Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 46

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#46.

After the service concluded, two other sainthood candidates approached Chloe with bright, ingratiating smiles.
They were influential figures possessing the highest sanctity, and they had long been openly antagonistic toward her.
Unlike the initial phase when Chloe had demonstrated miraculous ability growth, she could no longer even serve as a target for their interference—yet this very fact made them deeply resent being placed on equal footing with her.
“Saint Chloe, you really ought to keep better control over your family. The situation is already precarious, and it’s quite worrying.”
“What do you mean….”
“Ethan Holy Knight was summoned to the Inspection Bureau, wasn’t he? Something about the criminal Uriana’s escape incident.”
Chloe’s face hardened like stone.
In an ordinary family, she would have assumed it was a false accusation, but Ethan was like a time bomb—unpredictable in what he might do next.

“If you smuggled out that saint and sold her, wouldn’t that fetch a fortune? Seeing how your mother, who was clergy, was sold to the Chaos Faith, it seems there’s a broker involved.”
“Why not seize this opportunity and make some profit? After all, even if you’re caught, your prince will handle it for you, won’t he?”

He was human refuse—arrogant in all things, with every thought turning toward such schemes.
The saint candidates, delighted at the prospect of mockery, lifted the corners of their mouths.
“Do tell the prince at once and ask for his help. If he has the ability to seat a low-rank consecration mage as a sainthood candidate, what couldn’t he accomplish?”
“And please tell your brother to stop pestering the clergy members. I’m already worried that your shallow reputation as a saint might be further tarnished.”
“Oh yes, and I heard someone saw you flirting with Octavia Ludovisi and getting beaten with a fan. I find it absolutely humiliating on your behalf.”
Chloe gripped the doctrine book in her hand tightly. Yet the shame and contempt did not end there.
“Chloe—!”
An older brother so shameful he couldn’t be presented in public was walking in with an indignant expression.
“My, the Eastern Continent saying about tigers appearing when you speak of them comes to mind.”
At the sainthood candidate’s lightly mocking words, Ethan’s expression softened somewhat.
“Saint, were you speaking of me?”
“Yes, you’re as fierce and valiant as a beast.”
“I appreciate the compliment.”
He laughed vacuously, oblivious to the meaning that he was as thoughtless as a wild animal.
After the saint candidates laughed and departed, Ethan shrugged his shoulders.
“I have something to discuss. Let’s go to your chamber.”
The moment he arrived in the chamber, he broached the expected topic.
“I’ve gotten tangled up in something tedious, and you can help me resolve it, right? It’s nothing major.”
“Before that, I want to ask you something first.”
Chloe furrowed her brow and fixed Ethan with a sharp gaze.
“You didn’t accept money and cooperate in the criminal Uriana’s escape, did you? You said you’d met with one of the Night Monastery’s patrons before.”
“What do you take me for? I was building connections to be of help to you, and I’m not stupid enough to do something like that.”
“Who said I’d accept such filthy help?”
At Chloe’s heated voice, Ethan let out a bitter laugh.
“If you cling to righteousness and pride, you’ll only fall behind in the competition and be exiled to a monastery. Will the prince truly save you through marriage if you become ‘defiled’?”
Patrons and sainthood candidates were inseparable in their corrupt entanglement.
Even if I rage against this repugnant reality, there exists no human capable of changing the abuses that even the Imperial Church ignores.
Most people succumb to hackneyed resignation—that it is better to live as a hunter’s hound than to be chased as prey—and have no choice but to accept this worn-out optimism.
“In any case, have them testify that you were with me during that time.”
Ethan had already slipped away from the Inspection Bureau investigator by using Chloe as an excuse.
He had received deployment orders when the Fallen Saint escaped, but it would be problematic in many ways if it were discovered that he had ignored the orders for such a critical incident and gone to the Monastery of Night instead.
“Octavia Ludovisi—that insolent commoner girl framed me, it seems. I wonder what backing she thinks I have, the way she carries on.”
“Who is this patron you’ve met?”
At Chloe’s question, Ethan, who had been boasting alone, snorted.
“Someone. Powerful enough to silence a woman of lowly station who thinks too highly of herself.”
Chloe’s face twisted as she pondered why such a person would approach her brother when there were so many distinguished Saint Consorts to choose from.
“You sold out one of the priests scheduled for execution, didn’t you? One of the priests who served the criminal Uriana.”
Ethan flinched at the direct hit.
Since Uriana never surrendered her people to her patron, he had been invited to the Night Monastery gathering in exchange for delivering two priests whom the patron had long coveted.
He laughed shamelessly.
“Don’t you need someone to do the dirty work? To preserve both your integrity and your ambitions simultaneously.”

