The Lady Virgin Saint drenched the previous night in tears.
Up until now, she had received countless attention, but her knowledge of romance was quite limited.
She never even imagined she would fall in love as a Lady Virgin Saint. To her, most humans were merely tools.
While she had felt compassion for someone, she had never truly loved anyone.
If the Lady Virgin Saint were to speak of the emotion called ‘love,’ it would surely have to be a religious kind of love. Her sense of chastity, as a Lady Virgin Saint of the Heavenly Deity Sect, was that pronounced.
However, after meeting a certain man, the Lady Virgin Saint’s world changed dramatically.
For the first time in her life, she developed feelings of romantic affection.
It was a different kind of daily life.
She laughed and cried because of someone, and every day, the Lady Virgin Saint awaited with a fluttering heart, just like a girl in love for the first time.
It was proof that even she had emotions like a human.
In that respect alone, she was as pure as a blank drawing paper.
She did not understand how a man and woman could close the distance to become lovers, or how to progress from there once they were in a relationship.
Thus, the stories she had heard yesterday provided an even stronger shock to the Lady Virgin Saint.
‘Mug-beo,’ could it be that one of those poor women was the Lady Virgin Saint?
Of course, the time when Ian had not visited was only three days.
Considering the traces Ian had shown so far, the possibility that he approached her with ill intent seemed low. There may have been some circumstances that prevented him from coming, and it wouldn’t be strange if he showed up immediately today.
Logically, that was the case.
However, the heart of a person does not always follow reason.
The Lady Virgin Saint, who had fallen in love for the first time, found herself teetering on the edge of tears at the mere possibility that something might have happened.
Before long, the anxiety that filled a corner of her chest made her repeatedly soothe herself inwardly.
She decided to let her heart go, terrified of parting.
Right. Let’s not expect anything.
There were many men in the world. Ian was just one of them.
Yes. Just one.
Her only first love in life.
The mindset of a woman in love was always like this.
The Lady Virgin Saint had no choice but to shed tears again. This was the reason her pillowcase was soaked through the night before.
However, when she returned to work the next day under the sunlight, she felt somewhat calmed.
She had sat all day with a gloomy and dazed face, but still, that was how she felt.
Looking back, the Lady Virgin Saint was a woman who had nothing to regret.
Many men had shown her romantic interest. It was just that the Lady Virgin Saint did not approach them with similar feelings.
And if viewed objectively, her conditions were exceptional as well.
With the status of a Lady Virgin Saint of the Heavenly Deity Sect and the praise of being a divine masterpiece.
She was not a match for even a second son of a moderately noble family.
No, Ian was not just moderately noble; he was also just, brave, and dependable.
No, no. He was also a young man with a consistent and strong mindset who loved the weak.
In the end, tears began to form again in the Lady Virgin Saint’s light pink eyes.
You terrible person, trash, how could you do this to me?
She felt like banging her head on the desk and crying loudly.
It was then that unexpected news reached the Lady Virgin Saint’s ears.
“I-Ian interfered with Sister Elsi’s engagement?”
“That’s right! The knights of the Rainelle Clan were no match for him. He was so strong….”
Originally, the Lady Virgin Saint always addressed him formally as ‘Brother Ian’ in front of others, but she was so shocked that she even forgot that fact.
The person conveying this news to the Lady Virgin Saint was one of the servants working in the dormitory.
Having worked at the academy for twenty years, she was someone who always had an itch to share the students’ stories.
So even when she had come to treat a burn from cooking, she was sharing the rumors.
It just happened that the rumor was about the biggest incident that took place that morning.
The Lady Virgin Saint froze.
“But the funny thing is, do you know what Lady Rainelle said afterward? She said ‘Woof woof’! She said she was a pet! That proud Lady Rainelle!”
While the middle-aged woman burst into loud laughter, it did not reach the ears of the Lady Virgin Saint.
Even after the middle-aged woman left, it remained the same.
The Lady Virgin Saint sat there, dazed.
A faint whimper escaped her lips.
“I-I didn’t even care about that….”
He hadn’t visited for three days, and in that time, Ian had been thinking about another woman.
How could that be?
Especially after touching her heart!
The Lady Virgin Saint was overwhelmed with sadness that nearly turned into anger.
She quickly wiped her eyes and inwardly hurled all kinds of insults toward Ian.
Playing with the heart of a pure maiden, and now coming back?
It was a grave sin that could even warrant an ecclesiastical trial.
At least, that’s what the Lady Virgin Saint thought. She put on a coy expression and cleared her throat.
“…It’s been a while?”
It was subtly sharp words.
Though it was clear that the Lady Virgin Saint was showing her disappointment, Ian, who had been sitting there in a daze, didn’t grasp her feelings.
He merely let out a deep sigh and muttered a single phrase.
“It turned out this way.”
It was a short reply.
However, the murky tone and the expression in his golden eyes mixed with anguish created a melancholic atmosphere.
The Lady Virgin Saint’s heart leapt.
He’s handsome. Should I forgive him?
