Chapter 01
The story has ended.
The sky was clear, not a single cloud in sight, and the wind was cool.
Those who wished for my death let out manic cries, and the executioner awaited me before the grim beheading block. Though the distance was not far, the journey felt unbearably arduous due to the several days I had gone without food.
Beneath the dazzling sunlight, I saw a woman adorned with brilliant ornaments. Lilia, with her radiant blonde hair and warm green eyes, was beautiful.
Beside her stood people with cold eyes. They were once my precious ones, or my closest friends, but now they were worse than strangers to me.
Lilia had captured their hearts, eyes, and ears, and so they all turned their backs on me.
It began with a terminal diagnosis that struck like a bolt from the blue. The young lady betrothed to the Crown Prince was terminally ill!
The entire nation was thrown into chaos, and meetings were held day after day. The engagement between the Imperial Family and my house was intricately tied to political purposes, making it difficult to untangle.
Lilia slipped through that confusion and, one by one, made everything that shone in my possession her own. Slowly and methodically, as if it had been destined from the start.
Of course, at first, it was dreadful. Humiliating, infuriating, and I lashed out all the more. Unlike me, who was sensitive due to my impending death, I resented Lilia, who was kind and healthy.
Unaware that my disgrace only made Lilia shine brighter, I threw jealous fits. I threw tantrums and cried, insisting everything had been mine and that it had been stolen from me.
I didn’t realize that what ultimately remained for me was only a shameful expulsion. I didn’t foresee that even my family would turn their backs on me, fearing the backlash might reach them.
Ah, foolish Aneli Roam. Your stupidity has brought your life to ruin.
A taunt from someone came to mind. Those words were true. My dull-wittedness burned my honor, drove my people away, and shattered my love.
“Bring the convict here!”
The soldiers grabbed my arms and dragged me, more or less, to the beheading block. Directly ahead, I saw the man I loved.
It was Maxel, my betrothed and the Crown Prince beloved by the Empire’s people. He stood with one arm wrapped around Lilia’s shoulder, looking down at me.
It was a distance too far to see clearly anyway, yet I felt our eyes meet. He was probably feeling relieved.
After all, he had fallen into a fresh love while simultaneously growing weary of his increasingly sensitive betrothed.
Maxel had initially pitied his betrothed, who had to steel herself even for a walk in the garden and often collapsed midway, but eventually, he came to despise her. So I wanted to get healthy. It felt like I could reclaim everything I had lost.
If I had known from the start that it was all a lie, would things have been different?
Maxel, will you ever learn that the doctor who gave me my terminal diagnosis was acting on Lilia’s orders?
Will my family, who adopted Lilia and erased my name from the family registry, ever regret it?
Will my former close friends, who ultimately took Lilia’s side and reproached me, find that their friendship is eternal?
“To this foolish creature, I bestow God’s final mercy. Do you have any last words?”
At the priest’s words, I did not reply, but stared silently at Maxel. He did not avert his gaze. At this moment, why? I felt as if I could taste the sweetness of the confections I used to enjoy often.
I must finally be going mad. As I traced a faint smile with my parched lips, I felt a stinging sensation where the scab had torn.
“…God, have mercy.”
I simply wanted to rest.
So on this clear and bright day, I will gladly accept this early death.
—
This place was not heaven.
Nor was it hell.
My lungs filled with breath. Ah, this cannot be. A despairing sigh choked my throat. My stiff tongue could not utter a single word, but I could tell.
I was alive. Someone had brought me back.
It was an unwanted resurrection.
—
*”Evil runs rampant, so I send you a Resurrected One; stand firm and face it.”*
With the oracle, the world was turned upside down. That the world was turned upside down meant that my life was turned upside down as well.
When I opened my eyes, I was in a temple. To me, who could not grasp the situation, the priests all bowed in unison, spouting nonsense, calling me a precious savior, or resurrected one, or saintess.
The last memories etched in my mind were of the crowd throwing stones and spewing curses filled with malice, and of my acquaintances waiting for my death with cold gazes.
A savior? What utter nonsense.
I shut myself in a room and confronted the priests for a month. At first, they tried to persuade me with their noble piety, but then they floundered and changed tactics, offering all sorts of delicacies and treasures. Naturally, I mocked their efforts.
Meanwhile, I looked into this absurd miracle that had happened to me. It was then that I learned the contents of the oracle as well.
The rampancy of evil? Evil had been rampant for a long time. When Lilia intruded into my life with her lovely face, when Maxel fell for her and scorned me, when even my family turned their backs on me and instead joined forces with others to criticize me, trying to avoid the fallout.
