Chapter 4: The Trap of Original Sin (2)

A few days ago, Edwin had experienced the crisis of faith for the first time in his life, all because of her ridiculous actions during the confession.

Setting aside the nonsensical stories she had brought up, her image peeking through the palm-sized window had constantly haunted him.

“Father, you’ve seemed quite preoccupied these past few days. Perhaps you should eat something, even if it’s just a little?”

Offering food so casually, she evoked a deep sigh from Edwin. Glancing briefly at her flushed cheeks, he found it paradoxical that she could blush so intensely just from him catching a glimpse of her plain chest, while she fearlessly lifted the hem of his shirt to reveal his inner turmoil.

“…Then, I’ll try to eat a little, as a gesture of gratitude.”

The most amusing part was that he couldn’t firmly refuse her kindness.

“You’ve made a good choice. I’ll bring it right away.”

Soon she returned, knocking on the door with a tray of food. It was still warm, with steam rising.

“You can return the dishes tomorrow. Would you like me to take them to the dining hall?”

As Edwin accepted the tray, he remained silent for a while. Then, hesitantly, he spoke up.

“…It seems the candidates for the anointment have been somewhat selected.”

Bringing up this topic wasn’t the intention when accepting the tray, but he wanted to offer her some assistance, even if just a little.

“Time has passed quickly indeed. Soon, we’ll be gathering women at the central temple under the pretext of anointment verification. Once the selection of the novices is done, will you inform me of the outcome?”

As if she already knew without speaking, a bittersweet smile played on her lips.

“Well then, enjoy your meal, Father.”

As she turned away, a shadow seemed to darken her face. Edwin couldn’t help but worry if something had happened to her without his knowledge. Should he ask if everything was alright? No, there was no need to overstep boundaries.

“…It’s probably nothing for me to worry about.”

Edwin shuffled into his cramped priest’s quarters. He pushed aside the stack of novice applications on his desk and placed the tray on top.

The soup was bland, with too many carrots. And whatever was fried seemed questionable; the vegetable tempura was crispy on the outside but soggy within, far from appetizing.

“Well, it’s edible at least.”

Still, it wasn’t inedible. Edwin took a bite of the hot, soggy tempura and began to read through the novice applications one by one.

There wasn’t much to see. Most were formalities, stating they were going home to visit family, a common occurrence. He didn’t intend to stop them, so he simply signed the permission slips without much thought.

“What’s this…”

However, one application stood out, bothering him more than the others.

“Someone who begged me to inform them if a novice is selected is suddenly going home…”

Whoever it is, they’ve just made my job twice as difficult! Edwin angrily scribbled his signature on the permission slip for Novice Alicia and tossed it aside.

****

“Not quite up to the mark…”

After painstakingly selecting and narrowing down the candidates to just twenty, each one seemed lacking in some way.

No matter how beautiful they may be, meeting Father Revencio’s exacting standards was no easy task.

“What about the woman who works in the theater troupe we visited yesterday?”

“For now, she seems like the best option, but she doesn’t quite exude the aura of a Saint.”

Revencio recalled the woman in her late twenties who worked in the third-rate theater troupe.

With her deep golden hair and vivid blue eyes, she was undoubtedly beautiful, but she didn’t quite match the image of a nun Revencio had envisioned for so long.

“We need someone who exudes more humility…”

Her face was more coquettish than humble. Despite indiscriminately selecting candidates regardless of their status or background, it was clear that turning a third-rate theater troupe actress into a Saint overnight was a bit of a stretch.

“It would have been better if she had lived a life of poverty and begged for survival rather than appearing to have earned quite a bit of money in the back alleys.”

She wasn’t just going to be used as a Saint; she was going to be groomed to become the future empress. No matter how exceptional her beauty might be, she was already a woman well past her prime. It was questionable whether a woman of unknown origins who seemed to have rolled in wealth would capture the prince’s heart.

“Pitiful, sacrificial, beautiful…”

Revencio reached out and gently stroked the cheek of the statue of a Saint in the temple garden. It was a statue made to commemorate a Saint who had been sacrificed during a war 300 years ago.

He gazed at the face of the statue, where the hands were neatly overlapped over the neck to prevent the blood from flowing out.

“Finding such a pitiful and beautiful Saint on earth again is not an easy task.

Carefully caressing the cheek of the statue, as if afraid of leaving a mark, he asked the direct priest nearby.

“The remaining women, how many are there?”

“There are five. Originally six, but one of them is a nun from the Archelio Monastery, so she was excluded from the list.”

“…Archelio Monastery. Well, there’s no need to create unnecessary conflicts.”

Revencio recalled the arrogant young priest from the Archelio Monastery. Yes, he was a rather annoying fellow, stirring up trouble without even knowing the subject.

“I didn’t like that guy from the moment I saw him.”

Although nuns were initially excluded, if a nun from a minor monastery suddenly became a Saint instead of a nun from the central temple, the central temple would undoubtedly lose its power.

Revencio didn’t even want to imagine how confident a young priest like a fox would be if he were to carry a Saint on his back. 

“The remaining five…”

Even though it’s just evaluating the remaining five, somehow it seemed they wouldn’t be enthusiastic from the start.

“Well, what happened to the girls without status?”

Revencio licked his dry lips and rolled his eyes.

Even in the barren wilderness where the sun never shines, flowers tend to bloom. It’s about picking out the girls who live namelessly in the slums. If you dig through the trash bins, there might be girls with blonde hair and blue eyes among the ugly rags.

Although there was no hope of expecting Saintly qualities from women who scavenged through garbage and crawled through the red-light district, wasn’t it perfect for evoking the cunning empathy of imperial citizens?

“We haven’t found out yet.”

“How pitiful… How pitiful. Hunting humans is easier than hunting beasts, and yet you can’t catch even one?!”

Initially, Saintly women were just symbolic figures. Even if they had dull minds, with proper adornment, they could easily deceive the eyes.

“Wretched, sacrificial, and beautiful…!”

Revencio believed that even if a woman was compassionate and wise, if her flaws were insignificant, she deemed it meaningless. He felt no guilt in evaluating their qualities based on appearance. He thought that the sentiments of the imperial citizens were no different from his own choices.

Their hair should be as close to platinum blonde as possible.

Their pupils should be a distinct shade of blue.

They should have flawless, clear porcelain-like skin without a single blemish or freckle.

Their posture should be upright, without any hunching or bending of the neck.

They should possess a clear, guileless voice.

“Well… it takes effort to create a perfect Saint.”

Ants swarmed over the temple floor. Their clamor suggested they would even devour a single bread crumb fallen on the ground. Normally, Revencio would have been outraged at the sight of the sacred temple floor being dirtied by filth, but today was an exception.

How far they must have traveled. He looked down at the lone ant, its hungry body barely reaching the bread crumb. Oh, how truly pitiful.

“You’re far from it. It only takes a little maneuvering of your heads.”

Revencio, standing tall, mercilessly crushed the swarm of ants underfoot. The sensation of their squelching demise heightened his excitement.