Taming the Evil Saintess

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“So….”

Mercenary King Gersen slammed the request letter onto the table with a face all scrunched up.

“You couldn’t steal the items as requested but managed to have a private meeting with the princess, and then you had tea with the Archmage on your way back?”

“Why’d you leave out the fancy restaurant?”

“Oh, so you’re a high noble now!”

Ophelia poured oil on the fire, and Gersen banged the table, shooting up from his chair.

As soon as we returned to the Mercenary Association, we informed Gersen of our failed mission, and naturally, he was livid.

“If I’d known it would turn out like this, I would have at least put a penalty clause…”

He might say that, but I had plenty to say too.

What could I do? It was an irresistible force.

“There were three guys targeting the items.”

“Why didn’t you just kill them all?”

“By the way, one of them completely derailed the train…”

“I know, I read the news. It was plastered all over the front page.”

He pulled the newspaper from the corner of the table and shoved it in front of me.

There on the front page was the overturned train, and the headline read…

“Hero Protects the Treasure of the Imperial Palace. Ha ha. That’s rich.”

Ophelia snickered as she read the article.

“Elliot, look at this! The Saintess saved the passengers, and the nobles are going to thank her.”

“…Can you please be quiet?”

“Is it funny? You think this is funny?”

“It’s hilariously funny.”

“Ophelia.”

“…Tch.”

It seemed that this Saintess had a natural talent for causing chaos.

Thanks to that, Gersen’s anger didn’t seem to cool down, and I had no choice but to pull out a trump card.

“Gersen.”

“What now!”

“I can tell you some super important information that’s even better than the treasure.”

“…What?”

Gersen, who surely had the talent to calculate like an accountant, immediately showed interest.

Honestly, I didn’t want to reveal this to Gersen, but I had no other choice here.

“Princess Adelheit is harboring ambitions to conquer the continent.”

“…What?”

“I can prove it with gears if you’d like.”

“….”

“Of course, Ophelia can.”

“Hey!”

Ophelia whacked me on the back of the head.

Gersen seemed torn between disbelief and surprise as he murmured…

“What’s your evidence?”

“This.”

I pulled out the teleportation scroll I received from the Archmage.

Seeing its value, Gersen’s pupils dilated.

“I got this as hush money from the Archmage. Does this count as proof?”

The teleportation scroll was priceless.

Even if someone offered a fortune, you couldn’t find one available for purchase.

The moment I revealed it, Gersen seemed to grasp that there was some credibility to my words.

He carefully sat down and rested his chin on his hand.

“Hm. So, Princess Adelheit dreams of conquering the continent? How?”

“About that treasure you said I should steal; do you know what it contained?”

“Of course not. It was shrouded in mystery, which is why so many were after it.”

“It was a Hero’s Divine Mark.”

“What?”

When I laid out the treasure’s identity and the fact that the princess planned to artificially transplant that mark to conquer the world, Gersen frowned in disbelief.

But the scroll in my hand was undeniably crafted by the Archmage.

Gersen sighed, placing his hand on his temples.

“I thought it would just be a royal crown or something, but it was a Divine Mark of the previous Hero?”

“I was surprised, too.”

“…It was a situation where it’d be better if I had just not stolen it. I was in danger of inciting Adelheit’s wrath and being branded as a lackey of the Demon King’s army.”

Gersen nodded, understanding, and looked at me.

He didn’t seem inclined to pursue the issue of the failed mission any longer.

“Thank you for sharing this valuable information. As promised, I’ll send a summons to the Black Eagle Mercenaries.”

“Yeah.”

I thought we could end on a warm note.

“No, isn’t there something you both forgot?”

Ophelia interjected.

Her eyes were as sharp as pincers.

“What are you talking about, Ophelia? What did we forget?”

“This.”

Ophelia made a circle with her thumb and index finger.

And then pointed to the completion fee at the very bottom of the request letter that Gersen had tossed aside.

“You need to give us what’s owed.”

“….”

She was clever to the point of being devious.

*

Ophelia, perhaps thrilled with her sweet profit after a long time, began scattering money around town.

Ordering quantities of food at nearby restaurants that were more than we could eat.

“Let’s leave the leftovers for Elliot to eat.”

“…Am I some garbage disposal?”

“Garbage?”

“That exists.”

She lit expensive mana-scented candles to create a decadent atmosphere.

“Ophelia.”

“What?”

“Doesn’t suit you at all.”

“…I know.”

For better or worse, Ophelia was spending money lavishly.

At least I was glad she wasn’t touching alcohol as I had strictly instructed.

I’d have no idea how to react if I got some drunken confession like last time.

“By the way, aren’t you spending a bit recklessly?”

“It’s all for the sake of revitalizing the local economy, right?”

“…Sure.”

“What’s with that aloof face?”