If God wanted to choose me, why didn’t He save me from that suffering then? Why did He let me experience everything and give up, only to bring me back to life as some kind of monster?
“Resurrected One, Priest Moriko has brought rare fruits for you, Saintess.”
“You didn’t eat much breakfast either, please try a little.”
I had become adept at brushing off the annoying apprentice priests. It wasn’t difficult, given my experience from before my death of throwing tantrums around those nearby.
When I tried to harm myself a couple of times, the apprentice priests learned to keep their mouths shut whenever I picked up anything. This time, as I irritably picked up a book, I saw them discreetly back away.
During the process of harming myself, I realized I had gained monstrous regenerative abilities. Though scars would remain if not properly treated, my natural healing power itself had increased tremendously.
My stamina also became far better than before my death, and my five senses sharpened. But the most decisive change was that I could now communicate with non-human beings.
I did not tell the priests what abilities I possessed. They seemed to think, judging from my regenerative power, that I possessed immense divine power. I heard that believers flocked daily to the temple where I was currently staying.
Recently, the Imperial Family and nobles had been requesting visits daily as well. They said some of my acquaintances were among them, and that if I wished, they would allow me to receive them.
But none of them mattered to me anymore. The most important thing to me was simply the fact that I had not died.
It was said that my beheaded body had been discarded. Because I had been expelled from my family, no one claimed the body, and it was left unattended for days.
Strangely, however, it did not rot, and rather than animals tearing at it, they guarded the body. While they were finding this odd, the oracle was delivered.
It was the high priest Moriko who, thinking ‘could it be?’, recovered the body. He laid the body in a clean coffin, and one day, absentmindedly noticing that the head and body had reattached, he was astonished and immediately moved me to the main temple.
I couldn’t suspect that they were all deceiving me collectively, because a clear scar remained on my neck. Evidence of beheading. As I unconsciously touched my nape, I felt a bumpy mark.
“Hah…”
This was truly maddening.
“Just because they reattached a separated head and body, they thought I’d be grateful and diligently go fight evil?”
The beheading was humiliating, but perhaps it was for the best.
I secretly pulled out a bag I had been hiding. A month was more than enough time to figure out the movements and schedules of the clergy within the temple.
“Thank you. This time, I’ll try to die a little more gracefully.”
I planned to leave for somewhere, anywhere, and hide. To a place where Aneli Roam was unknown. There, I would cheer on the evil running rampant in this world and munch on pastries.
—
The House of Roam was one of the founding noble families of the Empire. As they were close political partners and friends of the Seriad Imperial Family, the betrothal between the houses was also a natural course of events.
From birth, I was the betrothed of a prince. The Imperial Family had four sons, and when the second prince, Maxel, was appointed Crown Prince, my betrothed was confirmed as him.
Having been raised from birth to consider myself part of the Imperial Family, I came to love Maxel without any particular resistance.
As for Maxel, I don’t quite know his heart.
But I recall that at least ‘when I was healthy,’ our relationship wasn’t bad.
My older sister Frizian, who had become a duchess by postponing the promise between our families, would often say: The Crown Prince loves you, and you love the Crown Prince, so only happiness lies ahead.
Looking back now, I think she was just worried I might say I didn’t want to become the Crown Princess. If I were to stubbornly refuse, there was a chance the obligation of that promise could fall back on her.
When I received my terminal diagnosis, Frizian was the first among my family to coldly turn away. It was also Frizian who vehemently insisted on adopting Lilia.
Even if Frizian became Crown Princess instead of me, there was no worry about the house’s succession because our youngest sibling, Seiri, was there. From her perspective, it was natural to be wary.
I have no intention of condemning her ambition, which I had witnessed more closely than anyone. My father and mother also discarded one terminally ill child to protect their two healthy ones, so it wasn’t a matter of blaming only Frizian.
Roam was that kind of family. A house where one’s own dignity and pride were paramount, and where, to protect authority, they would cut away useless parts if necessary.
I too am a child of Roam, so I understand their thinking.
However, just because I understand the circumstances of the betrayal doesn’t mean I must forgive, does it? Especially since my name has been erased from the registry.
“Lady Roam has collapsed, they say.”
“Good heavens, she won’t even see them even though her parents collapsed? They say she’s at the main temple.”
I glanced to the side. The people gathered at the central notice board in the city were ordinary citizens who knew nothing.
They were those who had only ever seen the noble and magnificent facade created by Roam. I couldn’t even feel anger at their words.
“Her reputation was so infamous in life, so what would change just because she was resurrected?”
