A Saint Who Was Adopted by the Grand Duke
chapter-150

Rabienne’s mouth fell open in a daze, her eyes widening in disbelief at what she heard.

She was so shocked that she couldn’t even blink her bloodshot eyes properly.

“No… No matter how low my test results are, how can I step down from the position of saint like this! This is nonsense!”

Agitated, Rabienne jumped up from her seat and screamed.

She knew this attitude was bad, but her emotions were out of control.

“If you have any objections, speak up.”

Sharon didn’t stop Rabienne, instead, giving her a chance to talk.

“Godmother, I admit that Lady Esther’s divine power is superior to mine. But I am also a saint. You saw my awakening.”

Having regained her sanity a little while she was talking, Rabienne continued speaking, forcing a smile in order to somehow make a good impression.

But Sharon sighed.

“Can you take responsibility for that?”

“What?”

Feeling uneasy at the thought of responsibility, Rabienne’s eyes trembled as she instinctively touched the back of her hand.

‘Did something show?’

Her heart clenched as she wondered if the older woman recognized that her mark of awareness was fake.

However, the reason why she was so confident was that there was no significant difference between Esther’s mark and her own. She saw from the side earlier.

While Rabienne was contemplating, Sharon walked in front of Esther.

“Excuse me, can you show your mark of awareness again?”

“Wait a second.”

It wasn’t difficult. Esther took off her glove and showed the back of her hand.

“Look at that. The mark of awareness is gone. She must have lied… Huh, no way?”

Rabienne, who was ecstatic when she saw that Esther’s hand had no mark, stopped when she realized something big.

She realized that there was something she didn’t know.

“The mark of awareness is not usually revealed, but it appears in response to divine power. Like this.”

Esther proudly raised the back of her hand and breathed divine power into it.

Then, the back of her hand, which had nothing on it… In an instant, a mark filled with soft light floated up and was engraved.

“Nonsense.”

Rabienne was shocked.

‘I didn’t know that the mark wasn’t revealed… Even when Cespia was alive and well. If only I had known…!’

Despite having watched Cespia from the side, she did not know that fact.

She had been ill before she was poisoned, so she thought only that her divine power had weakened and her mark of awareness had disappeared along with it.

Come to think of it, not long before her death, Cespia’s mark of awareness showed again, but it was passed over as a phenomenon that suddenly appeared as she neared death.

“Your mark of awareness remains the same even when you are not using your divine power.”

Now, Sharon got up and walked up to Rabienne.

Rabienne, who had taken off her gloves since the start of the test, hurriedly covered the back of her hand with regret.

“Few people know this much, and I wouldn’t have known it normally.”

Sharon was convinced that Rabienne was not a saint, so she found it strange from the beginning that she had the mark of awareness.

And as soon as she saw it, she knew it was fake.

Nevertheless, she didn’t reveal it on the spot and tried to turn a blind eye to it. Since she was going to remove her from the saint’s seat anyway.

It wouldn’t be good for the temple to increase the sin of Rabienne, who was already in the position of saint.

However, since Rabienne was so obsessed with the position, Sharon couldn’t help it.

“Also, from your mark of awareness, I felt a sense of heat like a wound. It’s very different from the energy I felt when I held Lady Esther’s hand.”

Embarrassed, Rabienne’s lips began to quiver.

“In other words, you also failed the third test.”

Rabienne’s face, now a dark, muddy color, was filled with despair.

“Did you do it alone? Or is your father, the Duke of Brions, also involved?”

“…Please call my father.”

Hoping to be able to somehow overturn the situation, Rabienne refused to answer and begged for Duke Brions to be called.

“Nothing will change just because Duke Brions comes. for your sins are very grievous.”

Sharon recited the crimes of Rabienne, one by one, to make the justification clear.

“Knowing the revelation but hiding it, inciting the high priests, impersonating a saint and endangering the empire. And even manipulating the mark of awareness. These are unforgivable mistakes.”

At that time…

Esther, who was listening by the side, raised her hand and lightly joined the conversation.

“There is one more. It’s the crime of poisoning the saint of the previous generation.”

In an instant, the atmosphere in the venue became chaotic and the elders began to murmur loudly.

Poisoning of the former saint.

This was a sin so great that Rabienne would receive the death penalty even if she was a descendant of a great four family.

“Stop bullshitting! Godmother. Do you believe her? She’s slandering me. She’s aiming for the saint’s seat!”

Rabienne pointed at Esther, claiming it was all lies.

“Why do you say that?”

But Sharon didn’t think Esther would lie.

“I will show you this.”

Having put important memories in her mind beforehand, Esther called Sharon and kissed her forehead.

And as shown to her family through imaging, she showed the scene of the conversation she had with Cespia.

“The related evidence is possessed by Paras, the former head of the priesthood.”

This was what she heard when they met at the shelter, after Paras resigned from his position as high priest.

When Cespia was at her weakest, Paras visited her room once more.

At that time, he stole some of the medicine that Rabienne had brought, storing it as evidence.

