IAPAB 01

Chapter 1

It was an ordinary dawn, nothing special about it.

I, Winiel, a saint candidate of the temple, was praying alone in the temple’s prayer room as usual.

‘Dear God, please let my brother stay safe and unharmed today as well.’

As always, my prayers began with wishing for my brother’s well-being.

Ian Schnar.

My older brother, and my only family.

He was an adventurer who loved traveling the world. Five years ago, he left six-year-old me in the temple and set off on his journey.

‘I was a little upset that he left me alone in the temple, but…’

It was okay.

After our parents passed away early, my brother had raised me alone despite being only six years older than me.

‘Brother deserves to live freely now.’

I could understand that.

Even if I only got to see him once or twice a year.

Even if his letters only came once every two months!

I could endure it all.

But because of that, today’s prayer was likely to be longer than usual.

‘But God, it’s been an entire year since I last heard from him. The people at the temple say he’s busy, but no matter what, this is too much.’

The more I thought about it, the gloomier I felt.

For nearly a year now, my brother hadn’t contacted me even once.

This was seriously too much!

So I prayed.

‘God, please tell me something about my brother. I’m begging you, please.’

Clutching tightly onto the necklace left behind by my mother, I prayed with all my heart.

And then—

“H-Huh?”

Suddenly, a bright flash sparkled before my eyes, and strange information began flooding into my mind.

Had God really answered my prayer?

My heart pounded violently.

I focused on the mysterious knowledge flowing into my head.

And then…

‘Huh? What is this?’

I realized that I had been reincarnated into a novel.

People with strong divine power were sometimes said to regain fragments of memories from their past lives.

Maybe I was one of those cases.

‘I’ve never read a novel like this before. Which means… this must be something I read in my previous life!’

The novel’s story wasn’t complicated.

It was a fantasy growth story filled with endless frustration, about the heir of a ducal family renowned for swordsmanship overcoming hardships and fighting against a black magic villain organization threatening the empire.

“Ugh…”

But I couldn’t think deeply about it.

The moment I remembered the novel, I was struck with a burning fever.

Part of it was the shock of realizing I had reincarnated into a novel from my past life.

But—

‘M-My brother…’

One particular scene from the novel wouldn’t leave my mind.

It was the scene where the protagonist discovered the corpse of a low-ranking member of the villain organization.

“Looks like they planned to pin everything on this guy. His name is… Ian Schnar?”

My brother’s role was to be abandoned and killed by the villain organization as a disposable pawn.

‘My brother’s one of the villains…!? And he dies!?’

It felt as if my world was collapsing.

If that was going to happen, it would’ve been better if he hadn’t appeared in the story at all like me!

How could his role be nothing more than “dead villain underling”?!

There was no way my fever wouldn’t rise.

Several days passed like that.

But I still couldn’t get out of bed.

The fever itself slowly subsided with time, but thoughts of my brother made it impossible to move.

“You’ve been wandering around every dawn, and now look what happened! How many days are you planning to stay bedridden!?”

Hilla, the priestess in charge of me, snapped irritably.

“You brought this on yourself, so deal with it yourself!”

Without even giving me medicine, she left me there.

‘What a personality… Is she really a priestess?’

Honestly, it wasn’t surprising.

I was always treated like this.

‘It’s probably because I’m a commoner-born saint candidate.’

“Saint candidates” referred to girls with divine power.

Since bloodlines were considered important, originally only noble daughters could become saint candidates.

However, no one had passed God’s trial and become a true saint for many years now.

So nowadays, even commoner orphans of unknown origin like me could become saint candidates as long as they possessed strong divine power.

‘But that doesn’t mean they treat us well inside the temple.’

Unless they were like the high priest, who valued ability above all else, everyone secretly looked down on me.

And since there had never been another saint candidate who became one this way besides me, the discrimination was even worse.

I had wondered whether things would improve if I became a real saint.

But there was a problem.

‘You have to become an adult before taking God’s trial.’

I had heard that anyone who took the trial before adulthood would fall into an eternal sleep.

I was eleven years old.

Nineteen still felt impossibly far away.

‘Honestly, I want to leave this place as soon as possible.’

I had no desire to become a saint while enduring all this contempt.

‘But… they said staying as a saint candidate would help my brother during his adventures.’

So I endured it.

For my brother’s sake, I could endure anything.

But now…

‘Looking at it now, it was all meaningless.’

I bit my lip tightly.

Thoughts of my brother welled up again, and tears threatened to spill.

‘He said he was traveling the world…’

Liar.

He had deceived me and gone off to do terrible things.

I tried to hold it in, but eventually tears streamed down my face.

‘Why did you get involved with them, you idiot!’

Even now, I still couldn’t believe my brother was truly doing evil things.

The brother I remembered was kind and pure-hearted.

He was absolutely not someone who would commit crimes.

Quietly, so no one would hear me, I rubbed my eyes furiously.

‘No, don’t give up yet. There’s still time. I just need to stop him now!’

In the original story, my brother’s death happened several years later.

‘I’ll persuade him to turn himself in!’

I didn’t know exactly what crimes he had committed since the novel never explained in detail, but surely facing lawful punishment was far better than being discarded and murdered by the villains.

‘If he’s only a low-ranking member, there’s no way he’ll get executed!’

Which meant I needed to contact him immediately!