For now, I decided to leave Ophelia to her own devices and went to find Albrecht before summoning the Black Eagle Mercenaries.

After briefly explaining our journey to Albrecht, he frowned.

“Has Her Highness really conceived such a plan?”

“Is it news to you? I thought you might have known since you’re the Commander of the Capital Knights.”

“If I had known, I wouldn’t have just sat around.”

Well, knowing Albrecht, he would have rushed straight to the princess.

He listened closely when I recounted the Archmage’s confession about the transplantation of the Divine Mark and the rough story about Emily.

“Are you planning to inform her…”

“Absolutely not.”

“Right. That sounds best.”

Since Emily is doing well enough on her own, it would be better not to stir up confusion about her identity.

“About Her Highness’s plan.”

Albrecht began to speak.

“Do you intend to stop it?”

“Whether I can stop it or not is the question.”

“Definitely.”

The opponent isn’t just some noble.

She is a princess of the royal family.

The aftermath would be incomparable to the Pope joining forces with the Hell Duke.

Currently, the only thing we could do was to monitor the movements of the royal family indirectly through Owen, an agent from the Information Bureau stationed on the eastern coast.

I wasn’t sure if Owen would cooperate since he belonged to the Empire, but if Albrecht, the Empire’s sword, lends his influence, things might turn around.

Upon suggesting this, Albrecht readily agreed.

“I’ll write a letter to Lord Owen separately.”

“Thanks.”

“And about the Black Eagle Mercenaries…”

“Yeah?”

Currently, the only members from the Black Eagle Mercenary Guild here would be Laila and Georg.

Could he be talking about them?

“Why them?”

“…Well, um, let’s say they play together, so to speak…”

Albrecht sighed as he continued.

“There’s been a fight with Lady Cecilia.”

“Who?”

“With the mercenary named Georg.”

“….”

What kind of trouble did they stir up now?

*

Thinking back, our Black Eagle Mercenaries had mostly been tucked away in the barren north, so individual personalities hadn’t been an issue.

After all, we had to live together, and amidst the oddballs, being normal was actually the abnormality.

But this was neither the north nor the south—this was within the sphere of civilized life.

In such a place, it would be impossible for a straight-laced knight like Cecilia and a mercenary like Georg, who had even been an ex-convict, to get along well.

“I felt there was some tension, but…”

Albrecht led me to a corner room on the second floor as he explained.

“It happened yesterday evening at the banquet.”

“What happened?”

“Seems like Georg got drunk and told Cecilia that instead of wielding a sword, women should just stay home cooking…”

“Ah.”

Thinking about it, he seemed like a real patriarchal jerk. He had even killed his unfaithful wife personally.

That would have been more than enough to upset Cecilia, the girl who had to take care of the household.

And sure enough, when I opened the door to the corner room, there stood Cecilia, her face all scrunched up.

“Georg? He’s still alive, right?”

Georg, wrapped in bandages, raised a thumb with one hand.

“Self-inflicted wounds.”

Cecilia said that.

“I issued a challenge for a proper duel, and he merely accepted.”

Of course, she must have her own reservations as she turned her head away when our eyes met and added.

“I admit I may have gone a bit overboard.”

“…Wow.”

In the end, due to that conflict from the banquet, one of them had become a punching bag.

Georg was an excellent mercenary. No matter what, he would have to accompany us for the assault on the Cathedral.

Though it seemed he was in some sort of form, we could have Ophelia come later to treat him.

“Lady Cecilia, for now, I’ll apologize on behalf of this fool. He’s just really stubborn. However, he’s not inherently a bad man.”

“…”

Cecilia, wearing a sulky expression, still crossed her arms in discontent.

I needed to find a way to resolve this emotional rift somehow…

“Where’s Laila?”

I asked Albrecht, who was next to me.

If Laila were here, she might have been able to mediate.

Albrecht just shook his head with a wry smile.

“She ran away the moment the fight broke out.”

“I knew she would.”

Looking at him, I let out a deep sigh when someone called out from behind me.

“Hey, Hero?”

Suddenly, I heard a voice from the back. Turning around, I saw Archery Master Erwin leaning against the doorway with a just-awoken expression.

When I met his gaze and inquired about the matter, he pointed behind him, beyond the window.

“I think you might need to handle that little Saintess of yours.”

“Why again…”

“The young girl is tossing money around like confetti, so bad people are bound to flock to her.”

“And?”

“All of them seem to have broken their legs.”

It looked like Ophelia had taken care of all of them.

“But what’s the problem with that?”

“Because that little Saintess cleaned out their pockets.”

“….”

“With property damage as the cherry on top, the guards are on their way, and she’s currently detained nearby, needing someone to vouch for her.”

“Damn it….”

It seemed like I was surrounded by calamity.