Chapter 215: Spring of Enlightenment
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 215: Spring of Enlightenment
“Stick to your purpose for coming North and disappear with your Saintess.”
Only after delivering that final threat did the Grand Duke reluctantly let go of the carriage.
Adrian, who had suddenly been made to look like he was hitting on another man’s wife, scratched his forehead with a sense of lingering discomfort.
‘It wasn’t even that kind of curiosity to begin with.’
He had simply been genuinely intrigued.
The Lady Frais he had briefly encountered at the Temple was a woman with no notable features other than a pale, sickly complexion. Even when he heard the rumors that she fancied him, Adrian had merely snorted in derision.
Yet, that same woman had become the Grand Duchess of Blenheim, revitalized the North, and managed to humiliate the Saintess.
‘To think I failed to recognize someone like that.’
As someone who prided himself on his keen eye for people, Adrian felt somewhat disconcerted. That was why, upon overhearing the noblewomen discussing the boutique, he had impulsively diverted his steps from the Temple.
The Grand Duchess was certainly a far more interesting woman than he had anticipated.
— “Have we met before? I must have completely forgotten.”
However, such a transparent lie was almost laughable.
‘I still remember how she used to blush just looking at me at the Temple.’
She likely didn't want to dig up her past in front of her husband’s knights. Seeing the Grand Duke of Blenheim’s reaction, Adrian could understand why she was so keen on hiding it.
— “If you flirt with her in that pathetic manner again, I’ll kill you, whether you’re a Duke or the Captain of the Imperial Knights.”
To think that stoic Grand Duke could have such a passionate reaction. He hadn't expected the man to lose his cool and snap just because someone approached his wife for a moment.
He must be quite fond of her.
‘If I hadn't ignored her back then, could she have been my wife instead?’
Adrian shook his head. He had a calling to make House Kyle greater than it had ever been. To achieve that, the woman who would become his Duchess had to be an incomparable existence.
In that regard, the Saintess was the perfect bride, incomparable to the ordinary daughters of noble houses.
‘The third daughter of a Marquis wouldn't have been nearly enough.’
Though he felt a sense of urgency because the Saintess wasn't falling for him as quickly as he’d hoped, it was only a matter of time. The Saintess, with her immense pride, was undoubtedly feeling vulnerable right now.
He had to exploit this opening. He needed to make her rely on him and win her over during this trip, no matter what.
As he made this vow, Adrian suddenly let out a dry chuckle. It was because he suddenly remembered the Grand Duchess deliberately screaming at the boutique.
She was much more eccentric than he thought, and…
‘Quite cute.’
It would have been quite entertaining if the Grand Duchess had been the Saintess. Since she was a woman who had liked him from the start, he wouldn't have had to deal with all these headaches.
“Ha. A pity, truly.”
Adrian let out a self-deprecating sigh.
*
Constine packed her bags.
Upon hearing the news that all her efforts had become a laughingstock and were published in the capital’s newspapers, Constine had shut herself in her room at the Temple for days.
Surprisingly, no one came to see her. Usually, if it was known that the Saintess was staying at a temple, the local residents would line up just to catch a glimpse of her face.
‘It’s fine. It was getting annoying anyway. I’ll just consider it a vacation.’
But that sense of relief didn't last even half a day. She felt herself sinking into a bottomless pit of despair, as if she had been abandoned by the world.
‘I’ve lost my usefulness.’
A dull, persistent ache, like a blunt blade slowly carving at her heart, weighed heavily on her chest. The priests visited her room several times a day, but they only offered empty words about needing to find a solution.
How were they supposed to find a solution? She was nothing more than a fake wearing the mask of a Saintess.
This incident had made it clear. She had reached her absolute limit. She had arrived at a point where she could go no further simply by pretending to be the real thing.
‘Let’s go back.’
The longer she stayed here, the faster the truth would be exposed. Even if she were to be reprimanded by the High Priest, it was better to return to the capital and keep a low profile.
Once her mind was made up, Constine moved quickly. She instructed the priests to prepare for departure and packed her belongings. They would leave the Temple early tomorrow morning.
She was walking through the cloister with a slightly lighter heart when she noticed a small spring in the center of the cross-shaped path. Having spent most of her time in her room, this was the first time she had seen it properly in the daylight.
