~Chapter 35~
“But if we tell Vice-High Priest Clay about this, he’ll fix the temple, right?”
Cecilia trusted Clay. He was the first one to discover that she had the qualities to be a saint, and he brought her to the Zilte Temple.
So Cecilia believed that if Clay found out a priest had done something corrupt, he would investigate and fix everything.
But Astia didn’t think so.
‘There’s no way Vice-High Priest Clay doesn’t know about the money being stolen from commoners.’
Astia felt uneasy. If a normal priest could do this much corruption, Clay was probably no better.
She remembered the fancy jewelry Clay always wore—something only nobles wore.
‘Didn’t they say Clay supports the Elling Orphanage?’
Astia felt like a big incident was about to happen, but she kept going. She didn’t want to just watch while the original heroine suffered.
First, she needed to find out more about the Elling Orphanage. She couldn’t just barge in.
“Brother, I want to support the Elling Orphanage. Can you check it out for me? And see if there are any rumors.”
Astia decided to use her “big brother chance” first.
Recently, the Rovellito family had been supporting a lot of orphanages, so Damian didn’t doubt her request.
A few days later, Astia received detailed information about the orphanage and studied the documents closely.
The orphanage had a set budget for 40 children, with extra money coming from the temple and noble families.
“This orphanage seems totally normal.”
She looked at the list of sponsors that the butler, Orland, had collected.
The Zilte Temple had supported it for a long time, and there were even some notorious noble families involved. Nothing strange, except a few families had recently stopped supporting, for unknown reasons.
“They quit supporting at just the right time… That’s suspicious.”
The more she thought about it, the more suspicious everything seemed.
“There are even two families recently caught embezzling.”
Astia checked recent news articles. After she visited the Zilte Temple, several noble families involved in corruption were exposed—and some of them had supported the orphanage.
Rumors made things look even worse.
“They say at night, you can always hear carriages near Elling Orphanage. Sometimes people even hear children crying, but when a neighbor reported it, they said it was just food deliveries.”
That was the end of Orland’s report.
Since the priest’s corruption became known, suddenly many corrupt families were exposed. It was almost too perfect.
“Did news of the priest’s corruption leak to other groups? The temple probably wants to keep things quiet, but…”
Telling Damian would probably solve everything, but it would also make things very public. Cecilia still trusted Clay, and using the Rovellito family’s power could cause a scandal.
“…I can check it myself.”
She already had proof of priest corruption, but now it was urgent to find out if Clay was involved.
She needed to act before anyone could cover their tracks.
Astia called Haron to her door.
“Haron, I need your help with something. Will you protect me? Tomorrow night, we’re going to Elling Orphanage.”
“What?”
“It has to be a secret. I’ll just tell my brother I’m going out for a while.”
Haron looked confused but nodded.
“Vice-High Priest, something terrible has happened! I tried to destroy the sponsor list like you asked, but someone interfered.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Someone reported Priest Charlet’s corruption.”
Clay groaned and held his head.
A few days ago, Charlet—who worked in the Third Confession Room—started shouting like he’d lost his mind. When questioned, he said someone wanted to kill him and claimed the Zilte Temple was finished.
At first, Clay thought Charlet had just gone crazy.
“[Some man said he would reveal everything I did! He tried to kill me…]”
Clay found it hard to believe. Only commoners went to the Third Confession Room, and nothing had happened there for years.
But Charlet was shaking, and his eyes looked lost. Maybe he was telling the truth.
If this got out, it would be a disaster. If only the temple knew, they could handle it, but if an outsider had proof, even Clay could be exposed.
‘I can’t let that happen.’
Clay started cleaning up. First, he kicked Charlet out of the temple, making it look like he was transferred to a small country church. Then, he tried to erase any sign of illegal dealings with nobles—jewelry, luxury goods, even records of illegal slave trades.
But something was strange. Suddenly, several noble families cut off contact and stopped supporting the temple. The Elling Orphanage also went silent.
“Is someone inside leaking information?”
“It feels like someone knows everything we’re doing. We can’t reach the Elling Orphanage either.”
Clay looked at a letter on his desk. It had just arrived from the head of the orphanage, asking for a secret meeting tonight.
This wasn’t the first time, so Clay wasn’t suspicious.
He needed the head’s help to cut ties and cover everything up.
“The orphanage sent a letter. I’ll go there secretly. Finish what you were doing.”
“Yes, sir.”
The assistant left, and Clay tried to calm his pounding heart.
Even if there was an investigation, he had to keep the illegal slave trading at Elling Orphanage hidden. That way, even if he got demoted, he could still stay a priest.
But this plan didn’t last long.
Astia, with Haron, put on a robe and headed to Elling Orphanage late at night.
“If your master finds out, she’ll be furious. Are you sure about this?”
“I’ll just make up an excuse to my brother. Don’t worry.”
Haron nodded, feeling less suspicious.
Damian was away at the palace, so it was unlikely anything would go wrong.
Astia brought the magic tool from Ian that could contact the Magic Tower in an emergency.
With Haron by her side, she felt safe. He was strong enough to handle several knights by himself.
“We’re here, miss.”
The orphanage was eerily quiet, like nobody was there.
Astia tilted her head.
“It’s so quiet. Should we go in?”
“Yes, miss.”
Haron stayed alert as they passed through the front door. Strangely, the door wasn’t locked.
Suddenly, Haron pointed somewhere and whispered.
“I hear something over there. Should I check it out first?”
“Let’s go together.”
Haron put his hand on his sword and led the way. As they got closer, they heard muffled sounds.
“Mmm! Mmm!”
Haron quickly drew his sword, stood in front of Astia, and opened the door.
Creak—
They saw something shocking.
Clay, dressed in ordinary clothes, and an old woman who looked like the head of the orphanage were both tied up, their mouths and hands bound.
When they saw Haron with his sword, they struggled wildly.
“W-what is this…?”
Astia couldn’t understand what was happening. She’d just decided yesterday to investigate the orphanage, but now it looked like someone already knew her plan—and had caught the criminals before she arrived.
“Miss, here’s a list.”
There was an open list sitting out in plain view.
Astia looked at it, her expression turning cold.
“It’s a list of illegal slave trades.”
“What?”
“Elling Orphanage has been getting support from nobles but secretly selling the children to them.”
Astia handed the list to Haron for safekeeping and looked Clay in the eye.
“Vice-High Priest, isn’t it true that Zilte Temple is behind all of this?”
“Mmm! Mmm!”
“It’s no use denying it. I already have all the evidence. Oh, and the person who helped me seems to have already moved the children to safety. That’s a bit disappointing.”
Astia stared at the ruined Clay without emotion and said,
“If you do bad things, you have to be punished.”
Clay squeezed his eyes shut, as if giving up.
UNLOCK SOON!~