She returned to Duke Blanchet’s residence to protest the commotion at the palace. She didn’t stay at the palace for long, but she felt like she was back home.
As soon as she entered, he tended to the rose garden that was in full bloom.
‘I feel better when I’m with Eden Rose.’
It’s not that she didn’t know, but the trees said that the more Eden Roses they had, the better they were because they were flowers that bloomed with her power.
While she was looking around Eden Rose, Betty came running with news from the palace.
“The saint is still lying down sick.”
It seemed like nothing has changed since the news she heard yesterday.
“What’s wrong with the saint all of a sudden?”
“Well, they didn’t give me an exact diagnosis, but they said she was too weak to attend the palace trial. I guess she also said she didn’t know how to do the purification ritual.”
Of course, the Holy Nation didn’t say this out loud. That was because they wanted to fight the Emperor openly.
On the first day, they asked to postpone the trial until the saint recovered, but later the saint wrote a letter to the Emperor saying that she was sick because of the ‘Palace Trial’.
It had been hot recently, but the weather was pleasantly cool.
She asked Betty while she was out enjoying the breeze.
“Betty, do you think the saint is really sick?”
“Ah, of course it’s a lie! His Majesty the Emperor offered to give her the Palace Doctor, but she refused. If she was really sick, why would she refuse the Palace Doctor? Not only me, but many people think that way. People aren’t all fools.”
“Aren’t there many fools who think that way?”
“…Sometimes I can’t believe that I live in this empire with such fools. Are we a new kind of brainless human?”
She laughed, thinking it was a light joke, but Betty’s expression was still serious. She rolled her eyes and said to Betty.
“Isn’t it because your faith is too deep?”
“If that’s the case, shouldn’t religion disappear from the world?”
Betty said seriously.
“When I see the saint these days, I think about the meaning of the existence of the Holy Nation again.”
“Is that so?”
“I’m not sure if all the priests of the Holy Nation are like that, but I feel the same whether it’s the god who sends a woman like that as a saint or the priests who worship her with ignorance.”
The Athea religion is a very strong religion in the empire.
Even non-believers secretly believed in it. Come to think of it, she heard that Betty also once believed in the Athea god.
‘If that’s the case, the saint will have to be more careful in the future.’
Of course, what she had been worrying about these days was a different problem.
‘How did Yestella become Saint Stella?’
Even when she asked Namu or Isidor, she couldn’t get an answer about Stella. In the first place, it didn’t make sense for someone who was dead to come back to life.
‘Could it be that I saw something wrong?’
She felt a familiar sense of self-denial, but she braced herself by thinking about what the trees had told her.
-Your eyes are the eyes of truth, not anyone else’s.
-No matter how hard it is to believe, what you are seeing is real. You have to believe it.
At the time, she thought it was really out of the blue. But now that she thought about it, it seems like something she really needed to hear.
‘If I live that long, will I gain some kind of supernatural power?’
She touched Eden Rose as naturally as she could and spoke to Betty.
“Continue investigating how the saint moves, what she says, and who she does what with.”
“Yes, I will.”
“Shall we go inside now?”
She went into the mansion with Betty. As soon as we entered the mansion, Betty said with an excited expression.
“Madam, are you going to see the baby prince now?”
“Yes. It’s time to wake up now.”
On the outside, they looked like human babies, but spirit babies were definitely different from humans in many ways.
Spirit babies only stayed awake for about an hour a day and slept most of the time.
– When they were sleeping, someone just had to watch them. Who could harm a spirit?
Sometimes, when they were feeling well, they would stay awake for a few more hours. But then they would feel tired, so they would put them to sleep.
Recently, they’ve been seeing maids often, so they don’t even shy away from strangers anymore.
‘If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have left them there.’
As soon as she entered the room, she tried to look at the baby, but there was a guest.
It was John.
John, sitting at the head of the bed, was looking at the spirit baby in his sleek suit. The cold, handsome man with the baby looked great together.
John looked at the sleeping baby with a slight smile on his lips and affectionate eyes.
She could tell just by looking at him.
‘John will be a good father.’
Perhaps that appearance now was his true self hidden beneath the mask of cold darkness. The appearance he would have had if the Duchess Blanchett had not fallen.
John sat on the bed and looked at me, lightly raising one hand in greeting.
“Estelle, you look very surprised.”
“That’s because I didn’t know John would be home right now. When did you come?”
“Just now.”
John slowly untied his tie with his long, elegant index finger. His manly collar was revealed through the loose collar.
“I thought it was time for our baby to wake up, so I came to see him right away. You should be here by now, too.”
“Aren’t you crazy because of the saint?”
To be honest, the purification ritual wasn’t something that needed to be solved immediately for the empire. The Pescalos Forest was more about honor than survival. However, honor-related issues become very serious when they exceed a certain level.
The Emperor had already announced long ago that he would perform a purification ritual throughout the empire. Not at any other time, but during the summer festival season when people were most interested.
‘The purification ritual has now become a matter of the Emperor’s prestige.’
John nodded with a meaningful smile on his lips.
“It’s become quite a problem.”
His long index finger poked the cheek of the still sleeping baby.
“The Saintess’s demands are so eccentric.”
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“They asked that the imperial trial, which was held publicly among the nobles, be changed to a private one. It seems that the Saintess felt burdened because it was too exposed to the public.”
Wow, the plan was so clear that it was hard to see any other intentions.
‘The trial is starting to become unfavorable now.’
She sat down next to John and asked.
“And there’s more?”
“There’s nothing else yet. But who knows, if he doesn’t like it, he might collapse again in pain.”
John shrugged and grumbled.
