.

They received the penalty of loss if they broke a Promise of Ether, but a priest’s penalty was random while a Holy Knight would only receive the divine punishment of their power being sealed.

In reverse, a priest could be extremely unlucky and have their power sealed.

Based on what I read in the books, there were indeed cases of priests losing their ether instead of money or memories and returning to life as normal people.

However, this seemed to only be the case when they broke an extremely grand Promise of Ether.

“But me? I’ve never broken a Promise of Ether. So this is not it either.”

I crossed things out in my notebook. There was only one time I even made a Promise of Ether.

That had already happened five months ago. On a night before the heatwave…

[I swear.]

‘You are making a Promise of Ether.’

I promised to Sadie that I have not been communicating with the Holy Kingdom and that I would continue to not do that.

I had not gone against that, so it wasn’t as if my ether was sealed as a penalty.

This should be obvious, but my body did not fall under a typical case.

My eyes darted over to Cardinal Boutier’s letter again.

‘……On the day that the hole appeared in the Almighty God’s sky, I heard that you went into ether overload. I did not personally see it, so I cannot tell whether it was overload or something that showed similar symptoms.’

Vice Captain Élisabeth and Crown prince Cédric had seen me that day.

The two of them do not know that the ‘Paten of Wishes’ is inside my body, so it probably looked like ether overload to them.

The bleeding and fainting that followed the intense golden ether exploding out of my body made that a logical conclusion.

‘If that was overload, I think a temporary shock has closed off your plate.’

‘We are considering a temporary sequelae and researching it. We are also looking into whether there were any priests who temporarily lost their powers because of ether overload.’

Sequelae…… I petted Rhea, who was dangling on my neck, and mumbled to myself.

I was about to organize my thoughts but Perry bit my quill pen and would not let me.

Demy plopped down on my notebook and didn’t budge either.

“Big bro is not hurting anymore. I am not overdoing it. I’ll sleep with you guys in your playroom tonight.” I had to console them for a long time before I could get my stationery back.

Black letters quickly appeared on top of the white paper.

∙ A ‘gate’ to go home has opened.

– Reason 1: Because four divine items gathered together in one place and activated

– Reason 2: Four divine items gathered together in one place and activated + The Paten of Wishes activated

‘……Reason 2 is probably closer to the truth.’

I went through the things I saw that day frame by frame.

– Ooooooong!

First, the four divine items, including Percy, released lights.

Those lights shot out like laser pointers to the center of the sky.

A weird reaction happened from me a bit later after that.

‘Thump!’

My heart loudly thumped and…

‘Eek!’

My breathing was interrupted and I felt an extremely ominous feeling.

The feeling of the whole world rejecting me endlessly pressed down on my peripheral nerves.

The last thing I saw was ether bursting out of my body and shooting up into the sky.

When I snapped back to my senses, I was coughing up blood and there was already a hole in the sky. Then……

– Screeeech!

“Sorry. Big bro held you too tightly. Does it hurt a lot? I’m really sorry.”

I was shocked by Rhea’s screeching and snapped out of my thoughts. My palms were damp.

The red panda that was tightly held by me had her mouth open in shock.

I urgently apologized and patted her back, but she acted as if she was dying and went over to lie down next to Tithé.

What I, this powerless temporary guardian, could do was to rub her black belly and blow air at her.

I continued to write in the notebook with my other hand.

– Principles behind the opening of the gate (hypothesis): four divine items reached the sky > Something happens > The Paten Activates > Listens to my wish of wanting to go home

‘……Sounds possible? It sounds reasonable enough.”

I mumbled to myself.

If these were all correct, that ‘something happens’ section is especially important and mysterious.

The paten inside my body had been quiet all this time.

Of course, it did provide a ton of extremely clean and pure ether and my Holy Land being larger than most Archbishops’ was probably related to it, but that was it.

It had never responded to my wishes or desires.

‘Mm.’ If I put all of my imagination to work…

“The other four divine items set up a sort of foundation. That was why the paten, which has been quiet until now, activated. But after that, no ether is coming out.”

– Pruuuu!

Demy and I looked at each other and tilted our heads.

“Did it use up all of its powers to open the gate?”

– Pruu?

‘No…… That seemed unlikely.’

