Chapter 2
“Speak clearly and repeat what you said,” the high priest sighed, looking at me with a mix of annoyance and pity.
“You come here for all sorts of reasons now, don’t you?” He seemed to view me as a troublesome guest.
It seemed like the previous Adeline had often come to him with complaints and grievances.
Even though I felt it wouldn’t be easy, I didn’t think it would be this difficult.
“Did you secretly drink alcohol last night?”
“What? No, I didn’t.”
“Did you get into a fight with another candidate?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Did someone slander or upset Adeline?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Do you want to replace the attendant or servants?”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Then you’re short on money for maintaining appearances, aren’t you?”
“No, I have enough money.”
The high priest’s varied guesses suggested Adeline had many complaints before.
“Really? Then you must still be sleepy. Go back, Adeline.”
“No, High priest, it’s not that. I’m completely sane, and I mean it. I am not fit to be a saint.”
The High priest frowned openly, clearly displeased.
“Adeline, I can listen to any complaint or grievance you have. But this is different. You were chosen by the goddess Myaria. You have no right to refuse that choice, only the goddess can make that decision.”
Having said his piece, the High priest turned his attention back to the documents on his desk, signaling he didn’t want to continue the conversation.
Seeing that insisting further would only backfire, I had no choice but to retreat.
Back in my room, I pondered all day but could see no other solution than resignation.
I needed to quit officially and cleanly; running away in the middle of the night was never part of the plan.
I didn’t want to give up the title of a saint candidate, as it would be a valuable credential in the empire.
Moreover, my future plans required me to work in the capital’s marketplace, so I couldn’t afford to antagonize the religious order, which was at the pinnacle of imperial power.
Thinking it over from all angles, I realized there was no other way but to show that I was serious about quitting.
‘Do you think I’ll give up easily? Just know that I’m serious about resigning.’
This novel emphasized sincerity and genuineness.
As a devoted reader, I decided to believe in the power of sincerity and genuineness.
So I visited the High high priest every day. At first, he dismissed it as whining, but soon he started avoiding me, realizing it wasn’t a joke.
Thus began a breathless game of cat and mouse with the High priest.
The high priests at the central temple were troubled by my refusal to accept the position of saint.
It was something they couldn’t understand, as anyone would dream of becoming the saint of Myaria Church.
Moreover, a smooth selection process for the saint would favor their promotion to high priests.
The Myaria Church was much more corrupt than depicted in the original story.
Prioritizing appearances over actual work, they naturally didn’t appreciate my actions.
All the high priests started avoiding me, and with no one left to submit my resignation to, I had no choice but to go to the administrative office of the church.
Seeing my resignation letter, the junior priest trembled as if his world had collapsed.
He handed the letter back to me as if it were a contagious disease.
Realizing his mistake, or perhaps remembering the notorious Adeline’s personality, he knelt and begged for forgiveness.
“Lady Adeline… please forgive my impudence.”
Sensing an opportunity, I looked at him coldly.
“I forgive you.”
I saw hope light up in his previously darkened face.
I smiled as kindly as possible and said, “I’ll forgive you if you take this.”
Even before I finished speaking, I saw the blood drain from his face again.
‘How can someone’s emotions be so transparent?’
“I’m sorry. I cannot act against the goddess’s will. But I cannot refuse Lady Adeline’s wish, so I’ll accept it.”
To my surprise, he then took my resignation letter and swallowed it whole, banging his head on the ground, begging to be killed instead.
‘Did he just swallow my resignation letter? Is that what he meant by accepting it? And if he was going to eat it, couldn’t he have torn it up first? What is he planning to see in the bathroom later? No, that’s not important right now. Why are people here so extreme?’
Realizing that staying would only trouble the junior priest, I returned to my room. After all, I had to rewrite my resignation letter anyway.
* * *
That night, the lights in the central temple stayed on all night. It was a quiet yet busy atmosphere, creating an odd ambiance. At that time, I didn’t even suspect that the midnight priest meeting was because of me.
The next day, I returned to the office. As I entered, I saw all the priests lowering their gazes and pretending to focus on their work. Not wanting to bother the powerless, I approached the highest-ranking priest I could see.
“Hello, priest.”
The priest greeted me with a look that seemed to say he had been expecting this.
“Welcome, Lady Adeline.”
