The Possessed Evil Woman Wreaks Havoc - Chapter 42

After Gabby left, I fell into deep thought for a long time.

What he said earlier kept bothering me.

Should I go visit the Graham estate?

I considered it for a moment but then shook my head. Even if Daphne had lived to be a hundred years old, it had been roughly four hundred years since her death.

Enough time for her remains to have turned to dust and leave no trace behind. What difference would it make now to learn anything?

“Miss, would you like more grapes?”

“No, you can eat the rest or throw them away.”

Jessie, hearing my response, started munching on the grapes. Then, as if she remembered something, she spoke to me.

“Oh, by the way, Miss. Did you know that recently, statues in the temple have been found shattered? The priests are in a frenzy over it.”

“Hmm. Is that so? That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” I replied nonchalantly.

“Oh, it’s just dreadful. The priests think it’s demon worshippers sneaking into the temple and breaking the statues. Isn’t that terrifying? Demon worshippers… how horrible!”

Jessie spoke with exaggerated horror, and I responded to her calmly.

“I see.”

“Miss, please be careful for a while. Don’t wander the temple alone.”

I didn’t need to be careful. After all, I was the one breaking the statues.

Demon worshippers, they said. It was the demon herself who had shattered them.

After disguising myself as an angel, they had made statues in my image, calling me “Archangel Isabella.” Naturally, I couldn’t just leave those lying around.

Whenever I spotted a statue of “Archangel Isabella,” I smashed it to pieces. To avoid suspicion from the priests about why only one specific angel’s statues were being destroyed, I also smashed any nearby statues of other angels.

Each time I destroyed another statue, it felt as if a weight was lifted from my shoulders.

But that wasn’t the point.

There was something else I needed to ask Jessie.

“So, about what I asked you to find out.”

“Oh, right! One moment.”

Jessie pulled out a folded piece of paper from her pocket.

“I got this after questioning the maids at the estate. First, the duke… they say he locked himself in his office all day after hearing the news.”

I had asked Jessie to gather reactions after news spread that Isabella had become the saintess.

Part of it was to deal with anyone who became suspicious, but mainly, I was just curious. I wanted to see how people would respond.

“As for the young master… um. He attended a banquet recently, and they say there was a lot of talk about you. People were saying that it couldn’t be true, that the temple must have made a mistake.”

Then, apparently, Gabby, drunk out of his mind, flipped a table.

“These bastards dared to talk about our family troublemaker? Do you have a death wish? If that’s what you want, I’ll make sure you carry your heads home as a decoration.”

“The kind of ruckus he caused… honestly, the young master sometimes seems like a street thug.”

It wasn’t something a servant should say about their master. Jessie realized her mistake and glanced at me nervously.

Since I agreed with her opinion that Gabby was like a street thug, I pretended not to notice.

Jessie hurriedly continued, “Anyway, doesn’t that show the young master’s true feelings for you, Miss?”

“True feelings?”

“He defended you in front of all those people!”

“Ah.” I nodded and said, “Right. I know well enough.”

The reason Gabby acted that way was obvious.

“Gabby used me as an excuse to fulfill his desire to cause trouble. He wanted to make a scene, so he pretended to be defending me.”

“…I don’t think that’s it.”

Jessie objected to my words.

“It’s just that he’s overshadowed by your reputation, but the young master is quite something too. If he wanted to make a scene, he’d do it openly. He wouldn’t need an excuse.”

Jessie explained that thanks to the “mad dog of high society” barking so loudly, people had overlooked the “crazy chimpanzee of high society” flailing its arms.

“Forget what the young master said earlier. About not wanting you to be enjoying a comfortable life outside the house—that was just his way of saying he wanted you to come home because he cares about you.”

“Nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense! Miss, did you know that you and the young master are truly kindred spirits? Sometimes I think Madam had you two just so you’d be friends.”

Me and Gabby? I frowned deeply.

“That’s nonsense too.”

“Oh, come on. Trust me. The young master was just too shy to say it directly.”

Was that so? Jessie’s voice was so full of conviction that I began to feel confused.

“Honestly, I can’t understand why you two were on bad terms before. You know, before your memory got strange, Miss,” Jessie muttered, seemingly talking to herself.

