TVWRL Chapter 9
“Yes? cough cough!”
“You resemble the Goddess Aria, Lady Adeline.”
I was taken aback by the nonsensical remark, and even Sarah seemed to hear it.
I wanted to scold him for joking around, but his gaze towards the goddess became dreamy.
Chris’s eyes were fixed on the portrait of Goddess Aria for quite some time. His gaze seemed to be filled with complex emotions, as if his eyes were recording emotions like a tape recorder.
‘Why does a trainee priest have such a complicated expression?’
Among the complex emotions, his sincerity towards the goddess was clearly conveyed through his eyes.
‘Well, anyway, it’s a good thing for a priest to love and respect the goddess. Chris will surely become a good priest.’
I briefly hoped for some changes in the Myaria Church by the time he became a full-fledged priest. That might be a distant hope, though.
—
As the sun began to set, I bid farewell to Chris, who had finished his assigned tasks.
“I’ll go first. May the blessings of Goddess Aria be with you, Chris.”
“Lady Adeline, thank you for your hard work. Please rest well. May the blessings of Goddess Aria be with you.”
The walk back to my quarters felt much more exhausting than usual.
“Am I tired because of all the attention from the enthusiastic fan and being stuck with him all day?”
My neck and shoulders felt stiff.
Adeline had always been different from writer Lee Chan-mi, who lived with a stiff body due to stress. Even without any stress or difficult tasks, my shoulders were always relaxed.
Since my possession, I had been living my life to maintain this relaxed state of my body.
In fact, when I first started acting up, I was scared and panicky, but with so many previous works by Adeline, no one said anything, and they even apologized, so if that was stress, it was stress.
Even maids and junior priests trembled when my gaze changed.
Was that all?
Even if I failed the saint test, the high-ranking priests would only pray to soothe their hearts, not say anything to me.
Thanks to Adeline, for the first time since I was born, I lived as I pleased.
Of course, I hadn’t solved the monumental task of escaping from the clergy yet, but I had a strong belief that it would work out.
It was solely because of Chris that my neck and shoulders, usually so relaxed, stiffened.
I felt worse when I thought about the success of Raccoon’s plan.
“Thanks to you, I got a good beating.”
—
As I was endlessly savoring and chewing on High Priest in my mind, I saw him in the distance across the wall.
“High Priest!”
When I called out, he seemed to move at a noticeably faster pace.
“He must know what he did to me today.”
I quickly walked to where he was.
“But why isn’t the distance closing? Why does someone who sings the same song of posture and dignity every time move so unrealistically fast?”
I felt a strange urge to win suddenly.
Without any hesitation, I grasped my dress and ran as fast as I could, even using track and field techniques if necessary.
“I was always the last runner in the relay during school.”
Creating wind, I was able to catch up to the High Priest, who was placed between the wall.
“High Priest!”
He seemed startled by my voice.
“I have something to tell you.”
“Today seems busy. Let’s talk later, Adeline.”
“You already know what I’m going to say, right? Please accept this.”
I took out the resignation letter I had carefully kept and handed it to him.
“Adeline, I’m on my way to the Papal Office right now. I can’t take anything that undermines the authority of the Goddess. Let’s talk later.”
He quickly disappeared with a look that clearly said he didn’t want to meet again.
“Wow! Nothing ever works out.”
I kicked the sand only to feel annoyed.
It wasn’t really anything special in hindsight.
With my emotions in check, I returned to my quarters. I just wanted to relax in a warm bathtub right now.
Entering the bathtub felt like entering heaven.
Today, Sarah’s fingertips, massaging my scalp, felt exceptionally skillful and pleasing.
While enjoying the massage, I once again fell into contemplation.
“How can I make the High Priest dislike me more than he does now? He won’t even choose me as a saintess. Should I cause a major accident?”
Staying here for a few more days wouldn’t change the original work.
“Since Leona was the one who became the perfect saintess, it would only speed up a bit. Would that be too much to handle in the development?”
My body gradually relaxed in the hot water.
I felt like I could fall asleep soon, but thoughts kept swirling in my mind.
“Maybe it’s because I’m a commoner? No, wouldn’t commoners dislike it? Is resigning because I don’t want to do it too humiliating? That would be too clumsy. Anyway, it’s old-fashioned. Someone who can’t accept even a little difference from what he thinks would be a conservative.”
Anyway, it’s okay to go to the other side as long as I’m kicked out of the Church.
There was no intention of staying in the Church and living by helping Leona’s saintly activities.
I didn’t need the honor bestowed by the saint, or the power given by the Church.
—
Time passed, and it was two days before the birthday of Goddess Aria.
