"A strange noise led me here, and I found the guy who should be locked up rummaging through things! He said we had to hurry up and find the remaining money and run away!"
The truth was, I was on a stakeout. But since Seth had just arrived and didn't know that, I brazenly lied.
"Now that you mention it, I did hear about an embezzlement case earlier today..."
Luckily, it seemed Seth had been briefed about what happened during the day, because he gave Kento a cold, scrutinizing look.
With wounds all over and his disheveled appearance, it was obvious he'd escaped after rolling around in some rough place.
"I also saw him take some kind of pouch out from under the counter!"
With solid physical evidence and a witness, there was no way Kento could wriggle out of this one.
I never imagined that the habits I picked up as a detective would come in handy after being possessed.
"I see. He kept fidgeting, so I thought he was trying to draw a weapon. But he was trying to hide something, wasn't he? If you don't want to die, drop what you're holding right now."
As expected of a swordmaster, Seth saw right through Kento's clumsy movements and aimed his sword at him.
Unlike me, who had the help of AI, Kento had to face Seth's killing intent with his own body — his face turned pale.
"C-Captain! This is a misunderstanding. Don't be fooled by what that woman says! She's…!"
Kento's eyes quickly scanned me.
It was clear he was planning to reveal that I was a fake saintess to the unsuspecting Seth in hopes of getting out of this situation.
Like I'd just stand by and watch that happen.
"Oh! Now that I think of it, he said the next place after the counter was the drawer!"
Cutting Kento off mid-sentence, I abruptly opened the drawer next to me filled with cutlery.
Lifting up the double-layered bottom of the drawer, just as I expected, another money pouch appeared.
"How… How did you know that…?!"
I held the pouch high, and Kento looked horrified.
He had only searched under the counter and hadn't touched the drawers, so his reaction made sense.
He must've been totally thrown off — a clueless, foolish fake saintess was now exposing the embezzled funds with precision, slapping him from every direction.
"Considering the money we found earlier was in a different location, there's probably more hidden elsewhere too."
There definitely was more. I just didn't remember where else.
That's why I had to interrogate Kento and make him spill everything.
"Confess all the locations. I could kill you right here and mobilize the entire temple to find them anyway. The choice is yours."
At Seth's firm voice, Kento sank into despair.
Now he wouldn't dare say a word about my true identity.
With the overwhelming evidence at hand, if he did, Seth would only get angrier, thinking Kento was falsely accusing me.
"I-I'll tell you everything…"
Eventually, Kento dropped to his knees and began to confess the rest, tears streaming down his face.
Wow, how did he manage to hide things so well in such a small kitchen? What a waste of talent on embezzlement.
"To think we trusted someone like this with important food preparation…"
In the end, a total of seven pouches were recovered.
He'd hidden them so thoroughly it was honestly creepy.
Seth looked visibly shaken too, seeing the endless stream of pouches — his expression stunned.
His clenched fists were tight enough for veins to pop — Kento was in for a very rough time.
Seth then summoned the paladins and ordered them to imprison Kento in the deepest dungeon.
He also instructed them to increase security to prevent another escape and to allow no one but himself and High Priest Ayric near him.
The paladins were shocked that Kento had escaped from where he'd already been confined, and even more surprised to learn he had hidden more money. Without delay, they dragged him away.
Worried that the paladins might have a fit if they saw me in the middle of the night, I had hidden myself in a corner, covering my conspicuous hair and face. Only after everyone had left did I quietly emerge again.
Seth bowed his head to me.
"Thanks to you, we were able to capture him. If it weren't for you, we would have lost both the money and the embezzler. Truly, thank you."
No, really, there was no need to bow that deeply.
"As a saintess, it's only natural that I help catch criminals."
"…Excuse me?"
Huh? What's with that shocked expression?
He looked even more surprised than when he found out the trusted head chef had been embezzling.
"Excuse me? What did you just say… Did you say you're the saintess?"
"…?"
Wait… don't tell me he didn't know I was the saintess?
Even if Seth was frequently away on missions and rarely at the Grand Temple, there was no way he wouldn't at least know Ordell, the saintess.
Sure, I wasn't wearing my usual saintess robes since I'd been on a stakeout in plain clothes, but it was still strange that someone as sharp-eyed as him wouldn't recognize me just because my outfit had changed.
