Translator: Nox

My Husband Was Clearly a Paladin

Chapter 3

Clip-clop, clip-clop.

Inside the tirelessly running carriage, Irene gazed at the Fortress of the Kingdom Alliance visible in the distance.

The place where purifiers and knights gathered to form contracts.

A place she thought she would never have reason to visit again in her life.

‘And yet, here I am, returning.’

Irene let out a bitter smile.

“No, I haven’t returned.”

In this life, it was technically her first visit.

After opening her eyes again, without even knowing how it had happened, Irene had first pleaded with the Count just as she had in the past.

She asked for six months. She promised she would find a pair and earn the money to pay him back.

Just as she remembered, the Count huffed and raged before granting her one first and final chance.

Afterward, Irene had shut herself in her room for an entire day to think.

They say people see their past flash before their eyes before they die, but this was more than just seeing.

She waited all day for the dream to break, for this illusion that supposedly appears before death to end, but it didn't.

Exactly as before, the maids brought her meals as if throwing them at her, and the head butler tossed a bag her way, telling her to prepare to leave.

Witnessing their vivid mockery and contempt, Irene realized.

This was no illusion.

She had truly returned to the past.

‘How?’

She couldn't understand the reason. However, she had a suspicion.

‘Could it be because of this?’

Irene pulled a pitch-black metal fragment, which looked as if it had been snapped in half, out of her pocket.

It was definitely the item she had obtained in the ‘Room of Reward’ in that dungeon right before she died.

The place she had desperately fled into after being gravely wounded by a monster.

The ‘Room of Reward’ at the very end of a dungeon was a place monsters could never enter.

Furthermore, there were boxes of unknown origin inside, and those boxes occasionally contained mysterious items not of this world alongside gold and silver treasures.

Before dying, Irene had opened a rotting wooden box beside her.

It was a box that clearly contained the lowest grade of reward by any standard.

Such boxes usually yielded useless junk—strange feathers, or odd stones.

So when this strange, halved metal fragment appeared, Irene had just accepted it for what it was.

‘I died clutching this.’

And yet, here it was, still held in her hand even after she returned to the past.

Irene stared at the fragment for a moment before putting it back in her pocket. Then she turned her gaze to the paper resting on her lap.

It was a paper where she had written down every bit of information from the past that she could remember.

From the moment she realized she had truly returned to the past, Irene had frantically recorded everything she recalled.

How many dungeons had appeared in high-risk areas, which dungeons had yielded incredible rewards, what powers those items held….

‘I couldn't help but remember.’

Always alone, Irene had grown tired of sitting by herself in her room and had read everything in the Archive, from information on recently formed dungeons to records of past ones.

While she was interested in the dungeons themselves, Irene placed greater importance on the things that came out of them.

A necklace that protected the wearer from any injury by a monster. A gemstone that emitted light on its own. A statue that remained unscathed even in fire.

Those items with mysterious abilities, called artifacts, were the most valuable rewards one could obtain from a dungeon.

Most notably, the necklace worn by the King of Heren Kingdom had the power to slow the wearer's aging. Thanks to that, the eighty-year-old king reportedly still looked to be in his early thirties.

At any rate, an artifact capable of completely changing one's life would sell for an astronomical price.

‘Everyone was shocked when such incredible things occasionally appeared in low-rank dungeons.’

People would lament that if they had known it was there, they would have done anything to get their hands on it.

And now, Irene knew which artifacts appeared in which dungeons.

She didn't just remember the rewards.

She clearly remembered which attributes the monsters in each dungeon possessed, and what they were strong or weak against.

‘So if everything still goes according to my memory….’

Even if she had to enter into a disadvantageous contract, she could produce a result that favored her.

To the point where the 100,000 gold she owed the Count would be nothing.

Irene thought of the Count who used to slap her cheeks.

In the past, he had seemed so massive and terrifying. But this time was different.

Even seeing him scream at her to pay back her ransom only filled her with contempt, not fear.

It wasn't just the Count. The maids who mocked and ridiculed her at the Count's estate, and the butler too.

She used to fear them all, but now they only felt pathetic.

‘Having died once, everything seems so trivial.’

Just then, the coachman shouted abruptly.

“Hey! We’ve arrived at the fortress! Get ready to get off!”

In the past, she would have flinched in surprise at that voice, but not anymore.

Irene calmly put the paper in her bag and placed the luggage she brought from the Count's estate on the seat beside her.

Composing herself as she smoothed her appearance, Irene looked up.

‘My life was a failure once.’

And a miracle had occurred, giving her a chance to start over.

‘So I can't live like a fool again.’

There were things she had learned while observing over the past week.

Major events she remembered would happen the same way.

But some things could change.

For instance, when she demanded proper food from the chef who had given her nothing but hard bread in her previous life, citing that she had to go sign a contract, he flinched and provided well-cooked soup and soft bread.

In her previous life, she had received clothes that were little more than rags, but this time, using the contract as an excuse, she received proper attire.

It was entirely possible to bring about different results from the past depending on her choices.

‘In that case….’

Gazing at the approaching fortress, she made a vow.

The very first mistake she had to correct in this life.

That was….

