Anna maintained her kneeling posture, holding high with both hands the Sword of Judgment.
“Please return to the Holy City with me.”
“His Holiness the Pope has been waiting at the Holy See for many years. As long as you nod, you will be crowned as the Saintess. You will command the Three Knight Orders, enjoy the worship of all people, and become the most dazzling radiance of the Church since the First Saintess.”
Listening to these words, another picture automatically emerged in Celia’s mind.
The morning prayer bell at 4:00 AM, mountains of Church documents, and endless national preaching tours in formal dresses.
And that impossible dream of sleeping until she naturally woke up.
Thinking of this, Celia shuddered in fear.
This was an overtime hell more terrifying than facing a Flame Demon.
The chill inside the Church seemed to grow heavier.
The low temperature emitted by the Balrog Ice Sculpture caused the hot air exhaled by Anna to condense into white mist in the air.
Celia pulled the blanket up a bit, covering half of her face and leaving only a pair of emerald eyes exposed.
She simply did not want to be a Saintess.
Being a Saintess was not as comfortable as slacking off in the Church.
But she could not just directly refuse her.
Facing this kind of fanatic believer, a direct refusal might be interpreted as humility, and could even trigger extreme actions to take her away by force.
Therefore, she needed a reason that could not only reasonably explain the current situation but also make the other party give up the idea of taking her away.
Celia glanced at the pale back of her hand, then looked at Ragner, who was frozen into an ice sculpture not far away, and after thinking for a moment, she had a clue.
“Anna,” she stated in a very quiet tone.
Celia spoke, her voice deliberately lowered, sounding light and crisp, as if stating a medical report that had nothing to do with her.
“Why do you think I live in this remote Village?”
Anna looked at Celia with completely blank eyes.
“Is it to retreat from the world and practice?”
“Practice?” Celia chuckled lightly. “If it were for practice, the elemental concentration of the Holy Mountain is ten times that of here.”
The Young Girl stretched out a finger and pointed at the ferocious Balrog Ice Sculpture in the center of the hall.
“This body of mine is just a Container.”
Celia’s voice was completely and utterly calm.
“You felt it too, right? The violent energy contained in that cup of water. Ordinary people would have excess energy and become manic if they drank it. But I…”
Celia paused for a moment and continued speaking.
“I have to ingest a large amount of this poison every day.”
“Why?” Anna asked with a highly confused expression.
“In order to properly neutralize it,” she said.
Celia put down the cup and leaned back, showing an exhaustion like a lamp running out of oil.
“Inside my body, there is a Seal containing an Abyss Seed more terrifying than this Flame Demon. It devours my vitality at all times, making me feel cold, lethargic, and extremely weak.”
“Only by fighting poison with poison and forcefully ingesting the energy of high-level Magical Creatures can I barely maintain the balance in my body.”
Celia sighed and looked up at the sky outside.
“I cannot leave here. Once I leave this Singularity that can suppress the Abyssal Aura, the Seal in my body will shatter. When that time comes…”
Celia withdrew her gaze and looked at Anna with a compassionate expression.
“The one who dies will not only be me, but also the entire Holy City.”
The room fell into a heavy silence once again.
Anna stared blankly at the Young Girl in front of her.
All of the clues were finally connected together now.
Why was she always so lazy and always sleepy? That was to reduce the consumption of her vitality.
Why did she eat those Magical Creatures? That was using her life as a bet to carry out painful suppression.
Why did she possess such powerful Purification Power? That was the power control exchanged from repeatedly jumping on the edge of the Abyss.
“You are actually bearing… this kind of Curse…”
Anna’s voice choked heavily with emotion as she spoke.
She remembered how she was about to swing her sword at this saint who was moving forward alone carrying a heavy burden in the dark, and a sense of shame almost drowned her!
“It is because I was too ignorant and shallow!”
Anna kowtowed three times heavily on the wooden floor.
“But I cannot just watch you suffer like this! The Church has the best physicians and divine magic arrays, there must be a way!”