I suddenly sat upright.

But after confidently heading toward the door, my steps stopped.

‘…Wait. How am I supposed to contact him?’

Come to think of it, I had no way to reach my brother.

After all, the reason I had started praying in the first place was because I had already lost contact with him.

‘Then… is he just going to die like this?’

Even if there was still time before his death, if we remained unable to contact each other, then my brother was doomed.

‘No! I have to find some way!’

I paced anxiously around the small room.

‘Could I ask someone else for help? The high priest? But he’s away right now…’

The high priest—the only person in the temple who treated me kindly—was currently traveling throughout the empire.

‘Even if I asked them to call him back, the priests wouldn’t listen.’

I had once asked them to summon the high priest when I was searching for my brother’s whereabouts.

They ignored me without hesitation.

So the result would probably be the same this time too.

‘Then who am I supposed to ask?’

As I frantically wracked my brain—

“Oh, right…”

There was someone in the novel who pursued my brother.

‘The protagonist!’

The villain organization my brother belonged to was the hidden mastermind group of the story.

The protagonist and the organization were enemies constantly chasing one another.

‘I can ask the protagonist to capture the organization!’

If the organization was destroyed, naturally my brother would be caught too!

But one thing worried me.

I tried recalling the timeline of the original story.

‘…The protagonist should only be thirteen years old right now. Will this really be okay?’

In the novel, the protagonist didn’t seriously confront the villain organization until after turning sixteen.

Would it even be possible now?

Still…

‘…What if it isn’t?’

I clenched my fists tightly.

I couldn’t just sit around waiting for my brother to die.

‘Besides, the protagonist is the heir of a ducal family. If the duke’s house gets involved, they can do it.’

And by coincidence, I now knew information about the villain organization too.

‘Yeah. I’ll go meet the protagonist. I’ll ask him directly!’

Before the original story begins properly!

Before my brother dies, I’ll ask him to destroy the villain organization!

The moment I made up my mind, I hurriedly prepared and left my room.

Stars glittered in the pitch-black night sky.

Carefully checking my surroundings, I slipped out of the annex building.

‘If anyone sees me, I’ll be dragged back immediately.’

The temple people didn’t care whether I was sick or not, but they were strangely sensitive about me leaving the temple grounds.

That was why I only met my brother inside the temple and never outside.

‘Which means tonight is my chance!’

Everyone had been avoiding me these past few days, claiming they didn’t want to catch whatever illness I had.

Because of that, there were fewer eyes watching me.

If I wanted to escape the temple, now was the only opportunity.

‘And I even know a way out!’

I only stayed obediently because of my brother.

It wasn’t as if I physically couldn’t leave.

I darted between statues and trees, hiding carefully. Soon, I arrived at the wall surrounding the temple.

‘It should be around here somewhere… Ah, found it!’

Among the bushes growing against the wall, I found the largest one.

After checking the surroundings again—

‘Now!’

Confirming nobody was there, I threw myself into the giant bush.

Branches scratched painfully against my face and body, but I kept crawling forward as quietly as possible.

Before long, a small hole appeared.

‘The temple never allowed my brother and me to exchange letters.’

This was the place where we secretly exchanged letters behind the temple’s back.

Every letter we sent every two months had passed through here.

‘Though it’s been abandoned for a long time now.’

As proof, when I dug beneath the hole, a white letter emerged.

The letter I had left there a year ago.

At the same time, it was also the letter my brother had never come to collect.

“…Stupid brother.”

I stared at the dirt-covered letter before stuffing it into my pocket.

‘Now’s not the time to dwell on this.’

Taking a deep breath, I pushed aside the bushes on the opposite side and peeked outside through the hole.

Even though my brother had stopped collecting the letters, the hole still connected cleanly to the outside.

‘Thank goodness. I can get out!’

I began digging at the dirt with my bare hands.

The hole wasn’t very large.

To fit through, I had to widen it myself.

“Ugh…”

But digging with bare hands wasn’t easy.

Before long, my hands were torn up and bleeding.

‘It hurts… But I have to do this!’

Grinding my teeth, I continued digging.

Again and again.

After digging for what felt like forever, the hole had become much larger than before.

‘I think I can fit through now!’

Quickly, I shoved my body into the opening.

“Ugh…!”

Even widened, it was still difficult for a person to pass through.

“Urgh… Hah! Made it!”

Still, after struggling until I was covered head to toe in dirt, I finally managed to squeeze through.

Letting out a deep breath, I pulled another letter from my pocket.

Not the dirt-covered old letter.

This was a new one I had written just before leaving my room.

‘In case my brother comes back while I’m gone.’

I had written a brief explanation.

Tap, tap.

Pulling the bushes back into place to hide the entrance again, I buried the new letter while covering the hole.

‘Now let’s go!’

After blocking the hole completely with the bushes on this side too, I stood up and headed down the mountain.

The temple gradually faded behind me.

‘I really got out.’

Maybe because it had been five years since I last saw the outside world, everything felt unfamiliar yet strangely exciting.

…If I got caught, I’d be in huge trouble, wouldn’t I?

For a moment, I worried about the consequences.

But I had no intention of stopping.

I had already made up my mind.

‘Brother, just wait. I’ll make sure you pay for your crimes!’

Without looking back again, I ran straight ahead.