Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.
I couldn't even open my eyelids for a minute because of the noise coming in through the door.
'This guy! What on earth is he doing out there to be so noisy!'
Judging from the sound, it seemed like someone was tapping their shoes on the marble floor.
'You're telling me not to worry and just rest? Are you kidding me?'
I tried hard to ignore it, but unfortunately, my ears were quite sensitive.
The constant noise coming from beyond the door was so loud it was almost ringing in my ears.
“Oh, really!”
Eventually, I sat up and nervously shook the rope.
At the same time, the thud, thud noise suddenly stopped and after a while, a maid came in.
“Yes, Saintess. Did you call?”
I was almost chattered at the cleverness with which he stopped his feet the moment the bell rang so as not to be caught.
“I can’t sleep at all when I think of His Highness waiting outside.”
“Shall I tell him to go back?”
That would be great if it worked, but the Crown Prince was more persistent than I thought.
I shook my head because I knew that no matter what I said, he would just stand there guarding the door and make excuses.
“No, just tell him to come in so we can meet.”
“Is that okay with you?”
“What can I do? I heard that he won’t be at ease until he sees my face.”
The maid, who must have looked so gloomy as I gritted my teeth and muttered, flinched and hurriedly left the room, saying she understood.
A moment later, the door opened again and the Crown Prince entered the room.
“I told you to tell him to rest comfortably and that I would wait patiently, but is it over already?”
“Are you kidding me? You don’t even think about giving me a break!”
I was suddenly angry, but soon I let out a deep sigh.
“Your Highness, don’t you think this is too much? I need to catch my breath too. Do you think I’ve become a real slave just because you’ve caught my weakness? Please, just let me rest for a day, okay?”
“If I had the time, I would have done so. Wouldn’t it be tiring for me to go out to the field every day and take care of the people’s livelihood?”
He followed me, sighing softly, and then took a brisk step forward.
“But now is not the time to rest or relax. Even at this moment, the people of the empire...”
“Those damn imperial people, imperial people!”
I cut off the Crown Prince's words with a loud noise.
“Why don’t you know that I am also one of those imperial citizens? I am one of the imperial citizens that Your Highness must protect!”
I shouted as if I was having a seizure, then changed my attitude and spoke in a pleading tone.
“Don’t do that. Just rest for one day. No more, no less. Just one day! Yes? Resting for one more day won’t make the disaster worse.”
It was just then that I was trying to calmly convince him.
“Saintess, we are in trouble!”
The maid who had let the Crown Prince in and left the room came rushing in without even knocking.
“I just got word from Harrington, the site of the snow disaster we were supposed to visit today, that a huge earthquake had occurred and over a hundred buildings had collapsed!”
“What did you say?”
“It is said that the death toll from the aftermath was around 160 people, and the number of injured was as many as 900.”
I was shocked by the double disaster that came at such an unexpected time, and the Crown Prince stared at me with cold eyes.
“It was only a few hours late, not even a day, and the disaster has worsened.”
“...”
Now at a loss for words, I broke my promise to myself that I wouldn't move an inch from this room, at least for today, and got up hurriedly.
'Ugh, this shitty fate.'
From then on, I had to visit all kinds of disaster sites, led by the Crown Prince's hand.
After enduring a day of rest only to be met with an even greater disaster, my already weak voice became even weaker, so I couldn't even think about rebelling.
After a whole month of pretending to be a Saintess and being dragged around like a helpless wooden doll, I was a total wreck.
“This is not it.”
This was absolutely not something a human could do.
No matter how much you roll around in shit, this world is better, but if that shit is actually a field of diarrhea, and if it's a life with no guarantee of when you'll be able to escape, I thought I'd rather be in the afterlife.
As I was losing weight at a frightening rate day by day, I finally decided to rebel against my unscrupulous employer.
“Your Highness, please leave me alone.”
No, it wasn't a rebellion, it was more like a plea for mercy.
“Your Highness, as you know, my life has not been an ordinary, pitiful one. I lost my mother in an unfortunate accident when I was six, and my grandfather, who had been my pillar of support, passed away not long after. My only remaining blood relative, that piece of trash, no, my father, lives with a government official and an illegitimate child, causing accidents all the time. If I were to pile up the money and time I wasted on those things into a tower, it would be enough to pierce the sky!”
“...”
“And yet, as the sole Princess of the Catalonia Empire, I tried to live a life devoted to the people of the empire. I tried to fulfill the duties of the ruling class that Your Highness so urges! But what did I get in return?”
“...”
“Not only was I offered up as a sacrifice in place of his illegitimate child, but I was not even comforted by the people of the empire I had tried so hard to cherish. I lived such an unfortunate and pitiful life, barely managing to escape the brink of death and finally get my life!”
“...”
“If you were me, Your Highness, wouldn’t you want to put aside your worries and live freely, doing whatever you want?”
