One Hundred Nights with the Devil - Chapter 9

The procession of Saintess Elena heading to the North Hall became the object of awe and admiration for everyone. Believers who discovered her in the hallway sat down on the floor shedding tears, offering prayers of gratitude as if they had received God’s blessing.

Elena acted as if the believers’ reaction was obvious. But her insides were intoxicated with a sense of victory.

Just five years ago, Elena was nothing more than an orphan Exorcist candidate. She had to attend to crazy Exorcists all day in an annex where the sun didn’t even shine well, and she was in a position where she had to wait only for the day she would die, treated like a cheap slave not only by believers but also by priests.

The jewels piled up like a mountain in her quarters, the letters praising her, the luxury of eating her fill whenever she wanted, and the right to wash in warm water in all four seasons were luxuries she hadn’t even dared to dream of in her entire life.

However, from the day she drove out the first Devil in Esslingen and returned, Elena’s life changed completely.

When she returned without a single scratch, while everyone expected that at best her corpse might be found if she was lucky, the Eclard Church named Elena a ‘Monk blessed by God’.

When she exorcised the second Devil and the third Devil, saving thousands, everyone revered her as a Saintess, and the religious order erected a statue of the Saintess modeled after her with donations pouring in from all over. The entire empire praised her.

And now that she had succeeded in the fourth exorcism in Wellington, it was safe to say that the status of Elena, established as a ‘Saintess’ blessed by God, had risen high enough to lightly ignore the authority of the Pope.

But even such an Elena had no choice but to stop her steps when she discovered about twenty Imperial Knights approaching from the opposite side.

“Saintess. Please step back for a moment.”

Simultaneously with Sir Zenobio’s request, the guards surrounded her. Bella, who was following behind, also stepped in front of Elena, saying she would protect her. The other party also discovered Elena’s group and stopped as if in a standoff.

There was no need to exchange names. The one whom the Imperial Knights were swarming around to escort was clearly the ‘guest’ from the Imperial Palace who had come to the Grand Temple to meet her.

‘I intended to raid the scene where he was in a private meeting with the Pope. If I was even a little late, let alone a raid, I would have almost missed him.’

While Elena was relieved at the small fortune, the opponent spoke first.

“To meet the famous Holy Knight Zenobio Esslingen in a place like this. And with the Saintess who was said to be unable to meet for a while due to prayer training.”

“Ahem. That is…….”

“It seems Eclard has arranged this meeting, so I would like to exchange greetings. Assuming the Saintess isn’t scheduled to be busy for another reason.”

Sir Zenobio swallowed a groan and looked back at Elena. When she nodded, he reluctantly instructed the guards to step back.

Finally, the ‘guest from the Imperial Palace’ revealed himself before Elena.

A physique no less than a knight’s, bright blonde hair that could be described as the sun, and blue eyes as azure as the sky. A face that looked ten years younger despite being of a similar age to the Pope, perhaps because he was groomed without a beard following the central style…….

It was a man she was seeing for the first time, but he was someone whose identity she could not possibly fail to know.

Emperor Lowell Sarbellio Bavaria-Conrad. The heartless uncle who ascended to the throne himself after exiling the Crown Prince, Dieter Laurencino Bavaria, to the West following the demise of the late Emperor Lloyd Norbertus Bavaria-Conrad three years ago.

‘The impression is a bit different from what I heard.’

Finding a royal she was seeing for the first time fascinating, Elena scanned him slowly. The Emperor also stared at her face with the momentum to have a staring contest with such an Elena. But something was a bit strange.

‘Why is he looking at me like that?’

The gaze with which the Emperor looked at Elena, how should she put it, felt like meeting someone he knew after a long time. Furthermore, that explicit and persistent gaze.

Just as the surroundings noticed the strange atmosphere and began to whisper, the Emperor finally opened his mouth.

“I heard you are twenty-one.”

“Sorry? Yes. I became twenty-one last month.”

“I see.”

“……?”

That was the end of it. The Emperor walked past Elena just like that. The flustered aides of the Emperor looked back and forth between Elena and the Emperor, then hurriedly followed him.

“Just what was that…….”

Everyone watched the receding Emperor with bewildered faces. In the meantime, Bella approached Elena and whispered.

“They say he became Emperor by committing immorality; he must have been a crazy human.”

She should have warned her to be careful with her words since it was a distance where it could still be heard, but Elena had no choice but to nod.