Chapter 9 : The Saintess of the Pub

Teperi was dressed in traveler’s attire.

Loose, airy clothes that resembled the wind, as if she could drift anywhere.

It was a fitting outfit that complemented her light green eyes.

In contrast, I was wearing dark, form-fitting clothes.

A black shirt with white sleeves.

Though it was supposed to be activewear, it was so tight that the seams would burst if I moved my body roughly.

With bloodstains here and there, it certainly didn’t give a good impression.

“Teperi!”

Several people entered the scene of the fierce battle as reinforcements.

Paladins and academy students who had been stationed in the rear.

The male student who called Teperi’s name looked around and frowned.

‘His name is Ritz… Rits, was it?’

I remembered him as a character who appeared in the early part of the novel.

He was one of the friends who helped the protagonist, but at some point, his screen time disappeared, and he died without any major impact.

“Ugh…!”

The two or three academy students who followed also grimaced.

All that remained at the scene, which had been somewhat cleaned up, was the smell of blood and corpses.

The paladins had tried to suppress the situation as peacefully as possible, but the opponents were dirty back alley criminals who had been

rolling around for a long time.

They preferred death to being caught, so their resistance was even fiercer.

Therefore, there were far more dead than surviving injured.

Teperi’s eyes were on me.

There was quite a distance between me and her, so her emotions weren’t conveyed to me, but her eyes held a sad light.

‘…I hope I wasn’t caught?’

In the original story, Treya, who had eaten the dark elf’s heart and was drunk on power, encountered Teperi here.

Unlike her, who didn’t even think of hiding her identity, I pressed the wolf mask that covered my face even tighter.

‘Fewer died than I thought.’

There were still quite a few paladins standing.

In the original story, the number of remaining paladins was countable on one hand, but did I help with the suppression?

Lloyd roughly wiped the blood off his sword and put it back into its scabbard.

With a smooth sound, the sword slid back into place.

Wiping the sweat from his wrinkled forehead, Lloyd asked.

“Who are you?”

Lloyd asked me in a stiff, wooden tone.

Judging by the fact that he put his sword away, he didn’t have any hostility, right?

“I saw you coming out of that passage. How should I regard you? An ally? An opportunist?”

The passage I came out of was for VIPs who had purchased goods from the black market.

Like a wine tasting counter?

It was a secret place prepared for people who bought slaves or drugs and wanted to try them out once.

The paladins didn’t show me hostility, but they weren’t exactly letting their guard down either.

“A foolish question. If I were an opportunist, would I honestly answer that way?”

The etiquette education I had learned for 10 years shone here.

My low and elegant voice was a perfect example of the arrogant noble’s tone, without a single flaw.

They were surprised by the woman’s voice coming from behind the mask.

“…I apologize. But since you came out of that place, I’m afraid you’ll have to come with us for a while.”

Lloyd scratched the back of his head with a troubled face.

That inflexible and firm old man was exactly as I had imagined him in the novel.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I have no intention of doing so.”

In fact, there was nothing to lose by being with them.

Anyway, I wasn’t guilty, and the church would have compensated me rather than harmed me.

I bought a s*ave, but I released her, so wouldn’t that make me innocent?

However, I didn’t want to be involved with Teperi more than necessary.

There was no need for me and her to have a bad relationship.

But I didn’t particularly want to have a good relationship with her either.

“I apologize.”

Lloyd gestured to two nearby paladins to bring me over.

Two paladins in full blue armor strode towards me.

“What, I’m even more sorry.”

The two people who had been striding closer gradually slowed down, and eventually their movements stopped.

Not only those two, but the movements of everyone in this space.

The only things that could move in this room were people’s eyes and me.

The eyes of those who knew even a little about the flow of mana were filled with astonishment.

I slowly took a step towards the exit, one step at a time.

Always confidently, with my back straight, at a pace that was neither fast nor slow.

-I’m not an enemy, so rest assured.

-Do you think you can catch me even if you try to catch me?

-Ohohohoho. Yes, I am the mastermind. The Red Rose.

There were a few lines I wanted to say in this situation, but I couldn’t because I felt like my face would get hot.

Instead, I glanced at Teperi’s face.

