I Was Happy to Be Dumped by My Fiancé, But Something Seems Off - Episode 28

Unable to wait while carrying this strange unease, Riet immediately headed outside. What met his eyes was the scene of several large men confronting Inanna. When he tried to run over shouting “High Priestess!”, she stopped him with a hand gesture.

“My, you’ve had quite a lot to drink. This isn’t a place for drunks to come. I’ll give you plenty of water, so please go home.”

“Shut up! Just let us meet this so-called goddess!”

“That’s right! If you serve a goddess, then let us meet this goddess of yours!”

So, this is what they mean by a headache causing head pain. They were clearly drunk. Their entire faces were bright red, and they didn’t understand what they were saying – they must have been drinking heavily.

While occasionally glancing at the priests carefully guiding the frightened believers safely inside the building, Riet made eye contact with Inanna, who was dealing with the drunks. At that moment, one of the men reached out toward Inanna. Riet called Inanna’s name again. Inanna gracefully dodged and, with leg strength unimaginable from her slender legs, kicked the man in the face, sending him flying far away.

Dust swirled in the direction the man had flown, and as the other men muttered the disappeared man’s name in astonishment, Inanna asked in an extremely cheerful tone, “Do you still have business with me?”

“Ah… um… no…”

“Sorry… we, we seem to have had a bit too much to drink.”

“W-we’re going home.”

“Do you really think you can blame everything on alcohol and get away with just saying sorry?”

Having witnessed that superhuman kick, the men sobered up instantly, their red faces turning pale as they apologized to Inanna while ready to flee. But seeing Inanna’s seductive smile that showed no intention of forgiving them, they screamed and scrambled to escape. However, the priests who had received a signal from Inanna captured them one after another, tied them with ropes, and decided to put them in the storage shed until the knights arrived. As a precaution, they were gagged, and after watching the men being carried to the storage shed, Inanna returned to Riet’s side with leisurely steps.

“I showed you my rough side, didn’t I?”

“H-high Priestess, do you have martial arts training?”

“No? I’m not human, so that’s normal for me? Though my strength has weakened considerably since I’ve gotten too old.”

“Huh? Not human? What do you—”

“Um, excuse me!”

Unable to forget Inanna’s puzzling statement and about to question her, Riet was interrupted by a young female believer who had been frightened by the men, now running up to Inanna.

“Thank you, High Priestess! I was really scared, but the way you drove off those people was so cool!”

“Thank you. Now, the fools are gone, so please feel at ease and offer your prayers to Goddess Maria.”

“Yes! Oh, High Priestess! I heard from an acquaintance that if I shake hands with the High Priestess, it gives me energy… I’d like to shake hands with you.”

“That can’t possibly be true.”

Saying this, Inanna nevertheless extended her hand and shook hands with the girl. With this, the commotion ended, and Riet’s unease disappeared as he breathed a sigh of relief.

“—Eh?”

When he turned on his heel to return to his room and check documents, he suddenly saw red. Concerned, Riet looked at Inanna again and couldn’t believe his eyes.

A sharp silver tip appeared from around Inanna’s waist, with red spreading out from that point.

Screams from the surroundings and the priests’ panic and angry shouts instantly filled the area.

By the time a startled Riet started running, Alistair had already moved first, separating the girl from Inanna and forcing her to the ground. He grabbed her arms, pressed the back of her head against the ground, and pinned her upper body to restrict her movement. Riet rushed to Inanna, who had collapsed to her knees while holding her stomach.

“High Priestess!!”

A knife was stuck in Inanna’s abdomen, and blood was flowing.

“Call for a doctor and the knights immediately!!”

“Yes!!”

Riet shouted to the priests, and after watching a priest run off to make the arrangements as instructed, he turned to Inanna, who had sweat beading on her forehead.

“High Priestess! Stay with us! Damn it, why did this happen!”

“I let my guard down.”

“I’ve called for a doctor. In the meantime, I’ll do what first aid I can.”

“No, it’s unnecessary. A mere knife stab won’t kill me.”

“But!”

“The problem is what comes nex. Even I can’t move immediately after being stabbed. It seems I won’t be able to attend the upcoming discussion.”

Inanna’s testimony was necessary to expose Duchess Moldio’s charming power and what the couple had done. Without the words of the influential High Priestess, the Moldio Duke and Duchess wouldn’t admit to anything. The truth of the matter could only be convincingly established by the High Priestess herself, and with Inanna absent, that would be difficult.

“…It seems they used just an ordinary knife. If they had used poison, it might have been a bit troublesome.”

“Poison!?”

“They don’t seem to have used any, so it’s fine. Alistair.”

Alistair, who was desperately restraining the struggling girl, looked at Inanna with a deeply anxious expression.

“Throw that child into a suitable room and lock her up. Of course, don’t forget the anti-suicide gag.”

“This girl, could she be—”

“Probably under Luigi’s or Agnes’s order. Crown Prince, dispatch interrogators to make this girl talk.”

“I’ll arrange it immediately!”

“After that…”

While fighting against the pain, Inanna continued giving precise instructions as the doctor and knights called by the priests arrived. Under the doctor’s direction, Inanna was immediately placed on a stretcher and carried to the medical office. Following the doctor’s instructions, the priests went to fetch the clean cloth and water needed for treatment. The girl who had stabbed Inanna was handed over to the arriving knights and taken to an unused room.

“Vice Minister, where is Bertina? We must inform her of this immediately!”

“I will contact Lady Bertina from here. However, the problem is as Lady Inanna said earlier – she cannot participate in the discussion.”

“Couldn’t the Vice Minister attend with the information the High Priestess possesses?”

“No. It would be dangerous without Lady Inanna. Duchess Moldio’s charming power doesn’t work on Lady Inanna. Unless we send someone else who’s immune to the charming power like Lady Inanna, they’ll simply fall prey to Duchess Moldio’s charm and be manipulated to suit their purposes.”

Alistair knew two people immune to Agnes’s charm, but he preferred not to involve them if possible. Especially Bertina.

Even after learning that the reason for her family’s continuous cold treatment was due to the charm, the years of endured mistreatment wouldn’t just disappear. Moreover, if Bertina was one of Agnes’s targets, it would be even more dangerous.

From Agnes’s perspective, Bertina  who looked exactly like her beloved brother  was someone worth obtaining, even if her gender was different.