I Will Not Fall For the Villain’s Flirtations - Chapter 3 Part 5

Sister Elexi remained silent, narrowing her eyes. She seemed so aloof that it was hard to predict her reaction, making me nervously observe her expression.

After a moment of contemplation, she finally spoke.

“I didn’t realize you were so thoughtful.”

“…Ha, haha, it’s not that serious.”

Did that work? Really?

Perhaps I should have possessed a faithful subordinate rather than a rival supporting role.

I barely managed to prevent a cunning smile from emerging, and pretended to laugh innocently.

And then the next day.

“Haah, shit.”

I cursed as I threw the broom.

I said I wanted to clean the Pope’s office. Did I ever say I wanted to clean the prayer room!

Well, strictly speaking, it’s not entirely wrong. This prayer room is where the Pope and other high priests individually pray to God.

In that sense, it is true that this place is also where the pope stayed.

“Damn it.”

I took a deep sigh that I could have done a hundred times and picked up the broom in a moment.

A bluish-silver hair swept across my vision.

“Hmm?”

Peidos Carmel was entering the prayer room. As I unintentionally hid myself behind a pillar, I widened my eyes and looked at him.

Should I leave? What should I do?

However, before I finished thinking, he kneeled down and sat. With the prayer that began in the blink of an eye, I had no choice but to stand there, unable to do anything.

In this eerily quiet place, even the smallest movement created a loud noise. There was an unwritten rule that a prayer in the prayer room should never be disturbed, so it wasn’t appropriate to leave now.

“Ah…”

As I tried to maintain the same position without any movement, my limbs began to itch. The mere thought of not being able to move made my muscles feel even more strained.

Frustrated and bored, I began to watch him in silence.

Peidos let out long sighs in the middle of his prayers. Upon closer observation, his tightly clenched, large hand was trembling slightly.

In contrast to his usual confident demeanor, he appeared somewhat fragile in the prayer room. His face showed deep unease, and his shoulders, which used to be straight and strong, drooped downward as if burdened by heavy weights.

Suddenly, a question arose in my mind.

How heavy of a burden are you carrying?

Leading the knights representing the Holy Kingdom must demand an incredibly heavy sense of responsibility that the culprit would never dare to shoulder. Behind the glorious title of a Guardian, there must lie the compulsion and burden of never failing.

As I thought about it, I felt sorry.

There is no guarantee that you ever wanted such a life, yet how hard are you working to meet the soaring expectations that grow with each passing day? In a situation where the rewards are significantly less than the obligations, what satisfaction do you find in carrying out such virtuous acts?

But at that moment, my fingers, which had been feeling unusually stifled, accidentally let go of the broom.

Thud.

The sound of the broom hitting the marble floor echoed like the sound of a collapsing building. When I glanced forward in surprise, Peidos was already looking at me.

My trembling eyes met his directly.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you….”

I quickly lowered my head and apologized.

Though I couldn’t tell whether it was due to his somewhat stern expression, he didn’t show any discontent and opened his mouth.

“No, it’s fine. I’ve finished praying anyway. I should have checked first, but my mind was preoccupied, so I didn’t realize you were here. It’s my fault.”

But then he suddenly shifted his gaze to the fallen broom and asked out of the blue.

“By the way, have you been drinking again?”

“….Huh?”

I was confused, but soon realized why he asked.

It seemed like he thought I received the punishment of cleaning because I had skipped class due to a hangover.

I awkwardly smiled as I picked up the broom.

“It’s not that this time…. I volunteered.”

“Volunteered?”

“I wanted to establish the right mindset while cleaning the prayer room….”

Woof woof.

It would certainly sound like a dog barking in the presence of the knight. It was embarrassing enough to make my face turn red, but I couldn’t think of any other explanation.

“Oh, I understand what you mean.”

…..What? Really? You really know?

“It’s somewhat helpful.”

“…….”

It sounded as if he had tried it before.

Indeed, being the commander of the Holy Knights was not for just anyone.

As I stared at him with a slightly tired expression, Peidos lifted his gaze and looked at me again.

His young eyes seemed troubled and wrinkled with concern.

“I’m not sure if you’ve heard the rumors, but there have been reports of outsiders entering. Be cautious and inform me or other priests if you discover anyone suspicious.”

“Ah, yes….”

That outsider I met yesterday almost shook me to the core of my being. I answered very softly, barely managing to swallow the words mounting up in my throat.

However, perhaps misunderstanding my fear based on my attitude, he tried to console me by elaborating further.

“No need to worry too much. The knights are doing their best to chase that man away.”

“…Yes, I’ve always believed in you guys.”

Being able to freely roam around in a tightly guarded fortress certainly indicated that he wasn’t just some ordinary person. Keene, a magician from the Magic Tower, was undoubtedly one of the strongest.

Even though it wouldn’t be easy by any means, I wished the knights would find him and drive him out. It would also be great if they could save my life in the process.

