Nigel was finally able to escape just before midnight after repeatedly receiving congratulations and tears about insufficient support, like a recurring song.

After washing up and sitting on the bed, suddenly a storage box placed in the corner of the room caught her eye.

She had not taken it out even once since shoving the locket into the storage box a few years ago.

When she opened the locket, her name was engraved on one side, and the complex seal that was engraved on the envelope earlier was crafted on the opposite side.

Nigel got up from the bed, opened the storage box, rummaged through it for a while, and found a round object about one and a half finger joints long.

After dusting off the whitish dust that had accumulated as proof of the years it had been buried, she opened the locket.

“Haah…”

Nigel let out a deep sigh without realizing it.

She felt conflicted about why they were looking for her now, when she wasn’t even that young anymore.

As she was born and gradually grew up, Nigel came to know that this world was inside a book.

And the nickname that Nigel was called more often than her name in the book was… the mad dog of the temple.

In the original work, when Nigel, who couldn’t become an apprentice priest, couldn’t hide her gender just by shaving her head, she caused a disturbance on the day the temple inspector came and was captured by the temple to receive a religious trial.

Right before being locked up in the temple’s infamous underground prison, Nigel at that time…

Knock knock.

There was a knock from outside.

Since it came from the bottom of the door, it must have been one of the orphanage’s troublemakers.

Nigel quickly hid the locket in her pocket and opened the door.

“Nigeeeel-”

Benny, the youngest at the orphanage, rubbed his sleepy eyes and hugged Nigel’s left leg.

Looking closely, Benny’s left cheek was red and swollen.

“Nigel, I…”

Benny mumbled, avoiding Nigel’s eyes.

“Tell me. I won’t get mad.”

Only then did Benny open his mouth.

“Actually… my left tooth hurts so much.”

I told you weeks ago to stop eating so much candy and brush your teeth regularly.

Nigel barely swallowed the nagging that was rising up unconsciously.

“…Let me see.”

As Benny opened his mouth with an “Ah,” Nigel looked inside Benny’s mouth and then held out her pinky finger.

“What did I say?”

Benny hooked his tiny hand with the pinky.

“When it hurts, I’ll secretly come to Nigel’s room alone.”

“And?”

“If I reveal today’s incident to the directors, desserts will be banned for 100 years.”

Benny recited the memorized words precisely, not even knowing the exact meaning of ‘reveal’.

“Good. Promise?”

“Promise.”

They hooked their hands tightly and shook them up and down a couple of times.

“Then open your mouth.”

“Okay.”

Nigel brought her hand close to Benny’s mouth.

At that moment, a golden light emanated from Nigel’s hand, illuminating the dark room before subsiding in the blink of an eye.

Nigel spoke to Benny, whose eyes were wide open and unable to speak.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore, right?”

“…Y-yes!”

Benny nodded his head vigorously after making a clicking sound by opening and closing his mouth.

“What did I say?”

“What happens in this room stays in this room. Immediate punishment if exposed outside.”

Benny said brightly, not knowing the meaning of ‘exposed’ and ‘punishment’ at all.

“Promise?”

“Promise!”

They hooked their fingers again and shook them up and down.

Click.

“Sigh…”

Nigel, who had taken Benny back to the bedroom, sat on the bed and took the locket out of her pocket.

A person born with the divine power to heal others without receiving formal priest appointment. The world called this a saint.

In the original work, she ran even more wild riding on this position, but to the current Nigel, this position was nothing more or less than shackles.

Because she knew best how a saint could become corrupted.

And… family. She couldn’t face her family.

Ironically, saints born with the power to heal people were born by taking the life force of their birth mothers.

Nigel learned this by chance while reading a book in the library two years ago.

If they knew that she, who had been separated from them since she was a baby and was no different from a stranger, had taken away their beloved wife and mother…

Click.

Nigel closed the locket again and put it back in its place. The locket was too heavy to wear around her neck.

And she reached out to grab the letter that Ron and Handel had forcibly given her.

That phrase saying the whole family had always missed her made her head spin.

Nigel fiddled with the end of the letter for a while, then got up with the letter and stood in front of the fireplace.

As soon as she tossed the letter into the burning flames, they instantly devoured it.

Looking at the fireplace that didn’t leave a trace, Nigel felt both relieved and stuffy in her chest.

…It was really time to sleep now.

Nigel closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep.

“Nigel, a letter came for you.”

Handel put a letter down on the desk scattered with papers.

“You’ve been getting letters often lately, could it be a love…”

Handel’s face reddened slightly as he trailed off, but his face stiffened at Nigel’s cold gaze.

“Ah, wh-what am I saying! Just kidding, just kidding.”

Handel hurriedly fanned himself with his hand.

“It’s from Zeronin.”

Nigel held out the letter in front of Handel’s eyes.

