Her two-faced ex-fiance acts like he is close and 'questions' her cold behavior. She verbally refutes him but makes no other effort to chase him away because he is a high standing noble. But in this case, doesn't she have the upper hand of being a 'prospective saint' that the church and king want to see? Why don't you describe his previous behavior and expose his shamelessness now in front of all the guards? Why don't you make it natural that he should grovel before you and ask for forgiveness instead of having the audacity of acting friendly with you? Why don't you make demands (like removing this tr*sh from being your escort) when the king/pope are technically kidnapping you under the excuse of verifying the oracle?

Your father's guards come find you in the hotel and basically prevent you from staying there. MC goes: oh, I have no choice so I'll meekly go since it's futile fighting my family. Well ok, I'm sure there is more than one hotel here, and if not a hotel, a tavern or any other sleeping accommodation in the city (perhaps capital since the king and pope live there). Maybe her father's guards will block her, but how dare soldiers randomly persecute innocent civilians? Let's say her father prevents all the taverns from allowing her stay. Well fine then, you tried your best. At least you didn't roll over and just go to the house that excommunicated you and completely removed your name from the family tree.

She arrives at the mansion and all the servants are rude to her. She points out their discourtesy towards a guest, but then one basically orders her to go see her father, and she suddenly agrees right away and walks there voluntarily.

Her absolute tr*sh father orders her back into the family once she's 'verified' as a saint, like it's her honor to obey his ridiculous demands. This time, she stands her ground and refuses completely. Good job!

But now she's stuck in the mansion because of her tr*sh father's orders, and the servants pretend like all the carriages are broken. Instead of pointing out all the loopholes of their excuse (she came here on a carriage, she's a former master who probably knows where they are kept, etc) or even pointing out their complete inadequacy and demanding that they 'fix' or procure a carriage within a reasonable time for a guest like herself, she sighs in helplessness and resigns herself to house arrest.

Then a servant even dares lay a hand on her and grabs her arm to drag her around. Instead of struggling away or slapping him, she resigns herself to her fate of being mishandled because 'the servants know she doesn't have the power to punish them.' Like what? Yes, she is now a commoner. But she's a saint candidate now and a guest at a noble's house. How dare they casually lay a hand on her. Why can't she punish them? What's even running through her mind? I simply cannot comprehend. Maybe she complains and her tr*sh father doesn't punish the servant. But so what? She spoke up for herself and removed herself from a situation where people are roughly handling her without her consent. But she doesn't do that. She simply gives up.

Of course, the Grand Duke comes around and saves her. He offers housing, and she accepts because her father's cronies are still guarding the hotel.

She goes to visit a doll shop to get her little friend a gift and just so happens across the green tea/fake white lotus heroine. Of course she can't ignore her and leave right away. They have a frustrating conversation where the green tea is always on the verge of tears like MC has wronged her when they've barely spoken. The heroine's brother treats her extremely rudely, but MC doesn't say anything or point out his lack of etiquette as a noble because she is now a commoner and she doesn't want to argue. Well ok, fine. Not like they could've done anything to you as a saint candidate even if you ignored them completely or was a little rude. And of course the white lotus heroine can't exact a cruel punishment for minor offenses. But ok.

Now she's at the saint 'examination' where she's suddenly asked to go through an ordeal of defeating a demon when she's never manifested divine powers before. Umm what? Now she has to risk her life for a test? She gets angry at first, but she's either really slow to respond or everyone is acting too quickly. So she's not even able to voice her disagreement before she's whisked away for the test with some vague verbal promise of her safety- they'll 'step in' only when she's in mortal danger. Right, thanks.

Of course something goes wrong, and the demon is not the weak one they prepared but one much stronger. The cardinal who promised her safety manages to defeat the demon. In the meanwhile, MC suddenly gains a symbol of divinity on her chest, which the cardinal sees. But then, MC makes her plea: lie and state that I'm not the saint. They're the words of god, really. Fine, you're really determined to go back to your idle life, I can understand. But don't you think it'll be very, very difficult to keep this secret? If you don't become the saint, who will? The heroine, right? But she was previously 'rejected' or something of the sort before (when you were framed as having hurt her and you were unable to refute).

But of course, the heroine also gains a glowing divine symbol (suspicious but ok), and everything is solved. Not. Her tr*sh father insists on reinstating her back in the family anyway, and the emperor basically gives him all rights. MC is already biting her lip like she knows she's going to suffer and be helpless again. I can already see the ML coming to save her but with some caveat of staying because of course she can't just go back. The plot would end otherwise.

And yup that's 13 chapters worth of frustration. I didn't think I would end up basically summarizing all the chapters released so far. No wonder this novel triggered me into writing a review.

the entire village the MC stays in after banishment is killed by demons because the adopted brother of the ogFL needed an example of the demon`s destruction for politics

caused the death of an entire villiage

Adelia starts observing what's going on around her and while she's still VERY reluctant to help anyone and draw attention to herself, she does a lot behind the scenes to take care of things and make sure she and those she cares about are protected, and to minimize damage to the innocent.

I am starting to feel worse and worse for Hestine. Yes, she's a fake saint, but she doesn't know that her power comes from this ritual, and she is willing to help those in need. Hestine has a good heart, but is incredibly naive and weak-willed. It reminds me of how Adelia was in the beginning - before Adelia decided she's had enough and was DONE with this bullsh*t. Hestine wants to be loved and adored, and so she's suppressing her natural inclinations and letting herself be led into being selfish and greedy like the Valkyr family. I'm wondering if Hestine is going to lose her divine power because she's not acting like a saint and helping people.

MC - she's suffered so much mistreatment and endless disappointment from life that she's become 'cold-hearted' and 'ruthless' - except not really, as the novel provides her with a handy orphan to take care of early on to show that she's still soft and sweet deep down! I think she's meant to be intelligent and scheming but, uh, let's not interrogate that too hard.

ML - I kept asking myself "man, what are you even here for?" and the answer: MC needs his support. He's her solid and unswerving rich, powerful backer (playing 'spot the trope'? - you could easily guess why before you start the book!), and at some point they 'fall in love'. Allegedly. There's zero chemistry.

orphaned kid - took up lots of space early on, then was punted off to boarding school and had little presence after that. I struggled to believe this kid is a teenager; from the way she acts (and the way MC treats her) I'd place her around 6-9 years old.

'father figure' mercenary - the closest thing 'the original' had to a decent family member was paid to take care of her, but abandoned her Because Reasons... as with the aforementioned kid, there was plenty of potential for an interesting relationship and character development on both sides, but it never came to fruition.

the fake 'saint' - I did like that

... eh, I've lost the will to continue. You've probably spotted the theme here: any character that showed any promise of becoming interesting... didn't. But most of the minor characters were just bland from start to finish!