The Unspeakable

‘Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, I’m burning!’

Almost immediately, Elia’s mental chibi clutched its arm, wailing and rolling on the ground in pain.

‘What the hell? They can’t even do this little thing right, and they spilled hot water on me! What if they accidentally ruin my super invincible cute and beautiful face?! Aaaah, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts so much… And they still don’t apologize? Are they expecting me to comfort them? That’s too much!’

Elia, valuing her life, naturally had various protective spells cast on herself to avoid sneak attacks and resist harm.

But she had specifically not guarded against unintentional harm from an orphaned little girl, and was caught off guard, her entire left hand drenched in hot tea.

‘Your Highness Elia, I’m so sorry…’

With the help of a certain mind-reader, the bewildered Jorrit quickly remembered to apologize, but before he could approach, he was surrounded by angry guards and officials.

Others either rushed to Elia to inquire about her condition or fiercely grabbed the hand of the offending little girl, looking ready to strike.

‘Stop!’

Seeing this, Elia exclaimed urgently.

‘Ouch, ouch, ouch… You bastards, what are you doing?’

Don’t misunderstand, Elia wasn’t worried about what would happen to the little girl. In fact, she also believed that this bastard little girl deserved death and should be severely disciplined.

But only if it wasn’t in front of her, and didn’t affect her.

Although the Church and the Royal Family were actually in charge of the inspection, since she was invited, she was the primary person in charge.

As such, she couldn’t allow these people to act recklessly.

Think about it, other people’s inspections were all harmonious and peaceful until the end… But for her, this incident occurred before her butt even warmed the seat. If word got out, wouldn’t she, a dignified Grand Saintess candidate, lose face?

Minimizing major issues and resolving minor ones—this was the correct way to handle it.

So, while shouting at those who wanted to punish the little girl, she unhesitatingly used calming and soothing magic, completely stabilizing the almost out-of-control situation.

‘Everyone, please don’t be like this. I’m fine, and she didn’t do it on purpose.’

Considering that this little brat looked like she would cry for a long time even without a punch, to avoid rumors spreading about the Saintess making a little girl cry, she put on a gentle smile and slowly walked to the little girl’s front.

Disregarding whether her dress would get dirty from the dust on the ground, she half-squatted down and gently patted the little girl’s head.

‘Don’t be so sad. Everyone makes mistakes. Just be more careful next time.’

In this situation, even using magic wouldn’t draw any gossip, so Elia brazenly used magic to help the little girl relax and calm down, to win over public support.

And this was part of a combo move.

‘But… Saintess big sister’s hand.’ After calming down, remembering the pain she felt when she was scalded in the past, the little girl asked worriedly.

Haha, she was waiting for this… Elia smiled slightly, extended her left arm, which had been aching and itching, and nonchalantly cast magic to completely heal it, even removing all traces of the tea.

‘See, isn’t it completely healed now?’ Elia wiggled her arm, smiling.

Although what she was thinking was finally no longer having to endure the pain, and she even cursed the other party under her breath, thanks to this combo, the little girl finally revealed a genuine smile.

But this wasn’t enough.

At birth, man is evil.

Elia believed that if it ended like this, these wretched people would definitely punish the little girl behind the scenes.

Even if not, the orphanage children would find ways to bully her, after all, she had harmed her, the super invincible cute beautiful Saintess. Although the death penalty could be avoided, the living penalty was inescapable…

As she always said, she didn’t care what happened to the little girl, but she had already comforted the other party.

If the little girl were to suffer misfortune afterward, it would definitely be her reputation that was damaged. So, instead of indulging in momentary gratification, it was better to utilize this incident to its maximum.

‘Please, everyone, stop blaming this child. Let everything end here, alright?’

She raised her head and said to the crowd.

‘Since Her Highness the Saintess requests it so…’

After most people assented, she turned to Jorrit, revealing a trusting gaze with a hint of threat:

‘Count Jorrit, please take good care of her afterward.’

Jorrit was slow to other things, but keenly perceptive when it came to caring for children.

He immediately understood Elia’s worries and nodded earnestly: ‘I will never betray your expectations.’

‘That’s good.’

Elia once again dotingly stroked the little girl’s somewhat dirty head, bestowed a blessing upon her, and incidentally washed her own hands, before returning to her seat.

Then, without any surprise, after people returned to their seats, they couldn’t help but look at her with admiration.

‘Hooray, a great victory!’

Elia was overjoyed in her heart.

Putting that aside, Luke also admired her somewhat, because he was sitting directly opposite Elia.

The moment she was splashed with hot tea, he saw clearly that this scummy pinkette didn’t even frown, not showing a single hint of discomfort.

If judged by Garlton’s standards, that meant, under twenty times magnification and slowed down, she would usually frown by 0.047 centimeters, lasting for 0.059 seconds before relaxing.

Just now, her brow furrowed by about 0.051 centimeters, lasting for 0.062 seconds before relaxing… Very impressive. At least Luke admitted he couldn’t do it.

More importantly, after her actions, everyone understood the Saintess’s inclination. Due to their love for her (love the house, love the crow) and political alignment, their tolerance for the orphanage greatly increased.

While it wouldn’t necessarily bring the orphanage any direct help, at least this inspection could conclude smoothly… if everything went normally.

But regrettably, one bad apple spoiling the barrel has always been the most common occurrence in this world.

After personally comforting the little girl again, Jorrit also joined the ranks of serving tea and snacks, to prevent the children from making mistakes in their hurriedness.

It’s worth noting that although other things in the orphanage were very rudimentary, the tableware was rather expensive, and the tea was not cheap to the point of being commoner-grade.

Therefore, the remaining bit of anger from the various inspection officials also dissipated, and they even started to wonder what kind of snacks the orphanage would prepare.

Of course, it was merely curiosity; they had no expectations.

So even if the orphanage served relatively simple food, for the Saintess’s sake, they would reluctantly accept it.

At worst, they would just take a tiny bite to show courtesy, or simply ignore it and only drink tea, which wouldn’t be disgraceful.

And why were they curious about snacks even after they were served? Because the orphanage had covered the food with iron cloches, in a manner attempting to mimic high-end cuisine.

Jorrit actually didn’t know the reason; he hadn’t given such an order.

He merely thought the chef was preparing a little surprise for the esteemed guests, so he didn’t think too deeply or inspect it.

‘Esteemed guests, please enjoy.’

The result was that as he and the children lifted the cloches, and people clearly saw the “delicacies” inside, another round of angry curses erupted.

‘Viscount Jorrit, time and again, what exactly are you trying to do?!’

Jorrit quickly rushed to the Saintess’s table, then almost fainted from shock.

Rudimentary… that would have been a good situation.

The reality was that the plates contained unspeakable, visibly unhygienic, and perhaps even unidentifiable as food items.