Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 71
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Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 71
21. Saintess Contest (2)
Ibril Barnet, the protagonist of a Cinderella story who was keenly feeling what it meant for one's life to change overnight, descended from a luxury floating car favored by nobles, escorted by her guard knights.
Then, countless eyes fell upon her...
"Huh? Isn't that the woman who appeared on the broadcast with the Lord?"
"Hey, watch your mouth. She might become the Saintess."
"Oh, no. Did she hear that?"
"Let's get out of here."
She'd always had striking looks, but thanks to broadcasts and the media, she'd become a complete celebrity, and far more people recognized her now.
Considering that until about a month ago she'd been a low-income worker doing part-time convenience store shifts, this was a situation she couldn't get used to no matter how many times she experienced it.
-Rumble.
Moreover, the number of attendants moving with her was as lavish as any noble's one secretary, two Vanguards, four regular knights, and two Holy Knights, nine people in total.
For a commoner of her status, it was an excessive entourage.
But Adrian insisted that from now on, since no one knew what sudden incidents might occur, they needed to be prepared, and Fried, the Archbishop who was both Ibril's teacher and one of her Sponsors, agreed and attached two Holy Knights clad in all sorts of blessings.
Thanks to that, a group was formed that clashed terribly with the background of the old villa district in the lower-class section of the commoners' residential area.
After a moment, they arrived at their destination in front of a low-rise villa whose entrance was covered in black mold.
"This is my home, so I could go in alone."
"We cannot allow that."
Standing before her home in gorgeous attire with a retinue of attendants made Ibril feel embarrassed for no reason, and she spoke in a timid voice, but the attendants firmly shook their heads.
"There's no need to be shy. This place where Ibril-nim was born and lived may look worn on the outside, but to us, it's practically a sanctuary."
That cringe-worthy remark came from a Holy Knight who was also one of Archbishop Fried's close associates and had taken charge of Ibril's protection.
Following the Archbishop, he was already treating Ibril half as a Saintess despite being a Holy Knight.
Ibril's face flushed for no reason, and she hurried upstairs as if fleeing, opening the familiar door and stepping inside.
"Mom, I'm home."
A small door and a narrow entryway.
Beyond it lay a living room of a little over three pyeong...
"Oh? My daughter's here?"
For some reason, about a dozen or so people were huddled together in that cramped living room.
The Kingdom of Rhinehearts uses a standing-seating lifestyle rather than floor seating, but when commoners enter their homes, they take off their shoes and go in barefoot or change into indoor slippers, much like in Korea.
Thanks to that, the entryway was full of shoes, making it hard to take a step.
Still, she managed to shove the shoes aside with her feet and removed her own with the help of the attendant who was practically her personal maid.
"Oh! What luck Ibril's here just in time!"
"Ibril, it's been a while. I'm your uncle, remember?"
"Wow, those shoes are really expensive those are Royal Elven, right? Made by elves, one pair costs over five million."
"It's not just the shoes her dress, her terminal, everything's expensive."
"Makes sense the Lord dotes on her so much, seeing she's a Saintess candidate."
As Ibril took a step inside, the people rushed out to greet her, each saying something.
All of them welcomed Ibril with smiles.
But their eyes swept over her from head to toe as if appraising her like hawks eyeing their prey.
Naturally, as the crowd surged forward, the guards behind Ibril stepped forward to hold them back.
"Step back."
"Oh? You must be Ibril's guards?"
"We're Ibril's relatives. No need to be so wary."
But the knights wore expressions of not caring what they said.
The relatives looked awkward at that, and eventually all eyes turned to Ibril.
"Well, they are my relatives."
But Ibril's reaction was ambiguous.
As if she wasn't fond of her relatives?
The guards frowned at that, while the relatives put on innocent faces, asking why she was like that.
"I'm sorry, but I'll have them sent out."
The two Vanguards Adrian had assigned for close protection were both women.
Quick-witted, they easily discerned from Ibril's demeanor the distance between her and the relatives, and resolved to treat them forcefully even if it meant taking on a somewhat villainous image.
"Lady Ibril has come to speak with her parents. All relatives except the two parents please leave."
The knights addressed only Ibril and her parents with respect; the rest of the relatives were cleanly ignored.
Their intentions were obvious without even looking.
When someone succeeds, aren't relatives always the first to come wagging their tails?
"I-Ibril, aren't you being too harsh on your uncle whom you haven't seen in ages?"
"Ibril, it's your aunt. The one who took care of you so much when you were little."
But Ibril's relatives were tough opponents.
They flinched briefly at the knights' orders, but they knew the knights wouldn't dare attack relatives in front of Ibril.
So the relatives held their ground, ignoring the knights' instructions, and when the Vanguard finally moved to draw her sword, they scrambled backward and fled into the house instead.
In the end, Ibril let out a sigh and shook her head at the female Vanguard who had taken on the role of the villain.
"It's fine. They are still family, after all."
"...Understood. Then we'll keep watch."
"The house is small, so let's have one senior Vanguard, one senior Holy Knight, and my secretary come inside."
The Vanguard's combat prowess went without saying, and the Holy Knight, armed with various blessings and holy relics, possessed combat power that was by no means negligible either.
So the rest of the party followed Ibril's instructions without a word.
"Yes, then we'll wait at the entrance and outside the door."
At the sight of Ibril commanding knights, the relatives who had been cowering in a corner let out exclamations of admiration and approached again.
But when the Vanguard who had tried to expel them grabbed her sword hilt again, they stopped in their tracks.
"All of you, maintain a distance of two paces. If you close the distance without permission, no matter how much they are Lady Ibril's relatives, I will cut your heads off."
