Chapter 7
“The meals here have always been lacking. Surely that’s not news to you. So why were you so shocked today?”
On her first day at the Temple of the Sun God, Ordel had been appalled by the dining hall’s condition and had ordered that her meals always be brought to her room.
For the following two years, she hadn’t once set foot in the dining hall. It was likely she had never seen what others were eating.
But surely she couldn’t have been completely ignorant.
After all, she was the one who had ordered that the meals for the other priests be reduced in quality to improve her own.
And yet now she acted like she was shocked.
“Maybe she didn’t realize it was this bad?”
Thinking about it, Ordel had always raised her voice, but she had never once laid a hand on the children.
Maybe she had a soft spot for them.
Could it be that the saintess was truly trying to change?
Was this not just some fleeting whim, but actual remorse?
Rather than immediately rejecting the idea, I found myself hoping—truly hoping—it was the case.
“……”
Ayrick seemed to be thinking the same thing.
Ordel, who had stopped her indulgences and tyrannical ways.
She had even rejected the saintess’ title, which—though fake—had once satisfied her vanity. That alone had left him bewildered.
But none of that was as shocking as what she did today.
Seeing the children’s meager meals and the barren garden had saddened her.
He hadn’t seen tears, but she had definitely looked sad.
And all of this stemmed from the extravagance she had once indulged in.
“……Will she say she wants to leave again?”
That would be a problem.
Even a tyrannical saintess was better than no saintess at all if they wanted the temple to continue existing.
In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for saintesses or saints to act out.
The issue was that Ordel was a fake, and the Temple of the Sun God lacked the funds to support her lavish ways.
Still, if they lost their saintess, the other temples would pounce on the opportunity to destroy the Temple of the Sun God.
Temples competed for followers, after all.
In order to strengthen their own gods, they would absorb the weaker temples—meaning a saintess was absolutely essential.
“What?! What did you say? The saintess said she wanted to leave the temple?!”
Dietrich, having overheard Ayrick’s muttering, gasped.
“No. That’s not going to happen, so don’t go spreading that around.”
Ayrick, firmly against letting Ordel go, sternly warned Dietrich to keep quiet.
If he’d been willing to let her leave, he wouldn’t have endured such humiliation from Count Kiris.
So whatever it took, he would make sure Ordel stayed.
“Reward acquired.”
Back in my bedroom, I claimed the quest reward right away.
【‘The Sun Crawled Up from Death’ bestows their first blessing upon their saintess. Your divine power has increased.】
Jackpot!
A golden light poured down from thin air, wrapping around me like a warm beam of sunlight.
I clapped a hand over my mouth in awe.
My divine power increased? By how much, I wonder.
Surely at least 10%?
Even that much would be a huge improvement…
【Current Divine Power: 5%】
“……”
I bit down on my lip at the 3% blessing.
Right. Our Sun God was totally broke right now.
If he had more to give, he wouldn’t have resorted to making someone like me a saintess.
【Your divine power has reached 5%. Skill ‘Physical Enhancement’ unlocked.】
“Oh.”
Did the Sun God hear me badmouthing him?
I’d been wondering how to use divine power, and it seemed that certain skills unlocked as divine power increased.
So I’d have to work hard to build it up.
But how?
“I receive divine power from the Sun God, so the only way is to increase the number of believers…”
There are two main ways to grow the number of followers.
One: The saint or saintess performs mighty miracles to win people over.
Two: Provide services to the people and showcase the glory of the god.
“Neither is doable.”
A roadblock, right at the beginning.
I only had 5% divine power—no way could I do the first one. The second was tricky too.
The Sun God’s domain was healing.
Our priests were all trained in healing, but thanks to our weak god, we couldn’t perform any powerful healing.
Even alchemists’ potions worked better than we did.
Naturally, people turned to alchemists over the Temple of the Sun God, which made us even poorer.
“System, is there any other way to increase the Sun God’s power besides increasing followers?”
【Search complete. One additional method confirmed.】
“There is?! What is it?”
【Make an offering.】
“…?”
An offering?
That meant voluntarily donating goods or money to the god…
So basically, I’m supposed to hand over money now?
Wow. He reincarnated me as a penniless woman and now he wants me to cough up cash?
“Sigh. I can’t take back the money meant for the kids’ food, so I guess I’ll just have to donate the money from the blue dress…”
I wasn’t leaving the temple anyway, so what did I need a secret fund for?
Might as well invest it in divine power.
But only up to 40%.
I had no plans to become a real saintess—I just needed enough power to protect myself and unlock the sealed secrets.
In this world, being a real saintess just meant constant battles with enemies.
So I’d stick to my role as a fake saintess till the end.
“Alright, perfect. So the first thing I need to do before earning money is…”
Cleaning up the temple from the inside.
Even poor institutions have corruption.
And that was my specialty—as a former detective.
I returned to the dining hall at lunchtime.
I was a bit worried people would react strongly to seeing me, but oh well.
They’d have to get used to me eventually.
“……”
“……”
“……”
As soon as I walked in, the cold silence that greeted me shook me a bit…
But I braced myself.
“Welcome, Saintess.”
At least Ayrick greeted me kindly.
Following his lead, I sat at the head table and looked around.
From the priests to the apprentices and servant boys, everyone had their heads bowed with pale, fearful faces.
The maids and servants looked just as gloomy.
It was an uncomfortably quiet atmosphere, but I kept my expression steady.
I’d show them—how different I’d become.
“Here you are.”
Ayrick personally placed my food before me.
As I had requested, it was the same soup served to everyone else.
A watery, meatless soup.
“Are you sure this is alright?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? I’m eating the same meal as everyone.”
I began eating right away.
It didn’t look great, but surprisingly, it tasted fine.
Maybe not for high-class Ordel, but for me—who’d often gone hungry in my previous life—it was a satisfying meal.
“It’s tasty.”
As I ate without hesitation, I could feel Ayrick breathe a quiet sigh of relief.
Dietrich, on the other hand, looked like he’d seen a ghost.
And when I drank the leftover soup straight from the bowl, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
“Come to think of it, I’ve been enjoying good meals all this time, but never once complimented the cook.”
I set the bowl down and spoke.
Ayrick looked puzzled.
“Shall I call the head cook?”
“No. I’ll go myself—might as well take a look at the kitchen.”
“…Pardon?”
Ignoring his surprise, I stood up and headed straight for the kitchen.
Ayrick and Dietrich rushed after me.
“W-What do we do?”
“Should we stop her…?”
Worried voices followed me.
They probably thought I was heading there to nitpick or yell.
Just wait—they’ll be shocked soon enough.
BANG!
I flung open the kitchen doors.
Inside, the head cook Kento—with his scruffy brown beard—and the servants all turned to me with startled eyes.
“W-What brings the Saintess and the High Priest to such a shabby place…?”
“It’s nothing. The meal today was especially satisfying, so I thought I’d come compliment the cook.”
Wait… Was this some kind of sarcasm?
Their faces all said the same thing loud and clear.
