CHAPTER 2. The Blackmailer Who Bought Me Meat

“What is this!”

When I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar view.

It was the place I happily decorated according to my taste as soon as I entered the temple.

I quickly got up and looked around.

“How did I get back to my room?”

There was no change in the room. Even my barely unpacked luggage was still there.

Did I walk back on my own? Even when I was drunk, I was sure of one thing—the instinct to return home.

“Then, what about that guy…”

“Hey! Good morning!”

Leila, who burst into the room without knocking, greeted me in a cheerful voice. Her hair, reminiscent of a rainbow, had been unified into a bright red color.

I silently looked down at my hair. The color was a curious shade of blue that made me wonder about my genetic makeup.

In my previous life, I knew that this was an absurd color, but now it had become a color that had become more familiar to me than any other.

I guess since the main character’s hair was set to pink, I, her rival, was roughly decided to have blue hair.

One thing for sure is that I will definitely stand out next to Leila. The colors red and blue. It’s not the Korean national flag, so I should keep my distance outside.

“Oh, I’ll definitely knock next time! Sorry.”

She laughed like a child and gave a belated apology. I thought she was just trying to be considerate of my privacy, so I decided to let it pass, but she said something that I couldn’t easily ignore.

“Because you might be with your lover.”

“…Lover?”

Where is my lover?

There were people I briefly dated to avoid my parents’ eyes while at Liche, but it had been a long time since we broke up, and even if we were still seeing each other, there was no way I would see them here.

No way…

“Your lover is extremely good-looking.”

“…Are you crazy?”

It seems that I didn’t come back on my own after all. And was he in the right mind to even show his face to Leila? Is he threatening my roommate now?

“He’s not my lover. Definitely not.”

“But he said he’s your lover?”

“……”

That damn asshole, seriously.

I stared straight at her, struggling to regain my fading sanity. I needed to know what he said and where he took me.

“What else did he say?”

“Huh?”

“He didn’t talk more about himself?”

Leila scratched her head and rolled her eyes.

“Hmm, just that he missed you, so he used the excuse of early morning prayers and met you at the temple?”

“Missing me, what bullshit.”

“When we ate together, you said you didn’t have a lover, but you were pretending! He seems like such a cute friend.”

“…I told you, it’s not like that.”

Leila, who let all my words go in one ear and out the other, chuckled and left the room.

“Hurry up and get ready! We need to have breakfast.”

“Okay……”

“From now on, I’ll be in Hatan’s room. So if your lover comes again, you can be together for a long time.”

She grinned as if she were being generous towards me. It seemed that in her mind, she had already decided on him as my lover.

Is the man she’s been with since yesterday named Hatan? Going back and forth from the holy temple to the room—what’s going on here?

“Whatever. Let’s eat breakfast.”

For now, I decided to fill my stomach first. Even though this weird guy was already threatening me and pretending to be my lover, my life was still intact, and that was enough.

But suddenly, a question crossed my mind.

“How did he know about my room?”

* * *

There are two main things that novitiates do.

Study theology and enhance their holy powers.

Of course, since me and my colleagues haven’t yet been accepted into the order, we were all dedicated to our studies.

We have to pass the exam within 200 days.

“I’m going crazy, really.”

Leila cursed. She had gotten in trouble for talking during class and had to recite a particular passage from the scriptures more than twenty times. I, too, felt exhausted. It was as if the hellish memories of having to study for the entrance exams from my past life were resurfacing.

If you fail the exam and can’t become an ordained priest, there is no greater dishonor than that. I regretted my past behavior when I casually flipped through the Bible while attending mass with my family. I should have read it more carefully.

“The theories are so tough, I wonder how difficult the practicals will be.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

I hugged the Bible with a heavy heart, agreeing with Leila’s words.

We were currently moving from the main building to the annex for our practical training. It was because the device that draws out holy power is located in the training ground within the annex.

Learning about the power I don’t know how to use was supposed to be an exciting thing, but theological classes had already diminished that expectation a lot.

“Still, it’s better than reading the Bible to death, right?”

“Well, yeah. I’ve always been better at using my body.”

Leila demonstrated her flexibility by vigorously stretching her arms. Maybe she could become a holy knight?

