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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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When Sister Lucia first crossed the threshold of the sacred and grand cathedral, she thought this would be the warmest and most welcoming place on the continent.
For her, the place of worship for God was always overflowing with laughter and liveliness and was a space for considering others.
But when she actually came to the cathedral, this place was barren and cold, with less affection than the common street vendors.
It was already permeated with this atmosphere, and the sensitive Lucia couldn’t help but notice it, even if it was because of the saint selection.
“Helios.”
She tightly grasped the sun god’s rosary hanging around her neck with both hands and prayed.
Praying from time to time and calling Helios’ name had become a kind of habit for her.
“Lucia, are you ready?”
At the kind voice of the priest waiting for her outside, Lucia took a deep breath and said she was ready.
Today was the day before the saint election, when the candidate nuns would hide their identities and experience and observe the lives of the citizens in Batian.
Based on the insights and experiences gained on this day, they had to appeal to the high-ranking positions with voting rights such as the Pope and paladins, as well as use it for speeches to introduce themselves to the citizens.
Lucia, who had come from the convent with the priest who had accompanied her, approached him with quick steps and nodded slightly.
“Yes, I’m ready.”
Perhaps because she thought she had put in a lot of effort.
The priest smiled slightly and advised Lucia.
“Don’t be too tense. Lucia, you are wise, so you will naturally gain insight when you go out. The sunlight of Helios is illuminating your path ahead.”
“That’s right. I just need to follow his guidance.”
With a faint smile, Lucia checked her outfit again.
An inexpensive dress and a wide-brimmed hat placed on top of her braided blonde hair.
At a glance, her appearance looked like a student who had come to Batian for sightseeing or a village maiden.
Especially since she heard that students from Aios Academy had also come to Batian for a field trip this time, she could appropriately hide herself.
“Then I’ll be back.”
Lucia, who boldly stepped outside, felt like the sunlight was shining on her more warmly than usual, so she muttered to herself that it was a day with good feelings.
“Huh?”
The moment she felt disillusioned with the street was exactly 10 minutes later.
Although she had come to Batian a month ago, Lucia, who had been confined within the cathedral under the name of a saint candidate, was admiring the street she was seeing for the first time.
It wasn’t called a holy land for nothing, as there were many religious items being sold, and even Lucia, who had no worldly desires, saw a few things that tempted her.
Forgetting her original purpose and looking around the street with a pounding heart, she spotted a group of boys and girls passing by an alley.
Seeing them around her age, she thought they were students from Aios Academy.
“…… Huh?”
The atmosphere was unusual.
The large students glaring at them with rough faces and the students on the other side engaged in a staring contest.
The short-haired girl with light brown hair at the very front was chewing on something in her mouth and expressing great annoyance.
“Coming all the way to the field trip and doing this crap, are you feeling refreshed? If you’re going to attack, just do it quickly instead of following us suspiciously.”
‘C-cigarettes and fistfights!’
For Lucia, who had lived as a nun since a young age, her eyes couldn’t help but spin wildly as she witnessed situations she had never seen before.
‘Wh-what should I do? What should I do?’
A situation where a fight seemed imminent at any moment.
Gripping Helios’ rosary tightly, Lucia shouted.
“S-stop fighting! I’ll call security!”
“Hmm?”
“Huh?”
The short-haired girl, May, and the 5th-year delinquent Talois simultaneously looked at Lucia standing at the end of the alley.
“You’re students on a field trip, right? What are your names? I’ll go and confront your chaperone!”
Where on earth are the chaperones when these students are fighting like this?
Once she spoke out, Lucia felt like she was gaining more and more strength.
Among them, Talois flinched and frowned, and May grinned and pointed at him with her finger.
“This person is one of our chaperones. He came as a 5th-year volunteer.”
“What? The chaperone is fighting? Hey, you!”
As Lucia came out more strongly, Talois eventually spat and cursed profusely before fleeing with his gang.
Especially as he made eye contact with Lucia, he said, “I’ll remember you,” but was it Helios’ blessing? Lucia acted even more confidently in return.
“Thanks.”
May, who avoided unnecessary fights even during the field trip, raised her hand and expressed her gratitude, but Lucia’s fight wasn’t over yet.
“Y-you too! Don’t smoke!”
“Huh? This?”
