Taming the Evil Saintess

---

The contents of the request letter were as follows.

“Just bring one item.”

“Item?”

“Yeah, item.”

A simple item transport request.

It looked incredibly straightforward for a request directed at me, Elliot, who was a hero or the leader of the Black Eagle Mercenary Group. However, from my experience as a mercenary, I’ve learned that the simplest requests can sometimes be the most troublesome.

In fact, the details written on the request were very vague.

For example:

“It doesn’t specify what the item is.”

“The location is mentioned.”

“You want me to find it with just this information?”

“Please keep specifics confidential for the protection of the requester’s rights.”

“Rights? Isn’t the requester you, Gersen?”

“It’s my right. Privacy is important, isn’t it?”

Gersen seemed to jest, but I was still unsatisfied.

Mercenary King Gersen was a character no one could recruit in the game. Like Saint Ophelia, he naturally joined during the main quests. In other words, he could be considered a basic character.

The reason Gersen joins the hero party is not for honor or justice, but for money.

If this stingy Gersen was asking a high-priced hero like me to take on a request, there must be something more to it.

“This mysterious item, can’t you just get it yourself? Is the Mercenary King unable to do that?”

I waved the request letter, and Gersen nodded.

“Well, that’s not unreasonable, but…”

“But?”

“The item currently belongs to someone else.”

“Huh?”

I soon realized why Gersen had brought this dubious request to me.

“Could it be that you’re asking me to steal it?”

Nodding.
Gersen nodded, and I frowned.

“Sorry, but I’m here as a mercenary, not a thief.”

“Then you must know well.”

“What do you mean?”

“The difference between the two is barely thinner than a piece of paper.”

“….”

That was indeed a valid point, and I had nothing else to say. Mercenaries can often be just as shady as thieves, and thieves can easily become mercenaries when they take on requests.

With a sigh, I folded the request letter and tucked it into my sleeve.

“Oh, are you actually accepting it?”

“I have no other choice.”

The support from the Black Eagle Mercenary Group was essential, and I needed to build a friendly relationship with Gersen for that. If the price was just a request, well, I could accept that.

After all, Gersen was a named character in this world. There would be no harm in getting his cooperation.

“One last question. Who currently owns this item?”

As I grabbed the doorknob, I inquired about the person I would have to steal from. Gersen then turned his head away slightly.

Seeing that reaction made me realize that things weren’t going to be easy.

“Is it a big shot?”

“It is a big shot. Otherwise, would I have come to you with this request?”

“Who is it?”

Gersen sighed and spat it out reluctantly.

“The Emperor.”

“What?”

“…his daughter.”

“….”

I was talking about the princess.

Princess Adelheit.

In fact, back when I was busy with the mercenary group, people didn’t even know her name.

I was no exception. She didn’t even appear directly in the game, and I wasn’t immersed enough in it to care about a character that was merely part of the background setting.

It was only natural. The next emperor was supposed to be a son, so the princess wouldn’t have much significance.

However, by the time I became a knight of the saint, those five letters—Adelheit—had become a name nearly as famous as Ophelia across the continent.

The empire has been ruled by a single imperial family for centuries, a living witness to the continent’s history since its founding.

Even now, there are various races and nations on the continent, but among them, the empire is the largest and strongest. Due to its size and power, even the proud Great Forest has to bow down to the empire.

The current emperor, Bolazio Septimius III, has been ruling the empire for decades, and his powerful authority is so well-known that even street beggars are aware of it.

For that reason, Bolazio didn’t have many children. He had exactly three: two sons and one daughter.

The reason the eldest daughter, Edelheit, became well-known stems from here.

Shockingly, the princess who originally had the lowest place in the line of succession succeeded in the race for the next throne.

What happened to the first and second sons? You might ask. They are dead.

Whether they died or were killed, no one knows.

The publicly announced cause of death was an unknown illness.

In any case, after all the sons died, it was only natural that the remaining daughter would rise in the line of succession.

The first princess, Edelheit, came to be known by the ominous title, the Empress of Death, but nonetheless, she managed to become the crown princess.

Some even whispered that the princess had killed her siblings, but very few had the courage to speak it out loud under the current emperor.

Ultimately, the empire was on the brink of having its first female emperor in history.

“And we have to steal from such a crown princess.”

As I finished my explanation, Ophelia’s face turned sour.

