The Saintess Is Too Good at Lying - Chapter 107

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

The Saint is Such a Good Liar! Episode 107
“The Cassini Noblewoman has awakened, Your Grace.”
I heard the news the moment I returned to the Grand Cathedral after lessons. I nodded with an unmoved expression.
“How fortunate.”
“Surely you’re not planning to visit her sickbed?”
“Of course not.”
I’d like to return the white lilies I received last time, but I must restrain myself. I’m a merciful person, after all.
“I announced at the last Mass that I was ending all investigations. That’s the finest courtesy I could offer her, isn’t it?”
Had I not done so, Lumiel’s sympathetic support would only have grown stronger.
Everyone would have whispered that she had been a saint, after all—surely she wouldn’t truly practice Demon Worship. How desperate she must have been to drive herself to take her own life.
The Cathedral itself could not have escaped accusations of excessive interrogation.
“This decision was one I persuaded the Archbishop to make. I feared something terrible would happen. So if you have any doubts about this choice, please, direct them at me alone.”
But because I had said it with tears threatening to spill over, everyone accepted it not as evidence of overzealous investigation, but as proof that my heart had simply grown too tender.
Lumiel could never have wanted such a turn of events.
And the next day, Sergio came to find me.
I wondered if he’d come to confront me about not visiting Lumiel’s sickbed—but then…
“A man has appeared claiming to have cared for Lumiel all this time.”
He’d come to deliver startling news.

* * *
Lumiel’s eyelids rose slowly upward.
Sergio, who had been keeping vigil at her side the entire time, let out a breath of relief.
“You’ve awakened.”
“…Brother.”
Lumiel murmured weakly.
“So I’m still alive.”
Sergio’s voice wavered as he asked, “You’re saying you should have died?”
“That would have been better.”
Lumiel spoke flatly, without expression.
“Demon Worshipper. How could I—a former saint—bear such humiliation? It could have brought great ruin upon our entire house.”
“So you tried to end yourself for that reason.”
Sergio exhaled sharply, his voice strained. “I spent seven years searching for you, and when I finally found you, this is what awaited me—the sight of your corpse.”
“…”
“You were truly cruel to me, Lumiel. If you cared for me at all, you could not have done this.”
“Being suspected by you is worse than death.”
Lumiel’s eyes reddened at the brim. Sergio flinched at those words.
“I know everything. You suspect me too, don’t you? That I pushed Her Grace down the Staircase, that I urged Polia toward Demon Worship.”
“Lumiel.”
“Isn’t that so?”
Sergio fell silent for a moment, then shook his head.
“No. How could I suspect you?”
“Even if the whole world doubts me, it’s all right. I only need you to believe in me, Brother.”
Lumiel held his gaze, her eyes fixed directly on his.
Sergio suddenly felt the urge to look away, but he forced himself to hold firm.
“If even you suspect me, Brother, then I have no reason left to live.”
When she spoke with such weight, how could he not—how could he not confess everything he truly felt?
“I don’t suspect you, Lumiel. You’re my sister.”
Sergio took Lumiel’s hand. It was the wrist with bandages wrapped around it.
“But my trust alone isn’t enough. I want everyone to believe in you. For that to happen, yes, the Cathedral’s investigation is concluded, but before you return to Cassini, we should illuminate your movements during those missing years. I believe it’s the right course.”
“…Brother.”
Lumiel murmured with a worried expression.
“What if I bring harm to those people? They’ll see this involvement as shameful in itself.”
“That’s not true. It will certainly prove your innocence. I’ll make sure of it.”
Lumiel fell quiet for a moment, then nodded. She understood, but said she wanted to rest today.
Sergio, of course, agreed. He was already feeling guilty for pressing his sister the moment she’d opened her eyes.
Had Lumiel made a decision, he could wait patiently enough.
And days later, an unfamiliar carriage approached the Cassini Mansion.
“Master, a man calling himself Birely seeks audience with you.”

