Saint Marygold. (2) 3.
—Mary.
She began having the dreams starting the year Marygold turned fifteen. They came infrequently—once a week at the shortest, or every two or three months at the longest.
—We will meet again someday….
Fragments of memory.
His face and voice were blurry, but every time she encountered him in her dreams, Marygold felt herself being pulled into an endless abyss.
Thump. Thump. Her heart pounded. A stifling pain welled up from the depths of her lungs. Her breath grew ragged. Thump. Thump. Thump.
—Marygold… stay… alive….
Thump. Thump. Thump.
“Miss!”
“Eek?”
Marygold jolted awake in surprise.
The chirping of birds filtered in, along with sunlight piercing through her hazy vision. Pina's paws pressing firmly against her cheeks had roused her from sleep.
“Did you forget today’s laundry day? If you don’t go, the priest will scold you again.”
“Oh! Laundry!”
“A sponsor’s coming too. They say he’s a knight, and he’s rich, super rich!”
“Rich? What if he’s another weirdo…”
Marygold’s worries took over. Every time a wealthy sponsor visited the Gu Se Church temple, something strange always happened.
* * *
“This is the prayer room. We hold prayers here every morning.”
Lancel half-listened to the cleric as he scanned the surroundings.
Children’s scribbles marked the walls here and there. The cleric chuckled awkwardly.
“Haha, since we double as an orphanage, it’s a bit messy. They’re hanging laundry right now—why don’t you take a look?”
Check out the kids. The phrasing felt off, but Lancel followed without protest.
Stepping into the garden, long clotheslines sagged under countless white bedsheets billowing in the breeze. Between the swaying white curtains, children bustled about. Lancel spotted Marygold instantly.
She was fumbling to hang laundry with her poor eyesight, but she was managing a full share’s worth, already familiar with the task.
“There’s a blind child here.”
“Orphans come with all sorts of circumstances. We can’t make exceptions for disabilities.”
“I heard she was begging on the streets.”
“Er… you knew? I thought you’d only just arrived in the capital…”
The cleric faltered, then cleared his throat with a ‘ahem!’
“Lately, sponsors have been scarce, so…”
“Knew it.”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing.”
Of course. No way that money was reaching Marygold. He’d seen it in the previous loop, so he’d half-expected this.
“Must be tough running the place.”
“As you see, we desperately need interest from sponsors like you, Sir Lancel.”
Even so, tossing a blind kid onto the streets to beg—what kind of thinking was that? Lancel had never believed in gods, let alone mocked them actively over centuries of loops, so he couldn’t say if the Gu Se Church was exceptionally mercenary or if this was just the norm for obscure sects.
What a tragic fate, Marygold.
Lancel quietly watched her amid the noisy children.
“Mary, guess who poked you.”
“Mary can’t see, so she’ll never guess right.”
Those little shits?
“So, have you decided on your sponsorship?”
“How much to build a temple?”
“Pardon?”
The cleric gaped.
Build a temple, spread the faith, karma drops—that’s the trick, right?
Not certain, but worth a shot.
“I-it’s quite expensive, but that amount…”
The cleric trailed off, implying doubt about his means. Naturally, he had none.
“Don’t worry about the money.”
“Roughly this much.”
“I’ll pay today.”
“R-really?!”
Yeah, just borrow it.
Borrow from Baron Ivil Shen and repay tenfold in ten years with a note backed by House Dante’s credit. Free money, basically.
“Then, when should we hold the ceremony for your sponsorship?”
Ceremony?
Lancel pondered briefly.
“Once the temple’s built.”
“Understood!”
Word of the temple’s completion came after two seasons passed.
Week 2 of January has passed for 16-year-old Marygold!
Charm 42 → 43 UP. Morality 57 → 59 UP. Elegance 31 → 32 UP. Sensibility 58. Sexiness 23. Mana 1. Strength 13 → 14 UP. Stamina 9 → 11 UP. Faith 231 → 229 Down. Condition 41 → 32 Down. Karma 200.
• Worked hard decorating the new temple! Faith, Stamina, Strength UP!
• Tripped while walking. Ankle’s a bit sprained. Condition, Faith Down!
• Learned etiquette from the nuns. Charm, Morality, Elegance UP!
“Hmm.”
Lancel watched it impassively, then thought.
“Karma’s not budging.”
Stuck at 200. Not a twitch.
4.
“Ah, you’ve come, Sir Lancel.”
Lancel met the Gu Se cleric with an even more bored expression.
Now that he knew their doctrines were empty nonsense, there was no point getting attached.
“Thanks to you, we finished the temple and started collecting offerings today. All thanks to you, Sir Lancel.”
“Yeah, sure. Whatever.”
Lancel filed his nails as he replied.
Whatever the reward is, hand it over quick.
This loop was doomed anyway. His conclusion. Just kill time like last round and aim for the next.
