Chapter – 08
“Please… make it so that the person called Saint Irene completely disappears from this world. Help me so that no one who knew me—including Ian—will ever be able to find me.”
“……”
“If you agree, then I will willingly become Ian’s fiancée. For one year.”
One year. It was a very appropriate amount of time.
After carefully calculating while walking down the corridor, Ian would complete his plan exactly ten months from now.
He would gather the entire force of the Holy Knights and attack the Imperial Palace.
Once Ian became emperor, he would no longer need a fake fiancée like me.
Ian would surely realize that as well.
But for some reason, he didn’t answer immediately.
“That is quite… a strange request. If I ask the reason, will you tell me?”
“No.”
I answered firmly.
At this stage of negotiating to establish the deal, I needed to be strong.
I clenched my teeth and looked up at Ian.
After staring at me for a moment, Ian replied with a strange expression.
“Alright.”
“Really?”
“I don’t fully understand the condition… but if that’s what you truly want.”
“Good. If you promise me that much, then we have a deal!”
I said that and held out my hand.
Ian just silently looked down at my hand for a moment.
What, do people in this world not shake hands? No, they do, right?
As I awkwardly wiggled my fingers, a large hand suddenly grabbed mine.
Despite his cold appearance, his body temperature was warm.
I shook his hand up and down with satisfaction.
“Then please take good care of me from now on. When will the contract stone be ready?”
“I’ll have it brought immediately. Lucian.”
“Yes, Commander.”
Soon Lucian returned carrying a dark purple magic stone.
The moment I recognized it, my eyes lit up.
The Stone of Immutable Contract.
Any contract made with that stone had to be fulfilled no matter what.
If not, the price would be the contractor’s soul.
Their soul would be dragged into the void, leaving behind a body that lived like a corpse without a spirit.
Because the penalty was absolute, the trustworthiness was absolute too.
Naturally, the Stone of Immutable Contract was among the highest-value contract stones. It was probably worth as much as a decent house.
Just the fact that Ian brought this meant he intended to keep his promise.
“Are you certain? Proceeding with this stone?”
“Of course.”
I smiled confidently.
“Are you confident, Ian? Confident you can keep every promise?”
“Of course.”
Ian gave a small smile.
“Good. Then let’s proceed. Ian, you will fulfill the three conditions I mentioned. And I will—”
“Become my fake wife for one year.”
Ian added as if he had just remembered something.
“No cheating.”
…Why are you so obsessed with that part?
Though slightly dumbfounded, I nodded.
“Fine. That included too. Then the contract is settled, right?”
We placed our palms together on the contract stone.
At the same time, dark blue magical energy rose from the stone and wrapped around our bodies.
Good thing this system doesn’t require writing your real name.
I watched the sacred sight while thinking such pointless thoughts.
* * *
“Are you sure about this, Commander?”
Lucian followed behind with a worried face.
“The Saint didn’t demand unreasonable conditions, but still, it would be better to minimize the use of the Immutable Contract Stone—”
“You need to put proper shackles on someone.”
As Ian recalled Irene’s face as she readily extended her hand to him, he slightly frowned.
She was the strangest existence in this already strange day.
Ian recalled the moment he first woke up that morning.
The first abnormality he sensed was through smell.
A strange scent touched his nose.
The scent of another person’s skin. And a faint fragrance of bath salts.
Something was wrong.
The moment he realized that, he heard an unfamiliar voice.
‘W-who… who are…’
A trembling voice like a deer just before being hunted.
His heart instantly turned cold. Right now, there was an intruder in his arms.
‘What are you?’
As he asked that, Ian was already tightening his right hand.
Ready to grab the neck of this strange deer and subdue her at any moment.
The intruder looked up at him with large green eyes.
Her lips trembling violently, she said:
‘…Hello?’
Hello.
The moment he heard that trembling greeting, the strength drained from his hand in disbelief.
What kind of intruder says something that foolish?
Was he dreaming?
Was this even reality?
If that stupid thought hadn’t crossed his mind, Ian could have subdued her more easily than breathing.
But he didn’t.
That brief lapse was his mistake.
If I had subdued her, things would have been much easier.
Ian hated unexpected situations.
But he also knew that sometimes one must accept the variables brought by coincidental events.
