Published: August 3, 2025
Watching the invited guests making a huge fuss from the stage, I cursed my three guardians silently in my heart. "You three understand each other but leave me out! Explain things to me too!"
I know that when something happens, I’m often left out, but when I’m on stage and all eyes are on me, I want to be informed.
“As you all have seen, Rosemine has a large mana capacity,” Sylvester suddenly began speaking without asking for silence or attention. As a lord, he seemed used to speaking like this, and his strong voice echoed throughout the spacious hall.
Just by that, the room fell completely silent.
I wasn’t sure if this was the unspoken rule of a class society or Sylvester’s charisma, but everyone hushed and focused on Sylvester speaking from the stage.
“That is precisely why, to avoid disputes over our newborn child, Karlstedt hid her existence and raised her in secret. Even in the temple, attempts to conceal her presence led the former head priest to mistakenly believe that a commoner blue shrine maiden apprentice was disrupting temple discipline—a claim that should still be fresh in your memories.”
Here it comes: shifting blame onto the head priest. The classic “It’s all their fault” trick.
From conversations with Father and Brother, I vaguely understood that the head priest had so many misdeeds the high priest could list them endlessly. There was an outrageous amount of embezzlement alone, so one more fault probably didn’t make a big difference.
Still, I was amazed that Sylvester could boldly lie in front of such a large crowd.
“Rosemine was quietly raised without being told who her parents were, but she had not forgotten to show mercy to those living in harsher circumstances than herself. She pitied the children living in the orphanage and, despite her youth, provided them with work and meals.”
Sylvester spoke loudly and clearly about Rosemine’s upbringing, but honestly, I tilted my head in confusion thinking, Whose story is this? I had been shocked by the orphanage’s miserable state and created the workshop to improve things, so the overall story wasn’t wrong—but it didn’t feel like my own.
“I heard from High Priest Ferdinand about Rosemine’s dedication, and just as you now doubt it, I did too. I couldn’t believe such a child existed, so I visited the orphanage myself. There, I found Rosemine, adored and revered by the orphans as if she were a saint. Seeing her purity moved me deeply.”
He’s overeacting. Who’s a saint?! Our saint is Wilma!
Despite my internal objections, Sylvester’s claim that he personally verified it lent a strange credibility to the story.
The suspicious expressions of the guests had shifted from “What nonsense” and “I don’t believe it” to “Is it true?” and “I can’t believe it, but they say they saw it…”
I wished I could just disappear from the stage. I wanted to shout, “It’s a misunderstanding! I’m not that great!” and run away.
“The work Rosemine gave the orphans was unusual, and I saw the potential for a new business in the territory. I intended to expand it over the next twenty years, but Rosemine was targeted by nobles from other regions.”
A murmur rippled through the hall.
“You’ve probably been informed. While I was away, a malicious crime occurred involving a forged permit. The former head priest leaked the story that Rosemine has abundant mana and saved the orphanage. To solidify Rosemine’s position and protect the child of Ehrenfest who possesses great mana, I have adopted Rosemine as my daughter.”
The hall murmured again, but this time it seemed more like understanding. Probably, the nobles supplying mana to the territory felt the mana shortage most acutely.
“Due to the shortage of priests who can perform prayers and blessings caused by the former head priest’s punishment, and Rosemine’s own wish to continue saving orphans, after becoming my adopted daughter, she shall serve as head priest until she reaches adulthood. To start, we will establish a workshop at a nearby town’s orphanage and begin saving orphans as Rosemine requested.”