You Are Dead – Chapter 81
As soon as the door opened, Jace stepped back to the side.
Since I didn’t move forward, the doorkeeper let out a small, awkward cough.
“Se-Saint.”
Only then did I tear my gaze away from Jace and force my feet to move, though they were reluctant.
Stepping into the banquet hall, I glanced at where Jace stood, and our eyes met once again.
He lifted one corner of his mouth into a long, meaningful smile.
As I hesitated, unsure whether to walk toward him, the banquet hall doors closed behind me.
What on earth had he heard?
The plague? From where?
My heart raced.
I hadn’t heard properly where the plague was spreading.
After saying something so terrifying, Jace’s expression remained perfectly calm.
I couldn’t tell whether it was just a rumor or if the plague really was spreading.
Had something like this happened in my previous life? Well, not in my memory.
But I couldn’t make any assumptions. In the past, I had merely followed the path they had designed.
Even if it had happened before, it might have been hidden from me.
And more than that, so much had changed from the past.
Perhaps the god who told me to prevent tragedy had intervened, altering the future I knew.
It meant that anything could happen before me right now, and it wouldn’t be strange at all.
Yet I couldn’t shake the suspicion from Jace’s words.
If the plague were true, why tell me?
Especially since this banquet wasn’t even for that—it was for acquiring the relic.
Being someone from Fabivan who was opposed to me, it was even harder to read his intentions.
I wanted to turn back immediately and grab Jace to ask him—was he just testing me?
Perhaps this suspicion was colored by my own wishes.
At that moment, the surrounding sounds reminded me where I was and who I was approaching.
“Heh, so this is the Saint Melissa, huh?”
“Even for a saint, there’s not much to see.”
Pausing awkwardly, I braced myself and moved forward again.
Click-clack, click-clack—the sound of my heels on the red carpet drew many gazes.
And not all were just curious.
“Considering her origins, I feel not an ounce of dignity from her.”
“She’s an orphan, right? Showing her nervous face like that.”
“Well, when would she have stood in a banquet like this?”
“Her first pilgrimage was the Kingdom of Helen, right? I can imagine how she acted.”
“Even if people praise her as a saint now, it’s all temporary, isn’t it? Her holy power isn’t eternal, I hear.”
“Then she’s only a half-daughter of the god, isn’t she?”
“Well, even for an orphan, this treatment is already too generous.”
“Pfft, they’ll hear you.”
“Oh my. We’re just amused because you look so frozen despite this not being your first banquet.”
Their half-smiling, mocking laughter flew at me, concealed behind fans.
And that wasn’t all.
“Oh, didn’t expect much, but she’s rather striking.”
“Huh? They said the saint wouldn’t even catch the eye, and now they say this?”
“At that time, they didn’t know her face, didn’t they?”
“Look at the men now. All of them are dumbstruck, it’s exactly the same.”
“Even as an orphan, a saint isn’t bad-looking.”
Their attitude toward me gradually changed, something I hadn’t anticipated before arriving in the Vandola Empire—or even when entering the banquet hall.
Seeing them repeat the same words without missing a beat almost made me laugh bitterly.
I had forgotten this.
Perhaps I had come here more than once.
Now I remembered.
The stares I received here in my previous life.
It wasn’t just that they looked at me, an orphan, with disapproval.
The people of the Vandola Empire didn’t worship Gloria, so they didn’t hide their gazes.
Of course, there were non-believers even among the Kingdoms of Helen and Nicholas.
Like Cardin and Raymon.
But they were the minority.
Those countries worshipped Gloria, so they would hide it.
Here was different.
The Vandola Empire had no state religion. The royal family was revered like gods from the start.
So from the moment I first entered, curious eyes mingled with hostility followed me.
I remembered the feeling of being intimidated by women whispering and men’s blatant stares.
Even foreign nobles, though the same class, were polite to me if they worshipped Gloria. After all, I was considered the daughter of a god.
Having met people who respected me a few times, I found these stares frustrating, almost laughably so.
Yet even in the past, the nobles of the Vandola Empire looked down on me for being an orphan, even though I bore the title of saint or daughter of a god.
Just like now.
A place where slavery still existed. Where commoners accepted nobles’ disdain for lower-ranking nobles as normal.
At banquets, drunk nobles had even told me they would believe in my holy power if I showed it.
When enduring such rudeness, no one helped me.
Even if called by the royal family, their gazes were no different.
In my previous life, I knew nothing, and coming to the Kingdom of Helen next made it even harder to adapt.
I couldn’t help comparing it to Helen.
But now I had no reason to care about them, so I ignored it.
The fact that non-believers called the Saint Melissa to their empire’s founding ceremony might have been simple curiosity.
Why they continued to invite her afterward, I didn’t know. But I was curious about something else.
Our arrival at the empire meant there was a relic here as well.
Could a relic truly exist in a place that didn’t believe in gods?
For a moment, my eyes met the emperor’s.
I glanced back.
Neither the nobles nor the royal family seated above seemed aware of the plague.
I looked toward the Melissa Temple members waiting above, but they too merely watched me with indifferent expressions.
Perhaps Jace spoke to see my reaction.
And so, I planted my hope that Jace had lied once again.
As I ascended each step, the emperor’s smile gradually grew.
Standing before him, I lightly grasped my dress with one hand, raised my chest, and bowed slightly at the waist.
“I behold the skies of the Vandola Empire.”
“Heh heh. It feels strange hearing the saint say that. Welcome to the Vandola Empire.”
“It’s an honor to be invited, Your Majesty.”
At my greeting, the Melissa Temple members behind me all bowed briefly.
The crown prince scrutinized me openly, like the indifferent empress and noblemen.
And the princess—the only royal who didn’t hide her hostility.
Everything was exactly as before.
The dull, predictable conversation with the emperor dragged on.
“Now that the saint has come to the empire, shouldn’t she dance with our crown prince?”
It seemed the emperor had already investigated before I arrived—he knew I had danced with Cardin.
I smiled faintly and replied lightly.
“I believe Your Highness already has a fiancée.”
“Then as long as it’s not the first dance, it’s fine, right?”
“Your Majesty, perhaps it’s best to start the banquet.”
The one who answered the emperor was neither me nor the crown prince.
It was the princess, whose expression had remained stern the entire time.
“I was enjoying my first conversation with the people of Melissa, I had forgotten myself.”
The emperor laughed heartily and stood.
The servant carefully presented a glass of red wine at the right moment.
Taking the glass, the emperor swept his gaze across the hall and lifted his lips into a wide smile.
“The Vandola Empire has triumphed in this war as well. Be proud to be Vandolans. For the eternity of the empire!”
When the emperor raised his glass, the nobles below followed suit, raising theirs in pride.
“All together, ‘For the eternity!’” The emperor smiled in satisfaction.
“Now that the saint has arrived from the Melissa Temple, today’s banquet will be even more abundant. Enjoy yourselves, everyone.”
As the emperor finished speaking, the servant took his glass.
Even as he seated himself again and turned his gaze toward me, I was still pondering his earlier words.
Our eyes met, and the emperor raised one eyebrow, as if remembering something.
“Ah. I’ve prepared a gift for Melissa. Shall we see it now?”