Under the spell of love, Ian seemed charming no matter what he did. The resolution she had made involuntarily began to waver, but she barely managed to regain her composure.
No matter how ignorant she was about romance, there were stories she had heard.
If she just blindly accepted and forgave, it would only lead to destruction in the end. From the moment they began to close the distance, it was necessary to balance the relationship.
It was a pitfall that many lovers often fell into.
If he had done something wrong, she needed to let him know it was wrong. However, the Lady Virgin Saint felt too shy to admit that she was hurt by not seeing Ian for a while, and thus she hoped he would notice.
The temporarily drowsy look in the Lady Virgin Saint’s eyes hardened. Ahem, cough, she resumed clearing her throat.
“You’ve been busy, I see?”
“Well, various things… I don’t really know, but it seems like there was something going on.”
It was a cliché excuse.
How can someone not know what they themselves have done? It was nonsense.
The only reason for such an obvious excuse was one.
It meant he didn’t want to divulge the details.
That only made the Lady Virgin Saint more disappointed.
She wanted to close the distance between them, but it seemed Ian didn’t share that desire.
So she pouted and scoffed.
“Is that all? Just a long-overdue greeting?”
The time she spent facing Ian was terribly short.
It was far from satisfying her disappointed heart. Even if they spent the whole day together, her anger would not subside.
Truthfully, she thought that maybe they would feel better if they could be together forever.
However, her courage fell woefully short of actually voicing that sentiment.
The Lady Virgin Saint secretly hoped Ian would deny her wish, and it was one of the natural expectations she could harbor.
She had never been in a subordinate position in relationships between men and women.
She had been a woman who had always stood above in her life. It was hard to imagine that she could cling to someone or be dependent.
If her beloved had been an ordinary man, that desire might have been fulfilled.
But there was a problem.
Her counterpart was Ian Percus, and he was not in his right mind.
The severe mental blow from the ‘Elsi Rainelle Woof incident’ that morning had left him disoriented.
He had no luxury to read the thoughts of others.
“…Yes, that’s all.”
“Hmph, there’s no way that’s true… Yes, yes?”
The Lady Virgin Saint was taken aback, repeating in astonishment at Ian’s indifferent reply.
Her round, pink eyes symbolized disbelief.
However, Ian’s return answer was the same.
“I came to say goodbye. It will be hard to see each other for a while now.”
The Lady Virgin Saint was left speechless, frozen.
Was he really going to leave just like this?
Without doing anything?
Not knowing what they should do, she gulped a dry swallow.
“Y-you mean you’re going back to your hometown…?”
“Yes, so I came to say goodbye. Thank you for everything during this time.”
Saying this, Ian lowered his head slightly and stood up.
The Lady Virgin Saint’s expression became one of despair.
The reunion she had been anticipating was not like this.
She had thought it would be a little more intimate and sweet.
She thought that perhaps, as it always happened, their hearts would naturally open up, and while laughing and chatting, some burdens would lift.
But now Ian was saying he would leave without any lingering feelings.
The Lady Virgin Saint was so shocked that she nearly cried.
“W-wait, is that… is that all?”
The words she managed to squeeze out in desperation were just that.
The man’s response was simple.
He nodded his head a couple of times and bowed deeply.
“Yes, because this is the last time I need to greet you. I truly appreciate it.”
Saying that, Ian left the examination room.
The Lady Virgin Saint found herself speechless in the face of an unprecedented situation. Until now, men had often been impatient to approach her, but she never thought she would find herself in the exact opposite position.
Was this not a fleeting moment of nothingness?
As soon as she realized it, moisture brimmed in her eyes again. The possibility she had denied for so long began to emerge once more.
“Did I, did I really get dumped…?”
In the end, the Lady Virgin Saint had to swallow her tears.
She, who was ignorant of relationships between men and women, did not know.
That sometimes, being clingy and wanting to hold on was necessary to achieve the true purpose.
At the last moment, the Lady Virgin Saint admitted it.
It was a ridiculous and laughable story, but she was at a disadvantage now.
At least in terms of relationships between men and women.
The Lady Virgin Saint faced a decision.
“Am I, am I really abandoned…?”
This was also a story that came after her first heartbreak’s tears had dried.
—
The road was long yet short.
In fact, my thinking circuit was paralyzed. My head was filled with the incident that had just occurred a few hours ago.
There was no need to ask what to do.
It was the end.
Sister Elsi’s marriage path was completely blocked.
Setting aside romantic partners, there would be no family willing to take a woman who called herself a pet. If such a family existed, there was only one possibility.
The Percus Family.
Whether it led to success or failure, I had to go with Sister Elsi.
Therefore, until I met the Lady Virgin Saint, I could do nothing but repeat my answer in a daze.
My mind was not functioning, and I had nothing to say.
But in that moment I met the girl with the dark azure hair.
“…Woof, woof!”
There was no choice but to sigh.
“Your Highness the Imperial Princess, do you often get told you lack common sense?”
The girl immediately became sulky.
It was the day before Sister Elsi and the Lady Virgin Saint had turned strange.
