Convict of Revenge

“Hey, guard. Say that again, if you would. What exactly did I kill?”

With fiery red hair, eyes sharp as blades, and crimson pupils burning beneath them, Rubia had the kind of presence and beauty that would never have made anyone mistake her for a cleric—unless, of course, she had been wearing a priestess’s robes.

She walked slowly toward the iron door.

“U-um, well, a person….”

“Is a doppelganger a person?”

The guard flinched at the abrupt question.

“Well, no. It’s a monster. It just looks like a person….”

“Then is a vampire a person?”

“Of course not. It just looks like one….”

“You know very well, then. So why are you saying I killed a person?”

Suddenly, Rubia kicked the bars with all her strength.

“I didn’t kill a person. I killed a monster!”

The shrill clang of metal stabbed at the ears.

“What, because something’s wearing a human skin, that makes it human? A bastard who kidnaps children and sells them to a black magician is a person?”

Ho-yeong let out a low groan.

If he imagined someone kidnapping his three little sisters, then of course he’d want to kill the abductor. Honestly, tearing the bastard limb from limb would still feel like not enough.

“And that alone would have deserved death, but he’d trick the parents, who were desperately searching for their missing children, into believing he’d found them—and then sold those kids too. How can someone commit such a thing while wearing a human face?”

“He deserved to die.”

At Ho-yeong’s words, Rubia’s ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eyes widened ever so slightly before she spoke again.

“I don’t know which noble you are, but you’re a man who speaks sense. That bastard wasn’t just deserving of death—he deserved to be killed. Good call.”

Red murderous intent rippled in her pupils.

“Everyone. Do you know why I killed that guy twice?”

“Uh… um… because he was such a bastard?”

“Wrong.”

Rubia shook her head at the guard, and Ho-yeong quietly said,

“Because you can only kill him twice. He could only be resurrected once.”

Both the guard and the prisoner stared at Ho-yeong. One looked horrified; the other, wickedly amused.

“Correct.”

Rubia smiled faintly.

“The power called Resurrection, granted by Angel Hariad to humans alone. A blessing beyond compare... but a blessing you can receive only once, from kings to beggars alike.”

Ho-yeong, who had played the priest class often enough in the game, knew that well.

Clerics who served , one of the five angels worshipped across the continent, could expend vast divine power to resurrect the dead in new bodies. They could not revive someone who had died of natural causes, and the miracle came with all sorts of restrictions and aftereffects, but it remained a human privilege no other race possessed.

“If I could have resurrected that monster of a bastard a hundred times….”

The red-eyed priestess let the smile fade from her face.

“I would have killed him a hundred more times.”

The guard retreated in a panic, forgetting all dignity, while the prisoner grew interested in the young noble who had nodded in agreement with her.

“I’m late in introducing myself. I’m Rubia, a wing of Hariad. My manner of speaking is a bit rough, I know, but even the bishop couldn’t correct it, so I hope you’ll forgive me.”

A priest blessed with divine power had ranks from 9th to 1st, and above them stood high clerics such as abbots, bishops, archbishops, and bishop-priests. A 4th-rank cleric was someone capable of using a fairly formidable amount of divine power.

Ho-yeong fell into brief thought.

First, let’s check this red-haired girl’s stats.

She seems a little dangerous... but her stats aren’t bad.

After checking her stats, Ho-yeong decided to recruit her.

Now the only question was whether to convert her immediately or persuade her first.

Let’s try persuasion first. Save EP wherever I can. If I do that, I’ll have more room to convert stronger monsters later, right? Even if this is another world, it’s still a game world. I can just work through it the way I played games before.

Something about all those ominous numbers made him uneasy, but her excellent divine power—especially her main specialty, Holy Flame—sounded like exactly the sort of thing that would be useful against monsters.

“Hey, Count? Is there something on my face? Oh, right. I guess there’s still blood on me from beating the hell out of some vile criminal.”

“Ah… no, not at all. Allow me to introduce myself.”

Rubia frowned slightly at Ho-yeong, who was staring fixedly at her face—at her stats, really.

