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Chapter 3
“Uh…?”
Why is he just standing there blankly?
My eyes darted around nervously.
This looked like an incredibly dangerous situation, yet for some reason the boy didn’t seem to have any intention of running away—or even drawing the sword he was holding.
He looked strangely lifeless.
Though somehow, it suited the atmosphere.
‘Did he freeze up in fear?’
I glanced at the boy before turning my head away.
That wasn’t the important thing right now.
“Grrrraaah…”
The monster, which looked like a black slime, slowly squirmed forward and stretched out its hand.
‘I wanted to stop the summoning before it finished, but I was too late.’
Black magic was a forbidden art in the Empire because it summoned monsters.
‘Thankfully, monsters can be destroyed with divine power.’
Though dealing with a summoned monster required far more strength than stopping the spell before activation.
I poured divine power into the temple emblem in my hand.
The amount I used now was on an entirely different level from the tiny amount I had shown off earlier.
“Stop bullying weak people!”
I hurled the emblem at the monster.
Fwoosh!
The monster burst into white flames the instant the emblem struck it, then quickly disappeared.
“Phew…”
Letting out a sigh of relief, I picked up the emblem and turned toward the boy.
And the moment I saw him properly, I doubted my eyes.
Pitch-black hair.
Deep crimson eyes gleaming under the moonlight.
Sharp features and a refined face far too elegant for someone so young.
His hair was slightly tousled by the wind, but even at a glance he was breathtakingly handsome.
‘Isn’t this the protagonist!?’
He looked exactly like the young protagonist from the novel’s illustrations.
There was a strange heaviness about him that felt slightly different from the novel, but I was certain.
“Are you Young Master Cain Argent?”
I tightly grabbed my trembling hand with the other.
The boy, who had been silently staring at me, finally spoke.
“I am… but who are you?”
“!”
It’s really him. Really!
My mouth fell open on its own.
“Hello, Young Master! I really, really wanted to meet you!”
My eyes sparkled as I stepped closer to Cain.
Cain flinched and instinctively took a step back.
Ignoring that completely, I launched straight into an explanation.
“My name is Winiel, a saint candidate! I came because there’s something I absolutely need to tell you—”
But my words abruptly stopped.
‘Huh? Why does Cain look like there are two of him…?’
Suddenly, the world spun around me.
Strength drained from my body, and I collapsed to the ground.
“……!”
Cain hurried toward me before suddenly hesitating.
‘I’m dizzy… I can’t get up…’
My stomach churned.
My body trembled violently.
I had known my condition wasn’t good, but things had finally reached their limit.
Why now, of all times?!
But I didn’t even have time to resent my luck.
“It was detected over there! From that direction!”
“Wait, the light disappeared now. Is this thing broken?”
“Just check anyway! If it’s really a monster, this’ll become a huge problem!”
Voices echoed from deeper within the forest.
“People are coming…”
Cain turned toward the voices.
It looked like he intended to call for help.
‘No, you can’t!’
I still hadn’t explained anything yet.
I couldn’t lose Cain like this.
And on top of that, I was already the suspicious person who had been kicked out from in front of the ducal estate.
‘If someone like me is found together with the young master, it’ll look even more suspicious!’
If things went wrong, I might never get another chance to talk to him.
‘That absolutely cannot happen! I have to do something!’
Grabbing onto a tree trunk, I somehow forced myself back to my feet.
“Young Master Cain…!”
At my faint call, Cain turned back toward me.
I gathered every last ounce of strength I had left so my sincerity would somehow reach him.
“Right now… I’m the one who saved you.”
“……”
“Your lifesaver. If you don’t repay me, that means you’ve got fur growing on your conscience…”
Unfortunately, I lost consciousness before I could finish speaking.
Around the time I turned three, our mother passed away too, and my brother and I were thrown out onto the streets.
Maybe because life had been so difficult and overwhelming, I remembered that period clearly despite being so young.
No one helped us as we wandered around like beggars.
Eventually, we ended up in an orphanage.
But life there wasn’t any better.
The orphanage barely gave us enough food to survive.
Especially me.
They always said I was little and wouldn’t eat much anyway, so they gave me even less.
“Winny, you’re hungry, right? Here, eat my portion.”
My brother always handed me his food.
Even though he barely had enough himself.
“Sorry, Winny. Next time I’ll try to get more.”
And then he would apologize for not taking better care of me.
Around that time, I began to vaguely realize something.
I was my brother’s burden.
“That silver-haired girl’s getting prettier by the day. We’ll be able to sell her for a good price soon. Time to start looking for a buyer—”
One day, my brother and I accidentally overheard the orphanage director saying that.
That very night, my brother secretly took me and fled the orphanage.
“Winny, from now on, we’re going to travel the world together.”
My brother probably thought I didn’t understand anything, but five-year-old me wasn’t as naïve as he believed.
“Okay! Wow, Brother, look! There are so many flowers on that tree!”
Still, I pretended not to know and smiled all the time.
Because there was nothing weak and powerless me could do.
Because I didn’t want to make things harder for him.
But deep inside, I always thought:
If I didn’t exist, Brother would’ve stayed in the orphanage and eventually gotten adopted.
He could’ve eaten all the food he begged for by himself.
I was the heaviest burden in the world.
“I can sense immense divine power from your younger sister.”
Then finally, the opportunity came for me to stop being a burden to my brother.
While we were living like beggars, we happened to meet the high priest, who said he wanted to bring me to the temple.
My brother turned pale at those words.
But after speaking privately with the high priest, he eventually took me to the temple.
