Chapter 568: The Saintess Who Defied the Gods
Edmond looked like he wanted to push the matter further, but he held himself back because the last thing he wanted was to make Rose feel uncomfortable.
In the end, the Captain simply said, "If someday—just someday—you change your mind, my offer will still be waiting for you."
Rose smiled gently and answered in a soft voice, "I’ll remember that, Captain." Then she added, "Thank you."
After that, neither of them spoke again. They simply sat together on the balcony, leaving a respectful distance between them. Every now and then, the Captain would quietly glance at the Saintess, thinking she looked like an exotic bird trapped inside a beautiful golden cage.
[I really want to take her away from here,] he thought.
Primrose was certain the only reason Edmund didn’t do anything reckless and was still waiting for the Saintess to accept his offer was because he had no idea what kind of nightmare she had been living through.
In Edmund’s eyes, the Saintess looked sad simply because she was trapped inside the Temple and could never see the outside world as freely as he could.
But if he ever learned that the sadness in her eyes came from being tortured by her own followers, he would probably lose control and go on a rampage right then and there.
And for some reason, Primrose couldn’t believe that the high-ranking nobles were the only ones who used the Gods as an excuse to hurt her.
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Over the next three months, the anti-God faction caused chaos all across the Kingdom of Sorex. Sometimes they burned down God’s temples. Other times, they attacked the Holy Temple at the center of the kingdom with explosion magic.
They kept spreading the same message wherever they went. They said they no longer wanted to be controlled by the Temple and that the Cardinal had no right to interfere with the kingdom’s politics.
They complained about everything.
They claimed the Temple collected too many offerings while ordinary people struggled to survive. They accused the priests of living comfortable lives without understanding the hardships of commoners. They argued that the Cardinal had far too much influence over the King and should never have been allowed to interfere in the kingdom’s politics.
They also spoke against the Temple’s teachings. They questioned why women were expected to obey their fathers before marriage and their husbands afterward, while men were rarely held to the same standard. They mocked the rules that praised women for being quiet, modest, and obedient, calling them nothing more than chains disguised as virtue.
Some demanded that nobles should no longer receive special treatment simply because the Temple declared them blessed by the Gods. Others questioned why people had to confess their sins to priests at all, arguing that faith should be a personal matter.
As the movement grew bolder, some even began asking the question that had once been unthinkable.
"Do the Gods truly exist?"
Rose sat quietly inside the confession room. It was a question that faithful followers of the Temple almost never dared to ask, yet this young woman had spoken it aloud without hesitation.
"Why are you asking that?" Rose asked gently.
The follower, a young maiden, spoke through the wooden screen that separated them.
"My father beat my mother all the time. But whenever she begged the others for help, they only told her to be patient and continue serving her husband."
She lowered her head, her voice growing quieter. "They said that if she endured her suffering without complaining, the Gods would reward her in the next life."
The young maiden continued, "She prayed every single day, but the Gods never came."
"One day, my father beat her so badly that she couldn’t even stand." Her voice trembled. "And then she died three days later."
The confession room fell silent for a moment. The young maiden gritted her teeth so hard that even Rose could hear it clearly.
She spoke again, her voice filled with both rage and guilt. "So tell me, Saintess... do the Gods truly exist?"
Rose’s fingers slowly tightened around the edge of her robe. She held her breath for a moment, and her eyes trembled slightly.
After a brief pause, she finally said, "If you believe they exist, then they do." She added, "But if you don’t believe they exist, then they are not real."
Rose lowered her gaze before speaking again. "Young Miss, your father... is the one who chose to hurt your mother. The Gods did not force him to raise his hand against her. That was his own choice."
The young maiden let out a bitter laugh. "But the Temple told my mother to endure it. If someone uses the Gods as an excuse to do evil... are they still carrying out the Gods’ will?"
Rose did not answer immediately. Instead, she thought of the countless lashes that had torn open her own back.
The priests had called it holy.
The nobles had called it purification.
The Cardinal had called it a blessing.
But Rose called it...
A lie.
A lie used by those abusers to justify their actions and torture a woman.
"No," Rose finally whispered. "If the Gods make people do cruel things to others, then I don’t think they’re worth believing in."
The words left her lips before she could stop them. For the first time in her life, the Saintess had spoken against the very Gods she was supposed to serve.
The young maiden froze. "W-What did you say?"
Rose slowly stood from her seat. Without another word, she reached toward the small wooden panel that separated them. It had always remained closed, as the Temple’s rules demanded.
But this time, she slid it open.
The young maiden’s eyes widened as she came face to face with the Saintess for the first time.
Rose looked even more fragile than she had imagined. Her smile was gentle, but her eyes were empty.
Rose secretly slipped a tiny glass vial into the young woman’s trembling hand and closed her fingers around it.
"Take this," she whispered.
The young maiden stared at the vial in confusion. "What is this?"
Rose didn’t explain any further. She simply said, "One drop in your father’s tea, and you will be free."