Chapter 90. A Saint who was Adopted by the Grand Duke
Updated: Mar 3
However, she naturally shook her head upon recalling the child’s terrible sacred capabilities during their classes together.
“I know her skills.”
Although the matter would require an investigation on the assumption, it wasn’t necessary to inform Lucas.
“Pardon?”
“It is nothing. As soon as the sun arises, do call for the two candidates in case the stigmata appears on one of them before letting me know.”
“I understand.”
If both weren’t applicable to the criterion, she would have to create countermeasures.
“Phew…”
Rabienne entered her dorm after dismissing Lucas and pulled out a sheet of paper to send her father an urgent letter.
Along with the contents of the revelation, Rabienne included that she was not the intended person. She paused.
‘Would you be disappointed if you realized it wasn't me?’
Even in Rabienne's oldest recollections, her father always encouraged her to become a Saint.
A sense of anticipation and fear cast over Rabienne's face as she considered the thought of being hated by her father, now that she had let down his expectations.
However, she subsequently completed the remaining letter by pressing down on her worries. It would be alright even if she were not real.
After Rabienne wrapped the letter, she opened the cage beside her desk and let out the pigeon.
Upon her entry to the Temple, she was provided with a pigeon trained to head from and to the Brions mansions.
“You have to deliver it to my father.”
Rabienne stroked the pigeon a few times, opened the window, and let it free.
The pigeon circled a few times before flying upwards and blending with the dark.
***
Duke Brions was working late in his study. He looked up, startled by the sudden rattling against the window.
“What's this?”
He approached the disturbance to check if someone was playing a prank, only to find a familiar pigeon. He hurriedly unlatched the window.
As if waiting, the pigeon snuck into the open gap and stretched out its left leg to the Duke.
“Who is it at this hour?”
He unwrapped the letter from the pigeon's leg, agitated at the sender.
A deep wrinkle formed in the Duke’s forehead as he swiftly breezed by the contents.
“What nonsense…”
He read the letter over and over again, his expression one that was both shocked and befuddled.
“My only daughter is Rabienne. How could she not be the next Saint?”
The reason he had assured Rabienne that it would be alright even if she were not the Saint was only because of his overwhelming confidence that she was.
The four major families of the existing Empire were those who defended the first Saint during the reign of the country.
The four families were awarded positions according to their contributions, but apart from those positions, there was one family rewarded with special guarantees from the Saint.
The Duchy of Brions.
At that time, Brions’s first head was a woman, and she possessed a special relationship with the Saint. They were like sisters.
Perhaps that was why the first Saint prayed to the Goddess and contributed to this guarantee.
The fact that a saint originated from the Brions family once every three generations was the sole reason the Brions family had been able to produce the most Saints thus far.
Since this would be the 15th child of god, for the chosen one to come from the Brions family was more than anticipated.
But it wasn’t Rabienne.
“What the hell happened?”
Hundreds of years passed, and now was the reign of the 15th Saint. Was it likely that the past promise had been broken?
As the Duke paced about the carpet nervously, he suddenly halted at the sudden thought.
“It can’t be… Catherine?”
A memory from 10 years ago resurfaced his mind.
Catherine, the owner of a tea house where she and Duke Brions met for a while after his 14 years of marriage.
He fell in love at first sight at the boutique he happened to pass by, and the two developed a romantic relationship.
TN: He is trash for having responsibility and abandoning it(not that we knew he wasn’t trash in the first place) and for her, if she knew his identity as a married man, she is no less than him.
However, for Catherine, the owner of an ordinary tea house, to be with the ambitious Duke? Impossible.
Furthermore, at the time, he had already produced Rabienne with his current wife.
For the Duke, Catherine was a brief and momentary distraction, but for the sincere Catherine, her obsessiveness only grew by the day.
When the Duke, tired of the accumulating strain, tried to get rid of Catherine, she threatened to confess to his wife about their relationship.
Even as the Duke offered her enough money to spend for the rest of her life, it was all for naught. She even tried to hold him hostage with the ridiculous claim that she bore his child.
「Brions, what would you do if I had your child? Would you still abandon me?」
On that very day, the Duke resolved to kill Catherine, now an evident threat to his future.
He immediately sent a number of knights with the instruction to end her secretly, but she managed to flee after being stabbed.
He tracked her the following days only to find no traces of her left, so he stopped the order.
He concluded that such an injury wouldn’t last her more than a few days.
