The spirit of Felia emerged from the mirror, wearing a coy expression.
“Still, I have no regrets.”
She had been caught having a relationship with a High Priest and was expelled from the temple.
Originally, she was supposed to be executed, but her life was spared thanks to an oracle from Goddess Libertas.
[Do not lay a hand on my child.]
That single sentence was the only oracle in the history of the Arthenian Empire.
Some might think of Felia as a disgraceful Saint, but among the Saints, she was a hero.
Thanks to her, Saints were allowed to retire.
Before Felia, Saints were bound to the temple until the moment they closed their eyes.
“Saving it for later is pointless! It’s just crap in the end! Haven’t you tried it? If you had, you wouldn’t say that!”
At Felia’s outburst, Hannah grinned widely and replied.
“Come on, thanks to you, I did try it. After I retired, I spent every day XX-ing and XXX-ing while XXXX-ing!”
Nora and Bella naturally stopped arguing and began listening to Hannah’s story.
It was then that Felia suddenly asked Selene.
“Youngest, your family is rich, right?”
When Selene nodded, Felia beamed and shouted.
“Perfect! Quit being a Saint! Go to that man’s house! And you make the first move!”
“What? Make the… first move?”
“Youngest, you know it too. When a man asks to meet alone at night, it’s always about that.”
Then Hannah lowered her voice and, with a deadly serious expression, said.
“Youngest, your underwear must be a matching set.”
That started a flood of advice from the sisters.
“Yes! Go for the sexiest and most extravagant ones! No, wear something that’s all lace and no fabric!”
“Underwear isn’t enough! Take contraceptives in advance!”
“Use scented oil too! Rose oil is the best.”
“Wear clothes that are easy to take off. You know what I mean?”
When Selene couldn’t take the noise anymore and covered her ears, the spirit of the First Saint, Eleanor, emerged from the tapestry of red spider lilies that covered an entire wall.
“Ev-ery-one! QUIET!”
At the eldest sister’s thunderous roar, the room fell silent as if doused with cold water.
The spirits of the first three saints, who had remained virgins until their deaths, were as vivid as living people.
The sisters said it was because of their lingering resentment.
The resentment of women born with the most beautiful appearances, forced to remain pure their entire lives.
Perhaps that was why Eleanor’s voice was so loud.
“Enough! All of you, stop!”
The past Saints clamped their mouths shut and focused on Eleanor’s words.
“Is he handsome?”
“What?”
“I’m asking if that man, Kirien, is handsome.”
Selene hesitated for a moment but then answered honestly that he was.
At that, Eleanor spoke in a solemn tone.
“Then go.”
Eleanor’s spirit gripped Selene’s shoulders tightly.
Selene felt as if she could sense her warmth.
“Youngest, listen carefully.”
“Yes, sister.”
“In life, even if you can’t eat it, you should at least taste it.”
*** *** *** *** ***
The Fourth Saint, Felia, who was expelled for losing her purity, had changed many rules.
One of those changes was restricting access to certain areas based on gender.
However, as time passed, this system became increasingly meaningless.
After all, those who wanted to meet in secret always found a way.
In the end, the only place where access was still strictly controlled was Eleanor Palace, where Selene resided.
And on the first floor of this building was a women-only dining hall, still frequented by many female priests.
Partly because the menu catered to women’s tastes.
But more importantly, this dining hall was the fastest place to hear news from the Grand Temple.
The moment someone started showing signs of romance, it was through this place that they became an officially recognized couple.
Selene was picking at her dinner in the women-only dining hall.
Her mind was in turmoil from all the risqué conversations her sisters had been having.
At that moment, Becky, a common priestess who managed the Grand Library, came running.
“Holy Saint, have you heard the news? Heath has lost an entire year’s worth of memories!”
The four priests who had lost their divine power showed significant variation in their symptoms.
Some had almost no divine power left, while others had lost only half.
The same was true for their memories.
Some lost a week, while others lost six months of memories.
“A whole year? Then Heath’s case is the most severe!”
“Exactly. Until now, the record was six months of lost memories.”
“Did he also lose the most divine power?”
“No. His divine power has only decreased by a third.”
What made this phenomenon truly strange was that losing more divine power didn’t necessarily mean losing more memories.
That’s why Selene found this phenomenon so frightening.
The victims, as well as the extent of the damage, seemed to occur randomly, without any pattern.
As if the gods were playing a cruel joke.
“Could the next victim lose two years of memories?”
“Ugh, two years would be lucky. Some have lost almost all their divine power. They might lose all their memories too.”
Selene put down her fork.
Hearing Becky’s words, her appetite vanished completely.
But then Becky suddenly leaned closer to Selene.
