Episode 6
One hour later, I arrived at the western gate of the Temple, exactly as the man had ordered.
Thanks to Susanna, I had also learned that his name was Charles and that he was a mid-ranking priest of the Temple.
“Hello, Priest Charles.”
“Follow me.”
Without even looking at me, Charles entered through the western gate.
I followed him inside.
‘So this is the Temple…’
Priests wearing their robes were walking around inside the Temple.
At first glance, it looked completely normal.
Of course, according to the original novel, this place was involved in all kinds of horrible things, including money laundering, corruption, drug trafficking, blackmail, and illegal arms dealing.
But none of that was visible from the outside.
Following the man, I eventually arrived at a dark room.
No matter how I looked at it, the atmosphere felt ominous, and I instinctively shrank back.
“Priest Charles…?”
“Hah. It’s that look again.
“That rude look in your eyes.”
He looked directly at me and frowned.
“You’re just a subcontractor, yet you act like you’re someone important.
“If you don’t like it, you should have studied harder and gotten a job somewhere better!”
What nonsense was he talking about?
Was he saying that people who didn’t get jobs at large companies deserved to be looked down on?
And working at a small company didn’t mean someone had worked any less hard!
Thinking about Mr. Park Geoseong’s X-company, I clenched my teeth.
Some people ended up at small companies because of their circumstances.
Others simply wanted a job and took whatever they could get.
Besides, whether it was a large company or a small company, the talent pool was basically the same!
Just looking at this mid-ranking priest named Charles, it didn’t seem like people at large organizations were necessarily smarter.
“Assistant Manager Lavender, I clearly warned you last time.
“I told you that if you caused us any trouble, you would pay the price.”
“Yes.”
Was he going to cut my salary?
Or was he planning to beat me up?
I wondered what the original Audret had gone through and felt somewhat nervous.
But instead, Priest Charles piled a huge stack of paper documents in front of me.
There must have been several hundred pages.
“These are requests for people to be dispatched to the Temple.
“They were all rejected.
“You’ll write down the reasons for rejecting each one.”
“……?”
“You won’t be going home until you’ve finished this work.
“Keep that in mind.”
In other romance-fantasy novels, Temple officials usually beat people up, conduct human experiments, or use supernatural powers on them.
‘Damn it. Honestly, I’d rather deal with that.’
Unfortunately, the work in front of me looked like something that would never end.
I picked up my quill with a gloomy expression.
My overtime shift had begun.
“Assistant Manager Audret, you’re here?”
The enthusiastic villain manager greeted me with his shameless-looking face.
I looked at him while desperately suppressing the anger that was about to explode from inside me.
Last night, I had left work at 5 a.m.
Yes.
I had actually “left work” at 5 a.m.
And now, at 9 a.m., I had come back to work.
I had taken off my clothes to shower at home, dozed off for a moment, and before I knew it, it was already time to go to work.
‘This is what I call true awakening, you bastards.’
My attitude toward this world had completely changed.
Escape from the original story and live as an ordinary person?
Stick closely to the original protagonist’s side?
Wrong.
I was now more determined than anyone to actively and personally crush the Temple.
‘The original Audret was too pitiful!’
You made a young newcomer to society work herself to death from overwork.
You deserve to pay for that with your own deaths.
‘Let’s tear everything apart.’
My eyes became fierce as I looked at the guild.
From now on, I was going to completely take over this guild.
And then, together with the Crown Prince, I would destroy the Temple too.
“Oh, Assistant Manager Audret!”
The manager, completely unaware of what I was thinking, spoke brightly.
“We’re an information guild, aren’t we? Shouldn’t we build up our information network?
“I think it would be amazing if we investigated every mercenary in the capital and organized all their fees and major requests.
“What do you think?
“Let’s start today!”
I gritted my teeth as I looked at him.
The enthusiastic villain had the following characteristics.
At first glance, what he said sounded reasonable.
It even sounded like something that could be very useful to the company.
But there was one important question.
Was it actually possible?
And more importantly, who was going to do it?
He would bring us tasks that were completely beyond our abilities.
Then I would struggle with them by myself, accomplish nothing, and eventually fail.
Meanwhile, he would spend three hours a day smoking before coming back and taking credit for whatever work I had managed to accomplish.
“That’s a really good idea, Manager.
“Have you decided on the budget and how we’re going to execute the project?”
