Chapter 28
Before being imprisoned in the Fortress, the last place I stayed was the Gluck territory, located in the northwest of the Empire. That day, a drizzling rain fell from morning till night, and with every step I took, the mud clung heavily to the soles of my shoes.
I wandered down a forest path, far from the city, letting my feet choose the way. I was cold and tired. When I came across a fallen tree blocking the road, I stopped walking.
I had left the previous territory—where I had pulled off a con—without trouble, but I hadn’t yet decided where to go next.
There was no destination I had to rush to, no one waiting for me.
Once, I think, I had some desperate goal to cling to… but no matter how hard I tried to recall it, my head felt hazy, as if shrouded in fog.
“Well, probably nothing worth remembering. What memories would an orphan with no parents have, anyway?”
To avoid the unruly raindrops, I took shelter under a tree by the roadside. I hadn’t been staring blankly down the path for long when I heard the rumbling of an approaching carriage.
The coachman slowed down as he spotted the fallen tree.
Clop, clop. Hooves splashed through puddles until the carriage came to a halt. The once-quiet forest road was soon filled with commotion.
“Uh, forgive me, my lord, but a tree has fallen across the road. It may be difficult for the carriage to pass.”
“T-then you must clear it away immediately! What are you waiting for?!”
“Well… there are only the two of us servants, and it doesn’t seem like we could lift it on our own. Since we’re nearly at the manor, perhaps you could dismount and walk the rest of the way…”
“A-are you mocking me?! Remove it before I beat you senseless!”
The voice of a furious nobleman bellowed from inside the carriage. Narrowing my eyes, I hesitated whether to step in or not.
I could help them move the tree and ask for a ride in return. But with that ill-tempered noble, I had the feeling he would never allow me to ride along.
More likely, he would sneer at me, saying something like, “I can’t let a soaked rat like you dirty my carriage.”
As I watched the servants struggle in vain to shift the log, the noble, impatient as well as ill-tempered, suddenly flung open the carriage door and half leaned out.
“H-hurry up, you useless worms! At this rate, how much lo—urk!”
Splatt. The noble tumbled out of the carriage and landed face-first in the mud.
“Aaargh! Damn it!”
“Oh no, young master!”
“Cursed fools! How dare you let me suffer such humiliation! Get me up at once if you value your lives!”
Enraged, he pounded the ground with his fists, splashing mud everywhere, then lashed out at his servants who rushed to help him.
Watching the chaos, my gaze turned cold with contempt. The pitiful servants were struck and scolded as they tried to lift him up.
I decided to change my plan.
Instead of simply asking for a ride, I would pose as a saintess and bleed this man’s wealth dry.
Judging by his frail body, he was just as weak as his rotten temper. If I claimed I could heal him, they would surely beg me to stay.
I liked these corrupted nobles. I could never bring myself to scam a good, innocent soul.
So I stepped out from under the tree and approached the noble. Pulling back my hood, my golden hair spilled out.
Gasps escaped the lips of those who saw my face.
Georg, the noble who had tumbled in the mud that day, turned out to be the son of the lord who ruled Gluck territory.
As a child, he had been struck by a severe illness, leaving his limbs twisted and his speech stammering.
At the lord’s request, I stayed in the manor, praying for Georg’s recovery.
“My only heir is in such a state—you must understand our despair. If you can cure him, I promise to make a great donation to the Church.”
He promised me a generous reward if I healed his son, but since I wasn’t a real saintess, such donations to the Church meant little to me.
What mattered was that I could stay in the manor, live comfortably, and offer the occasional prayer in return. It was a fair deal.
“Then I’ll have chambers and a prayer room prepared for you. Would it be all right if my son joined you in prayer?”
His question made me uneasy, but there was no real reason to refuse.
Later, I learned that it was Georg himself who had begged to “pray together with the saintess.” In fact, he was the one who insisted I be brought into the manor in the first place.
Whether or not the lord truly believed a saintess could miraculously cure his son, I couldn’t tell. But the look in his eyes brimmed with expectation, as though he had finally found exactly what he needed.
At first, my plan was the same as always: enjoy being treated as a saintess for a while, then slip away quietly once suspicions began to grow.
But soon after I settled into the manor, I realized I wasn’t free.
“D-damn this, I don’t care about anything else! Bring the saintess here, now! Where is she wandering instead of staying in the prayer room?!”
I was completely bound to him. If I was out of sight even briefly, Georg would throw fits, tearing through the manor. I was restricted to moving only between my chamber and the prayer room.
I couldn’t even think of going outside—the risk of him exploding in rage was too great.
If the saintess wasn’t immediately produced before him, he would throw objects, seize servants, and cause chaos. I couldn’t refuse prayers with excuses, because the staff would always drag me in as his “tranquilizer.”
Comforting him with kind words, patting his hand until he calmed down, and reciting prayers for an hour at a time was exhausting—even for a supposed saintess.
“Even a real saintess couldn’t put up with this.”
Day by day, I withered under Georg’s unstable presence.
“L-lately, Veronica, the way you look at me—it’s impure. You call yourself a noble saintess, but… you’re scorning me inside, aren’t you?”
“That’s not true. The doctrine says we must treat everyone equally.”
“Liar. You wander around instead of staying in the prayer room because I annoy you. You’re just a parasite, living off my family, praying when convenient.”
His paranoia and inferiority complex soon turned on me.
No matter how hard I tried to ignore him, listening to his tirades made me feel like I was truly worthless.
“Heh. A saintess? So what? Aside from your pretty face, you’re useless. Maybe you weren’t secretly on a pilgrimage—maybe the Church actually kicked you out? Damn it, knead harder!”
In an instant, he would turn violent. This time, he struck a young servant across the face for not massaging his legs properly. The air grew tense.
“You worthless brats only learn when beaten! Do your jobs right if you’re getting paid!”
As the child was helped back to his feet, Georg kept lashing out.
“Haah, nothing pleases me. Anyway—just pray harder, saintess. If my body weren’t ruined, someone like you, a penniless fraud, wouldn’t dare stand beside me!”
“…”
“Know your place. Be grateful to me. Don’t forget your role in this manor.”
Though he had all but thrown a tantrum to bring me here, he never missed a chance to belittle me. Sometimes I feared he had discovered I was a fake—but then I realized he treated everyone with the same venom.
If he ever truly found out I wasn’t a saintess, he’d never keep me in the manor.
Even so, he insisted on keeping me constantly at his side, as though I were his personal doll. Eventually, I began to feel as if I had lost any chance to slip away.
I wanted nothing more than to leave that place. Days dragged by like years.
And then, one month after I had taken refuge in Gluck Manor—
Kyle Kaisenis appeared in the territory.
