I Gave Up on Conquering the Heroines – Chapter 4

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Have we arrived?”

Hameln, the capital of the Holy Kingdom, reached after traveling all night. The sight of that huge planned city was…

“There’s nothing here.”

It was a barren wasteland itself. All that existed were large roads and housing plots. The rest were desolate empty lots or construction sites.

It was only natural.

Hameln was still in the preparation stage for the official capital relocation.

Once the major buildings were completed one after another, a large-scale migration would begin with the clergy and government officials, and the capital relocation would progress in earnest.

Of course, it would take a long time for Hameln to fully take on the appearance of a real capital.

“Even being a Saintess is an extreme job.”

And the Saintess, Jill Diner, was here with a position akin to overseeing the construction of such Hameln.

Her main duties included casting buffs on construction site workers, monitoring subcontractors to see if they were slacking off, performing consecration ceremonies on completed buildings, and so on.

Originally, it was a job that required hundreds of priests to be deployed, but Saintess Jill was shouldering it alone.

Although it was called the next capital, the influx of many foreign workers at the moment made the public security unstable.

In such a situation, Saintess Jill Diner felt her safety threatened and decided to select a bodyguard knight. That was the bodyguard knight selection tournament happening in a month.

Why was there still a whole month left? That’s because I skipped the early game hunting ground, the Adventurers’ Guild.

The standard progression method was to complete quests there, hunt monsters, and gain experience points… But I had no confidence in suppressing my anger while rubbing shoulders with those adventurer bastards, so I ended up running away.

‘The question is what to do for 4 weeks.’

Thanks to that, I had a lot of spare time. 4 weeks in Hameln, the Holy Kingdom’s next capital in the midst of city construction. It was precious time. I couldn’t waste it thoughtlessly.

“Argh! My back!”

“A young guy already not having strength like that. Tsk tsk.”

It was hard. It was tough. I was dying. Day 3 of manual labor.

I had already reached the point of seeing hallucinations of Blin, who went ahead with afterimages flashing by, gesturing for me to come this way. So why was I doing this here?

Day laborers earned an enormous daily wage at Hameln’s construction sites where manpower was scarce.

Enough to not envy the salary of high-skilled technicians in other cities. Why the rush for money when I had a whole 3000 gold? There were many things to buy. Expensive things at that.

“Hey! Yoo-jin, was it? Come over here for a bit! You should see how mana bomb blasting is done too!”

“Sigh, a guy who’ll run away in a few days anyway, what’s the point of teaching him that?”

“I can tell by looking at the kid’s eyes! He’s a tough one! I bet he won’t run away until the city is completed!”

“I’ll be right there, boss! I really want to see the blasting work!”

The time had come. I absolutely had to learn how to handle mana bombs. Because I would be using them myself in a few weeks.

Mana bombs, small, lightweight, easy to store, and with enormous explosive power, were fetching a high price of 1000 gold each on the black market. Now I had to buy at least 8 of those. I wondered if my back could handle it.

“Alright! Everyone rested a lot, right? Shall we start again with energy?”

“Boss! Are you joking? We’ve been doing gold plating since dawn, inhaling chemical fumes and feeling totally out of it! And you want us to do concrete work in the afternoon?”

“The schedule is tight. But the bonus is huge in return! Today’s hourly wage is triple! Everyone was ecstatic smelling the money and came to work, and now you’re complaining?”

“Even so, this is too much! Are you trying to kill us all? Who loses out if we all collapse trying to meet the schedule? Isn’t it the boss’s job to persuade the higher-ups, not anything else?”

“But if you could just put in a bit more effort…”

“Argh! I can’t take this anymore! I’m lying down! Try finishing the gold plating without me if you can!”

“These guys…”

Week 2 of hard labor. The atmosphere at the construction site was somehow unsettling.

The foreign uncle, seasoned in all sorts of manual labor skills, declared a strike and lay down, and the foreman looked down at him, grinding his teeth as if displeased.

The foreman was quite docile usually, but when angered, he would push anything aside at once. He would probably force the work to proceed, even by coercion.

At this rate, a physical clash might occur.

Everyone seemed to have the same thought, and a brutal air hung between the management and workers at that moment.

“…?”

A fancy carriage, out of place at a construction site, came to a stop.

The management who were drawing their swords in preparation to suppress the riot and the workers who were picking up tools all froze on the spot.

Soon the carriage door opened and plain shoes stepped out onto the footboard.

At the sight of the blonde girl who revealed herself with a bowed head, everyone without exception opened their mouths and lost their minds.

‘Wow. Crazy. So freaking pretty.’

Of course, that included me.

I had seen Jill Diner’s illustrations and cut scenes so many times I was sick of it.

So I thought I wouldn’t react in a rustic way like an extra.

But crushed by Jill’s destructive beauty seeping through her plain clothes, I ended up at a loss for words.