“Haha! I was going to leave that opportunity to Assistant Manager Audret!
“Don’t you think you should accomplish something for this guild too?”
“Oh, now that I think about it, Susanna said recently that she wanted to do something useful.
“Right, Susanna?”
“Yes, yes?”
Susanna, who had been glancing in our direction, raised her head with an uneasy expression.
“Assistant Manager Susanna?
“She always leaves work right on time.”
“Recently, she’s been wanting to work overtime.
“Isn’t that right, Susanna?”
“Y-yes, yes, that’s right…
“I’ll do it…”
After successfully dumping the task onto Susanna, I quickly sat down at my desk.
‘I need to deal with the manager soon.’
After being forced to work through the night at the Temple, the enthusiastic villain manager had become my number one target for revenge.
It wouldn’t be difficult to find this type of person’s weakness.
Once I found the manager’s weakness…
“Oh, Assistant Manager Audret!
“A customer came to see you! Hahaha!”
“Ah, yes.”
The manager told me about the visitor, so I quickly headed to the reception room.
Just as I had arranged beforehand, the Crown Prince had arrived.
When I entered the reception room, the man was sitting there with his face still hidden beneath his hood.
He asked,
“Did you find out who was behind it?”
“Yes, sir.
“I found out.”
I briefly clenched my fist.
Then, at last, the words I had been waiting to say came out of my mouth.
“The Temple is behind the fake holy relics.”
“…What?”
The Crown Prince’s gaze wavered.
He looked more surprised than I expected.
Had he really not anticipated this?
I didn’t care.
I also handed him the evidence I had prepared beforehand.
Since I already knew the answer, finding the evidence hadn’t been difficult.
“Really…”
The Crown Prince’s voice trembled as he read through the evidence.
“Why?”
“Does that mean I’ve successfully completed the request?”
“Yes, you completed it, but…”
Before the Crown Prince could say anything else, I took the initiative.
“Then please grant my request.”
“Your request?”
“You said that if I successfully completed the request, you would grant me one request.
“You also said you had the ability to grant me anything.”
“Yes, I did, but…”
There was no time to hesitate anymore.
After experiencing that horrible overnight shift at the Temple, my determination was completely different from before.
“Please use me as a double agent inside the Temple, Your Highness.”
“……!”
The Crown Prince had clearly never expected me to know his true identity.
He suddenly jumped to his feet.
His hand moved toward the sword at his waist, but I continued speaking.
“You don’t need to suspect me.
“I’ve decided to take your side.
“If you still doubt me, you may use your supernatural ability on me.”
I said this while thinking of the supernatural ability that had been passed down through the Imperial Family for generations.
The Crown Prince stood there silently for a moment.
Then he sat back down and removed his hood.
Black hair and cold gray eyes appeared beneath it.
The moment I saw his face, I was slightly surprised.
He was a strikingly handsome, cold-looking man.
In fact, he was probably the most handsome person I had seen in this world so far.
No.
But this wasn’t the time to admire a man’s face.
“How did you know?”
The Crown Prince’s voice was cautious, as if he still didn’t trust me.
I calmly answered.
“After completing the request concerning the Lady of Calliard, I figured it out on my own.
“I wondered who the Lady of Calliard could possibly have helped in that forest.
“And as far as I knew, there was someone who had been caught up in a conspiracy around that time, drank poison in the forest, and was losing consciousness.”
“……”
“That’s how I realized that the Crown Prince was my client.”
“So you already knew about the conspiracy…”
“You know that our guild is a subcontractor of the Temple.”
Of course, a subcontractor wouldn’t normally have access to information that valuable.
But I shamelessly continued anyway.
“I recently visited the Temple.
“While I was there, I obtained information that the Temple was plotting against Your Highness.
“And I decided to take your side.”
“Why?”
The Crown Prince still looked stunned.
“I never expected someone connected to the Temple to offer me their cooperation.
“Are you planning to use me?”
“Your Highness.
“I have a deeper grudge against the Temple than anyone.”
That part was true.
“You’re right to say that I’m using you to some extent.
“I want revenge against the Temple.
“I want to see the Temple collapse.”
“……”
“If you don’t trust me, you may use your supernatural ability.
“Everyone in the Empire, even children, knows that the Imperial Family has inherited the supernatural ability of ‘Oaths’ from generation to generation.”