“...”
“So please, let me step down from this damned sainthood. Let me go, okay?”
“...”
“There are many ways to help, even if it means not pretending to be a Saintess. I’ll be more than happy to give you financial support!”
Of course, I was now penniless because I had donated all my wealth before I died, but I was confident that I would quickly accumulate wealth.
Don't you have the hazard pay of three thousand gold coins that you earned in exchange for the past month?
But despite my unconditional promise of support, the Crown Prince just drank tea with a blank expression on his face.
“No matter how much money the Princess has, how much more than the royal family? The other nobles are also donating considerable wealth as support, so I don’t need money. What I need is a Saintess who can stabilize the public sentiment.”
“Ahhhh! This is driving me crazy!”
This was like an iron fortress.
No matter how much I appealed, reciting a series of unfortunate tales, the Crown Prince only pulled the leash around my neck tighter.
‘Ha, am I really supposed to live like this as the Crown Prince’s dog...’
Even as I grew into middle age with gray hair and became a crooked old woman who couldn't walk without a cane, I kept preventing disasters one by one that may never end.
Are you saying that I should be dragged around by the Crown Prince like that and die in vain?
At that time, I was despairing of a dark future with no hope.
“We’re in trouble, Saintess!”
“What now...”
Whenever I had a chance, I heard the words, “Something big is going on,” and my eyes welled up with tears.
“Did lightning strike somewhere this time? Or did the ground collapse? Or is there a new epidemic going on...”
“No, that’s not it...”
The maid, who was stamping her feet with a pale face, spoke with a more desperate look on her face than I did.
“The Denver River is flooding!”
“What did you say?”
“What did you just say?”
The Crown Prince and I both got up from the sofa without saying a word.
The Denver River is a river that runs through the center of the capital city and is responsible for the drinking water for the capital city and some parts of the metropolitan area, so its scale is considerable.
Naturally, many people were living around there, so if the river had overflowed, the damage would have been enormous.
But that wasn't the only reason we were surprised.
“If it’s the Denver River, then it’s the place the Saintess visited two weeks ago, so why again...”
As the maid muttered with a confused look on her face, Delton growled as if sighing.
“That’s right, I told you. All I can do is stop it for a little while!”
I was blankly staring at Delton, then turned my gaze to the Crown Prince.
Although he couldn't understand what Delton was saying, the Crown Prince seemed to have guessed something and looked at me with a serious expression.
'It's come...'
I couldn't even open my eyelids for a minute because of the noise coming in through the door.
'This guy! What on earth is he doing out there to be so noisy!'
Judging from the sound, it seemed like someone was tapping their shoes on the marble floor.
'You're telling me not to worry and just rest? Are you kidding me?'
I tried hard to ignore it, but unfortunately, my ears were quite sensitive.
The constant noise coming from beyond the door was so loud it was almost ringing in my ears.
“Oh, really!”
Eventually, I sat up and nervously shook the rope.
At the same time, the thud, thud noise suddenly stopped and after a while, a maid came in.
“Yes, Saintess. Did you call?”
I was almost chattered at the cleverness with which he stopped his feet the moment the bell rang so as not to be caught.
“I can’t sleep at all when I think of His Highness waiting outside.”
“Shall I tell him to go back?”
That would be great if it worked, but the Crown Prince was more persistent than I thought.
I shook my head because I knew that no matter what I said, he would just stand there guarding the door and make excuses.
“No, just tell him to come in so we can meet.”
“Is that okay with you?”
“What can I do? I heard that he won’t be at ease until he sees my face.”
The maid, who must have looked so gloomy as I gritted my teeth and muttered, flinched and hurriedly left the room, saying she understood.
A moment later, the door opened again and the Crown Prince entered the room.
“I told you to tell him to rest comfortably and that I would wait patiently, but is it over already?”
“Are you kidding me? You don’t even think about giving me a break!”
I was suddenly angry, but soon I let out a deep sigh.
“Your Highness, don’t you think this is too much? I need to catch my breath too. Do you think I’ve become a real slave just because you’ve caught my weakness? Please, just let me rest for a day, okay?”
“If I had the time, I would have done so. Wouldn’t it be tiring for me to go out to the field every day and take care of the people’s livelihood?”
He followed me, sighing softly, and then took a brisk step forward.
“But now is not the time to rest or relax. Even at this moment, the people of the empire...”
“Those damn imperial people, imperial people!”
I cut off the Crown Prince's words with a loud noise.
“Why don’t you know that I am also one of those imperial citizens? I am one of the imperial citizens that Your Highness must protect!”
I shouted as if I was having a seizure, then changed my attitude and spoke in a pleading tone.
“Don’t do that. Just rest for one day. No more, no less. Just one day! Yes? Resting for one more day won’t make the disaster worse.”
It was just then that I was trying to calmly convince him.