It was the paten’s power that gave a second chance to the dead Prince Jesse by transmigrating me here and turning back time. At least that was my thought on the matter.

If the divine item was a one time use item, I would not have had so much ether until now. It would have just kept me alive and then left me all alone to fend for myself.

Furthermore, Christelle, who also has a divine item inside her body, did not lose her powers.

I chewed on a pickled orange peel as if it was a squid and scowled.

‘Then is it really sequelae? When will I recover?’

– Piruuuuu, pipipi

Percy, who finished his afternoon stroll, landed on the terrace ledge.

I was about to greet the chimney bird when I gasped.

“Percy, come here. What are you holding?”

I saw something sparkling next to his two small feet.

I was scared that he might have looted the Empress or a guest of the Imperial Palace!

– Pii!

“Don’t turn around and bring it here. One.”

– Piiriii

“Two.”

– Piruuuuu

“Two and a half.”

– Pipo!

Percy looked at me as if he knew he couldn’t win, somehow managed to bite down on the golden item, and placed it in front of me.

He then flapped his wings extremely discontently and landed on Tithé’s back.

‘What, are you angry and going on a drive to cool off?’

“What are you going to do if your beak gets into such bad habits? Hmm? Who taught you such a thing?”

– Piiiii

“I can’t call you the Jung family chimney bird if you do things like this. I’m too embarrassed.”

I attentively inspected the sparkling item Percy brought. ‘This looks like some kind of emblem…

The Riester Imperial family coat of arms is in the middle…holy shit.’

“Percy Jung, you, this……”

I opened and closed my mouth without being able to say anything as I looked at the troublemaker looking back at me with extremely innocent looking eyes.

I urgently placed the little troublemakers on the table and leaned over the ledge.

I could see a familiar silhouette on the other side of the garden.

The man must have had an event somewhere as he was wearing formal attire with a luxurious cape as he stood there with his attendant next to him.

There was an empty spot on his chest, which made it look very likely that Percy stole the emblem from there. His orange eyes made eye contact with mine.

“……”

The crown prince did not approach me or even greet me with his gaze.

He immediately walked into Romero Palace as if he did not see anything.

He was completely ignoring me.

“……I need to apologize to him.”

I quietly mumbled.

I hurt that punk so I wanted to properly apologize but it seemed difficult to even create an opportunity to do so right now.

*

“Sending him a letter should be okay, Cédric.”

Élisabeth grumbled.

Eva, who was stuck next to her, looked extremely anxious.

They were not the only ones with such gloomy expressions on their faces.

Next to Cédric, who was seated at the head of the table, Christelle’s blue-gray eyes were sending daggers at him.

“I would understand if you confined him to protect him, your Royal Highness. Her Majesty had done so when crown princess Elise had come, and his highness…… Is the most powerless he has ever been right now.”

“……”

Her voice became quiet.

Christelle had deeply despaired after entering the Imperial Palace despite Cardinal Boutier sending her a message in advance.

She could not feel the Prince’s warm and clear ether despite coming all the way to Romero Palace, which was right beside Juliette.

There wasn’t even a trace of it, as if it was some terrible trick or a magic spell.

Her instincts as a Holy Knight naturally made her frustrated and sad.

However, that was that and this was this.

Prince Jesse was her partner, but more importantly, he was her friend.

“But I don’t understand why you are preventing us from sending him letters and presents, your Royal Highness. Why are you going so far?”

“There is no need for me to explain the will of the Imperial family.”

The crown prince growled.

His ether then viciously threatened and tried to suppress Christelle.

Share barely managed to hold back against his fiery provocation and scowled. Something was weird.

The crown prince was clearly overreacting, and this was not like him.

Even if he has not received Prince Jesse’s ether for half a month……

“Something must have happened that day, didn’t it, your Royal Highness?”

Christelle tilted her head and inspected the crown prince’s face.

She too had seen something when she regained consciousness for a moment in the middle.

However, she could not tell whether she really did see it or if she had just imagined it. That was why she was more concerned about it.

Her throat felt dry and it made her nervous.

She was curious whether her partner and her partner’s partner had also seen what she had seen.

Had they also seen the veranda of a house that looked like it was in Korea through that black hole?

—
Translator’s Comments

Ohhhh so Chris saw it too.

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