Chapter 118: I am innocent.

“Hmm, so you’re thinking of letting her mother go?”

Is this the hero talking now?

Well, I’m also considering whether I should let her go or not, but still, I have to recoup the 2 billion, right?

Lately, she’s just been gaming all the time, not even acting like a slave.

Actually, it feels more like I’m letting her do as she pleases so the house stays peaceful.

“Sorry, but I’ve agreed to serve as a slave worth 2 billion, so that’s non-negotiable.”

“Mom, still, this is…”

“What can I do? Your mom likes me, you know? Haha.”

Isn’t this what MTR is all about?

Prioritizing the angelic saint over her own daughter.

Of course, the truth is, she’s probably doing this out of fear of being dumped by her wife, but anyway, the slave elf is already accustomed to me.

Even if I make her do menial tasks every day, it’s still more relaxing for her than living with her wife, plus she can game as much as she wants.

“She’s actually having a good time slacking off as our slave. Let’s wrap up the slave issue for now.”

“Yeah, yeah. And honestly, it doesn’t look good for a grown daughter to cling to her mom like this. How long are you planning to stay under your mom’s skirt?”

Well, she’s not wrong.

“Sigh, fine. And hey, saint.”

“What is it?”

“Because of you, I’ve been rumored to be the godmother of the drug trade in Yukran!”

Godmother of the drug trade?

Ridiculous.

“Your daughter, a drug lord?”

“Oh my, how did the noble elf of the Great Forest end up making drugs?”

How could our dear elf end up like this?

Well, I know why, but I teased her on purpose.

She came here to blame me, so I might as well provoke her a bit.

“This is all your fault!”

“What did I do?”

“You made me a drug grower!”

A drug grower?

Wow, an elf growing drugs would definitely get kicked out of the Great Forest.

If I were them, I’d kick out such a shameful elf immediately.

But that’s beside the point; I have something to say about this too.

They caused all this themselves, and now they want to blame me?

Even if I went a little too far, there’s no way I’m letting these people win.

The one with the loudest voice always wins in situations like this.

“Oh, you’re talking about when we were trying to raise funds for the hero party’s activities, right? And with those funds, we caught a lot of drug dealers.”

This is absurd.

“But I ended up as the ringleader!”

“Details like that don’t matter to me.”

“Saint.”

Now it’s Maria.

The mage who had been barely noticeable until now!

The mage, who once had hair like the Khitan tribe, is staring at me seriously!

“Oh, Maria was here too.”

For a brief moment, I forgot she existed.

“Maria, too? What do you mean by that? Anyway, this is unfair to me as well.”

“What’s so unfair?”

What could she possibly be complaining about now?

“Well, let’s be real. I’m being treated like a dark wizard because of someone. Something about developing contraception magic after the baby boom caused by the war?”

Maria spoke with a rather irritated expression.

“Oh, so that was contraception magic?”

“Hey!”

Oops, I had forgotten.

Well, that’s life.

Maria seems quite angry, and because of that, the other party members are subtly backing away.

Hmm, looking at the hero, it seems like he has something to say as well.

“Since we’re talking about it, I, too, got framed as a marriage swindler because of you.”

Marriage swindler?

Oh, right, I did frame the hero as a marriage swindler.

But honestly, for a clueless hero with nothing to show for except his looks, what else could I have done?

All the noble ladies of the kingdom had fallen for him.

At this point, I decided to be shameless.

“So what? Marriage swindler? If I tell you to do it, you do it. If I tell you to back off, you back off. Isn’t that how it works? Can’t you do at least that much for your comrade?”

Shouldn’t you be willing to play dead if I ask you to, all for my sake?

“What? Is that something you can just say? Hmph?”

I stuffed a mint chocolate candy into Erin’s mouth as she tried to interrupt.

With her mouth full, Erin had no choice but to chew and swallow the candy.

Now, it’s time for me to strike back.

“If you’re going to talk, get it right. The three of you took all my operating funds under the pretense of ‘hero party support’ after the kingdom excluded us from the hero party grant, didn’t you?”

“What? That’s…”

Sigh, you really have been spending money recklessly until now, haven’t you?

“Whatever. I get that we can offer some support to those affected by the Demon King’s army. But at least leave me some reasonable operating funds, right? I mean, you guys can eat weeds or flour porridge or whatever, but I can’t.”

I can’t eat such low-class food with my delicate constitution.

“Hey, who do you think is responsible for us ending up here?”

Erin, with mint chocolate all over her mouth, protested like she had been wronged, but surely she’s not blaming me, is she?

