Chapter 7
Complete English Translation
“Her meals are poor, but it wasn’t as if she didn’t know about it. Why was she so shocked today?”
On Ordel’s first day at the Great Temple of the Sun God, she had been horrified when she saw the condition of the dining hall and ordered that all her meals be brought to her room from then on.
Since she had never once visited the dining hall in the past two years, she probably had never seen what the others were eating either.
But there was no way she truly knew nothing.
After all, she was the one who had ordered them to reduce the amount of food given to the priests, even if it meant improving the quality of her own meals.
And yet, she was shocked only now.
“Could it be that she really didn’t know it was this bad?”
Come to think of it, although Ordel was always screaming and causing trouble, she had never once hit the children.
Perhaps she was actually weak when it came to children.
Was the Saintess really trying to change?
Was she truly regretting what she had done, rather than this being just a momentary whim?
Instead of thinking that there was no way that could be true, honestly, the wish that it would be true suddenly came first.
“……”
Iric was thinking the same thing.
Ordel had suddenly stopped being extravagant and stopped causing trouble.
He had been so surprised when she had even rejected the position of Saintess, which had satisfied her vanity, even if it was fake.
But even that was not as shocking as what she had shown today.
She had been saddened after seeing the children’s poor meals and the barren garden.
He had not seen her shed tears, but she had clearly looked sad.
And in the end, all of this had happened because of her extravagance.
“……Could she be thinking of leaving again?”
That would be troublesome.
It was better for the Great Temple to have even a Saintess who caused trouble than to have no Saintess at all.
Besides, troublesome Saintesses and Saints were surprisingly common.
The problem was that Ordel was a fake, and the Great Temple of the Sun God did not have enough money to support her extravagance.
In any case, if the Saintess loved by the god disappeared, the other temples would surely take advantage of the opportunity and completely destroy the Great Temple of the Sun God.
Each Great Temple was practically competing with the others over the number of believers.
They would try to absorb a weaker temple in order to strengthen the power of the god they served, so they absolutely needed the Saintess.
“What?! What do you mean? The Saintess said she was going to leave the Great Temple?!”
Dietrich, who had heard Iric muttering, was horrified.
“No. That will never happen, so don’t go around saying such things carelessly.”
Iric, who had absolutely no intention of letting Ordel leave, firmly warned Dietrich to keep his mouth shut.
If he had intended to let her go like this, he would not have endured all kinds of humiliation from Count Kiris.
So, no matter what it took, he would keep Ordel here.
“Reward acquired.”
After returning to my bedroom, I immediately received the reward for accepting the quest.
【‘The Sun That Crawled Out of Death’ grants its first blessing to the user who has become its Saintess. The user’s divine power increases.】
Amazing!
Along with the system message, golden energy poured down from the air and wrapped around my body.
It was like warm sunlight.
I covered my mouth with my hand at the Sun God’s blessing.
My divine power was increasing.
How much would it increase?
Surely they would give me at least 10%, right?
Even that would make things much better than they were now……!
【Current Divine Power: 5%】
“……”
I clenched my lips tightly at the 3% blessing.
Right. Our Sun God was completely broke right now.
If he could give me a lot, there would be no reason for him to use someone like me, a fake, as the real Saintess.
【The user’s divine power has reached 5%. Skill ‘Body Enhancement’ has been unlocked.】
“Oh.”
Did the Sun God hear me cursing him?
I had already been worried about how I was supposed to use divine power.
Apparently, a new ability opened whenever my divine power reached a certain level, so I should work hard to increase my divine power.
The problem was how.
“I need to receive divine power from the Sun God, so in the end, the only way is to increase the number of believers……”
There were basically two ways to increase the number of believers.
One was for the Saintess or Saint to display powerful abilities and attract people.
The other was to serve the people and show them the greatness of the god.
“There’s nothing I can do.”
It was a difficult situation from the very beginning.
I had only reached 5% divine power, so the first method was obviously impossible, and the second method was questionable too.