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“But Holy Saint, doesn’t something seem strange?”
“What? What do you mean?”
“All the people who lost their memories and divine power are in their seventies or eighties.”
Information about the four victims flashed through Selene’s mind like lightning.
“You’re right! And they’re all High Priests. None of the victims are common priests or apprentice priests.”
“Holy Saint, I think this condition might be…”
Selene held her breath, waiting for Becky to finish her thought.
After a long pause, Becky finally spoke.
“A new form of dementia, perhaps?”
*** *** *** *** ***
Before she knew it, the day Kirien said he would come had arrived.
Selene went about her usual schedule, occasionally visiting the Grand Library.
She was trying to find any records of priests losing their divine power in the past.
But whenever she thought about meeting Kirien soon…
“Oh my! Holy Saint? Why are you suddenly hitting the book?”
“Ah, Becky. I’m sorry. I thought I saw a fly on the book.”
The illustrations in the book had started to look like Kirien with his upper body exposed.
This was all because of Eighth Saint Daphne.
It was because she had read the novel Daphne recommended before going to bed last night.
The novel was about a knight who went to ravish a princess trapped in a tower, but the princess, captivated by his broad chest, threw herself at him first.
Naturally, it was a novel that minors couldn’t read, and Daphne had summed it up in one sentence.
―Men with huge chests are absolutely the best.
After reading that book, the temple murals started looking like the red spider lily tapestry, and the garden statues appeared as male nudes.
Selene had been worrying constantly since meeting Kirien in the confessional.
What could be the reason Kirien said he would come for her?
But no matter how much she thought about it, when a man asks to meet at night.
It seemed there could only be one reason.
*** *** *** *** ***
During the rest period after dinner.
Selene was staring blankly out the window.
The view hadn’t changed at all in the nine years since she entered the temple at age eleven.
Did the princess in the novel feel the same way while waiting for her savior?
Was it because seeing the same view every day was so boring, because being trapped in a tower for life was so suffocating.
Was that why she embraced the knight first?
“Holy Saint, your bath water is ready.”
“Eek! No, I’m… I’m sorry, Joy. I was lost in thought and forgot you were there.”
Ahem. Selene watched the apprentice priest Joy’s reaction embarrassedly.
But Joy showed no particular reaction.
She only wore an expression of unbearable boredom.
“Holy Saint, I’ll take my leave now.”
“Yes, thank you Joy. Go get some rest.”
Joy hurriedly left the moment the farewell was complete.
Phew.
Selene sighed in relief as she entered the bathroom.
And the moment she saw the bathtub with steam rising gently…
She heard Sister Hannah’s voice from somewhere.
―Use scented oil too! Rose oil is the best.
After a moment’s hesitation, Selene picked up the rose oil from the shelf.
This absolutely wasn’t because of what her sisters said.
Selene always used scented oil when bathing.
The temple in Dillian region regularly sent oil as gifts, so she was just using up the excess.
Scented oils must have expiration dates too.
It would be wasteful to throw them away unused.
Selene poured an entire bottle of rose oil into the tub.
After thoroughly washing every inch of her body, she came out.
But then she heard another auditory hallucination.
―Youngest, your underwear must be a matching set.
―Go for the sexiest and most extravagant ones! No, wear something that’s all lace and no fabric!
Selene absolutely wasn’t following her sisters’ advice.
It was just a coincidence that Selene happened to own a lot of lace underwear.
It was because the temple in Ganyu region gave them as gifts.
―Wear clothes that are easy to take off. You know what I mean?
Selene put on a flowing chiffon dress.
She definitely didn’t choose it because it would be easy to remove.
It was just because light clothes were easier to move in.
Then she sat at her vanity and brushed her hair.
Brushing much longer than usual, Selene recalled Kirien’s face.
Black hair that turned blue when light touched it, long eyes with a teardrop mole, slightly upturned sensual lips, a high straight nose.
Sister Hannah, who had created a hardbound collection of handsome men’s portraits, had once said.
That the nose was important for men.
A straight, well-defined nose bridge was the center of the face, and if the nose was big…
“No! That’s not it! I’m absolutely not expecting anything like that!”
Unable to bear the embarrassment, Selene collapsed onto her vanity.
Her face was not just red but burning hot.
However, by this point, she had to admit it.
Kirien’s exterior was…
Quite her type.
If it hadn’t been Kirien but an old, ugly man who had said those things…
Her heart wouldn’t be fluttering like this.
Because Kirien’s appearance was very much to her taste, she couldn’t refuse his invitation even knowing it might have impure intentions.
The moment Selene admitted her true feelings.
She heard Sister Eleanor’s voice from somewhere.
―In life, even if you can’t eat it, you should at least taste it.
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