2. Prologue (Bottom)
Leticia.
She appeared to be the daughter of an earl family, and first met with Prince Claude at a certain dance party.
Certainly, her appearance was very cute.
If she walked down the road, ten out of ten men would turn around.
Claude was also one of those empty-headed men.
In the first place, he seemed to have been eyeing many other women after being engaged with me.
I was aware of that from the beginning, but since I didn’t have a fragment of feelings for Claude, I just overlooked it.
“Leticia, I am sorry for causing you discomfort. Of course, for such a delicate girl like you, this is very straining…”
“Huu, huu…”
Leticia wept and buried her face in Claude’s chest.
But I saw it.
Her grin.
Leticia had a very mean smile, it seemed.
“Elaine, I also heard about what you did to Leticia. Leticia told me every single thing.”
“What?”
“You pretended it was an accident, but in reality, you pushed her into a pond, and you also destroyed her personal belongings.”
What is he saying, this person.
In the first place—as if I would I involve myself with such a girl.
When I passed by Leticia, she suddenly screamed and threw herself into a nearby pond.
Regarding her personal belongings, I saw her breaking them herself.
So that was to lower Prince Claude’s impression of me—to steal him from me.
Claude’s ridiculousness give me headache.
“Even if a fake saint like you is gone, Elaine, there’s still Leticia—the real saint. With her, this kingdom is safe.”
I see.
Leticia lied, claiming to Claude she was the true saint.
Honestly, that actually made me laugh—for Leticia to be the real saint… just because she could use a little healing magic, the men around her believed her bluff.
She was adept at lying.
“The truth is, I want to execute you right away. But because the gentle Leticia feels sorry for you, I will let you off the hook and merely exile you. Get out of this kingdom at once!”
Acha—an exile, huh…?
Well, listening to the conversation so far, I already had an idea that would happen.
Also, for Leticia to feel sorry about me, that was definitely a lie.
In fact, as of the present moment, while Claude was distracted, Leticia was still grinning happily.
“Your Highness. For the last time, I will tell you this—when I, the saint, am gone, this kingdom will be over. Still, do you insist upon exiling me?”
“Eei! You’re still being noisy! This is my decision, it’s final no matter what you say!”
Alright, alright, you’ve said it.
I was tired of the role of the saint, anyway.
The only reason I endured until now was because I respect my predecessors, and as the fiancée of the prince, I had my obligations—
—but now that he had said that, it was fine already, right?
“I understand. I shall leave this kingdom at once.”
I turned my back towards Claude and the others.
I could hear them laughing from behind me.
Whatever.
Since I was banished, I shall live as I please!
I was sure there would be a big uproar tomorrow and I didn’t want to be caught up in it.
***T/N: Reading some of the reviews this novel received in NU (which aren’t good) saying that Eliane is such a callous, selfish, person who didn’t care for the wellbeing of her kingdom even though she is the saint, because this is still the beginning of the story, and I am jumping in to this kinda blindly, I am willing to give this story and Eliane benefit of the doubt. So here’s my defense:
Y’know… maybe she choose not to stay… because there’s an actual possibility she will get beheaded by that prince manchild (and the one who issued the order is the future king after all, the messed up procedure aside, dunno if anyone could stand up against that without being considered committing treason) …? It’s not like she didn’t try to reason with him, either. Idk but Eliane choosing to save her own ass rather than die a martyr just like in those old tales make her seems humane to me. It means that she is her own person. It’s not like she choose to be born a saint, but she ends up having to be one, sacrificing her entire life as a person up until now to fulfil such a major role. Sure, she should fulfil her duty as a saint and also take care of her responsibility as the prince’s fiancee and the next queen cause that’s just how it is in that era–but to an extent.
Not just anyone will say yes to ‘hey will you risk dying for the sake of the kingdom and its people? Well then please stay with that prince who berated you every day, beg for his mercy if needed, plead to stay by his side now that he has a hoe, basically dehumanize yourself for the sake of our–the people’s–wellbeing cause you’re the saint, dammit. It will be your fault if we died.’ and I think that’s perfectly okay.
