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She hailed from an ancient family in the Kingdom of Hallein, located in the southern continent. From a young age, her beauty was renowned throughout the kingdom. Even as a ten-year-old, her captivating smiles made even older men blush with excitement, unable to contain their fluttering hearts. People often whispered that if she grew up, she would become a stunning beauty capable of toppling a nation.

Indeed, Christine grew into a magnificent beauty. The problem was that she grew too much.

No matter how beautiful a woman is, men tend to be hesitant if the woman is taller than them. Of course, some men prefer taller women, but there are limits. Two meters is too tall.

The numerous marriage proposals she received as a child abruptly stopped when she reached puberty. While noble marriages were often arranged, they still required the partners to be somewhat compatible. The only proposals she received were from disabled or mentally deficient suitors. The Estana family did not have enough power or shamelessness to push their daughter onto a proper suitor with such a significant flaw.

Count Estana, Christine’s father, agonized over her situation.

His poor daughter, if only she had been less attractive. Since she had been praised as a beauty from a young age, he desperately wanted her to find happiness as a woman. He prayed to Seiya daily.

Then a miracle occurred. The great god Seiya delivered an oracle.

“She is the daughter of the gods, living as the sword to wield divine power and will become the mother of a great one. On the day she meets the man of the sun, their fates will be intertwined.”

The Seiya Order accepted Christine and, following the oracle, began her training as a holy knight. She lived as the sword of the order until one day, she was dispatched to the Vasily Kingdom. The order had intervened to mediate a fierce territorial conflict.

The Philanence Order was already there, healing the wounded with their priests. It was there that Christine met her destined lover, Sillan Phil Marcis.

He had hair as red as the sun.

He possessed extraordinarily beautiful features.

Sillan moved gracefully across the battlefield, tending to the wounded, embodying the very ideal Christine had always dreamed of. She fell in love at first sight. She didn’t care that he looked no older than twelve.

Returning to the Seiya Order, Christine declared.

The oracle’s fated connection had been realized. She had found the one destined to be the father of the great one.

The order was thrown into an uproar.

Unlike Christine, the members of the Seiya Order possessed a highly rational way of thinking. They were not perverted enough to agree with the bizarre notion of a woman in her mid-twenties pouncing on a boy twelve years her junior.

Naturally, they tried to dissuade her. “You must be mistaken,” they said. “Surely, Seiya’s destined partner for you isn’t such a young child,” and so on.

Then, Seiya’s oracle descended once again.

– It’s him.

This time, the oracle lacked any profound sanctity, to the point where Seiya’s priests questioned whether they had received it correctly.

However, the fact remained that the main god Seiya had affirmed Christine’s claim. Eventually, the Seiya Order sent a formal proposal to the Philanence Order.

The main god Seiya stood above the other twelve gods who blessed humans. Consequently, the Seiya Order wielded more power than other orders. For the Philanence Order, it was a proposal they couldn’t easily refuse.

Moreover, there was no real reason to reject it. No matter how young Sillan appeared, he was already seventeen at the time. Numerically speaking, the age difference wasn’t significant. They couldn’t particularly criticize Christine’s preference. Besides, due to its nature, the Philanence Order was somewhat lenient towards such unconventional tastes.

As worshippers of the goddess of love, they couldn’t endorse a marriage devoid of love. However, defying Seiya’s oracle was also out of the question, so the Philanence Order gave their consent under ambiguous conditions.

– If she wins his love, we will allow it.

“…And that’s when the hell began…”

Sillan let out a deep sigh. Repenhardt scratched his head vigorously. Truly, the world was vast and full of various preferences.

“In a word, it’s a political marriage between orders?”

“You could say that…”

Once permission was granted, Christine’s courtship was beyond obsessive, verging on fanaticism. She never wanted to leave Sillan’s side, appearing unexpectedly even in his bedroom or bathroom. There was even a time when Sillan had a fit, seeing Christine’s eyes gleaming like a cat’s at the foot of his bed, watching him sleep.

“So, meeting Mr. Repen was the perfect excuse to escape under the guise of a pilgrimage. I thought Christine might give up if I went on a pilgrimage.”

Siris, who had been listening nearby, let out a chuckle.

“So, Sillan wanting to become more manly was because of…”

“Well, that was always my dream, but it became more desperate after meeting Christine. If I transform into an ordinary man, she might give up on the marriage.”

Sillan sighed heavily again, as if the ground would swallow him up. Neither Repenhardt nor Siris could find anything to say, their mouths agape. After a long silence, Repenhardt finally muttered with a wry smile.

“But, well, love doesn’t depend on height, right? So what if the woman is a bit taller? From a man’s perspective, having a woman who loves you that much is a stroke of luck, don’t you think?”

In his past life, Repenhardt had dated Siris despite being shorter than her. He believed that if a man and woman truly cherished and loved each other, a slight height difference was inconsequential. Although, inwardly, he did think their height difference was rather extreme.

“It’s not about height. Her personality is terrifying!”

Sillan’s aversion to Christine stemmed from more than just height issues.

“She never listens to anyone! She only moves and speaks based on her own thoughts! I’ve told her countless times that I don’t want to, but she never listens. She’s already made plans for our family!”