At that, the relatives shot Ibril looks of protest, asking if this wasn't too much.
"Tsk. These people."
But this reaction only stirred even stronger hostility from Ibril's guards.
"Fine. We'll follow your orders, so don't glare at us like you're going to kill us."
"I'll be watching."
Ibril's parents, who had been showing troubled expressions at the sight of the relatives and knights, finally approached their daughter and asked how she was.
"Our daughter. Are you feeling alright anywhere?"
"I'm doing well, really. Don't worry so much."
"But is it really okay? Getting all this attention if something goes wrong."
"Even if I don't become the Saintess, the Lord said there's no need to worry about what comes after. He said I could become a priest in the Marquis Lawrence domain, or if I wanted, he'd give me work as a vassal."
"R-Really? Well, that's a relief… but don't overexert yourself."
"Hehe."
"We're sorry. Your parents are lacking, so there's nothing we can do to help."
Not everyone who is poor and without money is unhappy.
Indeed, poverty brings more inconveniences than the well-off and more need to mind others' opinions, but these people cherished and embraced each other, and they knew how to be happy even with a single candle lit on a small birthday cake.
At the sight of this poor family worrying more about each other than themselves, the guards' expressions, which had been frowning at the relatives, softened in turn.
"Ah, I came today because I have something to tell you."
"Yes, what is it?"
"The Lord wishes for both of you to come live in the castle. If you want work, he said he'd arrange positions for you within it too."
Working at the castle was essentially the same as becoming a public official.
The salary was high, the tenure long, and the pension generous.
It was the dream job every commoner wished for news that would delight any ordinary person but Ibril's parents did not rejoice.
"I wonder if we're not causing too much trouble. We're already grateful just for how they treat you...."
"That's right. If we receive special treatment, it feels like we're selling you off somehow."
The parents' desire not to burden their daughter was strongly felt.
But at the sight of the two of them overthinking so deeply, Ibril's personal maid and secretary, who had been silently watching until now, stepped forward to speak.
For a Marquis of the vast Kingdom of Rhinehearts, arranging lodging and work for two commoners was hardly a grand affair.
"Ugh, so frustrating. What's there to deliberate? Just say 'thank you' and go along. Right?"
"Exactly. And this isn't just your problem it's a family matter. Don't you know the quality of life changes depending on whether you have connections in the castle?"
But faster than the secretary, two relatives stepped forward.
"Brother, what are you "
"Brother, please stop."
They were Ibril's paternal uncle and maternal uncle.
Anyone listening could tell they were trying to profit off her.
Ibril, who had been trying to forget her relatives' existence, couldn't help but ask.
"But why did the relatives suddenly come visit? They normally act like strangers."
At that, the paternal uncle, who acted as the ringleader among the relatives, stepped forward.
"Your lives have been hard lately, haven't they? So we thought we'd all band together as family and try a business venture. Here's the business proposal."
A relative handing a business proposal to a 15-year-old girl was absurd enough, but the contents of that proposal were equally outrageous.
[A business that cannot fail if we appeal to the fact that it belongs to the family of Saintess candidate Ibril.]
In other words, they had come to her parents to sell her name for a business.
"Dear, don't worry. We have no intention of going along with such a nonsensical plan."
"No, why on earth won't you do it?"
"Whatever we do, we'll do it ourselves. We don't need your help."
"That's right. And don't you dare think about selling our Ibril's name anywhere else. If we find out later, we won't let it slide."
"What's the point of family? Aren't you being too cold to your own siblings?"
Even a third party could see that the relationship between this household and the relatives was not good.
And the reason for that was soon revealed through Ibril's father.
"Four years ago, you saddled us with debt through a guarantee and ran off. And now you show up talking about being cold?"
"We're sorry about that. That's why we're trying to make up for it now."
"If you were sorry, you should have helped when we were drowning in debt. You ran off to another territory and lived well and plenty."
"I'll say it again that wasn't what we wanted. We intended to repay the debt, I tell you. And honestly, you can't put all the blame on me. The guarantee talk was originally your in-law's idea, and it's partly your fault for not checking properly "
"Ha, so it was my fault for trusting my brother, then?"
"No, no. It's my fault. I'm the one most at fault, but still, seeing siblings squabble over money money money doesn't look good either."
Even the listeners' heads throbbed from the sheer nerve of it.
To think that Ibril's family, who lived in poverty but supported each other with encouragement, had relatives like these.
The guards felt an intense urge to kill.
"Just go back home. We don't want to be entangled with you uncles. Just pretend we don't exist like before."
She would have loved to pour out all the curses she held in her heart, but Ibril tried to let things pass peacefully to the end, worried that her actions might disappoint the people around her who had placed their trust in her.
But anyone with common sense and conscience wouldn't have shamelessly shown their faces like this.
"Ibril, you don't talk to your elders like that. Besides, we are the brothers of the parents who gave birth to you."
"Right, you could help us out a little, couldn't you?"
They were people who didn't know what shame was.
Even though they were too afraid of the knights to come close, the sight of them still talking back looked utterly cowardly.
In the end, the guards, unable to contain their anger, placed their hands on their swords.
"What are these parasites full of beggar's blood?"
But then.
A man appeared beside Ibril.
As if color were being painted onto empty air.
The guards were startled, but recognizing who it was, they immediately knelt on one knee and paid their respects.
"Jasmine Trenton, Third Company Captain of the 1st Battalion of the Lawrence Strategic Mobile Knights, greets the Lord."
"Rick Castro, First-Class Knight of the Holy Knights of the Grand Diocese of the Kingdom of Rhinehearts, greets Lord Marquis Lawrence."