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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: ‌‌‌valirscans.org
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Chapter 11
"I want more ‌‌‌pudding...."
I gazed at the empty glass jar with longing, my lips pouting slightly. The Governess chuckled softly and gently wiped the corners of my mouth clean.
She had already become my captive, so her touch was wonderfully tender.
"If you wish, I can bring out about half more. But if you eat too much, your teeth will decay."
"Mm... then that's fine. Instead...."
"Yes, young lady."
"I want to go thank the person who made this!"
"Oh my, the head chef will be absolutely delighted."
I nodded with a bright expression. But truthfully, I was giggling darkly ‌‌‌to myself on the inside.
This was all part of my sinister and cunning scheme.
The head chef was an extremely important figure within the household. If I befriended him, at least my meals wouldn't suffer even when Rahyun arrived.
'Though Rahyun will eventually win over the head chef's heart....' ‌‌
I suddenly recalled a scene from the original story.
["Jeff, this is called tteokbokki. If you make it with sausages, it becomes three times more delicious!"
"Saintess... this is...."
"Hmm? What's wrong, Jeff?"
Jeff, the head chef of Driblyane Manor, wiped away his tears.
He couldn't help it. The recipe that the saintess Rahyun presented ‌‌‌‌was something he already knew well. It was none other than... Ariadne's recipe from long ago.
"The Patriarch was so delighted when he ‌‌‌tasted this dish ‌‌that my lady made. But ever since Ariadne passed away... I haven't made it once."
"Oh my...."
Rahyun's eyes widened slightly in ‌‌‌surprise.
Memories of Ariadne, which she had forgotten, came flooding back. Jet-black ‌‌‌‌hair and eyes of a teal hue like bronze.
Ariadne, who always ‌‌‌‌wore a contemptuous expression when looking at me, had constantly interfered with my meetings with Kyraksos.
Though it was long ago, for Rahyun without memories from her ‌sealed period, Ariadne felt as vivid as if it were yesterday.
'Could it be ‌that Ariadne ‌‌also came to this world from the same place as me?'
Rahyun staggered momentarily from the shock.
"Thank you for reminding me of memories I had long forgotten. Sob... I will make ‌‌‌‌it with all my heart so that you can enjoy it deliciously."
"Oh, I'm sorry for making you cry." ‌‌‌
Rahyun, barely managing her composure, smiled knowingly and embraced Jeff warmly.
"If I make tteokbokki, the Patriarch will surely be delighted. I must help give him strength!"
"Yes, that's right, Saintess."
"Ah, that's right. I'm not a saintess anymore. Just call me Rahyun."
Rahyun stepped back with ‌‌a bright expression and observed the bustling kitchen.
Yet she was terribly anxious. Of the three wishes she could ask of God, she had used her final wish to exist naturally within ‌‌Driblyane Manor.
'Now there's no way to handle it.'
It probably wouldn't happen, but if Ariadne wasn't actually dead, or if she returned from death....
'What would I do?']
Even recalling it now, it was truly a shocking and horrifying development.
'But I have no ‌‌intention of being meekly driven out of this comfortable household just because you've ‌‌‌arrived.'
I lifted my head to gaze down the corridor, resplendent with restrained elegance. It rivaled the Imperial ‌‌‌Palace in beauty, and the air itself seemed to shimmer ‌‌‌‌with wealth. Enough to make anyone ‌‌‌‌covet it.
"Move ‌quickly, Marten!"
Perched confidently atop John's head, ‌I traversed the hallway with an air of authority. Immediately, whispers erupted around me ‌‌‌as people caught sight of me.
"Is she the ‌new saintess they've been talking about?"
"I heard she can predict the future. Though I'm not sure I ‌‌believe it."
"But the fact that an albino is representing the Driblyane family... that's a bit much."
"Hush, or you'll be struck down by divine punishment! The reason she can't humanize is because she exhausted her power summoning spring!"
Heh heh. Everything's proceeding according to plan.
The truth is ‌I can't humanize because I'm an ‌‌‌albino, but I can conceal that weakness with thirty percent truth and seventy ‌percent rumor.
Of course, initially many people disliked me. The whispers and cold glances when I passed by were hardly encouraging.
But that atmosphere in the manor shifted completely after I revealed information ‌about the impending attack and urgent news arrived.
"My younger sibling was stationed at the front line where the attack was supposed to happen! But because she warned us in advance, they survived!"
"She told us a day before the attack, so everyone evacuated, and we were even able to launch a surprise counterattack!"
"How did she know? I'm truly grateful."
