My Husband Was Definitely a Paladin
It was not only Irene who was startled.
“H-Huh… who…!”
“Kyaaah! B-Blood! It’s blood!”
Every single person inside the banquet hall shrieked and stumbled backward upon seeing Michael, drenched head to toe in blood.
They could not recognize who this blood-soaked man was. But Irene knew in an instant.
‘Michael.’
The moment she identified him, her mind spun into even greater chaos.
‘This is impossible.’
Since her new life had begun, every major event from her past life had unfolded exactly as before. The only changes were minor matters directly tied to her.
Therefore, Michael should have appeared tonight just as he had in that life.
Irene recalled the exact moment Michael had arrived in this place.
‘It must have been toward the end of the banquet.’
He had not made a mistake. He had deliberately arrived late to the ball.
Yet the man known for his strict sense of time had a reason this time.
‘He had no intention of complying with the Kingdom Alliance’s demands.’
The Kingdom Alliance had always treated Michael with deep wariness.
Michael alone had cleared dungeons that even other knights scorned as money pits. Thanks to him, the commoners whose lands had been reclaimed expressed their gratitude. But each time, Michael replied with the same words:
“It was only the grace of the gods that guided me. Thus, all glory belongs to them.”
The people, in turn, flocked to the Holy Temple to offer donations and prayers. Naturally, every time Michael’s name spread, so did the Temple’s prestige.
The Temple distributed the gifts and spoils to those suffering from dungeons. Consequently, sincere believers multiplied, and some even offered their own lands to those who had been saved.
The Kingdom had long feared this.
“The Temple’s territory keeps expanding. Before long it may claim an entire kingdom!”
“A Temple on the brink of extinction had been revived by a single paladin. Is there no solution?”
“The paladin single-handedly revived it; so just take him down and the Temple will collapse on its own.”
Thus the Kingdom Alliance devised a plan to destroy Michael at any cost.
But assassinating the continent’s strongest warrior was impossible, and killing someone who could single-handedly defeat an upper-rank dungeon was a waste of resources.
“In truth, removing only his faith would suffice.”
So the Kingdom Alliance chose to tarnish his honor instead.
A single attempt would not work. Yet if rumors spread that this holy knight was unworthy, and his trust among the people gradually faded…
‘Then we will bring him into our kingdom’s service.’
With their own hidden agendas, the Kingdom Alliance sent the message.
Knights without a Pair could no longer enter dungeons. This law, agreed upon by all, had been enacted across the continent.
A paladin could not escape the law, so Michael had to come to the fortress and find his Pair.
The demand was an insult.
A paladin was, after all, a noble being on par with a priest.
Naturally Michael refused the Kingdom Alliance’s request. In response, the Alliance dispatched knights to block his entrance into any dungeon, as though waiting.
In the meantime, the cries of commoners suffering in the lowest-rank dungeon that no one else entered grew louder and louder.
Finally Michael could bear it no longer and conveyed his intentions to the Kingdom Alliance.
He would attend the banquet to search for his Pair.
‘That is today… He arrived late on purpose. The other purifiers had already found their Pairs, so there was no one left for him to contract with. He requested to move alone until the next banquet.’
This was all information Michael had revealed in that past life.
The words he had muttered in his delirium while lying in bed.
“Yet you are still here…”
As he spoke those words, his hips moved roughly against hers.
Overcome by the violent rush of pleasure and pain that swept through his body from head to toe, Irene had screamed.
Ah, if I had not been there, he would have preserved his honor.
The self-recrimination she had voiced countless times in that past life choked her throat.
‘I do not know why our states differ from that life…’
‘But now I am no longer entangled in his life.’
‘So I will not destroy him.’
Irene bit her lip and reached for the hand of the knight she had been negotiating with.
At that moment.
Thud. Thud.
Michael’s gaze, which had calmly scanned the banquet hall, shifted to Irene and approached without hesitation.
“W-What… Why all of a sudden…”
The knight beside her jumped back in fright at the sight of the blood-drenched demon-like figure.
Unlike him, Irene did not retreat as Michael drew near.
‘Michael.’
Even soaked in blood, the golden strands of his hair that peeked from the torn fabric shone brilliantly.
And those deep, clear blue eyes that had never been tainted by demonic energy.
With just this, one could recognize him as Michael at a glance.
Recalling their memories, a sharp pain pierced the depths of her chest.
In that past life, Irene had respected and loved him.
‘There was no other choice.’
To him she had been the one who sullied his honor.
If she had not clung to him in tears, he would have returned outside and continued his noble life as a paladin.
She had hugged him, promising to save his life, but her action led to his exile and eventually his soul’s destruction.
Even in his final moments, however, he remained respectful to her.
If it had been anyone else, he might have cursed her with every vile word. But he lowered his head, performed the knight’s final rites, and left.
How could anyone fail to love such a man?
As she choked on memories of the past, he stood before her.
The stench of a monstrous blood surged over her. She regained her senses.
“Why…?”
Different from that life, why had he appeared here in this state?
Before she could voice the question, he knelt on one knee before her and spoke.
“Please, bestow upon me the grace of purification.”
Gasps echoed from all around.
This was the exact phrase knights uttered before contracting with purifiers.
“Eh? Why… to me…?”
Irene was equally stunned.
This made no sense.
So many purifiers remained in the banquet hall.
Why would he demand a contract with her immediately?
Upon hearing her question, Michael lifted his head.
“……!”
At that instant, Irene’s body trembled. In that past life he had always gazed at her with calm, lake-like eyes.
But now, beyond those eyes, lightning-like flashes blazed as if in a storm-tossed sky.
It resembled madness. Those who had been addicted to demonic energy had shown similar symptoms…
Startled, Irene took a step back.
Then the blood-soaked hand of Michael caught hers.
He pressed her trembling hand to his face.
“I… need you.”
His words brought Irene back to that past life.
In the past, at the banquet, he had told her:
“I do not need you.”
He had said exactly that.
Then why, from the same man, were these completely different words coming out?
In this life she was not yet entangled with him. Then why…
Irene stared at the hand gripping hers, slick with blood. The monstrous blood scent pressed in even more heavily. She regained her clarity.
She must let go.
She could not be the one to tarnish his honor in this life either.
The instant she tried to pull her hand away…
“Please…”
Michael gripped her hand as tightly as a man left with nothing else to hold onto in the world and rubbed his face against it, pleading.
“Purify me.”
His voice was so desperate that Irene froze, unable to move.
Why had he come to her first?
‘Could Michael also be remembering something?’
But she quickly realized it was foolish.
If he remembered the past, he would have grown even more distant. He would never approach her like this.
‘Among all these purifiers, why her…?’
Irene swallowed the dozens of questions rising inside her and spoke.
“Why… are you making such a request of me?”
At that, Michael gave a faint smile and replied.
“Because you are the purifier closest to me.”
“…….”
The answer was utterly absurd.