She wanted this herself.

“Besides, we all agreed on this, didn’t we? I even asked for your permission to raise funds because we were short on living expenses. Back then, you all agreed, didn’t you?”

Having nothing to say, the members of the hero party kept their mouths shut.

They have no choice.

“So, anything else you want to say?”

“No, but still, don’t you think this is too much? This is like backstabbing your comrades. Isn’t it a bit extreme?”

“If you say it like that, I might actually feel a little scared.”

“Ah, considering all the trouble I’ve been through, this is nothing. So, do you have any better ideas on how to keep up with the money you all spend like it’s water and still manage to survive?”

It’s because of me that I was able to even create such a foundation in the first place.

They trust everything I say, because I’m the Saintess.

The drug part took a bit more time since I had to build that up from behind the scenes.

“You could have at least discussed it!”

“Even if I did, the Hero would have said no, and you’d probably suggest that we tighten our belts and live frugally, even if it meant starving. Isn’t that right? Then you two, who are so infatuated with the Hero, would have just blindly agreed with him, right? Am I wrong?”

Honestly, this is really starting to irritate me.

I prepared for this moment, just in case.

No matter how angry they get at me, I’m ready to argue my case.

“Well, not necessarily…”

“How long have I been traveling with you guys? You think I don’t know by now? Anyway, do you even realize that all the meat, jewelry, and equipment that went into your mouths came from the money I earned?”

Hahaha, now this is what I’m talking about!

“Well, when you put it that way, I guess you’re right…”

“Hmm, Saintess.”

The Hero called me seriously.

By now, he was standing close in front of me with a rather uncomfortable expression.

“What do you want, you annoying Hero?”

“About that, we’re sorry.”

Oh, the Hero is honestly apologizing.

He bowed his head deeply and sincerely apologized to me.

Hmph.

This just proves that I’ve never really taken the Hero seriously.

He’s annoyingly kind.

I raise my chin high.

What could a Hero possibly do against a Saintess like me?

Actually, to be fair, this guy is way too kind.

“All you need to do is kneel before me.”

I covered my mouth with my hand and laughed like a villainess.

“Still, isn’t that a bit much?”

“Even our great goddess Kanora said you guys are incredibly frustrating.”

-When did I say that?

This is the perfect time to bring up the goddess’s name, of course.

“The goddess said that? But isn’t your goddess a fake deity?”

“She’s a fragment of the heavenly goddess who descended to the mortal world. Not a fake.”

In any case, I’m not serving a fake god.

A fake has no roots or history, but Kanora, at least, has been around for a long time.

Although, I’m pretty sure I’m the only follower left.

“Well, considering what you’ve done, your god must be quite something.”

How much have I done?

In the affected villages, I’ve been forcing them to give donations while promoting the Kanora Church, ensuring that they worship the goddess.

I even said that a new world would come, guided by the goddess Kanora.

Come to think of it, I haven’t really done anything wrong, have I?

“I can’t think of anything I did wrong. Take a look at this.”

“At what?”

It’s time to show them that I’ve transcended humanity.

“Thanks to the goddess, I have become an angel.”

I spread my black wings wide open.

Behold.

These beautiful wings.

Aren’t they a sight to see?

“Come to think of it, wasn’t there a strange girl in Yukran who worshipped some weird god and turned into a fallen angel with black wings?”

“Didn’t I capture that one? I’m different from her.”

If you lose to me, it’s automatically a fake religion.

“Hey, regardless of the Hero’s party, shouldn’t we wrap things up? You’ve defeated the Demon King’s Castle, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“So, what are you going to do with the Hero’s party?”

What to do with the Hero’s party?

Isn’t the answer obvious?

“The Saintess is part of our party, so we’ll take her with us.”

“No, hold on. The Saintess is our comrade. Plus, she’s the de facto master of the Kanora Church guild.”

Is the Battle mage picking a fight with the Hero’s party?

This just got interesting.

I feel like I should grab some popcorn for this.

“We’ve been comrades for years! You can’t just claim her after a few months!”

“Did you forget how much you made her suffer, and that’s why things turned out like this?”

Exactly.

It’s entirely the Hero’s party’s fault.

That’s a fair point.

“The Saintess isn’t petty enough to abandon us over something this small.”

Are they seriously fighting over this?

Wow, this is getting tense.

Ah, it’s so troublesome being so popular as the Saintess.

I guess I should step in before this gets out of hand.

If a fight breaks out here, the entire island of Jeju might blow up.