I Was Happy to Be Dumped by My Fiancé, But Something Seems Off - Episode 7

As I approached the cathedral, it was packed with worshippers and tourists again today. I told a priest who was directing people and guiding worshippers inside that I wanted to meet the High Priestess. When I mentioned Bertina’s name, the priest guided me to the staff entrance with practiced ease and led me to the innermost chamber where the High Priestess resided.

Beyond the massive silver door was a pure white space where a woman was lying across an entire sofa by herself.

“Lady Inanna, I’ve brought Lady Annaloro.”

“Thank yooou!”

After thanking the priest who guided me, Bertina approached the center of the room and was about to bow to the beautiful woman lounging on the sofa when she was stopped by a hand gesture at the last moment.

“No need, no need! I’m not good with that formal stuff.”

“Y-yes”

“Welcome Bertina-chaaan and the Demon Prince too.”

Inanna, the ageless High Priestess who manages the grand cathedral. As the famous unparalleled beauty with distinctive pure silver hair and silver eyes sat up, her overly abundant curves swayed. The priestess robes Inanna designed herself featured a daringly open chest area and boldly revealed her thighs. The only reason it didn’t feel lewd was because of Inanna’s beauty.

After having Bertina sit beside her, she asked about our business.

Today, it wasn’t Bertina who wanted to come, but Argent who asked to visit. Silver eyes looked up at Argent.

“What is it~? Did Bertina-chan stop you and decide she wants to be my pet?”

“Not a chance. I have something to ask the High Priestess.”

“What is it~? I’ll consider it if you’ll be my bed partner~”

“I refuse. Embracing the High Priestess who’s overflowing with divine energy would give me serious burns.”

“Then will you let me hold Bertina-chaaan~?”

“Eh!!?”

Just as I was wondering if I should cover my ears, I was nominated as Inanna’s bed partner and ended up raising my voice.

“M-me!?”

“Don’t worry, I love girls too.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about!!”

“Really~? Well, if you change your mind, just say the word. I’ll be ready anytime.”

“That will absolutely never happen!!”

Though my face was bright red, I composed myself and ordered Argent to state his business.

“When does the Grand Temple interfere in politics?”

“Hmm~ probably only when Maria’s Beloved Child is found, I suppose.”

It’s said that Maria, the Goddess of Love, occasionally sends her Beloved Child into the mortal world, and that person possesses a captivating power that makes them loved by everyone. Regardless of whether they’re noble or commoner, whenever a baby is born, they must be tested at the Grand Temple to see if they’re the Beloved Child. If found, they’re protected by the Grand Temple and taught techniques to control their captivating power. If they scatter their charm around indiscriminately, everyone would become obsessed with the Beloved Child and love only them.

All previous Beloved Children have been protected by the Grand Temple, perfectly controlled their captivating power, and occasionally used that power for the country’s sake. Even with perfect control, being the Goddess’s Beloved Child makes one an easy target, so they either marry or spend their entire lives at the Grand Temple.

Of course, marriage is only permitted if the Grand Temple thoroughly investigates the partner and judges them to be without problems.

Currently, no Goddess’s Beloved Child has been born, and Inanna said the last one was born about forty years ago.

“What about meddling in royal engagements?”

“No way, that’s too bothersome. What’s wrong? Did that boy finally get dumped by Bertina-chan? Poor thing~”

I haven’t dumped him. Before it even comes to dumping or not dumping, we don’t have that kind of relationship, I retorted, and Inanna started laughing heartily. There was nothing funny about it, but Inanna’s laughter wouldn’t stop.

“As High Priestess, you could meddle in Bertina and the Crown Prince’s engagement however you want, right?”

“Do you want to break off the engagement?”

“Recently, His Highness told me he’s breaking off our engagement!”

“Eh?”

Even Inanna, who had been laughing constantly, was surprised to learn the engagement cancellation was real.

“Oh my… I see… that boy has gotten that worked up. The Duke won’t stay silent about this.”

“Isn’t that fine? It seems he’s preparing to welcome Clarissa, whom he dotes on, as an adopted daughter into our family, and to send me off to a convent.”

“Eh… To a convent? No way, in that case I’ll take Bertina-chan along with the Demon Prince. The three of us can play in bed every night.”

“We will not play!”

Being propositioned for sexual play by Inanna every time made my face turn bright red, and though Bertina had learned that she couldn’t maintain her composure, it was harsh treatment for a young lady with zero experience.

However, I understood why Argent had visited High Priestess Inanna. He wanted to ask her to protect Bertina after the engagement was broken off.

Inanna also sensed Argent’s intention and agreed to protect Bertina with Argent included.

“By the way—” Just as Inanna started to speak, a priest arrived. He reported that the Crown Prince was making a scene in front of the Grand Temple, demanding to see Bertina. Bertina let out a shrill voice. Why did Riet know Bertina was here?

Placing her index finger on her chin in a thinking pose, Inanna instructed the priest to bring him here.

Then she effortlessly scooped Bertina up and moved her to the bed. Hovering over the laid-down Bertina, she smiled brightly.

“Let’s show that worked-up boy Bertina-chan’s stimulating appearance.”

“W-wait, hold on, ah… Argent, help!”

