episode_0027

*(7/27) The female mercenary’s speech in the previous episode has been corrected.

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“Priest.”

“Yes?”

I was on my way to the store after leaving the guild and asking the knight who helped me to buy me dinner.

He suddenly told me something unexpected in a small voice.

“Someone is following you. Don’t turn your head and keep walking as calmly as possible.”

“!!”

Who is following us?

“Why?”

“Yes?”

“Why are you following me?”

“… That might not be a very good thing.”

So I guess it meant that I should follow him quietly.

I also had no intention of dying on the street, so I followed closely behind the driver.

“Are we going to have a fight?”

“Now let’s check. For what purpose are you following us?”

The knight told them to follow him carefully, saying that his pace would quicken from now on, and then ran into the chaotic crowd.

I followed him diligently because I felt that I would be in big trouble if I missed the article.

He must have thought he might lose me, because he grabbed my collar and opened up the front for me to walk comfortably.

After making my way through the crowd like that.

“It’s right that you’re following us.”

The knight carefully checked the back and said.

Someone who started following me in the guild.

I couldn’t help but be worried.

I tried not to be prejudiced against the mercenary profession, but it was common knowledge that their people were rough.

“You’re following me because you have business with me, right?”

“You don’t have to worry about it. It’s probably a mean and dirty thing for you, priest.”

Priests get their evaluation points lowered if they don’t maintain their dignity, but it seems like knights don’t have that kind of thing.

When I was starting to feel a little bit of irrationality towards priests.

Srrrrung-

Suddenly, there were no more people around, and a wide open space that seemed perfect for a fight was revealed.

There, the knight who sent me back drew his sword.

“Come out.”

“… … .”

Even though I’m not a party to it, my heart is pounding and my body feels like it’s shrinking.

I’m sure it would be fun to watch, even if the party being threatened wasn’t the one doing it!

A while after the knight finished speaking.

A human shadow was seen.

And soon after, the figure who had been following us spoke without revealing himself completely.

“You don’t have to be so cautious. I’m not chasing you to fight.”

female?

“It doesn’t matter what your intentions were. Since you followed the priest, you deserve to be punished for it.”

When I saw the knight who seemed ready to kill someone for following him, I thought he was both dependable and crazy.

Of course, you can say that in words and actually just give them a proper scolding and send them on their way.

But for a paladin to say this, it’s overly hostile.

‘Is it really not there? An evaluation to maintain dignity?’

Were only our priests struggling and living?

“I have no business with you either. I have business with the priest.”

“… … .”

I don’t want to know what’s going on.

If I listen to that story, won’t I get involved in something incredibly complicated?

The figure who had been hiding in the shadows finally came into the sunlight.

As I was still hesitating after hearing the voice, the female mercenary I had seen at the guild earlier was standing in front of us.

“Why me…?”

I remember that person was the first to speak to me at the mercenary guild.

“I came here because I have something to say.”

“There’s no need to mix things up.”

The knight stopped him, telling him not to mix with the mercenaries.

Then the mercenary, who was becoming anxious, said:

“I didn’t come here to harm you, priest. I came here to ask you a favor.”

You want me to save you?

The mercenary suddenly knelt on the ground, as if he wanted to assert his innocence.

“No, why are you suddenly like this… .”

“My brother needs treatment.”

Your family is sick?

“Bring me to the temple. I will heal you.”

All I had to do was come to the temple, so I wondered why they were doing that to me.

The female mercenary bit her lips tightly at my words, hesitated, and then spoke.

“… I made a mistake and can’t enter the temple. So if I go to the temple, I can’t get treatment.”

“Huh? You mean you can’t enter the temple?”

Anyone who believes in the sun god can enter the temple, regardless of nationality.

However, there was one being who could not enter the temple.

“Yeah, I did something crazy. That’s why I got blacklisted.”

What the hell did you do to be blacklisted from the temple?

‘That’s not something just anyone can do.’

Maybe it would have been right to listen to the knight and ignore him.

But when I heard that he couldn’t enter the temple because he wasn’t sick himself, but his younger sibling was, I felt sorry for him.

I think it’s understandable that the person in question can’t receive treatment, but I think it’s a bit harsh to blacklist a family member and prevent all of their family members from receiving treatment.

‘Besides, there is no official blacklist, and there is no rule that says their families cannot receive treatment.’

The problem is that the blacklist exists and no priest will accept it.

Even their families.