***

The entrance to the Monastery of Night.
Before the building, where mist from the surrounding river obscured even the moonlight, two women stood with their faces concealed beneath black lace veils.
The cry of some nameless night bird and the sound of cold wind rustling dry leaves created an even more sinister atmosphere.
“Are you really going through with this? The Night Monastery is a concentration of power that even I couldn’t touch. If even the Ludovisi Representative tried to stop it….”
The woman speaking with worry in her voice was Uriana.
Beneath the lace veil, her silver hair that once reached her waist had been dyed golden and cut into a short bob.
Octavia’s violet eyes gleamed sharply as she lifted her lace veil slightly.
“Codename Apostate Monk—do you lack confidence? A weak human unable to transform fear into thrill should return home.”
“No, no. Since only I know your face, I’ll proceed as instructed.”
I didn’t even know what the codename meant, and though I had heard the explanation of the operation, I still didn’t fully understand it.
But having learned that a survivor from my order—someone I thought had been executed along with all the others—was in the monastery, I couldn’t simply remain idle.
“But… why are you helping me this much?”
The Ludovisi Representative answered, “Because you’re like a daughter to me.” Samuel answered, “Because you’re like a younger sister to me.” And Vittore answered, “Because my sister told me to.”
After all, wasn’t this endeavor initiated by Octavia’s will? I was curious why a person who had received such evil evaluations would undertake righteous work.
Upon receiving the question, Octavia sighed and spoke in a cold voice.
“You need to prove your usefulness—I’m not helping you. Why would I bear such enormous risk without any benefit to rescue you?”
In the original work, the Monastery of Night has its horrific truth exposed by the Imperial Inspectorate, and its patrons, after identifying the declining Ludovisi Family as the mastermind, slip away.
After all the family’s mages are purged, the family’s vast wealth and magical engineering technology are entirely confiscated by the state.
After the Magical Engineering Tower is built using the technology monopolized by the greedy Ludovisi Family, those who receive praise for realizing public benefit are none other than “Prince Dominic and Saint Chloe.”
In the novel’s world, it appears as a moralistic outcome of good rewarded and evil punished, but in reality, it would have become the spark for an enormous world war through technological leakage and misuse.
‘In conclusion, the world’s progress has regressed by a hundred years.’
From the perspective of a former researcher, this was an infuriating absurdity I could not bear.
Octavia, who had been calming her anger, let out a deliberate cough.
“In any case, I simply need to secure the individuals who are absolutely essential to me.”
The examples were Prince Jeriel, whom Octavia had saved and who had inherited the previous Duke’s administrative abilities; Saint Uriana, who possessed the strongest protective barrier among all the Saints; and Logan Ortega Duke, a first-class ability user.
Of course, the primary purpose was to prevent their fated executions, but they were also indispensable for resolving the events that would unfold in the future.
Their departures in the original story would trigger a butterfly effect.
‘I feel like I’ve become a cog in the clockwork that Octavia is constructing.’
Uriana thought to herself as she followed Octavia.
‘Even if I am someone’s cog, if I can help complete something this way, it doesn’t matter.’
After all, Octavia was her chaotic Savior.
As expected, the chapel doors of the Monastery of Night were firmly shut. A knight guarding the old, weathered monastery looked the two women up and down.
“Have you come to pray? Entry is not permitted after nine o’clock at night.”
The Monastery of Night operated like a regular monastery on ordinary days, so there were quite a few visitors who came to attend regular services.
“As one who stands closest to the Gate of Order, I have the right to enter this place whenever I wish.”
When Octavia produced a golden card, the knight’s eyes widened. It was a special credential given only to those among the top five donors.
“I hear the prayers held here are the most sought-after. Take me to Heaven’s Place at once.”
“Of course. We have been waiting for someone of such deep faith as yourself.”
At the arrival of a VVIP, well-dressed attendants rushed out and wrung their hands like flies.
Octavia whispered to Uriana.
“A chance to throw my weight around. Feel free to be as difficult as you like.”

***

Kelsedny Admiral, having regained his senses, was consumed by profound shame at the fact that he had actually purchased flowers for Octavia and presented them to her.
Moreover, he had engaged in embarrassingly affectionate displays right before the eyes of onlookers.
At least it was fortunate that they had publicly established themselves as “official lovers.”
Had he possessed no memory of it, perhaps it would have been bearable, but now the actions performed by that other personality lingered in his mind—hazy, yet undeniably present.
For instance, the expression on Octavia’s face as she accepted the flowers.
The late-night date he had arranged with her.
“…?”
Yet neither the location nor the time had been decided upon.
At that moment, his adjutant Serkan burst through the door with urgency.
“Did you perhaps quarrel with Lady Octavia?”
“Do I appear to be the sort of man who would quarrel with someone so insignificant?”
“There was a report that she visited the Monastery of Night. She is not even a member of the Night Monastery, and she has never set foot there before, but….”
“She may have gone out of curiosity. She is hardly the type to be deceived or dragged away by anyone.”
Even if she had visited that place—a den of licentious social gatherings masquerading as worship among financial and political elites—what concern was it of his? They were not even true lovers.
Yet the Admiral rose from his seat with an impassive expression.
“I shall step out for a brief time.”
“Sir, are you going to the Monastery?”
“I have a date appointment. Do not disturb me.”
It appeared that the Monastery of Night was precisely where his date with Octavia was to take place.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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