Emilone’s Temptation Labyrinth – Chapter 44

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T/N: Sorry for the delay. This chapter felt so long 🙁

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Right, a demon… a demon indeed… that was the size of a monkey… and as small as an adult male palm put together…

“Your Holiness, there’s one more over there.”

I was so out of it that I reached out to the floor but despite the commotion, someone spoke up, bringing me to my senses.

A shadow fell over my head. I reflexively reached out and grabbed the other creature which was moving to attack people behind me.

I didn’t even have a chance to check the remaining demon; I just poured out my divine power.

Feeling the sticky sensation on my hand, I looked up and saw the demon covered in shades of blue and green, and even red.

It was completely covered in wounds.

Who knew what Prince Alois was doing with the demon while I was busy, but it looked so battered like it was a rag.

Sure enough, once I injected divine power into the remaining demon, it turned limp, grew smaller and smaller, before eventually falling to the ground.

“…Another monkey.”

I mumbled in bewilderment as I stared at the two demons that had become smaller.

They were baby monkeys, still alive, wriggling and squeaking.

* * *

When the demons became small, their wounds seemed to heal completely. Two red-furred monkeys with red eyes lay trembling on the floor then they stood up.

I felt pity hearing their crying and squeaking so I picked them up and they quickly became quiet.

“Lady Emilone, this…”

“They’re not demons.”

They changed into small monkeys, with the same outward appearance as before.

Although their appearance was the same, I could tell whether they were demons or not. After all, I am the Saintess.

The young monkeys were apparently the obedient type because they only wriggled meekly in my arms.

“I’m sure this was a shock. Help me calm people down.”

“Your Holiness, you should first…”

“…I am fine. This takes priority.”

Reneben placed his coat over my body. I definitely needed to cover up since my dress had been melted and scuffed by demon nails.

“But Lady Emilone, your wound…”

“It doesn’t hurt. So please do me this favor.”

I wasn’t sure how to explain the two very small animals in my arms right now. I felt like the situation might go south at any moment, so I kept releasing divine power, but the monkeys just rubbed their faces against me like they were in a good mood.

With such cute behavior, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was really the same demon. I glanced down and when I locked eyes with one of them, it quickly lowered its head.

“Lady Saintess.”

Reneben got the nobles to calm down. Then I heard Princess Ronella’s voice calling for me as she walked over but Prince Alois was faster.

He strode over to me with a sword in hand. Demon blood was smeared all over his soft face.

Just as I was taking in the fact that he was completely soaked, the creature on my left started trying to run away and scratched me.

“And that is…?

“A monkey.”

“What?”

“A baby monkey.”

“…”

The animal-shaped demons that I had faced before flashed through my mind. They had never once turned into a living, breathing life-form.

“And it seems to be the demon’s true body.”

The little guy climbed up my body and hung lazily on my shoulder.

Its threatening image from earlier was completely gone.

For some reason, it looked just as battered as me and I burst into laughter.

“Come here.”

I repeated the same thing I said to the demon earlier.

The baby hanging off my back was clinging to coat Reneben had covered me with.

“Cute, isn’t it?”

Anyone could tell that it was afraid of Alois. I really wanted to doubt that this was the true body but after seeing it trembling once it saw Prince Alois, it was hard to deny it.

Alois wiped away the blood that was snaking around his eyes.

Only then did I realize I’d been too preoccupied with the animals, and I spoke.

“Were you hurt?”

“Don’t worry. Rather than me, Your Holiness is…”

He narrowed his eyes slightly and shut his mouth when he saw the blood seeping through Reneben’s white coat.

Reneben also came over after dumping the nobles somewhere and picked up the monkey which was hanging over the wound on my back.

Who knew if it was because Reneben was the only one who didn’t do anything to it, or because he possessed divine powers that animals liked, but the monkey obediently released its grip on my back.

Then soon enough, it shook off Reneben’s hold and ran back to me.

“Lady Emilone, we don’t know what these are. They’re dangerous. It will be better to kill them before…”

“It was a demon before, it’s not one now.”

“But…!”

“Do you think I can’t tell the difference?”

I felt sorry for the little guy which kept clinging to me and rubbed my forehead against his. It still had red eyes and red fur, but I couldn’t no longer sense demonic energy.

“Let’s go back to the temple first.”

But since they used to be demons, I kept releasing my divine power. And maybe they liked the good energy because they quickly fell asleep.

Eventually, Reneben stepped in and held out both hands.

“I am not so incompetent that I can’t send divine energy to small animals. I’ll carry them.”

“Won’t that wake them?”

Seemingly confident in answering my question, Reneben picked up the two monkeys.

They remained soundly asleep.

Only then did I heave a sigh. The wound on my back was also beginning to hurt.

