“Then how about calming a ferocious beast?”
Reneben seemed taken aback by my sudden questions but quickly answered.
“You said to meet them at eye level, hold their gaze and treat them gently without fear.”
Since I was already doing this, it was a good thing that the nobles here were of high status.
I was curious to know how Alois would take care of the aftermath, so I decided to take the plunge.
“A rabbit might get twitchy feet and kick a lion but that doesn’t mean the lion has to bare its fangs in response, isn’t that right? As hard as it is to understand, you are the High Priest. I’m sure it’s a difficult mentality to understand but it is your role to view things from their perspective and soothe them.”
“…”
Reneben turned his head like he was about to start laughing and covered his face with a hand as his shoulders shook.
“If some fool doesn’t even realize who they’re picking a fight with, it’s not our role to tear their throat out. We should soothe them instead.”
Narrowing my eyes, I rested my chin on my index finger, crossed my legs, and tapped my foot lightly.
There was no mistaking the target of my words, and King Vermonte shot to his feet, his face flushed a bright red with humiliation or something along those lines.
“Yes, of course… That’s not…ehem, difficult at all.”
For some reason, Reneben couldn’t control his emotions today and his shoulders kept trembling.
Seeing Reneben, clearly excited and unable to hide his delight, I tilted my head.
So what if I insulted a nation’s King in front of his nobles?
I am the Saintess.
Furthermore, for any rumors or potential retaliation behind the scenes…
“Saintess, please calm down.”
This man already offered to handle it so there was no problem at all.
His face remained expressionless but judging by the sparkle in his crimson eyes when they met mine, I could tell he was quite pleased.
Honestly, I preferred making people tremble with sarcasm that even an idiot could understand rather than crushing them with pressure.
“L-Lady Saintess! I-I had a slip of the tongue! Your words just now…”
“Hm? What words exactly?”
Alois’s attempts to calm me down were futile while the king stumbled over his words like he couldn’t speak.
“Just now, you…”
“…”
“T-to me, you…”
“King Vermonte, please calm yourself.”
Reneben interjected to soothe the king, clearing his throat like a diligent student who was practicing what he’d just learned.
At this point, this went beyond just humiliation for the king.
For some reason, neither Alois nor I could muster even an ounce of goodwill towards this King.
How should I put it…
Maybe you could call it my intuition as a servant of the divine.
That’s why even Reneben of all people was acting so harshly. Normally, he’d be trying to let it slide, saying mistakes happen and be pacing nervously behind me.
“Etiquette dictates that you do not raise your voice at the Saintess. Even His Imperial Majesty has never lost his temper at Her Holiness like you have done.”
To be precise, he never did it again after I made him kneel before foreign dignitaries and humiliated him.
“Surely, the king of Vermonte, whose kingdom is known for its low standard of living, would not be so insolent as to do something that even His Imperial Majesty the Emperor would not do…”
“Th-that…”
The king’s face was drained of all color.
Who knows how many times I’ve said it, but this expression was really satisfying to see.
“Ah… Could it be you thought my earlier remarks to Reneben were directed at you, King Vermonte? Did you assume I would make those comments to you after hearing you suggest to Alois that you take a princess as your queen, seemingly forgetting your own age?”
I dramatically shook my wrist, feigning surprise.
The muffin was delicious, the macaron too, and since I hadn’t tried the cake yet, I wanted to give it a go. I picked up the fork that was neatly wrapped in a napkin.
“Of course, I knew Your Holiness wouldn’t say such things to me… haha.”
I untied the ribbon with my fingers and smiled.
“Well, there’s nothing I can’t do if you don’t understand even after I’ve explained it so clearly.”
A golden fork rolled out of the napkin onto my hand.
I looked down at the gold-dusted strawberry cake with some dissatisfaction and let out a heavy sigh, as though burdened by concern.
“Of course, whatever you think is entirely up to you, King Vermonte.”
“…”
“But if you act rudely toward me or my priest one more time, I might just show you how easy it is to catch one rabbit.”
How wonderful it was that the king had gathered all these high-ranking nobles to witness this scene.
All I had to do was talk while enjoying the delicious desserts, and the stage was set.
The refreshing sweetness of the strawberry cake spread through my mouth.
***
“It seems you have quite the sweet tooth.”
“It was surprisingly delicious.”
“I found it too sweet for my taste.”
“I’m not surprised. I didn’t think you’d like it.”
Alois took my hand and gently wiped my fingertips with a handkerchief.
He grabbed my hand as we left the banquet hall and just as I started wondering what he was doing, he started cleaning them. I guess he really didn’t like my habit of eating desserts with my hands.
“So, Alois.”
“I’m listening.”
I lowered my head slightly to look at Alois, who was holding my hand and dropping the handkerchief.
With his back bent to hold onto my hand, I could see the top of his head.
