Chapter 75 - A Test

After passing out from the excruciating pain, I was left in the dark. In the darkness, I found a very young, well-mannered child. 

Even in the outskirts, young children had to work. They had to beg or sell flowers. “You’re useless! You can’t even do this properly?” she said to me. 

“I’m sorry! I’ll do better tomorrow!” I inadvertently teared up at the child’s words. I wanted to tell her to stop, but I couldn’t stop the situation from unfolding right in front of me. 

“I’m fine,” Priscilla insisted, even though she was hit, cursed at, and starved. All because they didn’t throw her out. Priscilla was abandoned when she was born, and her adopted mother took her in. To Priscilla, she was just like her real mother.

“Can you do this for me?” When her adoptive mother got sick, she sold Priscilla in exchange for medicine money. And Priscilla was fine with it. ‘What do you mean you’re fine?’ My heart ached and I couldn’t lift my head. The heavens had helped Priscilla so she became a saintess before she received her subjugation seal, and she was so happy when the people from the Vatican came for her. She finally found a place where she was needed and where she could be of some use. 

“I want to help everyone on this earth,” she said. Looking at Priscilla’s smiling face, I didn’t know how to feel, knowing what was in store for her in the future. Her family was chosen for her as if it was destiny. Priscilla was so happy to have a new family that she did everything for them. 

“Sister, these clothes are fine, right?” 

“I’m sorry, but you cannot go with us.”

“Take care of the house while we’re gone!” 

They ate together, slept together, and wore the same clothes, but Priscilla remained an outsider. And she knew this. She would never be family to them, nor could she ever intrude on them. But she was okay with it. If she became a better saintess, then she would become a true member of the family. The time was not yet ripe. She believed that if she stayed with them for a bit longer, they would accept her as one of them. But she didn’t know that the time she yearned for would never come.

I often thought she was being an idiot. I wondered why she cried over those obvious lies. But every single time, Priscilla brushed off her pain and pretended she was fine. “They probably did that for a reason,” she would say. “They were doing it for me. They did it because they loved me.” 

“That’s why you were used. That’s why you were betrayed!” Some said it was Priscilla’s fault. “But maybe they’ll start liking me a bit more,” she insisted. 

Priscilla clung to her lingering feelings until the very end. I couldn’t understand her. I probably never could. But as I became Priscilla, I started to understand her truth, which couldn’t be grasped simply from the words on a page. 

She was glad to be used. It didn’t matter to her, even though she was well aware of it. Because she was lonely. She was so lonely that she couldn’t let go of people who didn’t even like her. She was so extremely lonely that she craved their attention. 

***

When I woke up, there were tears in my eyes. Overwhelmed by Priscilla’s emotions, I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t imagine her loneliness. How lonely did someone have to beg for attention from people who hated her? I sniffled slightly and wiped away my tears. Just then, a murderous voice caught my attention, “It seems that you all want to die.” It was Miltiades. I could also hear Callian doing his best to stop Miltiades. What was going on?

“Please calm down, Your Majesty! There’s nothing wrong with Her Highness!” 

“If she’s so healthy, why has she been in a coma the past few days? It looks like you want your tongue cut off.” 

“That…that might be because of her divine power!” 

“What a pathetic excuse. Did you think I’d believe that?”I blinked in confusion and glanced around. The atmosphere surrounding Miltiades was fraught with danger. “Daddy…?” I called out to him. Miltiades froze. He had looked like he was going to brandish his sword just moments earlier. 

“Priestess!” Luciana, who was sitting nearby, ran over to me. With her help, I managed to sit on the bed, and I could finally get a good look at Miltiades… and the line of imperial physicians on their knees before him.  

“Her… Her Highness has awakened!” A doctor with a long beard cried out in a loud voice. Miltiades was staring at me, dumbfounded. What should I do in such a situation? “Hi Daddy,” I said, and he immediately ran over. Before I realized it, he was hugging me. 

His breath was heavy, and his arms were wrapped tightly around me. And his heart was beating furiously. It was quite strange. I had been so lonely before this, but I felt better listening to his heartbeat. Everything was fine. Was it because there was someone who cared for me? Or was it because he was my favorite person in the world?

“It’s fine, Daddy. I’m right here.” I patted his shoulder carefully with my small hand. Why was he so desperate when I was the one who had fainted? “I’m fine,” I reassured him. I knew this would happen when I lost consciousness, but I was perfectly healthy. 

After a few deep breaths, Miltiades gently let go of me and gazed at me wordlessly for a while. “Daddy…?” He had never done this before. While it was nice to see my favorite act out of character, it also felt a bit strange. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not in pain?”

“Not at all,” I shook my head with some effort. Miltiades clenched his fist, “I’m going to kill whoever did this to you.” So Suddenly?

All of a sudden, Miltiades said something so typical of him that I was surprised. While I was trying to process everything, he issued an order, “Execute everyone responsible for this incident.” 

“…?” Callian looked to me for help. Even I thought he was going too far.