Bro I love the fact that she “abandoned” the kingdom. She has done her part in protecting the kingdom, she did tell the idiotic prince the consequences of her leaving, so it’s not “wrong” for her because she has literally just been exiled. It’s not like she ran away from her duties, she has been FORCIBLY REMOVED from her duties. Yeah, she could have “argued harder” but why would she? She’s not a Mary Sue (one “obvious” flaw is her prioritizing herself over the fate of a kingdom but even then it’s not a flaw, but rather common sense!) and thank heavens for that. I’ve had enough of FLs who love to torture themselves by going “if I leave the kingdom will fall and blah blah” and get humiliated even more, like bro you’re just a walking doormat at this rate with no personality.
So, She left and some readers are angry she abandoned the country and is heartless. If she had opted to stay and was the forgiving saint, then also readers would have dissed her by calling her a fool and a doormat. There will always be people dissatisfied. Sigh.
Personally I prefer this character, since as the translator said, it would be risky to stay.
Well do other countries have saints… I’m with saint-sama, if you throw me aside I will do the same to you. Lets go be the saint of another monster ridden kingdom why the heck would I want to live in a country with a ruler like that shitprince nope nope nooope, that sounds like an awful future of being used and abused with out any proper reimbursement. She said her ‘saint stipend’ was minimal right. a paltry sum cant pay off my temper
Applauds translator note extremely valid points. Also if she sneaks back in and continues her role of protection – what support would she get for it? Who would people believe? Does Leticia get to be highly lauded as the saint while the actual poor saint hides in her homeland? Yes it could be good to have the king intercede on her behalf but next in command of everyone is the prince who exiled her. Disobeying the order gives the people there a worsened image of her – she argued about protection and the effects of exiling her. Plus she’s not said she’s running off to join and support another kingdom, in theory if the King sorts out the issue she can easily be brought back and securely reinstated while hindering the prince’s reputation. Which is why the king would probably spin a yarn for everyone but the nobility and palace workers would KNOW.
Well, this second prologue doesn’t paint the Prince as a bad guy, but it does show that he is easily duped. This however seems to have more to do with the authors inability to write and instead leaning on the whole “Prince duped by pretty girl” recycled theme that has been re-used over and over again ad nausea. Really, it would have been so refreshing if the Prince had been shown to do what he did because there had been some real actual evidence. As stated in my comments on the previous prologue… the Saintess protecting the country really isn’t something that might be clear since proving that she is might be impossible. So doing the whole “the saintess was accused of bullying” shtick really wasn’t needed here. That said, as usual as is with these things… the authors always seem to leave plenty of things open for the readers to actually criticize the female protagonist for.
“but since I didn’t have a fragment of feelings for Claude, I just overlooked it.”
Here the saintess mulls over the fact that she has noticed that the Prince are interested in other women and clearly not in her. As explained in the previous prologue she stopped liking him because she didn’t think he was intelligent (presumingly because he didn’t believe in her being a saintess…) So despite this, she never freed him from their betrothal or tried helping him cancel it… but intended to trap them both in a loveless marriage? While allowing him to have affairs with other women which would paint him as the bad guy? Certainly making the Saintess look dumb or a bad person wasn’t the authors intention… but this really does not make her seem the innocent victim that the story seems to claim that she is.
“The only reason I endured until now was because I respect my predecessors, and as the fiancée of the prince, I had my obligations—”
And this part is even more damning. As I mentioned in my first comment on the first prologue… Does the Saintess not care at all about the actual people living in the country? Sure she has never met them, but that does not change the fact that she does not even seem to see them as living people. She took on the role as a Saintess not because she wanted to protect the actual people, but because she saw it as her duty? Yes like i said, you can excuse this by that she never mingled with other people… but that is even more damning since it tells us that as far as she is concerned, what happens to other people is not her problem since she only did her job because it was expected of her and was in the job description.
From what I can tell so far, to the people saying that MC is selfish etc. Why does she owe anything to this kingdom? Just because she was born here doesn’t mean she has an obligation to help nor defend it, she can do whatever she wants. Also it sounds like the kingdom doesn’t even help her that much either if the Prince is the one living in luxury.
completely agree with you, she doesn’t owe the kingdom ANYTHING. She was born into that position, she didn’t choose to be in it
Its one moron vs the lives of many where is the stupid king? The oracle? They seriously let this dumb shit decide the fate of all their people? Cmon now…there has to be a semblance of logic…the prince is not the king lol….seriously wtf?