Leona and I were summoned by the High Priest and headed to the temple.
For some reason, he looked at me with a generous expression.
“Adeline, you’ve worked hard cleaning the Grand Sanctuary all this time.”
I hadn’t done anything, but I smiled gently in response.
“The items you made for Chris were very useful. Thanks to you, many people were comfortable. I’m very pleased to see your growing presence.”
It was the first time that I alone received one-sided praise in front of Leona.
Was it because of that? Leona’s expression seemed to stiffen slightly.
‘Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding?’
The High Priest continued speaking as he looked at me.
“Even if your thoughts were short-sighted and your actions were lacking, you can make up for it in the future. I look forward to seeing your progress.”
I felt uneasy at the High Priest’s words.
‘The meaning of this is to keep me as a candidate for saintship and continue to grow. What does making a broom have to do with being a saintess?’
Although he said it in a roundabout way, in short, it was “listen to me.”
I concluded that I couldn’t solve it in a polite way anymore.
‘I have to go with Plan B. I can’t just keep dragging it out.’
I decided to change course.
The High Priest, oblivious to my thoughts, still looked at both of us with a gentle gaze.
“I called both of you separately today to entrust you with the task of managing the Goddess’s chamber.”
I didn’t know who decided it, but it was a rule that saint candidates cleaned the chamber.
Originally, it would have been easy if it were divided among several people, but this time, the circumstances were different.
Since Adeline rejected all the other candidates, two of us had to handle the large chamber.
Although no one, including the High Priest, said anything, everything we did in the temple was a test of our qualifications to become saintess.
The preparations for the birthday of the goddess that I had to do now were also the same.
What we had to do was clean and infuse the room with sanctity.
When ordinary people entered a space filled with sanctity and came out, any temporary pain disappeared, and they felt refreshed.
Even people who couldn’t afford to call a priest when they were sick attended Myaria Church events to receive sanctity.
With such a surprise event, Myaria Church managed to capture people’s hearts.
It felt like a cult, but as someone who experienced Adeline’s sanctity, I couldn’t help but believe it.
“Adeline, please take care of Leona’s room.”
After finishing his words, the High Priest disappeared from sight, and Leona looked at me.
Unlike usual, her gaze was cold.
I wondered if I had missed something and recalled the original work, but there was nothing special.
As always, in the original work, Leona showed a perfect image of abandoning aristocratic habits and diligently completing assigned tasks. And Adeline, pretending to work but only causing embarrassment.
Thinking it was just a stupid plot, Leona and I went up to this floor together.
—
The Goddess’s chamber was a space that was only opened once a year, during the birthday celebration, so many people sought it out.
We had to clean the chamber, as well as infuse sanctity into it on the morning of the birthday celebration. And we also had to hold the hands of people coming out of the room and personally bless them.
‘Carefully managing the saintess candidates. What a despicable place.’
If people received good energy in a space filled with sanctity and also received blessings, what would happen?
Although it wouldn’t last long, it was enough to give people a sacred feeling after viewing the room.
There was no shortage of convincing people of the power of the Goddess Aria in this room. But I had no intention of cleaning or infusing sanctity into it.
After entering the Goddess’s chamber, Leona sat down on a chair and didn’t move for over ten minutes.
She also seemed to have no intention of cleaning, just like me.
‘Come to think of it, is this place particularly crooked towards me?’
I felt even more choked up, thinking that it was selective aristocratic behavior.
I quickly calmed my mind without showing it.
Anyway, Leona and I couldn’t walk the same path for various reasons, so I decided to be a little bolder.
I lay down on the chair and closed my eyes.
“Cleaning should be done by those who want to become saintess.”
Even though my eyes were closed, I felt Leona’s incredulous gaze.
I heard rough breathing as if she was angry, but I pretended not to notice.
If I didn’t move from here, the one who would suffer would be Leona, not me.
‘Wouldn’t the weaker one be the one who wants to become a saintess?’
As I lay there, I fell asleep with a grunt.
But suddenly, I was startled awake by a pain as if my hair was being pulled out.
“Ack!”
With my eyes wide open, I couldn’t believe the reality before me.
The angelic Leona was now holding onto my hair.
In pain, I sharply asked, “Hey! What are you doing?”
Leona spoke coldly.
“What do you think? Taming the lower one. This is how you treat the lower ones who don’t know their place. We’re not the same as the lower ones who don’t even know their place.”
I was dumbfounded by Leona’s words, which I had never imagined.
“Hey! Let go of this, will you?”
Feeling like my scalp was about to be torn off, I grabbed Leona’s hand and pulled her around, saying,
“Hey! Won’t you let go?”