“Uh, that really is scary…”

“Right? She’s already decided on names and future plans for kids we haven’t even had! She wants to name our son Stein and raise him as a Holy Knight of Seiya. If we have a daughter, she wants to name her Ellin and raise her as a priestess of Seiya. I mean, it’s one thing to plan a family on your own, but why would our kids serve Seiya when their father is a priest of Philanence?”

Repenhardt suddenly had a blank look on his face. With an expression like he’d been hit on the back of the head with a hammer, he asked in astonishment.

“W-what? Wait! What did you say she wanted to name your daughter?”

“Huh? Oh, she said she wanted to name her Ellin… Why does that matter right now?”

Repenhardt screamed internally.

‘Gah! Sillan is Saint Ellin’s father?’

☆ ☆ ☆

Saint Ellin.

As a priestess of the main god Seiya, she possessed unparalleled divine power, standing as one of the continent’s five strongest before the Demon King Repenhardt.

Her incredible ability to resurrect even the dead surpassed that of Al Port’s High Priest, Makelin. Despite being such a powerful priest, Makelin ultimately met his end at Ellin’s hands.

That wasn’t all. Ellin’s extraordinary ability to bestow divine blessings upon entire armies could turn ordinary soldiers into berserkers. Under her blessing, even a three-year-old child could decapitate a valiant knight.

Furthermore, although called a saint, Ellin had significant combat capabilities herself, unlike most priests who typically lacked direct combat power. The number of soldiers from the Antares Empire who perished because of her was nearly in the four digits.

The woman who had tormented Repenhardt with relentless nightmares in his past life.

‘That accursed woman is this guy’s daughter?’

Repenhardt was dumbfounded, repeatedly glancing at Sillan’s profile. At that moment, Sillan had already packed his bags and was sprinting down the corridor, seemingly determined to flee from Hendrik Castle as quickly as possible.

‘It must be a coincidence, right? It could just be the same name…’

But there were things that made it hard to dismiss as mere coincidence. Following Sillan at a brisk pace—it was a run for Sillan, but just a fast walk for Repenhardt given their difference in leg length—Repenhardt scrutinized Sillan’s face closely.

‘It’s quite the resemblance for it to be a coincidence.’

Saint Ellin was renowned across the continent not only for her divine power but also for her stunning beauty. Repenhardt could see traces of Ellin’s features in Sillan’s handsome face.

Of course, Sillan and Ellin weren’t strikingly similar. If they were, Repenhardt would have recognized Sillan right away when they first met. However, having seen both Christine and Sillan, he could now see the resemblance.

“Hmm…”

With a groan, Repenhardt mentally overlaid images of Sillan and Christine’s faces, simulating the traits they might pass on to a child. Using his mage skills, he extracted their hereditary features to predict their offspring’s appearance. The result was remarkably close to Saint Ellin’s face!

‘Oh, this is real, isn’t it?’

Repenhardt’s expression grew serious. He didn’t call Saint Ellin an “accursed woman” simply because she was an object of his hatred.

Like Sword Saint Cyrus or Fist King Teslon, Repenhardt had gathered substantial information about Saint Ellin. During this process, he also discovered the true nature of her immense divine power.

Contrary to her title as a saint, Ellin’s extraordinary divine power wasn’t naturally acquired. She was an artificial creation, born from the forbidden ritual known as the Holy Grail Project, orchestrated by the Seiya Order.

The Holy Grail Project.

Men and women with the right qualities were selected. Then, a special divine incantation was used to create a barrier, within which the man and woman would unite. If their union produced a child, that child would become the Holy Grail, a vessel for divine power.

Forcing humans to mate like racehorses, a rather vile scheme indeed. However, the Holy Grail Project wasn’t called a forbidden ritual just because of that. Honestly, don’t the nobles still engage in similar practices, arranging marriages and considering lineage? If it were just that, Repenhardt wouldn’t have considered it cursed.

The real issue was that the birth of the ‘Grail’ required the life of the parents.

At the moment of conception, it consumed the father’s life and essence, and at the moment of birth, it absorbed the mother’s life and essence to finally become a great vessel of divinity, something forbidden to humans.

Just like a viper tearing through its mother’s womb, Ellin gained her immense power at the cost of her parents’ lives. Truly, she was a woman like a venomous snake.

‘No, vipers don’t even kill their fathers, so she’s worse than a snake.’

Repenhardt could hardly gather any information about Saintess Ellin’s parents. Just as the Golden Knight Eusus was completely forgotten due to the Sword Saint Cyrus, the existence of Ellin’s parents was overshadowed by her immense fame. Furthermore, given the disgraceful nature of the matter, the Seiya Order desperately concealed the details of Ellin’s birth. To the public, Ellin was merely known as an orphan abandoned at the Seiya Order as a baby and raised as the daughter of the god.

The scant information obtained indicated that the mother was a holy knight of Seiya, and the father was a powerful priest from another order. But that was enough to make a judgment in the current situation. It became clear why someone with such formidable powers as Sillan was unknown in the future.

Such coincidences piling up can’t be considered mere coincidences.

Without a doubt, Sillan is Saintess Ellin’s father!