‘Could that be the Goddess’s Cup?’
At the very top of the altar erected in the middle of the spring sat a magnificent golden cup.
During her years of training to be the Saintess, Constine had read quite a few books. The library of the Grand Temple held many works written by Venemus, a priest and famous theologian. Among them, the record of holy relics he wrote while traveling to various temples was one of the books she had found particularly interesting.
「The Goddess’s Cup.
A holy relic of the Goddess discovered in the hot springs of the Pogen Mountains.
After the cup was found, the Grand Temple built the Pogen Temple in front of the hot springs and drew water from the Goddess’s Spring to create a small pool for the altar.
Amazingly, the moment the relic was placed upon the altar, it became fixed to it and could not be removed.」
The records contained a theory regarding the relic: that only a true Saintess would be able to lift the cup.
‘Would I be able to lift the Goddess’s Cup?’
As a child, she hadn't been able to shake that thought for a long time.
Constine cautiously approached the altar. Of course, it wouldn't work. Even though she knew the answer, a sliver of hope bloomed in her heart.
Perhaps a "true" Saintess didn't actually exist. Perhaps anyone with a truly noble heart could become a Saintess.
With that thought, Constine grasped the cup.
To her shock, the cup came off the altar with incredible ease.
‘I… I lifted it!’
She was standing there, dazed yet overjoyed, clutching the cup and not knowing what to do, when a voice spoke.
“You must not handle the holy relic so carelessly.”
The unpleasant sound of a staff thumping against the floor rang out. Turning around, she saw the Elder of Sablang Village glaring at her, his face looking as if he wanted to snatch the cup from her hands immediately.
‘How dare he look at the Saintess with such irreverence.’
Constine recalled another record by Priest Venemus.
「Soon after Pogen Temple was built, believers began to settle in front of it one by one.
Though the land was harsh and unsuitable for habitation, the most faithful of those who wished to serve the Goddess eventually formed a village there.」
Faithful, my foot. Looking at him now, nothing Venemus had written seemed to be true.
“I heard that the Goddess’s Cup was fixed to the altar.”
“It was indeed fixed originally.”
At Constine’s words, the Elder narrowed his eyes.
“Not long ago, a divine miracle occurred, and the cup detached from the altar.”
His somewhat meaningful tone was off-putting, so Constine set the cup back down.
‘Miracle, indeed. The adhesive they used probably just wore off.’
“Do you know where this water comes from?”
The Elder caught Constine with a question just as she was about to leave.
“Is it not the Goddess’s Spring?”
The people here called the source of the groundwater the Goddess’s Spring. The Elder pointed his staff somewhere beyond the temple.
“Actually, it comes from much higher up. At the very beginning of the mountain range’s water vein lies the Spring of Enlightenment.”
‘The Spring of Enlightenment?’
“Could it be… the place where the Goddess gained enlightenment?”
On a night when the moon hung highest in the sky, the moonlight led a woman to a small cave where a spring lay. There, the woman drank the clearest and purest essence of the spring, finally attaining enlightenment and being reborn as a Goddess.
It was a story briefly mentioned in an early passage of the scriptures.
“The cup used at that time flowed down the waterway and was submerged in the hot springs.”
“I had no idea the Spring of Enlightenment was here.”
She had considered it a mere legend; she never imagined it was an actual place that existed within the Empire.
‘Why isn't it famous?’
Even in Venemus’s records, it was simply referred to as the Goddess’s Spring.
“Those who know of the Spring of Enlightenment are the most faithful of believers. They do not wish for this holy place to be revealed to the world,” the Elder said with a nonchalant face. “If the spring were known, countless people would swarm to it like bees.”
Her heart began to race. Coincidentally, tonight was the night the moon would be at its highest.
The woman who had thought of herself as an ordinary human was reborn as a true Goddess after drinking from the Spring of Enlightenment.
‘If I also drink from the Spring of Enlightenment using the Goddess’s Cup…’
Could I be reborn as a true Saintess?
No, she didn't even hope for that much. If she could just gain even a small spark of enlightenment. Or at the very least, if she could find solace in the fact that she had followed in the Goddess’s footsteps.
Suddenly, a surge of will rose within her.
‘I wonder how high up the Spring of Enlightenment is?’