Irene Decided to Die - Chapter 58
“I will not tolerate anyone who doubts the goddess. Sir Patterson, you will fast and patrol for the next two weeks.”
It happened before anyone else could intervene.
There was no response from Patterson. He had already fainted.
“When he wakes up, make sure he gets my message.”
“Yes, Captain!”
Several Holy Knights answered promptly, their expressions tense.
Although there had been some uncertainty before, this incident made things clear. Allen intended to support and uphold the current Saintess, appointed by the goddess.
This left the others with few choices.
“We must follow the Captain.”
“Right, what does it matter if she bears an ominous symbol? She is the most remarkable Saintess.”
“Exactly.”
With most of them now siding with Irene, the situation would change once Patterson woke up.
* * *
In the darkness, red eyes gleamed. But they were so small and dim that no one noticed him.
“The Saintess.”
The owner of the red eyes observed the situation a bit longer before retreating.
He didn’t possess any remarkable abilities, which is why they hadn’t detected him.
“Her eye color is just like mine?”
And yet, she’s called the Saintess. The boy ran a hand through his dirty gray hair and looked back at the Saintess.
‘That’s the color of demons.’
An ominous color, the mark of demons. And yet, she’s the Saintess.
When he first heard the rumors, he had doubted it, but everything was true.
‘So, what happens now?’
The boy’s eyes darted around.
People with red eyes and black hair had always been persecuted for bearing the mark of demons. Some were even abandoned as newborns.
But now, a Saintess with red eyes and black hair appeared!
Naturally, his mind was in turmoil.
‘I need to tell someone about this.’
The boy quietly slipped out of the bushes and felt his way down the dark path.
He wanted to run out of the village and spread the news immediately, but there were too many watchers tonight.
So, he decided to wait a little longer. The boy crept back into the old stable where he usually stayed.
It was dirty and smelly, but at least it had a roof.
‘Or is it really livable?’
As he sat there in a daze, someone suddenly opened the stable door and walked in.
The smell of alcohol hit his nose. It was the village chief’s delinquent son, who always carried a liquor bottle.
He had a nasty habit of coming to the stable to beat the boy whenever he returned home drunk.
“Trash. Where’s that piece of trash hiding!”
The big young man swung the bottle around, searching the stable.
‘Ugh, what bad luck.’
The boy quickly hid between the hay, curling up his body. If he had known this would happen, he would have slept outside tonight.
The young man called for the boy several times, flailing his limbs, but eventually slipped on some manure and hit his head on the ground.
“Passed out?”
Though the quiet was welcome, if anyone found out, the boy would be blamed and beaten again.
Sighing, the boy started cleaning up after the young man.
Far outside the village, on a distant hill, a woman clicked her tongue while peering through a telescope.
“Quite the surveillance.”
“Well, it’s the Saintess’s pilgrimage,”
answered a young man next to her, whittling a branch with a knife. The woman irritably messed up her hair.
“Yeah, the Saintess! The great Saintess! I want to see her!”
“She’s the saint, you can’t really just simply go see her.”
“But everyone else is seeing her!”
“Blame your red eyes if you’re upset.”
The woman’s eyes, glaring back at him, were a vivid red. The young man responding also had the same bright red eyes.
“It’s just too intriguing. They say this Saintess has all the ominous symbols.”
“That’s what they say. But to know for sure, we’d have to see her ourselves.”
“Ugh, I’m so curious. So curious!”
“You can’t just barge in and ask to see the Saintess, can you? The temple hates red eyes and black hair, Adlen.”
“As if they’re the only ones.”
The woman, Adlen, smirked sarcastically.
“The humans forsaken by the goddess, a cursed race, an ominous symbol. Even regular people freak out when they see us, Eugene.”
“A cursed race. In the end, we’re still human.”
The young man, Eugene, put down the branch he was whittling and sighed.
“I wish we were real demons with power. Then I’d kill them all.”
Adlen ground her teeth.
“That’s why we’ve joined forces with others.”
“Yes, exactly.”
They gathered the persecuted into a group. Their desires were not grand.
A bed to sleep in like ordinary people, one meal a day, and a job.
But the world denied them even that. So, they slipped into the back alleys and fell into corruption.
“What did Lucy say?”
“That heretic? She just asked to confirm the Saintess’s location.”
“They’re crazy too. Saying they’ll kill the Saintess and create a new world. That’s impossible.”
“And yet, we’re pinning our hopes on it.”
Adlen fell silent at Eugene’s words.
