Your own heart’s… voice?
What a joke…
What the hell is this bastard even babbling about?
Ileil felt irritated by the inexplicable words Gro had left behind. This man who had personally killed her father and twisted her into this form had no right to say such things.
“Beast……”
Ileil gritted her teeth. She, already somewhat drowsy, had difficulty controlling the anger surging from the bottom of her heart.
But the moment the curse left her lips, Gro had already walked quite a distance away.
Ileil watched Gro’s figure disappear around the corner at the end of the corridor.
There was nowhere for this emotion to vent.
……
“Inner… voice?”
Ileil couldn’t help murmuring.
After calming down for a moment, she finally regained her ability to think.
Ileil found it hard to understand why Gro would say something so strange right before leaving.
Needless to say, what Ileil wanted most right now was to find a suitable opportunity to break the contract with Gro and avenge her dead father.
To Ileil, Gro saying such words was undoubtedly a provocation—trampling on her resolve for revenge.
…
But the facts seemed otherwise.
The witch’s existence was constantly interfering with her rational judgment.
But judging from Gro’s current behavior, he hadn’t realized the witch’s presence.
Thinking of this, Ileil was slightly stunned.
Was it possible… that Gro had already detected the witch’s existence?
Everything he did earlier was just to confuse the issue.
But this guess was something Ileil couldn’t verify as true or false…
“Miss Ileil, good morning. Did you rest well?”
While Ileil was thinking, the cat-eared priestess appeared in front of the girl.
During this week as the princess’s personal guard, Lily would come to call for Ileil every morning on time, even though Ileil always woke up before Lily arrived.
“……Mm.”
Ileil replied indifferently, wanting to avoid Lily’s curious gaze.
She didn’t want anyone else to see her losing control because of Gro.
Lily tilted her head slightly.
Looking at Ileil’s somewhat haggard face, she asked with concern:
“Are you really okay? Miss Ileil… You look a bit tired.”
“It’s fine.”
Ileil turned away and opened the wardrobe beside the bed:
“Please go wake Her Highness the Princess first. I need to freshen up a bit. As you can see—my current attire is not very presentable.”
“Ah… Sorry! Miss Ileil…”
Only then did Lily realize that Ileil was only wearing a thin shirt, with large areas of skin exposed, barely covering her private parts.
“……Then I’ll leave first. Really sorry!”
Lily’s cat ears on top of her head twitched slightly.
She suddenly remembered that when she was coming upstairs earlier, she had bumped into Ileil’s adoptive father Gro.
Lily regretted that her brain was too slow; she hadn’t realized that Gro had gone upstairs specifically to see Ileil.
“Oops, I’m such an idiot…” The cat-eared priestess muttered in a voice only she could hear.
No wonder Miss Ileil opened the door without properly dressing.
It seemed Mr. Gro had urgent business with Miss Ileil.
But… for Miss Ileil to meet Mr. Gro, who is of the opposite sex, dressed like that… wasn’t it a bit improper…
As soon as this thought arose, Lily immediately slapped her own head as if fighting with her own brain.
“What the heck am I thinking!!! Mr. Gro is Miss Ileil’s adoptive father—Dawn above, please forgive my impure thoughts…”
Lily hadn’t controlled her volume well and had unconsciously said the last part out loud.
“……!!!”
Oh no.
Lily immediately covered her mouth, her face turning deathly pale.
She seemed to have said something she shouldn’t have again…
Ileil slowly turned her head after hearing Lily’s words.
The cat-eared girl nearly had a heart attack.
If Miss Ileil found out she was thinking such filthy things… then her career would be over…
Lily shakily looked into the golden eyes of the silver-haired girl—she had seen Ileil angry before, and just imagining Ileil’s sharp gaze made her afraid.
She had thought Ileil would suddenly become intimidating, but unexpectedly, Ileil’s expression was calm, even carrying a hint of… concern?
“What’s wrong, Miss Lily?”
“Ah… I’m fine, I’m perfectly fine!”
Cold sweat kept breaking out on Lily’s back as she forced a smile.
“Really? That’s good then.”
Ileil said calmly.
Although Lily’s words had reached her ears word for word, she didn’t quite understand why Lily was so scared.
‘Impure thoughts……’
The silver-haired girl subconsciously glanced at her slightly full chest and the graceful feminine curves of her body beneath the thin clothing.
‘Oh…… I almost forgot I’ve been a woman for quite a while now.’
