Saintess - Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Translator: Yonnee
—
II.
“Where is that saintess now?”
“She’s being kept at the dungeon, sir.”
“As soon as the sun rises, His Holiness the Pope will hold the proceedings to confirm whether she truly is a saintess.”
After Raon’s short exchange with Clovis, he headed straight to the dungeon.
As of this moment, it was forbidden for anyone to visit the woman, but after recognizing his face, the guard immediately led Raon to the cell where she was being held.
In the half a year since the prophecy of the one and only God had been handed down, there was not a single person who didn’t know that the duty of conceiving a child with the obscene saintess was that of Count Raon Toulouse, a true devout believer.
After passing through a long corridor, the surrounding air of the dungeon became more dismal.
At last, the guard stopped walking.
The keys that were hanging on his belt jingled as he took it, and it was with one of those keys that he opened the door of iron bars.
Creeeak. The door opened with a loud, meandering noise, and Raon entered the prison cell where the saintess was being unquestionably held.
A hazy silhouette could be seen vaguely in the dark.
When Raon lit a torch, the bugs crawling on the stone walls scuttled away.
The saintess was squatting in one corner of the prison cell, and quite literally, she looked like a beggar.
Ragged clothes. Bare feet.
Face, covered with blood.
Even so, her long silver hair was truly beautiful.
It was of no exaggeration to say that she must be loved by God—by Dernaus.
It was as if she had stepped out of a peerless painter’s famous masterpiece.
“!”
Then, Agnes’s eyes went wide.
As soon as she saw Raon, the way she acted seemed exactly like an exceedingly wary female cat.
Raon took the torch close to her face.
Her pupils shook precariously, but even the color of those gray eyes were so mystifying.
“May I ask what your name is?”
Raon asked politely with a respectful tone.
After being subjected to everyone’s contempt and verbal abuse, and now being kept in a dark dungeon, the man’s gentle voice gave her a moment of peace, of reprieve.
It was also the first time anyone had asked her name.
With a small voice, she answered.
“…Agnes.”
“Agnes?”
As soon as he heard the woman’s name, Raon flinched and became frozen.
Agnes. It was the same name that his sister had.
His sister, who jumped to her own death.
For a moment, this woman’s sickly pale face overlapped with the face of his dead younger sister.
If that child hadn’t died, she would be about the same age as the woman in front of him now.
He smiled despondently.
“Of all names, it is Agnes that you bear. Tell me, have you betrayed God with that name?”
Raon slowly drew the sign of the cross.
His gestures were so noble that even the dark prison seemed to light up for a moment.
“…Are you His Holiness the Pope?”
It was impossible that the saintess would have known the pope’s face, but it didn’t look like she said that in jest.
Not all saints of the empire were born with divine power.
Most of the time, divine power manifested in people aged seventeen or eighteen, and the moment it’s made known that divine power had manifested within them, they would be baptized at the Holy See. From then on, they would become officially anointed as saints, and they would serve the one and only God.
In other words, even though she had manifested divine power, this woman named Agnes hid that fact and committed adultery with another man, thus eliciting God’s wrath.
Furthermore, it was also an indelible sin because she had actively tried to hide herself from God.
Raon replied in a calm tone.
“I am not His Holiness the Pope.”
“…I as well. I am not a saintess.”
Before anyone knew it, transparent tears started flowing down Agnes’s cheeks.
Her heaving breaths denoted the emotional labor she was going through.
Looking at her with a contemplative expression, he recalled the various faces of the countless women who had been deemed witches and burned at the stake.
Raon schooled his features into an even more stern expression so as not to show what he was thinking.
“If you are not a saintess, then you may prove it at tomorrow’s ceremony. If you prove it before God, you will be set free.”
“How can I prove it…?”
“Mix your blood with holy water. The ensuing result will tell us everything.”
“…I am not a saintess.”
“Then, please make sure to prove all false accusations against you tomorrow so that you may hopefully go back home.”
The conversation between them cycled back to the start, but it was soon cut off.
In silence, the two of them stared at each other, unmoving.
On the other hand, Raon was inwardly in turmoil.
He would gladly accept God’s will. He had promised.
However, the moment he saw the woman in front of him, mixed feelings began to brew within him.
In any case, everything would be decided in tomorrow’s ceremony.
If she was indeed that saintess, then the path that Raon would have to take from now on would become extremely clear.
He would have to thrust his reproductive organ into this woman in front of him and inject his seed deep into her womb.
To let his child be embedded inside the saintess.
Realizing that his thoughts had deepened, he drew the sign of the cross once again.
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