“Saintess, we are in trouble!”
The maid who had let the Crown Prince in and left the room came rushing in without even knocking.
“I just got word from Harrington, the site of the snow disaster we were supposed to visit today, that a huge earthquake had occurred and over a hundred buildings had collapsed!”
“What did you say?”
“It is said that the death toll from the aftermath was around 160 people, and the number of injured was as many as 900.”
I was shocked by the double disaster that came at such an unexpected time, and the Crown Prince stared at me with cold eyes.
“It was only a few hours late, not even a day, and the disaster has worsened.”
“...”
Now at a loss for words, I broke my promise to myself that I wouldn't move an inch from this room, at least for today, and got up hurriedly.
'Ugh, this shitty fate.'
***
From then on, I had to visit all kinds of disaster sites, led by the Crown Prince's hand.
After enduring a day of rest only to be met with an even greater disaster, my already weak voice became even weaker, so I couldn't even think about rebelling.
After a whole month of pretending to be a Saintess and being dragged around like a helpless wooden doll, I was a total wreck.
“This is not it.”
This was absolutely not something a human could do.
No matter how much you roll around in shit, this world is better, but if that shit is actually a field of diarrhea, and if it's a life with no guarantee of when you'll be able to escape, I thought I'd rather be in the afterlife.
As I was losing weight at a frightening rate day by day, I finally decided to rebel against my unscrupulous employer.
“Your Highness, please leave me alone.”
No, it wasn't a rebellion, it was more like a plea for mercy.
“Your Highness, as you know, my life has not been an ordinary, pitiful one. I lost my mother in an unfortunate accident when I was six, and my grandfather, who had been my pillar of support, passed away not long after. My only remaining blood relative, that piece of trash, no, my father, lives with a government official and an illegitimate child, causing accidents all the time. If I were to pile up the money and time I wasted on those things into a tower, it would be enough to pierce the sky!”
“...”
“And yet, as the sole Princess of the Catalonia Empire, I tried to live a life devoted to the people of the empire. I tried to fulfill the duties of the ruling class that Your Highness so urges! But what did I get in return?”
“...”
“Not only was I offered up as a sacrifice in place of his illegitimate child, but I was not even comforted by the people of the empire I had tried so hard to cherish. I lived such an unfortunate and pitiful life, barely managing to escape the brink of death and finally get my life!”
“...”
“If you were me, Your Highness, wouldn’t you want to put aside your worries and live freely, doing whatever you want?”
“...”
“So please, let me step down from this damned sainthood. Let me go, okay?”
“...”
“There are many ways to help, even if it means not pretending to be a Saintess. I’ll be more than happy to give you financial support!”
Of course, I was now penniless because I had donated all my wealth before I died, but I was confident that I would quickly accumulate wealth.
Don't you have the hazard pay of three thousand gold coins that you earned in exchange for the past month?
But despite my unconditional promise of support, the Crown Prince just drank tea with a blank expression on his face.
“No matter how much money the Princess has, how much more than the royal family? The other nobles are also donating considerable wealth as support, so I don’t need money. What I need is a Saintess who can stabilize the public sentiment.”
“Ahhhh! This is driving me crazy!”
This was like an iron fortress.
No matter how much I appealed, reciting a series of unfortunate tales, the Crown Prince only pulled the leash around my neck tighter.
‘Ha, am I really supposed to live like this as the Crown Prince’s dog...’
Even as I grew into middle age with gray hair and became a crooked old woman who couldn't walk without a cane, I kept preventing disasters one by one that may never end.
Are you saying that I should be dragged around by the Crown Prince like that and die in vain?
At that time, I was despairing of a dark future with no hope.
“We’re in trouble, Saintess!”
“What now...”
Whenever I had a chance, I heard the words, “Something big is going on,” and my eyes welled up with tears.
“Did lightning strike somewhere this time? Or did the ground collapse? Or is there a new epidemic going on...”
“No, that’s not it...”
The maid, who was stamping her feet with a pale face, spoke with a more desperate look on her face than I did.
“The Denver River is flooding!”
“What did you say?”
“What did you just say?”
The Crown Prince and I both got up from the sofa without saying a word.
The Denver River is a river that runs through the center of the capital city and is responsible for the drinking water for the capital city and some parts of the metropolitan area, so its scale is considerable.
Naturally, many people were living around there, so if the river had overflowed, the damage would have been enormous.
But that wasn't the only reason we were surprised.
“If it’s the Denver River, then it’s the place the Saintess visited two weeks ago, so why again...”
As the maid muttered with a confused look on her face, Delton growled as if sighing.
“That’s right, I told you. All I can do is stop it for a little while!”
I was blankly staring at Delton, then turned my gaze to the Crown Prince.
Although he couldn't understand what Delton was saying, the Crown Prince seemed to have guessed something and looked at me with a serious expression.
'It's come...'
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