I Became a Head Priest (1)
"Please take this too."
"This is far too much for what I paid."
"Oh, please. After you saved my son's life, I'd be the one who couldn't live with myself if I took your money."
I couldn't help looking awkward in the face of such excessive kindness. I had been given far more than what I'd paid for.
"Then I'll accept it just this once."
"That's not something you get to decide, Father."
You've got to be kidding me.
Her answer was so firm I knew there was no point arguing further. Not that I couldn't understand how they felt. Most of the soldiers who had nearly died — and lived — were these people's sons, their husbands, their fathers. Neighbors and friends, too, more likely than not. Of course the market merchants were well-disposed toward me.
If I'm being generous with the estimate, I just scored two weeks of groceries for four coppers.
I looked down at the baskets in my hands. They were packed to bursting with the merchants' goodwill — grain, vegetables, fruit. It would have been faster to list what wasn't in there. If there hadn't been a limit to what I could physically carry, they probably would have loaded me up with even more.
And they even threw in meat I can't eat.
I eyed the hefty cut of meat occupying one side of a basket. I considered giving it back, then thought of Priest Malza and changed my mind. Priest Malza was a girl of barely fifteen. She was still growing — proper nutrition mattered.
Just because I don't eat meat doesn't mean I can stop a kid from eating it too.
I thought of how even the monks back home made sure their child novices ate meat, and tightened my grip on the baskets.
By the time I made it back to the church, I was dripping with sweat under the ridiculous load.
"You bought all this?"
Priest Malza's eyes went round the moment I stepped into the lodging.
"The merchants gave it to me out of kindness. I'm grateful."
"Wow. That's amazing."
She circled the baskets, making a fuss over them. Fair enough. They were packed so full that some of the produce was stacked high enough to block your view.
"Ah — speaking of which, did the workers eat the stew?"
I asked belatedly as I set the load down.
"Yes! They must have been starving. They cleaned the pot right out."
"...That's a relief."
In more ways than one. The biggest, probably, being that not a scrap of that porridge was left.
"Let's get these ingredients put away first."
I reached for a basket, trying to look casual — and that was when it happened.
A heavy crash rolled through from the far side of the building, a deep, bone-shaking thud, as if something enormous had gone down. Judging by the direction, it had come from the chapel.
"Could you sort the ingredients for me instead? I'll go check on the chapel."
"Oh — yes!"
The chapel was the building right next to the lodging. They were practically attached, but they were still separate structures, so I had to go outside.
I opened the door and stepped into the chapel. The first thing I saw was a haze of pale dust.
Hmm.
Whatever commotion had happened in here, it was already over. In the middle of the floor lay the goddess statue, a bouquet still clutched in its arms — toppled on its side. No. Not merely toppled. It had snapped in two at the waist and was sprawled across the floor. And beneath the wreckage, a pair of human legs was visible.
"Are you all right?"
I came to my senses and hurried over. The workers standing frozen around the scene turned to look at me, their faces ashen.
"W-we've committed a mortal sin, Father!"
"...?"
That was a strange reaction. But this wasn't the time to ask why.
"Let's get the person out from under there first."
I headed straight for the fallen statue. It only stood about five-foot-three, but it was made of stone — even half of it looked brutally heavy. The workers around me just stood there, glancing at each other, making no move to help.
"What are you doing?"
I prompted them. Same result. A few edged closer, but none of them could bring themselves to reach for the broken statue.
"Pick it up and move it. Now."
"Th-that's..."
"There's a person trapped under there."
Irritation crept into my voice. They still hesitated. I had no idea what their reason was, but I couldn't just stand here and watch.
Power of Bless
Physical Enhancement
I cast the buff on myself. Radiant light wrapped around my body, and strength surged into my muscles in an instant. It was a physical enhancement I almost never used — the efficiency was terrible unless you were a close-combat Awakened. But a statue snapped in half? I could manage that.