It sounded like she was talking about the real Isabella…

“I must’ve had a bad personality back then.”

I made up an excuse, but Jessie tilted her head.

“With all due respect, isn’t your personality now not that great either, Miss? So I don’t think it makes sense that your bad personality was the reason you two didn’t get along.”

“…You’re right.”

“See? It was a pretty sharp observation, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, but you were cheeky. As punishment, peel all those grapes over there.”

“Yes, Miss…”

Jessie sat down and started peeling grapes.

I mulled over Jessie’s words.

So Gabby felt something like sibling affection for me now?

That was good news. The more Gabby thought of me warmly, the more likely he’d regret the way he treated Isabella in the past.

…Right. That was enough.

***

The next day.

The chapel was filled with people listening to the high priest’s sermon. I was among them.

“The Celestial God is always watching over us from the heavens.”

The high priest’s voice echoed through the chapel.

I yawned loudly. I had lost count of how many times I’d yawned.

“Miss, please!” Jessie, sitting beside me, whispered urgently into my ear.

“But just listening to his voice makes me drowsy.”

“Miss!”

“And he has an annoying face too.”

I figured I might as well close my eyes, if only to protect my vision. I muttered with half-closed eyes.

The only reason I was staying awake was that I didn’t want to be seen sleeping and defenseless in such a crowded place. Otherwise, I would’ve been asleep by now.

Blackie, lying at my feet, had already dozed off, using the high priest’s sermon as a lullaby, and was snoring softly.

“…The high priest’s sermons are known to be quite boring, but still, you shouldn’t yawn so loudly! Everyone here is watching you, Miss!”

News of my attendance had brought twice the usual number of nobles, all eager to catch a glimpse of the new saintess.

‘No wonder the high priest begged me to attend the service.’

He had pestered me so much that I finally agreed, but I never imagined the sermon would be this dull. If I’d known, I would never have accepted.

“And what do you mean by an annoying face…? I think the high priest has a rather kind appearance.”

I half-agreed with Jessie. The high priest did have a gentle face. Which made it all the more inexplicable why I felt a vague sense of unease every time I looked at him.

Maybe it was just instinct, hating the leader of the Celestial God’s followers.

I dismissed the thought.

Glancing toward the back of the chapel, I saw the duke and Gabby among the nobles. When Gabby met my eyes, he mouthed words at me.

‘Come home right now.’

For a moment, I wanted to stick out my tongue at him.

Something I would’ve done when I was forty… Luckily, I stopped myself before acting on it and settled for a smirk instead.

All the priests seemed to be gathered in the chapel. Even though I wasn’t particularly sensitive to divine power, it was enough to make my skin crawl.

‘Ugh. This is unpleasant.’

Divine power had that irritatingly pure quality to it. I’d probably get used to it if exposed long enough, but it’s not like I’d ever be around it constantly.

Then I noticed an unusually strong concentration of divine power coming from one corner of the chapel.

Turning my head, I saw a man with silver hair wearing a paladin’s uniform. I tilted my head as I looked at him.

“Jessie. Do you know who that man is? He looks familiar.”

“Hm? Oh! It’s him! That’s the man we met at the information guild, remember? I had no idea he was a paladin!”

It dawned on me why I had felt that strange sense of familiarity.

The sunlight streaming through the windows hit the man’s silver hair, creating a radiant halo around him. He looked almost holy. Like something straight out of a religious text.

‘Ugh.’

I suppressed a feeling of disgust.

Silver hair, a holy aura—he had all the qualities I despised.

I wasn’t the only one looking at him. Many of the nobles in the chapel were glancing at him too.

I quickly turned my head away.

The high priest’s solemn voice echoed throughout the chapel.

“Now, let us begin the main sermon.”

Then what was all that before?

Realizing that the actual sermon hadn’t even begun yet, I briefly considered running out of the chapel. I even shifted slightly in my seat. But the high priest’s next words made me stay.

“Today, I wish to speak about the five heroes who saved this land from the grasp of the demons.”

My ears perked up.

After a long stretch of boredom, something interesting had finally come up.

Humans… they must have twisted the truth.

I was genuinely curious now to see just how much they had distorted history.