IBPM 10

Chapter 10

I slowly crawled out from inside the cabinet where I had been hiding.

Back when I was a detective and proud of my well-built muscles, hiding in a cramped place always made my whole body ache. But hiding with Ordel’s slender body was surprisingly cozy.

Since I could strengthen my body with divine power, I guess I don’t need to bulk up like I did when I was a detective.

“You, you, you! What the hell! Why are you here?!”

Once I came all the way out, dusted off my clothes, and stood up, Kento pointed at me.

I was tempted to just break his finger.

“You told me to come to the kitchen at night, didn’t you? I’m a person who keeps promises very well, so I gladly came. Unfortunately, you’re locked up in prison and won’t be able to come, so I thought I’d look around by myself.”

“Y-you little…….”

“But then you, who should still be locked up right now, came in. So I got curious about what you were doing here and decided to watch for a while.”

Of course, that was a lie.

I had already expected him to escape from prison in the middle of the night and sneak in here.

According to the original story, Kento had more than one place where he hid his money.

I had been lying in wait to catch him in the act.

“And then I found such a nice sight. I guess I’m pretty lucky.”

“You’re unlucky because you stupidly showed yourself in front of me!”

Kento seemed to have calmed down after getting over his initial shock, and he suddenly stood up.

At some point, he had a sharp dagger in his hand.

“I wanted to teach you a lesson before I left anyway. Do you know who I am? Huh?”

“Of course I do. You’re a criminal who got caught embezzling money and will be tortured by the High Priest tomorrow. And since you escaped from prison too, you’re going to get some really serious torture. Just imagining what kind of torture it’ll be makes me scared.”

“Torture, my ass. You’re such a weakling that you’ve probably never touched a blade other than a knife used for eating. You think I’m afraid of someone like you?!”

……Oh.

They say ignorance makes people brave.

Who is Ayrick?

He is one of the male lead candidates in this world.

Although he doesn’t end up with the female protagonist in the end and isn’t the true male lead, he is still a male lead candidate with countless fans among the readers.

Male leads in romance-fantasy novels will do anything for the heroine. There was no way Ayrick could be some weakling.

Ayrick, who could no longer stand watching Ordel torment the heroine and even helped kill her, was one of the most skilled torturers in the original story.

That guy was as good as dead now.

“Stop talking nonsense! Do you know who placed me here? It was Count Kyris himself! How dare a fake Saintess like you interfere with the Count’s affairs?!”

At that incredibly familiar name, I smiled crookedly.

That’s right.

Kento was the leader of the spies secretly planted inside the Grand Temple by Count Kyris, the man who had made Ordel into a fake Saintess.

The person who helped this guy escape from prison was probably another spy.

The biggest expenses at the Grand Temple were my maintenance expenses—which should really be called luxury expenses—and the food expenses for the kitchen.

Kento always set the food budget high, claiming that the Saintess needed to be served high-quality meals.

Whenever the quality of the food dropped, Ordel would get furious, so Ayrick had no choice but to tolerate it.

But he probably never knew.

Kento had been secretly embezzling money by taking advantage of that.

And most of the embezzled money eventually made its way back into Count Kyris’s hands through Kento.

The Count had planted him as a spy for exactly that purpose.

The problem was that Ordel had also occasionally helped with the embezzlement while pretending to be wasteful and extravagant.

Otherwise, Ayrick would have noticed the signs of embezzlement.

In other words, I was cleaning up the mess Ordel had left behind.

“If you understand, kneel before me right now. If you resist even a little, I’ll report everything you did today to the Count in detail!”

Kento pointed his dagger at me.

Judging from his delighted expression, he seemed to be imagining me, a noblewoman and Saintess, humiliating myself by kneeling before him…….

He had picked the wrong person.

“Oh my, goodness. So you were sent by Count Kyris. I didn’t know that.”

“That’s right, so kneel right now……!”

“Then that means you’re a spy, right? You’re not a follower of the Sun God, right? You don’t believe in our Sun God, do you?”

“……What?”

Kento looked dumbfounded at my sudden question.

But this was a very important matter.

He had to not be a follower of the Sun God.

