Chapter 157
Chapter 157
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 157
Chapter Title: Chapter 29: Beneath the Surface (4)
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“Temple’s a personal matter, so don’t follow me.”
I might pick up some kind of hint at the Kalos Temple.
Even if not, it felt better to check it out once rather than leave that nagging feeling hanging.
It was an unexpected answer, and Kim Yul’s eyes widened in surprise as he asked back.
“At this hour?”
Yang Tae-ho, who’d been patting his full belly while downing his beer, perked up with interest.
“Then we can crash?”
“Yeah.”
It wasn’t so crucial that I needed to drag along these guys who were screaming for rest with every fiber of their being.
I left the party members behind and headed to the temple.
The temple in Calom Castle had windows and outer walls shattered here and there—it wasn’t in decent shape at all.
With laborers coming and going daily for repairs, the atmosphere was chaotic.
And among them, the one lagging furthest behind in restoration was.
‘Kalos.’
It flew in the face of everyone’s expectations.
People had all figured Pallao’s would take the longest.
But in reality, Pallao had rebuilt the prayer hall, replaced the shattered statue with a new one, and so on.
They’d taken the bare minimum steps to at least welcome their scant followers.
Kalos, on the other hand, showed absolutely no activity.
‘This isn’t slow restoration; it’s straight-up abandonment.’
The temple right in front of me had its collapsed buildings left as is, broken ones untouched.
‘Kinda gloomy.’
At this point, calling it ruins wouldn’t be off-base.
‘Though it was always the smallest temple to begin with.’
Compared to other denominations, Kalos temples were extremely modest.
No statues or sculptures depicting the god was a given, and often they consisted of just a single main building.
They didn’t have many priests guarding the temples either.
Calom Castle didn’t even have a single priest assigned yet.
Which was why no one in Calom Castle came looking for the Kalos Temple.
Staring at the temple in its dilapidated state, I felt an odd sensation.
‘Truly indifferent.’
Of course, thinking about it calmly, it wasn’t all that strange.
From the denominational history I’d picked up secondhand, the Kalos Church had zero interest in expanding its influence.
Jordan, who’d explained each church’s tendencies, history, and power structures to me, had gone so far as to call Kalos a bystander.
- He doesn’t care much for your power meddling in our lives.
Of course, as someone converted to the faith, he’d softened his words quite a bit.
But it was clear that Kalos himself—the very lord of the church—had little interest in expansion.
In fact, the Kalos Church had never made any standout moves, and it had the fewest officials.
Yet if you went by sheer number of believers, it had the most.
‘If the demihumans crave one miracle above all, it’d be the one Kalos bestows.’
Recalling Jordan’s words made the ruined Kalos Temple look even stranger.
To leave a temple abandoned with that many followers.
In a world where gods could communicate, it didn’t seem like the priests would make such a call on their own.
Which meant the ruins I was seeing were the direct result of Kalos’s neglect.
I couldn’t even begin to guess what Kalos was thinking.
‘What on earth is he planning?’
I gazed at the dreary Kalos Temple for a moment, my mind tangled in complicated thoughts.
Then I turned and headed for the Pallao Temple.
Since Calom Castle had no gates, I planned to use a portal to the Kalos Temple in Robole.
Sticking around a ruin with no stationed priests wasn’t going to get me the answers I wanted.
‘While I’m at it, I can check on the kids too.’
Might as well stop by the orphanage and see how the children were doing.
The trip itself didn’t take long.
I arrived at the Kalos Temple in Robole and was assigned a prayer room in no time.
It was late, so no other believers were around.
I glanced around the bare prayer room, which didn’t even have a simple chair.
After a brief hesitation, I opened my mouth.
“……Pardon the intrusion.”
Talking to empty air in search of someone wasn’t exactly pleasant.
“Excuse me.”
No response to my forced words only made it more awkward.
“Ahem, if you’ve got something to say, then say it.”
Still, just in case, maybe.
I couldn’t shake that tiny possibility, so I kept trying.
If it were that easy to hear a god’s reply, we wouldn’t need priests.
‘No way it’d be this straightforward.’
Feeling sheepish, I scratched the back of my neck.
But giving up now felt oddly unresolved.
It’d be nice if I could chalk it all up to my overactive imagination.
The sense of wrongness I’d felt was too clear for that.
And it wasn’t a one-time thing, which made it even more nagging.
Something tied to Kalos kept lingering around me.
The feeling of it snooping openly, without bothering to hide its presence.
‘If that’s the case, you’d think it’d just speak up.’
Why ignore someone who’d come all the way to the prayer room?
‘Maybe it’s not that it won’t—it can’t.’
Did it need a space hidden from the other gods’ eyes?
‘Sure enough, during that meeting with the System, the other gods had swarmed into Pallao’s prayer room.’
Even in a specific god’s temple, it didn’t seem free from the others’ gazes.
