Stigma Effect

Proofreader: kuroneko_chan

Shudmuel did not particularly care about nor like Yuriel. But for Yuriel, after spending time with Shudmuel, she became fond of him, and tried unsuccessfully to find out what he liked.

There was nothing in particular Shudmuel liked in Albraka. On the contrary, he hated many things.

He delegated any work that didn’t require his personal attention to other medical officers , and had Yuriel transcribe the medical journals, and when he spent time with her, it wasn’t because he liked Yuriel.

He seemed to think of Yuriel as a wall that listened to him. He sometimes confided in her, but he had no faith in Yuriel.

It seemed as if he was forced to take an essential step for building trust, as they spent time together.

Still, seeing him open up to her, Yuriel felt a little closer to Shudmuel.

Regardless of what Shudmuel thought of her, Yuriel got close to him in a rather strange way, bizarrely and quickly.

“Dull and stupid…..”

Yuriel covered Shudmuel’s mouth as he was about to pour out thorn-like words while looking at the priests.

A short while ago, Shudmuel revealed his inner thoughts when it was only Yuriel and him. Yuriel hastily stopped the disturbing words she would have heard if they had been his office.

All the eyes of the priests passing through the hallway were on Shudmuel.

“Why are you suddenly like this, Sir Shudmuel… !”

Yuriel stopped talking in a hurry and dragged him out of the room. She could hear some old priests clicking their tongues.

Seeing how Raphlet and Helio get along very well with the priests, Shudmuel’s hostility didn’t make any sense even more.

How could a knight, or even the commander of the medical team, have a bad relationship with the priests?

Priests are the people who help the medical officers a lot. If they have a good relationship, it’s a good thing, there’s nothing bad about it.

After Yuriel passed the bustling corridor and arrived at a deserted place, she looked around and lowered her hand covering Shudmuel’s mouth.

Yuriel shook her hand, indignantly.

“Did you bring me here for this? To ask me to stop saying strange things?”

“They will have nothing to say even if you curse.”

“Those priests?”

“Everyone in this temple.”

“While Sir Shudmuel is in the temple…. Hurry and meet the High Priest and let’s go back.”

The intense gazes the priests sent, and the sound of their tongues clicking. Even she, who was with him, would want to get out of the way.

She totally agrees with him that monster cores are dangerous!

Yuriel never intended to get outside the eyes of the priests. It was a fact that everyone in the temple knew that Yuriel was Raphlet’s exclusive servant.

Raphlet must be struggling with the rumors surrounding himself, so she couldn’t cause more rumors.

If she was pushed into a gang of terrorists, she would lose her job as Raphlet’s exclusive maid, and it would be only a matter of time before she would be unable to work in the Strategy Room.

While Yuriel looked around anxiously, Shudmuel took off his glasses with one hand and held down his forehead.

Yuriel stared blankly at his unobscured eyes and expressed her candid feelings.

“Of course, I agree with Sir Shudmuel that monster cores are dangerous, but…. Rumors are bad, so if you want to talk like that in a place like this, at least do it while I’m not around. I really don’t want to be called a terrorist….”

Yuriel desperately requested.

“Please refrain from acting rudely in front of the High Priest.”

The desperate request did not seem to impress Shudmuel. He did not lose his rude attitude in the face of the High Priest.

“Oh you’re here. Shudmuel. I was waiting….”

“I’m here to pick up the core, High Priest.”

She would’ve been happy if he could’ve stated it more delicately.

“Let the maid go and let’s talk for a while….”

“Yuriel, get the core from the High Priest.”

“Shudmuel!”

Shudmuel cut off the High Priest’s words who wanted to talk, and pushed Yuriel’s back.

“Me, me?”

“Hurry.”

In this mood? You want me to get the core from the High Priest?

Yuriel widened her eyes and looked back at Shudmuel. He nodded his head resolutely.

Instead of Shudmuel, who did not even think about receiving the core, Yuriel approached the High Priest.

Yuriel reached towards the High Priest to accept the core. Seeing this, the High Priest sighed deeply. At that sound, Yuriel bowed her head and turned away.

After Yuriel received the monster core, Shudmuel was about to grab Yuriel and leave when the High Priest called out to him.

“Shudmuel.”

Shudmuel stopped while holding the doorknob at the casual call. He turned his head and looked at the High Priest.

“Do you have anything else to say?”