Getting rid of demons wasn’t difficult, but the traces left on my body always annoyed me. When I let out a deep breath, Reneben became anxious.

“Are…you okay?”

It wasn’t hard to walk so I didn’t plan on letting anyone help me. I was about to shake my head to say I’m fine, but it was Prince Alois, not Reneben, who stopped me.

“You’re heavily injured.”

“This much is fine…”

“I will assume I didn’t just hear you say it’s fine,” Prince Alois cut in.

I felt like I was okay, but I realized it might not seem like that in other people’s eyes. To me, my outfit looked like a typical one-piece dress, but to nobles, it was underwear.

“I want to accompany Your Holiness… but then I can’t manage the animals…”

Reneben looked at me then at the monkeys. Maybe he was out of energy because he was breathing quite hard.

“I will accompany you,” Prince Alois interjected.

Seeing his deep eyes asking me not to refuse, I eventually waved the white flag.

“I’ll leave it to you then.”

“…!”

I thought he was going to support my body at best but suddenly my body was in the air. I was so startled that I immediately grabbed his shoulder for support.

He easily supported my thigh with one hand and held my waist with the other hand to avoid the wound. Although it was a risky position, he stood stably as if lifting my weight barely made a dent.

“…Please hold her tightly so she doesn’t fall.”

“Of course.”

Seeing him easily carrying me with one hand, Reneben pursed his lips, then he spun around and started walking ahead.

While my hands were still on Alois’ shoulder, my eyes darted all over the place.

I was looking down at him in this position.

Although his face was smeared with demon blood, the top of his head was untouched.

Feeling quite embarrassed by this position, I lowered my head slightly but then my already loose hair tie came undone.

Pink hair unfurled from my head, falling over his frame.

“Your Holiness!”

“Are you alright?”

The timing was impeccable. Just as my hair covered his face, the nobles that Reneben had stuffed somewhere, came back out.

They burst out like a wave of water.

Meeting them while a man was carrying me like this was an absolute no for me.

As I locked eyes with Alois, my body stiffened.

Seeing me like that, Prince Alois tilted me a little closer to his body, turned his head slightly and spoke in a soft voice.

“Thanks to all your help, the Saintess has strained herself and will be retiring back to the temple for today.”

The words alone sounded nice and soft, but when written down, it twisted into a strange attack on the nobles.

I couldn’t tell if it was because Alois was a royal, or because they were fooled by his unique soft-spoken tone, but the nobles obediently cleared the path.

Thanks to that, I was able to easily get back to the temple.

At first, I wanted to take a look at those former demons, but the priests stopped me because they wanted me to spend the last day of the goddess festival in peace. In the end, I had no choice but to give up.

They pushed me into my room, telling me to rest, that they’d continue infusing the animals with divine power.

When the maids saw me looking like I’d played in the dirt somewhere, they quickly got busy.

Everything happened so quickly that by the time I got into bed, my wounds were already bandaged, and I was draped in light linen.

In other words, I was in pajamas.

After making a fuss for me to sleep, the maids turned off the lights in the room. They left a cup of tea next to my bed, saying it had soothing and pain relieving effects.

I started feeling like I really needed to sleep and just when I was closing my eyes…

“Ah…wait.”

“Yes? Did you call me?”

“The prince, if Prince Alois asks to stay in the temple, can you give him a room?”

The maid seemed puzzled by my words but eventually answered that she understood and closed the door.

As I lay alone in the room darkened by thick curtains… the fleeting sleep slowly seeped in.

It didn’t take long to be sucked into sleep’s embrace.

* * *

When I woke up, I was surprised to see that my wounds were almost fully healed.

“I know I recover fast…but was it this fast?”

I stared at myself in the mirror with a tilt of my head. Even after studying the wound again, the flesh looked completely healed.

Pushing those doubts aside, I put on my clothes and brushed my hair.

The maids must have put so much product in my hair while I was washing yesterday because it still smelled sweet.

Right now, I had to go show my face to the temple people since they were probably worried, and I also had to see those monkeys.

My decision to bring the monkeys here was done after much thought, so I was quite worried about them.

It was so that I could act personally if something happened, but when the priests and everyone else kept saying ‘no’, ‘stop’, I ended up getting some good sleep…

But as I thought about the monkeys, I felt anxious. So, I put on a thick coat, quickly opened the door and went out.

A refreshing scent, unique to the temple, immediately covered my body.

“Lady Saintess.”

And the moment I opened the door, I was met with a man’s chest standing right there.

I lifted my head slightly and met the eyes of a pure man; a man whose face I had already gotten used to after seeing it a few times, and whose face looked clear and hydrated even when it was so early in the morning.

 

 

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