VDHI 01

The damp underground prayer room of the temple.

A place only accessible with the Pope’s permission, which was why some people called it sacred.

In other words, the confessional chamber.

“My first daughter.”

Lephonia was familiar with everything that happened in this place.

From the sight of Pope Pretes, praised as the holiest and most sacred Pope in history, holding a scourge in his hand, to the sight of a priest curling his body tightly while enduring the pain in silence.

“Yes, Your Holiness.”

The musty smell of mold stung her nose. Nausea surged up, but as she had done for years, she quickly erased it along with her emotions.

She was so used to this horror that she could no longer tell whether she was human or merely a doll.

Pope Pretes irritably threw the scourge into a corner and gave his command.

“Steal the heirloom of the Kreitan Duchy and bring it to me.”

In this place, his orders were absolute, and Lephonia had no right to refuse.

“I do not care what methods you use.”

The Pope muttered indifferently while treating the wounds on his own hand caused by swinging the scourge, without sparing even the slightest concern for the priest who had been struck by it.

“My daughter.”

Whenever he assigned a mission, he always imitated the benevolent voice of a god.

“If you are caught, die cleanly on the spot.”

Even while issuing secret orders for his own benefit and committing acts that defied the will of God, he still possessed the divine power called holy power.

God truly was…

indifferent.

“Yes, Your Holiness.”

Lephonia slowly lowered her eyes.

The Pope wiped the blood-stained hand with holy water and glanced at expressionless Lephonia before speaking.

“My daughter. You are an adult now, so it is about time for you to become independent.”

“…Pardon?”

“Yes, indeed. If you complete this mission, I shall grant you independence.”

Lephonia’s eyes trembled.

“You’ve grown up, so surely you can live on your own now? If you complete this mission properly, I will support you in various ways so that you may live however you wish.”

At the words live however you wish, the heart that had remained silent for years suddenly began to beat.

“Oh dear. That is the face of someone who does not believe me.”

“Ah. I-I’m just surprised. …Independence. I’ve never even thought about it.”

“Really? …Hmm, then what would make you believe me? Ah, yes. Would you believe me if I swore in the name of God?”

The greatest show of trust a servant of God could offer.

A contract sworn upon the name of God was a terrifying oath that would strip away all holy power the moment it was broken.

“Here.”

A brilliant light flowed from the Pope’s hand. It was proof that he was making a vow in God’s name.

“But in exchange, you must wager your life as well.”

The Pope smiled.

“If you fail the mission, die. Only then would it be fair, would it not?”

This could end. She could stop obeying the Pope and doing his dirty work.

Lephonia lowered her head deeply.

“I will wager my life.”

There was no God in this confessional chamber untouched by a single ray of sunlight.

Five years old.

Lephonia’s first memory was the orphanage.

It was the day the older girl beside her was sold away because of the orphanage director, crying desperately the entire time.

Thinking that if she stayed still she might be sold off as well, Lephonia ran away to a poorhouse established as an imperial relief facility.

But the situation there was no different. Violence was rampant in the poorhouse where children were supposed to be protected.

They were horrifying days that, in barely five years since her birth, made her think death might be better, but young Lephonia had nowhere to run.

And then, in the autumn of the harvest festival when she was five years old,

Lephonia first met Pope Pretes, who had recently ascended to the papacy. She clung to the Pope, who had come to inspect the poorhouse facilities, and begged him to save her.

‘Could you do anything for my sake? If you promise, I will let you live like a proper human being.’

She should have run away at that moment.

Even if the place she was heading to was hell, she thought it would merely be going from one hell to another, so it would not matter. That naive thought was her mistake.

Pope Pretes took several children out of the poorhouse, including Lephonia.

Then he prepared a small mansion on the outskirts as their residence.

They wore good clothes, bathed warmly, and were fed so they would never starve.

When she turned six, Lephonia learned many things from teachers hired by the Pope under the guise of education.

Noble etiquette, the weak points of the human body, how to wield a sword—none of it was ordinary.

Of course, the process was not smooth. Children who failed to keep up with the pace of education were sent back to the poorhouse, and Lephonia desperately endured the training to avoid returning to hell.

If they cried that they did not want to learn, they were forcibly expelled and either died or were thrown back into hell.

By that point, the children no longer viewed one another as family or companions, but as enemies they had to surpass.

And in the year Lephonia turned fifteen, she was given her first mission.

‘My first daughter. I kept my promise to help you live like a human being, so now it is time for you to fulfill yours. All you need to do is leave this letter in the Cardinal’s residence.’

Five years ago.

That was the beginning.

The Pope’s spy. The dog the Pope had raised.

That was the price Lephonia paid for living like a human being.

The siblings who failed the Pope’s missions three times or fled because they could no longer endure them were all found as cold corpses.

