Hush Now, Saintess!

Chapter 54

Translator: Yonnee

—

“Haa.”

A sigh came out again.

Roella, you’re such a…

The system never said anything about how bugs developed from negative minds.

The worse the negativity, the bigger the bug.

Given that the mission penalty was ‘bug evolution’, it was clear that this was an emotional scar that wasn’t just one day old.

Or, the negativity grew just from meeting me again.

〈 You are correct! 〉

Uh-huh, yeah. Thanks for letting me know.

With clenched teeth, I pressed the mission accept button.

And, without further ado…

“Teacher, this may be sudden, but I do sincerely apologize for my rudeness towards you before. I’ve really been meaning to apologize to you all this time. I was so foolish in the past. I’m truly sorry.

Along with the apology, I bowed towards him.

“H-Huuk… S-Saintess.”

When I bowed down a full ninety degrees, the priest was naturally surprised, and he tried to dissuade me from bowing.

But, no way.

“I am truly, truly sorry for my actions, Teacher.”

“Please don’t do this. It’s alright, Your Eminence. I’ve already forgotten everything. It’s okay even if you don’t like my face! I understand everything.”

Ah, so I guess I kicked him out because I didn’t like his face.

‘And with you, Roella, only your face is pretty.’

My heart became heavier.

A mission was a mission, of course. But since I was now living as Roella, I felt a sense of responsibility for her actions, and it’s as if I had inherited her karma.

Now that it’s like this, the mission was no longer important.

“I truly am sorry for hurting you! In fact, I had only lied—I was young, and I was doing everything to avoid attending my classes.”

“…Really?”

The priest had been urgently dissuading me until now, but he paused slightly and asked back like this.

I could feel it.

He’s asking me this question from the bottom of his heart.

Feeling that this was the right moment, I stood up straight again.

“Yes, I am telling you the truth. Besides, honestly I…”

“Honestly…?”

Flinch.

Seeing him move stiffly like a wooden pole, I very solemnly read his fortune.

“Have you heard about physiognomy?”

“Physiognomy?”

“Yes. It is the science of telling one’s fortune through the facial features.”

“Is there such a thing?”

The priest’s eyes went wide.

I nodded once.

“…Of course. In any case, I have a bit of a knack for face reading. Teacher, your forehead is spacious and you’ve got a round nose, so because of this, I can see that you are very much fortunate.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Your nose is also wide and you’ve got thick eyebrows, which denotes wealth. Such good physiognomy is rare. You’re born with it.”

For a moment, the priest did not answer.

It seemed like he was thinking hard about something, but soon enough…

“Pffft.”

He burst out into a brief laugh.

“Hahaha, I almost fell for it unconsciously.”

“…What?”

“Your Eminence is trying to appease me, aren’t you? With how well you spin your words, I really almost fell for it blindly.

He was now laughing so hard to the point that he’s wiping away the tears from his eyes.

I felt a bit sullen.

‘So the apology didn’t work?’

It was a sincere apology though.

“I really mean it though…”

I mumbled with a drooping tone, but the priest hastily shook his head.

“No, I’m not saying that Your Eminence’s apology was a lie.”

“Huh?”

“The other thing, I mean. Didn’t you just make up that story because you were feeling apologetic?”

I blinked.

No, but I was serious about the face reading thing too?

When I was younger, I had no fairy tale books to read, so instead, I read through my grandmother’s physiognomy and dream interpretation books.

Thanks to this, I knew more about physiognomy than others, though it wasn’t at the level of experts.

The priest’s physiognomy was actually blessed.

Should I make an excuse for this or not?

I was in the middle of thinking about this, he spoke up again.

“Victor was right. You’ve really changed, Your Eminence.”

“Pardon?”

“You know how to apologize for your mistakes. And you know what to say to console someone.

After saying this, he lowered his voice.

“Huu. To be honest, this is a secret but…”

Just by his demeanor, it was clear that he didn’t want anyone else to hear.

Catching on quickly, I leaned close to him in order to listen.

Smiling, the priest whispered.

“Truthfully, I was crestfallen when Your Eminence said that to me. But I never told a single soul about it.”

“Huk— Really, I have to say sorry again…”

“No. Please, not at all. You don’t have to.”

He resolutely stopped me there.