Chapter 6: Saint, Confessing
Lute noticed that Stacey was acting strangely.
Her face was happy at first, but then it froze, and she said timidly, “What if…?”
“Are you, by any chance, referring to…”
“U-Um… Actually, Your Majesty, I…”
“…So you’ve noticed… I’m actually about half a tor short of 38…”
(No, that isn’t it.)
She wanted to say everything she could.
But before Stacey could say anything, Lute nodded and apologized.
“I measured my height enthusiastically, but no matter how many times I measured it, it never reached 38 tor…”
“I-Is that so…?
“Yes… I’m not sure if you’d accept a man under the height of 38 tor…?”
Lute looks up, his fearless good looks are gone, and he looks as depressed as an abandoned puppy.
The truth is that if Stacey truly wanted to avoid marriage, she could have answered here: “Yes, you’re too short,” but…
“Your Majesty, I must apologize.”
“What for? I see…, less than 39 tor is insufficient…”
“E-Enough with the height… The truth is, I wanted to avoid getting married at my father’s command.”
It was difficult to deceive Lute, who had been so open with her, and Stacey was nervous about telling him what had happened.
Lute looks surprised as Stacey speaks the truth. But he was the only one surprised, as the knight, Samuel, and the bureaucrat standing behind him nodded and said, “I suppose so.”
“…So Miss Stacey dared to impose ridiculous conditions to prevent marriage…”
“Yes. I didn’t expect anyone to meet those requirements, and I certainly didn’t expect to be asked for marriage.”
Lute seemed sad when he mentioned his height, so she decided not to bring it up again.
Lute appeared to be down, but then he looked up.
“That’s right? So you’re not getting married because you don’t like me, but because you want to serve the church as a Saint?
“Without a doubt! His Majesty is a good-looking, no, a wonderful person!”
“All right!”
“Just.”
“…just?”
Stacey gave a bitter smile to Lute, who had decided to pose.
“I still don’t think I’m qualified to be queen. I’m… I’m too preoccupied with my own self-interested. “
“Is that so? But didn’t slay a dragon with us last year?”
“Yes, I did… It’s all for myself.”
Stacey despised her father.
When she was living with her mother, she once asked, “Don’t I have a father?”. Her mother smiled sadly and said, “Your father is gone.”
The servants informed Stacey that she disliked being in the Count’s arms.
She was of low birth but graceful and lovely, and she succumbed to the Count’s womanizing ways. She was devastated when she discovered she was pregnant. “Are you going to kill the Count’s child?” she was threatened with power. When the Count decided to marry, he sent her mother away to the countryside.
Then, after her mother’s death, he took Stacey by force and spat out, “You’re ugly.”
So, Stacey trained diligently at the church where she was placed by her adoptive mother.
You will be granted power if you become a wise and good priestess.
And then she’ll use her power to crush his father, who once held power over her and her mother.
Once she reached sainthood, the world seemed different.
She crushed those in positions of power while putting on a brave face. She mocks those who seek forgiveness and says, “Are you going to defy the saint’s judgment?” and twists them down.
Being respected feels good.
It’s nice to be wanted.
Crushing the big guys is a shivering pleasure.
“I am the daughter of a star goddess who enjoys wielding her power over others. Civil war would undoubtedly erupt if such a woman became queen. It would only sully your reign.”
Stacey said this without cracking a smile. It was the first time she displayed her dark side.
The church’s priestess referred to Stacey as “Saint,” and the senior priestess and high priestess lauded her as “a great Saint who had won the favor of the Star Goddess.”
But Stacey is completely black on the inside. She’ll most likely end up in Hell, where those who defy her will be exiled, rather than Heaven, where the Star Goddess resides.
(… His Majesty, who was raised as an innocent knight, will now regard me as ugly and filthy…)
With that in mind, Stacey raises her head, wincing slightly as Lute looks directly at her.
“U-Um, Your Majesty…?”
“You’re beautiful,”
“…Eh?”
“No, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. But, your face was so beautiful when you were just telling me how you felt that I couldn’t help but admire it. I apologize.”
“Y-Yes…?”
She didn’t expect him to say that, and Lute sat back down, crossing his powerful legs.
“Yeah, about what you said… I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
“… You’re lying, aren’t you?”
“I’m not lying… I was wondering what was bothering you because you seemed so preoccupied, and I think you’re a wonderful woman.”
Stacey bit her lower lip as he nodded.
“… What makes me so special? I am a saint and a witch, a vicious woman whose power tramples the weak!”
“Huh? Then let me ask you a question. You’re in power now, and that’s why you’re looking back at your father, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. I had a lot of fun bothering my father with those crazy recruitment requirements.”
“And that’s because the count oppressed your mother and your childhood self?”
“…well, that’s right.”
He piled on one word after another as she carefully answered Lute’s questions.
“Speaking of which, you recently exposed Viscount Conning. I believe he was a devout believer who was also an active member of the church.”
“That’s right. When I found out that the money came from black money and that he was selling the girls of the land into slavery, I trampled him down.”
“I see. So you don’t like men who are powerful, high, and mighty.”
“It bothers me. He reminds me of my father.”
“So you despise me because I am powerful?”
“Eh? No, I don’t despise you…”
“And how about Lord Mullenhout? He serves as Foreign Secretary. He’s an extremely powerful man.”
“W-Well… He and Your Majesty haven’t done anything wrong, have they? Ah…”
Lute smiles as Stacey blinks in surprise.
“After all, you are a wonderful Saint… You use the strength you’ve gained to defeat those with evil intentions.
Stacey had no response to Lute.
Stacey enjoys wielding power over others. But she never attacks the helpless or the innocent.
She only overpowers those who abuse power over the weak, such as her father and Viscount Conning.
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