I Became the Substitute for the Runaway Heroine - Chapter 73

“Embroidery?”

“Yes.”

Odette nodded before turning to Jacques. “Find out everything you can about the Belmonte family. I want every detail.”

“Understood.”

Just then, Jaina entered through the connecting door with Vera. They had supposedly been praying, but both of them had red, swollen eyes.

Jaina likely cried while confessing her sins, and Vera must have shed tears thinking of her mother.

Odette picked Vera up and carried her over to Emma. “Teach her how to embroider. I have something to discuss with the Saintess for a moment.”

“Me? You mean me?” Jaina looked as if her heart had just dropped.

Odette nodded with a solemn expression. “Saintess, I need you to help me.”

“I worked as a saintess in the temple, but I do not actually know much.”

Ever since witnessing Odette blow up Demuna, Jaina seemed to view her with a sense of terror. She trembled whenever her eyes met Odette’s.

“I want to help the Great Saintess, but the only ability I possess is the discernment of divine power.”

“That is exactly what I need from you.”

Jaina explained that her role had been to evaluate the strength and nature of the power within young girls who were either sold to the temple or came seeking to become saintesses. Divine power detection machines were only available in the Great Temple and a few high-ranking ones. Smaller or remote temples could not afford such expensive equipment.

Therefore, Jaina had acted as a human replacement for those machines in Demuna, identifying people with divine power among the sick. Those who possessed even a trace of power were gathered to live in the Tower of the Sun.

They were likely trying to stop the rifts using even the weakest divine power.

Regardless, Odette needed Jaina’s ability to discern her power.

“Can you feel any divine power from me right now?” Odette asked, shedding the cloak Caesar had wrapped around her.

“Yes, I can feel it. It is strong, noble, and pure. It is beautiful.”

“How about now?” Odette asked after waving her staff once.

“The divine power has suddenly diminished. Wait, now I cannot feel it at all.”

“And now?”

Jaina snapped her head around, looking toward the end of a dark alleyway. “I feel divine power over there. I think someone is there!”

“There is no one there.”

Odette had deliberately let a tiny wisp of divine power drift into the wind using the tip of her staff.

As long as I have this staff, it seems I can avoid being outed as the Great Saintess.

However, carrying the Saint’s Staff itself was practically advertising her identity to the world.

“Jaina, should I turn this into a parasol?”

If she used the staff as a handle and covered it with fabric, it might pass as a parasol.

“That might actually be possible. It would be a very strange-looking parasol, though.”

“Emma is quite skilled, so I am sure she can make it look like a pretty one.”

That night, Jacques knocked on Odette’s door with the information he had gathered about the Belmonte family.

“I am right here.”

As Odette appeared from behind him, Jacques turned around in surprise. “Where have you been?”

“I was in the forest, practicing how to use the staff.”

Jaina, who had accompanied her, stepped forward. “She can now perfectly hide her divine power without even wearing the protective magic cloak.”

“Does that mean we have finally escaped the temple’s pursuit?”

“I wonder.”

Odette glanced around, feeling a lingering unease. She could not shake the chilling sensation that they were being watched.

“Let’s go inside and talk.”

Since Vera was sleeping in the next room, Odette led the group into her own room. As the door clicked shut, a shadow flickered at the end of the hallway. Golden, Caesar’s strategist, had been hiding himself with shadow magic before approaching Odette’s room.

To think the place she fled to is the Lord’s maternal home. I wonder what his plan is now.

With a quick motion, Golden vanished back into the shadows, keeping his ears sharp.

“It seems the person who tried to help you was indeed the Dowager Marchioness, Isabelle Belmonte. I heard she recently left the South to visit the West.”

Jacques shared the information he had collected throughout the day.

“She was even more influential than I expected.”

“She is the highest-ranking person in the Belmonte family. She holds the Key of Obelon.”

“The Key of Obelon?”

“It is a shortened name for the key that grants entry to Obelon, which was the holy land when the South was still the Principality of Belmonte.”

According to Jacques, Obelon contained all sorts of treasures, elixirs, and priceless sacred swords and armor. However, fearing that Obelon would be raided when the Principality fell, the previous Marquis of Belmonte had released a divine beast to guard it.

“Even with the key, no one has been able to enter Obelon. The divine beast attacks anyone who tries, leading to a gruesome death.”

“Then the key is useless if no one can go inside.”

“They say the divine beast will not attack once the master of the Hero’s Sword, which is embedded in the center of Obelon, finally appears.”

“The master of the Hero’s Sword?”

“Yes. It is said that the Belmonte Principality fell because the master of the Hero’s Sword was not born in time.”

Belmonte had been absorbed into the Empire because of the absence of the sword’s master. However, unwilling to surrender their holy land, they had released the divine beast instead.

“They are waiting, believing that once the master of the Hero’s Sword is born into the Belmonte family, they will finally be able to enter Obelon.”

“They might as well be waiting for a miracle from the heavens.”

Jacques tilted his head at Odette’s remark. “Who knows? Perhaps the master of the sword has already been born.”

“But if that is the case, why hasn’t Belmonte declared independence yet?”

“I wouldn’t know. But there must be a reason why the Emperor cannot treat the Belmontes lightly.”

They neither bowed to the Emperor nor declared independence.

There must be something significant in Belmonte.

Since she already viewed the Emperor as a villain, her favorable impression of the Belmonte family and the elderly lady grew.

Besides, the lady’s first impression was very kind.

Furthermore, the one trying to blockade Raon Town was none other than Caesar Mais. He was a war hero currently adored by the people, yet someone the Emperor felt the need to keep in check. And yet, this noblewoman had stepped up to help a girl escaping Caesar’s knights.

She seems like a righteous person. Brave, too.

The following day, Odette headed to the Belmonte estate.

“Could you deliver this handkerchief to the Dowager Marchioness?”

When she handed the handkerchief to the front gate guard, he immediately called for a superior.

“I will guide you inside.”

Without any delay, Odette was escorted in. Passing through a massive iron gate, a three-story main building made of pure white marble appeared before her.

Wow!

Exquisite sculptures of great horned deer stood on either side of the building.

“It is the divine beast of Belmonte,” the guide explained.

When she had seen it embroidered on the handkerchief, she thought the horns looked elegant. However, seeing the actual statues, she felt overwhelmed by their imposing presence. If someone were gored by those horns, there would be nothing left of them.

“I will show you to the drawing room.”

As she entered the mansion, Odette was once again struck with awe. Walking through the wide hall decorated with marble and gold leaf, she realized that Count Anderson’s estate was not even truly luxurious in comparison.

He was so obsessed with embezzling Caesar’s fortune, yet his place is like a doghouse compared to the Belmonte estate.

Odette sat on a sofa by the window in the red-carpeted drawing room and composed herself.

“The Dowager Marchioness will be with you shortly.”

A moment later, the door opened, and the Dowager Marchioness appeared with her white hair elegantly styled.

It really is the same person I saw in the carriage.

She had worried there might be a mistake, but it was undoubtedly the same woman who had been so willing to help her.

“Did the lion and the bear stop fighting and bother you instead, young lady?”

The Dowager Marchioness spread open the handkerchief with a smile. Odette had asked Emma to add more embroidery to it. A lion in gold thread and a bear in silver thread. The two were fighting, and between them was a fallen flower.

That flower represents me.

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