Saintess - Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Translator: Yonnee
—
III.
As he entered the dilapidated shack that was on the brink of collapse, a rotten smell could be smelled palpably in the air.
It was a terrible stench that smelled as if there was a corpse nearby, rotting.
Covering his nose and mouth with a silk handkerchief, Clovis grimaced heavily.
His head was throbbing from the reeking odor that was permeating everywhere.
“This is crazy.”
Soon, Clovis’s eyes turned towards the man who was lying on a cot, not even moving.
The man’s face was in such a terrible state that, if his chest hadn’t been moving shallowly every time he breathed, he’d instantly be mistaken as a dead body.
Festering to the point that there seemed to be no healthy skin left on him, the man lay there, certainly alive, but it was a life that was no different than being dead.
There was no evidence that leprosy could be an air-borne disease, but Clovis nevertheless held his breath.
All he wanted to do was run away from this shanty as soon as possible.
He then nodded and gave a signal to the soldiers he came here with, and they soon piled not only drinking water but also an abundance of food ingredients on the collapsing table.
They were common food ingredients such as meat, fish, fruits and flour. As the empire was suffering from a long drought, these were priceless things.
“Hihihi, you’re here because of that woman?”
When the smell of food wafted through the air, the blind old woman rushed in.
As she had been starving for days on end, the old woman reached forward with her wrinkly hands and gobbled up even the raw food.
While greedily gulping down whatever she could get her hands on, the old woman laughed and cursed out.
“That wench is the culprit of all our misfortunes. It’s not enough to burn her at the stake. Look at me, just look at me! Oh, my baby… my baby… Here, eat first. Momma will give you delicious food.”
In the midst of the old woman’s psychotic break, she chewed up the food she had been eating well until now to soften it, then she spat it all directly into the mouth of her son, who smelled terribly of a corpse.
It was a sight enough to elicit one’s sympathy, but even this disgusted Clovis.
“Tsk. His Lordship is much too generous that it’s a problem.”
Just as the senile old woman said, the obscene saintess had incurred God’s wrath, and so she truly was the main culprit of everyone’s misfortunes.
However, who could have ever guessed that the count would still go out of his way to make sure that such a woman’s family was being taken care of?
“If it’s only because she has the same name as His Lordship’s younger sister…”
Clovis once again clicked his tongue.
It occurred to him that perhaps all of the kindness that the count was extending like this was due to her name.
Agnes Toulouse.
As the only younger sister of Count Raon Toulouse, she had been an exceptionally pure and intelligent young woman.
After losing their parents in the fire, she had not been able to escape the shock of their loss, and this made her jump to her death. Even so, Clovis could still vividly recall her bright smile.
Raon had also been a very sweet and tender older brother to her, and he cared very much for her.
“There’s no other tragedy more dreadful than this, tsk…”
Sighing deeply with a complex expression upon his face, Clovis then hurried away from the foul smelling shack.
* * *
It had already been fifteen days since Agnes started staying at the count’s manor.
She realized that what the count told her—that she would not be burned at the stake—were not false, and surprisingly, she was met with only peaceful days thus far.
No, just ‘peaceful’ might not be enough to call it.
Every morning, noon and evening, the maids brought her many different kinds of food.
The table that’s set before her was always filled with dishes that she had never tasted in her life before, like cannelloni with spinach and ricotta cheese, chicken pie and beefsteak.
By the end of each meal, the maids would also present her with desserts like apple crumble, carrot cake, and sweet pumpkin custard.
Though it felt to her like she was an animal being domesticated and raised, she was much too preoccupied with eating everything she could. After all, she had been starving for such a long time.
After filling her stomach in that manner, almost madly, she felt depressed at the same time.
She kept remembering her family. After disappearing so suddenly, she was sure that they must be awaiting her return, worried about her.
The count promised that her family would be taken good care of, but she could not relax until she saw with her own eyes that her husband and mother-in-law were truly safe and sound.
Regardless, the luxurious life that Agnes now treaded was not limited only to the quality of her meals.
Every night, the maids took her to the central bathroom to give her warm baths and to apply medicine on her skin.
Also, she was given time every morning and evening to take a stroll around the manor’s wide garden. She was free to breathe the air outside.
Of course, whenever she took a stroll, she was always accompanied by sturdy male attendants who could act fast in case she ran away or acted in an unexpected manner.
It was awkward to walk around the garden under such strict surveillance, but she thought that this was better than being confined to her room.
Besides that, since she had a history of making a fuss about jumping the other day, all the windows of her room were nailed down so that they could not be opened. Staying there when the room was like that only doubled her discomfort.
As she enjoyed these luxuries day by day, her body that was once literally skin and bones gradually began to gain weight.
Her face glowed with a healthy blush, her gray eyes sparkled like gemstones, and her skin became as smooth as porcelain.
And her silver hair, which already shimmered with a mysterious light, shone even more radiantly now.
However, unlike her increasingly beautiful appearance, Agnes’s heart was still plagued by a series of heavy concerns.
This anxiety grew even more because she could not be certain of what the future held for her.
The count, who was the precursor to making her feel at ease, never once appeared in front of her again ever since she had tried to jump.
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