Chapter 12: Marianne’s Comeback
Marianne returns to the temple in a good mood and is greeted by an exhausted king and his soldiers, Lute and Sylphia, standing close together.
The king turned his head and refused to make eye contact with Marianne. Despite her discomfort, Marianne still believed that the King intended to execute Sylphia.
“Now that his Majesty the King is here, it will make things easier.”
The king, Antonio, Lute and Sylphia herself knew that Sylphia was a decoration.
The real Saint had returned to the temple. All she have to do is to stand tall. Sylphia’s place is no longer there.
In fact, Sylphia looks pale with a fearful look at Marianne.
Sylphia could clearly see the miasma that clung to Marianne. It covered her entire body, almost obscuring even Marianne’s face.
Marianne mistook her fear of the miasma as fear that her position was in danger.
(But it’s too late to be afraid and reflect on yourself.)
Marianne smiles triumphantly.
“Sylphia, you’re out of here. Take off that robe. It was too good for you.”
When Sylphia takes off her robe and becomes a simple girl again. That is when Sylphia will be executed for impersonating the saint.
But what Sylphia says in her frightened state is much more unexpected than Marianne could have imagined.
“No, um… it seems I am the true Saint…”
The people around her felt as if they could hear the air freeze.
A few seconds of silence.
“What?”
Marilianne’s voice, which sounded as if it was being squeezed out of her, was filled with anger and was cold to the point of being frightening.
The others could see the hatred that surged through Marianne’s body.
“The spirits… Valtis-sama and Titia-sama have acknowledged that I am the Saint.”
Marilianne gives a distorted laugh to the murmuring surroundings.
“Are you still talking like that? You are my substitute and you’re so brazen to take my place…”
“Please, listen to me, Marianne-sama. If Marianne-sama admits her sins, she will surely be forgiven…”
Sylphia’s words were sincerely concerned about Marianne, but to Marianne they sounded like an insult.
“Sin, what sin?!”
“Please, Marianne-sama! Please believe in the spirits! If you don’t, you’ll be—”
“Who do you think I am!”
She raises her arm and slaps Sylphia on the cheek. It doesn’t stop there, the temple echoing again and again with a dry clang.
“Stop it, Marianne!”
“Let go of me!”
Lute rushes in and holds Marianne down while Marianne is grabbing Sylphia by the hair and trying to pull her down.
Sylphia’s cheeks were swollen and she continued to tearfully appeal to Marianne, who struggled with Lute.
“Marianne-sama… There are so many beautiful things in the world. But when we forget to appreciate them, they become deceiving. Please realize it, before it’s too late!”
“I’ve had enough of your sermons!”
Marianne exclaims, her hair a mess and her eyes bloodshot.
“You pretended to be a Saint, insulted the real Saint, misled people, and once raised your hand against me, the Saint! Now, Your Majesty—”
Marianne looked at the king. But the King just stared at Marianne with a hopeless look on his face.
Marianne did not understand what he meant. Only a few hours ago they had agreed that Sylphia would be executed.
(Lute-sama must have said something…)
The king is no longer of any use.
Marianne turned on Antonio with a fury of hatred.
Antonio wanted to run away at the sight of his fiancee, but the people they had brought with them would not allow it. They are now watching with bated breath to see what happens next. What had been done here would spread throughout the royal capital.
He did not want to execute Sylphia anymore, but he cannot say that he forgives Sylphia now. That would be admitting that they were wrong… Antonio, caught between a rock and a hard place, stopped to think.
“Antonio-sama!”
“W-We hereby declare the execution of the false Saint Sylphia!”
“!”
Marianne’s angry voice makes Antonio raise his voice as well.
Sylphia crumples to the ground. Lute hugs Sylphia’s shoulder, who is shedding tears, but a somber look appears on his face as well.
The king looked up at the ceiling as if his soul had flown away and muttered, “It’s all over.”
(What in the world is this?).
Marianne’s high pitched laugh echoes at the pitiful sight of Lute and Sylphia.
Antonio, however, senses something ominous in the King’s inexplicable attitude. After all, ever since Sylphia had made the roses grow, all the wheels have been turning.
(No way, she really is—)
As if in response to Antonio’s fears.
A gust of wind blows. A childish voice arrives, drowning in the wind.
[Titia, I didn’t understand it because it was too difficult.]
[Valtis, you should study human language a little more…]
And then, after the wind died down, a strange shape appeared.
Thanks for the chapter.