It was an incredibly sudden encounter, but if you reflect for a moment, the responsibility for this situation actually lay with Usher.
After all, he had originally said he was just going for a short walk, but had spent nearly two hours here.
Not only did he leave after parting ways, but he did so while leaving her behind at the inn.
It was likely that he had planned to wait until she returned, but when she didn’t show up, he went to find her himself.
Despite her appearance, Bersia was quite overprotective, so she might have been worried while looking for him.
Usher felt guilty.
At the same time, he felt a sense of awkwardness.
He was confused about how to behave between Igor and Bersia.
It was at that moment.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you coming over to me?”
“…”
Usher moved like a shadow and stood beside Bersia.
Igor smiled more broadly at the sight.
Usher, on the other hand, only blushed.
He had shown no resistance and had silently obeyed.
Thus, they stood in a standoff.
Usher wanted to mention that he knew about Igor’s body swap.
However, Igor was quicker.
“Ah, Lord Therbion. You’ve come to find the Saintess.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Your dedication to your duties as a knight is truly admirable. It’s as expected from someone who sets an example for many of the Holy Knights.”
“You flatter me, Your Highness.”
Igor pretended not to notice.
Only then did Usher realize that Bersia didn’t like him much.
Perhaps there was no need to complicate things further.
There might be another day to discuss this matter separately.
Igor apologized with his eyes.
Usher, in turn, answered with an awkward smile and muttered,
“We…”
“Yes, Saintess. Thank you for keeping an old man company until this late hour.”
It was at that moment that they were about to say their goodbyes.
“Yes… please be careful, Your Highness.”
“Of course.”
Whoosh!
Bersia suddenly grabbed Usher’s wrist and led him away.
Usher was startled and whispered quietly.
“Saintess! Please…! The greeting…!”
“Let’s go.”
Usher felt bewildered.
When he looked back, Igor was still standing there, smiling awkwardly, as if in a difficult position.
They were leaving without properly saying goodbye.
What kind of behavior was this?
Usher tried to stop and insist on properly saying farewell.
But Bersia didn’t listen.
Instead, she tightened her grip on his wrist, pulling him more forcefully.
His wrist ached.
Usher felt increasingly frustrated with her emotional actions.
After a while, they finally arrived at the inn.
Right away, Bersia spoke up.
“What did the two of you talk about?”
Usher froze in his tracks.
He looked up while rubbing his sore wrist.
Bersia’s face was full of irritation and anger.
Perhaps it was anxiety, too.
But faster than such assumptions,
‘She’s asking me that?’
Usher felt incredulous at Bersia’s sudden question, not with hostility or other emotions, but with surprise at her behavior.
“What did we talk about?”
She asked again, and Usher clenched his lips tightly.
He felt as though something was boiling inside of him.
Controlling his emotions was not easy.
Of course, Usher knew that Bersia didn’t like Igor.
Maybe he had heard about her hometown from Igor, and that was why he didn’t want to share it.
But still…
Couldn’t she trust that he would have handled things well?
Did she think that he wouldn’t understand her if there was something she didn’t want revealed?
All those thoughts were bundled up and thrown inside him.
And the emotion that emerged was none other than ‘frustration.’
His voice grew sharper.
“…I just went to the cathedral to pray during the walk. There, I happened to meet His Highness and had a brief conversation. That’s all.”
“Two hours of talking? Just the two of you? At this late hour?”
“I already mentioned that I prayed. We also organized some sacred scriptures together. I can tell you everything we talked about. The reason we prayed at such a late hour, and also about His Highness’s experiences when he was still a trainee. We ate bread with raisins and listened to a sermon related to that. There was nothing strange about it.”
“Even if that’s the case, it’s still a problem, isn’t it? Being alone with that old man at such a late hour…”
“You’ve never prohibited such things when it was with someone else.”
Bersia flinched and shivered.
Her expression darkened.
Normally, Usher would have apologized by now.
But today, he didn’t want to.
Bersia was rude.
She hadn’t considered his feelings, nor had she considered Igor’s.
Although she was usually reckless, today it was especially so.
