Isn’t Being A Wicked Woman Much Better? - Chapter 198

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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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Side Story 15
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That night.
Deep within the Grand Temple, in the Sanctuary, a secret purification ritual for the Saint was conducted. The knights and guards she had brought also kept a vigilant watch around the Sanctuary.
“Saint, what of the sacred relic?”
The Pope arrived at the Sanctuary as dawn broke, and Deborah Simour pressed her temples with weary fingers. To anyone watching, things clearly were not progressing well.
“That is… Saint. I do not mean to rush you, but I must ask—might you be able to complete the purification by the full moon of this month?”
With a grand annual ceremony approaching, he asked while attempting to conceal his anxiety, and the Princess opened her mouth as if to speak, her lips moving slightly before she pressed them firmly shut.
“Saint… is there something you wish to say?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
But it certainly seemed like something. She had clearly been about to say something.
“Please, speak freely! The Temple stands entirely with you. We will spare no effort in providing support.”
As he pressed further, her violet eyelashes trembled delicately as if she were wrestling with something profound.
“Then…”
She drew out the moment with such gravity that the Pope found himself swallowing hard without realizing it.
“Could you provide me with healing stones?”
“…!”
The Pope’s pupils quivered rapidly with shock at such an unexpected request. Healing stones were mystical rocks imbued with sacred power, and few even knew of their existence.
‘They are minerals found only in the mines within the Heleia Autonomous Region, so it’s natural outsiders would know nothing of them.’
The Temple held a monopoly on healing stones, and with the annual yield being so meager, they were distributed as treasures according to rank.
‘But why would the Saint need healing stones?’
Priests used healing stones to amplify or recover their sacred power.
However, the immense sacred power the Saint had displayed in her final confrontation with the Demon had reached all the way to Heleia, far from the Capital. Moreover, she had wielded such intense, sun-like holiness not once but twice.
Honestly, the Saint asking for healing stones was no different than a dragon asking for mana stones because it lacked magical power.
‘Could it be… that something has gone wrong with her sacred power?’
It suddenly occurred to him that Deborah Simour’s continued avoidance of the Temple’s summons might be connected to this. After all, they could demand she demonstrate her holiness.
Though his mind churned with various speculations, the Pope simply acknowledged her request.
“How many healing stones do you require, Saint?”
“The more I have, the better, to shorten the purification time.”
Reluctant to part with his finest healing stones, the Pope collected those from his subordinates and handed them to her.
And the next day.
“I need more.”
The Saint secretly requested healing stones once again.
By the third day, the Pope had no choice but to produce even his high-grade healing stones.
“Thank you for keeping your word about providing whatever support I needed. I must redouble my efforts as well.”
As the Saint spoke thus, wiping her darkened eyes as if to show her dedication, he could not bring himself to say he could provide no more support.
‘Surely she won’t use up all the sacred power contained within those healing stones.’
That night, the Pope went to bed with an inexplicably aching heart, only to awaken with a violent start in the dead of night.
BOOM!
A massive explosion suddenly erupted from outside his quarters.
“Your Holiness! Intruders have appeared in the Grand Temple!”
Soon after, pallid priests came rushing to the Pope’s chambers.
“Intruders?!”
Crash—bang!
This time, the sound of something collapsing shook the very earth. Fearing the Temple building itself might crumble, the Pope threw on his outer robe and hurriedly evacuated outside.
“That… that person!”
The Pope gasped in horror. It was Maurice, the priest he had appointed as bishop not long ago…!
“How in the world did that abomination infiltrate the Temple?! The Holy Knights maintain strict vigilance, and we inspect everyone’s identity through holy water each time!”
It was an extraordinarily vile Demon. And Maurice, now bearing demonic horns, was being relentlessly pummeled by Saint Naila, who had him by the collar and gave him no chance to breathe.
* * *
From the start, Isidore had disapproved of my journey to Heleia. He suspected that if any remnants of the treacherous Black Magic Faction remained, they would likely be in Heleia.
“It appears there are forces in Heleia inciting the people, Your Holiness.”
“What sort of incitement?”
“They claim that Saint Naila should bestow her divine grace not only upon the Capital but also upon Heleia. After all, the Grand Temple is located there, and it is also Saint Naila’s birthplace.”
“Hmm…”
“On the surface it seems plausible, but there’s an excessive fervor to it.”