There was nowhere in the Empire that could escape the eyes of the Pope, whose power rivaled even the Emperor’s.

Many missions were assigned even to young Lephonia. She cried while clinging to the Pope’s legs, saying she could not do it, and was always punished.

Fortunately, Lephonia had been an outstanding model student who never lost first place during training, so she did not die even after failing three times.

Though whether that could truly be called fortunate was another matter.

In the end, to survive, Lephonia had no choice but to kill all her emotions and move as the Pope’s hands and feet.

And now, in the present.

Lephonia let out a sigh mixed with despair inside her personal hideout, a small cabin.

“Ha…”

Leaning back in her chair, Lephonia tilted her head backward. A thick stack of documents covered her face.

They were documents containing information on the Kreitan Duchy.

“Rather than stealing the Kreitan family heirloom, it’d probably be faster if I reincarnated as a Kreitan princess and walked out carrying it.”

The Kreitan Duchy. A guardian family that protected the Empire’s safety and peace.

The Duke and both of his sons could wield aura, making them unquestionably the strongest family at present.

Those who wielded aura aged far more slowly than ordinary people, living so long they could barely be called human. Naturally, their fame could only grow greater.

Thus, they possessed perfect wealth, power, and strength.

The only weakness she could exploit was the information that they were still searching for their youngest daughter, who had disappeared before even reaching her first birthday.

Twenty years ago, the carriage carrying the Duchess had been attacked. The Duchess’s body was found, but the young youngest daughter vanished without a trace.

Clinging to the hope that she might still be alive, they were apparently still searching for their daughter even after twenty years.

“Tch. Too many frauds have already approached them pretending to be their daughter. Pretending to be the young lady won’t work.”

According to the reports, Duke Kreitan became suspicious first whenever someone claimed to be his daughter, so it was better to avoid that method.

“Still, I have to succeed somehow.”

It was not even a mission involving hurting someone. If she could just steal one heirloom, she would never have to see the Pope’s face again and could finally live freely.

There was no way she could die right before the end after surviving all this time.

Lephonia slapped both cheeks hard with her palms. Her instantly swollen cheeks stung.

“First, let’s confirm what the heirloom actually is.”

Only then could she decide whether to stuff it into a sack or slip it into her pocket.

Security at the Kreitan estate was strict, so even with a disguise, she could not enter unless her identity was completely verified.

Creating a fake identity was easy, but for now, she only intended to confirm the heirloom’s appearance rather than infiltrate the estate.

“I prepared something for this.”

Lephonia opened a drawer and grabbed a small potion bottle rolling around inside.

It was a shrinking potion that reduced the drinker’s body to the size of a fingernail.

She had used it during a previous theft mission, then secretly bought and hid another bottle with a huge amount of money.

‘Though I originally saved this for escaping someday, not for a mission.’

But if she succeeded in this mission, she would no longer need to run away. She would finally be free from the Pope and live however she wanted.

‘After drinking the shrinking potion and becoming small, I’ll enter the Kreitan estate and identify the heirloom first.’

Lephonia opened the bottle of shrinking potion and drank it in one gulp while looking through the documents.

Gulp.

The tasteless liquid slid down her throat.

“……!!”

At the same time, a scorching pain spread through her body as if she were burning alive.

“Ugh!”

What? Why is this happening?

Something was wrong.

She had definitely drunk it during a previous mission too, but there had never been pain like this.

It felt as though her entire body had been thrown into a pit of fire.

“Khgh!”

Clutching her chest, Lephonia collapsed pitifully. The pounding of her heart thundered loudly in her ears.

Thud, thud, thud—!

The world spun wildly, her vision flipped upside down, and breathing became difficult. She could not even stand properly on her own feet.

Someone.

Someone please help me.

Lephonia stretched out her hand with all her strength.

She screamed with her eyes tightly shut in agony, but as always, no one came to help her.

And when the unconscious Lephonia opened her eyes again—

“……Huh?”

Her eye level had changed, and the clothes she wore had become absurdly large. Not only that, but her hands and feet had become small as well.

There was even a wound on the back of her hand identical to the one she got when she escaped the orphanage at the age of five.

It was the scar she received while secretly climbing over the orphanage fence, the fence imprint cutting into the back of her hand.

The scar had disappeared without a trace afterward, yet now the exact same wound had reappeared.

“W-What? My, my hands—why are they so small? Ahem—Ah! Ahh! My voice! What’s wrong with it?! Ah! Ahhh!”

The shrinking process had not simply reduced her size.

“Huh? Huh?! W-Why am I so short?! Why am I this tinyyy?! And what’s with my voice and pronunciation?! Mirror! Where’s the mirror?!”

Lephonia had become a child.

Specifically, she had become exactly as she was at five years old, when she ran away from the orphanage to the poorhouse.