‘I will not pair up with Michael.’

Irene still vividly remembered the way he had looked at her.

The shock and confusion that spread across his face when he realized he had slept with her. And even the shame and despair.

She thought it was a natural reaction.

She felt no resentment toward him for showing his contempt so openly.

Even if it was to save his life, his convictions had been completely shattered.

‘If I had been a strong purifier, he wouldn't have ended up like that.’

If Princess Cecilia, known as the strongest purifier of this century, had been Michael's pair, she might have been able to save him just by holding his hand.

If that had happened, he wouldn't have been excommunicated from the Temple.

Irene recalled her wrong choice that had left nothing but scars on everyone in the past.

‘I cannot repeat the mistake.’

Therefore, in this life, she would find a different pair, not him.

No matter what.

*

The high-risk area where dungeons appeared. The fortress built in front of it was called a fortress, but it was practically no different from a massive city.

‘With all the money earned from dungeons, it's only natural.’

The gold, silver, treasures, and artifacts obtainable from the Room of Reward at the end of a dungeon.

Each kingdom was desperate to obtain them. Thus, they provided maximum convenience and luxury to the knights and purifiers who entered the dungeons.

‘Though that doesn't apply to a bottom-rank purifier like me.’

Irene stood in a corner, watching the purifiers and knights who were already greeting each other and looking for pairs.

A "pair" referred to a purifier and a knight who had agreed to a contract. Once a pair was formed, the purifier would only treat that specific knight.

The knight, likewise, would receive treatment only from their paired purifier and no one else.

The reason was unknown, but the efficiency of the treatment increased significantly when dealing only with a contracted pair.

Of course, even so, the sight of unmarried people sleeping together every time couldn't exactly look good.

So the Kingdom Alliance gave the relationship the name ‘pair’ and recognized it as a temporary marital status.

It was just playing with words, but they seemed to want to save face that way.

Unlike in her previous life, Irene surveyed the opulent space calmly before turning her gaze to the knights.

‘It feels strange to see people who were dead again.’

Then she let out a small chuckle.

Wasn't she herself someone who had already died once?

Irene touched the metal fragment in her pocket. In this life, she felt she should investigate its true identity as well.

Then, a certain knight caught Irene's eye.

A man laughing and chatting flippantly with his fellow knights.

‘He may look like that, but his skills were decent.’

Moreover, because he cherished his own body excessively, he was a knight who never entered dungeons he deemed difficult.

He was also someone who had survived until the very end.

He had approached Irene several times in the past.

“Honestly, I'm regretting it a bit. If it were someone like you, I think I could have just given up on dungeon subjugation for a year and enjoyed myself.”

He had expressed regret, saying that if she hadn't been Michael's pair, he could have paired up with her himself.

‘Someone who would accept even a bottom-rank purifier because of his lust. Yet someone with a certain level of skill.’

Those were the conditions for the pair Irene wanted right now. And the man before her was someone who satisfied those conditions.

‘Honestly… anyone but Michael.’

Irene approached the knight. At her approach, he scanned her from head to toe with his eyes and licked his lips with his tongue.

Irene actually felt relieved by the man's blatant behavior.

If it was someone with such clear desires, she would rather be at ease. They would only calculate what to give and what to receive, with no emotions involved.

“Could you sign a contract with me?”

“You… from what I know, you're definitely a bottom-rank purifier.”

“Yes. That’s why I’m planning to concede a lot on the terms of the contract. You may have all the rewards from the dungeons. However, once a month, you must give me just one reward from a low-rank dungeon.”

At those words, the knight's eyes flashed.

The proposal Irene offered was truly unconventional.

Usually, purifiers demanded a 5:5 split in the contract.

Knights weren't pleased with those terms, but they had no choice.

Without a purifier, they wouldn't even get the qualification to enter, and if they offended a purifier, they might not receive proper treatment.

But to have someone offer terms that were practically for free on their own.

‘Besides, low-rank dungeons are easy to conquer, and the rewards are usually just trash.’

No matter how he thought about it, it was a favorable condition for him.

“Really? Is that enough?”

“Yes. In exchange, I will designate which dungeon the reward I receive comes from. There are no other conditions.”

“Hmm.”

The knight looked at Irene and calculated quickly in his head.

She had been in the corner, but she was a woman who had caught his eye from the start.

Her tall stature and slender body, a figure that was voluptuous in all the right places. And a calm, neat face that made one want to make her cry.

If she hadn't been bottom-rank, knights would have flocked to her.

“Fine.”

The knight reached out his hand to Irene.

“Then, I’d like to receive purification right away.”

Irene swallowed a small sigh at the gaze that blatantly revealed his desire.

Suddenly, she thought of the past. Of Michael, who had wanted nothing from her.

And of the past that was even more miserable because of it.

‘Rather, this is better.’

If what they wanted and what they gave each other was clear, at least she wouldn't suffer from the guilt of having ruined someone.

Just as Irene was about to take the knight's hand.

BANG!

The doors to the banquet hall burst open with a loud noise.

A man could be seen entering the banquet hall, drenched in bright red blood.

Irene's eyes widened in surprise.

The man who entered in such a horrific state was… Michael.