Besides, Ordell never really wore the saintess robes much anyway.
So why didn't he recognize me?
"Captain!"
At that moment, someone burst awkwardly into the kitchen, where silence had settled.
It was High Priest Ayric, who had rushed over after receiving the paladins' report.
"I heard the head chef escaped and that more embezzled funds were found. What in the world…?"
Ayric, who was asking in confusion, spotted me and widened his eyes.
"Saintess? Why are you here…?"
"Are you really the saintess…?"
Seriously? You really didn't know?
"I didn't think you wouldn't recognize me, Captain."
"M-my deepest apologies."
Seth quickly lowered his head again. He still seemed too dazed to think straight, so I turned to Ayric instead.
"The truth is, I knew Kento might sneak back in here after escaping. I was waiting to catch him."
"What? You knew?"
Ayric's eyes grew even wider. Seth, too, looked stunned.
I guess they were extra shocked since I'd acted like I discovered everything by chance earlier in front of Kento.
I decided to tell them the truth.
"Kento isn't just an embezzler. He's a spy my father, Count Kiris, planted in the Grand Temple."
"…What?"
Both of them were horrified. So they really had never suspected it.
"I found out recently when I returned home. I happened to overhear a conversation between my father and his aide about Kento."
Of course, I couldn't say it was something I learned from the original story, so I made up a plausible explanation.
And it was true that Count Kiris had planted Kento in the temple.
"To think someone who always showed me such strict discipline in public was doing such filthy things in secret… I was really shocked."
I trembled as if I'd been deeply betrayed.
"To be honest, I struggled with it for a long time. Should I tell the temple the truth, or protect my father's secret?"
"…But in the end, you exposed Kento's corruption," Ayric said quietly.
I nodded.
"When I returned to the Grand Temple knowing everything, I started to see things I hadn't noticed before. The thoughtless luxury I had indulged in, unaware that my father was siphoning off funds… the temple growing poorer because of it… and the children who suffered as a result."
I embellished the details a bit, but the part about wanting to run away and then changing my mind because I couldn't stop thinking about the children—that part was true.
Right now, I'm the only one who can actually solve the temple's problems. How could I just run away?
"I was blinded and committed things I shouldn't have. I sincerely apologize to both of you."
I bowed my head in front of them. Even if those wrongdoings weren't mine, apologies were necessary.
I needed to win their trust if I wanted to rebuild the temple in peace going forward.
"I want to apologize to everyone else too for what I've done. And from now on, I swear that I'll put the Grand Temple before my family."
"But… why…?"
Seth, who had just arrived and didn't know anything, was fidgeting in confusion.
In contrast, Ayric wore a grave expression as he asked me:
"Are you saying… Count Kiris truly ordered all of this?"
"I swear on the name of the Divine that it's the truth."
In this world, where the gods are real, swearing on their name is the highest form of truth. Lying while invoking it could invite divine punishment.
"In that case… why didn't you tell us sooner? Why did you try to catch the chef on your own, knowing he would return here? Why didn't you tell me?"
Ayric's voice was heavy with suspicion.
I simply shrugged and replied:
"Because without proof, I knew you wouldn't believe me. That's why I waited until I had undeniable evidence before telling you."
That was also why I didn't mention during the day that Kento was Count Kiris's spy.
If I seemed to know too much about the location of the embezzled money, it would be harder to trust me.
They might even suspect I was in on it with Kento. That's why I waited until he escaped and returned here alone to retrieve the money.
Seth showing up was an unexpected variable, but in the end, we caught Kento red-handed while he was searching for the money, so the plan worked.
Ah… that satisfaction of catching a criminal exactly according to plan. Nothing quite like it.
"You thought… I wouldn't believe you," Ayric said quietly.
Of course. I'm a fake saintess and the daughter of the very man who orchestrated this embezzlement. And now I was the one exposing him?
Like anyone would believe that.
Especially considering all the trouble I'd caused at the temple not too long ago.
"I did get help from the Captain unexpectedly, but since we caught Kento like this, I hope you'll believe in me a little now."
I gave Ayric a gentle smile.
Of course, I knew this one incident wouldn't be enough to earn full trust.
But as long as they didn't stand in the way of my efforts to make money for the temple moving forward, that would be enough for now.
Trust is something you build over time, after all.