Chapter 56
Selena suddenly felt like crying. From the atmosphere, it seems they’ve realized she’s the saint, but how did they find out?!
From the fact that it had been quiet all this time and then suddenly burst in like this, it was clearly the doing of someone who had newly set foot in the Munrepe Duke family.
And there was only one such person.
Moreover, he was affiliated with the temple.
‘Arcian Erzébet!’
This damn human! In the original story, he spectacularly backstabbed, and here he’s doing the exact same backstabbing!
Grinding her teeth and looking around, as expected, she saw Arcian standing behind the high priest.
This icon of a backstabber!
Completely unaware of such Selena’s feelings, the Pope bowed his head on behalf of everyone.
“Ooh, faithful one. We have been waiting for you.”
“Wh-who are you?”
For now, let’s try to escape.
Lower their guard as much as possible, then bolt at the first opportunity.
Selena blinked her eyes innocently, pretending to know nothing.
In response, the Pope politely replied.
“We have come to escort the Saint.”
“Sa-saint? What’s that?”
“The one who can communicate directly with God alone, and who can handle all four divine beasts of the empire.”
No, that’s not why I asked; I already know that.
Selena racked her brains hard on how to get out of here.
In the meantime, the Pope gestured toward the back.
“Come, this way……”
Then, a holy knight who had been waiting in advance brought a golden chalice filled with holy water.
“Please put your hand in here. If the holy water turns rainbow-colored, it means you are the Saint.”
“H-ho-ho, I have mysophobia, so I can’t put my hand just anywhere.”
“Your room is super messy…… Ack!”
She stomped on the foot of a servant from the Duke family who was muttering while watching.
Hey, don’t you have any sense?
At the same time, she waved her hand as if she couldn’t do it, then pretended it was an accident and knocked over the golden chalice.
“Oh no!”
‘Good. Only the Pope can fetch holy water, so if he goes to get more like this, I can escape too-’
“It’s fine. We prepared plenty.”
The Pope, with a benevolent smile, nodded to the holy knight.
Then, what the holy knight pulled out was-
A bottle of holy water in a thermos.
Ding.
“No, why are you carrying holy water around like that!”
It was so absurd that the thought slipped out of her mouth.
Then the Pope chuckled heartily.
“Because such incidents happen often in history, we always carry spares.”
The golden chalice was filled with holy water once more. The Pope even knelt personally and offered it.
Selena, who had tried to spill it again, quickly gave up upon seeing the holy knights lined up holding thermoses at the ready.
Damn it.
“Ahahaha, but I really hate putting my hand in water.”
“Then you may put your foot in.”
“I hate water touching my feet even more! I won’t even go out on rainy days, you know?”
“Hey, you always say rain is the best in the world and go out to play in it…… Ack!”
Selena’s foot moved swiftly. Another tactless servant was dealt with.
However, the Pope and his followers had already heard everything.
Realizing that Selena was trying to avoid the current situation, the Pope rose with a kind smile.
“Please put your foot in quickly.”
The holy knights waiting behind him moved as well. Clank- the sound of armor clashing was loud.
If she refused this time too, they seemed ready to forcibly remove her shoes and dunk her foot in the holy water.
Damn these persistent humans. Selena decided to resort to her last measure.
“Wh-what’s that!?”
At Selena’s gesture, the Pope and the people from the grand temple all looked that way.
Now’s the time! Let’s run!
“There’s something over there…… The, the faithful one is escaping!”
“Faithful one! Stop right there!”
“Faithful one!!!”
The Pope and holy knights came rushing after her in a group.
Like I’d stop! I’ll run straight to the harbor and board a ship to another country right now!
As she mustered every ounce of strength from her nursing days to flee.
Selena slammed her whole body into an invisible wall. Thud!
“Ack!”
What is this!
There was clearly nothing there, but something blocked the way ahead.
As she fell, she seemed to catch a glimpse of Arcian’s annoying smile, but she wasn’t sure.
While she was out of it from hitting the transparent wall head-on, the holy knights surrounded her. Then they grabbed both her arms so she couldn’t move.
“Quick, bring the holy water!”
“Take off her shoes!”
“Wait a minute!”
The freedom-deprived Selena thrashed about wildly.
“If you’re going to do that, just let her dip her hand!”
But that cry was buried under the holy knights’ shouts.
Her shoes were removed, and Selena was lifted into the air.
“No! This is all going to be recorded!”
She had heard that every moment of the saint’s birth was documented in writing.
‘Imperial Year XXX, the grand temple removed Lady Selena’s shoes, dipped her foot in holy water, and confirmed she is the saint.’ She didn’t want to end up in history books like that!
“Let her dip her hand!!! Hand!!!”
Selena yelled at the top of her lungs.
However, to those who had already experienced her escape once, it fell on deaf ears.
The foot of the flailing Selena entered the holy water in the golden chalice.
The holy knight who confirmed the color changing rejoiced.
“It’s rainbow-colored. She is indeed the Saint!”
“Ooh, Saint!”
“Saiiiint!”
Afraid she might run again, the holy knights cheered while holding her in a shoulder-carry position without setting her down.
Amid that cheering, Selena gave up thinking.
‘……Damn it, but since Lady Erjebet from the original will take over the rest, I’ll just shower Asil with bribes.’
And thus, the saint was born.
* * *
The news that the long-awaited saint had appeared caused a great stir in the empire.
The saint is the one who can handle all four divine beasts and awaken their powers even more strongly.
Usually, as soon as a saint is appointed, she goes around to each family to bestow blessings upon the divine beasts.
However, since she can’t bless everyone at once, the order of blessings often turns into a power struggle among the duke families.
There was even talk that the order in which the saint blesses indicates the families’ ranking.
And among the four duke families, there was one place that paid more attention to this than anyone else.
“It’s about time she arrives.”
It was the Skya Duke family.
The Skya Duke, elegantly crossing his legs, took a sip of tea with refined movements.
His gaze looking out the window held not a hint of wavering.
“Because you promised to have our divine beast blessed first.”
For today, he had stuffed an enormous bribe to the high priest in charge of Skya’s divine beast.
In truth, since Starrafit had sunk, Monlepe held a fake divine beast, and Sunrise was away as an envoy to another country, there wasn’t much need to go that far.
The duchess sitting before him shot back sulkily.
“You’re sure about it? That the saint is coming to our family first.”
“Of course. I confirmed it several times with my high priest.”
“Hmph, even so, those dirty bloodlines need to be thoroughly purified somehow.”
“……It’s the divine beasts receiving the blessing, not the children. And why do you keep bringing up that incident I apologized for, Madam?”
“It’s not something that ends with an apology. Then just chase those kids out right now.”
The finger of the Skya Duchess saying that pointed to the second floor.
It was the room where Skya’s second son and eldest daughter were staying.
The Skya Duke cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Ahem, ahem. Someone might hear.”
“If you knew it was shameful, you shouldn’t have done such a thing. Bringing in an outsider as the divine beast’s master, does that even make sense?”
The duchess fiercely criticized.
The Skya Duke, guilty of his sins, clamped his mouth shut and just drank his tea.
“And is it just being the divine beast’s master? They’re even twins. There’s a saying that if twins enter a family, three generations will be ruined-”
“Lower your voice.”
“Thinking about it, you only need to keep the one who became the divine beast’s master. Why did you bring both? Chase one out!”
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By Anna 💓