“Sir Peidos.”

I caught him as he was about to leave after saying goodbye to me. Perhaps because I was deviating from our usual conversational pattern of ‘keeping things brief’, his brows, as he turned around, furrowed.

Fortunately, his expression conveyed more curiosity than displeasure. Maybe it was because he couldn’t discern the intention behind my call.

Recalling his appearance while he was praying, I slowly parted my lips.

“Thank you. For protecting the Holy Kingdom.”

“…….”

“Even before, I felt grateful, but it wasn’t until I entered the temple that I realized it more clearly. Thanks to people like you, I have been at peace all this time.”

Peidos remained silent. His face showed no specific emotions and might even appear frozen at a glance.

I lightly smiled, facing the refreshing green color that made me feel better just by looking at it.

“I just wanted to express my gratitude.”

After that, I bowed my head as a sign of respect.

If I couldn’t relieve his burden, I at least wanted to add some value. At present, that seemed to be the only thing I could do for this pitiful hero.

* * *

“Ah, I can’t help but think I’m not a Stella.”

Leila murmured with an uncertain voice. It was the most melancholic tone I had ever heard from her normally cheerful self.

She looked down at the magic bead she clenched tightly in her hand. It still had the same hazy purple color as before, unchanged in any way.

The areas where the Stellas were most active were healing and purification.

Unless they had originally chosen the path of a knight or a magician, most Stellas became ordinary priests, focusing on those two areas since they couldn’t surpass knights and magicians in terms of offensive power.

However, healing was a high-level skill that required learning both purification and healing magic together, which we currently had no hope of achieving. Therefore, we started with purification magic, and the bead containing dark magic was given as a practice tool. It was something that restored its clarity when dark magic was pushed out with an appropriate amount of holy power.

Leila’s eyes briefly glimpsed my transparent bead. Somehow, I felt self-conscious about how it compared to hers in terms of color.

“You’ll feel it at some point.”

Unfortunately, that was all I could say. It might be bad, but that was the truth.

If we were to use an analogy, wielding holy power was similar to throwing a spear. You could improve your aim through practice, but knowing where and how much power to put into it was purely a matter of intuition.

And if you truly lacked talent, you had to practice more than others. In my opinion, Leila was exactly in that position.

“Oh, I can’t stand it. If I can barely be competent, I want to become a holy knight. I’ve always wanted to learn the sword since I was young.”

“Yeah, that would suit you well.”

As long as she had some sense of athleticism, it seemed like that would suit her more, considering her lively personality.

To boost the mood, I added a few more compliments and then stood up with the bead in my hand. It was to exchange it for a bead with a denser dark magic.

But then, when I arrived at the shelf where the beads were, I came face-to-face with someone who had already arrived there before me.

Pink-haired Prim.

“…….”

She silently glanced at my bead.

It was blatantly obvious where she was looking, even without having to ask. At the front, indicating the level. The bead I had was a level 3.

I heard a snide, mocking sound. Wondering if it was an auditory hallucination, I raised my head, and sure enough, Prim’s mouth was slightly curved upwards.

I lowered my eyes and checked her bead.

Level 5. Damn it.

I foolishly stared at her retreating figure with a bewildered expression.

Wow, I’m so annoyed.

I thought that maybe it was entirely Prim’s fault that Duna Valorem had become her rival.

Competitiveness, which I had forgotten since childhood, came back to life. With narrowed eyes, I returned triumphantly with a level 4 bead clenched in my hand.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Just watch. I will catch up to you.”

After that, it was war. I approached it as if my life depended on winning the battle of pride. So much so, in fact, that it made the whole key, life-and-death thing seem ridiculous.

But I’m so pissed that I can’t stay still. Why does this person keep provoking me since the last time?

It seemed like more than a delusion caused by excessive self-consciousness. Just looking into each other’s eyes every training session and even the way she approached me, including the instructor, indicated that.

No matter how I think about it, it seems like I’ve been marked as an object of some kind of caution.

“If you want to see me as a rival to that extent, I’ll give it to you, such a petty rival!”

I put forth all the strength I had gathered and brought forth my concentration. In the practice sessions, I had reached the eighth level without even realizing it since I kept holding the beads all the time.

At some point, I forgot to check how often Prim got up and focused entirely on the beads. It was so I could gain an advantage by knowing the opponent’s situation before anyone else.

But perhaps I tried too hard and exhausted my strength. There were no signs of the magic being purified from the eighth level onwards.

Driven by frustration, I continued pouring in holy power, and suddenly I heard the voice of another priest.

“Already be at level 10, that’s quite impressive.”

It wasn’t the voice of the priest conducting the purification practice. No, more importantly, level 10?

Surprised, I raised my head and saw a priest I had never seen before standing in front of Prim. Instead of the standard white and plain priests’ robes, she wore a blue cloak embroidered with large golden symbols representing the temple.

Wait, those symbols…

“That person is the Great Saint, Chelin.”