‘So, do I need to create an environment where Kalos can speak without other gods noticing?’
How the hell?
“Whew.”
I ruffled my hair roughly and sighed.
‘Frustrating.’
Earth’s System, Bihar’s gods—everything I got tangled in was a headache.
I clicked my tongue out of habit and turned to leave.
Not giving up, of course—just planning to meet a Kalos priest.
Ask if any had ever spoken with Kalos.
If so, which temple they were at.
Figure out other options based on that.
Somehow get an answer out of whatever Kalos was lurking around me.
But just as I was about to exit the prayer room, something dropped toward me with a plop.
“Gasp!”
My body crumpled pathetically, and a voice stirred in my mind.
[It is not yet time.]
Only after experiencing it did it hit me like lightning.
‘Divinity.’
That had been Kalos’s divinity—Kalos’s voice.
I struggled to prop up my trembling body and looked back.
All I saw was the empty prayer room.
“What do you mean ‘not yet time’?”
I caught my breath and asked, but I doubted a reply would come.
Sure enough, Kalos stayed silent until I managed to stand on wobbly legs.
Waiting longer here wouldn’t change much.
I glanced once more at the stark prayer room—devoid of even basic decorations or furniture—then turned away.
‘At least it’s not my imagination.’
Kalos was watching me and looking out for my convenience.
That much was clear from bothering to relay a single word.
I had no idea why he was extending this one-sided favor.
‘But if he intervenes like with the roulette, I can put up with a little extra voyeur.’
The System was already glued to me; one more wouldn’t spell disaster.
‘Feels like the second apostle hunting me is tied to Kalos’s interest too.’
With part of the mystery cleared, I left the prayer room with lighter steps.
And right there in the opposite hallway, I ran into a Kalos priest hurrying toward me.
It was the same one who’d guided me to the prayer room earlier.
He froze upon spotting me, his face registering shock.
At first I wondered why, but I figured it out soon enough.
“Ah.”
Must be because I’d been exposed to Kalos’s divinity.
I touched the golden tint around my eyes, and the priest bowed at the waist.
“Congratulations.”
I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly.
He seemed to think I’d received Kalos’s blessing.
Not wrong, since I had a use coupon, but I hadn’t gotten it here in the prayer room.
‘Explaining it in detail won’t convince him.’
A player who wasn’t even Kalos Church showing up with traces of divinity after visiting the prayer room.
Who’d believe me if I denied it?
‘Players can normally only use their affiliated god’s powers.’
I was free of that rule. And plenty of church officials knew it.
‘Kalos’s powers are hard for even his own priests to obtain. Word that I got and used them…’
Trouble would pile up endlessly.
Just thinking about it made my head throb.
But I couldn’t just kill the priest to silence him.
In truth, there wasn’t much I could do to smooth this over.
“Pretend you didn’t see anything, if you would.”
The best I could manage was begging him to keep quiet.
“……Understood.”
At least it was an affirmative reply.
No telling how much stock to put in a promise that was just words.
But it was the only option for now.
“Thanks. I need to head out…”
“May Lord Kalos’s grace accompany you on your path.”
I swallowed a sigh and brushed past the priest.
All I could do was hope this didn’t spread everywhere.
I pulled a baseball cap from my inventory to hide my golden eyes and hurried out of the temple.
* * *
The next day, my party and I headed to a 4-star contamination zone.
When we first ran the church-exclusive mission, over two hundred people had piled on to clear it.
We cleared it with just four.
It took a full day, though.
‘Mana absorption efficiency is better than a low-grade zone.’
The extra rewards from destroying the Mesio were lacking, but.
Pure mana yield made it worthwhile for the time invested.
We returned to the inn in pretty good shape.
A guest was waiting for me there.
“K-nim!”
“Priest Liban?”
It was Liban, ordained as a low priest with the new year.
“How have you been? I’ve been hearing about your exploits nonstop. Always cheering you…”
Liban, who’d always been high-energy since we met, spotted me and unleashed a torrent of pent-up chatter.
It took a little time before he got to the point.
“Oh shoot! Look at me! A letter came for you, so I came to deliver it…”
I took the small envelope from Liban.
Sending a message via mail instead of chat meant the sender was from Bihar.
‘Why send it to the Habon Temple?’
It wasn’t that shocking that I’d gotten contact.
Like with Baron Volvita’s letter last time.
Word of my feats was spreading, and invites to Bennett Manor had spiked.
‘I lived there over three months.’
Most senders were Ferel nobles.
But I’d been too busy absorbing mana in contamination zones to accept.
Rashaar handled the refusals instead.
This letter, though, had come to Habon Temple, not Bennett Manor.
Curious who it was from, I checked the bottom of the envelope.
A familiar name.
“Ladrion…”
The Bihar native I’d freed from shackles in the past.
Recalling what I’d tasked him with, I tore open the envelope.
The contents were enough to furrow my brow.
Goddamn System