The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 57
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Chapter 57】
“Y-you want me to go to a funeral?”
Yuna gasped.
Of course, it wasn’t strange for her as a Saint to attend a funeral.
It would mean reciting a eulogy to comfort the deceased and their bereaved families.
Death is one of the few intense emotions humans experience in life.
Since many people who lose loved ones often find solace in religion and join the order, she understood that the Religious Order would want to send clergy to the joint funeral service.
“I really don’t want to go. The eulogy doesn’t have to be given by me. Can’t you send another priest?”
She wanted to avoid anything related to the accident, whatever it might be.
She wanted to remain like someone unrelated to that incident.
Nevertheless, the reason she ended up going was.
“You’re saying the Former Empress’s story comes up there? Why?”
She heard that strange rumors were circulating at the accident site.
‘The Special Tax Bureau makes sense. They said they handled the site directly.’
But why would the name of a woman who died three years ago come up?
The reason was soon revealed.
“A secret account?”
‘Why does that come up there?’
The reason the Arman Bank Vice President could brainwash Norman with ‘holy water’ was because he had Yuna’s permission to manufacture the holy water.
The reason Yuna chose Arman Bank among so many banks was.
‘Because the money is there.’
She knew that the Former Empress’s secret account was at Arman Bank.
‘Why would a dead person need all that money?’
It would be better for her, who was alive, to use it for better purposes.
So she tried to brainwash Norman to take over the account. Since it was an account whose depositor had died, she thought there would be no trouble no matter how she used it.
[No… can’t… that must go to, the Empress…]
No matter how much holy water she fed him, Norman only repeated that it couldn’t be done.
So she was half giving up.
But that account’s money was being distributed to the Empire’s citizens under the name of ‘the Former Empress’s benevolence’?
‘My money!’
Yuna trembled while clenching her fists.
Thinking it was money she could have had, she was so frustrated that tears even trickled down.
The Emperor comforted Yuna while subtly inciting her with his voice.
“That’s right. Truly foolish beyond measure. They’re praising the Former Empress, bewitched by the money President Rikel distributed.”
You must set things right.
“Aren’t you a Saint who comforts and consoles people?”
There was also pressure from within the Religious Order.
“It seems Saint must go personally.”
“Why me…! I’m not the only clergy member in the Religious Order.”
“The atmosphere within the Religious Order is not good.”
Yuna ignored other priests’ words, but she couldn’t ignore the Cardinal who made her a Saint.
“Some priests within the Religious Order are doubting Saint’s sacred power. They’re wondering if this disaster happened because Saint’s prophetic power disappeared.”
The reason ordinary human Yuna could become a Saint in this world was because this world was a book world to her.
Yuna told them about future events she knew and made several prophecies come true, showing that she was chosen by God.
‘But now there’s no future I know.’
Yuna had released much information to establish herself in this world.
As a result, this world no longer flowed according to the future Yuna knew.
Since she had no power to predict the future of the changed world, it was natural for Yuna to be suspected.
‘Even so, this is too much.’
“Are you going to kick me out now?”
You stayed quiet when the religious influence expanded thanks to me.
Now you’ll abandon me because my utility value has decreased?
“The atmosphere is that serious. But if Saint goes to the funeral and shows herself comforting people, won’t the other priests think differently?”
Whatever the true intention, she had to show such an appearance on the surface to shed the image of ‘causing trouble and then pretending not to know.’
“You’ll be fine. Aren’t you the Empire’s only Saint? Other priests will prepare the eulogy, so Saint just needs to attend and comfort those who need consolation.”
Yuna was persuaded.
‘R-right. That’s right. I’m just a symbolic existence anyway.’
Yuna comforted herself that way.
‘It’ll be okay. I’m the protagonist!’
Her real name was Shin Yuna.
In the original world, she was a long-term job seeker.
College classmates who started job hunting together had already become assistant managers and managers, but she was still a job seeker.
She didn’t want to tell her parents about her situation of receiving allowance money under the excuse of going to interviews, so she cut contact with her classmates.
With fewer outings and her family treating her pathetically, she became isolated even at home.
But here, there were plenty of people who loved and revered her just for existing.
Only by staying here could she remain as ‘Saint Yuna’ instead of being nothing like Shin Yuna.
