Chapter 02
So handsome!
So dazzling!
He looks young too!
But!
He seems a bit sensitive!
…If you gathered fine dust well and made a human out of it, would it look like this?
A white, delicate face beneath bright blonde hair, devoid of any impurity. A solid physique that makes you sigh just looking at it.
The man, his elegant features full of irritation, snapped at the adulterous couple.
“What exactly is your reason for kicking up dust in a public place? Do you not know what morality is?”
“You, what are you…”
The adulterer, who had spun around defensively, immediately clamped his mouth shut when he saw the Imperial Knights uniform the man was wearing.
Regardless, the man’s attention had already moved on from the adulterous couple.
The man, fixing his gaze on me, who was assisting the adulteress, spoke.
“I’d like to buy some handkerchiefs.”
“Ah, um…”
I handed the adulterous couple over to Ellie, who quickly approached, and headed for the counter.
“Navy blue with silver thread embroidery, right?”
“Yes.”
“Fifty sheets today too?”
“Yes.”
“……”
“……”
We clearly know each other, but it’s so awkward…
“Isn’t it heavy carrying around fifty handkerchiefs?”
“Would it be heavy?”
“You always buy only navy blue. You must like dark colors.”
“Do you know what I like more than dark colors?”
“What?”
“An employee who processes the payment quickly.”
“……”
My apologies, my apologies.
I wrapped the fifty handkerchiefs in paper packaging and handed them over.
He comes so often that I’ve already pre-packaged them in batches of fifty.
The man took the handkerchiefs, immediately tore one open, and meticulously wiped the fingers that had brushed against mine.
He left without a greeting. He pushed the exit door with his shoulder, as if he disliked touching it with his hand.
I looked back, and the adulterous couple had also disappeared in the meantime. A colleague came over and asked.
“Who was that? He’s so handsome.”
“Ah. He’s a junior from my academy.”
“Huh?! Seraphina, you’re an academy graduate?”
“Yes.”
“Hmph… Then why are you working here? Shouldn’t you be working for a place like the Imperial Knights, like him? At least a palace civil servant.”
“Well.”
I have to pay 40 million gold in school development fees to graduate, you know? That’s the price of a small carriage, and if i don’t pay it, they won’t let me graduate.
But I couldn’t pay that money. Because I don’t have it.
That’s why I’m working here. To save money and graduate.
“Anyway, that man is really handsome. Like a prince.”
“Yeah, well.”
“He seems to come often.”
“Yeah. He comes almost every day.”
Buying a handkerchief every time he comes.
“What’s that man’s name?”
“Him? Arden.”
I replied while watching Arden walk away.
I wonder if he’s not cold in this weather. He walks quite well wearing just a coat.
Just then, an old man walking opposite Arden went, Pchooooo!!! and sneezed.
Arden, who was walking, stopped dead.
He looked down at his coat, draped over his uniform, which, at best, had a single droplet of spit splash onto it, with a blank expression.
He then took it off and threw it into the trash can.
Arden, now just in his uniform, walked away again with a swagger.
“Ugh.”
I shook my head without realizing it.
‘It must be hard for him to live like that.’
He was popular when he attended the academy, you know? But whenever a guy or a girl came near him, he’d act like that.
So, as far as I know, he graduated without ever dating anyone.
What good is being handsome?
With an attitude like that, which woman would ever take him…
“Excuse me! You gave me the wrong clothes!”
“Oh my, let me check for you! Could I see the receipt, please? Haha, you threw it on the floor… I’ll pick it up and read it…”
“Ellie, are you okay? You don’t look well.”
“I’m fine! Just a little tired.”
“It’s understandable to be tired. Hurry inside.”
“Goodbye, everyone!”
I parted ways with my colleagues in front of the tailor shop after midnight.
Madam Scrooge, the owner of our tailor shop, always gives us work exactly five minutes before closing time, saying she “doesn’t want to pay extra wages, so leave immediately when closing time comes.”
(I hope you fail.)
I have to work the last thirty minutes without getting paid extra.
(I will definitely get revenge.)
I walked toward the boarding house, where the rent was cheap, and where I’d been living since I was a student, a place where the cost of one dress at Scrooge’s could cover four months’ rent.
“Phew.”
