Chapter 11
The next morning after being persuaded by Simon.
“Gabi-nim, wake up.”
“…Hmm.”
Her parents never woke her up, but the maids here are obsessed with getting up at such an early hour, even if it’s still 7 in the morning.
Gabi got out of the bed and limped like a zombie, with her long hair covering her face.
“……”
Gabi, still half-asleep, drank the black coffee her maids had prepared for her, frowning as if she were taking a herbal medicine. The hot black coffee, not iced Americano, was the harsh taste of an adult that was still difficult to fathom for the 19-year-old Gabi.
“Starting today, the Archbishop and I will assist Gabi-nim. If anything happens, please tell me.”
Simon, who woke up much earlier than Gabi, is more than ready to start the day. After paying his greetings to Erica, he stopped by Gabi’s room.
Gabi greeted Simon with sleepy eyes and murmured a good morning.
“Good morning. Anyway, I have a question for you.”
“Yes, please.”
“What exactly does the saintess do?”
She was too preoccupied so she wasn’t able to carefully consider it.
She wondered what she was supposed to do as a saintess only after she was persuaded by Simon and formally agreed to become one.
Simon told her that all she had to do was fight, but what exactly is she fighting for?
“Do you know why religion came into existence?”
Simon was the first to ask.
“Well, I don’t know.”
“In order to get rid of the anxiety caused by natural disasters, humans began to believe in a transcendent beings and created religions to rely on.”
Gabi listened patiently as Simon began his lengthy explanation, holding the bitter coffee to her tongue.
“It is believed that there is a transcendent being, but we cannot see it. Therefore, only the representative of the Goddess Gaia, a person we called a saint, will relieve us from the anxiety.”
“Simon surely talks a lot.”
“I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable.”
“No, I will listen. So, what about the thing I asked?”
Simon bowed in apology in response to Gabi’s words.
“Well, that concludes everything. You just have to stay still and watch over us. Come to think of it, Gabi-nim seems to enjoy catching monsters.”
Simon remembered catching a glimpse of Gabi’s joyful cexpression as she encountered a gate when she first arrived at the church.
“Well, yeah…I don’t hate it.”
“The church has been investigating dungeons since 50 years ago.”
“Ah, that. I have experienced it once.”
At Simon’s words, Gabi recalled the dungeon she subdued during her first encounter with Arnold.
Since this is a fantasy world, she thought that dungeons had already existed from the beginning. But it seemed like it was just created, like the ones in South Korea.
“As expected, Gabi-nim. People with magic are also entering the dungeons, but the church is still the one who’s fully in charge in regards of that. So as the saintess, Gabi-nim has the freedom to step in and subdue them.”
She wants to ask if there was any reward for defeating the dungeon, but she held back. If there had been a reward, Arnold, who is the crown prince, would not swallow it alone.
Gabi remembered everything Simon said and asked a question.
“What do I have to do now?”
To put it simply, a saintess can just stay still, and can subdue dungeons. Basically, spend her time leisurely in the church, and only move when there’s a dungeon.
Gabi thought about it and nodded. It’s a much sweeter job than she thought.
“Then, I will tell you about your future work and schedule. After waking up at 8:00, 9:00…”
Simon’s long words were detailed, but as soon as he started talking business likely, Gabi’s concentration was distracted.
According to what she has been told, she only needs to attend to prayers and important events. The rest of the time is free.
The religions here are also not too different from what she knew. Although she initially expected that it might be different since this is the world of romance fantasy.
When she was in elementary school, she had never been to a church except after when she was told that there’s a feeding after the mass. That’s when she heard about the church’s daily routine but it didn’t enter her head.
“And there’s an oath-taking ceremony tomorrow.”
“Oath-taking?”
“Because Gabi-nim hasn’t been officially declared as a saint yet, the imperial family will bestow you with a title.”
Arnold came to mind when she heard the term “imperial.”
If the title was bestowed directly by the imperial family, Arnold, the crown prince, would also be present at the oath-taking ceremony. Surely if she met him after declaring that she will be stripped off the title of saintess, he would say something like ‘Ha, you’re funny’.
Simon continued to speak while looking at Gabi, who was thinking about Arnold.
“First of all, we will travel from the entrance of the capital to the imperial palace, and then proceed to the oath-taking ceremony.”
“Are you coming?”
“Yeah. It won’t be difficult. Just sit back and wave your hand.”
Is this the case in the news where the royals are waving at people from their cars? It’s embarrassing but it’s better than dancing for the rain ritual.