"Hup!"
I grabbed the upper half of the goddess statue where it lay on the floor. A hundred kilos, give or take. Maybe more. If it hadn't already been broken in two, I wouldn't have stood a chance of lifting it alone. Borrowing the buff's power, I heaved the slab of stone up and shoved it aside.
The stone hit the floor with a heavy thud, and dust billowed up all over again. Only then could I see the worker who'd been pinned underneath.
"Urgh..."
His waist was bent at a grotesque angle. He couldn't even breathe properly from the weight that had been on him, and his color was awful.
Heal
As long as he wasn't dead, I was confident I could save him. Light bloomed from my fingertips and sank into the patient's body.
A wet, grinding crack sounded as the twisted spine snapped back into place, followed by the noise of broken bones knitting together. The grotesquely displaced body quickly returned to its proper shape. I didn't pull my hand away until his ragged, failing breaths had settled into something calm and even.
Then I looked around at the workers. Every last one of them still had that frozen look on their face.
"I'd like an explanation."
The gentle expression I usually wore when playing priest was nowhere to be found. I looked at them with cold eyes, and their shoulders hunched. It took a while to get an answer. After a long hesitation, one of the workers opened his mouth in something like resignation. And after I'd heard him out to the end—
"...So let me get this straight."
I was so incredulous I couldn't speak for a moment.
"You knocked over the goddess statue and broke it — and then you wouldn't touch it because you were afraid of divine punishment if you handled it wrong?"
Nobody answered. A few of them even hung their heads. I couldn't hide how pathetic I found it. This was a place where religion held enormous sway, yes — but I had never imagined they would stand there and watch a man die in front of them over a single broken statue.
"...Does that statue look like Lady Iris to you?"
The workers looked puzzled. They glanced at the shattered goddess statue as if the answer were obvious. Asking whether Iris's statue looked like Iris — what kind of question was that supposed to be?
"Don't tell me you've been worshipping a lump of rock this whole time, and not a goddess."
A few pairs of eyes went wide as the meaning finally landed.
"And do you really think Lady Iris is the sort of person who would fly into a rage over one broken statue carved in her image?"
Truthfully, I had no idea. But a being who let an impostor like me run around unchecked wasn't going to lose her temper over something as trivial as a broken statue. And if she did get angry, the lightning bolt would have hit me first.
"If anything, worrying about a statue while a man was dying is the real insult to Lady Iris."
The workers' faces hardened even further.
"You clearly aren't in any state to keep working, so go home for today."
I glanced at the man still lying on the floor.
"Take him with you and let him rest. The treatment is done, but he should take it easy for the rest of the day."
"...Yes, Father."
"And I won't be holding anyone responsible for this. Don't waste time worrying about that."
A faint flicker of relief crossed their faces at last. But it wasn't enough to erase the fear. They propped up their injured coworker, bowed over and over, and hurried out of the chapel.
"..."
Once everyone was gone, the chapel fell so quiet it was hard to believe what had just happened. Where the dust had settled, only the broken goddess statue remained.
I dropped onto a chapel pew and met the statue's eyes. Directly in front of me, Iris's image lay fallen, snapped off below the waist, still clutching its bouquet.
Maybe their reaction had been the natural one. Religion held tremendous power in this world. Maybe I was the strange one, for picking up a sacred statue and tossing it aside without a second thought.
Tch. Even so — a man was dying.
Remembering them standing there, unable to even reach out while their coworker died, I couldn't even manage a bitter laugh.
"It's so ridiculous I can't even laugh."
That was when it happened. A stranger's voice chimed in, right there in the empty chapel.
"A hallucination?"
I cocked my head, wondering if I was hearing things — a voice that had no business existing — and the same voice came again.
Definitely a hallucination.
The speech pattern was one I'd seen a few times on the Gallery. That only made me more certain it was in my head, and I cast a purification skill on myself.
Purification
But the voice was still there.