[BL] Accidentally Becoming the Healer of the Deranged Archduke novel Chapter 289

Chapter 289: Saintess’ Warning

"You were looking for these, weren’t you?"

Talia’s voice carried a faint, almost gleeful lilt. The smile on her lips wasn’t unkind, just amused, like someone watching a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

She seemed to relish Xion’s momentary disbelief. But it wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t able to control his expression as well as Talia.

Yes. I have been looking for them. These cursed blooms were the very reason he’d stepped out into the snow, leaving behind the comfort of his room and Darius’s warmth.

But this wasn’t how he’d planned it.

He was supposed to examine the plants discreetly, gather evidence, and hand the matter over to Darius. Let him deal with the fallout. Yet now, Talia was handing it to him on a silver platter.

"I was," Xion said, offering her a smile just as genial. "Thanks for showing them to me."

For whatever reason, she’d made this far too easy for him and there was nothing free in this world.

"Beautiful, aren’t they?" Talia clapped her hands lightly, her voice shimmering with reverence.

"I thank the goddess every day for this miracle. With these, we can strengthen His Majesty’s vitality. I’ve already sent the prepared dose to the royal capital."

Her gaze drifted back to the demonic sea of blossoms, eyes turning glossy as if entranced in some sort of daze.

[Host, Micosera Tenberis inherited the ability of his parent. If the emperor consumes the extract, his condition will improve.]

As for how long... that was harder to predict.

Xion wasn’t ignorant of their medicinal value. What caught him off guard wasn’t their power, it was their timing.

Just when he thought he’d found the source of the plague, it became a blessing for the palace. He could even hear those ministers loudly declaring, ’A miracle cure, straight from the emperor’s daughter’.

How convenient.

Even if he declared these plants dangerous, no one in the royal court would believe him. Not against her.

While he was just a simple healer, Talia Valaria was the adored royal princess, the emperor’s jewel, and the crown prince’s beloved sister not to mention her connections to the church.

So this was it. A warning and a performance prepared solely for him.

Every breath she took seemed to say, ’Stay in your place, you peasant’.

But she was forgetting one crucial thing. This was still Northern turf. As long as he was here, no one would be able to harm him.

"Well, I hope it helps," Xion replied with an easy shrug, his eyes never leaving the unnatural purple below, "Can I have one of these?"

"Of course not." Her answer came fast, voice clipped. "These are sacred. Far too precious to be given to humans, especially those who reek of sin."

Xion’s smile didn’t waver. "And what do I reek of, in your holy opinion?"

Talia tilted her head, staring at Xion from head to toe and with an unchanging face she recited like a sermon.

"The sin of abandoning your parents to suffer. The sin of greed, lusting for gold and power. The sin of tempting others with your beauty. And lastly, the sin of debauchery."

[She’s not wrong, Host. You did leave your parents, but they deserved it anyway. And people have definitely been seduced by your face. As for greed... well, you do want a better place to live, though I doubt you care about money. And the last one... I won’t comment.]

Xion’s lips twitched, caught somewhere between a laugh and an eye-roll.

If the system was trying to make him smile, it succeeded because now he found the whole thing too absurd to take seriously.

"We should get going," Taklia said before she turned on her heels.

"Going where?"

"To the confession room, of course." Talia’s soft smile was almost saintly.

"As a guest of the temple, don’t you want to unburden your soul? It’s only proper to cleanse your sins before standing in the presence of the goddess."

Xion didn’t answer. By now he was bored of Talia’s antics.

One minute she was ecstatic, the next solemn and pious. He didn’t need to be a psychiatrist to know something was seriously off.

And he had enough shocks for the day. There was no need to add more to the plate.

However, Talia didn’t let him off the hook that easily.

"Don’t you want to know why I’m staying here, despite His Grace’s disapproval?"

"Don’t want," he replied curtly before turning around to leave.

"Princess Bianca will be arriving soon as His Grace’s appointed bride. Would you like to be remembered as the vixen who ruined a childhood love?"

Xion froze, his foot hovered mid-step. The pause was brief, but enough as that was all Talia needed.

"They were so close as children, you know. If the late Archduke hadn’t been so... stern, they’d have been engaged long ago."

Seeing him freeze brought a wide smile to the saintess’ lips. "His Grace even wiped out an entire clan once just for dirtying Bianca’s hands."

The more she said, the more Xion’s brow furrowed. Darius had never mentioned it to him. And what was all this about Bianca arriving in the North?

Then why didn’t Darius tell me?

Did he think I couldn’t handle it? Did he see me as useless?

If His Grace doesn’t agree, he will become the enemy of the crown.