A smile that looked kind no matter who saw it, and modest behavior to boot. I fell for her all over again.

‘I didn’t expect to run into her here.’

In the game, the first encounter with the Saintess was at the selection tournament event. Meeting here wasn’t part of the plan.

Come to think of it, they said the Saintess was going around encouraging the workers at each construction site.

Since she didn’t come to our team for a long time, I thought she had already passed by before I joined.

I never expected her to show up so suddenly like this.

“Hello, everyone. Thank you for your hard work, working until late afternoon like this. Judging by your complexions, you all seem very tired.”

“Not at all! We’re feeling very energetic with you here, Saintess!”

“Hohoho. That’s a relief.

I prepared dinner so you can gain even more strength.

How about everyone fills their stomachs heartily, rests for a bit, and then resumes work?”

“Sounds good!”

“After the meal, I will bestow blessings so you can recover your stamina.”

“Woooow!!!!”

What was I witnessing?

The guys who were speaking in half-dead voices until just now were regaining vitality like soldiers in a unit where a girl group came to perform.

To the point I thought blessings might not even be necessary.

Food carts soon arrived one after another, wafting appetizing aromas.

The smell of real food, not the shitty potatoes and cucumbers we ate every day at the construction site.

No matter how much money you had, there were no restaurants here, so we couldn’t eat proper meals, but if we smelled this…

“Ah. Brings tears to my eyes.”

I suddenly choked up. So this was how everyone became fervent believers. It was so moving, the thought of how to join the Holy Church fleetingly crossed my mind.

Even I felt this way after being here for 2 weeks now, so I couldn’t even imagine how the other workers felt.

“Thank you so much, Saintess. The atmosphere was a bit hostile for a moment. Hahaha.”

“Not at all. We should be sorry for pushing an unreasonable schedule.”

“Why are you apologizing, Saintess! It’s a well-known fact that you run around until your feet wear out for our sake!”

What a fuss. The Saintess wasn’t running around diligently for your sake. It was to be promoted and marry me.

Right now, I might just be laborer #1 who didn’t even catch Jill’s eye, but the situation would change drastically next week when the bodyguard knight selection tournament began.

I smiled, full of superiority, as I slurped the pasta I was eating for the first time in a while.

Ah damn. Why was it so delicious…

‘Jill Diner, she’s too much of a catch? I wonder if the other heroines can even compare?’

I didn’t know when I saw it in the game, but experiencing it firsthand, Jill Diner’s true ability was overwhelming.

Dazzling beauty that shone without any extra adornment, a true heart bursting out of her clothes, kindness that looked after even commoners, and even frugality that didn’t indulge in extravagance.

She did have a bit of paranoia, but such trivial flaws were of no importance.

No, even her paranoia stemmed from infinite love to trust her husband. Hah. She essentially had no flaws? She was perfect, just perfect. Compared to Jill, the gloomy Yulia or the clingy girl Yerina who acted burdensome all the time only appeared shabby.

I was worried what I’d do if I was disappointed when I met them later. If I showed my disappointment outwardly, conquering them would become harder too. It was a big concern.

“May I look around the construction site for a bit?”

“Oh my, of course. I’ll accompany you.”

“No, it’s okay. Please rest. I’m just looking around up ahead.”

“I’ll just watch over you if it’s inconvenient.”

“It’s not that it’s inconvenient…”

Was she not forgetting her inspection duties to see if the construction was going well? Even having a strong sense of responsibility. As Jill’s perfection was being added in real-time.

While slurping pasta and sneaking glances at the Saintess, something flashed across my mind.

‘Ah shit. The holes those morons dug while slacking off.’

There were a few holes that the guys resting in between dug meaninglessly while pretending to work whenever they were told to come work. And they had to fill them back in, but most were just covered with leaves and soil sprinkled on top to camouflage because they were too lazy.

The perfect trap, practically.

They thought no one would fall in anyway since it didn’t overlap with the work route, so they just left it.

But the Saintess, who I hadn’t considered at all, was walking that way. It was dangerous.

“Oh fuck! What are you doing, rookie?”

“Wh-wh-what’s wrong?”

“The rookie went crazy and is trying to jump the Saintess!”

I flipped the desk and jumped to my feet. Then I accelerated quickly and headed straight toward the Saintess.

Of course, I thought Guardian Knight would activate, but that damn trait was still nowhere to be seen.

The moment I grabbed the wrist of the Saintess, who was stepping forward without knowing why, and pulled her back.

“Kyaak?!”

The ground Jill had stepped on collapsed. Had I been a little late, she would have toppled forward and gotten seriously hurt.

“Are you okay, Saintess?”

Because I pulled her back, Jill fell on top of me.

As I sighed in relief and checked Jill’s complexion,

“Eek. Dirty. Commoner stench.”

“…?”

I witnessed it. Jill’s expression twisting up.

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