Not all priests perform the same duties. Stellas, whose individual abilities stood out, was particularly like that.

While in the temple, once you find a niche that suits your aptitude, you mainly handle related tasks there. Some would train their offensive magic to become combat priests, and in rare cases, some would become holy knights.

Since I’m not good at using my body, I’ll have to choose a different path.

I recalled the contents of the original work after a long time.

Was Duna Valorem, the protagonist’s rival, skilled in using holy power?

The character Duna, or rather, me, wasn’t just a simple rival in the story. She is a person who clashes with the protagonist Prim on various occasions across a vast range.

She was a motivating force, the one creating friction in her daily life, and later became a competitor as they vied for the position of the Great Saint.

The gateways one must pass through to challenge the position of the Great Saint, who protects the kingdom, are by no means easy. To qualify as a candidate in the first place, you need innate holy power as well as the ability to finely adjust it in various ways through bone-grinding efforts.

Competing with the protagonist for that position does imply a certain level of talent.

However…

“Ugh.”

“Can’t you put more strength into it? I’m telling you to use every bit of strength you have!”

The end may be grand, but the beginning is quite humble. Pulling out the holy power from within my body was definitely not easy.

I must have manifested since I received the title of Stella, but why isn’t anything coming out? It’s understandable since it seemed like I existed as though I didn’t for over twenty years, but still.

“I don’t think I’m a Stella.”

“Me neither.”

Leila and I sat in front of the device, completely drained. The magic circle we sat on only occasionally emitted some light, and we didn’t intend to do anything more there.

“How can a single person not succeed!”

Murmuring, Leila whispered to me, avoiding the eyes of the priest shouting in distress.

“What exactly is happening?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Lost in confusion, we soon witnessed the example before our eyes.

Oooong.

With a resonating sound, a blue barrier formed in the shape of a semicircle. It seemed to be the energy barrier being formed.

The first person to succeed was none other than the one with pink hair, Primis Starring.

Who else could it be but the protagonist?

“There is hope for your batch!”

The priest, whose face brightened for the first time, clapped and spoke. But for a moment, he started seizing the rest of us like a demon.

“Hurry up and get in! Hurry!”

Afterward, we struggled for a while, but in the end, nobody except Primis was able to succeed.

* * *

After exerting an unknown amount of energy throughout the day, I feel as if I would die. Because of that, I was so exhausted that I wouldn’t find it strange if I collapsed right away.

“Ah, so tired.”

I jumped straight into bed after a quick wash, completely exhausted. I was so tired that I didn’t even bother drying my hair.

But thanks to the fatigue I’d accumulated from the previous day, I was able to sleep deeply without any trouble. I was so satisfied that, even in my dreams, I became a happy marshmallow floating in the sky.

In my drowsiness, I reached out and hugged the pillow that had warmed up overnight.

…Hmm, did I bring in such a large pillow like this?

I don’t know, maybe I did. Well, it felt nice to have something warm and cozy. As they say, the more, the merrier.

But suddenly, I felt something unfamiliar on the pillow. Although the pillow was not particularly soft, to begin with, this part felt like, how can I say it?

Why does it feel like there’s a human arm here?

“You shouldn’t touch it like that.”

The instant I heard the man’s voice, sleep left me. Startled by the presence of someone else, I screamed and quickly sat up.

“W-What, what, what…”

The man, who was smirking without even fixing his disheveled appearance, was none other than the craziest guy I had met recently.

“You were a daring woman.”

He roughly brushed aside the black hair covering his eyes and whispered as he lay at an angle.

Why is this man here? And in my bed, too. Since when have we been lying together?

When, and how did he come in?

The rusty parts of my mind continue to spin, and I am unable to come to my senses.

Wait, then what did I touch earlier?

My eyes looked down where my hand had been just before. The man who had been observing me smiled mischievously and pulled the blanket to cover that spot.

“Sorry. It’s morning…”

“….”

Oh my god.

I touched that place before we even exchanged names.

I shook my eyelids, trying to regain my composure, which seemed to slip away completely.

“Why… are you here?”

“I was so tired and had nowhere to go.”

“And you say that now…”

I forcefully suppressed my rising blood pressure. But he intentionally continued to add fuel to my anger.