I Became the Substitute for the Runaway Heroine - Chapter 68

‘With just 10 gold, anyone can enter Demuna.’

The rumor that it was a place only the chosen could reach had elevated Demuna’s image to that of a sacred land.

But now that she was here, it was nothing short of hell on earth.

A place overflowing with the sick and dying. A place where weapons were confiscated and well water was sold off as holy water.
A place where gold was used to coat a tower and then poured into it, filling it from within.

“W-Wait a minute.”

Odette turned toward Jacques, her eyes trembling with dread.

“Jacques, you said you fought in the early days of the war, didn’t you?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Did you ever see a Rift with your own eyes?”

“No, I never got close to one. I wasn’t in the front lines. My duty was to guard the smelting furnace where gold was melted—to prevent thieves from stealing it.”

“…Say that again.”

“Pardon? Ah, I was stationed at the furnace where they melted gold…”

As Jacques repeated himself, speaking slowly for Odette’s sake, his eyes suddenly widened in shock.

“M-My God…”

Emma covered her mouth, gasping in horror.

She and Odette both turned their eyes toward the golden tower visible through the window.

“Beneath that tower… lies the Rift.”

At Jacques’s words, Odette slowly nodded.

“It must be.”

The Rift.

A tear in the fabric of reality, born when dimensions collided.

Through it, monsters had poured into the world, leaving destruction in their wake—killing all living beings, reducing cities to rubble, poisoning the very earth.

‘The first Rift was sealed by my mother, who gave everything she had to purify the northern lands.’

After her death, a second Rift had opened. That time, it was Caesar who had fended off the monsters, slaying them all before they could wreak further havoc.

But according to the original tale—another Rift would soon appear.

This time, at the very heart of the Empire.

‘That’s why, in the original story, Caesar couldn’t immediately chase after the fleeing heroine. The Rift kept him here.’

Odette looked between Emma and Jacques, a chill crawling down her spine.

“…A Rift is going to open beneath our feet. No… it’s probably already here, a thin tear in the earth. And monsters may already be crawling through it. I always thought it was strange how high the walls here were.”

Massive, fortress-like walls.

They weren’t for defense against invaders—they were to contain the monsters spilling from the Rift, to keep them from escaping Demuna.

Odette’s voice dropped, heavy with dread.

“And the guards… they’re all heavily armed, tense, like they’re ready to fight at any moment.”

“…But why disarm visitors, then?”

“To keep the truth from spreading. They don’t want the outside world to know what’s really happening here.”

“W-What? Then…”

Jacques’s lips quivered as he struggled to speak.

“That’s right. We’re trapped.”

A shiver of terror ran through Odette’s body. Emma wrapped her arms around herself, her face pale.

“You mean… even if we want to leave, they won’t let us?”

Odette glanced out the window, then nodded solemnly.

“I’ve been watching all afternoon. Not a single carriage has left the city. Most of the sick have no intention of leaving anyway—they came here to die. And if you leave, you have to pay 10 gold just to return, so most would rather endure this hell, even sleeping in the streets.”

“Then… the carriages people arrived in, the weapons confiscated during body checks… they really did sell it all off?”

“Most likely, yes.”

“This is madness!”

“They gathered all the Saintesses and priests here—not to heal, but to try and seal the Rift with whatever purifying power they still possess.”

And when that wasn’t enough, they melted gold, pouring it into the entrance of the Rift, and embedded the Saint’s Staff inside it.

Hoping—praying—that the Staff’s power could delay the widening of the Rift by even a single day.

‘But what good is planting the Saint’s Staff without the Grand Saintess herself?’

The North had held strong while her mother was alive—but the moment she passed, the monsters had surged forth.

Here, it was the opposite.

The moment her mother vanished, the Rift must have worsened—splintering further, threatening to swallow Demuna whole.

They kept fighting off the monsters, sealing the Rift again and again with molten gold, but the day would come when they couldn’t hold back the tide.