“And so… come in.”
“Yes, Priest.”
Lancel’s eyes snapped wide despite his apathy. Marygold was entering, hand in hand with a nun.
Her pure white outfit exposed one shoulder and her side, her braided hair adorned with red and yellow flowers, subtle makeup and a faint perfume wafting—she looked excessively dolled up.
“She seemed to your liking last time, so we prepared her.”
“What… do you mean by that…”
“You sponsored so generously—you should adopt a child.”
“Adopt.”
“Yes, adopt.”
Marygold’s unseeing face was rigid with tension. Adopt. A nineteen-year-old knight adopting a sixteen-year-old girl.
“Won’t God be angry?”
“He’d be delighted. Picking up poor abandoned children, raising them in purity, sending them to good homes—He’d bless that. The new temple would please Him too.”
He must’ve read Lancel’s hesitation as haggling.
“What are you waiting for, Mary? Greet him.”
Mary bowed stiffly, her face frozen. She didn’t even know who stood before her. They’d never properly spoken this loop.
“Greetings, Sponsor.”
Indeed. Commodifying purity. One of the Gu Se Church’s business models.
“Truth be told, no one showed interest despite her stunning looks because she’s blind, but for a fine gentleman like you to come along—what luck…”
Lancel shot up and kicked the cleric square in the chest.
“Urk!”
“Kyaa!”
The cleric and nun crumpled with screams. A shelf toppled, shattering vases. Startled, Marygold groped backward toward the wall.
“Even thief guilds call human trafficking rogue shit… and a so-called priest pimping out kids he picked up? Even a retarded god would send scum like you to hell, asshole.”
“Wh-why are you doing this, S-Sir Lancel…!”
“Shut the temple by tomorrow. I built it with my money—I can take it back, no complaints?”
Right. Baron Ivil Shen’s hard-earned cash—his money—had gone into that temple. No way it’d go to a cult like this.
“N-no such thing exists! The money’s already spent, and not a small sum!”
“Not small, no. Not your money—mine.”
“Fuck this shit!”
The priest scrambled up, spitting curses.
“You knew what you were getting into! Otherwise, you’d have gone to the Pure Martyr Church—why come to a dump like this!”
From the cleric’s view, fair point.
Even Lancel, indifferent to religion, knew “avoid anything below Pure Martyr Church.” The imperial family backed it, after all.
The rest were scraps-eaters bowing to survive: Please don’t kill your cute little siblings.
Gu Se Church included.
“Even next door, nuns do everything for offerings. We’re the tame ones…!”
Everything?
The cleric’s ravings trailed off as sense returned. Lancel had no mercy to spare.
“We’ll demolish the temple. Consider yourself warned.”
“W-wait, y-you’re joking, right, Sir Lancel? We just started proselytizing…”
“Want more proof it’s no joke?”
“Hic…!”
Lancel grabbed Marygold’s hand and stormed out.
“S-Sponsor?”
“Follow me. You can’t stay here.”
“Ow, my arm…!”
“Then I’ll carry you.”
“Pardon? Kyaa!”
He swiftly hoisted the flustered Marygold onto his back.
If I’d done nothing, would she really have been sold off?
No signs in the previous loop.
The Gu Se Church was too pathetic for even self-proclaimed sponsors, and Marygold’s beggar genius had flooded them with silver copies, naturally averting sales. But otherwise? Left alone? She could’ve ended up anywhere. Lancel resolved to prevent at least that.
“Stay here for a while. Hestie, take care of her. Bad eyesight.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
He handed the dazed Marygold to Hestie.
She’d live at Baron Ivil Shen’s mansion.
Yeah. This loop’s toast anyway, so just enjoy the maids’ pampering for the next nine years, leisurely.
* * *
Soon after.
Lancel summoned the thief guild master again. To return the Gu Se temple to nature. Building took time; wrecking was instant.
The issue was.
“Sir Lancel. Even if Gu Se Church is flea-sized, a temple’s a temple. Demolishing it outright… optics matter.”
The guild master, who’d handle anything for coin, rarely voiced concerns.
“What if we raze it and rebuild something else?”
“If the money’s there, best excuse possible. Got a specific faith in mind?”
“No.”
“Then under whose name…”
“Good question.”
Lancel pondered. Where to put it?
Pure Martyr Church? Nah, no favors for the imperial family. Scout minor sects? No guarantee of better.
Small faiths all had their sleazy corners, varying degrees.
The Gu Se cleric’s prostitution line was probably true. Medieval norms.
Lancel didn’t want to waste on another. Baron Ivil Shen’s pockets weren’t bottomless.
“Hmm.”
He reached a simple conclusion.
“Build first, decide later.”
“As you wish.”
. . .
“You bastard.”
“Y-yes?”
Marygold jumped at Lancel’s gruff mutter.
The system window had appeared during their peaceful picnic in the garden.