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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: A Message from Heaven
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In my past life, I came to this temple to receive a divine blessing before setting out to subjugate the Mad Dragon.
But after being reborn as Lesia, despite being the church's officially recognized Saintess, I had no particular dealings with the temple.
Even if they had her adopted into the ducal House of Elpinade, they were the ones who entrusted her to them.
I thought they should have kept an eye on her, but the church was generally shameless, so it wasn't all that strange.
Shoving their responsibilities onto others while claiming, ‘It is a blessing to share in the sacred duties of God!’ was the church's specialty.
While I was lost in thought, the carriage stopped in front of the temple.
When Axel stepped out of the carriage first, a priest guarding the entrance approached in surprise.
He was such a conspicuous person that the priest seemed to recognize him at a glance.
“May the blessings of God be with you.”
The priest greeted him cautiously, his demeanor full of wariness.
Since the church's main source of income was donations, priests were generally kind to visitors.
However, mages, who were overly pragmatic and didn't believe in God, were not a very welcome group.
How could they welcome those who openly denied their faith?
And Axel, of all people, was the one who could be called the leader of the mages.
“What brings the Master of the Magic Tower to the temple?”
Axel answered the careful question bluntly.
“I know I'm not welcome at the temple. But I didn't come here to cause trouble, so you can relax.”
“Cause trouble? I would never think such a thing. God welcomes any and all visitors. However...”
The priest looked toward the temple's main gate, appearing troubled.
“As you can see, the temple is not open today, so I cannot let you in. We are turning away all other visitors as well.”
It was just as the priest said.
The main gate of the temple, which should have been bustling with visitors, was firmly shut.
“That's unusual. Isn't the temple a place that always keeps its doors wide open to welcome those seeking faith?”
“Of course. But we are closed today due to certain circumstances. We will open again in four days.”
He bowed his head gently, but his words were a clear request for them to leave.
Axel, watching the priest who kept his lips sealed as if he couldn't even state the reason, turned his head toward the carriage.
His gaze asked what I intended to do.
“Not even for a little while?”
I called out to the priest, then confidently held my arms out to Axel, asking him to help me down.
It was absolutely impossible to get down from this high carriage by myself in a child's body.
Axel, knowing this, wore a displeased expression but still lifted me up and set me down from the carriage.
The moment my feet touched the ground, I toddled over to the priest and greeted him politely.
A polite child was sure to win anyone over—it was a strategic choice.
“Hello. I'm Lesia.”
Standing before a strange priest, timid Lesia's heart began to pound again.
But thanks to steeling myself and focusing on my words, I didn't greet him as clumsily as I had with the Duke.
Hearing my name, the priest's eyes darted around for a moment before he asked with a look of disbelief.
“A-are you perhaps... the Saintess...?”
“Yep. That's wight.”
“Oh, my, why is the Saintess at our temple...? We received no word of this at all!”
“Sowwy for coming so suddenwy.”
I bowed my head again to the flustered priest.
To an ordinary priest, the Saintess was practically a superior, I suppose.
It was a startling situation, with a high-ranking person showing up unannounced.
“But I got a message fwom heaven. It said to make a donation to the temple. Can't I just do that and go?”
“Pardon...?”
As I stated my purpose for visiting and held out the piggy bank I was hugging, the priest's eyes went wide.
I conveyed my message to the priest, my eyes twinkling with the innocent gaze of a harmless child.
I'm not a difficult person.
I won't hurt you.
I'll just make a donation and leave.
‘So let me in!’
I thought I had sufficiently demonstrated my harmlessness.
“A-a message from heaven...? C-could it be!”
The priest suddenly jumped on the spot.
“You mean you've received a divine revelation!”
‘Huh?’
A divine revelation?
I was just being pestered to pay my reincarnation subscription fee.
Why did that suddenly turn into something as grand as a divine revelation...?
But before I could explain, the excited priest left Axel and me behind and dashed inside the temple.
Axel and I exchanged bewildered glances and whispered quietly.
“That fellow seems to have gotten the wrong idea.”
“But it looks wike we can go inside now. Let's just wet him misunderstand. We can say it wasn't wike that water.”
“Hmph. Just like a cunning black mage.”
“A bwack mage? I don't know who you're tawking about. I'm the Saintess.”
As I puffed out my chest and spoke proudly, Axel clicked his tongue with a 'tsk'.
“I'm sure you are.”
* * *
“Archpriest!”
The priest rushed into the prayer room, looking for the Archpriest.
The Archpriest, who was conducting a blessing ritual with several other priests, furrowed his brow sharply.
In the circle of priests, a young boy lay sweating profusely, looking as if he were in pain.
The Archpriest glanced at a silent man watching the ritual from the side, then beckoned to the priest who had burst into the prayer room.
As the priest hurried over, out of breath, the Archpriest grabbed his ear and whispered into it.
“What is it? We're in the middle of a blessing ritual! I told you not to interrupt while the ritual is in progress!”
“B-but the Saintess has come, along with the Master of the Magic Tower...!”
“What? The Saintess? The Master of the Magic Tower?”
The Archpriest's eyes widened.
“You're not seeing things? The Saintess and the Master of the Magic Tower are really here?”
When the Archpriest asked again in disbelief, the priest nodded his head repeatedly as if wronged.
Judging by his reaction, he didn't seem to be lying, but it was hard to believe.
The Saintess and the Master of the Magic Tower.
Wasn't that a bizarre combination to begin with?
It was hard to imagine the notoriously indifferent mage of Elpinade taking a little girl around with him.
“Moreover, the Saintess said she received a, uh, message from heaven, and that she had to enter the temple immediately.”
“What? You mean she received a revelation?”
“What else could it mean? Given the situation, I thought we should let them in, so I came running.”
“Hah. A sudden revelation, of all things...”
The Archpriest, with an anxious look on his face, glanced at the silent man before pulling the priest out of the prayer room.
As soon as the door closed, the Archpriest gave the priest a light smack on the back.
“Ouch!”
“You fool. Have you no sense?”
“N-no sense?”
“Think about it. Why would a divine revelation be bestowed upon a young Saintess? There's been no sign of anything like that until now.”
“Well, that's true, but...”
The priest shut his mouth.
There was much talk about Lesia Elpinade, a Saintess who couldn't even wield the divine power that any cleric chosen by God should be able to use.
There were even whispers that the renowned Cardinal Bael had misinterpreted the oracle and put forth the wrong child as the Saintess.
Bael already had many enemies, having risen to the high position of Cardinal at such a young age.
He had been hailed as a hero right after defeating the Mad Dragon, but now that peace had returned, the gratitude from that time had faded.
The fact that the Saintess endorsed by Bael was a sham was an opportunity that those watching for a chance to bring him down could not afford to miss.
