Beryl was determined to find some clues but was being followed by one of the temple maidens, so he couldn’t seem suspicious. If he asked to be left alone, it would be suspicious. They arrived at a room with a piano and some seats. The maiden explained that it’s a room where priests sometimes gather to listen to the piano when they bring in a famous musician. It seems the priests have a good life full of luxuries.
He closed the door and continued on his way. The place was full of different rooms, music rooms, art rooms, even when crossing to the other building, there were classrooms where children and young people were taught. The maiden said that they are basic classes for commoners since they cannot afford an academy. They are taught the basics of each subject. There are even some workshops for women and male omegas, music, art, embroidery, manners, while for men, there are carpentry, blacksmithing, agriculture, something really unfair. Why can't women learn agriculture or blacksmithing?
Beryl said nothing, just continued on his way, but suddenly stopped when he saw a carriage from the palace arriving at the entrance of the temple, seeing a young brown-haired girl with yellow eyes getting out of it, the same one he saw in the cave of the sword. Without a doubt, it's Alison. She, seeing him, smiles and runs towards him, but just when she is about to hold his hands, Beryl pulls them away and steps back.
“Brother? I-it’s me…Alison…" she says, surprised.
“I know who you are, Miss Ferreli…"
“Miss? You shouldn’t call me that; call me sister. I’m sure we can get along. You don’t know how happy I am to know you’re back. I was so worried."
“But if you let them sacrifice me, why would you care?" he responds seriously.
“A-and I didn’t know…if I had known…" she tries to get closer.
“You knew. You preferred to run away with a man than save me,” he yells, showing sadness in his eyes. “You let them hit me, you never protected me,” he sobs.
He likes this crying thing; others see him as more vulnerable and that way no one suspects, after all, that's what the protagonists do, right? It's okay to use that kind of manipulation.
“No…no…I didn’t know you were my brother…if I had known, I…"
“What? So it’s okay that they beat me because I was a servant? Is that why you just watched as your mother whipped me? Because you didn’t know I was your brother? Servant or not, no one deserves that kind of treatment,” he responds.
The temple guards had already approached, even some priests, who were listening to Alison.
“It’s not like that…I…” Alison sees how they look at her with disapproval.
“What kind of queen awaits the people? One that allows servants to be beaten as if they were worthless.”
“Thank goodness I don’t work for the count.”
“What a shame, does the prince really love a woman like that?”
“I feel sorry for the palace servants with a crown princess like her.”
“She must think she’s superior because she’s the future queen.”
“What a heartless woman, pretending to be good and mistreating her servants.”
Alison listened to the whispers as she was looked upon with anger and disapproval. She takes a couple of steps back, while Beryl looks scared and teary-eyed. Even the maid who was with him has stood in front of the boy as a way to protect him. Alison had no choice but to retreat.
While on the balcony, Frederick watches everything and smiles. Without a doubt, acting is this little omega’s best quality. Alison, being in the carriage, looks out the window. Everyone is already dispersing and others are approaching to comfort the redhead. Alison looks up, noticing the redhead watching everything. She had seen him; it’s the dragon, the one they planned to kill with the sword, but now he was in the temple and he was Beryl’s partner. Alison tightens her lips. Not only does Beryl have the temple on his side, but he also has a powerful dragon to protect him.
.
.
.
Inside the temple, the maidens served Beryl tea and desserts to comfort him. The boy continued to sob as he ate a strawberry cake, but he recounts how as a child he could eat nothing more than hard bread and water, and how the countess would whip him when he fell behind in his chores or when he was weak from not eating well and couldn't work. The countess would leave him locked in the attic for two days with only a bucket of water.
“Miss Alison…she watched everything and made fun of me, saying that I deserved it for being a lazy servant…but I wasn’t lazy…I was small and weak…was it fair? It wasn’t my fault that the count had gotten my mother pregnant…children aren’t to blame for infidelity,” he cries louder.
The maidens felt their hearts break as they listened to the life Beryl had. And it was true, the countess mistreated him, at least the real Beryl, so that family deserves to feel the repudiation of the people, and yes, it was, because in a short time, almost the entire kingdom knew how the goddess' chosen one was treated by the Ferreli family, that even the crown prince’s fiancee was cruel to him.
“Is that true?” Harris asks, annoyed. “I thought you were a good person…how could you treat an innocent child like that?”
Alison saw the anger in Harris’s gaze; it was the first time she had seen him like that.
“N-no…I didn’t do anything…I didn’t know he was my brother…Mom treated him like that because he was a servant…If I had known he was my brother…”
“No! You don’t even treat a servant like that. Servants have the right to a decent life, not to be treated inhumanely, much less a child," Harris replies.
He was disappointed. He had always seen Alison as a kind young woman, but apparently, she is only a good person to those of her own class.
“Go away…I don’t want to talk to you anymore, and as for our engagement…I’m afraid I have to think about it,” he says, raising his voice.
“What? T-that can’t be…You can’t break off the engagement because of a malicious rumour…Believe me…I would never do such a thing…”
“Your words are clear, Miss Alison. You didn’t defend your brother because you thought he was a servant. That tells me a lot. Leave." He points to the door.
Alison didn’t want to leave, but seeing Harris’s angry look, she decided to leave. When he calmed down, he would surely realize that these rumours were false and their engagement would continue. As Alison left, Harris sits down on the sofa, looking down. Was Alison really not good? Hearing that rumour made him very angry, especially since he had always seen his mother treat the employees kindly; she never mistreated them, and besides, the law protected them; they must be treated with dignity; no servant should be beaten, that is a thing of the past, that is why even in the temple classes are taught for commoners, so that they can have opportunities.
“The brother…he must have the answer…” he says to himself.
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