Ileil actually didn’t care much about such trivial matters.
Male or female identity meant little to her.
The only thing that troubled her was perhaps the reduced physical capabilities after becoming female.
Ileil even felt somewhat relieved that Lily hadn’t suspected anything about her relationship with Gro or overheard something she shouldn’t have.
If she had to say, the day Ileil inexplicably turned into a witch—Gro had probably seen every inch of her female body, since he was the one who changed her clothes.
‘Mm…… Maybe I can pretend to be very angry. It would make it easier to order Lily around?’
Applying Gro’s way of thinking, Ileil narrowed her eyes and observed the trembling little priestess before her.
“Wait a moment, Miss Lily…”
Just as Lily was about to close the door, Ileil called out to her, whose tail was swaying back and forth.
“W-What is it, Miss Ileil……”
The cat-eared priestess turned her head guiltily, her amber eyes reflecting Ileil’s inexplicably gloomy face.
“Mr. Gro is the benefactor who adopted me. Please always keep that in mind.”
“I’m very sorry, Miss Ileil! I shouldn’t have had such thoughts……”
“Then please apologize to Her Highness the Princess on my behalf, Miss Lily.”
Ileil spoke in a deep voice.
After much hesitation, she said these words.
The reason she hadn’t slept all night wasn’t just the current dire situation and the witch’s entanglement.
Recalling the words she had said to the princess last night about ‘not caring at all about Kaze and Alyssa’s lives,’ and the disappointed look in Prinshitt’s eyes as she left, she always felt a sense of loss.
As an avenger, she didn’t need morality or so-called human bonds at all.
All she needed to do was hide her fangs from the public eye and seize the right opportunity to take her enemy’s life.
But Ileil couldn’t be a completely rational avenger.
Her gaze involuntarily shifted to the pocket watch placed on the bedside table, her father’s memento resting quietly there.
‘I need to maintain the necessary sense of morality in front of the princess to win her trust.’
—Ileil found a dignified excuse for her moment of weakness.
“Please tell Her Highness that regarding last night’s matter……”
Ileil bit her lower lip.
The words she had been pondering for a long time rolled on her tongue for a while before she finally forced them out with difficulty.
“I wasn’t really… indifferent to their lives and deaths.”
Lily showed a slightly surprised expression, but soon a warm smile bloomed on her face:
“I understand, Miss Ileil. You risked your life to protect Her Highness the Princess—we all believe you are a good person, just not very good with words.”
“……We?” Ileil repeated in slight confusion.
Lily placed her hand on her chest, her cat ears twitching slightly:
“Actually… Her Highness said something similar last night too.”
“What do you mean…?” Ileil looked up.
Morning light flowed in her golden eyes.
“She said—” Lily vividly imitated Prinshitt’s haughty tone, “That guy Ileil clearly fought so desperately in front of me, yet she has to act all cold and ruthless with her mouth. Does she think that makes her look cool?”
At this point, Lily let out a giggle. “Her Highness also said that your awkward attitude is just like the kitten she raised as a child—the one that always brought toys to her bed but insisted on looking disgusted.”
“Kitten?” Upon hearing the metaphor, Ileil’s brows furrowed: “What a childish way of putting it… Where’s the pet that could bite someone’s neck at any moment.”
“I will relay your words.” Lily turned and bowed to Ileil.
Her cat ears looked especially soft in the morning light.
“But I think… Miss Ileil, perhaps it would be better if you told Her Highness these words yourself?”
“I refuse.” Ileil pushed Lily out the door and slammed it shut with a bang.
“Eh…… Miss Ileil, please don’t be angry! I didn’t mean any harm with my words!”
Lily’s voice came from outside the door, but Ileil paid no attention to the cat-eared priestess’s explanation.
Lily’s words made her already troubled mood even more complicated.
Ileil simply lay flat on the bed.
Her hand near the bedside table unconsciously reached for her father’s pocket watch on the table.
But the voice ringing in her mind wasn’t her father’s—it was Gro’s words from before he left.
It was absolutely terrible.
What was even worse—Ileil remembered that her real father, Isende, had once said something similar to her.
It was when she was still young, back when the boy who looked forward to the future had shared his dreams with his father.
Ileil had said she wanted to become a powerful warrior.
But the boy’s father had simply smiled and said, ‘Just listen to your own heart.’
“Shut up…”
She suddenly closed the pocket watch in her hand, producing a crisp click.
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