Chapter 04
‘But Yvelina didn’t do it.’
On that day, Yvelina suddenly said she wasn’t feeling well in the morning and locked herself up in the room. Because of this, the Great Temple held a prayer meeting led by a high priest instead of a saintess for the first time. Of course, people were very disappointed with Yvelina’s behavior. Then, the story of a saintess who drowned herself in pleasure and threw away her duty had spread to every corner of the continent.
‘Iris also heard the story.’
It seems that there was a scene where Iris has thought about what the Great Temple looked like as she listened to the people gossip about the Saintess.
‘But first of all, that’s not important right now.’
I had to know what Senior Priest Carus had come to get a definite answer for. No matter how much I searched my memory, there were very few details about Senior Priest Carus. And even if Yvelina’s memory remained, it was not complete. Fortunately, there wasn’t much difficulty in pretending to be a saintess as it is now, but I don’t remember even the smallest conversations with people.
‘There are a lot of important things left to do.’
However, it was probably for two reasons that Yvelina has no memory of Carus. Either he’s not worth remembering, or she doesn’t want to remember him. And as I look at Senior Priest Carus now, it may be both.
‘How can a man like this be a High Priest?’
She believes in what people call ‘first impression.’ No matter how beautiful a person is, he or she can be instinctively perceived as repugnant; and even if he or she is not beautiful, he or she can be attractive.
Growing up, I spent most of my life in the hospital. If you are in the cheapest 12-person hospital ward covered by insurance, you will encounter a variety of people. Observing those people was a big part of my daily routine as I don’t do anything all day long. Thanks to this, I now have a high probability of guessing what kind of person someone is only with my first impression.
If I trust my instincts, this Priest Carus is not a good person to get close to. It is that kind of feeling.
“Saintess?”
As I stared at him for a long time, Carus drew closer. Then he lowered his voice to the fullest and asked.
“…Are you still agonizing about the favor that I asked for?”
What on earth did Carus ask for? First, I had to know what it was. I deliberately asked again one more time, as if it were a very troublesome matter.
“Well, I don’t remember what you asked me to do.”
When I made an expression of not knowing what he’s talking about, Priest Carus licked his lips in frustration thinking I’m purposely pretending to be ignorant. After so many hesitations, he looked around and said again.
“I beseech your favor last time. I asked you to assign me to lead the upcoming prayer meeting on behalf of the fallen High Priest Dailan.”
So that’s what you asked me to do. Looking back on Yvelina’s memory, Dailan, who has a high position on the Great Temple, was already an old man and was now having a hard time doing his job properly. That’s why there seems to be a power struggle over the position of the said High Priest in the temple.
‘Anyway, it’s the Saintess’ duty to appoint a high priest….’
So, even if they didn’t like Yvelina’s behavior, the senior priests couldn’t say anything and continued to curry favor with her. Thanks to that, Yvelina seemed to have been even more unstoppable with her audacious deeds.
First of all, I will never put this person as a substitute for the position of that high priest. Therefore, I spoke to Priest Carus in a firm voice.
“Well, I’m still not sure if you can handle the position. So go back for now….”
“If you do this, aren’t you breaking your promise, Saintess?”
Carus went even further before I could even finish speaking. His face had turned scarlet with anger and frustration. And before I could even say anything, he opened his mouth first.
“Perhaps, did you not like the offering that I gave you?”
“…Offerings?”
I doubted my ears for a moment. What kind of offerings?
“That’s right. I really worked hard to pick and choose them. I made sure that there were no flaws with their faces and body, and I also purposely chose the submissive ones thinking that they might become impudent to the Saintess. Perhaps, are those two not enough? Then I’ll increase the number next time. If there’s anything particular you want….”
“Stop.”
I raised my hand to stop Carus from speaking. From his words, I already knew what Yvelina had received from him. The two men sitting next to her bed disheveled when she had a dispute with Commander Latban. And the men who left the red marks under her clothes.
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“Ha….”
I buried myself deep on the sofa after Carus left, and gave an order not to let anyone in today.
‘Now isn’t the time to worry about Iris and the male leads.’
