111 Breakfast With His Holiness (1/2)
”SO YOU BETTER listen to me before I smack your pretty little head, you bad-tempered troublemaker.”
This is my bad karma, Tilly thought to herself with an aching heart (just kidding). I kept giving out rude pet names to powerful and ancient beings so the heavens probably punished me. Maybe Saint Forrester woke up just to bully me as retaliation for being mean to the original fossi– I mean to Wixx, and because I kept calling the High Priest a sketchy character.
”Why are you looking like a puppy that was kicked by her master?” Saint Forrester asked with furrowed brows. ”Are you offended that I kept calling you names?”
Tilly shook her head, then she placed her hands on her chest. ”I fully accept my punishment, Your Holiness.”
”You're one strange child, aren't you?”
She smiled ”sweetly” at the saint. ”I don't want to hear from someone who's old as fossil but looks so young and pretty.”
”Don't call me ”pretty,”” he warned her with his eyes widened a bit. ”Calling me ”pretty” makes it sound like I'm a frail young lady.”
Her smiled turned even sweeter. ”Your Holiness, please don't put gender on a mere word. Being called ”pretty” is a compliment.”
He glared at her.
Of course, she glared back.
Their mini ”staring contest” was interrupted by a knock on the door.
A few moments later, Howard entered the room and announced that their carriage had arrived. After the High Priest said that, Kiho came and told them that he'd be the head of their temporary security team.
Yey! I still miss you even if we're in the same room, Kiho.
Kiho was looking at her with darkened eyes, as if he wanted to grab her and bring her to an empty room, and…
… and do naughty things to me.
Her cheeks burned in embarrassment because of the lewd things in her head.
To think that she was even in the presence of two holy beings.
Gosh, I'm so shameless.
”I don't even want to ask what the two of you are thinking,” Saint Forrester said while looking back and forth to her and Kiho. ”But can you please stop exchanging those looks?”
Tilly's whole face probably turned red.
Kiho, being the adorable clueless cinnamon roll that he was, didn't get what the saint meant by that so he remained pokerfaced.
Gosh, I still have a lot of things I need to teach my husband, Tilly said to herself. Random thought: I miss his abs.
They hadn't done it in days, okay?
Howard, obviously feeling awkward, cleared his throat loudly. When they all turned to the High Priest, he smiled at them. ”We shall get going, everyone.”
***
”WHY ARE you pouting, child?” Saint Forrester asked Tilly. ”Are you throwing a tantrum?”
Tilly discreetly bit her lower lip to stop herself from pouting.
Also, the elite team of Holy Knights was following them in secret to make sure that His Holiness wouldn't be ambushed. Aside from the Holy Knights, His Majesty also asked the four captains of the Four Orders to lead the way.
In short, they were very much protected.
But I don't feel secured without my Kiho.
”Why did you kick Kiho out, Your Holiness?” Tilly asked, still upset. ”His Majesty has given him the permission to ride with us.”
”Well, I didn't know how much your husband knows about you,” the saint reasoned. ”It's not like I could ask that to you with the High Priest around us.”
”Kiho knows everything.”
”Then, what has he done for you?”
She frowned because she didn't like the tone he used. The saint was making it sound like Kiho was useless. ”My Kiho has done a lot of things for me already, thank you very much.”
”No, he hasn't done anything for the heart yet,” the saint said in a serious tone.
Ah, His Holiness really knows my real identity. He also said something about my flame a while ago.
But that wasn't that thing that got her attention.
Her brows furrowed in confusion. ”What do you mean by that, Your Holiness?”
The saint paused for a while as he just caught himself saying stuff he wasn't supposed to say. When he spoke again, his tone was lighter. ”I heard from the people at the church earlier that the duke used to be the captain of the Black Serpent Knights. He should have begun training you as a warrior.”
”Kiho teaches me how to control my power. Thanks to his teaching, I learned how to use my flame as self-defense,” she countered. ”I'm not a warrior so my husband doesn't need to train me like one.”
”Don't be stupid, little girl,” the saint said in a harsh tone. ”The heart isn't meant to be used for a mere self-defense. Are you looking down on the heart?”
”It's my heart,” she insisted. ”I get to decide what I want to do with it.”
”It looks like you've been spoiled by your husband,” he said disapprovingly, then he raised his fist and motioned like he was pulling something in the air.
She was surprised when she felt a soft push. The next thing she knew, she was already leaning against the backrest while Sentinel, in his human form, was now kneeling in front of the saint with his head hanged low.
Did His Holiness pull Sentinel out of my heart?!
”Greetings, Your Holiness,” Sentinel said politely. ”My utmost gratitude for lending me and Lord Wixx a safe haven while we were at the temple.”
Oh, right.
Wixx and Sentinel had been locked up in the prayer room for many years.
The saint claimed that his consciousness never faded even though his physical body went into a deep slumber. Maybe the three of them got to hang out then when they were all in their spirit forms?
They're like the Ghostly Trio from C*sper, the Friendly Ghost.
”Rise,” His Holiness told Sentinel.
Sentinel politely nodded before he stood up and sat beside her.
”Sentinel, don't tell me you waited for the heart for many years just to let that little girl use it for ”self-defense?”” Saint Forrester scolded the spirit guardian in a harsh tone. ”Are you trying to trample on Wixx's will?”
Okay, the saint was getting scarier.