Time-Limited Saintess, You’ve Been Caught by the Tyrant Once Again - Chapter 71

Chapter 36.1

When Arkan found the woman collapsed in the corner of the garden, he noticed the black sigil on her chest. Although he couldn’t see what the pattern was, as soon as he noticed its presence, he quickly covered it up in case anyone else saw it.

He placed Ellin on the bed and called for a maid to attend to her.

“Change her clothes.”

“Yes, understood.”

He looked down at Ellin and ordered the maid, Melissa (he deliberately asked for her name).

“You must keep it a secret about what you see while changing her clothes.”

“….”

“Unless you want not only you but your entire family to be dragged away and killed…”

“Yes, yes.”

“Pretend you don’t even know what I know. You’re officially the only one who knows this secret.”

He couldn’t believe that a slave could make it this far. As soon as he ascended to the throne, he prohibited slave trading, but it was still happening clandestinely from other countries.

Of course, Arkan made the slave traders pay a terrible price.

Perhaps Ellin was a runaway slave who was freed at that time. That was why there was a sigil on her chest…

She was a commoner, yes. However, as long as there was a slave mark on her, she would be treated as a slave. It hasn’t been long since slavery disappeared. Therefore, the contempt for the remaining slave class still persisted.

“She’s a commoner. There will be nothing lacking in serving her.”

So, Arkan ordered Melissa. In the meanwhile, he fell into thought.

Therefore, everything was evident now. The more they wished for something, the more the slaves suffered.

His own mother was also a slave. She would tremble when the d*mned Emperor raised his hand. Before she killed herself, she was shaking and wouldn’t eat anything. She didn’t speak. She didn’t want anything… because she was brainwashed like that.

Arkan frowned.

He didn’t know how she got into the temple as an Angelia, though this woman didn’t have the concept of ‘ownership’ at all. To be precise, the concept of ‘pleasure of ownership’ was scarce.

He found it irritating.

Pity. That would be appropriate. It was unfamiliar, but he was definitely feeling it.

“Bronn.”

He called his attendant, who was waiting outside.

“Yes.”

“How much does a typical imperial nanny receive as salary?”

“They usually receive one hundred gold coins a month.”

“One hundred?”

“Your Majesty may think it’s a lot, but most nannies were nobles…”

“Increase it to two hundred.”

“Understood.”

If she didn’t understand the concept and pleasure of ownership, he just had to teach it.

‘Because I made them live as commoners.’

One of the first things he did when he became emperor was to execute the nobles who had been involved in slave trading. So, in a way, Ellin was a beneficiary of his first act as emperor.

A slave.

It was the name of the status she could have had.

The thought of Ellin as a slave was unbearably frustrating for him.

‘Because I brought her here.’

Arkan kept reminding himself that this was a sense of responsibility to the animals he brought in.

̊ · : * ✧* : · ̊

“Melissa!”

Her fellow maids called out to Melissa, but she waved her hand and headed towards Ellin’s room.

“Why is she like that?”

“I don’t know.”

“It seems like she completely turned to that woman.”

Despite the fact that she wanted to gossip with her friends, one wrong word could get her killed.

Knowing she would become distant from her friends, Melissa had no choice but to take this path.

Naturally, she had to be cautious. With a man openly watching her without hiding himself, who would risk being misunderstood?

Was it misfortune or luck?

No, this would be the price for using her mouth like that. If she hadn’t made a wrong remark to her colleague, Elli wouldn’t have ended up taking a ‘bath’ with them, and this wouldn’t have happened.

Ellin said it was very painful to hide the sigil of God.

In any case, the Emperor knew that she was a saintess and instructed Melissa to keep it a secret.

‘Keep quiet about what you will see.’

As she changed her clothes, she was stunned to see the green sigil of the Saintess.

‘…So, the person in the temple is a fake saint?’

This truth was too overwhelming for Melissa to handle. The real saintess was here, while the fake saintess was over there.

It seemed like the Emperor didn’t bring Ellin for no reason.

Her breath caught in her throat at the thought that it was all planned. Indeed, the Emperor was terrifying.

Melissa summed it up like this.

The Emperor knew that Ellin was the Saintess, but Ellin didn’t know that the Emperor knew her identity.

Although her mouth itched to speak, she knew that silence was essential for her to survive for a long time. Coming from a commoner’s background, she knew that this truth was too significant, and she might be disposed of at any moment. So, she asked Ellin to save her. Being the Saintess, she expected that Ellin would have the power to save her.

“You’re back early today?”

Ellin smiled brightly.

“Yes.”

If there was one thing that reassured her, it was that Ellin was a genuinely nice and good person, and being around her made her feel refreshed.

Perhaps that was why she was the Saintess.

Melissa felt sorry for Ellin. She had been brought here without even knowing that the Emperor was aware of her true identity.

“Even when it’s late after you come back from hanging out with your friends, you still come.”

“No, it’s because I made a mistake last time.”

Melissa hung her head in embarrassment since she had made everyone mistake her for a ‘slave’ before. As she admitted her mistake honestly, Ellin forgave her with a wide smile.

“It’s really okay. it was just a misunderstanding last time.”

“….”

“I’m fine, but it’s a loss if Melissa worries.”

“I understand.”

How could she be so warm? In that kindness, Melissa felt sorry as her heart ached. She pitied the woman in front of her for being brought to the imperial palace by the Emperor.

Please consider sending some love either through the translator’s Ko-fi or by leaving a rating/review for this series on novel updates~!

For update pings, novel discussions and/or to send mistake reports, join our discord server~