Chapter 1

I wonder when I stopped feeling sleepy.

My body craves sleep. If I close my eyes now, I would probably lose consciousness in an instant.

Yet, I can no longer understand the feeling of being sleepy.

I haven't felt hungry for a long time either. It seems I have lost the ability to feel desires.

In a way, perhaps this makes me suitable to be a holy maiden. After all, holy maidens are said to be "desireless" beings.

"Can't you even properly make a single talisman! Don't slack off!"

Still, this priest really has a foul mouth. I wonder how he even became a priest. Well, I've never seen him speak rudely to anyone other than Alm, so I guess he only talks to Alm like this.

Alm lowered her head, bit her lip, and held back her tears. She mustn't cry. If she cries, she will be scolded again for "a holy maiden losing her composure over such a trivial matter."

While other holy maidens freely express their emotions, laughing, getting angry, or crying, Alm is told she is "unbecoming of a holy maiden" even if she just frowns.

For a year, Alm has worked hard. She has endured, suppressing her desire to sleep and rest.

Yet, her efforts are not recognized at all.

Even though she has never slacked off, if there is the slightest thing that doesn't meet this priest's expectations, only Alm is scolded. Despite there being other holy maidens, only Alm is.

(He must really hate me...)

That's the only thing I can think. This priest hates Alm and wants to drive her out of the temple.

With the determination not to lose and the fact that she has nowhere else to go, Alm has endured all this time.

But on this day, the thin thread that had been taut for so long snapped.

"If you're this useless, quit being a holy maiden!!"

"I quit!!!"

A single girl's scream echoed through the grand hall of the temple.

At the same time as she screamed, Alm turned on her heel and quickly left the grand hall. She went straight to the temple's accounting department and received her full salary, which she had never used, then went to her assigned room in the temple, grabbed her magic bag, and left without stopping.

Alm, who hadn't been out alone in a year, walked without hesitation to a small, unused park near the slums at the edge of the capital. After confirming the "For Sale" sign, she contacted the number written below it using the communication magic device from her magic bag and bought the land of the small, abandoned park with just one bench.

"Phew..."

After paying the landlord who had hurried over, Alm, having completed what she needed to do, wobbled over to the bench and plopped down. She then set up a barrier around the bench, looked up at the sky, and shouted.

"Damn you! I'll never go back to that place!! Johannes Schastel, you sneaky bastard!!"

And so, Alm Danlark resigned from her position as a "holy maiden" in the Holy Schastel Kingdom.

***

"Sneaky bastard, rotten priest, bald in old age..."

Muttering curses, Alm lay down on the bench. She doesn't care about her manners; she's no longer a holy maiden.

"Ah~ I'll sleep a little..."

It would be dangerous for a fifteen-year-old girl to sleep on a park bench, but since she set up a barrier around the bench, no one can touch her.

"I won't go back... I don't want to see anyone..."

Alm has nowhere to go.

The Danlark family, Alm's real family, is a baronial house. However, her father died when she was ten, and her half-brother, who is much older, inherited the title.

Her parents were not on good terms, and Alm had never seen them talk to each other.

After inheriting the title, her half-brother kicked out her mother and Alm, but her mother remarried the head of a trading company and abandoned Alm.

With no choice, her half-brother took Alm in. Alm had an obligation to receive the holy maiden certification as a noble's daughter.

The first king of the Holy Schastel Kingdom defeated the demon king with a holy maiden and made her his queen.

The blood of the holy maiden was then integrated into the nobility of the country through marriage.

Because those who inherit the blood of the holy maiden have a higher chance of possessing the abilities of a holy maiden, it is decided that noble-born girls undergo the "Holy Maiden Certification Ceremony" at the age of thirteen. If they are certified as "suitable to be a holy maiden" in this ceremony, they live in the temple and work as a holy maiden.

Her half-brother probably intended to abandon Alm after she received the Holy Maiden Certification Ceremony.

So, when Alm was recognized as a holy maiden and could live in the temple, she felt relieved.

The other holy maidens were all from high-ranking noble families, so as a baron's daughter, Alm was isolated and often bullied.

But the first year was peaceful. Looking back now.

Alm's hell began about a year after she started working as a holy maiden, when a new priest was appointed to the temple.

Johannes Schastel was the seventh prince of the Holy Schastel Kingdom and an excellent young man who became a priest at the young age of fifteen. He was well-behaved and quiet, with milk tea-colored hair and eyes, and was a beautiful youth. Apart from being somewhat aloof, he was a flawless presence.

However, this young man was very harsh only to Alm.

Even though there were other holy maidens in the temple, he always called on Alm and piled work on her without a break.

This meant that Alm had to do not only the usual work of a holy maiden but also the work that should have been shared among the other holy maidens, and even paperwork that was not originally part of a holy maiden's duties.

Literally from morning till night, Alm had no time to rest, and she collapsed in the temple corridors multiple times due to overwork, lack of sleep, loss of appetite, and anemia. It was easier to believe that the man was sent to assassinate her.

"Well, I don't have to see him again. Actually, I don't want to see him again."

I'll just erase him from my memory. It's best to erase unpleasant memories.

Thinking this, Alm drifted into a peaceful sleep, free from the worry of being woken up in the middle of the night.