I knew it, it was absolutely insane.

“Wait, are you saying we’re going to steal from such a terrifying woman?”

“Yeah.”

Anyway, the imperial authority is incredible. To covet the belongings of the next emperor is not something any mere hero can casually handle.

“Isn’t that going to get you killed?”

“Probably not. At least, not right away. After all, I’m a hero.”

“…Being a hero doesn’t mean you have two lives. Is Gersen really that important? It’s not worth risking your life over.”

“Well, that’s true, but….”

Ophelia looked entirely opposed to this perilous plan.

To be honest, it’s understandable because anyone would perceive robbing the imperial family as a different expression of suicide.

“And besides, they say she’s the Empress of Death! If you mess up, you’re done, hero or not!”

“Hey, calling a crown princess ‘that woman’….”

Someone might hear that and cut off Ophelia’s head.

Of course, I was in the same predicament since I’d be stealing from such a woman.

“Is the Black Eagle Mercenary Group really that significant?”

“Regardless of anything else, they are the only ones on this continent who can fight demons the best.”

Having rolled around so much in the north, the Black Eagle members were specialists in demon combat. They weren’t some shabby personnel I could obtain from anywhere else.

That’s why I was willing to take this request to hire the Black Eagle mercenaries.

Of course, Ophelia, having just heard my reasoning, didn’t challenge it.

“Then….”

Ophelia sighed deeply and looked up at me.

“What about the remuneration?”

“Remuneration?”

“You’re not expecting it to be free, are you? There should be some scraps that fall to us too.”

With Ophelia’s precise spirit of give-and-take, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Well, it’s not without its rewards.”

Gersen wasn’t a total scoundrel. Given that he handed over a difficult request, he had prepared a decent reward.

I took out the request letter and showed it to Ophelia.

She seemed to be seeing this form of request for the first time, narrowing her eyes as she read down the letters until…

“Huh?”

She widened her eyes when she saw the number at the bottom.

She raised her finger to count the number of zeroes one by one…

“Hey, Elliot.”

“What?”

“I actually like stealing.”

“I know.”

I had absurdly easily received her approval.

Stealing is all about secrecy.

If there are too many people, you’ll surely get caught. That’s why too much is as bad as not enough. It was important to form a team with just the right number of thieves.

Of course, that isn’t my personal belief but was Ophelia’s thesis as a robbery expert.

“So we need to minimize the number of people.”

“Ophelia.”

“What?”

“Where did you get those glasses?”

“I stole them from the receptionist.”

Looking like she wanted to project an image of being knowledgeable, Ophelia somehow had a pair of round glasses she found from somewhere.

Honestly, they accentuated her dim-witted image, but I refrained from pointing it out.

She was honestly kinda cute with the glasses on.

“Anyway, focus.”

From the contents of the request letter, we established the outline of our operation.

The item Gersen needed was on a train heading from Auriga to the imperial palace.

That said, we weren’t going to be setting bombs on the railway like some Old West bandits. Most importantly, the key here is to not get caught this time.

So…

“Let’s board the train as passengers and sneak into the storage area where the cargo is kept and take it?”

“That’s the idea.”

Ophelia nodded.

It sounded plausible when I just heard it.

However, there was one issue.

“Are we really only going the two of us?”

“Yup.”

“Huh….”

The idea of pulling off a heist movie with Ophelia alone seemed a little worrying. Things were unlikely to go as planned.

As I pondered in this manner, it seemed Ophelia interpreted my contemplative expression differently.

“Ugh, you scheming bastard! What’s going through your mind?”

“What are you thinking?”

“Just because we’re going on a train trip alone, don’t think of doing something weird. Hmph.”

“I had no such thoughts at all. And this isn’t a trip—it’s work.”

“….”

Somehow, she shot a highly displeased glare at me, so I quietly averted my gaze.

Anyway, considering that precious Ophelia was a little tricky, I thought about pulling in another character, but this time Ophelia flatly refused.

“If too many people are on the boat, it’ll go off course.”

However, I realized there was a sly ulterior motive behind Ophelia’s argument.

“Uh, Ophelia.”

“What now?”

“That… you just wanted to reduce the number of mouths sharing the reward, didn’t you?”

Having struck a nerve, this time Ophelia raised her glasses that had slipped down her nose and evaded my gaze.

It’s quite a mystery that such a being could be called a saint.