It was a name he’d never heard before. Sergio, who had been about to refuse, changed his mind at what came next.
“He says he’s been looking after Miss Lumiel all this time.”
Sergio brought him at once to the Reception Room.
Birely was a man of modest height but solid build, and a magnificent mustache caught the eye first.
“Good day to you, Duke Cassini. The lord of Birely Territory offers his respects.”
After Sergio had seated him, he asked:
“You say you looked after my sister?”
“Ah, yes. The child was wandering aimlessly, so I took her in and cared for her.”
“You didn’t know she was my sister?”
“You may not realize it, but Birely Territory is quite remote. I didn’t learn the Saint had disappeared until much later, and even then, I had no way of knowing it was Valena.”
“Valena?”
“Ah, that’s what we called Miss Lumiel in my household. She couldn’t remember her own name, you see.”
Birely is nowhere near the convent, not a distance a child could walk on her own.”
“Well, I couldn’t speak to all those particulars. I simply took in a child with nowhere else to go.”
Birely tilted his shoulder in a shrug as he answered. His manner suggested he knew little of the circumstances of her disappearance and cared even less.
He didn’t strike one as particularly kind-hearted, the sort to take in a destitute child so readily.
That he had appeared just when Lumiel found herself in dire straits seemed almost too convenient.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter.’
What mattered was that Birely could serve as a witness to prove Lumiel’s innocent past.
“I’ll verify this with Lumiel, and if it’s true, I’ll see you’re rewarded.”
“Rewarded?”
“On one condition. I’d like you to go to the Grand Cathedral and testify about Lumiel’s past.”
“Ah.”
Birely clapped his hands together with an exclamation.
“Miss Lumiel is being accused of Demon Worship, isn’t she? Indeed.”
“You’re well-informed.”
“Though Birely is out in the country, a matter as grave as Demon Worship is bound to reach even us.”
As he said this, Birely chuckled. Sergio found his casual tone grating for so serious a matter, but said nothing and continued.
“We’ll need more than your testimony—evidence that Lumiel spent time in Birely Territory.”
“Ah, no need to worry about that. I have plenty.”
Birely’s eyes shifted then.
“But Duke, should I simply hand it over out of the goodness of my heart?”
“Of course not. I said I’d reward you.”
Sergio’s mouth twisted into a lopsided smile, as if he’d expected exactly this.
“What do you want?”
“Well… it’s really…”
Birely smiled faintly and opened his mouth.
“Birely Territory, you see, is not particularly fertile. The poor folk there go hungry more often than not.”
“I’ll send grain and funds to Birely Territory under the guise of emergency aid.”
If sent without justification, it could raise suspicions of witness bribery. Birely’s face brightened at once.
“How generous of you.”
“But you’ll receive payment only after you’ve done everything that’s required of you.”
“Of course. I shall meet with the Archbishop and present my testimony. Or perhaps I might meet with the Saint as well.”
“You’ll meet with the Archbishop. The Saint has nothing to do with this matter.”
Sergio found himself shielding Justitia without quite meaning to.
He already knew the girl had pushed herself to see this investigation through to its conclusion.
If the perception took hold that she’d shown favoritism to Lumiel, it would benefit neither Cassini nor her.
“Understood. By the way, how is Miss Lumiel faring? I heard her condition was critical.”
“Fortunately, her life is not in danger. If you wish, I can ask whether she’d be willing to see you.”
“Ah, I would be most grateful.”
Birely grinned widely and clasped his hands together. Sergio felt an odd unease settle over him.
It was all the more pronounced because Lumiel had agreed to see him, yet her expression had not been bright.
“If you’d rather not, there’s no need to meet him.”
“No, brother. But I think I ought to meet him…”
In the end, Sergio sent Birely to Lumiel with a maidservant in attendance to keep watch.
But Lumiel had sent the maidservant out of the room. The girl said she couldn’t refuse—Lumiel’s manner was too adamant.
The Duke himself gave the order, but leaving an unrelated man alone in a young lady’s chamber troubled him enough that he’d cracked the door open to observe what transpired within…
“That man was coercing the young lady.”
The maidservant shuddered as if the memory still made her blood run cold.

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