I sighed, hunching my shoulders against the cold.
“That startled me. To lift a person like that back there.”
It’s been two years since I suddenly developed superhuman strength.
I thought I was getting used to it now, but if I let my guard down, I keep losing control of my strength.
‘Since this strength came through a suspicious path, I can’t even go to a hospital.’
Actually, I don’t even have the money to go to a hospital, though.
Honestly. If something was going to suddenly appear one day, why couldn’t it be money instead of strength?
“Phew…”
I sighed again, buttoning up my worn outer coat that let the wind whistle through.
Why do people like the adulterous couple live so well, enjoying their trysts in broad daylight, while diligent people like me are stuck picking up napkins they tossed aside?
“The world is wrong.”
Even working every single day without a break, my monthly salary is only 1.5 million gold.
Even if I save every penny, it will take over two years to gather 40 million gold.
Isn’t there something wrong with this?!
“Phew!”
Just then.
Something damp touched my calf.
I looked down and saw a dog.
A Maltese.
What is this… a chubby-faced Maltese puppy rubbing his black, damp nose against my legs.
Not stupid .
A chubby Maltese.
Small, and very chubby.
The Maltese, which someone had given a yellow backpack, shook its body.
Then it opened its mouth.
“I finally found you, Seraphina!”
“?!”
“Why are you so late coming home! Try to be on time!”
The dog can talk?!
And it knows me!
“Seraphina, listen carefully!”
Listen to what!
“You are destined to be the Magical Saintess!”
“……”
What Saintess?
“So.”
You, Maltese, are not a dog, but a divine beast.
“And you came to me after receiving an oracle to find the Magical Saintess?”
“Exactly!”
“Huh. Even a dog is running a scam.”
“I’m not a dog!”
“I’m a divine beast!” The Maltese swindler protested.
“I’ll explain everything!”
In my room on the second floor of the boarding house, where the wind whistled through the window gaps.
The Maltese, claiming to be a divine beast, stood proudly on all fours.
But its expression was still monchong…
The monchong Maltese said.
“Seraphina. The world is currently filled with the power of evil.”
People who have clearly committed wrongs, but are difficult to punish by law.
Sleazy nobles who cleverly slip through the legal net with money, power, and connections.
It is time for a-
“Saintess to teach those people that justice lives on, in the name of God!”
“I see.”
“Infiltrate the bad guys’ mansions to collect evidence! Steal back the thief’s possessions and return them to the owner!”
“Right.”
But you know, puppy.
Infiltrating someone’s house to uphold justice, and stealing things if necessary.
Isn’t that just a criminal, not a Saintess?
“That’s why you have to hide your identity!”
Ordinary me by day, Magical Saintess by night!
“Oh, I even have to hide my identity?”
Just how seriously does it want me to commit crimes?
Well, it doesn’t matter anyway.
“No. I won’t do it.”
Because I won’t do it.
“Why!”
It must not have expected a refusal. The Maltese, whose ears flopped over as it jumped in place, protested.
“Why! Why won’t you do it!”
“Wouldn’t it be weirder if I did?”
Magical Saintess?
That’s something teenagers do.
‘My dream-filled maiden years ended long ago when that 40 million gold school development fee landed on my shoulders.’
It means I’m not going to be captivated and follow along, thinking,
‘I knew it! I was special!’ just because a talking dog suddenly appeared on my way home from work and said, ‘O Chosen Human! Become the Magical Saintess!’
“First of all, I’ve only just heard the term ‘Magical Saintess’ today.”
“Of course! The Magical Saintess only appears when the world is in chaos!”
An existence sent by God to purify the world and roll the wheel of history in the right direction!
“She doesn’t just appear anytime!”
“Originally?”
“Yes, originally!”
“How many years ago was the last Magical Saintess?”
“950 years ago!”
“Are you kidding me?”
That was even before the Empire was founded!
“To dig up such an ancient artifact and ask me to do it… Wait a minute.”
I narrowed my eyes and asked.
“Did God specifically point me out?”
“Yes!”
“Why?”
I’ve never contributed a single coin to the temple or prayed, have I?
“Seraphina! You touched the statue of God at the main gate on your academy graduation day, didn’t you?”
“……”
How do you know that?
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