Chapter 110
Saint, You’re So Vulgar! – Chapter 110
High Dawn Prayer, the ordeal of it all, had finally concluded.
Lubena snapped her eyes open precisely when the prayer ended.
Stretching languidly and letting out a big yawn, she radiated pure refreshment.
Judith shot her a look of utter contempt, but Lubena, fresh from sleep, couldn't fathom why.
"Ahh, slept so well. What's up? Why are you staring like that?"
"You crazy bitch... crazy bitch..."
"Why are you picking a fight first thing in the morning? Ah, I'm starving! Let's go eat, quick!"
Judith shook her head in disbelief.
And so they arrived at the breakfast table.
During the preparations for the Holy Advent Festival, the saintesses had to gather like this to share their first meal of the day.
It wasn't just for bonding; this too was essential for the event preparations.
The highlight of the Holy Advent Festival was, without a doubt, the Consecration Ceremony in the plaza.
The saintesses of the era would envelop a tower stacked with the finest oils, silks, and gold in divine power, a spectacle so grand its fame spread across the entire continent.
But such ceremonial pomp always bloomed from the suffering of those preparing it.
After the meal, they began rehearsal for the event.
That was the problem.
"Hey, all of you, tone it down a bit!"
"You tone it up, you worthless bitch. Wait, you can't even do that with your pathetic divine power? Oh right, I forgot."
"Hey! You done talking shit?!"
The saintesses' divine outputs all varied.
With differences in absolute magnitude and volume, they needed to synchronize under mutual agreement.
That was where things went awry.
Asher had nothing to say.
"Hahaha! Both of you, cut it out. The real issue is Versia's output being overwhelmingly dominant, isn't it?"
"...I'm sorry."
"If you're sorry, then tone it down!!!"
She couldn't.
Asher averted her eyes from Lubena's bloodshot glare.
A murmur of injustice slipped out.
"This is me toned down as much as possible..."
Even exhaling divine power like a mere breath, barely exerting any effort, produced this much.
And it still dwarfed Lubena's maximum several times over.
Lubena, with ears sharper than anyone, heard it and veins bulged in her neck.
"Are you mocking me right now? Huh?! Think having tons of divine power makes you hot shit?!"
"It does make me hot shit. But hey, it's the church."
"Shut your damn mouth!!!"
Judith smirked and turned away.
Finally, Lubena exploded and grabbed Judith by the hair.
"You fucking bitch!"
"Ow! Let go! Let go, you psycho!"
Halia burst out laughing with a loud pfft!
She laughed so hard tears hung at the corners of her eyes.
She even egged them on from the sidelines to keep fighting.
Amid the commotion, the supervising high priest, who had stepped away, returned.
Seeing two women locked in a hair-pulling fistfight, with Halia cheering them on, the priest's face twisted in fury like a wrathful demon, and he bellowed.
"Freeze!"
It was a roar that shook the very air.
That must be what presence means.
The situation resolved in an instant.
As punishment, the three had their lunch confiscated that day.
Asher, eating lunch alone under envious stares (though it was just scraps for her too), thought absently once more.
'Is the Holy Advent Church really okay like this...?'
With the church's public facethe saintessesall like this, the faith's future looked utterly bleak.
* * *
Time flew by, and preparations for the Holy Advent Festival entered their second week.
The changes in that time... well, externally, one could note the church grounds starting to be lavishly decorated everywhere.
All priests remaining at the main temple were mobilized for the event.
The church, now being adorned unlike its usual somber self, was undoubtedly beautiful, and the priests' faces bloomed with smiles as they worked.
Of coursewho wouldn't be excited? This was the one time of year when vitality infused the otherwise quiet church.
And one more thing besides that,
"This is when couples start popping up left and right. Everyone gets so horny they can't keep their hands off each other..."
"Saintess..."
"No, it's true."
Versia said this while watching priests pass by in the distance.
Asher pointed out how crude the phrasing was, but she couldn't deny the underlying truth.
The Holy Advent Festival was a season of blossoming love.