“Winny, the high priest says you could become a saint someday. So he thinks it would be good for you to become a saint candidate and train your divine power at the temple.”
“A saint?”
“Yeah. Someone amazing who brings peace to the world.”
Me?
Bring peace to the world?
I didn’t really understand what he meant.
But then my brother continued speaking.
“But if that happens, your brother won’t be able to stay with you anymore. So… from now on, I’m going to travel the world alone.”
Ah.
So Brother was finally abandoning me.
And honestly, I thought it was the right choice.
Besides, I had already decided long ago what I would do if this moment ever came.
‘I’ll definitely let him go.’
But for some reason, I couldn’t release his hand.
It felt like something sticky was clinging tightly to my fingers.
“So you can stay here and be good, right?”
“……”
I needed to answer “yes.”
But my throat felt clogged up, like I had swallowed a giant rock.
No.
I didn’t think I could.
Without Brother, I—
Strange thoughts kept surfacing in my mind.
‘Don’t do this. If I throw a tantrum, Brother will become unhappy.’
Using all my strength, I let go of his hand.
My fingertips hurt.
But just like always, I smiled as though I knew nothing.
“Yeah! I’ll be okay here!”
A smile spread across my brother’s face.
I hoped that after all the hardship I caused him, he could finally become happy.
On my first day at the temple, I prayed earnestly to God.
“Ugh…”
As I lifted my heavy eyelids, a white ceiling slowly came into view.
‘Where am I…?’
My mind felt hazy.
I sat up and looked around.
Medical magic tools and bottles of medicine filled the room.
‘Did the temple even have a place like this?’
I wasn’t sure.
But even if it did, I doubted they would bring me here.
Well, unless the high priest was around.
‘Ah! Right, I made it to the Argent estate. And I met the protagonist too.’
The memories from just before I collapsed suddenly came flooding back.
Getting kicked out by the guards.
Meeting the protagonist in the forest.
Destroying the monster.
“Then this place is…”
Click.
At that moment, the door opened without a knock.
“……! You’re awake.”
A woman dressed as a maid entered, then startled upon seeing me awake and immediately bowed her head.
“My apologies. I didn’t realize you had awakened.”
“N-No, it’s okay. I just woke up.”
I calmed my startled heart.
“Um… who are you? And where is this?”
“My apologies for not introducing myself sooner. This is the Argent Ducal Estate, and I am a maid here.”
The ducal estate? Really?
I had expected it, but hearing it confirmed made my heart race.
‘I did it! I made it into the protagonist’s house!’
Quietly exhaling, I tried to calm myself.
“M-My name is Winiel. I’m a saint candidate.”
“I heard about you from Young Master Cain. He said you saved him from a monster. Thank you very much.”
The maid politely bowed with both hands clasped together.
“And on behalf of the staff, I also apologize for the disrespectful accusation that you were an impostor.”
So that got explained too.
Thankfully, it seemed I wouldn’t need to prove my identity anymore.
‘Well, people did see me destroy the monster.’
And the witness happened to be the young master himself.
“Young Master Cain said he wishes to repay you. He said you may ask for anything.”
“…Repay me?”
“Yes. He said he’ll grant whatever you want.”
I blinked blankly before my eyes widened in shock.
‘Anything I want?!’
Once things started going well, everything suddenly unfolded smoothly.
‘Then can’t I just ask him to destroy the villain organization sooner?’
There was no longer any need to desperately beg him with long explanations and excuses.
My heart started pounding again.
‘Is it really okay for things to be this easy?’
I had demanded repayment before passing out, but at the time I only meant something like “don’t abandon me here.”
‘Besides, Cain wouldn’t have died even if I hadn’t shown up.’
The original story began three years later, and Cain was perfectly fine then.
So even in that situation, he probably would’ve only been injured at worst.
‘But there’s no reason to tell him that. This makes things easier for me.’
This wasn’t the time to reject food someone was spoon-feeding me.
“I see. Well, I am your lifesaver after all. Then may I meet Young Master Cain immediately? I need to tell him what I want.”
“……”
“Is something wrong?”
“…No. Understood.”
The maid made a slightly strange expression before tilting her head and leaving the room.
The moment the door clicked shut, I sat on the bed swinging my legs excitedly.
‘Wow, this is going perfectly! This is amazing!’
The protagonist’s personality was much better than I expected.
‘At this rate, he’ll definitely agree when I ask him to deal with the villain organization early!’
Then I needed to prepare too!
I stopped swinging my legs and began thinking carefully.
If I wanted him to act quickly, I needed to provide precise and useful information.
And more importantly, I had to avoid sounding suspicious.
‘So what should I say? I probably can’t just blurt out that he’s the protagonist from a novel I read in my previous life.’
He’d definitely think I was insane and throw me out immediately.
‘But I can’t honestly say my brother’s part of the villains either.’
That would mean revealing that I’m the younger sister of a criminal.
No matter how grateful he was, he probably wouldn’t help the sibling of a villain.
‘Hmm… then maybe I’ll just say I saw the future?’
That way, warning him that the villain organization would threaten him in the future wouldn’t sound suspicious.
And since I was a saint candidate, claiming to have seen the future wouldn’t sound too strange.
Saints were mysterious beings, so saint candidates also carried a mysterious image.
‘Perfect. Let’s go with that!’
Hehe.
The corners of my mouth rose on their own.
Just as I finished organizing almost everything I wanted to say, the maid returned.
“You’re back? Can I go see him now?”
“I’m very sorry, but…”
At my question, the maid lowered her head.
“Young Master Cain says he does not wish to meet with you.”