Since then, Catherine had not appeared before the Duke or contacted him.
He thought she had long been gone from the world and therefore erased her from his memory.
“Catherine.”
Brions recited her name darkly and clasped his trembling hands.
“Maybe that woman…”
At the time, he thought it was a good thing that she disappeared once and for all. It was annoying how she constantly clung to him.
But now he was thinking the opposite. If his fears turned out to be true.
If Catherine really had a child, and if that child was a daughter. That would be a disaster for him.
“Gosh-darn it, I definitely remember using contraceptives…. No, that’s not it.”
Unable to bear the anxiety rising within him, the Duke slammed his fist against the table.
“Alec!”
As he bellowed urgently, his aide, who stood outside the office, hurriedly opened the door and stood before him.
“Have you called for me?”
“Find Catherine.”
“If it's Catherine…”
Alec scoured his memory at the familiar name before retorting in great surprise.
“That… Are you talking about the woman who ran a teahouse before?”
“That's right.”
“But I'm sure she is now dead.”
“It would be good if she had already died. However, perhaps she is still alive. Ask everywhere near the site where she fled back then.”
Alec flusteredly nodded.
“And Catherine might have a fourteen-year-old child… Keep that possibility in mind.”
“Yes?? Ah, I understand.”
Seeing Alec’s startled appearance only deepened the Duke’s worries.
He really hoped that Catherine had a child, and that was her daughter, so the terrible imagination that the power of the saint was passed on to the child would stop at my own thought.
He truly hoped that the terrible possibility of Catherine having a child with the power of a Saint would simply end up in his imagination.
***
A lethargic afternoon, where the body naturally droops with drowsiness.
Esther sat on her bed while polishing her sacred strength. She, too, held back the rush of sleep threatening to spill out.
This was an exercise carried out to concentrate on moving the water situated in the corner of the room and drawing different shapes.
‘This time, it’s father.’
As the water continued taking its form, Shur jumped and burst the water droplets amusedly.
“Ah! It blew up again.”
As Esther placed her hands on her waist and reprimanded the small snake, Shur blinked his big eyes innocently.
“You can't look cute.”
However, as the cute Shur continued acting adorable, Esther eventually altered the direction of her words.
“No, what’s the problem anyway. I can just form it again.”
As she collected the water droplets one by one in a second attempt to draw her father's face, a sudden commotion could be heard outside the hallway. The door swung open.
In an instant, Esther’s disconcerted mind caused all the water she had joined to pour across the floor.
“Eek.”
She turned to face Judy who stood by the door while worrying over Dorothy who would reprimand her when she saw the mess.
However, Judy's expression was unusual. Looking at his reddened eyes, he seemed to be on the verge of tears.
“Brother Judy?”
Surprised, Esther rushed from her bed and ran to him.
“What happened?”
“Esther… The cat got hurt.”
She didn’t know the details, but Judy claimed to have found a seriously injured cat outside the garden.
“I was running outside when a faint ‘meow’ sound came from somewhere.”
The wound was so severe that they seemed close to dying. He pleaded with her to follow him and treat the animal.
Looking at his complexion, the situation seemed urgent. She decided to listen to the rest of the story as they ran to the location.
“Did you leave your cat on the ground?”
“No, Dennis is with them.”
“How do you know Brother Dennis is there?”
“He was reading a book outdoors since it was his outdoor time. He said he heard my screams.”
In the meantime, they reached the garden where Judy first found the cat. They were not far from the mansion.
As they passed the thick tree, there was Dennis attending to a cat which lay next to him.
There, Dennis's favorite book was sprawled against the grass, while Judy’s cherished wooden sword was also mixed within the surroundings.
She couldn’t tell whether the cat’s wound was caused by a fight or if they were bitten by a larger animal, but their condition was grave.
Dennis pressed his handkerchief against the wound so it wouldn’t bleed more, but the grass had already turned red.
“How come…”
A miniscule cat with fluffy fur that seemed to have just matured from its mother’s milk.
A baby kitten the size of both her palms combined.
Esther crouched next to the kitten and settled down.
“Brother, I’ll continue from here.”
“Esther is here. That's a relief.”
Dennis sighed and removed his handkerchief from the cat's wound. The blood dyed his hands red.
She began by inspecting the kitten’s condition with her mana to gauge its condition.
‘They’re still alive.’
Although shallow, the kitten was not unable to breathe.
Esther immediately placed her palm over the cat's wound and focused only on her healing powers.
