I Want To Die One Day Before You - Chapter 3
“Hurry up! It’s really important!”
Brandishing her broom, the maid stomped her foot impatiently.
Alright, let’s see how extraordinary this secret is supposed to be.
In his self-deprecating state, Rufus leaned down toward the maid.
“This is really a secret…”
With her broom lifted like a staff, the maid leaned closer to Rufus’s ear.
“…Actually, I’m a saintess.”
Saintess?
With just that one word, Rufus froze.
A saintess, or a holy woman capable of performing miracles.
Most saints showed their abilities from a young age. Afterward, they were often admitted to prestigious schools or revered in temples. Some even became part of royal families.
Saints were noble beings. From what Rufus knew, saints held high positions.
But now, a mere maid was claiming to be one?
“Are you mocking me?”
“What? No, I’m not.”
“You’re just a maid, aren’t you? If you were really a saint, you wouldn’t be doing these menial tasks. How can you claim to be a saintess?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
The maid turned her head stubbornly.
“In that case, I won’t believe your words either.”
Rufus scoffed.
The maid looked a bit disappointed by Rufus’s obvious disbelief.
“You’re really a skeptical person. Fine, I’ll show you evidence that I’m a saintess.”
The maid dropped the broom she was holding and grabbed Rufus’s sleeve, leading him away.
There was a small storage room not far from Princess Sordid’s palace, used by the servants. Since Princess Sordid had left the palace, no one was currently using the storage room.
“Look closely.”
The maid led Rufus to the back of the storage room and pulled down her apron. Not only that, but she proceeded to unbutton her outer clothing.
“W-What are you doing?”
Rufus was taken aback by the maid suddenly undressing. However, the maid didn’t blush or show any embarrassment.
“You said you can’t believe that I’m a saintess, right? Well, take a look.”
The maid pulled her upper garment down slightly and revealed her shoulder to Rufus. On her shoulder was an unusual pattern.
“This is…!”
Even Rufus, who had never met a saint before, recognized it immediately. It was a pattern he had seen countless times through ancient tomes.
The stigmata of a saint.
It was a unique symbol that appeared on saints.
“You… You really are a saintess?”
Rufus stared at the maid in disbelief.
Why?
Why was a saint, the most revered and noblest presence in the kingdom, barely scraping by in the palace, sweeping dust with a broom?
But the maid didn’t answer that question.
“I told you from the beginning that I was a saintess. If you had believed me in the first place, how nice would it have been? I didn’t need to undress like this.”
The maid grumbled as she started to tidy up her clothes again. However, Rufus couldn’t pay much attention to her grumpy tone.
“What about your unique magic?”
“Pardon?”
“What unique magic do you use? What abilities do you have? What miracles can you perform?”
Rufus quickly questioned the maid.
Each saint possessed unique abilities that only they could use. For example, the ability to turn back time, the ability to annihilate everything, or the ability to infallibly detect lies. These special abilities that saints possessed were referred to as their ‘unique magic’.
So, what was the unique magic this maid possessed?
The maid smiled mischievously.
“I told you, didn’t I? You won’t die until the expedition is over.”
Ah.
Rufus stood still, his thoughts coming to a sudden halt.
Could it be?
“…Do you have the ability to see the future?”
“Oh my, it would be really nice if I could know everything about the future, but that’s not it.”
The maid giggled and tilted her head.
“Then, you can foretell people’s deaths…?”
“I know, I know. It sounds quite ominous, doesn’t it? But that’s really my unique magic. I can glimpse into people’s deaths.”
As Rufus’s face stiffened like a dried-up broom in the sunlight, the maid hastily added an explanation.
“I’ll make a prophecy for you. You won’t die on the battlefield. So, don’t worry.”
“I really… won’t die?”
Rufus stuttered.
A glimmer of hope somehow became visible to him.
He had thought for sure he would die once he joined the expedition. But now, this saint was foreseeing a completely different future for him.
Not dying.
Then, perhaps…
Gulp.
Rufus swallowed hard.
“Yes, so cheer up. You don’t need to write a farewell letter or will, or anything.”