Idiot Prince: you aren’t the real saint! You’re a fake!
The real saint:… I ain’t being paid enough for this
Where exactly is the king during all this?
People who are posting bad things about ellaine without even understanding the situation she is i.n are just plain stupid she would have been executed if she stayed even if she was not threatened with execution i prefer she just leave the kingdom, who would want to live in a kingdom ruled by such an imbecile when they realise their mistake tbey will probably ask her to forgive them and would want to take her back
The real problem is the Prince apparently had the power to exile the Saint. No single person should have that authority when the Saint is strictly necessary to keep the kingdom alive. And if any single person does have that power, there needs to be a guillotine kept warm and ready for use at a moment’s notice if he even looks like he’s going to abuse it.
The people of the kingdom chose to allow themselves to be ruled by an imbecile. This is what you get.
Thanks for the chapter!
Agree that MC isn’t being too selfish unlike that idiot prince. Although didn’t want to she still did her duty, lived frugally with a minimum amount of money for food and stuff, and didn’t ask for all those high expectations to be dumped on her. Bad enough that she’s the only one who can pray and raise barriers, but forcing her to marry a man she doesn’t like, all his points went into looks leaving his intelligence and wisdom in the negatives, and has a wandering eye just because it’s traditional? Also, just because of some unsubstantiated bullying with no evidence her fiance wants to execute her? If had any brains he would’ve known that was outside her character and had no reason or motive to bully Leticia. Speaking of Leticia, is she an idiot who made a rookie mistake of believing her own con that she’s a saint or that all the other saints were cons like her and only pretending to pray and raise barriers? Would love to see her, the Prince’s and the nobles who laughed MC into exile explain themselves to the King for their high treason which caused the greatest crisis in centuries to occur along with exiling the only one who can do something about it. Although if the Kingdom needs the saint to pray and create barriers to protect it, what do the other countries do for protection? After all, it’s not like MC is being exiled into the vast wilderness far away from human habitation.
Let’s imagine for a second that you hold the key responsibilities/expertise to ensure the company’s operations run properly and every employee/vendor gets paid but in the next moment, the CEO tells you to GTFO because he simply doesn’t like your face. While you try to explain how crucial you are to the company’s business continuity, the CEO refused to listen and tells you to get out before he calls the security guards to force you to leave.
In the same scenario, what do you think those NU reviewers will do? Are they going to be so self-sacrificial and still try to help the company from behind the scenes so that the employees don’t get affected? HAHAHAHA! I think we all know what the answer will be. Unless they have a severe case of Stockholm syndrome or simply love playing superheroes to save the day, any SANE human would walk away……like what Eliane did. ?
Ignore those NU reviewers. They seem to have a misplaced view of how the world works and think that people should sacrifice for the country. That is truly some dumb shit. Loyalty is overrated. Countries, government and corporations have no qualms over sacrificing the people at the bottom for their own interests. Nevertheless, we also can’t fault them as the education system has been, by design, used as a tool to indoctrinate people from young.
Back on topic, Eliane has no obligation to sacrifice herself for anyone. She is simply “a commoner who was born with saint powers”. She has spent most of her life while growing up servicing the country and now that the stupid prince is pulling the carpet under her, there is absolutely no reason for her to stay. Only people who love playing superheroes or possess severe Stockholm syndrome would remain.
She has no obligation, but her reason for being a Saintess in the first place is the whole problem. She didn’t stay as a Saintess because she wanted to protect innocent people (not the country), she stayed because it was in the job description and she did it out of duty to the job. If she had a thought like: “Screw other innocent people! It is all about me!” I honestly would have found her way of thinking more forgiving… but that isn’t what we are shown here. What we are shown is that she never even considered the innocent lives of other people in the first place. She was just a Saintess because she was told to be one, not because actual people would die otherwise.
Hola
The real problem is once she leaves and the country goes to poop, they’ll prolly start crying about how she’s the demon king who cursed their country and try to kill her ANYWAY!
