‘I won’t see them for a long time anyway, so what?’
When she thought about it that way, the whole situation felt light.
With that in mind, Elaine arrived at the chapel and the first thing she did was check to see if there were people from the Newt family.
No matter how much she looked, she couldn’t see him. It seemed like he didn’t want to go to the trouble of coming to see Elaine.
Feeling relieved, Elaine sat down, opened the scriptures, and began to memorize what she would learn in next week’s ‘Scripture Interpretation’ class.
Although she had already memorized this part, it was just a habit.
While she was immersed in the scriptures for a while, she strangely felt that the surroundings were more noisy than usual.
‘huh? ‘What’s going on?’
Elaine looked up and realized that the chapel was full and that the eyes of the saints her age were focused on a certain point.
When she turned her head to follow their gaze, there was someone she knew taking the seat.
‘uh? Sergey?’
The young man, who still had a cool and beautiful appearance, was ignoring everyone’s gaze with a bored look on his face.
Elaine’s heart began to beat rapidly.
‘I never thought we’d meet so soon!’
Even though they reunited sooner than she expected, It was already May, almost four months since they had seen each other.
She wondered if he would even remember her, but for some reason, she was very happy to see him.
But it was difficult to pretend to know him.
The distance was far, and to pretend to know him there might embarrass Sergey, or embarrass her.
‘After the service, shall I go quietly and say hello?’
While Elaine was thinking that, she heard the saints around her whispering.
“Who is that person?”
“At first glance, he seems to be the successor to the Lindell family. I heard from my mother that only his successor returned to the country not long ago. But I didn’t know he was that handsome!”
“Count Lindell? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of him before.”
“Do you not know <Lindell Trading Company>?”
“I know, Lindell Trading Company. uh? Then, could it be that Lindell…?”
“That’s right. That is a company owned by Count Lindell.”
“Oh my god…!”
In addition to them, the saints around them spoke one by one about what they knew.
“They say Count Lindell is close with foreign royals. He has several mansions and villas abroad.”
“I heard that the heir is only 20 years old this year, and the competition for marriage is already fierce.”
“Because the business spreads across many countries, the Lindell family’s wealth is impossible to calculate.”
“Who will marry Lindell’s son?”
Everyone was unable to hide their flushed cheeks and were clearly showing their excitement.
‘It was a family that everyone knew. Well, I’ve never been in a social circle in my past life, so there must be one or two family names I haven’t heard of?’
There would have been nothing to see even more because Count Lindell was a person who stayed abroad for a long time.
‘It was strange that I hadn’t heard of Sergey, but in a past life, Sergey may have been late in returning home.’
‘How about anything? Not everything has to happen the way I know.’
The only problem was that Sergey attracted so much attention from other people that it became more difficult for Elaine to pretend to know him.
She wanted to eavesdrop on the stories of the saints around her, but since the service was about to start, everyone kept quiet.
Throughout the service, Elaine thought about Sergey, which was strange because she had never felt this close to anyone else.
‘If he returned home alone, who would he live with and where? Why did he return home alone? Will he continue to stay in the empire from now on?’
‘Could he possibly be engaged? Then wouldn’t it be rude to go and talk to him?’
‘Wouldn’t he hate me for pretending to know him?’
‘Should I say hello or not?’
Her mind raced with thoughts that some might call silly.
And before she knew it, the service time was over and people stood up.
Even then, Elaine couldn’t decide whether she should go and say hello to Sergey or not.
People began to leave the seats starting from the back row, and families visiting the temple went to the front of the chapel and waved to the saint who was their family member.
A considerable number of saints rushed towards the general entrance of the chapel to chase after Sergey.
For some reason, everyone seemed happy.
‘I’ll have to say hello to Sergey next time.’
She didn’t want to be seen as one of the people chasing after Sergey.
Unlike the others, Elaine did not dream of a romance with Sergey.
