Your Highness, The Lady You’ve Abandoned IS the Saintess!

 

Ah, I’m exhausted.

Apparently, being chosen as the saintess means that I will promptly be made to attend various kinds of ceremonies such as purification rites, parades, an audience with his majesty, the king, among other things.

My father was all boisterous upon hearing the news, while my mother, on the other hand, fainted due to the sheer excitement of it. My two older brothers were just all disdainful of the precious orb, wondering whether my doubtful faculties are worthy of the undertaking.

Fret not, dearest brothers, I am the one who doubts the selection the most.

Now then, being chosen as the saintess indeed, I wonder what should I be doing onwards.

By the by, the kingdom does not have any privilege to restrain the saintesses, and their freedom is considerably guaranteed. The only thing important to them is to keep the saintess within the country, and as long as that is maintained, they do not see any reason to lock her up within the royal castle, nor to throw her off towards the temple.

The only problem about all this, really, would be—

 

‘You must be kidding! All these, in just a single day?’

—The mountains of marriage proposal letters waiting for me at home. Our parlor is overflowing with papers and their accompaniment gifts.

Most of the saintesses are taken away by the royal family, while I had just got my engagement with Maynard broken by him recently. The gentlemen likely saw the opportunity as a chance for themselves and saw it fit to send all sorts of tributes one after another. In the face of such overflowing generosity, I could do nothing but watch.

It has only been a single day since the verification, so it makes me wonder what awaits me tomorrow.

The maids tasked to arrange the flowers are screaming at their arrival now, and because their numbers far surpass the available flower base to contain them, all sorts of cups and pots are used instead, resulting in our entire house being overwhelmed by all kinds of scents. When exposed to excessive amounts, even the lovely smell of flowers turns the nose foul.

‘You. Head back to our state for a while.’

Now out with one of my brother’s orders, and I was seriously considering doing just that.

I mentioned earlier that I would like to live in a convent, but the admissions of saintesses are unlikely to be allowed. Of course, I can always force my will, but then there’s the issue of the balance of power between the state and the religion, I think? So for reasons hinting politically, the kingdom does not want to hand over the saintess to the church.

If I spoke of my intention of living in a convent, my father, my two brothers, and even his majesty the king, will do everything in their power to convince me otherwise. I’m not so cold as to force my way to asceticism in the face of their protests. I mean, I was pretty satisfied at beholding Maynard’s astonished face already, and thanks to becoming a saintess, I certainly no longer need to compromise myself to a wretched marriage.

However, sorting all these successive letters and gifts are looking terribly tedious, so maybe I should just stay in our estate for a while.

‘Could the both of you please inform me when there are proposals from fine gentlemen with agreeable features then?’

When I told them of my condition for a self-imposed exile, their steady glances looked as though they were beholding a severely hopeless child.

‘Are they really fine with this—’

Stop! You need not to finish it!

I was also thinking the same thing!