𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚 𝟖: 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 ※𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭
Lulumia was in unusually high spirits from the morning of that day.
Since she had taken the position of leading saint, things had not been going well. But she had received an invitation from Prince Lewis.
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While letting the alternating attendants get her ready in the morning, Lulumia was thinking about how to captivate Lewis. Lewis had been getting thinner and more timid every time they met.
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(The second prince will be back soon. In order to compete with the second prince, the crown prince will begin to cherish me more due to our strong relationship.)
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When the second prince, who is doted on by the king, and the crown prince stand side by side, the cards of being his fiance, the leading saint Lulumia, and Duke Horsewood’s daughter should hold great significance for him.
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(And for me, it’s also a chance to restore my honor.)
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Looking at her beautiful and dressed-up reflection in the mirror, Lulumia smiles.
Lulumia, in high spirits, leaves her private room with her bowing attendants. Once she is out of sight, the attendants exchange glances and sigh with cold faces.
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Unbeknownst to Lulumia, her past failures were inevitable.
In the narrow confines of the church, Lulumia had manipulated, threatened, and captivated people’s hearts to gain her position. She continued her methods even after reaching the top of her own world, using her pawns, wearing them out, and fawning over the beneficial people around her. Lulumia has no preparedness as a leading saint. She doesn’t understand the abilities and skills required as a saint. She keeps showing her flaws.
Yet, Lulumia, who approves of her own methods, couldn’t change her course, rethink, and ended up losing the advantageous position she had mastered.
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Lulumia arrives at the place where the crown prince is waiting in the royal garden.
Lulumia cheerfully greets the crown prince, who is gazing at the flowers with a melancholic look on his face.
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“Crown Prince, I apologize for keeping you waiting.”
“. . . . . .Let’s prepare tea in the gazebo. Let’s talk together.”
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Lulumia doesn’t realize it. The prince’s expression is different from usual.
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The two sit down in a gazebo with a size like a small reception room. Lulumia deliberately sits next to him, not across from him at the square table surrounded by chairs.
Despite her cute reaction to the extravagant tea set and her appetizing consumption of the tea sweets, the prince only stares distantly with a dispirited face.
He invited Lulumia, yet he doesn’t look at her.
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(. . . . . .What’s with him? He’s more spaced out than usual)
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The moment she muttered a curse in her mind, the prince glanced sharply at Lulumia.
Her heart turns cold as if it were seen through by his beautiful blue eyes.
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“Lulumia. I am going to break off our engagement.”
“. . . . . .What?”
“It would be dishonest of me not to explain why. It’s going to be a bit long, but let me tell you――”
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The prince calmly, yet clearly, tells Lulumia the reasons. Everything that Lulumia has done up until becoming the leading saint, and everything she’s done since becoming the leading saint.
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How she captivated with her charm and treated the priests as pawns. How many priests who wouldn’t become her pawns she had gotten rid of.
How she bent the rules to make the saints entertain the powerful, and sent away saints who resisted.
How she restarted the free treatment sessions knowing they were hotbeds of corruption, and intentionally stirred up donations.
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“You might want to say there’s no evidence, but unfortunately, there is. Not exaggerated ones like the suspicion of adultery when you framed Charlene Hiraes, but. . . . . .If I just spoke of suspicions, from slander, violent behavior, incitement to murder, to procuring prostitution, bribery, your suspicions are ballooning. What I just said is strictly what I have clear evidence of.”
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The Crown Prince was unusually talkative and resolute.
Even his emaciated face was filled with the vitality of a wounded beast—Lulumia felt the ground beneath her shattering.
Her last anchor was breaking.
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“Your Highness the Crown Prince, please calm down. . . . . .I am your ally. Won’t you take some time to recuperate and we can talk again?”
“You are not my ally, you are always your own ally. You only want to be the fiancée of the Crown Prince.”
“Your Highness.”
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The Crown Prince stared at Lulumia. In his firm gaze, Lulumia’s pale figure reflected.
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“I sympathize with you too. You’re just like me, an empty shell.”
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The eyes of the Crown Prince held the hue of pity.
――It was exactly like the gaze of the legitimate wife, the elder brother, and sister on Lulumia.
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“In a narrow world, even an empty shell can stand at the top by deception, but without true conviction, it ends there.”
“No way. . . . . .”
“I understand why the divine blessing has disappeared. I don’t want to further ruin this country that neglects the god. If someone doesn’t stop it now. . . . . .I can’t face the citizens.”
“The god. . . . . .It doesn’t really exist. It just tools for governance.”
“. . . . . .You are very similar to His Majesty.”
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As if to signal the end, the Crown Prince stood up. No matter how many times she called after him, he never looked back at Lulumia.
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🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸
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“What do you mean by empty shell! The real empty shell is that lowly stray cat Charlene Hiraes!”
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Back at the church, Lulumia was in the garden near the Saint’s Dormitory, in front of the dried-up fountain. Dismissing the attendants and guards, Lulumia strode into the interior. She brushed aside the modest hedge filled only with medicinal herbs. Tearing off the rosemary arch, trampling the parsley. While she stepped on the mint, Lulumia messed up her milk tea-colored hair and shouted.
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“I’m different! I am. . . . . .I am the daughter of Prime Minister Duke Horsewood and the leading saint! If I don’t stand above the ignorant masses! Who will. . . . . .Ah, it’s frustrating! So frustrating!!”
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Lulumia, who was destroying the herb garden while screaming, had her veil and the leading saint’s attire smeared and torn by the branches and leaves. Yet, Lulumia kept moving forward.
She arrived at a pond that was merely filled with water, panting. The pond divided into three layers, each symbolizing the Land God Kai. Lulumia was unaware of this.
Originally, the overflowing spiritual spring from the cathedral would enter the pond through the waterway and cool down here, nourishing the flowers of the garden. Now it was just a quiet, clear, cold pond.
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She sat down by the water’s edge, looking down at her reflection in the water. Even through the water mirror, her haggard face was so ugly that Lulumia covered her face and cried. These were not tears to please anyone, they were simply tears of frustration and despair.
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“It’s frustrating. So frustrating. . . . . .I won’t become miserable like my mother. I will seize everything. If I don’t seize it, there is no meaning to have lived under ridicule and contempt.”
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The cold gaze and words of the Crown Prince echoed in her mind.
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――You’re just like me, an empty shell.
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Lulumia’s emotions spilled out along with her tears.
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(What do you mean by empty shell. Even if it is an empty shell, even if it is fake, I wouldn’t have risen to be the Crown Prince’s fiancée if I didn’t cover it up. I’m different from you who lived with a sullen face without making use of your inherent position as the Crown Prince. I’m desperate. . . It’s frustrating. I won’t forgive. I refuse, you weak, whining man like you.)
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How long she cried. When Lulumia wiped away her tears and regained her vision, a human figure was reflected in the water mirror.
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“Who?! The place was supposed to be cleared of people?!”
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She spun around and shouted reflexively.
There stood a tall young man with short reddish-brown hair. The crimson uniform he wore was lavishly adorned with golden embroidery. A boy with a handsome face characterized by stern eyebrows.
Lulumia doubted her own eyes.
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“. . . . . .Second Prince. . . . . .”
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