As she took out the stick she had been holding in her mouth with a pop sound, a red candy appeared.
“Oh?”
“It’s candy, don’t worry about it.”
“I-I see. That’s a relief, but……”
Lucia, who had become a bit embarrassed, scratched the back of her head. May approached her, laughing.
“You don’t seem to be a student from our academy. Do you live in Batian? What’s your name?”
“Huh? Well, my name is Lucia. I’m 18 years old…… I came to Batian for sightseeing.”
She lied because she couldn’t reveal her identity, but even with this light lie, she felt guilty in her conscience.
“Really? I’m May. I was going to ask if there were any sights to see, but you don’t seem to know well either?”
“Yes, that’s true…… Are you perhaps delinquent students?”
Momentary silence.
And then the laughter of the students echoing afterward.
Lucia, being innocent, had a puzzled expression, not knowing what was wrong with her question just now, but May patted her shoulder and said,
“They are, but I’m not.”
“Wow, May, look at you cutting ties with us.”
“That’s too much!”
“She’s our leader. She’s called the Empress of the Back Alleys at the academy, pacifying the academy with her fists alone.”
“Hey!”
May grumbled as if she was embarrassed, but Lucia felt like she had been hit on the head.
‘D-delinquent student!’
The delinquent student she had only heard about through the grapevine was really standing in front of her eyes!
And she was a girl who ruled the prestigious Aios Academy!
“It seems like Helios has shown me the way.”
“Huh?”
May scratched the back of her head, wondering what she was talking about, but Lucia spoke with sparkling eyes.
“Today, I will turn you into good children!”
The warm sunlight shining down on her sparkled around the nun as if it were the blessing of the sun god.
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While Sister Lucia and the delinquent student May were having a rather fateful encounter.
Unlike the other students wandering the streets, a blonde girl, Elise, stood in front of the door of a luxury hotel room.
Even with Bertia behind her, she showed a nervous appearance that wasn’t usually seen. To the extent that the always confident Elise took a deep breath in front of the door.
Knock knock.
As if she had finished preparing her heart, Elise immediately knocked on the door.
From inside the room, a man’s beautiful voice echoed, telling her to come in, and she turned the doorknob slowly, as if even opening the door required caution.
“It’s been a while, Elis.”
A blonde man sitting on a chair in a bathrobe, half-naked, sipping wine.
The fact that he addressed her by her real name, Elis de Frisia, the 3rd Princess, instead of Elise, already meant that he knew her identity.
He couldn’t not know.
“It’s been a while, big brother.”
He was the man who had grasped the right to the throne first.
The young man closest to the golden throne, except for the current king.
The 1st Prince, Oliver de Frisia.
He was in a competitive structure with the 2nd Prince, Alois de Frisia, over the throne, but in fact, the public already thought that Oliver had won, as the difference between the two was overwhelming.
“What did you call me for?”
She couldn’t help but be wary of her older brother, who had contacted her through a maid last night.
The fact that Oliver was here was something that shouldn’t be known if revealed, so he took that risk and called her.
The Frisia Kingdom was a country where the king held sovereignty and all authority, but the only exception was in regards to religion.
A very long time ago, when the Holy Nation, which was an independent country, naturally became part of the Frisia Kingdom, they became one nation.
Of course, a lot of time had passed, so the royal family was stronger in terms of power, but they couldn’t ignore the Pope either.
The fact that they still held the arrogant title of ‘Pope’ while being mindful of the royal family meant that they had no intention of easily bending their pride.
Due to the nature of religion, they received the full support of the citizens, so the royal family was reluctant to carelessly touch them, and that history had flowed to the present.
Even being here during the saint election period, if there was even a rumor that the royal family had intervened, it was obvious that the citizens would immediately rise up.
“Isn’t the reason I called you obvious?”
Twirling the wine glass, Oliver slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
“You are a truly clever and sharp child. Unlike the others, you are the only blood relative I like.”
“……”
“Elis, what do you think about the name Pope?”
Elise clenched her fists tightly.
She could already clearly see what he was going to say next and what proposal he was going to make, so Elise tried hard to hide her dizzy inner thoughts.
She couldn’t refuse recklessly, and she couldn’t refuse the king’s proposal that was like a command.
It poured out from Oliver’s tongue like a snake.
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