During the festivities, couples who locked eyes everywhere began radiating fresh, youthful energy.
Even Asher, who had lived in the church since age ten, knew that much.
But she didn't view it as negatively as Versia did.
"It's youth, isn't it? Even as we follow doctrine and serve the god, we're still just human. Moreover, the Parent God did not forbid priests from love. Having made humans so, He granted priests the freedom for romance and marriage too. Of course, reverence toward the Parent God is essential in that process."
Love was the most important doctrine emphasized by the Parent God.
As such, the church's stance on romance was quite permissive.
Of course, wanton promiscuity across multiple partners meant expulsion.
The Parent God wasn't that lenient to permit impure love.
But romance itself? Surely a good thing.
Asher chuckled.
"Being able to love another and share beautiful feelingswhat greater miracle could there be?"
"You think so? Then how about us..."
"Hands off my pants."
"Tch."
She really gave no openings.
Asher restrained Versia, who had lunged without warning.
Versia grumbled.
"Last night you were drooling and begging for it."
"Th-that's because my body was like that!"
"More, more... right there, it feels so good..."
"Aaah!"
Whenever lust surged under the curse's influence, her intelligence dropped.
Asher was well aware of this flaw, so after Versia "helped," she always wallowed in regret.
Words that made her relive those moments were utterly loathsome.
Asher bolted up from her seat in a fit.
Glared at her, and Versia smiled brightly.
"Off you go again."
"Yes! I'm going!"
Immediately after, Asher's face darkened to a sickly hue.
Facing reality, despair overpowered her embarrassment.
She had to go receive "management" again. Thrash about amid that endless nagging.
Still, her efforts were paying offher weight was dropping.
The flab around her belly... the side fat that sank deep under a poke from her index finger... was burning away.
Indeed, the church's centuries-old dieting secret.
Just wring out a bit of the person's spirit to death, and beauty comes so efficiently.
A hollow, soulless chuckle escaped her.
Asher staggered to her feet.
Versia waved with a bright smile.
"Hang in there. I'm really grateful you do it for me. This is sincere."
She'd rather just curse her out.
Asher found Versia so damn infuriating.
* * *
Management was one thing, but the biggest issue remained the event preparations.
Asher, who couldn't reduce her output. Lubena, who couldn't increase hers.
The two major problems.
Over the past two weeks, various solutions had been explored to bridge the gap.
And finally, they found a compromise...
"I'm gonna die of exhaustion. For real."
Judith had concocted drugs.
An amplifier to temporarily boost Lubena's divine power, and for Asher, a drug to render her divine power invisible.
The initial plan was to suppress Asher's divine power outright.
But no matter how they tried, it didn't work.
It was too vast. Even minimized, it exceeded doped-up Lubena's by double.
The moment they realized that, Lubena's devastation was palpableno need to describe it.
In the end, Judith pivoted: a drug that made the same amount of divine power emit less visible glow.
It worked on Asher. It was originally meant for "complete invisibility of divine power," but partial success yielded this result.
A testament to how immense Versia's divine power was.
After all that, todayfor the first timetheir divine powers crossed plausibly.
"It worked! It actually worked!"
"Ahh, finally..."
"Hahaha! Great job, everyone!"
"You all worked hard!"
It was just a successful rehearsal, not the main event, but the emotion moved even the high priest to reddened eyes.
Asher caught her breath. Last year she'd managed finewhy couldn't she tone it down now? She'd agonized over excuses, eventually settling on "My powers grew fighting the witch," a very Versia-like reason that dispelled suspicions.
With the effort invested, relief multiplied.
As they savored that moment,
"The festival's less than ten days away now. Soon, guests from outside will arrive."
"Yes, indeed."
"Oh right, Versia. Did you hear about that?"
"Pardon?"
"Hm? Guess not."
Halia said as if it just occurred to her.
It was a statement that froze Asher's body.
"They're saying the Astarion royal family will attend this event too. No word on that?"
Astarion royal family.
That was the name of Versia's birth house.