The Beloved Fake Saint

Chapter 4

I wasn’t done with her yet.

“And one more thing,” I continued in a voice so low it was almost a whisper. “Does your family, by any chance, know about this?” I said, smirking.

Annie’s eyes widened with fear. “W-what do you mean?”

“I need to know who else is aboard this ship.” I kept a calm look in my eyes. It was Annie’s turn to panic.

“I’m the only one who knows! My family knows nothing about this!”

The tables had turned completely.

“I’ll have to make sure of that myself, don’t you think?”

“Y-Your Holiness!” She hesitated for a moment before falling to her knees. The thought of involving her family clearly petrified her. “I’ve been so horribly arrogant. Y-you don’t have to pay me anymore. I’m so sorry. I’ll never do such a wicked thing again!”

Seeing Annie shiver as she knelt before me made me feel a little better.

Ariel, you idiot. You really let a girl like this blackmail you? But I was not like her. I had no intention of being pushed around by anyone.

“Your Holiness... If you’ll just forgive me this once!”

Suddenly, the door flew open without a knock. I was a bit alarmed by the abrupt noise until I saw an angelic white robe and bright blonde hair. His beautiful golden eyes looked a little darker than usual under his furrowed brow. I stared blankly at Reihas as he walked toward me without saying a single word.

“Your Holiness...” Annie’s face somehow grew even more pale when she saw the pope.

In the blink of an eye, he took out the longsword that had been dangling at his waist. The next moment, blood splattered across the room and Annie collapsed on the floor. It all happened so suddenly that no one could even scream. The dark red blood rippling out over the floor didn’t seem real. Reihas took out a handkerchief and wiped the blade of his sword, as if it had been tainted.

I stared blankly at him. He had only ever shown me kindness. I couldn’t believe that same man killed someone without hesitation.

A real person had been killed. And that person was Annie, my personal maid. She hadn’t been very nice to me, but it was still a shock to see someone murdered right in front of my eyes.

I bit down to calm the churning in my stomach and balled my trembling hands into fists.

Placing his longsword in its sheath, he turned to face me. “It was urgent. I had no choice but to silence her immediately.”

His remarkably calm and gentle voice made me shudder. He had probably made the right decision. Annie played dirty and blackmailed me. If he had let her live, there was no guarantee she would have kept the secret. Even so, the whole situation left me in utter shock. My face grew paler by the minute as I barely managed to pull myself together.

“I’ll have the place cleaned up right away, Your Holiness,” said Reihas.

I shut my mouth and averted my gaze. Even if I had managed to make a sound, it wouldn’t have been anything coherent.

Soon, the pope turned to leave. “Please get some rest.”

He didn’t ask me a single question about what happened, which only made me more nervous. If he could kill Annie without question, there’s no reason he might not do the same to me one day. My heart almost pounded out of my chest as Reihas made his silent exit. Only when the door closed with the smallest sound, did I finally take a breath. My head was throbbing and my body was shaking as the smell of blood filled the room.

Then, in my blurred vision, the ethereal chat box appeared once again.

[The deities of the beginning are curious about your cleverness.]

[The deities of the beginning are curious about your judgment]

[The bored deities from the beginning of time are curious about your calmness.]

[You are close to unlocking the prophecy function.]

I still had no idea what any of that meant. My head was spinning in so many directions. I closed my eyes to escape from it all.

* * *

“But what do you think is going to happen to you? A maid who’s been covering up for a fake saint in exchange for money.”

Ariel’s sarcastic voice kept ringing in Reihas’ ears. He strode into his office with a cold expression on his face.

“You’d envy me the guillotine then, wouldn’t you?”

His longsword crashed loudly against the floor as he tossed it aside. Though it was extremely valuable, he had no intention of reusing a sword spoiled with dirty blood. Ariel’s face hovered in his vision, her frightened eyes trying so hard to appear calm. Had she always been so clever and bold?

No. If she had, she wouldn’t have let herself be taken advantage of.

Reihas frowned thinking of how Ariel’s face usually looked, all gloomy and pensive. He took off his jacket and undid two of the buttons on his shirt. His golden gaze fell on the holy statute of Monde, the deity of arts. Elium Temple as a whole was devoted to all nine gods, but unlike the saint, each priest served a different god. Reihas continued to stare at the icon as his eyes began to droop.

* * *

After Annie’s death, new maids were assigned to serve me. They took turns, as if to prevent what had happened before, so I struggled to remember their names. Fully aware of what had happened to Annie, the maids kept their distance and exercised extreme care, trembling when they made even the slightest mistake. It made me uncomfortable.

As for me, I had just about recovered from the shock. I’d always been adaptable, but I was a little unnerved by how numb I’d become to death. This wasn’t the modern world I used to live in. They had different ideas about the value of human life.

I knew why Reihas was willing to go so far to keep Annie quiet. My identity as a fake saint was classified information for good reason. If word got out, it would have thrown the empire into utter chaos, dealing a tremendous blow to both the temple and the emperor. But I still couldn’t stand the idea of seeing Reihas again. The memory of his blade covered in blood made the hairs on my neck stand on end.

I should get out of here sooner rather than later.

I wasn’t sure I’d survive until the real saint arrived. Annie died without warning. There was no guarantee it would be any different for me. And the game dialogue boxes going on about the gods from the beginning of time and whatnot were becoming more irritable by the minute.

What does that even mean?

I sat at my desk to adjust my calculations from last time.

—Cost of a Two-Story Building in the Capital: Large 100,000 fran, medium 70,000 fran, small 50,000 fran

If it was too big, it would be difficult to maintain. After selling my holy artifacts, I figured I’d be able to afford a midsize building. I could live very comfortably as a landlord. Even if I didn’t end up buying a building, the average person’s salary was said to be around 1,000 fran a year. I’d have plenty of money to live without an income. If I kept my head down, Reihas would surely forget me in a couple of years. He was always cold and indifferent to Ariel in the original novel.

“All right! Three more years to go!” I murmured to myself, putting down my quill.

My five-year escape plan had been reduced to three years. Without Annie stealing sixty-five percent of my salary, all I had to do was save.

Suddenly, I heard a knock.

Who could it be?