“It was just an ordinary conversation. Why am I being questioned like this?”
Usher’s expression was cold.
His tone didn’t carry any of his usual warmth.
Bersia’s face showed signs of confusion.
Was she so surprised that things weren’t going the way she expected?
She narrowed her brows and spoke.
“Do you think I can’t trust you?”
Sometimes, expressions speak more than words.
This might have been one of those moments.
Usher didn’t hide the disappointment he felt.
Bersia’s lips trembled, opening and closing repeatedly.
“I’m just worried…”
“What are you worried about?”
“You can’t even tell me that?”
Usher didn’t say anything further.
In fact, he could have said something more hurtful.
He could have mocked her, asking if she had a guilty conscience.
But he held back, and that was the only patience he managed to show.
Usher sighed deeply.
Bersia’s fingers twitched.
And then Usher spoke.
“…It seems like you’re not in a state to talk right now. Let’s talk again tomorrow.”
It was an obvious summoning order.
Bersia’s gaze wavered.
She couldn’t leave her spot and stood there, looking down at Usher.
Usher asked.
“Or would it be more convenient for me to go to the knights’ barracks?”
She raised her hand.
But,
“…No.”
Thud, her hand dropped weakly right after.
Without saying anything, Bersia turned around and opened the inn’s door to leave.
Everything that happened after Usher left was beyond Bersia’s control.
The late-night walk was barely inside the Order’s grounds.
She couldn’t have expected anything significant to happen, and she waited for him, thinking he would return within an hour.
However, time passed, and Usher didn’t come back.
The emotions that surfaced in Bersia at that moment were quite complex.
Worry, and a bit of irritation.
It was frustrating that he hadn’t returned, even though he surely knew she was waiting.
The reason she went to look for him was that.
She just wanted to tell him not to make her worry.
That was how she had planned to end it.
But she couldn’t because she saw Igor.
He was the one person Usher was never supposed to meet in the Order, yet she saw him leaving the cathedral with him.
At that moment, her heart raced wildly.
Her mind went completely blank, thinking maybe Igor had mentioned something about her past before joining the Order.
Of course, she had to admit it.
It was rude, and there was no consideration.
Bersia knew this.
But Usher’s reaction covered areas she hadn’t anticipated.
‘Why?’
Why did he give such a cold expression?
Had he issued a summoning order?
Bersia, curled up in bed, tried to calm her pounding heart under the blanket.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Usher was someone who shouldn’t show that kind of expression toward her.
He was always supposed to smile, and if not, he should have been looking at her with a sulky stare, as if embarrassed.
He was someone who should always affirm her, never distancing himself from her.
Yet, for the first time, Usher had pushed her away.
At that moment, there was no hesitation in him.
This left her with no choice but to think.
‘Did he hear something? Yeah, that old man might have said something.’
Usher must have heard something she didn’t want known.
That’s why he was disappointed.
The answer seemed increasingly hopeless.
Bersia had no excuse for that matter.
So, she thought about the possibility of Usher continuing to push her away.
That thought left her feeling lost.
‘What should I do?’
What about tomorrow? Will he accept my apology? If not?
Would she have to spend the whole day without him if he said he didn’t want to see her again today?
And what about the next day?
Then the next?
‘I have to stop this…’
But she couldn’t.
Usher was now in the Saintess’s body, and if he didn’t call for a guard, she would have to stay in the barracks.
That would be a terrible situation.
She bit her nails.
In the darkness, Bersia continued to dwell on her thoughts with tired eyes.
‘I don’t want this.’
She wanted to be close to him.
She hated the coldness in his eyes when he looked at her.
She hated the idea that he might stop needing her.
Her thoughts expanded further, leading to dissatisfaction with ‘this state,’ which she had once been happy to share with him.
At that moment, stress reached a boiling point.
Crack—
Her nail tore, and something strange happened right after.
“Eh?”
Bersia blinked, looking around.
She was back in her original room.
And then, a loud voice.
Bersia instinctively touched her chest.
There was a bump.
“Ah…?”
Her body had returned to its original form.
The second trigger of the transformation had been activated due to extreme stress.