Chapter 2
The Retired Saintess Raises House Prices Episode 2
Episode 2
Those who had been watching me were now too exhausted to be surprised and began whispering among themselves.
It was only after a long while that the older saintess approached me.
“Shuana, does that mean you're abandoning God?”
“Does quitting as a saintess mean abandoning God?”
“It means leaving God's embrace. You won't be able to return here, not even if you kneel and beg. You won't be able to set foot on temple grounds again. Is that okay with you?”
“It's fine.”
It sounded like a threat, but it really was okay.
The moment I left the temple, I planned to flee this land immediately.
By any means necessary, I'd escape the empire and avoid the inferno.
I didn't know when I'd return to my original world, but until then, I had to stay alive.
Only then could I find a way back to my real world.
“Then you know. I'll go pack my things in my room.”
As I pushed through the crowd to walk forward, the older saintess who had spoken to me earlier blocked my path.
She yanked off the necklace hanging around my neck—one I hadn't even realized was there—and said coldly,
“You can't take anything from within the temple outside, Shuana. Nothing except your lowly, irreverent body that betrayed God.”
Looking around, it seemed she was right.
Everyone just stared at me blankly; no one dared contradict this senior saintess.
“……Got it.”
“What did you say?”
“I'm leaving on my own two feet. No need for formal speech anymore, right?”
I shoved the saintess's shoulder aside and started walking, then turned back.
“But you should at least tell me where the exit is!”
But no one helped me. I only heard faint whispers.
“She's been acting strange for days.”
“What, is she possessed by a ghost? Why would she leave this place?”
“Just disappear quickly without causing a fuss.”
It seemed no one would show me the way out.
In the end, I spent hours searching every corridor in the temple and finally found the door leading outside as evening fell.
I responded to the piercing glares of the Holy Knights guarding the door with a smile.
“I'm not a saintess anymore. I quit.”
As expected, no one helped, so I struggled alone to open the heavy door and stepped outside.
“Ah! The sweet scent of freedom! You crazy, foul-tempered bastards, goodbye!”
Like someone escaping Alcatraz, I spread my arms wide toward the sky in ecstasy.
And at that moment, someone grabbed my collar and pulled me up.
“Shuana! Get up! It's your turn for cleaning duty today!”
I was back inside the temple.
Ah, fuck. A dream?
What the hell is going on?
For a moment, my mind went blank, unable to think.
Until the hand tugging my collar moved to my hair.
“Shuana! Are you going to snap out of it?! How long are you going to sit there dazed?”
“Didn't I go outside?”
“Where do you get off talking like that? And quit what?! You think you could survive leaving the temple?”
Seeing Eryl casually belittle me like nothing happened, it was clear my quitting and leaving the temple had been undone.
In other words, I'd regressed.
I opened my eyes wide and said clearly to Eryl,
“I'm quitting as a saintess.”
“Huh?”
I ignored her dumbstruck reply, jumped to my feet, and ran off.
I had to confirm something.
If leaving the temple sent me back again, that would be a huge problem.
What if I had to stay in the temple forever because things couldn't deviate from the novel? Would I have to wait here until this damned world actually fell apart?
My heart pounded wildly at the absurd possibility, shaking my whole body.
The nasty-tempered Eryl screamed behind me like a rampaging tyrant.
“Who said you could quit whenever you want! Hey! Shuana! Get back here! It's your cleaning duty today!”
“You do it!”
“You! The necklace! You dare leave wearing the Saint's Necklace?!”
“I'll just take it off!”
I ripped off the necklace she was yelling about and threw it away as I ran toward the exit.
It was definitely this way.
After circling the maze-like temple interior, I finally found the door to the outside.
This time, without arguing with anyone, I went straight out of the temple.
My breath reached my throat.
The Holy Knights guarding inside and outside the temple glared at me again.
And the gazes of passersby scanning me observantly were the same as before.
I walked forward slowly on trembling legs.
But even as I distanced myself from the temple, even turning into other streets, nothing happened.
‘What? Leaving the temple doesn't cause regression?’
The past few days felt too vivid to dismiss as a dream.
Unsure of anything, I kept walking forward as if to test it.
After walking for a while, hunger started to set in.
But all I had were the clothes on my back from the temple.
‘That was short-sighted. I can't even buy food to stave off the hunger, let alone a carriage to leave the city.’
Should I beg?
Usually, transmigrators would use the original novel's plot to make money, but I couldn't do any of that.
The original novel Sword's Edge was mostly from the male lead Raphael Winters' perspective, and after he received his count title, the main episodes took place within Kinkrid Territory.
‘How far is this place from Kinkreed, anyway?’
A map would be nice.
Lost in such thoughts, I wandered aimlessly until I felt something off.
People were avoiding my eyes.
I didn't need to stare at passersby, but they weren't ignoring me from the start. They'd glance at me lingeringly, then whip their faces away the moment I looked back, as if they'd seen something awful.
“Excuse me, by any chance……”
Thud.
“Ah!”
No sooner had I spoken to a passerby than he shoved me away.
‘Does he think I'm a pickpocket?’
I blinked dumbly from the dirt ground where I'd fallen, then stood up again.
I didn't look like a vagrant.
I had nothing, but my clothes were neat. At least outwardly, I looked fine.
Maybe a mistake? I tried talking to others, but they reacted similarly.
They ignored me as if they hadn't heard, or shoved me away with their bags or elbows like I'd dirtied them.
After falling to the ground six or seven times, it was obvious.
Then came the decisive hint.
“Mom, that person's clothes! The pattern on the clothes! She's a saintess! Look, over there!”
“Shh. Someone without the Saint's Necklace isn't a saintess. She's no different from a demon.”
The woman, seemingly the child's mother, covered the kid's eyes so she couldn't look at me and hurried past.
The necklace?
Come to think of it, the first time, the old saintess had ripped it off, and this time I took it off myself and tossed it.
Was that the problem?
People were treating me like this because I was a saintess without the Saint's Necklace—or more precisely, a saintess who left the temple?
Why is this world's lore so cult-like?