If you give it wrong and get criticized by your superiors, wouldn’t it be a big problem?

So it made sense why the mercenary was making such a desperate request.

“Can’t you just let me have a look? It’s not like I’m getting treatment, it’s just because my family is sick. Our Anna didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just her fault for having the wrong older sister!!”

It is heartbreaking to see the mercenary cry out that his younger brother cannot receive treatment because of him.

But the rules of the temple are strict.

It wasn’t any different for me.

The female mercenary said, becoming impatient as I did not answer.

“I’m sorry for being rude to you in the guild. I thought you were just like any other priest. But you weren’t. You tried to heal them even after they passed out while fighting each other. Can’t you show them the same compassion for our Ena?”

I wondered why the way he treated me at first was different from how he treated me now… .

I think it was my attempt to heal the mercenary who fell during the fight that made him move.

“This is something I worked really hard to collect. I’ll give you all of it. Can you just look at it this once?”

“… … .”

He takes out a heavy-looking pouch of money from his bosom.

Unfortunately, I’ve been paid much more than that purse.

I turned my head to look at the knight at the mercenary’s earnest request.

The knight said, perhaps taking my gaze as a signal.

“You are responsible for what you did. If I see you approaching the priest personally again, I will kill you and punish you.”

“Priest, please!!! I have sinned, but I believe in the sun god!! I swear to the sun god and follow him, so why can’t I be cured!”

“Don’t come near!”

The knight finally swung the sword he had drawn.

The mercenary did not dodge the sword.

“Ugh!”

Chook-!

Instead, he put his own body to the sword.

His right shoulder was cut, his clothes were torn, and blood flowed out.

But the mercenary continued to cling to me with glaring eyes, seemingly not even afraid of the sword.

“You’d rather kill me. Then, since my blacklisted family is gone, you’ll accept me, right? If you just swear to the sun god, I won’t feel wronged even if I die here.”

“Please save your life. If your brother heard those words, he would have been very sad. And there is no priest who will cure you at the cost of his life. So go back. I cannot cure you upon receiving such a request.”

“If you won’t even take my life, what the hell am I supposed to do!!! Anna is dying! She can’t get treatment because of me!!”

“I’m sorry.”

I told him to go back to the knight.

“The wound must be bad, so apply some medicine. Don’t leave it alone.”

After finishing what I could say to the mercenary, I turned around.

“Go back, sir.”

“Yes.”

The knight also refused the request, so he no longer threatened the mercenary.

“Please… I’m begging you like this. I’m asking you to spare someone’s life!! And you’re still a priest?!!! Aaaah!!”

The mercenary’s screaming voice lingered in my ears.

I asked the knight a question.

“Do you know that woman?”

“… I once tried to sneak into the temple and cure my brother. I stole someone else’s identity.”

“It seems like he tried everything desperately.”

“It seems that he had already tried to receive treatment in a similar way at other temples. He is a bad person, so don’t get close to him. It would be better not to pay attention to what you heard today. He is a person who will do no good to get involved with.”

“Yes, I will.”

If that’s the case, sir, then isn’t that so?

I quietly replied that I understood and hurriedly walked away.

◎ ◎ ◎

Dark night.

The basic pattern for mercenaries was to go to the guild in the morning to look for work, and then end the day by going to a bar at night to drink.

Coarse swearing, giggling laughter, and even the smell of vomit and sour puke.

It was a bar scene that would be familiar to mercenaries.

But it was also a sight he hadn’t seen in a long time as he was taking care of his sick younger sibling.

I always used it after work to take care of my sick younger sibling.

“Fuck.”

But today, I couldn’t go see my little brother’s face.

How can you face a child who suffers because of you?

I drank so much that I had trouble controlling my body.

My throat feels burning, probably because I keep drinking strong alcohol.

thud-

This time, the seat next to me, which was quite empty, is filled by someone.

“You were here.”

“… Go when you say it.”

Since mercenaries are a profession that involves rough work, the ratio of men to women is skewed more toward men.

Since there were no female mercenaries to begin with, and she was pretty, several men would sit next to her while she was drinking and make advances at her, but were rejected and disappeared.

He would show a sharp dagger to the neck of a man who did not understand him and threaten him by swearing at him while drinking.

“Did you drink a lot? I didn’t know you were here, so I looked for you for a long time. They say mercenaries come here at night, and it really was true. If you weren’t here, it would’ve been difficult.”