“It is completely useless to try doing that.”
Celia shook her head, her voice revealing an indifference that saw through life and death.
“This is fate. Rather than lingering on my last breath in the Holy City, I prefer to be here, watching the sunrise and sunset, and drinking a cup of my favorite beverage.”
“As long as you do not come to disturb me, that is the greatest salvation for me.”
Anna remained completely silent for a very long period of time.
Finally, this Temple Executioner stood up, wiped away the tear stains from the corners of her eyes, and her expression became solemn.
“Since this is your will, your subordinate obeys.”
Anna took out a coin purse from her chest and placed it down on the table.
“This is the activity fund for this mission, a total of 500 Gold Coins. Just treat it as buying you… the Medicine Primer to suppress your condition.”
“I will report truthfully to His Holiness the Pope: there is no heretic here, only a hermit who needs to recuperate in peace.”
After saying this, Anna bowed respectfully and turned to leave.
Her receding figure looked resolute, as if she had shouldered the heavy responsibility of guarding a certain secret.
The main doors of the Church closed once again, and the crisis was successfully resolved.
Celia looked at the heavy bag of Gold Coins on the table and breathed a long sigh of relief in her heart.
‘Things are finally completely settled and perfectly safe now.’
Not only did she not have to go to work, but she also had a legitimate reason to slack off, and even the funds to buy the ingredients for Happy Water were solved.
‘This is a truly absolutely perfect plan for me.’
“Miss Priestess…” a voice called out in a quiet tone.
The call with a trembling tone came from beside her.
Celia turned her head to the side, and Elent was standing there, with large drops of tears sliding down the young boy’s cheeks.
“So… is this the actual truth of the matter then?”
“I was just wondering… why Miss Priestess always could not get enough sleep… why she always cried out that she was tired…”
Elent fiercely slapped himself right across his own face.
“Why are you clearly so strong, yet you cannot even lift up a sword…”
“I even asked you to give me special training every day… and even let you overdraw your power to save me…”
Elent took a deep breath and wiped away the tears off his face.
“What kind of Guardian Knight am I? I am simply pushing you towards a path of death!”
Celia looked at Elent, who was crying like a 200-pound child in front of her, opened her mouth, but could not make a sound.
The lie was meant to deceive Anna, but there was also an idiot here who would never doubt a single word she said.
“Umm, Elent. The actual truth of the matter is that…”
Celia desperately wanted to explain the current situation.
She wanted to tell him that this was just a measure of expediency, and that she was simply lazy and simply gluttonous.
But looking at Elent’s eyes that were washed completely red with tears, the words of explanation got stuck right in her throat.
‘If I say it out loud, will he even believe me at all?’
‘Or rather, would it seem even more cruel to say it out loud right now?’
He then took a step forward and knelt on one knee in front of Celia’s lounge chair.
“I will definitely not let you take action ever again.”
Elent raised his head and stared at Celia with a blazing burning gaze.
“Whether it is cooking, cleaning, or killing Magical Creatures. From today onwards, I will carry all of the heavy burdens.”
“You only need to lie right here, drink your medicine, and look at the beautiful scenery.”
“As long as Elent is still alive for even a single day…”
The young boy held the cold hand that the Young Girl had placed outside the blanket and pressed it firmly against his own forehead.
“I will absolutely never let that damn Abyss Seed devour even a fraction of your life force again.”
A moist touch came from the back of her hand, which was the exact temperature of his tears.
Celia’s fingers curled up slightly, but in the very end, she did not pull them back.
The Young Girl looked at the boy kneeling at her feet, then looked at the bag of Gold Coins on the table, and a trace of sour guilt suddenly welled up in her heart.
‘It seems like I really took the joke entirely too far this time around.’
However, that feeling of guilt only lasted for a mere few seconds.
Celia thought about it and realized that this seemed to give her another reason to order Elent around.
‘Then I will just let him continue to misunderstand like this.’