When our eyes met, he looked away. Bertina cried out that she’d skip her afternoon snack, but with practiced hands her dress was removed and she let out a different scream.

—What Riet saw when he was shown into the High Priestess’s room was Bertina, pinned down by the ageless High Priestess, her chest area disheveled, face bright red and teary-eyed. All the irritation and anger he’d felt coming here vanished, and he stepped forward to help—but he saw it. Bertina’s large, white breasts that were just barely not completely exposed.

Riet’s face and neck turned bright red in an instant, and he collapsed on the spot.

• • 〇●〇●〇

After fixing her chest area, Bertina learned that Riet, who had been laid on the bed, had a nosebleed. She hurriedly wiped the blood with a damp towel and inserted thinly rolled gauze into his nostrils. She felt somewhat sorry for Riet, who had broken off their engagement, to be seen with a nosebleed after hitting his nose when he collapsed. His face and neck remained bright red.

“He got excited seeing Bertina’s stimulating appearance.”

“That can’t be right. This Your Highness who keeps going on about how cute Clarissa is, just from seeing me being attacked?”

“But your face was all red, wasn’t it?”

“Wasn’t it from seeing Lady Inanna?”

The priestess robes Inanna wears are custom-made specifically for her. Only Inanna, who wants to show off her extremely attractive body without reservation, can wear them. She’s offered several times to have some made for Bertina too, but I firmly refused. Just wearing them would be embarrassing, and I feel like I might lose something important.

Placing a towel dampened with cold water on Riet’s forehead, while waiting for him to wake up, I tried to guess why he had specifically come to the Grand Temple.

“He absolutely came to complain to me. Going through the trouble of tracking down my location and barging in.”

“There’s no doubt he came to see Bertina-chaaan. But did you really break off the engagement? Listening to you two talk, it seems like the boy breaking off the engagement might be a lie.”

“I wonder. If His Highness, who hates lies, were to go so far as to lie to a fiancée he dislikes just to break off the engagement, I’d think he’d use some other method.”

Even though he says he’s breaking off the engagement, he persistently invites me for tea and tracks down my location to come see me. During our engagement period, there were many times I wanted to ignore our tea dates, but whenever I thought of the Queen who had been kind to me. Bertina who didn’t falter at Riet’s cold attitude and endured strict queen education—I simply couldn’t choose not to go.

I know about the current Queen—how she and the Crown Prince, who had been engaged to another, were united by true love, and even after becoming Queen, she didn’t pretend her past mistakes never happened, but sincerely acted as Queen for the country and the King’s sake.

“Lady Inanna, do you know the Duke’s daughter who was engaged to His Majesty at that time?”

“I know her! That girl doesn’t resent the current Queen as much as people say.”

“Is that so?”

From what Bertina had heard, she was apparently very angry at both the King, who lost his head over a Count’s daughter despite having her, a Duke’s daughter, and at the Count’s daughter who secured the lover’s position.

According to Inanna, that was nonsense spread by the Duke’s family and families connected to them on their own.

“Originally, she didn’t even love the Crown Prince who became King, and had no intention whatsoever of becoming Queen. She’d just given up, thinking that if the Duke wouldn’t listen no matter what she said, she had no choice but to live as Queen. She told me she was delighted when the current Queen, the Count’s daughter, appeared.”

Currently, the former fiancée Duke’s daughter, having been officially broken off with, found it hard to stay in the kingdom and married a noble from another country. Inanna seems to keep in touch with her and says she’s living very happily.

“Both the Annaloro family and her birth family, the Spade Duke family, are households with strong power lust, so it’s tough, isn’t it?”

“Is that so…”

Bertina, who finds herself in the same position as that young lady. Because I respond too meekly, Riet misunderstands that Bertina is still attached to the position of Crown Princess. Well then, what I need to do is decided.

When Argent returned after disposing of the blood-soaked towel, I stood up and declared, “I’ve decided! Argent!”

“Decided what?”

“When His Highness wakes up, I’ll thank him for breaking off our engagement!”

“And then?”

“Then I’ll tell him to be happy forever with Clarissa, that I’m going to the Sweets Kingdom, and just head straight there!”

“Ehh… I told you I’d protect you at the Grand Temple. If you want, there’s a branch of the Grand Temple in the Sweets Kingdom, and we can have the Demon Prince connect the path to the Grand Temple and its branch.”

“Eh!? Can you do that, Argent?”

“I can.”

Argent can use magic that humans could never handle. As expected of the Demon Prince. Inanna also seems to have powers unique to her agelessness, but Argent immediately stopped her. He said it would make him, a demon, feel sick.

Watching Riet’s calm sleeping face, Bertina realized this was the first time she’d seen Riet asleep.

What Bertina had always seen was only the First Prince’s appearance. Showing no openings, always tense, continuously presenting himself as the Crown Prince.

No matter how much I tried to make myself like him, no matter how much I tried to make him like me, if the other person doesn’t return my feelings, just giving will eventually cause those feelings to run dry and disappear.

He could just ignore Bertina, who disregarded his summons, and call his cute Clarissa for tea instead.

What reason does he have for fixating on Bertina?

“…Not at all. I don’t understand you, Your Highness. And I don’t want to understand either.”