The Saintess and the Villainess

Chapter 50

A week after the disastrous miracle in the capital city, neither the Church of Coris nor the Emperor had made any sort of announcement about the incident. In the absence of an official narrative, public opinion had settled into two major camps.

The first camp held that Saintess Anne Coris was the true chosen one sent by the Goddess to unite the church, the imperial family, and the elves of the Sacred Forest in a new age of peace and prosperity. They saw Anne's public behavior as proof that she was friendly and open-hearted, willing to meet people where they were.

The second camp viewed Anne as a false prophet, traitor, and spy, sent by the elves of the Sacred Forest to corrupt both the church and the imperial family. They saw Anne's public behavior as proof that she was frivolous, hedonistic, proud, and manipulative.

The longer time went on with no official response, the more tensions increased between these two groups. Brawls broke out in pubs across the city, family members stopped speaking to each other, and groups of menacing looking men took to loitering in the general vicinity of the Cathedral, glaring at each other.

Anne herself was only vaguely aware of all of this.

So far Anne had been following Eva's instructions and staying inside the Cathedral, although she was going a bit stir crazy. Luckily, someone came to visit her most days, whether it was Sebastian, Corvina, or various members of the Bastards' Club.

Today it was Nia and Collette who came to visit her. Anne, Agis, and the two of them were having tea in the Blue Courtyard. The sky overhead was dark and heavy—the threat of a thunderstorm hanging in the air like the threat of a civil war.

"You really can't come out with us, even for a little bit?" asked Collette. "What if we just go to one of my boutiques? Surely you don't think anything bad will happen if you go out and do a bit of shopping."

"Sorry, Eva told me not to leave," said Anne. "Last time I went out even though she told me not to, and we ended up having a big fight over it. I feel kind of bad about it, so I figured this time I should just stay put until she says it's okay."

"Eva... that's your childhood friend, right?" said Collette.

"Yeah, that's her," said Anne.

"Sounds like a real stick-in-the-mud."

Anne just shrugged. "I mean, sort of, I guess, but she has her reasons..."

"Well, fine, so just ask her if it's okay," said Collette. "If you get her permission then it'll be fine, right?"

Anne and Agis looked at each other.

"We haven't been able to find her since we had that fight," said Anne. "That was almost a week ago."

"Wait, she's missing?" asked Collette.

"I don't know if she's missing," said Anne. "But she's not here."

"I've checked around the city, too," said Agis. "Everywhere I could think of that she might go to. No one's seen her."

"Aren't you worried about her?" asked Collette.

"Of course I am!" said Anne. "But the fact that she's gone means I would feel even more guilty if I went against her wishes so I can't really do anything about it. I asked Corvina if she could have her intelligence network keep an eye out but she hasn't heard anything either. It's like she vanished. I just... I just hope she's vanished of her own free will. And that she'll reappear again when she wants to."

Honestly, Anne was kind of freaking out about it. The original Saintess had been raised in the church, so she would at least have had the basic knowledge to navigate the organization. But the current Anne didn't have any of those memories and still barely knew how the church operated. She wasn't sure how long she'd be able to last as the Saintess without Eva to ask as a buffer between her and the church hierarchy and to guide her through all the tough rituals.