“Oh my God…”

Sharon was shocked by the scenes and conversations that came to her head and clenched her forehead.

Esther’s imaging was one of the saint’s abilities that Sharon knew from reading books.

It was the first time she had experienced it, but to be able to do this with divine power… it was not something that could be manipulated.

“I will take the evidence. And if this is true, it’s something that should never be overlooked. Everyone involved will be severely punished.”

Anger filled Sharon’s eyes, who had cared for the former saint, Cespia.

“I will imprison Rabienne de Brions in the dungeon until all is clear and her punishment is set.”

Originally, she was to be either demoted, or confined to her room, punished appropriately, and sent out of the temple.

However, when the poisoning of the former saint surfaced, it became an uncontrollable situation.

“Did you say, dungeon? I don’t know what you saw, but it’s all fake. Please do not believe in fabrication.”

While uttering that it was unfair, Rabienne put on a pitiful expression, making her eyes as teary as they could.

“I did a good job. I can do better in the future. Please give me one more chance. Yes? I will take care of the epidemic somehow.”

When there was no response from both Sharon and the elders, Rabienne tugged the hem of Sharon’s robe.

“Or, or you can leave me as the saint and use only Lady Esther’s power. She’s just an orphan. Do you really intend to put a child like that in the position of saint? In this noble place?”

The sobbing voice of Rabienne continued for a long time.

However, the more Rabienne did this, the more Sharon’s expression hardened and her eyes turned frosty.

“I didn’t know you had those thoughts. You don’t seem to be the person I used to know.”

Sharon criticized her past self for thinking that Rabienne was the most suitable person for the position of saint.

“Yes. A saint is a noble position. That’s why you can’t be one anymore.”

Unable to bear it, Sharon finally uttered scathing words and shook off Rabienne’s hand.

It was the strength of an old woman, but Rabienne, whose legs were trembling, was hit by the recoil and collapsed onto the floor.

“It can’t be… it can’t be…”

She wrapped her arms around herself, shaking at the thought that she had ruined everything.

But that was for a mere while.

Almost immediately, she stood up and looked around like she was possessed. She was searching for someone who could help her.

“Lu, High Priest Lucas! High Priest Joffrey, I did a good job. Please help me, please.”

Anxiously, she gazed at the high priests and a few of the elders, who always praised her, and prayed.

But when things didn’t go her way, Rabienne screamed at them, with enough intensity to make her jaw quiver.

“Are you really going to send me to the dungeon? The only daughter and saint of the Brions family! Everyone is crazy! Crazy!!”

With a sad or terrified expression, everyone stared at Rabienne, who struggled so much that her hair tangled and messed up.

No one was willing to help.

“This is a dream… It’s a nightmare…”

“No, it is real.”

Esther mercilessly shattered Rabienne’s wishes and corrected them.

Rabienne gnashed her teeth hard enough to make a sound. She raised her head and glared at Esther.

When calm pink eyes met venomous red ones, Rabienne immediately rushed towards Esther.

“If not for you… It’s all because of you!!”

However, the paladins came running and stopped Rabienne.

Rabienne was prevented from even grazing Esther.

“How hard I tried, how much I risked to get this position…”

It was right in front of her now.

Everything would be complete once she got Esther. She was so upset that this happened right before that.

“It can’t end like this. If my father comes, somehow, ugh…”

Rabienne couldn’t hold back her feelings of resentment and even mentioned Duke Brions. Then she burst into tears.

Esther was bitter as she looked at Rabienne.

There were mixed feelings.

‘A moment like this does come.’

The moment when Rabienne and her place were reversed and everyone knew she was the real one.

It was something she thought would never happen, but she wasn’t as happy as she had imagined.

“To think she was only this person.”

Would Esther have felt a little better if Rabienne had moved a little smarter and more meticulously?

To Esther, Rabienne was a person of terrible fear that gave her indelible trauma, but she collapsed more easily than she thought. It made her despondent.

‘Why the hell was my past life like that?’

Right now, Esther was relieved, but at the same time, she felt unjust that she had been dominated and led by such a person.

Rabienne was much more pathetic and weak than Esther thought.

She was just an insignificant person who only knew how to depend on others and could do nothing on her own.

Rabienne, who had seemed so gigantic before and so unreachable to her, now seemed smaller than a pebble.

‘It’s enough.’

Esther sighed, suppressing her bitterness.

And finally, to remember the downfall of Rabienne, she clearly captured it in her eyes.

“I have been in the temple for too long and my head hurts. I will take my leave.”

As Esther got up from the chair, the elders and priests began to mutter in bewilderment.

“Take, take your leave? The place where the lady will be is now here in the temple. Where are you going?”

Ame: This, along with twwmswel, reminds me of why I fell in love with regression knovels. It’s not just about revenge, it’s about growth. Trampled and beaten by their previous life/lives, Sienna and Esther had no desire to even live. Revenge is fuel, and is satisfying, but hope and love are lasting. I feel like a proud grandmother to see them settle into their own persons and carve their place in the world.