The Sun God’s attribute was healing.
The priests were also specialized in healing, but the problem was that our god was lacking in many ways, so we could not display powerful healing abilities.
How bad was it?
Even the healing power of potions made by alchemists was better.
As a result, people naturally began seeking out alchemists instead of the Great Temple of the Sun God, and the temple became even poorer.
“System, is there any other way to strengthen the Sun God’s power besides increasing the number of believers?”
【One additional method has been found in the search results.】
“There is?! What is it?”
【Make an offering.】
“……?”
An offering.
When you said offering, it meant voluntarily giving money or gifts to a god……
In other words, are you telling me to give you money right now……?
Wow.
You possessed me into a penniless person and now you’re asking me for money?
“Hah. I can’t take away the money for the children’s food, so I guess I’ll have to offer all the money I made from selling the blue dress……”
Since I was obviously not leaving the Great Temple anyway, what was the point of keeping secret funds?
I might as well offer it all and increase my divine power.
But only up to 40%.
I had no intention of becoming a real Saintess, so it would be enough if I could protect myself and unlock the ability to reveal heavenly secrets.
Even if I became a real Saintess in this world, wouldn’t all I have to do be fight enemies?
So I would play the role of a fake Saintess until the very end.
“Okay, perfect. Then the first thing I need to do before earning money is……”
Of course, I needed to clean up the inside of the Great Temple.
The corruption that existed even in a poor place.
That was my specialty as a former detective.
I went to the dining hall again during lunch.
I was a little worried that people might have a fit when they saw my face, but it couldn’t be helped.
I was going to have to keep seeing these people from now on anyway, so they would have to slowly get used to me.
“……”
“……”
“……”
The moment I entered the dining hall, I was greeted by a chilly silence, and I wavered slightly……
But I pulled myself together.
“Welcome, Saintess.”
At least Iric welcomed me.
Following his guidance, I sat at the seat of honor and looked around the table.
The priests, apprentices, and pages all lowered their heads with pale faces.
Even the maids and servants attending to them looked gloomy.
It was an extremely uncomfortable silence, but I stubbornly kept my expression under control.
I’ll show them.
I’ll show them how completely I’ve changed.
“Here you are.”
Iric personally placed the food in front of me.
As I had requested, it was the same bowl of soup everyone else was having.
A very watery soup with not a single piece of meat.
“……Are you really going to be okay with this?”
“What’s wrong with it? I’m eating the same meal as everyone else.”
I immediately began eating.
It didn’t look very good, but surprisingly, it tasted quite decent.
Ordel might have had an expensive palate, but for me, who had often gone hungry in my previous life, this was an extremely satisfying meal.
“It’s delicious.”
As I continued eating without hesitation, I could feel Iric relaxing.
Unlike him, who did not show much emotion, Dietrich was staring at me in shock.
When I even drank the remaining soup straight from the bowl with a loud slurp, his eyes looked ready to pop out.
“Come to think of it, I’ve been served delicious meals all this time, but I’ve never once praised the chef.”
When I put down the bowl and said that, Iric looked puzzled.
“Shall I call the chef?”
“No. I want to take a look around the kitchen anyway, so I’ll go myself.”
“What?”
Regardless of how flustered Iric became, I suddenly stood up and headed straight for the kitchen.
Iric and Dietrich hurriedly followed behind me.
“Wh-what do we do?”
“Is it really okay to just let her do this……?”
Worried voices came from behind me.
They seemed to think I was going to find some fault with the kitchen.
Just wait and see.
Soon, they would be shocked enough to have their eyes pop out.
Bang!
I threw open the kitchen door.
The chef, Kento, who had an untidy brown beard, and the servants working there turned toward me with startled expressions.
“W-what brings the Saintess and the High Priest to such a humble place……”
“It’s nothing special. I was so pleased with the meal the chef made today that I came to praise him.”
That……? Is she subtly insulting us by saying the soup was bad?
Everyone’s true thoughts were written plainly across their faces at my words.
