CH 9

My uncle, who became my stepfather, looked down on me and said:

“For a noble family like ours, a young lady is just a burden that eats up the dowry. Why didn’t my brother take this baggage with him. . .”

QOTD's Thursday Big Show: June ...

As a burden of the Seamacy Viscount family, I spent my time in the basement room with the servants.

My fate changed when I was taken to the national duty, the ability analysis.

All citizens have a duty to receive ability analysis at a designated church between the ages of 10 and 13. They shade their hands over the [crystal ball loved by the earth] carved from the black rocky peak of Mount Kuze and connect with the will of the earth, releasing their abilities within themselves.

80% of humans have the lowest level of ability.

It’s a level where you can easily start a small fire or create wind.

The remaining 20% are treated specially, and depending on the strength of their abilities, they are ranked as red copper, silver, gold, or silver.

I woke up as a [saint] the moment I touched the crystal ball.

Light gushed out throughout the church, and the converged light became a halo shining above my head.

The halo was shaped like wheat, and the priest who saw it was stunned.

“I’ve never seen such a big halo. It’s the first ability since the beginning of the kingdom!”

He shouted.

After that, the church paid a large sum of money to the Seamacy Viscount family to have me taken in by them, and I was to receive strict training as a saint. The priests who educated me all had shining eyes. 

Because my supernatural power rank was the strongest and a special level of silver platinum rank.

It was a level of power that would normally be protected by the country for a lifetime.

Some people may have thought they could gain power as my educator, while others may have been purely interested in me as the strongest saint.

So why am I now alone, abandoned by my fiancé and eating sweets by myself?

It was because I was a peculiar saint.

“Saint Hiira, your saint power is of historic strength. But why does it manifest with [flour]. . .”

“Even if you say that. . .”

ーーMy saint power is of the strongest silver rank.

ーーHowever, the ability manifests with flour.

No matter how much training I did, I couldn’t directly use my saint ability like a normal saint.

To heal someone, I had to feed them flour with healing blessings.

To create a barrier, I had to eat flour with barrier blessings to activate it.

To perform an exorcism, I had to eat flour with exorcism blessings and shout “Haa!!”

It was very troublesome.

Unfortunately, the church had a doctrine that considered indulging in food pleasures as sinful as indulging in carnal desires.

“Indulging in food is equivalent to indulging in lust. Is it okay to have a saint with such lowly abilities as those of a priestess of the impure ancient gods?”

The important people debated religious studies in front of me. It was a fact that I was a worthless saint. . .

Of course, such doctrine no longer existed in a peaceful world. Nowadays, both commoners and nobles enjoy delicious meals without worrying about doctrine. 

However, the church couldn’t elevate me as a special saint with the ability to produce “flour,” which was associated with impure.

After my position in the church became uncertain, the next place that caught my attention was the royal palace.

When I was summoned to the palace, Prime Minister-sama directly said this to me.

“Oh, saint beloved by the earth. Would you like to serve as a saint who offers flour for the meals of the royal nobles at the palace?”

A palace saint. It was the best way for a poor viscount’s daughter like me to climb up the social ladder.

However, I refused Prime Minister-sama’s offer, saying:

“That’s not possible. It’s a great honor for someone of my status to receive such an invitation. But It’s appropriate for me to serve the people as a common saint.”

――Looking back now, I may have been a little too proud.

However, as someone born poor, I was horrified by the world of the palace where food was wasted every day since I started going in and out of the palace through the church.

I couldn’t bear to become a wheat flour saint who was disposable and wasted wheat flour.

After all, the saint’s ability cannot be activated without connecting with the earth with a pure heart.

Even if I forced myself to produce wheat flour for the palace, I couldn’t produce the high-quality wheat flour that the nobles and aristocrats demanded.

A wheat flour saint who couldn’t produce flour. If it gets clogged, even the silver ability is useless.

In the end, after many twists and turns, I ended up working as a regular saint at a monastery on the border where I could see the sea. 

My life in the monastery was short, but enjoyable.

I didn’t have any ambition for success, so this life suited me better.

Although there were times when we were poor and had a hard time, we all put our heads together, used my special ability to earn money, repaired the building, and put effort into charity work.

I had no power or status, but I was very happy.

I thought this remote place was where I would end up.

ーーBut those days suddenly came to an end.

One day, Count Streltsy’s son, Kasdar, kidnapped me.

“I heard that the strongest saint was exiled here. Hah, what a foolish woman who lives in the countryside, defying the royal palace. But it’s interesting!!”

I was hanging sheets in the garden when Kasdar and his servant suddenly grabbed me from the side. In no time, I was pushed into a carriage and taken to a nearby post town like an object.

“Who are you?!”

“Rejoice, I’ll engage you!!!”

“E-Eeeeeeh.”

Kasdar left me locked up in an inn overnight.

If unmarried aristocrats spend a night in the same room, they can proceed with a forced engagement procedure. The engagement is approved more quickly than the usual procedure.

Once engaged, I would have to renounce my saint status. Kasdar forcibly pulled me out of the monastery through a forced engagement.

In one night, I lost the happiness I had built up so modestly.

As planned by Kasdar, I lost my job and was forced to become his fiancée.

But, unbelievably, he didn’t know that I was a saint of the flour element!!!!

“What the hell is this flour-like ability of a saint?! I didn’t ask for this!”

“Just think that there’s a problem when a silver-class saint is left in a remote monastery!!!!!”

Surprisingly, Kasdar, who was an idiot. . .I mean, who didn’t know about my ability, had kidnapped me without knowing about it and was stunned when he found out.

However, because he was short-sighted, he quickly changed his mind and added me, his fiancée, to the party to defeat the Demon King as planned.

“Well, if you’re strong, that’s all that matters. Work hard for your fiancé.”

“Yes, sir. . .”

“Of course, it’s just an engagement, not love. I’ll make mountains of other women, so don’t complain.”

“Eh. . .”

“You’re just a plain, unsexy country girl. I’ve done enough by engaging you.”

Well, it’s true that it’s a hassle to be engaged to someone with such a taste.

So, as a nominal fiancée and a saint of the Kasdar Party, I worked hard, but in the end, I was abandoned.

Because producing wheat flour was uncool.

Uncool, huh. . .

“To begin with. . .Who the hell forced me to be engaged to this uncool person with this uncool ability?!”