The High Priest, whose forehead and hands were wrinkled, let out a long sigh at Shudmuel’s cold reply.

“How many times have I told you that it was not the priests who first came up with the idea of using the monster cores as a power source? But how long have you been doing this….”

Yuriel hesitated when she noticed the High Priest looked as if he was about to say something important.

She tried to leave quietly, but Shudmuel was blocking the door so she couldn’t get out. Seeing her flounder holding a box containing the core, Shudmuel coldly replied.

“You don’t think it’s appropriate to talk in front of a servant? High Priest.”

The High Priest’s gaze turned to Yuriel. Gray eyes similar to Shudmuel’s could be seen at first glance under the white hair. His eyelids drooped down, so it was difficult to determine the exact color.

When Yuriel, who was caught in the middle, rolled her eyes, the High Priest exhaled a tired breath and nodded his head.

“Yes, I understand. This story will still appear later when you come to me…. No, I’ll take the time to find you. Just go back for today.”

Shudmuel left the door without answering. Yuriel followed Shudmuel and bowed her head to the High Priest.

As she closed the door, she thought that the High Priest’s old face resembled Shudmuel.

If it were just a resemblance, she wouldn’t have any thoughts, but the High Priest’s casual tone struck her.

She recalled she had heard stories about raising the children of priests and knights in the orphanage run by the temple….

Could it be that Shudmuel grew up in such a place?

If the reason for bringing her to the temple was an excuse to stop the High Priest, it was understandable, although slightly.

Shudmuel was a person who always treated her like a wall that listened to his stories.

Yuriel thought, recalling the High Priest and Shudmuel’s faces.

Shudmuel’s face didn’t look good. She was not so ignorant as to ask what kind of relationship he has with the High Priest and why he speaks in such a tone.

What if Shudmuel was the High Priest’s illegitimate son as Yuriel suspected… ? It was better to not ask.

In order to have a smooth life as a servant in a nobleman’s mansion, sense was an essential skill, and Yuriel realized the truth after sharpening her senses after a long life of service.

Secrets were secrets for a reason.

Yuriel wondered how best to change the mood, then lifted the box and said.

“Sir Shudmuel, can I open this?”

The lively voice would make him feel like she didn’t understand the situation. Yuriel asked the question calmly, as if she was unaware everything.

Shudmuel, who had taken off his glasses before entering the High Priest’s room, answered yes. While he was contemplating whether or not to wear the glasses in his pocket, Yuriel opened the box.

The question that was meant to distract him led him to wonder.

“This little thing is enough to move a drawbridge….”

A black core rested on a soft cloth.

The core contained in the small storage box was quite small in size. It was larger than the one implanted in Raphlet’s chest, but other than that, it was the smallest core Yuriel had ever seen.

Yuriel hesitated a little and then raised her finger. The first time she touched the core on Raplet’s chest, her fingers swelled red as if she had been burned.

Unlike then, she thought she would be fine now. Yuriel swallowed the tension and gently wiped the surface of the core with her finger.

All she felt was a little numbness. Her fingers did not swell like before.

Come to think of it, from then on, even if her body touched the core in Raphlet’s chest, she was fine. Even in the case where their bodies were chaotically touching during intercourse, her whole body was numb and no wounds were left.

Still, the feeling of goosebumps was still there.

When she thought that there was a core on her palm that was strong enough to move the drawbridge, she got goosebumps all over her body.

Like this morning, when she heard the bells of the clock tower.

Yuriel stopped touching the core that was emanating an unpleasant aura, and closed the lid of the box. And, as if handing over a bomb just before it exploded, she held out the box to Shudmuel.

“Why don’t you…?”

Shudmuel crossed his arms and just looked at Yuriel. He didn’t want to take it at all.

Yuriel returned to the room with a core that felt like a bomb.

She tried to hand it over to Shudmuel, but at a certain moment, her memory blacked out. When she came to her senses, she was standing in front of the door with the core.

‘It is a very important core. You must never lose it.’

Only what Shudmuel had asked her to do was popping up in her head.

Why was he asking her to do something so important? Why did she get this?

Yuriel, who entered her room, thought as she put the box down on the side table next to the bed, which she did not use often.

She felt like she had been possessed by a ghost.

＊＊＊

The daily life as if possessed continued, and the festival began.

As the festival began, an unexpected guest came to Yuriel’s room.