“The fact that they’re deliberately spreading such sentiment to incite the people means…”
“Yes. They may be testing how we respond.”
“But why would they do that?”
“This is merely my conjecture, but perhaps an insider who noticed the sacred artifacts’ luster dimming assumed that the young lady’s condition is also abnormal?”
“…!”
“Furthermore, from my experience, the Black Mages are quite adept at exploiting the principle that the darkest place lies beneath the lamp.”
“So the Temple is a prime blind spot.”
“Yes. As an autonomous region, the Empire cannot dispatch military forces there without special cause.”
“However, one must pass through holy water inspection to enter and exit the Temple…”
“Still, it’s better to be cautious a hundred times over. Please, never leave my side.”
“Very well.”
I had thought surely no mad Demon would dare traverse the Temple’s halls, yet the Thought Entity’s words amounted to confirmation of Isidore’s suspicions.
-Always remember: where there is light, there is shadow.
-Indeed, it seems something suspicious has slipped into the Temple.
He offered no rebuttal to Isidore’s words, instead affirming them with a subtle wave of energy.
‘He essentially handed me the entire revelation that a Black Mage had infiltrated the Temple.’
Thus, the moment I returned to the Temple, I quickly hid the rosary, now restored to pristine white.
‘I’ll continue to feign that the sacred artifacts remain compromised.’
So that the vile remnants lurking within the Temple would perceive this moment as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
‘My divine power has genuinely weakened, and since I’ve been conserving my strength, they’ll find me easier to deceive.’
Furthermore, my deliberate delays regarding the purification ritual and my continued demands for healing stones from the Pope served two purposes.
First, to subtly reveal that my divine power was in poor condition.
‘The Pope likely won’t bother hiding this fact.’
The Temple harbored a duality: they wished to remain on good terms with the Saint, yet they secretly hoped her radiance would dim even slightly. After all, they had repeatedly responded too late whenever Black Mages or Demons appeared, and they faced criticism for insisting a false saint was genuine.
‘And they even slashed the donations.’
As expected, the Pope didn’t immediately hand over his own high-grade healing stone. Instead, he used the purification ritual as a pretext to confiscate the healing stones from his subordinates first.
‘And second.’
To make the hidden remnants anxious.
I calculated that something desperate—fearing I might obtain the Pope’s high-grade healing stone and regain my strength—would come to this place to ambush me.
“So it was you. Your name was… Maurice, wasn’t it?”
As expected, a suspicious figure appeared prowling late at night. Before the secret door connected to the goddess statue within the Sanctuary.
‘In reality, only the doll Michèle gifted me sits alone in the Sanctuary.’
The entrance connecting to the massive goddess statue looked like a sewer grate on the surface, which was precisely why the guards I brought didn’t maintain proper surveillance there.
‘In fact, I deliberately didn’t station anyone.’
Instead, I distributed short-range teleportation scrolls marked with this location’s coordinates to my allies standing around the Sanctuary. They could rush here the moment I gave the signal.
“This was once my homeland, and you thought only you knew about the secret passage entrance to the Sanctuary?”
Maurice, who had been surveying his surroundings with that characteristic smiling face, grotesquely twisted only his lips into a grimace as I approached, his eyes still appearing to smile.
“Wait, please. Why are you suddenly doing this? Saint Naila!”
“You’re the one prowling around this place in the middle of the night. That’s suspicious.”
“I just couldn’t sleep, so I was taking a brief walk…”
“Creatures like you need a good beating to come to your senses.”
Just as I had done with Miya, I seized his arm and injected holy power into him.
“Krraaaaaaagh!”
Only then did the smile fade from his eyes as his face twisted demonically, his skin melting away as horns began sprouting from his forehead.
‘So it was a mid-tier Demon—that’s why it could withstand the holy water.’
I was inwardly astonished. This was quite a significant specimen.
“Grrr—! How did you know?!”
The Demon groaned in agony as it questioned me.
“You were constantly grinning from the start. That was suspicious.”
According to Naila’s memories, Demons disguising themselves as humans often smiled excessively like this to gain favor.
‘They don’t understand human expressions with all their complex emotions, so they just smile and hope for the best.’
But on the day it came to escort me, even when my father glared at it with such venomous intensity, it failed to read the atmosphere and kept grinning foolishly.
‘Something about it just didn’t seem right.’

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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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