“What will you do about the royal chefs?”
His hair at the crown of his head appeared thinner and lighter than the rest, which was already a lighter color overall.
“The royal chefs of Vermonte are my people.”
“…??”
Did I hear that right just now?
Alois straightened up and smiled like he didn’t just drop a bomb.
“It’s common place to set up your own people, is it not?”
“…Impressive.”
“You say that, but even you, Saintess, have your own sword that’s hidden to the world.”
At those words, my mind flew to a certain facility back in the Empire.
A place filled with people I had somehow gathered together.
It had been about two years now since I began raising those unfortunate kids that I had picked up ignorantly due to my naive sense of justice when I first became the Saintess.
It wasn’t an orphanage or a state-sanctioned facility—just a place I had built purely on my own whim after telling Reneben I wanted to do it.
“Just like you, I have my own hands and feet.”
And those children became children that existed under me.
Some way or the other, the scale grew over time, but I only ever saw and heard about them in writing…
“People reap what they sow.”
The only thing I had done was pick those kids up.
Hearing Alois call them my “sword” made me furrow my brow briefly.
As if he knew what I was thinking, he began speaking as though he understood.
“You probably already know from the reports. The kids you took in without much thought turned out to have exceptional ability.”
“…For something I’ve only seen in reports, you speak as if you’ve seen them yourself. It should be top secret enough that the Emperor wouldn’t learn about it easily.”
He smiled.
“If I couldn’t manage that much, how could I claim to assist you? I have deep roots of my own.”
I stayed silent, listening.
However, it was only now that I remembered them since it had been so long since I last received a report.
I barely remembered those children since all I did was rescue them when they were starving. I wasn’t even attached to them.
To be honest, I could barely recall their faces.
It happened around the time when I was still excited by the title of Saintess. I had just traveled through dimensions, and I took those children and started raising them in a rented facility, thinking I could do whatever I wanted.
I was the one who wanted to build a children’s home but in the end, it was the ever-thorough Reneben who took care of their education and looked after them.
And thanks to his efforts…
“But while my kids have profound knowledge and cleverness, Lady Saintess’ children seem to be the opposite.”
“I can’t even recall their faces, nor do I know how they’ve grown over the past two years. I can’t really call them ‘my’ children. In truth, I’ve entrusted everything to Reneben.”
“Perhaps that ‘entrusting’ is all they needed from you.”
“…”
At first, I had gone out, wanting to see the common people.
That’s when I met those kids.
They ranged from their early teens to late twenties, so they weren’t exactly young, but they all desperately wanted something from me.
There was a child who threw himself in front of my carriage in a suicidal attempt, a woman who begged me for alms, and a gaunt man who begged me to save him.
“It might be one word to you but to another, it might be their reason to live or their very meaning of life.”
In the end, the outcome wasn’t bad.
No, it was astonishing, actually.
I never fully understood why they were so diligent.
“And they’re living the lives you gave them magnificently.”
I provided a starving child with a home where they wouldn’t go hungry.
To a child without anything precious, I gave them something to treasure.
To one shivering in the cold, I gave warmth.
One way or the other, I brought them to Reneben and left them in his care.
…Like an idiot.
Barely a month into my role as Saintess, what did I know?
I thought all it took was to bring suffering people in and take care of them.
“…Even if I’ve only heard through reports, I know they’re outstanding children.”
I had never visited them personally. Still, hearing about them like this gave me a strange sense of relief.
Maybe just knowing that they were doing well made me happy.
“They’re outstanding indeed. Even just the ones I know are pretty stunning.”
Before I knew it, we had arrived in front of the bedroom door.
It had seemed like a long walk but walking next to Alois made time feel shorter.
“Perseverance and effort for acquiring exceptional knowledge, magical talent, physical capabilities that are inferior to no one.”
…The conversation had started with Alois planting his people in this palace, but somehow, it had turned into a discussion about me.
He spoke at length about people I could barely remember.
People who, though I never thought of them as ‘mine’, were prepared to give their lives for me.
“It seems you have a talent for attracting talents, Your Holiness.”
I opened the door. But upon hearing Alois’ words, I couldn’t help but open my mouth that had been silent the whole time.
“Don’t call their efforts my talent.”
It didn’t happen because I attracted talent.
It was because of their own efforts that they became skilled enough to be considered talents.
“Although it was through reports, I used to get regular updates about them at first.”
“What kind of updates?”
As soon as we entered the room, Alois took off his tacky formal coat and tilted his head.
“Everything you said. Stories of patience and effort. Gains of great knowledge through persistence, study of magic through sleepless nights, even catching the eye of the Tower Master. A bunch who had never held a sword worked themselves to the bone just to wield one.”
“You must be proud of them.”
In a corner of my mind, I still remembered everything about them.
I heaved a sigh and nodded my head.
Advanced chapters available on Patreon.
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