“A pleasure to meet you. I am Joren Tamer, the continent’s first and only Count of the Border Region.”

“Count of the Border Region? I’ve never heard of such a title before.”

“In simple terms….”

Ho-yeong explained his plan.

At first she sounded indifferent, but once she heard that Tamer Territory was a place overflowing with monsters, she began to listen more ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠closely.

“Rubia. Since you are a cleric, I cannot take you in as my vassal, but if you lend your strength to Tamer Territory, I will appoint you as a military chaplain and honorary territory resident, and grant you special authority.”

The guard listening nearby tilted his head. Special authority in a place that was practically ruins? What on earth could that mean? Was he going to build a temple and grant tax exemptions? Even if you built a temple out in some backwater, what source of income would it have?

“Special authority?”

Rubia’s question carried real curiosity.

The border count answered with a smile. Ho-yeong extended his hand, wearing a gentle but cunning expression.

“I’ll give you the authority to punish the guilty.”

The young woman, who preferred punishing over receiving rewards, took his hand through the bars.

“Fine. I’m in.”

“Tamer Territory welcomes you.”

* * *

While the chief guard processed Rubia’s pardon, Ho-yeong continued to look around the prison.

“What’s this place? The ceiling seems lower here.”

“Ah, this is the holding area for nonhuman prisoners. For short folk like dwarves or halflings, that is.”

“Nonhuman prisoners?”

Ho-yeong’s interest sharpened.

“A halfling, eh? What crime did this one commit?”

He stopped before a halfling man. A race half the size of a human.

“He’s a thief. He received a seven-year sentence.”

“What did he steal?”

The halfling lying there answered in a sing-song voice.

“Listen now. I had a woman I was mad about, y’see. I wanted to steal her heart, but it wasn’t goin’ well. So I figured I’d steal somethin’ else instead of her heart.”

“And what did you steal?”

“The house deed.”

“You’re insane.”

Ho-yeong shook his head.

“If I couldn’t live in the same house as her, then I figured I ought to live in the house she lived in, at least.”

“...Haa.”

He took a look at the man’s stats, and they were rather lopsided.

A sling, huh. Could be useful as a ranged unit.

With a childlike little body and a Strength stat over 60.

The pickpocketing is a problem, though, though I suppose he could still be useful depending on the situation.

So I’m supposed to hedge a little about the territory? But he’ll find out once we arrive, and he might just run off. Forget deception.

Bang Ho-yeong was a straightforward man. Lying didn’t suit his nature, nor did it suit his temperament. So he decided to break through head-on.

“If you’ve only been here for one year, then you’ve got six years left to serve. That must be rough.”

“You call that rough? They serve food garbage even goblins wouldn’t touch. Then it’s this labor and that labor... I want out right this instant!”

A thought flashed through Ho-yeong’s mind.

He mentioned food before labor.

Halflings were a race so obsessed with food and cooking that they even used the phrase “food, clothing, and housing” in reverse—“food, housing, and clothing,” if it came down to it.

Come to think of it, I get that. Army mess hall food did something similar to me.

Training had been tolerable, but the fried croakers at breakfast made him want an early discharge.

“Want me to get you out?”

“Eh? You’re serious? I figured you were some kind of high-and-mighty human, but….”

The man’s eyes widened, and after Ho-yeong explained himself, he looked torn.

“Hmm... no matter how sick I am of this cell, going somewhere where I might die on the spot is... well, I’ve gotta think this through.”

“Whatever else, I can promise you a delicious meal at every sitting. Our unit’s cook is incredible.”

“Is that so? Still, if you’ve got enough coin, you can get outside meals here too….”

Ho-yeong called over the guard, who had been watching blankly.

“Guard, what’s for dinner tonight?”

“Huh? Let me see... tonight’s a special menu! Pickled herring jelly, slime cold salad, black bread, and minotaur marrow soup….”

Before he could even finish listing the dishes, Baunal shouted,

“I’ll go! I’ll go to that territory or whatever it is!”

The lord of the border smiled with satisfaction.

“Tamer Territory welcomes you.”

* * *