The Emperor, who had stolen the Saint’s Staff from her mother. The High Priest, who had then begged it back to seal the Rift inside the golden tower.

In the end, instead of preventing disaster, they sat in fear—waiting for the explosion.

While they waited, the sick flooded into Demuna, pouring their life savings into this place, clinging to false hope.

And once they died, they’d become nothing more than a meal for the monsters.

‘How could they do this?’

Odette flung open the window and leaned out.

From within the golden tower, the Saint’s Staff radiated a presence she could feel in her very bones—a force both sacred and ominous.

And then, a voice echoed in her mind—a memory as real as breath.

“Odette… I love you, my child. I’m sorry for leaving you to grow up all alone. But your suffering ends with my death. Be at peace.”

Recalling the words her mother had spoken in the dream, Odette was struck by a bitter sense of irony—of all things, Caesar’s words overlapped with them, echoing in her mind.

“Lady Heravrua said this: when the trial ends, fate will come. She told me to protect you.”

“That’s… absurd.”

Odette clutched the window frame tightly, a strangled groan escaping her lips.

The trial her mother had spoken of.

The trial Caesar had spoken of.

In the end, they were one and the same.

‘Before she died, Mother gave all her divine power to Caesar.’

Caesar, cursed to absorb the strength of everything around him—it must not have been difficult for him to receive her remaining divinity.

Because of that, Caesar would have inherited the divine powers of purification and blessing.

However, since the energy he emitted was aura and demonic power, the High Priests could never have imagined that Caesar possessed divinity.

‘That’s why Mother told him his trial would end when he met me.’

Odette’s divine power—immense in both attack and defense.

Caesar’s body—harboring purification and blessing.

Her mother must have believed that when these two forces combined, they could stop the catastrophe.

‘That’s why Mother told Caesar… I am his destiny.’

The next day, Odette visited the Temple of Spring in person and met with the Saintess she had seen at the entrance—Jayna.

“You’ve come. I’ve been waiting for you. Please, this way…”

Jayna led Odette through a quiet corridor, far from the eyes of the faithful, and respectfully clasped her hands before her.

“Yesterday was chaotic, and I couldn’t greet you properly. I am Jayna Lawrence, a low-ranking Saintess. This is my third year since receiving the calling.”

“I’m Odette.”

A simple introduction—nothing more.
She hadn’t given the family name her mother had passed on to her.

Jayna’s eyes shone with admiration.

“You feel even more noble and powerful than yesterday. Even among the high-ranking Saintesses, none possess such strength. I believe you will awaken as a Grand Saintess before long.”

Jayna’s gaze, filled with reverence, also held a flicker of envy.

But there was no need for envy.
Jayna herself possessed a unique divine power.

Odette smiled faintly.

“You must have a sensitive perception, Saintess. The other Saintesses didn’t even glance at me.”

“My divine power is perception. I can sense and distinguish those who possess holy power.”

“That’s why you recognized me immediately.”

“Yes.”

Odette reached out, gently clasping Jayna’s hands and looking into her eyes.

“Saintess Jayna, please… help me.”

“Tell me your request. I hear a voice within urging me to obey one who has been chosen by the divine.”

“It’s not difficult. I only need you to tell me what’s happening inside the temple.”

Jayna nodded and began to speak calmly.

“The four temples are all connected underground. They all lead to the Tower of the Sun.”

It seemed that the golden tower here was known as the Tower of the Sun.

Jayna continued.

“Inside the Tower of the Sun, there’s a furnace for melting gold. The sick… in their desire to leave their diseased bodies and return to the divine, willingly offer themselves.”

“You mean the bodies are burned in the furnace.”

“Yes. They believe that only through this can they receive the divine’s blessing in the afterlife.”

Jayna’s lips curled slightly in distaste, as if she herself did not believe those words.

Odette moistened her lips, then asked the question that had weighed on her mind.

“If someone who isn’t sick wants to enter the Tower of the Sun, how would they do it?”

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