Chapter 47: The Method She Chose

 After finishing her conversation with Ruphia, Clea quietly headed to where Edmund was.

 Edmund already knew she had arrived from the sound of footsteps coming from the doorway and was looking in her direction.

 Meeting his gaze, Clea felt her cold body warming up and lifted the corners of her mouth.

 But Edmund’s expression was serious.

 “What do you want to ask me?”

 “It’s not such a difficult request.”

 “Really?”

 “Yes. You just need to watch over me from the side.”

 Despite her saying he just needed to watch over her from the side, Edmund still felt uneasy.

 He knew her request wouldn’t end with just asking him to watch.

 At the same time, he somehow felt he knew what she was about to ask.

 Edmund wanted to stop her.

 But her words came before he could.

 “You told me, didn’t you? That you want to stand proudly by my side. Then isn’t it my turn now?”

 “Clea! From the moment you cut ties with the Odoi ducal family and Lloyd, you’ve always been proud.”

 “I think so too, but others don’t see it that way.”

 She had lived without caring about others’ gazes.

 After the curse appeared, she always thought only about what would happen after death, not looking at reality.

 But now it was different.

 To stay by Edmund’s side, she decided to change.

 “You don’t need to be acknowledged by people.”

 “No. I will be acknowledged, Edmund.”

 “I’m afraid you might get hurt.”

 Edmund became scared seeing Clea’s enthusiastic appearance.

 Afraid that if her enthusiasm was crushed, she might never smile brightly again.

 Edmund was an excellent person. Someone who had barely experienced failure.

 Since his days at the academy, he had seen more of others’ failures than his own.

 Since they were others’ problems, he simply thought they could just start over.

 But when he thought that Clea might be the protagonist of such a failure, it was hard to dismiss it lightly.

 He didn’t want to see Clea fail.

 It wasn’t that he was convinced she would fail.

 His words came from fear of possibly seeing her frustrated.

 She noticed why Edmund was trying to dissuade her and slowly approached him, narrowing the distance between them.

 “Edmund, look into my eyes.”

 Her blue eyes were shining seductively.

 For a moment, Edmund unconsciously tried to avoid those eyes.

 “It’s true that I did wrong in the past. I did many terrible things to Aria.”

 But Clea, as if refusing to let him avoid it, grabbed Edmund’s chin to make him look at her.

 Looking into her eyes, Edmund found it difficult to take his gaze away from her.

 Trapped in her jewel-like blue shining eyes, Edmund quietly listened to what she had to say.

 Finding Edmund’s attentiveness cute, she held back her emerging smile and spoke with a serious attitude.

 “I’ll acknowledge and settle the wrongs of the past.”

 “You’re thinking of going to the temple.”

 “Yes, that’s right.”

 The path Clea chose.

 Edmund, as well as Odin and Elina, knew she would choose this path.

 In fact, if she had made a different request, Edmund, Odin, and Elina could have eradicated the source of the rumors for her.

 Or they could have used the rumors for political machinations.

 But she deliberately chose not to borrow their hands.

 The reason was simple. Even if she denied the murderer rumors right now, there were too many eyes and ears that had seen and heard at the academy.

 ‘Since I transmigrated at that point, it can’t be helped.’

 Although Clea hadn’t done it herself, she boldly decided to accept the original Clea’s wrongdoings.

 Including the work of settling them directly.

 “If I go to the temple and pray while fasting for a week, I can be forgiven for past wrongdoings, right?”

 “It will be a great strain on your body.”

 It’s impossible to give up in the middle.

 One must pray continuously without eating any food except water, and without even sleeping.

 It was a difficult method, but even attempting it was restricted to certain people.

 One had to either make an enormous donation, prove to be a faithful believer from the beginning, or a noble.

 The current Clea didn’t qualify for any of these three.

 That’s why Clea asked Edmund.

 To please stay by her side.

 If a member of the imperial family was beside her, their presence would serve as a guarantee, naturally granting her that qualification.

 Knowing this, Edmund looked at Clea’s dry arms.

 “It’s just a week. I only need to endure for a week.”

 “You asked me to be by your side, right?”

 “Yes, please stay by my side.”

 “Then I too will repent. Together with you.”

 “You too?”

 Clea was surprised for the first time.

She never expected to hear such an answer.

 She wanted to stop him when he said he would repent together.

 “It will harm your health. Don’t do it.”

 “Why is it okay for you but not for me?”

 “Because I have committed sins, and you haven’t.”