She is the saint. From the moment she puts on the church’s clothing to the oath-taking ceremony tomorrow, she will now live her life as a saint, which is a position that has to do grandiose things. She looked at Simon standing beside her. IShe looked over at Simon, who was standing next her. If she decided to quit now, she’s pretty sure that Simon will persuade her relentlessly again.
Simon smiled as he looked at Gabi, as he always did.
Having decided to do it, Gabi shook her head slightly.
“I won’t always have wear the same clothes as I did during the rain ritual, right?”
“If you need comfortable clothes, I will prepare them.”
Gabi, who was embarrassed by Simon’s sincere hospitality, responded with a shy smile.
“Then you should rest.”
After explaining the saintess’ duties, routine, and the oath-taking ceremony to be held tomorrow, Simon bowed politely and left the room.
【 What are you going to do today? What quest should I give you? 】
As soon as Simon left the room, Sissi started talking to her as if he had been waiting this moment.
“I will rest today. I have another tiring job tomorrow.”
【 (TTεTT) 】
Gabi, who drank the cold coffee while leaving Sissi behind, activated the ‘Kwon Gabi’s Room’ skill before lying down on the bed.
She returned to her room with some comic books, thinking that she should take a break today because she had to shake her hand in front of people all day tomorrow.
The day before the oath-taking ceremony, Gabi spent a lazy day reading comics in bed, except for lunch and dinner.
* * *
She finished eating dinner and reading her comics, and Gabi falls asleep early and wakes up the next day before her maid wakes her.
“Gabi-nim, this is Anna.”
Not long after she opened her eyes, she heard a knock on the door and there come the voice of Anna, the maid who’s in charge of waking her up.
“I’m awake.”
As she got out of bed and shouted, the maids opened the door and bowed to her.
Clearheaded for today, Gabi watched her maids dress her up like a little child. Gabi insisted on dressing herself at first, but she found it difficult to put on jewelry, let alone a dress, so she eventually left it to the maids.
“There must be a day off for me, right?”
“Yes, you can rest from tomorrow.”
After Gabi changed her dress in the dressing room, she went back to the room and asked Simon, who was waiting for her.
Simon, who was sitting next to her and reading, closed the book and looked at Gabi as the maids were getting her hair done.
“Then don’t wake me up tomorrow. I will wake up when I want to wake up.”
“That would disrupt the schedule…”
Gabi dramatically put her hand to her mouth and turned her head slightly towards Simon, who gave her a troubled look.
“Then I won’t be a saint.”
“All right. We won’t wake you up tomorrow.”
Simon laughed at Gabi’s threat as he said it to other maids. Then they lowered their head if they understood.
“It’s done.”
After the maids politely stepped back from dressing her up, Gabi stood and looked at herself in the full-length mirror in front of her.
Gabi only touched the hem of the clothes that she never got used to seeing.
“The carriage is waiting outside. Let’s take a detour and go to the entrance of the city gate.”
“Why are we taking a detour?”
“People are gathered in the square and town streets now, so you have to hide your face until you go.”
Convinced by Simon’s words, Gabi followed him out of the church and headed for the prepared carriage.
Gabi hopped into the carriage with Simon’s escort and together with three other knights, they took a detour to the city gates, out of sight of the townspeople.
“I’ll just wave my hands and it will be over.”
She said while looking at the crowd and buildings. The audience is even much fuller than during the rain ritual.
“You will only be busy today and afterwards, you can get relax, so please cheer up a little.”
“Yeah.”
Gabi arrived at the entrance of the city after detouring with a carriage.
In front of the city gates, a carriage without a hood (carriage’s roof) was prepared, richly decorated with flowers and golden ornaments.
“Simon…Isn’t this a situation I need to get prepared for?”
Beside the fancy carriage, several men dressed as knights of the church were standing.
“…No.”
Simon held out his hand in front of Gabi.
And she noticed the several masked men with swords stood beside the fallen knights.
“Who are these people?”
“They’re heretics. It looks like they intend to ruin the oath-taking ceremony.”
Simon, who always had a gentle expression, glared uncharacteristically at the masked people.
“This is due to my negligence. I should’ve kept more people on standby.”
“Don’t we need to call someone?”
As Gabi said, Simon requested the coachman, who was hiding in a corner to avoid the prying eyes of the heretics, to summon an imperial knight.
As the coachman nodded and went away, a heretic ran up to him.
The moment Ethan, one of the heretics, approached the coachman, one of the knights of the church blocked Ethan with his own sword.
“There’s no time to waste. We will take care of this.”
“All right.”
The man who blocked Ethan was Arthur, the leader of the Knights of Formene.
There are ten masked men, but we only has four knights.
But then, Gabi remembered the pistol she put in her thigh before she left her room.
