Chương 1: Role Without A Self: Chapter 0

Forced to live a lie at the behest of my sister's captors, yet now while the heroes are praised for bringing peace: The same men stripped me of the robes that once adorned me, passing my efforts off as the works of another, leaving me nothing but endless misery and scorn from the masses I once protected.

Click, Clack, Tack The sound of porcelain heels hitting the cold stone-like flooring echoed throughout the crevices of the edged prison walls, hitting a young man's ears who had been quietly resting his head, awaiting as the time ticked ever so closely for his public execution. Clack, Tick, Click A noble figure in white and gold embroidered robes strolled lightly through the prison.

One hand covered her face, though her eyes held cold detachment, while the other lifted her garments, as if the prison dust might contaminate her own presence.

"Saintess Please""Help me Saintess""Saintess I am innocent!"

"Saintess" "Saintess!"

"Saintess!!"

"Saintess!!!" The other prisoners tried with all their might to call out to the noble lady in hopes of her having pity on them. One prisoner was even able to grab the corner of her outfit. The man in question was someone who was in prison for massacring his family in cold blood, yet he dared to cling to the Saintess in hopes of salvation. But the man's set of actions caused the very salvation he seeks to achieve never to see the light of day.

The noble lady's eyes wrinkled into faint amusement before casually removing her outer robe and passing it to her attendants who immediately transferred it to the man who touched it. While this handover was happening the noble lady had quietly retreated out of the range of the man, her face shifting from amusement into a benevolent smile. She called to her shadow guards before whispering her orders in regard to the man who held her outer garments.

The shadow guards briefed the prisoner on how they would be escorting him out of the prison. Hearing those words the man felt almost moved to tears:'Truly' he thought.

'The Saintess is a blessed being.' The prisoner tried to express the immense gratitude he felt to the Saintess but the guards stood in his way, so he only showed his longing and thanks through his eyes before promptly being taken away. The other prisoners stared at the man being taken away with a range of emotions; envy, greed, hatred, and shrewdness: Some of them even planned to recreate the scene that created this situation.

The noble lady's facade nearly faltered at the audacity of those individuals, but instead of becoming colder her benevolent smile grew wider as she clasped her hands together.

"As the Saintess, I am ashamed to admit that I can't help each individual person to be freed from the chains of lies and crimes that hold you down." She lightly curtsied towards the prisoners. The men who were about to curse her out for favouring some people over the others swallowed their words down because despite the woman in front of them being a Saintess, she also held the title of a duke's daughter. Seeing that they stopped being so irritable, the Saintess continued lightly.

"But I can ensure that in the next few days that the nutrition you receive will be quite adequate." The prisoners' eyes lit up. They knew what that sentence really meant: They were getting meat on top of their regular portions.

"Thanks!!"

"Thank you, Saintess""Saintess you're the best!"

"Saintess" "Saintess…!"

"Saintess…!!"

"Saintess…!!!" Click, Clack, Tack Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The Saintess continued deep into the prison, to a place so isolated that regular people wouldn't be able to hear the loud chants of the prisoners. That being said; the person within the isolation is no regular person. Once the Saintess reached his cell, her assistants laid down a fluffy beige 8x6 area rug, then placed a pink oversized round chaise couch from their spatial pouch.

After the preparations were completed, the noble lady removed her heels, bare feet vanishing into the fluffiness of the rug. Walking towards the couch, she sat down comfortably, grabbing a fluffed-up pillow and pressing it to her chest, her disdain-filled gaze looking over the young man who still kept his eyes closed despite the previous commotion.

"How does it feel~" she said in a sweet sickening voice "to have everything you accomplished these past few years be taken away from you?" The young man merely frowned his eyebrows slightly, not bothering to reply to her taunt.

"ALRIGHT," anger resonated through her words.

"I am sure your SISTER will be much more F-U-N than this." The Saintess pushed her pillow aside getting ready to leave when— Slash-Clang-Tauck!!

"YOU DARE—" despite the chains holding him back, the young man was still able to launch his body forward creating loud screeching sounds. His eyes opened wide, looking dead set at the woman behind his cell, with immense hatred and killing intent covering his golden eyes.

"Your eyes are still as ugly as ever, I see." She plopped back into her chair, staring at him as though he was a prey who was just caught within her trap.

"Now, it's time for you to answer some of my questions." The killing intent in the man's eyes slowly dissipated, his body also slowly relaxed the more she talked. But the hatred he held for her still remained as clear as day.

"What."

"Quite a bit, prickly, aren't we?" she raised her eyebrow slightly at the dismissive response of the young man. The boy pursed his lips at her words causing the Saintess who was watching him this entire time to burst into laughter at the sign of his discomfort.

"How did you fool them?" The Saintess stopped smiling, "including the temple and my guards, how did you do it?" Her eyes narrowed with killing intent as she went forth asking the question which nearly everybody in the capital including herself were curious about. The young man didn't reply; so the noble lady hopped off her couch, landing on the soft rug. She lightly made her way towards the edge of the rug which also happened to be in front of the cell's door.

She tilted her head with one hand supporting her chin, a wicked grin appearing on her face.

"Can't be that your men's precious—," she looked towards his leg area "—was tragically compromised in the past?" The young man didn't even flinch after hearing the question, instead he simply closed his eyes, lowering his head once again. Seeing that he didn't plan to answer the question; a faint trace of coldness emitted from herself, she was no longer in a good mood.

"Since you don't want to answer questions: Let's play a game." She clapped twice and the assistants brought forth two full bags of letters.

"One bag has letters sent in the past 5 years; The other letters from the past week which are filled with condemnation." She grabbed a letter from one of the bags playing lightly with it.

"Let's see if we can find the same sender, from these two different times. Truly I tell you, it's fun to see how fickle people can be." She passed off the letter to Assistant A, who graciously accepted it before opening it up and starting to read it out loud. The letter that the Assistant A received happened to come from a five-year-old girl who the young man had saved during his time playing as the Saintess.

The letter, due to the child being so young, was mostly filled with little I love you Saint and a hand drawn picture containing the image of the man and the little kid beside her wearing the same outfit the guy wore, as if to show the affection and admiration the kid had for her. Underneath the picture were the words role model and sent by baby Maria. The young man did not budge; but his eyelashes flicked ever so slightly.

Assistant B had long found a letter from the condemnation bag by lady Maria which still held a faint perfume scent. The Saintess held out her hand receiving the letter; after briefing herself with the context of it, she smiled as she found a new interesting way to break the young man.

"What's this. This game might be a little too easy for me." The Saintess chuckled lightly as she played with the letter in her hand.

"Lady Maria. She would be 10 now, I presume?" One of her assistants affirmed her question.

"Such a shame that poor young lady had her role model, the hero she cared about, be imprisoned by some wicked man."

"Truly I say; It's something to be sad about," her eyes darted towards the man's clenched fits.

"Especially if it said that the same man was the cause of her father's death within this last war." The man's body started shaking terribly.

"Oh, boo-hoo-hoo, quite a generic tragic backstory," she taunted the girl's past while her gaze still remained on the man who continued to keep his eyes closed.

"What does her letter hold I wonder?"

"stop…" A weak hoarse voice called out, but the Saintess chose to ignore it.

"To the monster—" the noble lady's smile widened as she let out a deliberate gasp.

"Oh my, this is quite the daring start, must be a heavy grudge."

"please…stop""You are a—" the Saintess read with a light heart when a sharp sound took over her soothing voice.

"SAINTESS SERAPHINA AURELIA VALCREST!!!!"