I am pressed with rather more pressing situations. The prayer meeting and Yvelina’s personal affairs.
I lifted my robe and looked at Yvelina’s body. There are still reddish marks left. Such marks on the skin will disappear immediately if you use your Holy Power. But I couldn’t.
‘A Holy Power wielder can’t heal oneself.’
That was the setback with having holy power. It may be God’s will to give them strength and use holy power to heal others, but in return, they cannot heal themselves.
‘First, I should never let men in.’
I also told Carus to stop letting some unknown man inside the Temple for I won’t need them anymore. Then he just said, ‘I’ll look for better people.’ as if misunderstanding what I meant. He seemed to think that I was just being grumpy because I wasn’t satisfied with the men he brought before.
Then he quickly stepped back, asking me to reconsider the High Priest substitute position.
‘I’m going to have to clean up the surroundings quickly but… for now, the issue with the prayer meeting comes first.’
In the novel, Yvelina’s reputation has plummeted down starting from the prayer meeting. So, first of all, the prayer meeting had to be held safely.
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The preparation wasn’t difficult. This is because everyone in the temple is desperately helping. I searched through all of Yvelina’s memories and recalled the people involved in the information about the prayer meeting. As soon as I said I wanted to go outside and check how the prayer meeting preparation was going, the priests made an incredible expression on their faces. Then they ran off straight to somewhere.
A long time later, when they came back, there were many people behind them.
First of all, what surprised me the most was that the prayer meeting was only two weeks away. The second surprise was the fact that there’s not much time left for the once-a-year event, in which Yvelina never participated in the preparation.
When I asked them to prepare for the prayer meeting, the believers seemed to be ready to finish everything quickly before I could pick on a single thing again.
Stacks of papers were piled on the desk with the prayer meeting schedule. After listening to the explanation for a long time, the priests in charge of the robes to be worn at the prayer meeting were waiting for me, for the second time.
“…Do I have to wear it again?”
When I got tired of wearing my tenth robe and asked, the priests suddenly wore an expression as if asking why I was asking such an obvious question. After counting all of them, I had a total of fifteen sets of robes to change to for two days. They were all almost the same robes, but they have to be worn according to the sequence of the prayer meeting such as speaking, listening, and reaching out to people.
After a long inspection of them, another group of priests came up and said,
“Saintess, if you don’t mind, why don’t you check the movements of the prayer meeting once? There’s nothing much different from last year, but for the first time attending priests….”
The voices of the priests who said so were getting smaller and smaller. It’s natural. The former Yvelina went into the room immediately after the priests made a request like this, saying, ‘Stop annoying me.’ The expressions on the priests’ faces were full of worries about what to do if I did the same.
“I understand. Lead the way.”
As a matter of fact, I was waiting excitedly about this task. After opening my eyes from Yvelina’s body, I continued to only spend time in her room. This is because I’m afraid of not knowing what to do if people feel strange because of a mistake I might make when I go out.
However, if priests surrounded me for the preparation of the prayer meeting like this, they will guide me on their own and no one will be able to easily approach me.
Soon I left my room with the priests.
Even though I was just going to look around inside the Great Temple, there were dozens of people who accompanied me. When the priests walking in the front announced that the Saintess was passing by, instead of going their separate ways, the people in the temple hurriedly stepped aside and bowed deeply.
It was already burdensome even when I was just staying in the room, but now that I came out, I could clearly feel the power held by the Saintess’ position.
“The first thing to do is to check the traffic in Central Square.” The leading priest said, guiding me.
Central Square.
The words made me flinch. The Central Plaza is inside the Great Temple. It was the place where Yvelina was burned at the stake in the novel. As I approached the terrace at the end of the white marble corridor, I got a glimpse of the huge plaza.
“Wow….”
I tried to hold myself up, but without realizing it, I let out an exclamation. The square under the terrace was as wide as a horse racing arena, and could probably fit a small city within it.
‘It is said that this huge place was built only for the Saintess….’
The moment I felt dizzy by the enormous power that a saintess holds more than I thought,
“……!”
My eyes met with someone standing from the square.