That way, if I drove him out, there wouldn’t be the unfortunate problem of reducing the number of followers of the Sun God.

“If you were a believer, I would have used all my power to somehow make you repent. But if you’re not, there’s no need to go through all that trouble.”

Then what did I need right now?

Punishment for someone who dared covet the Sun God’s wealth.

【Skill ‘Body Enhancement’ has been activated.】

“What the hell are you talking about……!”

In a fight, you always strike first!

I drove my strengthened fist straight into the middle of his pathetic face.

BANG!

With a satisfying impact, Kento’s already flat nose bridge completely collapsed.

This was divine punishment delivered in the name of the Saintess, the representative of God!

“Ghk, cough! Y-you damn bastard!”

“What? Was the divine punishment too weak? You’re not down yet?”

He had collapsed earlier from just one flick to the forehead during the day.

But this time, he was still staggering while gripping the dagger tightly.

His nose was completely crushed, so his brain must have been shaken again.

“Why don’t you just fall down? You’re going to die if you keep this up.”

Back when I was a detective, I once saw a guy act tough like that and eventually get diagnosed as brain-dead.

But despite my sincere concern, Kento didn’t stop.

“G-goo, gooood. I’ll jusht take your nekkk, head, and go. Then the Count will forgive me, r-right?!”

His tongue was so twisted that he really looked like he was in danger.

Even so, incredibly, he aimed straight at me and swung his dagger.

I was wondering whether my enhanced body could block that dagger, and was about to dodge when—

“Huh?”

Something suddenly grabbed me and pulled me backward.

Before I could understand what was happening, there was a clang!, and the dagger Kento had just been swinging flew through the air.

“AAAAAAH!”

Perhaps because of that, the wrist of the hand holding the dagger twisted in a grotesque direction.

“Are you all right?”

Then a refreshing scent brushed the tip of my nose, accompanied by a deep voice coming from above me.

I hadn’t noticed his presence until he pulled me away.

Startled, I hurriedly turned my head.

The first thing I saw was silver hair that seemed to shine even in the kitchen, where the moonlight barely reached.

Beneath his short bangs, icy, winter-sea-colored eyes were looking down at me from very close.

“Gasp.”

My goodness.

He even had a beauty that shone in the middle of the night.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Uh…….”

“Are you injured?”

I was so shocked by his looks that I couldn’t speak properly.

Perhaps misunderstanding this, the man glared coldly at Kento.

At the same time, a heavy force beyond words pressed down on my entire body.

An intangible force that I could never have felt on Earth.

This was killing intent, as well as this man’s power.

“How dare you threaten an unarmed woman with a knife inside the sacred Grand Temple. Do you wish to die?”

I was scared.

I thought that after living as a detective in the Violent Crimes Division, I had become unable to feel things like fear anymore……

But this was impossible to endure.

Just as my legs began to tremble from fear—

【The AI System has detected fear exceeding the standard level from the user.】

【To ensure smooth activity, the user’s mental strength will be increased.】

“……?”

The moment the system message appeared, my body instantly became calm.

This was even more effective than being given a sedative.

System, you’re pretty capable, aren’t you?

“I’m not hurt. I’m fine. Thank you so much for saving me.”

I let out a sigh of relief and stepped out of his arms.

Now that my rationality had returned after being briefly clouded by the handsome face suddenly thrust in front of me, I could recognize who this man was.

He had a handsome face more than capable of rivaling High Priest Ayrick, one of the male lead candidates.

If the High Priest was the heroine’s shield, this man was the sword that would cut down her enemies without hesitation.

Male lead candidate number two, and the captain of the Sun God’s Grand Temple’s Holy Knights.

It was definitely Seth Noel.

I was sure he had gone out on an assignment.

So why was he here?

And why did he have to appear at a moment like this?

I was planning to deal with this myself, but this made things a little troublesome.

“Are you really all right?”

When the handsome Seth asked worriedly, I casually nodded and glanced at Kento.

He also looked just as flustered as I was by Seth’s sudden appearance.

Well, the person who should be afraid of the Holy Knights Commander right now wasn’t me.