Interlude
The World Seen by the Saint
I am Eremite.
The daughter of a noble who was given the Divine Blessing of the Saint.
My great-grandfather was a soldier raised to the station of knight as a reward for his accomplishments on the battlefield. My grandfather expanded on his domain, gaining a baronial peerage and becoming a hereditary noble.
My great-grandfather was given the Divine Blessing of the Knight, and my grandfather had the Divine Blessing of the Aristocrat. Both of them led ideal lives. On their deathbeds, they were surrounded by a great many friends and were grateful to Demis when called to His side.
However, my grandfather made a single mistake that became the source of my family’s misfortune. Do you know what it was?
My grandfather left his estate to his only son, my father.
My father was granted the Divine Blessing of the Hound Tamer. He loved dogs and was praised by all the other nobles for the animals he raised. He was kind and beloved by the people of his land, and he was a good person who cared deeply for his family as well.
However, he wasn’t meant to be the master of an estate. He might have understood the hearts of dogs, but failed to see the malice in people. He knew how to use dogs to hunt, yet was poor when it came to sending people to war. And although he could judge how much a dog would eat, he struggled in matters of money and farming management.
Father was tricked by a neighboring noble, defeated in battle, and lost rights to the water and mine on his territory.
The latter had been a major source of income, and without water, agriculture became impossible. What little money remained dwindled away paying for water that had once been his, and thus, my family’s fortune swiftly ran dry.
My father was a kind lord, but the people did not wish to starve. They came to despise him as a useless ruler who could do little else but be nice. Ultimately, my father had no choice but to become a puppet of the noble who’d deceived him.
The people’s hearts grew distant, and it was only a matter of time until the land was stolen. My family’s estate would end with my father.
Father didn’t have the resolve to face his difficulties. My once gentle father fell into drinking and grew violent. He even released the hunting dogs he’d loved so much. During those brief times when alcohol released him, he wept and apologized endlessly. It was so pitiful I could only look away.
Mother and my elder brother abandoned my father, going to the noble who took over. As far as I know, they still work in his estate.
I remained, however, believing that were I to leave, Father would end his life.
Father placed his hopes in my blessing.
Pleading with a bishop he’d gifted a hunting dog, he secured a way for me to travel to the Last Wall fortress, so that I might become a successful cleric.
He asked me to gain authority and return to save our house. “If the estate is restored, our family will return. We’ll be able to live together again,” he said.
Father’s problem was a conflict between two minor nobles. A sufficiently powerful member of the church could have intervened and resolved the issue.
But would that have brought my father happiness?
His misfortune was brought on by his attempt to fulfill a role other than that assigned by his Divine Blessing.
So I destroyed Father’s house.
The land he’d protected, that I might inherit it, now belongs to the noble who deceived him.
In exchange, Father has been given sufficient assets to live and an environment where he can raise hunting dogs for the noble.
Father has not forgiven me, but I have heard that his present life is a happy one.
It is not a misfortune to have one’s life dictated by their blessing.
A Knight has the happiness of a Knight, a Noble the happiness of a Noble, a Hound Tamer the happiness of a Hound Tamer, and a Servant the happiness of a Servant.
Divine Blessings are an expression of Demis’s love for us.
Have faith in that love. There is joy in faith. And that joy shall become virtue.
Even if you do not yet understand, please remember that God’s love is always with you.
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