“Alright.”
Yuna made her decision.
* * *
Since it was a funeral held to commemorate the deceased, it should be solemn.
But people only kept their mouths shut while looking at the Saint with unfavorable gazes.
‘She didn’t show her face when the situation was being handled.’
‘Did she come to take credit now that all the dirty work is resolved?’
The sacred robes the Saint wore were also irritating.
Weren’t they too fancy clothes for commemorating the deceased?
Still, since she was someone who came to represent the Religious Order, they were enduring it.
“Everything is merely a trial that God gave to foolish humans. We must learn to humbly accept and endure…”
The eulogy’s phrases grated on people’s nerves.
A mother who had lost her daughter stood up abruptly.
“God’s trial? Then are you saying God ordered them to set up the oil cauldron?”
“No, what I mean isn’t that, but since life and death aren’t in human hands, let’s leave it to God’s will-”
“So you’re going to blame God for all responsibility? You, who are called a Saint?”
Only then did Yuna raise her head on the platform.
She saw the crowd she had been trying to avoid.
Gazes filled with anger and dissatisfaction, on the verge of exploding.
Yuna flinched then came to her senses. She knew that if she backed down or showed a deflated appearance here, she’d be overwhelmed by their momentum.
“I think you’re mistaken about something, but the noodle factory isn’t mine. It’s a state enterprise to begin with…”
“Documents have been confirmed showing that Saint contracted the site for the purpose of factory expansion.”
Then the woman in the front row spoke.
She looked somehow familiar.
‘Isn’t that the woman from the Special Tax Bureau?’
The Team Leader.
Yuna swallowed the curse that was about to burst out.
This was because those already irritating Special Tax Bureau people had presented irrefutable evidence.
“No, that’s….”
However, the crowd didn’t even give Yuna a chance to make excuses.
“I heard there was an accident while trying to convert the dried noodle business to fried noodles, and you’re the one who gave that order, right Saint?”
“Please answer us, Saint!”
“Saint!”
The voices pouring from all directions and the hands reaching out were chilling.
She had anticipated that something like this could happen, but actually dealing with it was a different matter.
Yuna’s mind went completely blank as her lips trembled violently. She barely managed to scrape her throat to make a sound.
“I, I only provided the general direction!”
That’s not even my fault, is it?
That was just a ‘mistake.’
“I never ordered anyone to put fresh noodles into boiling oil in the first place!”
Anyway, it’s not my fault.
“I never told them to hang the iron cauldron near the wooden pillars either!”
In any case, it’s not my fault.
However, Yuna’s face-saving attitude only further provoked the crowd.
“My goodness, so what the Factory Manager said was true?”
Until now, they had only half-believed it.
“When the Factory Manager went to explain the situation, you immediately washed your hands of it saying it wasn’t your business?”
“I also heard you pushed all the responsibility onto the young Princess.”
She may be called a Princess, but she’s only a twelve-year-old child!
“How can a person be so shameless?”
“Why did you even come here? To take credit belatedly?”
“I, I was just….”
Yuna lost her words and stammered.
Her mouth went completely dry and her tongue stiffened.
But she had neither the fortitude to withstand the overwhelming anger of the crowd, nor the eloquent speaking ability to calm their fury.
“Aaah!”
She screamed and ran away from the scene.
Even in the midst of this, knowing she would look pathetic, anger and shame surged within her.
‘I’m, I’m the Saint.’
I’m the protagonist in this world, so how can they blame me?
She also resented the Special Tax Bureau person who had exposed her shameful acts.
‘As if they’re so clean themselves!’
She had merely made a mistake.
Don’t all people make mistakes?
‘It’s not like I killed them on purpose!’
Along with resentment, doubts also arose.
Starting from losing the priest who was her right-hand man due to the Princess Palace embezzlement case, she strangely felt entangled with that woman.
‘She’s not going to keep tormenting me, is she?’
* * *
Although there had been various incidents, this case was also coming to a close.
The factory was being built, and people were preparing to return to their daily lives.
Rianel would be included among those ‘people.’
But then.
“Shouldn’t Team Leader be going to work now?”
Why was she suddenly being summoned by the Empress Dowager out of the blue?
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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