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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Three days had already passed since Daniel defeated Prince Oliver and chased him out of Batian.
With only one day left until the saint vote.
Two people who were a bit unique and had been hostile to each other until a few days ago were now having a peaceful conversation.
“How much could we sell the information that the candidates for a nation’s saint were actually brainwashed and enjoying an orgy party?”
The madame, smiled eerily while covering her mouth with a black lace-gloved hand.
Mikaela, the saint candidate sitting on the bed, frowned and answered.
“Are you referring to dogs licking each other as an orgy?”
The madame didn’t open her mouth any further at those words.
To Mikaela’s eyes, these numerous saint candidates weren’t competitors vying for the same position as her, but no different from pet dogs placed beneath her feet.
What was the reason for these two being together?
The story began with the madame being left alone in Batian like a house-guarding dog after Daniel drove out Prince Oliver.
The nun of Demeter, whom the prince had intended to make a saint, was murdered.
Although Mikaela led it, the entire cathedral colluded.
The bishops had joined forces to cut off the royal family’s puppet in advance, and in the process, a nun of Helios named Lucia was sacrificed.
From the prince’s standpoint, he couldn’t negotiate with a new nun, and he couldn’t exert influence in Batian since he was chased away by Daniel.
In the end, the madame also tried to withdraw from Batian, putting aside her personal feelings of humiliation and anger that the Chokugen Faction had been annihilated.
But unexpectedly, Mikaela, who was closest to becoming a saint and was a central figure in the cathedral, made a reverse proposal.
To help her.
It was ridiculous, but Mikaela could already say she had won this saint vote.
Asking for help after already perfectly winning?
However, the prince, who heard the madame’s report from the royal palace, promised Mikaela more than he had given to the nun of Demeter.
Mikaela had no intention of stopping at just the saint vote.
She already had the conviction that she would become the saint, and she considered what would happen afterward.
But upon thinking about it, she concluded that even if she became a saint, it wouldn’t be very satisfactory.
The bishops, who had stuffed their already bulging bellies further forward, saying that they were the ones who killed the nun of Demeter, would demand a share of her becoming a saint and try to hold and shake her.
So she betrayed the cathedral.
Mikaela, who had the highest probability of being elected as a saint, sided with the royal family.
‘To think such a woman is a saint, it’s living proof that the world is rotting.’
The madame, as the second-in-command of the Chokugen Faction, had encountered the disgusting secrets of the nobles and the filth piled up under the pulpits of the archbishops countless times.
But it was quite a shock that the woman who should be in the most noble position of a saint actually had the head of a snake.
If the world was this filthy, would God one day wash everything away and cause a flood or something?
The madame smiled again, thinking that would be interesting too.
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“What shall we do about this!”
The bishop who was leading the meeting as the oldest in the cathedral rarely lost his temper and shouted.
The bishops and paladins sitting in front of him had nothing to say, so they just sighed deeply while sitting at the head of the table.
“Look around the cathedral now. It’s full of assassins brought by Mikaela! They will soon enter our cathedral with their dirty feet!”
As the day of the saint vote approached, the members of the Chokugen Faction newly brought by the madame were getting closer to the cathedral as if surrounding it.
They were watching the people coming out of the cathedral, expressing their will to absolutely not create any unnecessary variables.
“You couldn’t even properly hold onto a single wench, causing this mess? Do you not know the weight of the name of a saint!”
The elderly bishop’s words could only be heard by those present.
Although they respected him for his age and seniority, they held the same position, so they could talk back if they wanted to.
But they had nothing to say.
It meant that the current situation was so desperate that they couldn’t even make excuses or express displeasure with blatant sarcasm.
All the saint candidates were in Mikaela’s hands.
The mark of the goddess Aphrodite she possessed whispered words of love, turning all the candidates into her slaves.
Although only Mikaela had betrayed them, all the saint candidates had become puppets of the royal family.
Moreover…
Humiliatingly, even the Archbishop, the highest authority in the cathedral, was being controlled by the mark of the goddess Aphrodite.
That was why all the bishops and paladins, except for the Archbishop, were gathered like this now.
Not only in the history of the saint election but also in the long tradition of the cathedral, this was the first time they had suffered such deep humiliation.
“Phew.”
The bishop, who had been berating them to the point where his face turned red from the rushing blood, slowly took a deep breath and secretly asked.
“How did the assassination go?”
For those driven to an extreme situation, only extreme methods were left.
Since the nun of Demeter was already dead, if another candidate murder occurred here, the cathedral side would also suffer great damage.
But it was still better than seating the royal family’s puppet, who even controlled the Archbishop, in the position of a saint.
One of the paladins wearing a blue robe opened his mouth without even being able to properly raise his head.
“It failed. The woman accompanying Mikaela is no ordinary skilled person.”
In front of whom would they discuss assassination?
The madame was none other than the second-in-command of the Chokugen Faction, which specialized in assassination.