Thank you for another chapter 🙂 and I agree with you, screw such a country, why to risk my life when they themselves give a fu**. They were warned, so they can live in hell now and she should finally live her real life
I dont see why anyone could hate on our MC so fast? Its literally only the prologue and she’s even getting fired/exiled from her job/home. I for one am ready for this ride, i even brought spare popcorn to share! Thanks for the chapter!
Gimme both ur popcorn and the spare
No probs. Eats cookies hidden in jacket
…this dude come very prepared.
Always gotta have extra snacks for a good story!
The people who are reviewing this like that are sniffing alot of their own asshole. An exiled person shouldn’t be in a country that exiles them, that’s plainly clear that they would get capital punishment.
I wouldn’t wanna be in a country that about to go doomsday. Fk look we have a few real life examples going on right now.
MOTO YOU DONT HAVE TO GO THERE
Mwhahaahahhaah
right, When you are rejected and treatened to be killed by the hightest autority if you stay when you don’t have done anithings wrong, why would you want to help them. And she have give them a lots of warning about what will happen if she leave, but they acccept all that when they don’t listen.
So they only get what they wan’t, nothing for our mc to be worried if she’s not a masochist or a stupid heros
Right she does what she wants at that point, she already said her piece.
You said what I had been thinking since I saw the review on NU. Why would she sacrifice herself for the country when the prince even announced her as a fake? And if she chose to stay, that liar might even take her credit. So no. If something happen right after she left, the prince’s believers can bite the dust along with the stupid prince and Leticia and die blaming the prince for his lust, believing a liar woman, and destroying the country.
I don’t think she’s callous at all for abandoning that shite country. Sure, all the people there are probably not all that stupid, but even still, to place the moral obligation of an entire country on someone who is not within the power of overwriting monarchical power is ludicrous. If anything the king, for choosing that absolute imbecile as a successor should be to blame second only to the poor excuse for a steaming heap of garbage prince.
A saintess from my understanding is a proxy for a god, in which case if this shit stain prince is out to defy a god from his own hubris and idiocy, then I’m sorry (not sorry), but you reap what you sow.
She’s not a princess, she’s not a monarch, she doesn’t even seem to have any actual power within the Kingdom. In that case, she’s just a civil servant, so congratulations you fired the single most important line of defense for your entire country, and if they all perish, she shouldn’t feel bad.
She even WARNED him, twice.
I wouldn’t even once.
Thank you for translating this!
She might be the saint, but she should NOT be a doormat
Thanks for the translation~ ??
She was exiled and just followed what the prince’s orders were, so I don’t really think she’s selfish. I do hope she finds happiness once she’s out of the kingdom.
I don’t know about those reviews, but personally, I like stories like this one, where there are actual serious consequences to exiling the so called villainess on a whim.
As for MC herself, I don’t think it’s selfish to leave the country when it’s crown prince says you’re no longer needed and the king clearly isn’t doing anything about it. From the start, it was her DUTY to protect the country, not her DESIRE, in other words, she didn’t WANT to protect them, she was TOLD to do it. You don’t exactly develop a sense a loyalty for the country like this, especially when your efforts go unappreciated.
That aside, when’s the next chapter?
Wednesday hahaha
We are all here for the schadenfraude dude
Also thanks for translating lololol
I don’t think she’s callous at all for abandoning that shite country. Sure, all the people there are probably not all that stupid, but even still, to place the moral obligation of an entire country on someone who is not within the power of overwriting monarchical power is ludicrous. If anything the king, for choosing that absolute imbecile as a successor should be to blame second only to the poor excuse for a steaming heap of garbage prince.
A saintess from my understanding is a proxy for a god, in which case if this shit stain prince is out to defy a god from his own hubris and idiocy, then I’m sorry (not sorry), but you reap what you sow.
She’s not a princess, she’s not a monarch, she doesn’t even seem to have any actual power within the Kingdom. In that case, she’s just a civil servant, so congratulations you fired the single most important line of defense for your entire country, and if they all perish, she shouldn’t feel bad.
She even WARNED him, twice.
I wouldn’t even once.
