Her Majesty Sakura And The Secret Of The Saintesses

“It’s been a long time, Your Majesty Sakura.”

I lowered myself into a curtsy.

Her Majesty Sakura was still a beautiful woman, even after all these years. She possessed the elegance befitting a noble lady and gentle, refined features.

However, her face no longer held the vitality it once had. Instead, an air of loneliness surrounded her, reminiscent of a flower that had been abandoned and left to wither.

“I suppose it’s been ten years since I last saw you… You’ve grown so much.”

Her Majesty Sakura narrowed her eyes.

In the past, I had met Her Majesty Sakura many times when my father, the Minister of Finance, brought me along. Though that was more than ten years ago, when I was still in the single digits.

“Thanks to your kindness, I’ve been doing quite well. …I’m a married woman now.”

“So I’ve heard. You’re the queen now, aren’t you?”

I nodded with a stiff expression.

The reason I had stopped smiling was that Her Majesty Sakura might not approve of someone other than a Saintess occupying the position of queen.

In fact, there were quite a few people in the kingdom who disapproved of me being queen, and it wasn’t limited to Her Majesty.

I hadn’t considered it particularly important, so I’d skipped over it, but quite a few things had happened before Yuri-sama and I got married. Well, now that I’d safely settled into my position as queen, I wasn’t particularly bothered by it.

Still, I was a little wary because Her Majesty Sakura might also disapprove. After all, even I had once believed that the position of queen rightfully belonged to the Saintess.

Perhaps she noticed what I was thinking. Her Majesty Sakura spoke quietly.

“There’s no need to be so tense. I don’t care who occupies the position of queen.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing this side of her, perhaps Her Majesty Sakura really hadn’t changed since the old days.

The Her Majesty Sakura I remembered was an exceptionally kind and considerate person. Although I had always been nervous about meeting her, I liked how she never acted superior simply because she was the Saintess and always greeted everyone with a smile.

“Rather, perhaps it’s a good thing that you became queen. …Sometimes I wonder, you know. Is it really a blessing to be forced into the position of queen simply because you were summoned as a Saintess? If I’d been able to come to this world as an ordinary girl, would a different life have awaited me…?”

Her Majesty Sakura’s gaze slowly drifted into the distance. Perhaps what she saw in her mind were the days of “what might have been.” Ai, who had been quietly listening behind me, cautiously peeked out.

“…Oh, but saying such things is disrespectful to the people, isn’t it? Goodness, growing old really does make one prone to sentimentality.”

“Not at all. Being the Saintess is an enormous responsibility, after all.”

I’d heard that Her Majesty Sakura was summoned to this country when she was seventeen. Although that was considered adulthood in our kingdom, she was still terribly young. Why, even I had launched into a month-long father-daughter war when my father told me, “You’re going to become queen.”

“Yes. Being the Saintess is an enormous responsibility… And yet this Saintess is awfully small, isn’t she? Little one, what’s your name?”

When Her Majesty Sakura addressed her, Ai immediately ducked back behind me. I answered in her place.

“My apologies. She seems to be a little shy around strangers. Her name is Ai.”

“Ai? Love…? That’s quite an ironic name.”

Her Majesty’s brow furrowed.

“If she’s a Saintess, that means this child has also… been forced to endure a life of suffering, hasn’t she?”

I narrowed my eyes at Her Majesty Sakura’s words.

If she’s a Saintess, that means this child has also…?

“Um, what exactly do you mean by that…?”

“…Judging by your expression, I suppose it isn’t common knowledge. …Ederine, come here.”

At her beckoning gesture, I cautiously approached Her Majesty Sakura. Ai, who was tightly clutching my clothes, moved along with me, remaining pressed against my side.

When I stood before Her Majesty Sakura, she firmly pulled down the collar of her dress. For an instant, I saw her slender, pale neck, and then—

Painful-looking burn scars stretching from her shoulder across her back were exposed.

I was speechless.

“Terrible, aren’t they? Because of these scars, I can only ever wear high-necked dresses.”

“What on earth happened to cause those burns…!? Surely the late king didn’t…!?”

Her Majesty gave a bitter smile at my alarm.

“It wasn’t His Majesty. He was a womanizer, but he wasn’t the sort of man who would raise his hand against women or children. The people who did this to me were my parents.”

Her Majesty sighed.

“My parents, you see… They were truly awful people. Verbal abuse and violence were everyday occurrences. They were the sort of people who would strike you before they even thought to speak. These burns were from my mother pouring boiling water over me.”

I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand. That sounded just like…

When I looked, Ai was listening to Her Majesty Sakura with a serious expression.

“You see, I wanted to get away from those people as soon as possible. So I found a job at a company that provided employee housing, which I was supposed to start right after graduating from high school… I was so happy when I received the job offer. I thought I’d finally be able to get away from them…”

I listened carefully to the unfamiliar words. High school… Was that something like an academy?

“But then, just before I was supposed to start, I received a notice saying my job offer had been withdrawn. I was shocked. When I went to ask why… apparently, my parents had stormed into the company and screamed at them. ‘If you hire our daughter, we’ll report you to the police for kidnapping her!’”

The police. That was a word Ai’s parents had used, too.

“That was when I realized. I would never be able to escape those people. For the rest of my life, they would continue ruining everything for me. …Everything went dark before my eyes.”

Her Majesty Sakura spoke calmly and matter-of-factly. Although her face showed no dramatic anguish, there was a profound sense of resignation in her expression.

“Before I knew it, I was standing in front of a railroad crossing. I was in a daze, and just as I stepped forward, intending to end everything… That was when the summoning circle appeared and brought me to this world.”

Her Majesty Sakura raised her head. Her dark eyes trembled quietly.