Saintess - Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Translator: Yonnee
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“Find you? But how… I can’t take a step out of this mansion.”
“Tell His Lordship the Count that you wish to repent for everything. That you admit to being the obscene saintess and that you want all your sins to be washed away.”
Agnes understood at once what Veronica was saying.
She was to deceive Count Raon Toulouse.
“Exactly one hundred days, Agnes. Remember this. You cannot get pregnant during those one hundred days. You understand what I mean, right? I know it sounds impossible, but even if Count Toulouse tries to overpower you, you must resist. He is a kind-hearted man by nature. If you resist loudly, he won’t be able to do anything to you right away.”
“Y-Yes… I will. Thank you— thank you so much, dear Saintess.”
“Alright. If I stay here for too long, the Count might start to suspect me, so I need to leave now.”
“Wait… Saintess Veronica!”
Agnes urgently called Veronica, who was about to get up from her seat.
Her gray eyes were still so full of anxiety and distrust, but a ray of hope had pierced through her, even if it was small.
“…Um, why are you helping me when I’ve been branded as the obscene saintess? Wouldn’t it seem to others that you are betraying God?”
At her question, Veronica smiled kindly.
She exuded nothing but composure.
As if betraying God was of no consequence.
“I’m sure that it looks like I’m betraying God. But then, I will sincerely repent to Him.”
“Repent…?”
“Yes, repent. If I sincerely repent, then He will definitely say this.”
Soon, Veronica’s clear voice echoed throughout the drawing room.
“All your sins have been forgiven.”
* * *
“Did that saintess confess?”
At Raon’s question, Veronica shook her head.
In the end, this meant that she had not chosen to repent.
“Instead, I informed her of her saintly duty.”
Her saintly duty.
The truth that Raon had been keeping from Agnes thus far was the pregnancy.
“And what did she say?”
“She cried out and insisted that she already has a husband. And she continued to deny that she is a saintess.”
“Is that so?”
Raon answered calmly.
He already predicted that she would answer in such a way.
A heavy silence blanketed the drawing room.
He recalled the words of the doctor who once again came for a visit the day before yesterday.
After he examined Agnes without fail, the doctor gave Raon a meaningful look as he declared that Agnes’s condition had improved greatly.
This also meant that it would not be long before Raon would have to lay with the obscene saintess.
“The doctor said that three days from tomorrow would be the best time for the saintess to conceive.”
“The choice is yours. Keep her limbs bound and force her to fulfill her duties. Or, with the carrot and stick approach, lend her plenty of sweet carrots. Either way, God shall understand you. Even so… Don’t be so cruel to her, Raon.”
At this very moment, Raon could only think that everything was so dreadful.
It felt as if he had been turned into a horrible scoundrel who was to rape a woman.
“I don’t want to be so cruel to her either. At least, not towards a woman who has the same name as my sister.”
“Goodness… Raon.”
Veronica also knew all about the tragic history of Raon’s family.
Raon always gave high donations to the church and confessed regularly.
He was in excruciating pain, and he blamed himself for not being able to save his family from death.
He was especially hard on himself regarding his younger sister’s death.
Raon’s sister had jumped to her own death in front of his very eyes.
The guilt of not saving her beloved family threw him into the depths of an endless quagmire. Veronica herself had absolved Raon of his sins more than a dozen times.
However, the guilt that had etched itself deep into his bones was like a stigma that could never be erased for the rest of his life.
It was for this reason that Veronica was trying to help Agnes.
It’s true that it was for Agnes’s sake, but in a different sense, it was also for Raon.
If he were to lay with the saintess and conceive an unwanted child with her, yet another guilt would fester in Raon’s heart, which he could carry for all his life.
At the very least, Veronica wanted to prevent this tragedy.
“I do not wish for everyone involved in the prophecy to be awash with despair.”
“Thank you, Saintess Veronica. If it’s alright with you, would you please pray for me?”
“Of course.”
Veronica made the sign of the cross and bowed her head.
“Dear Benevolent God in heaven, in Thy holy name, let us not be swayed by the wickedness of others who wish to mislead us…”
Her pious voice resounded clearly throughout the drawing room.
With their eyes closed tightly, both Veronica and Raon were absorbed in prayer.
The last chance to prevent the oncoming tragedy was in Agnes’s hands.
Veronica finished her prayers, sincerely holding that Agnes would be able to desperately resist Raon for the next one hundred days, and for her to return to her family’s embrace safely.
“…I dare to believe that, at long last, we shall all be graced with everlasting peace.”
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