It took less than a day for rumors to shift in my favor. It took ‌‌only two days for people's eyes to become extraordinarily favorable.
When I began acting friendly, their reactions transformed completely.
Lethal cuteness—showing my belly!
When I used the skill [Flop Over]—
"Oh my, Florin is so adorable that I punched the wall and ended up breaking through to the next room. What do I do!"
The maids whose families I'd saved through my information giggled and fawned over me.
When ‌‌‌I used the skill [Wiggling Round Ears]—
"Huff, huff. P-please, just once... could I just touch them once?"
Knights whose comrades had survived because of me clutched their chests, gasping for breath.
Apparently, a plump rear end and two round ears, along with a fluffy tail, are lethal weapons. With the weight I've gained recently, I'm absolutely adorable in my chubby state.
Unless someone harbored albino hatred to their very bones, it would be difficult to despise a young ‌‌‌‌creature who acted so affectionately.
'Honestly, whether they'd hate me or view me favorably came ‌‌‌down to a single thread.'
They could have easily despised me for being unable to humanize.
'But now ‌‌rumors of how I prevented the ‌attack have spread far and wide.'
Moreover, rumors circulated that Kyrakserth, one of the family's most powerful figures, had decided to become a sub-patriarch because of me. In such circumstances, no servant would ‌‌‌be bold enough to despise me.
'So to be precise, it's not that they like me because I'm cute, but rather they favor the fact that I'm a saintess and the power surrounding me.'
Well, it doesn't matter. After all, it was Patriarch Grandfather himself who spread the false rumor that I'm a saintess.
I recalled that night when the urgent ‌‌‌‌‌news arrived—when I ‌‌was summoned to see the Patriarch without anyone's knowledge.
"There cannot be two saintesses beneath ‌‌the ‌‌‌‌heavens."
Standing with his hands clasped behind his back, Patriarch Grandfather continued quietly.
"I do not believe you are a saintess. In fact, I don't believe in the concept of saintesses at all. I don't believe in the existence of God."
"However... since you've ‌‌‌‌benefited the family, whether you're genuine or merely got lucky is irrelevant. Henceforth, you are a true saintess who awakened ‌‌with spring. I shall spread rumors that the sealed saintess of the Holy Empire is actually a false saintess, and that you are the true one."
'Wow, he's truly villainous...'
Witness the spectacle where truth becomes falsehood and falsehood becomes truth in an instant, everyone.
"Because of you, Kyrakserth ‌‌‌abandoned his stubbornness and ascended to the position of sub-patriarch. That alone has proven helpful, but to think you'd be this impressive."
Now ‌‌the way Patriarch Grandfather looks at me is... yes, exactly that. ‌‌The gaze one reserves for a treasure chest.
I could instinctively feel my value skyrocketing in their eyes.
"This is a gift. Take it and enjoy it."
"Macarons...!"
And she even gave me a box containing a dozen ‌‌‌macarons in ‌various colors!
"I thought of you while visiting the Imperial Palace, so I brought some along."
"Thank you so much!"
To think she'd bring snacks for her granddaughter-in-law while she was out!
I shared them all with everyone yesterday ‌‌‌‌and got scolded by my Governess afterward. She worried so much about my teeth rotting if I ate too many sweets.
But ‌‌‌since her words came from genuine affection, I actually found them pleasant to hear.
'In any case, people will now continue to expect me to prevent attacks.'
If I have to maintain this for long, my secret will be exposed.
Fortunately, however, both nations now know that spring has arrived, and they will soon sign a peace treaty.
When the time comes to ‌‌‌‌‌care for the devastated lands... I'll naturally gain fame without any effort.
"Welcome, Young Mistress."
"Jeff!"
"Hehe, the kitchen is a dangerous place, but I'm delighted you've sought me out nonetheless."
Shortly after, I arrived at the kitchen.
Jeff had actually been quite wary and reluctant about my visits to the kitchen ‌‌at ‌‌first. But once I praised his desserts down to the molecular level, he ‌‌‌quickly opened his ‌‌heart to me.
"I was ‌‌‌just baking macaron ‌shells—would you care for one?"
"Yes!!!"
What a stroke of fortune!
My Governess controlled my snack portions quite strictly. Since I couldn't fully humanize, she only recommended eating ‌‌amounts that would be safe even in my animal form.
'Forgive me, Governess. But secretly eaten snacks taste so much sweeter....'
Soon, cradling pink macaron shells tinted with raspberry syrup, I became the happiest Marten in the world.

---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------