The neat handwriting that read Zeronin Silvas was familiar to Handel’s eyes as well.

Zeronin was also from this orphanage and left when he became an adult at 18.

“Right, you and Zeronin used to play well together despite the big age difference. It’s already been 7 years since Zeronin left here…”

As Handel’s story bag was about to unravel, Nigel quickly opened her mouth.

“Didn’t you say you were organizing the warehouse today?”

“Ah, ah! Look at me. Thanks, Nigel.”

After Handel left the room, Nigel, alone again in the room, opened and read the letter.

“…Fortunately, it’s not too late.”

Nigel let out a sigh of relief. The timing was quite tight, but she had finished everything Zeronin had asked for.

Nigel quickly tidied up her desk, loosened her tightly tied hair and roughly combed it with her hands, and put on a thick navy blue coat.

With a large bag slung over her shoulder from the coat rack, she was now ready to go out.

“I’ll be back.”

Nigel called out her farewell and set off towards the village along the forest path.

‘Still lush as ever today.’

Tillin was popular as a winter resort for nobles because of its fairly decent scenery of snow piled on the lush forest on winter days.

Even the people living here would swallow their rough words while clearing the piled snow, but when they looked up, they would smile faintly at the wide-spreading landscape.

Spring was coming soon, but the wind still stung her cheeks.

‘Right, the scarf…’

Nigel berated herself for not bringing a scarf and hurriedly exited the forest.

After walking for a while, where Nigel stopped was Tillin’s only source of money. It was the Evans Trading Company.

Knock knock.

As soon as she knocked on the door, it opened almost simultaneously.

“Yes, this is Evans Trading Company. What can I do for you, customer?”

A pleasant-looking woman wearing a wrinkle-free, well-ironed uniform greeted Nigel with a bright smile.

“It’s still cold out, would you like to talk inside?”

The woman was wearing a golden nameplate engraved with Sally on her chest.

…When she came to her senses, she was sitting on a soft sofa enjoying refreshments.

‘The saying “Even a slave should be a slave in a rich house” is really true.’

The Evans Trading Company was the empire’s top trading company, and the head of the company was famous for how well he smelled money, raking in money with everything he touched.

Even if it was a branch in the countryside with few people, Evans was Evans, and Sally’s words and actions were perfectly trained.

Nigel, who had gained trust in Sally, took out a letter from her bag and held it out.

“Here. You’ll know right away when you see it.”

“Yes, customer. Please wait a moment.”

Sally took the letter with a bright smile.

As she read the letter, Sally’s eyes, which had maintained perfect composure until then, gradually widened.

But a professional is a professional. Sally quickly regained her composure.

“This letter is indeed a document issued directly by our trading company.”

Sally took out a seal from the pocket on the left chest of her shirt and firmly left a red mark on the paper.

At the top of the paper was written ‘Certificate of Property Transfer’, and below that was the phrase ‘Zeronin Silvas transfers one hundred and fifty gold coins to Nigel Ars’.

Considering that the monthly food expenses for a dozen or so orphanage children with good appetites were at most 1 to 2 gold coins when economizing as much as possible, the amount written on the paper was difficult to come by in the countryside of Tillin.

“Customer, I apologize for the inconvenience, but could you please verify your identity?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Thank you for your understanding, customer.”

Sally got up from the sofa and brought out a spherical magic measuring device.

Seeing this, Nigel’s face stiffened slightly.

“…I thought identity verification was also possible with an academy admission certificate.”

“Yes, that’s correct, customer. Students from nine verified academies nationwide, including the Imperial Sienna Academy, can have their identity verified without additional procedures if they provide proof of enrollment.”

Nigel opened her bag and took out another piece of paper.

“This is my Sienna Academy admission registration certificate.”

“Please wait a moment.”

Sally’s heart fluttered the moment she saw the four letters that no one in the empire could not know, but thanks to the trading company’s training, it didn’t show.

“Yes, you have been verified.”

Thud!

This time, a heavy stack of papers popped out of the bag.

“Please process the money like this. If possible, I’d like the paperwork to be done by tomorrow.”

The corners of Sally’s mouth, who had left work on time 360 days out of 365 during her days working in Tillin, gradually turned downward.

Still, her vocal cords were as kind as ever, befitting a talented person who had passed through the Evans Trading Company’s rigorous training process.

“Yes, I understand, customer. Would you like to sit down while I check the documents?”

The corners of Sally’s mouth, who had been examining the documents, returned to their original position.

It was right after she had mentally calculated the commission that would fall to her from this transaction.

As someone who always kept the company head’s famous saying “The person who gives money is king” close to her heart, Sally sprang up and brought out desserts from a famous store that she had been saving.

“Please feel free to speak comfortably, and I will help you anytime.”

Sally spoke sincerely for the first time today.