 Whether Aria had provoked it or not, it was clear that she had wronged her.

 If her possession had happened just a little earlier, Clea wouldn’t have cared at all whether Aria was with Lloyd or not.

 The moment she went along with it, she became no different from her.

 But spilled water couldn’t be gathered again.

 She thought it would be terrible if the past became shackles preventing her from being with Edmund.

 That was why she came forward to repent.

 After repentance, it was an unwritten rule that past sins would no longer be questioned.

 It was a privilege given to chosen people to renew themselves.

 According to the worldview’s state religion, the absolute deity they worshipped had a doctrine of giving one chance to embrace all wrongdoings.

 Clea thought this system was a bad practice, but ironically, it became her only opportunity.

 “I have wrongdoings too.”

 “What are they?”

 “The sin of betraying people’s expectations.”

 “Haha, so you do have an objective perspective. I was worried your vision might be clouded by falling in love.”

 Who would dare hope for the Crown Prince to choose a villainess as his partner?

 When the Crown Prince should be doing only what benefits the Empire the most, he made a decision that could potentially be the most harmful to the Empire.

 The decision to take Clea as his consort.

 Yet he had no intention of reversing his decision.

 He seemed determined to officially establish it.

 Clea found Edmund’s words about repenting with impure intentions both absurd and amusing.

 “Even if I try to stop you, you won’t listen at all, right?”

 “You’re asking a question you already know the answer to.”

 “Then do as you wish.”

 Clea narrowed the distance between them even more.

 At a distance where their lips would touch if she moved just a little closer, she approached not his lips or cheek, but his ear and whispered,

 “Let’s also seek repentance for our premarital relationship.”

 “That’s something I’ll never seek forgiveness for, nor will I be forgiven.”

 Edmund embraced her as he answered Clea’s provocative question.

 “Once this is over, our relationship will become even more certain anyway.”

 Edmund emphasized that their relationship would become more certain.

 Even if people didn’t acknowledge it, he was confident in his relationship with her.

 “I hope so too.”

Clea didn’t express a different opinion from Edmund’s words.

 Because she felt the same way.

 She smiled and embraced Edmund.

 * * *

 “Is it right to go this far?”

 “Are you telling me to just stand by and watch my daughter fail to become the crown princess?”

 Duke Hersher gathered people who followed him and were loyal to the emperor.

 He gathered them to create a faction supporting Aria to become the crown princess.

 But the people who gathered came only because Duke Hersher called them, and they didn’t want to fully go along with his intentions.

 “If His Highness has someone he desires, shouldn’t we follow that?”

 “That’s right. Perhaps it would be better to postpone producing an empress from your family to the next generation.”

 “Nonsense!”

 The Duke became agitated upon hearing their words.

“With our Aria clearly here, what nonsense is this about giving up? Don’t ever mention it again!”

 The people present didn’t oppose Aria becoming the crown princess.

 Rather, it was what they also wished for.

 If the relationship between the imperial family and the Hersher family grew closer, it would form a bond within the emperor’s faction.

 “In the first place, someone the Empire’s citizens hate can’t become the crown princess. So please calm your anger, Duke.”

 Only then did the Duke ease his anger at someone’s words.

 As he said, unfavorable public opinion about Clea was forming due to the rumors the Duke had spread.

 Thinking there was no need to be angry when things were going as desired, the Duke returned to his expressionless face.

 “Hmph. Anyway, what I’m saying is that we should make it more certain.”

 Everyone present knew what the Duke meant by ‘more certain.’

 It meant directly recommending to the emperor and empress that Aria Hersher become the crown princess.

 It was different from the subtle suggestion he had made during his previous private audience.

 This time, he intended to gather the opinions of many nobles and firmly nominate her.

 But this was also what the nobles were concerned about.

 ‘I’m not sure if it’s right to do this while the emperor is still in good health.’

 Most nobles still feared Odin.

 And even now, some people were anxious about Odin finding out about this gathering.

 The reason they attended was not to support Duke Hersher, but to prevent him from doing something strange for Aria’s sake.

 “The Duke is right! We should head to the imperial palace now!”

 “Who else but Lady Aria could become the crown princess?”

 Some nobles thoughtlessly said things that provoked Duke Hersher, but most tried to soothe and placate him.

 “Please wait a little longer. The Emperor and His Highness the Crown Prince will also choose a lady.”

 However, there was one thing they didn’t realize.

 Although it was supposed to be a secret meeting, Edmund had already noticed the gathering and planted someone there.