“I have something to submit to the central church.”
“And what would that be?”
“My resignation from the saint candidate position.”
After a brief moment of contemplation, he looked me in the eyes and said, “I’m sorry, Lady Adeline. We are merely the priests handling the administrative tasks of the central temple and are not involved in the selection of the saint. I’m afraid we cannot help you. Perhaps you should find the person in charge?”
His professional tone made me unwittingly respond seriously. As expected, someone of his rank exuded a different vibe due to his experience.
“Who is in charge?”
“Well, this is a first, so… I don’t know the exact protocol.”
I was so taken aback by his words that I threw my resignation letter at him, but by the next morning, it had been returned to me.
I visited every office in the temple, but everyone kept repeating that they were not responsible, like parrots.
It seemed like the entire temple was in on this, so I angrily headed back to the first office I had visited.
Back in the office, I acted as Adeline, not as Chanmi.
“Who is in charge? Bring them out now!”
I kicked anything in sight and shouted, causing the priests to panic. But now was not the time to be considerate of their situation.
‘I’m on the verge of losing it!’
Thinking about how I had been searching for the person in charge for almost twenty days made my blood boil. The central temple priests had been playing hot potato with me.
Finding the person in charge was more difficult than winning the lottery.
‘Because there was no person in charge from the start.’
I had been duped by their scheming.
The priest enduring my rage pulled out a book thicker than a dictionary from his desk drawer.
“This is the doctrine of the Myaria Church. If you read this, you might find the information you need, so I’ll lend it to you.”
‘When am I supposed to read all this?’
But I thought it would be better to know what I was up against than to be clueless, so I accepted the doctrine book and left.
‘I’ll dig into the Myaria Church and devour every bit of it.’
I returned to my room and began speed-reading with a fierce determination.
‘You messed with the wrong person. I used to be a speed-reading champion.’
I spent two days reading without eating or sleeping, and I finished the entire doctrine book.
The joy of completing it was fleeting.
I was engulfed in even greater anger. There was no mention of resignation anywhere in the book.
Carrying my frustration and anger, I went to return the doctrine book.
Bang!
As I slammed the book down, the priests in the office flinched.
“There was no information about resignation in here. You must have read it, so did you deceive me?”
The priest looked at me with astonishment.
“Did you really read the whole thing?”
“Would I lie about that?”
Even if I was a fake saint, I wouldn’t lie about something like this.
“I’ll leave the resignation letter here. As someone who has read the doctrine, you should make an appropriate judgment.”
“We cannot accept it. Please find the person in charge to handle this.”
“I don’t know who that is, which is why I came to the administrative office of the church.”
“Why not try seeing the High priest? He might be able to resolve this matter.”
The mention of the High priest intrigued me.
The central temple I was at was the largest one in the capital, which even had a cardinal. But in regional temples, the high priest was the highest-ranking official.
Feeling hopeful that the High high priest might be reasonable, I felt a surge of optimism.
However, my hope for the High priest was as brief as a flicker before it was extinguished.
The elderly High priest, a seasoned man, skillfully rejected my resignation. He too began avoiding me from the next day.
With the situation as it was, I decided to employ a double strategy.
In addition to expressing my intention to resign through the resignation letter, I would sabotage all the tests.
I hoped they would be so fed up with my ungrateful behavior that they would dismiss me.
During the medical exams, I caused a scene, claiming I felt worse instead of being treated. During the prayer exams, I simply slept. During the holy power exams, I rolled my eyes and collapsed to demonstrate poor control.
For the written exams, I wrote whatever I wanted. Once, I even wrote famous Korean song lyrics, line by line, because I had nothing else to write.
They praised my beautiful thoughts and gave me higher marks than Leona.
‘Sigh… this wasn’t what I intended.’
Despite trying all sorts of things, I couldn’t achieve my goal, and time just passed.
I grew increasingly anxious.
* * *
Knock, knock!
A hurried knock snapped me out of my thoughts.
“Lady Adeline, you must hurry.”
It was the voice of a servant waiting outside.
“I’ll be out soon.”
I hastily answered and checked my attire.
For the church, the schedule might be urgent and important, but for me, the important thing was to figure out how to mess things up today so that I could be peacefully dismissed from the saint candidate position.
“Hmm. What should I do today?”
