9. In the HELL

T/N: I know the title sounds grammatically wrong, but the author wrote the actual english title okay~

Once the bishop left, only Nicholas and Rarien remained in the room.

‘…I feel like dying of embarrassment.’

Even though she tried not to, her head automatically hung low.

Should she ask how he’s been?

She felt guilty, making it hard to speak.

Or should she apologize first?

Judging by the atmosphere, it seemed she ought to say sorry.

But looking back on that day, she couldn’t think of anything she had done wrong enough to warrant an apology.

She was called to his office, made some excuses, got swept up in the mood, had s*x, and then transferred as planned.

Nicholas Reinhart disliked using words like thank you or sorry lightly.

‘Why does he keep staring?’

He seemed to want something, but Nicholas just looked her up and down without saying anything significant.

‘Could he possibly want to have s*x again?’

The thought made her heart race. She wanted to check if he was ar*used, but since he was sitting at the desk, it was hard to tell by sight. It was too embarrassing to ask if he was aroused.

An awkward silence filled the room.

“What are you doing?”

“…Pardon?”

Nicholas gestured lightly for Rarien to come closer. Hesitantly, she approached, and he handed her a mountain of documents.

“Let’s get to work.”

Do all of this? Rarien’s face turned pale.

***

No matter how much she worked, there seemed to be no end in sight. The task Nicholas assigned was to organize the documents alphabetically. It was simple work, but the volume was overwhelming. Rarien struggled with the papers.

“I’m finished.”

Having sorted the last document, Rarien showed her work to Nicholas as if seeking approval.

“I organized them alphabetically as you instructed.”

Nicholas casually flipped through the stack and said something astonishing.

“Alphabetically? Did I say alphabetically earlier?”

“…Yes.”

“I’m sorry.”

Why is he apologizing all of a sudden? Nicholas Reinhart wasn’t someone who apologized easily.

If he was suddenly apologizing, there must be a reason.

“I meant to say chronologically. I must have been too tired from the long journey to think straight.”

“……”

“Please reorganize them chronologically.”

Well, it was a long journey from the capital to the south. Plus, since he had been traveling nationwide for sermons, ending his journey in the south, it wasn’t surprising he was exhausted.

‘Hold it in…’

Rarien trudged back to her seat and began sorting the documents chronologically. The volume was such that it took quite a while again.

After finishing the chronological organization, she brought the stack of documents back to Nicholas.

“Hmm.”

Nicholas had a somewhat peculiar expression. Surely not. It can’t be.

Rarien tried to ignore the ominous feeling creeping over her.

“I’m sorry, but I think the alphabetical order looked neater.”

“……”

“Would you mind reorganizing them alphabetically again?”

As expected, her ominous feeling was not wrong.

Rarien felt a momentary urge to commit murder, but managed to hold back upon seeing his flower-like smile. After wrestling with the stack of documents for quite some time again, she was finally able to finish organizing. Rarien handed the organized documents to Nicholas with a slightly stiff expression.

“In case you wanted to see them chronologically as well, I’ve added separate classification markers to each document. You can find the materials you want by referring to this chart.”

“Well, good job.”

Although she had prepared thoroughly to prevent any nitpicking or whims, Nicholas still looked indifferent.

“Keep the chart.”

“Why?”

“When I ask you to find something, you can quickly locate it using that chart.”

“……”

“It’s good that you’re clever.”

It meant he wouldn’t be looking at them anyway. The expression gradually faded from Rarien’s face.

“Please continue to work hard like that. Oh, come to think of it, I should start preparing sermon materials soon.”

Nicholas handed Rarien a very thick Holy Scripture.

“Find something suitable from here and organize it. For the outline…, since it’s your first time, let’s go with a light 100 or so.”

“A light 100?”

“Yes.”

That’s light? Rarien’s pupils shook back and forth.

“Don’t be surprised. Andrei used to do this all the time. Andrei would easily do 300 at once. Since you’re smarter than Andrei, it shouldn’t be particularly difficult.”

…Shouldn’t we hear Andrei’s side of the story too?

