Chapter 19
Odette planned to leave for the Eastern Continent with Emma as soon as she received the money from the Count and Jovern.
The Eastern Continent, located to the east of the Empire.
A land of Eastern culture, exporting tea, porcelain, and silk to the Western Continent.
I should be able to adapt well there.
She had been East Asian in her past life and had studied Eastern history in her world history classes.
“What about Lord Caesar Maes?”
Emma asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.
What about him? She was running away because of him!
But explaining everything and making Emma understand would be exhausting.
It might even be impossible.
No woman in the Empire would ever dream of rejecting a marriage proposal from Caesar Maes.
Handsome, powerful, wealthy, and…
Well, skilled in many things.
Except for that.
If she wanted to convince Emma, she would have to make it seem like she was leaving for Caesar’s sake, rather than from him.
“Emma, Lord Caesar Maes was once trapped in a marriage he didn’t want. Now that Lady Amelia is gone, he should be free to marry someone he truly loves, don’t you think?”
“…Isn’t that you?”
“I was a maid. I’m not suited for the Empire’s greatest hero.”
“…You really love him, don’t you?”
What? Why would she think that?
Emma must have lost sleep reading too many romance novels from the bookstore.
She’s actually misunderstanding this as me leaving because I love him.
But correcting her wouldn’t accomplish anything. It was better to let her believe it.
Emma was a romantic at heart.
“Yes. That’s what love is, isn’t it? Wishing for the happiness of the person you love.”
“Odette, you’re too kind for your own good.”
Cough!
Odette choked on her tea.
Kind? Who, me?
She wiped her lips with a handkerchief and looked at Emma.
“So, are you coming with me or not?”
“Of course, I’m coming! Hic! Odette! Freedom… true freedom!”
Emma’s eyes filled with tears as she hugged Odette tightly, sobbing in disbelief.
“Sharon Risley?”
Odette calmly recited the name she had purchased from the guild that sold forged identity papers.
“Risley is the second daughter of Viscount Risley and has been listed as missing. Since it’s not a completely fabricated identity, there shouldn’t be any trouble passing security checks or crossing the Empire’s borders.”
“I need an identity paper for my friend as well.”
“Maids don’t typically need identification. As long as you have yours, she won’t be questioned.”
That made sense.
In this era, only the number of adult men available for military service or forced labor was considered important.
No one cared much about commoner women.
That was why Odette and her mother had been able to live in hiding deep in the mountains.
“What about the magic elixir?”
“Magic elixirs are sold at the temple.”
“The temple?”
Weren’t magic elixirs made by wizards?
She had heard that fugitives and criminals used them to change their eye color and conceal their identities.
But the idea that the temple was openly selling them was baffling.
“After the High Saintess disappeared, donations dried up. The priestesses, clerics, and even the holy knights have lost a significant source of income. So now, they secretly make and sell medicines and magic elixirs using divine power.”
“But isn’t magic the opposite of divine power?”
“Apparently, divine power can heal, change eye color, and—oh! It can even alter hair color.”
“What’s next, flying broomsticks? Or magic carpets?”
She was joking, but the guild master didn’t seem to get it.
“…Excuse me?”
“Never mind. So, I can just go to any temple and buy a magic elixir?”
“Go to the back entrance of the Central Temple and ask for Igran. If you mention my name, they won’t overcharge you.”
“Emma, have you ever been to a temple?”
As they left the guild office, Odette and Emma headed toward the temple.
“Of course. I go there to pray whenever I have time.”
“I’ve never been to one.”
Growing up in a northern mountain village, she had never even known what a temple was.
But after her mother fell ill, she had prayed every single day.
Begging the gods to save her.
When no answer came, resentment grew in her heart, and she had avoided temples ever since.
“So, this is your first time going to one?”
Emma looked at her in disbelief, and Odette simply shrugged.
“Temple or not, the gods have never answered my prayers.”
“I’ll pray for you.”
“Emma… then I’ll become your pension.”
Overcome with emotion, Odette tightly grasped Emma’s hands.
A short while later, they arrived at the temple, and Odette headed toward the back entrance, just as the guild master had instructed.
She told the holy knight guarding the entrance that she was here to see Igran.
Moments later, a man in priestly robes approached, introducing himself as Igran.
“You were looking for me?”
“Yes. Husek, the guild master, referred me. I’m here to buy a magic elixir.”
“Follow me.”
As Odette followed him into the temple, her gaze wandered until it landed on a portrait. She froze in place.
Mother?
A grand portrait of her mother, exuding an air of nobility, was displayed on the temple wall.
“This is the only remaining portrait of the High Saintess Herabrua in our temple.”
Hearing her mother’s name alone filled Odette’s chest with an unbearable longing.
“T-The High Saintess…”
She barely managed to stammer out the words, and Igran nodded.
“You don’t know of her? Well, I suppose that’s possible. She vanished twenty-one years ago. She possessed the most formidable divine power in history.”
Suddenly, she recalled the merchant who had said he became a landlord by selling crepes.
He said the High Saintess who blessed him looked just like me.
That merchant must have met her mother.
No wonder the crepes tasted exactly like the ones her mother used to make.
Even though she had never visited a temple before, she knew what kind of existence the High Saintess was.
A transcendent being chosen by the gods.
A figure so noble that even the Emperor himself did not hold authority over her.
But due to the restrictions of the temple, she could neither marry nor bear children.
Yet, her mother had broken those restrictions to give birth to her.
She hid away in a secluded mountain cabin to conceal my existence.
Odette stepped closer and reached out her hand.
“You mustn’t touch the High Saintess’s portrait.”
Snapped out of her daze by Igran’s words, Odette quickly withdrew her hand.
“Understood.”
“Take a good look. There are only a few temples left in the Empire that still hold portraits of Herabrua.”
“Why?”
“Only temples visited by the High Saintess are allowed to display her portrait. Many pilgrims once came to see it, but after it was revealed that she disappeared along with the sacred relics, they all turned away.”
Odette’s gaze shifted from the portrait to Igran.
“What did you just say?”
“…Excuse me? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Unconsciously, her eyes had hardened. Realizing it, she forced herself to relax and lowered her gaze.
“You made it sound as if the High Saintess stole something!”
“Because it’s the truth. The Staff of the Saint vanished along with her.”
Her mother would never steal.
The most valuable things in their mountain cabin had been a stew pot and a dagger, at best.
They must have framed her to tarnish her reputation.
Since the High Saintess had suddenly disappeared, the people of the Empire would have blamed the Imperial family and the High Priest.
To silence those voices of resentment, they must have hidden the sacred relic and spread the lie that her mother had taken it.
It must have been the Emperor’s doing.
In the original story, the Emperor was a secondary antagonist who tried to prevent Caesar from exacting his revenge.
In the end, he was dethroned and executed by Caesar’s faction.
Caesar once said in my dream that I was the Emperor’s daughter.
“To be honest, I understand the High Saintess,” Igran said, gazing up at her mother’s portrait with a sympathetic expression. “She was human, after all. A life of endless sacrifice couldn’t have been fulfilling.”
“She might not have seen it as a sacrifice.”
Odette shook her head.
“Then why did she run away?”
Odette clenched her skirt tightly, knowing the answer.
Because she was pregnant with me.
