Chapter 3
The Retired Saintess Raises House Prices Episode 3
Episode 3
No matter that it's the national religion, to treat someone this poorly just for not believing in God? Ridiculous.
Eh, no way. It's because this is the city with the Temple.
Everyone seems a bit sensitive.
I ignored people's stares as best I could, clutching my growling stomach, and kept walking.
Maybe in a neighborhood farther from the Temple, things would be better.
But it was my misconception.
Unless the whole country had been steeped in a cult, why would this happen? Apparently God really had steeped it.
I got doused with filthy washbasin water and pelted with flying stones.
In just half a day.
Even when I sat under a quiet bridge to rest, I got chased off by gypsies.
“Get lost! Fall into hell, you bitch!”
Now I finally understood that old saintess's words.
[You can never return here again. Even if you kneel and beg, they won't accept you. You won't be able to step foot on Temple grounds. Is that okay?]
It meant the outside world was so harsh you'd want to kneel and beg just to come back.
“No, you should've warned me what happens after leaving. I wouldn't have strolled out empty-handed like this……”
But regretting it now was pointless.
Even trying to sit at a street corner for a break, people flung open windows to curse and chuck trash; chased from under bridges where homeless gathered, nowhere to go.
The farther to the city outskirts, the shorter the buildings got, the walls more monotonous.
How many hours did I walk…….
Forget food, I just wanted to sit.
If I could rest even a little.
Then, like magic, a house ‘appeared’ before my eyes.
It was a situation I could only describe as truly ‘appearing.’
Shops doing fine business slammed doors and shutters when I passed, but the moment I entered this alley, everything brightened up.
This mansion was unnaturally lavish and beautiful.
Even late at night, lanterns lit everywhere as if awaiting someone, sparkling orange; the deep green walls looked sturdy without a single crack.
Drawn by something, I walked right up to the house.
On both sides of the mansion, pitch-black empty lots like entire buildings had been carved out.
“Trying to jack up house prices with some real estate holdout?”
Thinking the whole alley was up for redevelopment but this owner stubbornly refusing to sell—a very Korean real estate mindset—I stepped onto the property.
The instant my foot touched down, a chill wind licked my neck.
Cool.
The air felt frozen still.
Temperature cool, yet strangely no wind, no sounds at all.
The presence of people who'd spent hours cursing my neck—demon bitch, go to hell, God-betrayer—vanished in an instant.
As if the mansion and I were the only things left in the world.
The lawn and trees in the garden neatly trimmed showed the owner cared deeply for the place.
Hoping for a spot in the shed at least, I knocked on the black door.
“Hello? Anyone home?”
Knocked and called for the owner, but no reply.
Then the door creaked open.
But beyond the open door, no one was there.
I shouted toward whoever opened it.
“Can I come in? Just want to crash one night. I'm not weird or a thief!”
Yelled loud, still no answer.
“No one's home?”
My sense of ‘don't enter without permission’ battled fiercely with my ‘cold and starving’ self.
“Are you sleeping?! No, sleeping with lights this bright? Oil bill's gonna be insane. Got the fire going too! Must like it bright!”
Yelled at the top of my lungs, but no one emerged.
The grand fireplace in the living room blazed, casting flickering light through the house.
It looked like a beckoning hand urging me closer.
A few minutes of my frozen body melting in the warm air, and survival instinct won over morals.
“I'm coming in! I asked a bunch of times! Really entering now!”
After yelling for confirmation again, I cautiously stepped inside.
That instant.
Creak.
Thud.
The door shut behind me.
I hadn't touched it.
Just in case, I tried opening it again. Knob a bit stiff, but it opened.
Must've been the wind.
Weather's been so cold today.
After walking all day, my brain refused to turn anymore.
“Even if this is an abandoned ruin, I'm sleeping here tonight.”
I collapsed face-first onto the sofa by the fireplace.
“Mr. Homeowner, really sorry. I'll clean up when I wake. Just one night, please. Can't let a former saintess starve to death, right?”
I mumbled to the silent owner, then passed out.
And woke late.
The fire had nearly died, but warm sunlight through the window kept it from feeling cold.
“Aaaah!”
Stretched luxuriously, then bolted up from the sofa and scanned around—no sign of anyone.
“Morning and still no one? Slept great, I'm off!”
Better this way.
Judging by the city's reactions, running into the owner wouldn't end well.
Too exhausted last night to barge in blindly, but better to slip out before getting caught.
I tidied my sleeping spot and quietly exited the mansion.
But for some reason, a crowd across the alley stood staring at me.
As if they'd been waiting for me to emerge.
Unlike yesterday, no one avoided my eyes.
The weird part: they all gawked in sheer horror.
Their stares too intense, I pointed at the mansion with an excuse.
“……No, I, uh, asked the owner and wanted to impose, but no one was home……”
But the crowd seemed uninterested in my excuse.
They just chattered wildly among themselves, gasped in shock, stared at me, at the mansion, then shocked again on repeat.
What do they want from me.
As I tried to walk past the gawkers, someone called out.
“Hey.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you. Slept in there?”
“Yeah, so?”
“N-no weird stuff? Dragging noises, hallucinations…… or pain, nightmares……”
“Nothing.”
I shrugged.
The crowd eyed each other, the mansion, then me, still looking stunned.
“What, haunted or something?”
Half-joking, but no one laughed.
Not even a chuckle—no response at all.
Now it was almost laughable.
I'd clocked the cult vibes from the God worship, but a whole neighborhood dodging a haunted house? This world was way too occult-friendly.
