The raw egg incident was even more interesting.

I couldn’t stop laughing when Ceylan said that she’d eat the egg if it had been boiled, fully intending to do so.

As I thought, she was different. Usually, others would get angry at having eggs thrown at them. In Ceylan&s case, she only got angry because the eggs were wasted.

When he saw her preaching about not wasting food while still dripping with raw egg yolk, Darren—the knight captain—was the first to apologize to her.

Her words resonated with his heart, it so much to the point that he apologized to her—a person he originally loathed to the core. Darren did that even though he shouldn’t have known that she was the fake saint.

…Ceylan should become the saint.

I didn’t want to believe that a saint was an absolute being. Since Ceylan had healing power, she should be able to assume the role.

With a sliver of hope, I decided to look for the symbol of sainthood on Ceylan. Of course, she didn’t have it.

Under the pretense of helping her change, I forcefully had her remove her clothes so I could inspect her body. I couldn’t find the symbol anywhere.

…Of course, in the first place, it was foolish of me to have such hope. No matter how wicked she was, that woman was still the true saint. Upon realizing that, I secretly despaired…

…Seeing the prayer held by Ceylan changed my mind.

I had never witnessed such a scene.

When a high-ranking priest or an archbishop prayed, the air might be purified, but there wouldn’t be any visible changes.

In Ceylan’s case, the moment she prayed, overflowing light purified the entire room—including those present.

…I wasn’t aware such a thing was possible.

There was no such technique in any magic taught within the church. Her words of prayer shouldn’t be any different from that of the Bible’s, so why was it that when she did it, such a situation happened?

I never expected for Ceylan to have such power. To me, she was just someone who met the substitute’s conditions.

I didn’t even expect her to have the words of prayer memorized by heart. After all, she wasn’t even formally educated as a sister. I was going to have her to pray under my instructions, but my assistance wasn’t required.

Afterwards, we walked around and greeted the lords. Again, my perception of Ceylan changed.

After my casually comment, Ceylan generously healed everyone she met. Thus, the ailments of everyone were healed one after another.

Although she said it wasn’t very effective, she seems to have been deceived. Only a few bishops possessed healing power—and even fewer had the ability to cure any injury on spot.

Certainly, as Ceylan said, it was nothing serious. She was treating people with back pain and toothaches. Regardless, her healing was topnotch—not only did it relieve the pain, there weren’t any side effects either. It also wasn’t just one or two people. After healing people one after another, Ceylan didn’t seem to be affected. She was completely unaware of how great she was.

In addition, even if those people were dirty, or gave off a strange odor, she wouldn’t hesitate to heal them. She treated them equally.

Ceylan lightly dismissed a person who cried and thanked her with the words, “I haven’t done much.”

Even if she were given a lot of offerings, she’d only accept food. No matter how expensive it was, she’d only eat as much as she was capable of and then shared the rest with everyone.

How could anyone not be touched by such a figure?

People who were critical of the Goddess’ religion were immediately inspired after meeting Ceylan.

Darren, the knight captain, then the magician twins—Will and Farrill, loathed the saint due to the treatment they had received. However, before I realized it, Darren had become completely obedient to Ceylan, and the twin referred to her as ‘onee-chan’. The twins also refused to leave her side.

However, even when she was approached by Darren, or when she accepted lavish attention from the twins, Ceylan remained the same.

She treated them in the same manner without asking for anything—even if she was in a position where she could take advantage of them.

…Regardless, I still can’t seem to trust her.

I still believed she’d change one day.

She was merely humble because she wasn’t aware of her worth, yet. If she were, one day, no matter how innocent Ceylan was now, she wouldn’t be the same.

While I thought Ceylan’s existence should be announced to the world, I was struck by the possibility of her turning into that saint. As such, I withheld the truth about her brilliance from her.

If she were to become aware of how majestic her power was, she might become reluctant to return to her village.

Ceylan’s siblings may have sent her off with a smile, but they knew she was undertaking a tough job. They were worried about her. Regardless, they didn’t want to give her any additional concern.

Her younger sister, who was supposed to be sold to the merchant, even said to me—

“—Please just sell me in secret.”

Her younger siblings also asked the same thing of me in turn.

Ceylan’s family members cared for and cherished each other. Ceylan grew up pure in such an environment due to the love of her family.

When I saw them, I vowed to return Ceylan to her family safely. As such, I wanted Ceylan to remain as she for as long as possible.

Regardless of how pure a person was, people would change.

Even after I had seen where Ceylan stood, I still couldn’t trust her because of my own prejudices.

It wasn’t until I went to the town’s most famous bakery at the suggestion of the twins that I was proven wrong.

It started with a proposal from the twins, but the knight captain and I had also been planning to take Ceylan there to reward her. After all, she had been working hard all this time.

I heard that Ceylan had never traveled abroad. I was sure she had never eaten such a trendy pastry. I simply thought that she’d be pleased to see such a beautiful, colorful, assortment of sweets.

However, she refused to touch anything.

She trembled and apologized to us—saying she couldn’t bear to eat them.

“…The price of this cake is enough to feed an entire family for a week… I don’t think I can eat it…”

When I heard those words, it was as if I had gotten slapped.

I was aware that Ceylan had lived a life where she couldn’t afford such luxuries.

Hence, I didn’t doubt for even a second that she’d be thrilled if we were to treat her to such a high-class bakery.

…I was unaware that the thought itself occurred because I had been looking down on her.

From the beginning, I had known that she was a lofty person. Regardless, I refused to acknowledge it or trust her simply because I was being negative.

While accusing the true saint of being a rotten person, I also did the same as her—which was, I was looking down on others.

Realizing how terrible it must had felt for her, I was too ashamed to even look at her.

Out of concern, Ceylan called out to me. I had been less chipper after that, but my guilt made me unable to face her properly.

I wanted to apologize to her.

However, I didn’t know how. Since then, I had continued to take an ambiguous attitude.

Later, I’d regret not having properly talked to Ceylan at that time.

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***T/N: …Wow, dude went full circle…

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