It was no different from a puppy not knowing the fear of a tiger and explaining about the Demon Realm Forest in front of Daniel.
“Sigh.”
The vote was tomorrow.
Since only the people present had voting rights anyway, they could freely manipulate the results themselves.
But as mentioned earlier, not only had all the saint candidates fallen into Mikaela’s hands, but her mark had been spread throughout Batian, so it was obvious that if they didn’t choose Mikaela, a riot would immediately break out.
Why did this happen?
Even if they cursed and regretted their own complacency in the past now, the result wouldn’t change.
There was nothing they could do except vent their anger while holding their aching heads.
At that moment…
“Wait, wait! You can’t go in!”
A boy walked into their meeting room with steady steps.
The guards behind tried to stop the boy, but he mysteriously avoided their hands flexibly without much movement.
“Let’s not make a fuss and get straight to the point.”
The boy made a proposal that they couldn’t refuse, like a poisoned apple.
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“……”
For Lucia, the nun of the sun god Helios, sunlight was the mercy, love, and proof of existence that God bestowed upon humans.
It was God’s grace that she had never treated lightly or taken for granted despite serving her whole life, but simply by digging the ground and building walls underground, God’s grace couldn’t reach.
Sister Lucia was eating the provided water and meals without skipping, but she felt like her body was withering away.
In fact, she was very emaciated.
Dark circles had deeply formed under her eyes since she couldn’t get proper sleep in restraint and confinement.
It was fortunate, if anything, that there was no mirror and it was too dark to see herself.
“Helios…”
The only thing Lucia could do here was solely pray.
It was different from when she clung to life and begged to be saved.
Since the only thing she could rely on was God, all she could do was pray.
Although there was no warmth of God illuminating the vast continent in this underground, paradoxically, Lucia felt closer to God in this situation.
A small, artificial beam of light cast over her head.
It was the light from the corridor that shone as the door opened, the only light she could see once a day, only at mealtimes.
Quite ridiculously, Lucia had various theological contemplations and realizations while looking at that small light.
Of course, it was uncertain whether she would be able to preach and share them with anyone.
‘But it doesn’t seem to be mealtime now.’
Of course, in an underground room with nothing, it was impossible to accurately know the concept of time, but after living this life for several days, Lucia had developed an unwanted sense.
According to her sense, there was still some time left until the meal.
“I finally found you.”
A girl entered while backlit by the light.
Her light brown hair was shimmering even more brightly as it caught the light.
A friend she had made for the first time outside the convent.
Although it was a very short acquaintance to call a friend, the two had shared a deep friendship during that brief moment.
External factors had played a big role, but still.
A delinquent friend who could be said to be unsuitable for a nun.
“M-May…!”
“I was worried, thinking you were dead.”
May, who had been leaning against the doorframe, approached Lucia with a relieved smile.
“How did you come here? N-No one should know I’m locked up here.”
“Your voice is all hoarse. Drink this for now.”
Lucia put the water bottle May handed her to her mouth.
Intoxicated by the sweet lemon scent emanating from inside, she gulped it down without coming to her senses.
“Ugh, ugh. Eating well.”
As May patted her head like a child, Lucia put down the water bottle and slightly pouted her lips.
“Ah, don’t treat me like a child. More importantly, if you get caught here…”
“Don’t worry about that, look at this. I brought a gift too.”
What she took out of her hooded sweatshirt pocket was candy, as usual, but that wasn’t all.
Overlapping with the candy was…
“A key?”
“Eat this first.”
May unwrapped the candy and shoved it into Lucia’s mouth.
She was startled for a moment, but the sweetness spreading in her mouth for the first time in a long while made her feel ecstatic.
Click.
The restraints binding Lucia were released.
While feeling liberated with her hands that had become free for the first time in a long while, she couldn’t help but be perplexed.
“How did you get this key?”
To Lucia, who couldn’t understand the situation, May subtly pointed to the door, and there stood a boy.
“Hello.”
“H-Hello?”
When the boy greeted her nonchalantly by slightly raising his hand, Lucia also responded in bewilderment. May whispered to her, who was being swept away by the flow.
“He’s the one who saved you. Amazing, right? But there’s still something more amazing left.”
“Something amazing?”
Daniel, who slowly approached Lucia, handed her the shawl he had draped over his arm and said,
“Sister Lucia. You need to become the next saint.”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, before that.”
The priest of Helios was dragged out from behind Daniel, hesitating.
He had harshly treated Lucia, whom he had imprisoned, without expecting a situation like this to happen, so he tried to apologize right away.
One might have thought he would give a lengthy explanation about the mercy of Helios and tell her to maintain her dignity as a saint candidate.
Unfortunately, he didn’t even have a chance to do that.
Slap!
Lucia’s intense slap landed precisely on the priest’s cheek, and he collapsed to the floor, fainting from the shock.
“It’s God’s judgment, you bastard!”
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