“Thanks to you, the situation has become really interesting. It seems like the Emperor will soon draw his sword against the Holy Nation.”
“In the Holy Nation? Is that okay?”
“No matter how blessed the Holy Nation is by God, it is still a place where humans live. Nothing is impossible, right?”
John carefully stroked the baby’s round black hair. It looked peaceful and affectionate, but for some reason it felt eerie.
‘If nothing happens, it seems like he’ll pay.’
But it wasn’t a bad thing for me. I nodded in agreement with John’s words, then subtly brought up the subject of the saint again.
“Then, has John done any separate research on Saint Stella?”
“No.”
John’s red eyes lit up for a moment.
“Why, is there something bothering you?”
“It’s not something you should worry about.”
After she found out that Saint Stella was Yestella, she tried to figure out her identity in her own way. However, with her abilities, she couldn’t figure out anything.
‘But John would be different.’
Of course, she couldn’t let John know that she already knew the saint’s identity. Since she couldn’t tell him about her abilities, she couldn’t explain where she got the information.
“The saint left something meaningful last time I saw you.”
“The saint?”
John asked in a strange tone.
“What did she say that made you nervous?”
Although his voice didn’t show much emotion, she was sure that he was very focused on what she was saying.
“John, you and I seemed to have some kind of connection in the past. Of course, you seemed to know about me too. Of course, you didn’t say for sure that you knew, so it’s not certain…”
John’s hand that was stroking the baby stopped.
“Go on.”
“I strangely felt like that story was true. So I asked John if he knew her, and John said that it was his first time seeing the saint.”
In fact, this is something I’m personally curious about as well.
‘Why on earth is Yestella approaching John?’
Judging by her attitude, it seemed like she has some kind of secret, but she didn’t know what it was, so it’s frustrating.
‘Then what can I do?’
If she couldn’t do it with her own hands, she had no choice but to borrow the hands of a great mastermind and dig it up.
“Of course, I know that the principle is not to reveal the origin of the saint.”
The origin of the saint had not been revealed until now.
The reason was simple. When she awakened as a saint, they saw the saint as a new being. Therefore, the past before becoming a saint was not the same person as the saint.
“But strangely, I kept worrying about it. So, can you find out? You don’t have to force it.”
“If you’re worried about it, then of course you should find out.”
For a moment, John’s red eyes glowed eerily. It was like the gaze of a beast that had found its prey.
“Personally, it’s a bit strange.”
He said with a smile on his face.
“It’s also unpleasant.”
It seemed that John was also uncomfortable with the fact that there was a secret he didn’t know about.
“I thought a woman I didn’t know kept coming to me, and now I know she’s talking nonsense to my wife.”
…That wasn’t the part.
“This is my fault. I don’t know how to take responsibility.”
“Hey, I can’t even call it responsibility.”
She laughed softly because John’s voice was so serious. However, John didn’t seem to agree with her.
“Why isn’t it my problem?”
“Is that so?”
“I ended up being a troublemaker because I couldn’t handle one of my own problems.”
Just then, the spirit baby woke up and looked at them with wide eyes.
“Aww?”
The spirit baby stretched out its short arms toward the two people. Looking at it, her heart felt lighter, as if her serious worries had faded away.
“Come to think of it, John, what should we name the spirit baby?”
No matter how important names are to spirits, I was still worried about not giving them a name. Then John said a word lightly.
“Rune.”
“…Rune? Have you been thinking about that name all this time?”
“A long time ago.”
John said in a voice that sounded somewhat nostalgic.
“I wanted to give my son that name when he was born.”
For some reason, her heart ached strangely.
‘When?’
But she didn’t show it and asked the spirit baby.
“How about the name Rune? Do you like it?”
Then the spirit baby smiled brightly as if it liked it.
“Gyaaaah!”
“You like it?”
“Gyaaaah!”
John held the spirit baby with both hands. The spirit baby, now a rune, smiled brightly at John.
– No! How dare you name it like that!
The trees howled loudly.
– We’ve been holding a meeting for days to come up with a name that suits the spirit baby! Isn’t it pointless to hold a meeting like this?
– What does the word rune mean? Is it an ancient language? Or is it a common imperial language?
– I don’t remember. It doesn’t seem bad…
– Oh my! It’s not the best name! Anyway, I didn’t like that guy from the beginning!
It seemed like the tree and John would never get along.
* * *
Saint Stella slowly stood in front of the emperor.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“No need to thank me. I am grateful that the saint is doing his duty first. I hope the purification ritual won’t be delayed again.”
Then, Saint Stella smiled brightly.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I will purify the Pescalos Forest right away.”
The saint spoke elegantly to the emperor and left the audience room. As soon as she left the audience room, Stella’s expression hardened and she bit her lips.
‘It’s not enough.’
Crown Prince Carlos seemed like he would be helpful, but in the end, he was of no help.
At that moment, she saw Prime Minister Orteca approaching from afar. The saint smiled faintly.
“Oh my, Prime Minister Orteca.”
She needed a better assistant.
“I decided to do the purification ritual first because I wanted to be of help to you.”
“Weren’t you feeling unwell?”
“I’m fine.”
Stella smiled, lowering her long eyelashes.
“Because I want to show you a better side.”
“Are you talking about a good appearance?”
“Oh, I said it without realizing it.”
Orteca smiled kindly at the saintess.
“Is there something bothering you?”
“If Orteca keeps his promise, I will tell only you. Can you keep it a secret?”
“I am the saintess’ guardian. I should keep it a secret.”
“Actually…”
Stella blushed in embarrassment.
“I am in love with the Duke of Blanchet.”
—————————————————————
Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released tomorrow.
Want to read more?
