You Don't Believe Me?

The woman was so overloaded with shock that she didn't see her savior's face clearly. Tears covered her eyes up the whole time, and she didn't want to hold her head high and show her miserable appearance, so she kept it low.

After hearing that, she looked up to properly recognize her, and..

"S-Saintess?!"

That white robe with golden embroideries, silky silver hair, and a pair of golden eyes to complete the ethereal beauty... It couldn't be, the one who saved her was the one and only Saintess Serenia Aubellin?!

"You guessed it right~" Serenia chuckled after seeing how flustered the woman became. "What about you? What's your name?"

"I deeply apologize for not recognizing you sooner! My name is Alia, I'm a newly appointed maid here in the Palace!" Alia bowed repeatedly, thinking that she had just made a grave mistake.

Disrespect towards the Saintess, no amount of apologies could cover that up, right?!

"A maid.. I see."

Alia gulped a mouthful of saliva. She was so sure that her short lived career would formally end here. In the deepest parts of her heart, however, she felt glad. She was finally going to be able to escape the hellish nightmare that was living with the other maids.

She had zero friends. Not even in her living quarters, which was dwelled by five maids in total. In fact, they openly disliked her so much that they would deliberately dirty her side of the room sometimes.

"Don't you want revenge? Fight back and beat them up.. wouldn't it be the most satisfying thing ever?" Serenia thought.

Alia felt like it was a little bit weird that a Saintess approached her and wished harm upon others, but the insides of her head was too much of a mess to care about that.

"I.. can't. Those people.. no matter how hard I try to fight back, my suffering wouldn't end. It would just get worse." Alia gritted her teeth.

"In fact, I've reported their deeds multiple times in the past. I just.. got ignored. They told me that it was probably an accidental thing, and that it wouldn't happen again. They got scolded, but how long did that last? Meanwhile, once they got released.. their behavior would escalate. Ten times over!" Alia shuddered every single time she recalled the heinous things they did.

The first time she retaliated, she couldn't even sleep a wink at night time. She was so afraid of their menacing glares and loud curses that shook her to the core.

"Then, I can make it so that you'll never see them again. I can do so many things, ones that you might've only dreamed of."

"H-How?"

"Expulsion, of course! My Saintess privileges, if I don't use them right, what would it be good for?" Serenia clasped her hands together and said.

Expulsion. Just like its name, it meant that the person she targeted would be banished from the Holy Palace. As easy as it sounds, it was actually much more complicated and vicious than that.

Being forcibly evicted meant that you now had a clear stigma placed on you. The mark of 'someone who had done wrong'. Not to mention, the targets were maids. People who originally already had quite a low status in the social ladder.

Imagine if they were branded with this stigma. Who would dare employ them in the future? The Holy Palace was influential, people would know better than to mess with the Palace's decisions and hire these maids. It was so much easier to find another competent maid than to fight for a stigmatized one.

"Isn't that taking it too far?!" Alia understood the weight of that subject and gasped loudly.

'What a good girl. Compared to the clear abusive treatments she received.. Expulsion is an easy escape, but she still thinks it's too much.' Serenia gazed at her pale skin, which had received many blows and scars to it.

The harassment case was so severe. If she was Alia, she would've immediately accepted Serenia's offer by now.

"For now, let's go to my chambers. We'll have to clean you up." Serenia sighed.

"Can I do such a thing?"

"Of course! Why can't you? I'm the owner of my chambers. My words stand above anybody else's." Serenia raised an eyebrow as she replied.

"I mean.. Why would you want to take care of someone like me?"

"Because I don't like how they're treating you. As simple as that."

"Saintess.." Alia looked at Serenia's eyes in wonder.

She was on the ground, trembling as not only did her feet lose strength, a bucket of ice water had just been dumped on top of her. The water soaked her body and clothes thoroughly and left her unable to move much, from the shock and sheer pain.

Alia had to look up to even see Serenia. From her point of view, the moon was right behind the beautiful Saintess, and created a halo that multiplied the grace, beauty, and poise she possessed.

"I don't like seeing someone who has no backbone and gets thrown around like a sack of potatoes every single day. I don't like how they think they have the power to judge others' background and not be rational when making decisions. I don't like how they make light of the sacred Holy Palace." Serenia listed it her reasons one by one. "Let's see... Did I miss something?"

Honestly, the display so far had convinced Alia. Serenia just had that sort of aura that would compel you to believe in whatever she spouts out of that pretty little mouth. Combined with the fact that so far, no one had taken her side, she was left with no choice but to admire the Saintess and think very highly of her.

Strong, kind, and compassionate.

Alia had heard quite the number of bad rumors about the Saintess' attitude and behavior.

--"The Saintess is dumb. She's arrogant, yet easy to please. Just say some sweet words to her, and you will get rewarded! Attending to her is the easiest thing to do, you can fool her and she wouldn't know it."--

She heard things like that over and over again.

However, she had never interacted with her in person. This was the first time she came face to face with the main character of all those gossips.

Now, she began to believe that all of that was bullshit. Well, how could she not? This Saintess defied all odds and protected her, even offered her to enter her private chambers.

"..Yes, please." Alia replied.

She was scared to trust others, but somehow, she felt like she would be completely safe in the hands of this Saintess.