Yeah no… that does not really fly. It does not matter if the people are stupid or not, in the end she is the ONLY person that could protect all the people living there. The issue here isn’t what she can or cannot do though, it is how she thinks about it. We clearly get to see her thoughts and are clearly told/shown that she never ever cared about what happened to the people. She ONLY did her job because it was expected of her and actually saw it as a chore. So getting exiled is actually a cheap excuse for her to abandon her duties/job. But we know as readers that she isn’t just abandoning the country and her duty, but actual normal people that just live their lives farming. You can say all you want about how you can’t expect her to save children etc just because she has the power to do so, and this is true… but actively deciding not to do so, or as in her case not even considering the protection of those innocent lives/children as her actual real reason for praying, shows us that she is not what be considered a good person… in fact, her complete lack of acknowledging this actually makes her seem a psychopath.
Honestly, those people didn’t really think very far. This is a monarchy, where the king has absolute power. The fiancee who banishes her is the crown prince. If she doesn’t leave now, she’ll just be executed the moment he gains the throne, so it’s entirely correct of her to get out while she has the chance.
Furthermore, it appears that the saint position is not chosen or allocated, but instead random (oracle from the goddess). This girl has sacrificed her happiness for the sake of the kingdom, so people should be thankful to her. She has no duty to beg to keep her position, other people should be begging her to stay. She can offer a helping hand, but if they slap it away, the morally correct thing to do is to withdraw and go on with her business.
These idiots who expect her to stay in a job she hates to save a kingdom that doesn’t want her, clearly don’t think much of individual happiness – “Sacrifice the few for the sake of the many” – and I completely disagree.
One small point of order, Monarchs do not hold absolute power.
No ruler holds absolute power, even if the law says they do they do not.
The most depraved roman emperors did not hold absolute power. Saudi Arabia is close but that is largely due to them using the religion to solidify power, but if they visibly turned from Islam in any way the backlash could destroy them.
What they have is source of power that is in general stronger that anyone else in the country. but it is not absolute.
Either there is a unified army and the ruler depends on the support of the generals and troops, or there is not and like in medieval times the king depends on the nobility who hold most of the fighting forces.
Either way there is always some group that if the monarch pissed of they either get dethroned or a civil war can start (like Oliver Cromwell vs Charles I, where England had a civil war that lead to the king being dethroned, and if Cromwell was not such a holier then though puritan prick it might have not come back)
the thing is there are limits to what a monarch can do and not face consequences, however deep seated cultural and religious beliefs are areas where that line is closer and more volatile.
Removing the saint is one thing that, if the country is not run by idiots, should be extremely risky to the point that the monarch’s power base demands the prince be disowned. There should be no way that the soldiers or populace would accept it given the religious and cultural significance of the role. Let alone the nobles and lords whose (if not idiots) reaction would be to demand proof that the new girl is the real saint, and likely there is evidence she is not.
Actually the authority of the Monarch would depend on the history of the area. For Western governments, you are right but for the East which has a much longer history of authoritarianism, the Monarchs from places like China, Korea and Japan all do have the power of life and death over their subjects, partially through as what you already pointed out, the Mandate of Heaven, so the Western pattern isn’t a definite roadmap of all governments. Not all countries have the Magna Carta.
Ignore the novelupdates reviews. Most of those are made by people who are trying to find complaints with a series no matter what (especially JP novels). There is absolutely no correlation between the crap on that site and the quality of the novel.
Perfectly good reasoning from Saint-sama, GTFO while the getting is good. Then watch the country BURN.
how is it selfish to abandon a country that exiled her lol. Can’t wait to see them rotting and panicking while she’s on vacation they had it coming for the king not stepping in and realizing the importance of a saint.
It’s more selfish to expect someone treated as crap by royalty to stay loyal and keep the country safe tbh.
I think abandoning the country can even be considered the “right” thing to do in this case. Because there is a real and present God in this world who has continually helped the country in the form of the saint, having the future ruler of the go so out of line as to threaten the saint (who represents the god’s goodwill) with execution means that they are spurning the god who is keeping the country prosperous. Continuing to work as the saint in this case would mean that people could act however they want toward the god, still receiving their blessing in that situation would be total blasphemy and the god could withdraw their support permanently. If she leaves however, sure there will be monsters and such for a while but it should be obvious fairly quickly that spurning the god like that is a bad idea and then they can just mend bridges later, saving the country in the long run.