“The previous count managed the temple well, right? She didn’t embezzle the budget or anything, did she?”

Philip answered with silence instead of words. I knew this would happen!

Regional temples usually transferred a certain amount to the managing territory when the central government allocated budgets.

This was to reduce the burden on that territory, but it wasn’t uncommon for those territories to embezzle significantly.

The problem was.

‘If you get caught doing that, you have to pay back several times the amount!’

She wanted to catch Gwen and her mother, who had disappeared somewhere, and hold them accountable, but she barely held onto her reason and calmly confirmed.

“How much did they take? Is it very serious?”

“……According to the head priest’s judgment, temple management responsibility could be transferred to another territory.”

In other words, it might be a scale that required some preparation.

In this case, there was only one method.

“Let’s quickly fill the hole before the priest dispatched from the central arrives.”

Solving the problem before it became a problem.

“I’ll try it once.”

Philip also seemed to have the same thought and answered resolutely.

This was exactly what it meant when a predecessor messed things up terribly and left, making the successor suffer.

***

It had already been well over a month since Shailyn went down to Sharofe territory.

Linus, who thought it was about time for her to return, subtly frequented the Diart residence waiting for her.

But no matter how much time passed, Shailyn didn’t even show her shadow.

Linus, feeling his patience reach its limit, finally asked Dain outright.

“When is Lady Sharofe coming?”

“Well? I don’t know.”

Dain replied indifferently with a fresh face. A vein slightly bulged at Linus’s temple.

“Don’t you worry about your cousin? The lady told me she’d return within a month at most.”

“Ah, but she sent us a letter a few days ago saying she’d stay a bit longer before coming back. She inherited the title and has things to sort out, so it seems difficult to come back right away.”

Linus, who only now learned this fact, felt a little hurt. It would have been nice if she had contacted him to let him know too.

“So when is she coming?”

“No deadline was set. She’ll come when the time is right.”

“Irresponsible guy. A guy who’s only crazy about swords and has no interest in anything else.”

“……Why are you suddenly criticizing me?”

Dain, who was suddenly cursed at by his friend, looked bewildered but soon grinned.

“Are you perhaps missing Shailyn?”

“……!”

Linus, hit right on target, flinched. His ears turned redder than his head.

At the gap revealed by him who always pursued perfection, Dain pounced without missing the chance.

“Why do you miss her? Don’t tell me you like my sister? When you used to badmouth her so much saying she seemed not so great, don’t tell me you now have ulterior motives toward Shailyn—”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Cutting off Dain’s words, Linus calmly admitted.

“I have ulterior motives toward Lady Sharofe.”

“……Huh?”

At the unexpected reaction, Dain momentarily made a stupid expression. He thought Linus would desperately deny it.

Linus, whose favorability had exceeded 90, had accepted his own feelings and was rather confident.

“It’s not like that’s not allowed.”

“……That’s true, but now you look like a sinister guy targeting my sister rather than a friend?”

Strength entered Dain’s hand holding the training wooden sword.

Linus, feeling the changing atmosphere, tensed slightly.

“Pick up your sword. Let’s have a match.”

“……Fine then.”

At that moment when the two friends were having a hellish sparring match, someone also approached Deborah who was working at the magic tower.

“Tower master, do you have something to say to me?”

“……No, keep working.”

Chester, who had been loitering behind her, hesitated and denied.

Deborah, who had already endured as much as she could, couldn’t stand it anymore and turned around to face him.

“If you have nothing to say, why do you keep hovering around me? Do you perhaps not like how I work?”

“No, no. Don’t misunderstand. It’s not that……”

Flustered, Chester waved his hands while stammering.

Soon he let out an embarrassed cough and courageously opened his mouth.

“I heard that Lady Sharofe hasn’t been showing herself outside lately…… I was just curious if she’s doing well.”

“Ah, you wanted to ask about my sister’s well-being?”

She, who had no idea that her boss had confessed to her cousin, stirred magical medicine and spoke obediently.

“She went down to the territory to inherit the title. She said she’d stay there for a while until the work is finished before coming back.”

“The lady is inheriting a title……?”

“Yes, when she returns, she’ll become Count Sharofe instead of Lady Sharofe. It’s a bit sudden, but since my sister was looking for a husband anyway, I think it’s natural in a way.”

Husband, Chester’s eyes lit up with strange heat as he muttered quietly.

He, whose attitude became active, asked Deborah.

“Does Lady Sharofe, no, Count Sharofe have an ideal husband type? Tell me everything you know without leaving out appearance, wealth, education, etc.”

“Yes? Ah, yes……”

When the tower master, famous for being taciturn, suddenly rattled off words, Deborah’s expression changed strangely.

She, who had closely observed Chester throughout the conversation, thought.

‘The tower master might not be bad as my sister’s husband?’

Incidentally, around the same time, Dain was thinking,

‘Linus might be okay as Shailyn’s husband?’

It was the moment when the siblings’ picks diverged without them knowing.

Meanwhile, Raviel was heading south under the temple’s orders.

His heart beat a little faster as he looked out the carriage window with a calm face. This was a symptom that appeared every time he came south.

When he was young, he had met his first love during a southern pilgrimage.

Though her name and face were blurry, he remembered bits and pieces of the conversations he had with that child.

‘I, I’m going to be a failure. So everyone will abandon me……!’

‘Brother, no! That’s not true. Because I’ll be with you!’

‘……Don’t say such foolish things, if you’re with me, you’ll be in danger too.’

‘Still, I want to be with you, brother. Anyway, there’s no one else in the world who likes me except you. I’m happiest when I’m with you!’

‘I understand, then. No matter what happens, we’ll be together—’

Once, Raviel endured difficult times by chewing over and over the girl’s words.

The small hands and clear voice that comforted his fearful self were vivid, but he couldn’t remember anything else.

‘It’s probably the aftereffects of the experiment.’

A smile mixed with bitterness and self-mockery appeared on his lips.

Because of his first love that he would never remember in the future, Raviel volunteered to take on work whenever something happened in the south.

But this time was a little different.

He had stepped forward because the temple he was visiting to supervise was in Sharofe territory.

‘What expression will Shailyn make when she sees me? She’ll probably open her eyes wide like a rabbit?’

He let out a pleasant laugh imagining her gentle eyes becoming round.

A moment later, he finally arrived at the temple and got out of the carriage.

Shailyn, who had come to the temple in advance to greet the head priest from the central, opened her eyes wide as expected.

“Raviel……?!”

“It’s been a while, Shailyn.”

Raviel, who greeted her first rather than the temple’s head priest, approached with a bright face.

Shailyn still had a bewildered expression. This wasn’t just because of his surprise appearance—

【Mission: Find Mom’s Keepsake!

You know what? This temple has a secret.

It’s that……

Diane Sharofe’s keepsake is hidden inside here!

From now on, as her only daughter, you just need to explore every corner of the temple and find the keepsake!

Pretty easy, right? (ง*`˘´*)ว

Deadline: Five days

Success condition: Find the keepsake together with Head Priest Raviel

Success reward: Achieve 100 favorability with Head Priest Raviel

Failure penalty: Head Priest Raviel’s favorability drops to 0】

‘Crazy, the reward and penalty are complete extremes……’

She was also somewhat dazed by the mission that occurred as soon as she met Raviel.

A roulette had unfolded where favorability 60 could become 100 or could become 0.

“Shailyn, are you okay? Were you very surprised?”

Raviel, who tilted his head seeing her somewhat absent-minded, tried to lightly grab her shoulder.

But a hand that stretched out like a ghost from behind Shailyn stopped him.