Andrei was the name of Rarien’s predecessor, that is, the previous assistant. Nicholas raised his eyebrows as if it were no big deal.

“A good sermon doesn’t just come out of nowhere. It comes from staying alert at all times and preparing intensely.”

So those precious sermons were sermons infused with Andrei’s blood, sweat, and tears. He quit, they said, and now I think I understand why.

There was no way to escape as he deliberately piled on work instructions. All she could do was keep going until she reached 100.

Rarien Claude, being a former pushover, was quick to resign herself to the situation.

“When do you need this by?”

“As quickly as possible within today. You can start now.”

She had thought he might at least give her a generous deadline.

Nicholas Reinhart had no such half-hearted mercy.

“You see, after traveling around the country, I’ve run out of sermon topics. But it doesn’t seem right to recycle the same sermons for the believers and our Lord.”

“……”

“Anyway, please work hard on this.”

She couldn’t shake the feeling of having fallen into some kind of trap.

***

It was late at night. Naturally, Rarien was still in Nicholas Reinhart’s office.

There was still a mountain of work to be processed.

It was true that she had entered the temple wanting to be close to Nicholas Reinhart. But. She never imagined it would be such pure torture.

Nicholas was holding a book in his hand, while his eyes were fixed intently on Rarien. Later, he even lay on the sofa, resting his chin on his hand, and stared at her blatantly.

‘Why does he keep staring at me?’

It felt a bit awkward to ask. It was distracting while she was working, and it was driving her crazy.

It didn’t seem like he had much to do. If they worked together, it would be finished quickly. But Nicholas showed no intention of cooperating.

They even had dinner briefly in the office.

Of course, that process wasn’t exactly simple either.

“I’m hungry. Bring me a light sandwich. You can eat whatever you want.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll give you 30 minutes.”

30 minutes? That was just enough time to go to the dining hall, get the sandwich, and come back.

Her menu choices were automatically limited as well. It would take less time if they had the same menu, and there wouldn’t be time to eat, so she had to bring it back.

Rarien successfully completed the mission. After handing the sandwich to Nicholas, Rarien was about to take a bite of her own, but…

“Didn’t I say two?”

“……”

He looked at her as if she were an idiot who couldn’t even understand numbers properly.

“I’m sorry. Mine is the same, so please eat this one too. I haven’t touched it.”

When Rarien offered her sandwich, his brow furrowed.

It meant he didn’t want it.

“…You can eat one for now, and I’ll quickly go and bring another fresh one.”

Thanks to this, Rarien had to run to the dining hall and back.

“Wait a moment. Come here for a second.”

Just as she had barely caught her breath and was about to start eating…

As expected, Nicholas wouldn’t let her eat in peace.

“The carrots are too hard. Could you bring me one without carrots?”

“…Yes.”

She had seen people who disliked carrots before, but this was the first time someone said they were too hard.

How hard could chopped carrots be? She didn’t understand, but everyone has different standards, and it seemed faster to bring a new one than to argue about it.

“He says the carrots are too hard. Could you make a new one without any carrots?”

“Pardon?”

Even the cook was taken aback by this unheard-of request.

“I’m really sorry, but it’s for Lord Reinhart’s meal.”

“Oh, I see. I’ll make a new one right away without the carrots.”

Lord Reinhart’s meal, he said. The cook made a new one immediately without any objection.

She felt indignant, but based on her experience dealing with difficult customers, this picky type usually stops complaining if you just give them exactly what they want. She could endure this much.

At least until she heard Nicholas’s next words.

“Without the carrots, there’s not much to eat.”

“……”

“Go wrap one up with the carrots back in.”

…I want to kill.

I’m going to hell anyway for f*cking a priest. Why not just kill him?

For a moment, anger surged inside her as if she was possessed by a demon.

If I just put it in as is, it’s obvious they’ll complain it’s too hard again.

In the end, Rarien had to beg the cook to make a new sandwich with sautéed carrots.

After going through this whole process, my appetite completely disappeared and I didn’t want to eat anything.

Nicholas told me to go eat, but I refused.

I thought I’d go to hell when I died. Was that too naive? This place was already hell right now.