That woman was such an unexpected variable.
‘Please help me disappear.’
…And a rather strange one.
‘So that the person called Saint Irene completely vanishes from this world.’
Ian shook his head to clear the useless memories.
Now was the time to stay sharp and deal with this variable.
Saint, huh.
He didn’t completely trust that claim.
But he also couldn’t doubt it.
The “evidence” Irene presented was not something a mere fraud could know.
“Still, the abilities of Saints really are incredible. To know even such confidential information.”
Lucian, seemingly thinking the same, spoke seriously.
“…Yes. It was surprising.”
“This Saint must have particularly outstanding powers.”
Otherwise, that would be a problem.
Ian’s plan was something that absolutely could not be discovered by anyone.
Even if that person was a Saint.
“That must be it. It has to be.”
The moment she discovered that the former emperor’s remains were buried beneath his estate, Ian had no choice but to bring Irene onto his side.
Or eliminate her.
“By the way, Commander, did you notice? When the Saint returned earlier, I thought I smelled faint traces of residual magic.”
“So you noticed too.”
It was faint but certain.
It was the trace of magic recently used either by Irene herself or someone very close to her.
She didn’t seem like someone capable of using magic.
And her unusually pale face when she returned to the office.
She looked like someone being chased.
Ian tapped his finger on the desk.
She definitely wasn’t as innocent as she appeared.
It was certain she was hiding something from him.
Let’s find out slowly what she’s plotting.
If he forced it out of her, she might faint from shock. She seemed more easily startled than she looked.
“Lucian.”
“Yes, Commander.”
“Prepare the most luxurious engagement ceremony possible.”
Since he now had a fake wife anyway, he intended to make her the most glamorous bride in the empire.
The title “Pure Commander of the Holy Knights” was already lost.
If something was lost, something should be gained.
The title “A man who loved one woman so deeply he even abandoned the chastity he protected his entire life” would also be effective in shaping public opinion.
* * *
“Ughhhh.”
I sprawled across the bed like a starfish.
The feather-filled blanket wrapped my body softly.
Half dazed by the comfort, I rolled sideways.
No matter how much I rolled, I couldn’t reach the edge of the bed.
Well, that made sense.
I was the Saint who appeared after fifteen years.
“…Hmm.”
A heavy sense of burden suddenly pressed down on me.
I stopped rolling and opened the book Lucian had brought me.
He seemed really concerned when I said I was a runaway slave.
When I said I had learned to read as a child before being sold into slavery, Lucian looked greatly relieved.
Then he borrowed books like History of the Empire and Map of the Empire from the library to help with basic knowledge.
He really is a thoughtful person.
How someone so kind ended up beside such a terrifying man, I had no idea.
Anyway, I decided to skim through the books.
Even though I read the original novel, I still didn’t fully understand this world.
“First… History of the Saints.”
From the table of contents, it seemed to record the abilities and achievements of past Saints.
I flipped near the back to read about the most recent one.
“Saint Cordelia.”
Second daughter of Count Bernadette, called as a Saint at age seven.
Born with a golden spoon and became a Saint too. She must have accumulated a lot of virtue in her previous life.
“Ability… making flowers bloom?”
Flowers? I tilted my head. That seemed a bit modest for a Saint’s power.
My confusion was soon resolved.
It said that tea made from the flowers Cordelia produced had powerful restorative effects.
“Wow… that’s amazing.”
That was incredibly useful.
The Saint before Cordelia, Lorelai, also had outstanding abilities.
She could completely erase injuries!
Though it only worked on wounds within ten minutes, that was still incredible.
“They all… really live up to the name of Saint.”
I broke into a slight cold sweat.
Saint Irene also needed to have an equally impressive ability.
I’m really good at finding bugs though…
Until today, before waking up in this ridiculous world, I had been a computer science major.
I wasn’t especially talented at coding, but I had one strength—my instinct for finding where bugs occurred was among the best in my class.
But how am I supposed to use that ability here?
“Ughhh.”
I buried my face into the pillow and groaned.
Lying about being a Saint to save my life was one thing.
The problem was what came next.
I managed to get through things with knowledge from the original story when facing Ian…
But can I really keep this scam going for an entire year?