She, too, was looking at me, only rolling her big green eyes.

For a moment, I felt like our eyes met.

‘See you again.’

When the sound of my footsteps could no longer be heard, their movements returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

“Heh heh…”

Lloyd chuckled.

As someone who had been rolling around on the battlefield, he knew better than anyone how absurd what he had just seen was.

“Does anyone know who that person is?”

The old soldier’s voice sounded older than usual.

Because I was wearing a mask, no one answered his question.

---

Not even a day had passed, but it felt like I had been underground for a very long time.

The bright sky was tinged with crimson as if nothing had happened.

As I thought the work was done, the tension was relieved and hunger surged.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t eaten a single meal since this morning.

‘Should I grab dinner?’

I had originally planned to have a late lunch, but I ended up having dinner.

I searched for a restaurant, but unfortunately, I didn’t have the ability to explore good restaurants.

I had no choice but to enter a reasonably large restaurant.

A building of this size would be average, right?

The place I entered was a typical pub that sold alcohol and food.

“Welcome! Did you come alone?”

I nodded and ordered, and the owner guided me to a seat in the corner.

I wanted to order alcohol too, but I couldn’t because I was too conscious of being seen.

I used to secretly steal and drink it when I was in the family.

It’s one of the inconveniences of entering a child’s body.

The food itself wasn’t bad.

It was salty and spicy food with no regard for nutrition.

‘Damn it, 30 billion is too much.’

Even for a duke’s daughter, 30 billion renes was a pretty, very large sum of money.

It would be a burdensome amount to spend individually, let alone the entire family’s wealth.

‘Should I have asked for 20 billion instead? I don’t think they would have followed me even if I had done that.’

I briefly calculated the gains and losses I had today.

The word “loser” kept popping up in my head, but I ignored it and did the math.

Hmm… I lost all 30 billion worth of jewels and failed to obtain the dark elf’s heart.

‘What a f*cking idiot.’

It was true that you shouldn’t think about the money you lost while eating.

My appetite disappeared in an instant.

Just as I put down my spoon for a moment and leaned back in my chair, a woman wearing a white cloak approached me.

“Excuse me, may I sit next to you for a moment?”

“No.”

“Excuse me.”

“How selfish.”

“I have that side of me.”

The woman joined me at my seat, bringing only the glass of wine she was holding, without any luggage.

Would it be right to call this unauthorized occupation?

The woman sat right across from me at my seat.

I was dumbfounded and just chewed on my food.

The woman stared at me intently, then whispered quietly, so that others couldn’t hear.

It was the look of a child plotting a nasty prank.

“Did you have some fun today?”

“…Not really. I only lost money.”

I had barely forgotten about it, but that b*tch made me think about money again.

The food is already spicy, but I feel like I’m going to get a stomach ulcer.

Mumble mumble mumble.

The woman glanced at me eating and the food left on the table, then asked in an even smaller voice than before.

“Does that taste good? Can I have a bite?”

“No.”

“Thank you.”

“You have no manners.”

“That’s my charm.”

“…Don’t regret it.”

I pushed the bowl to the woman.

She picked up the food with a fork and swallowed it.

And soon spat it out.

“Ptoo, ptoo, spicy! Spicy!”

“I warned you.”

The woman drank the wine in the cup like water.

She emptied a cup in an instant and gasped for breath.

“What, what is this trashy food? Oh, God.”

Despite taking someone else’s food, the woman shed a few tears, as if she was so upset, and fanned herself.

Is it that strange?

I’ve occasionally heard that my eating habits are unique.

I still prefer spicy and salty food, perhaps because the old taste is still there.

The woman looked at me chewing the food with disgusted eyes.

I find it more amazing that you’re perfectly fine after downing a cup of wine.

She didn’t seem drunk at all and muttered to me.

“May God’s blessing be upon those with such a sense of taste.”

She clasped her hands together and chanted as if praying.

I chuckled and added a word.

“…And may God’s blessing be upon the saintess who lives in the pub and drinks like a fish.”

As soon as I finished speaking, her face changed color.

“Did you know?”

Of course, I knew.

How could I forget you?

One of the main villains of the novel.

The heretical saintess, Hella.