‘I just wanted to be friends. No, I just wanted to be an acquaintance.’
Since she didn’t have a single friend in her life, she hoped to have someone she could greet by their name.
However, when she found out that Sergey was the heir of a great family, her courage was lost in half.
When she confirmed that he was an attractive person in the eyes of others, half of her remaining courage was lost again.
‘I can’t believe I didn’t expect this….’
Elaine sighed softly, took her scriptures, and headed toward the entrance for saints and priests at the front of the chapel.
It was then.
“Elaine!”
Even though the surroundings were quite noisy, she could hear the voice clearly.
“L’Arch…?”
Elaine could not hide her surprised expression at the sight of L’Arch walking towards her.
Lorina, who was with her mother but was looking towards L’Arch, also seemed surprised.
“Why are you so surprised?”
L’Arch looked at Elaine with a relaxed smile.
“You seem to be doing well without any disturbance. I don’t like the hair tie, though.”
She didn’t know when L’Arch had noticed her hair tie on the back of her head.
“Uh, when did you come? I couldn’t see you….”
“I was a little late entering the chapel because I had a chat with Miss Lorina. You must have been looking for me.”
“No, it’s not like that.”
Although she was momentarily surprised, she didn’t feel crushed by L’Arch, perhaps because there were so many people around her.
“I’ll introduce you to a priest I know, so follow me.”
L’Arch took Elaine to a priest without even paying attention to her feelings.
Although she knew the Priest’s Face and name because she had often encountered him in her past life, Elaine pretended not to know her and greeted him as it was her first time meeting her in this life.
Lark nodded as if satisfied with the greeting that was neither too light nor too excessive, with her knees and head slightly bent.
“This is my cousin Elaine. Since she doesn’t know many Saints, I hope you’ll take good care of her.”
“Of course. That is L’Arch’s request, and I must gladly grant it.”
He smiled kindly and greeted Elaine
“Nice to meet you, Saint Elaine. My name is Priest Raoul. If you have any inconvenience or need anything, please come to me at any time.”
“Thank you.”
Elaine barely opened her lips to thank him. But in her heart, she didn’t feel grateful for it.
‘This person was someone L’Arch knew.…?’
In his past life, he was a priest who was strangely interested in Elaine.
Although he had no official contact with Elaine, he occasionally called her to run small errands, and was often seen at the entrance to the auditorium where classes were held or at the entrance to the dormitory.
At that time, she thought it was all done for temple management. It would be the same not only for her but also for other saints.
‘But what if it was L’Arch ordered him to monitor me…?’
‘If so, L’Arch’s attitude of seeming to know everything was explained. He must have been receiving reports from this person.’
‘It’s creepy.’
She thought L’Arch wasn’t interested in her.
But that was Elaine’s mistake as she knew nothing.
Not only was he not looking at Elaine rationally, he was managing her very thoroughly as an asset that needed to be controlled and utilized.
“Elaine?”
“Uh, yes!”
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
“No, I’m a little embarrassed. You didn’t have to introduce me to the priest…”
“You’re being naive. Do you know the difference between having a priest you know and not having one? From now on, visit Priest Raoul often and act as if you are friendly with him. It will be easier to stay at the temple.”
That means the man who knew so much about her only kept watch over her in her previous life.
Although he clearly knew how Elaine was doing at the temple, he never offered a helping hand.
‘Well, he probably didn’t want to spend money on me when he could just sell me at any time.’
It must have been a waste to spend money so he wouldn’t have thought of giving her pocket money.
But this time, something was different.
“I put the money you need into the temple treasury, so change your meal to a special meal and buy anything you need.”
“What…?”
“why? Is there something wrong?”
“Ah, no, you said you put money in there for me to spend?”
‘Isn’t L’Arch, the one who went out to the shopping district with me even before entering the temple, said, ‘I can’t leave my wallet with you’.’
Rather than being happy about that change, she felt somewhat uncomfortable.
* * *
