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Part 11. Edith Moulton

Originally, the Goddess of Abundance who protected the Empire had another name.

‘Goddess of Balance.’

That’s why, since ancient times, there was a saying that the goddess was both one and two. Even now, if someone said ‘Her Grace,’ someone next to them would add, ‘Her Graces.’

Eighty years after the last Saintess died, Gregory, who at the time held the position of High Priest before Ortega, received an oracle from the goddess at dawn one day.

‘Tonight, from the north, the Black Saintess who will illuminate and guide the path of the Saintess yet to be born will appear…’

The appearance of the Black Saintess. It was information even Gregory had only accessed in ancient texts within the Temple.

A Saintess, as a maiden, had to awaken as a true Saintess on her twentieth birthday to bestow hope and blessings upon the Empire and gain the power to heal the wounded.

But until she turned twenty, the Saintess was just an ordinary person. No matter how blessed her birth, if misfortune struck, she would suffer its full brunt.

The Goddesses, to prevent their vessel from dying before her awakening, decided to create a being called the Black Saintess, who would wield their power to move the balance and block all misfortune and calamity from the Saintess.

They sent an oracle about a child to be born before the future Saintess. To have this child bear the destiny of all misfortune destined for the Saintess, ensuring the Saintess could safely reach twenty.

That was the mission of the Black Saintess.

Gregory immediately sent messengers to all temples in the north. He ordered that any infant girls born that night and brought for blessings be brought to the Grand Temple in the capital.

And that night, in a small northern village, a baby girl was born who took her mother’s life from the moment of her birth.

The father, with no time to grieve his wife’s death, prayed for his child to live well. On a night in early spring, winter not yet past, he knocked on the temple door, his body so gaunt his bones seemed visible, holding his child tightly lest she be cold.

When a priest opened the door, he begged for a blessing for his child. But the priest provided a carriage and told him to go to the capital.

“Take this carriage and go to High Priest Gregory at the Grand Temple.”

The father and child, unable even to bury the wife’s body in this sudden turn, went to the capital. At the Grand Temple’s entrance, guided by a Head Priest who was waiting, they met High Priest Gregory.

And the moment he saw the baby, feeling the familiar presence of the goddess, he became certain she was the child of the oracle.

“This child is undoubtedly the one from the oracle that descended this time.”

He explained to the baby’s father and requested that this be kept secret to protect the life of the Black Saintess, who would illuminate the Saintess’s path from sacred and opposing forces.

He advised that the baby must somehow survive until twenty, kept hidden and raised with minimal external contact.

The reason was that the immense fate of misfortune the baby bore constantly leaked its aura, dragging the fates of those long exposed or frequently in contact with her down into ruin. However, the Temple thoroughly hid this from the father to prepare for any contingency.

Overwhelmed by the heavy destiny and mission suddenly placed on his child, the father was at first heartbroken. But the very next day, he received immense support funds from the imperial family, a small mansion on the outskirts of the capital, and the title of Viscount. Soon, he became mired in wealth and greed.

In the end, the baby, who knew nothing, merely the subject of an oracle, had an unfortunate fate that corrupted both her parents in this way.

A few months later, Gregory received another oracle that a new Saintess, born of a precious bloodline, would be born that day.

Guessing from the oracle’s content that she would be of noble birth, he ordered all noble families in the Empire to bring any baby girls born that day.

But a day passed with only news of boys being born, and the Saintess could not be found.

Of course, having only searched among noble children, he was unaware that a maid from a Count’s household had given birth that day.

Thus, nineteen years passed. Through two oracles, they had found the Black Saintess, but failing to locate the true Saintess, Gregory, who had dreamed of becoming Pope, could only rise to the rank of Cardinal.

His successor, Ortega, rose from Head Priest to High Priest, and he received a new oracle that day.

‘A platinum dove led the Saintess to her destiny…’