Chapter 103
Chapter 103
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Living Long Enough to See All Sorts of Things. (1)
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Sometimes, work just falls into place smoothly.
Whether it's because your fortunes hit the mark perfectly or your skills are strong enough to overcome any bad luck—that's when things go your way.
In my case, both were exploding at once, you could say.
Two slave trader groups caught in a single week.
Three places where we'd rescued slaves.
"Everything works out for you, doesn't it?"
"..."
"Isn't that right?"
"..."
Even when Elder Closel asked, I kept my mouth shut.
There was a reason for it.
"Ahem. In any case, I wasn't wrong, was I?"
Normal prisons have locked doors.
The one we hit at dawn was locked in an especially complicated way.
I could have picked it, sure, but we didn't have the time.
That's when the elder stepped up.
What did he say again?
'There's a spell that opens anything. Never failed once.'
A spell to unlock locked doors.
Suddenly, snippets of conversation from passersby reached our ears.
"They say the prison entrance exploded entirely."
"Completely collapsed, from what I hear."
Zap—
That was the true nature of the elder's spell.
"Elder, what if you blow the whole thing away?"
"No problem at all, right? It was precisely calculated power."
No one got hurt, just as the elder said, and we weren't caught.
But.
Rumble—
"Brief inspection ahead. Cooperate!"
Soldiers were swarming the entire village like that.
"Let's hurry. If there hadn't been a temple nearby, I wouldn't have done it."
Luckily, there was a temple close by.
If not, it wouldn't have taken long for the kids to be discovered.
"This place really has no decent nobles."
It might be because we kept picking spots like this, but plenty of places were tangled up with slave traders.
All thieves, bandits, utter scoundrels...
"There's another one over there."
He was pretending to be normal, but my eyes saw right through him.
Slightly slanted eyes, catfish-like lips.
Even the color of his irises was off.
This was a case where not just his physiognomy but his whole demeanor had warped from the life he'd lived.
Look at those shifty eyes he's hiding.
"...?"
The thief drawing closer to us step by step.
His gaze casually aimed elsewhere, but his target was clearly us.
Elder Parmon, no less.
Couldn't be more pitiful.
"Elder, that guy's a thief! Watch your pockets...?"
But what was this?
The elder was calmly watching the guy's hand slip into his robes.
This wasn't the kind of elder who'd fall for something like that.
"It's fine. He's an informant."
"...?"
"You really have a knack for spotting informants, don't you? Want to check out the empire's spies sometime?"
"...?"
The passing informant turned his head toward me.
With a face full of grievance and bitterness.
What could I do? My talent for finding callings made him look like nothing but a thief.
"Want to read it? You should know these things too, right?"
"Me?"
"You're a person of influence now."
I unfolded the note the elder handed me, but there wasn't much to it at first glance.
- One hunk of meat at the big market, several fish and a bit of salt at home.
Probably a code disguised to avoid detection.
Elder Parmon gave a rough explanation.
"The big market is the capital of Harf Kingdom. Meat means slave traders."
"And the rest?"
"Fish at home means the sea nearby. Salt stands for orcs. I asked him to check it out since you wanted to know."
"More ordinary than I expected."
Don't people usually think of stuff like that?
Sentences hard to decipher.
Like 'a tree standing upside down under moonlight' or something.
"This way, even if caught, it raises less suspicion. What you're thinking of looks shady at a glance. The kind of thing only thief guilds use."
"Ah, I see."
That aside, this was a moment where the empire's power really sank in.
They'd planted spies all the way in Harf Kingdom's capital?
That's why the elders could flip things upside down at will.
"Orcs near the sea..."
A feeling bubbled up.
"You can take a ship from here to the capital."
"Sounds good."
"What do you think? Want to take a ship? It's not far to walk overland either."
"Hold on a sec."
I started to pull out my rattle quickly, then glanced around.
Rumors about me had spread a lot, so there was a risk of misunderstanding.
What I did was so unique, it was like advertising 'Chris is here' to anyone watching.
"Let's head to the temple first."
At the word 'temple,' Luna poked her head out.
Swoosh—
"Bwa! Tempow?"
"Yeah, yeah. Looks like we need to go there first."
Beam—
"Otay!"
I'd learned this when we rescued the kids at dawn and stopped by the temple: Luna overflows with energy there.
Like a fish in water.
Surprisingly, it was her first time at a temple since birth, so I'd only just found out.
"Technically, isn't a shrine a kind of temple?"
"Shwined?"
"Our home is a shrine."
"I know! Tempow has wotsa white wight! Shwined has... diffewent stuff!"
Luna had grown quite a bit lately, now the size of a proper two- or three-year-old.
Still only up to my shin, though.
As we walked slowly, holy knights guarding the temple entrance came into view.
Snap—
"We greet the Saintess...!"
"Shh! No need to announce it, right?"
I'd emphasized it several times, but they just wouldn't change.
Who could blame them? With the Saintess right in front of them, how could they hold back a greeting?
Even if Duke Aluerd showed up, these were people who had to stay on alert.
"No visitors looking for us?"
"Soldiers came by, but they left."
"Then...?"
The holy knight nodded quietly.
Meaning the kids were safe.
"Bwa! Down."
"Okay, okay."
Toddle, toddle—
Swipe?
"Uncwe!"
"...Hup! P-Please, speak."
"Wuna go pway!"
"As you command!"
Putting her down after carrying her on my back all day left a strange emptiness.
But I couldn't keep the Saintess cooped up inside the temple.
I'd let her loose once at dawn already, so it should be fine.
I tried to say 'take care,' but I doubted they'd even hear me.
Those flushed faces, eyes brimming with emotion.
"Fanatics, every one of them."
"Heh heh, that's what a Saintess is. The previous one was similar."
The previous Saintess.
Come to think of it, I'd never heard the details.
She made a huge sacrifice during the Continental War and vanished, so the elders must have met her often.
"What kind of person was she?"
In a way, she was Luna's senior.
No harm in knowing.
"The real deal, a Saintess through and through. She embodied exactly what everyone imagines."
"Hmm..."
"You'd get more details asking Duke Aluerd next time."
It felt like he was dodging the conversation.
Elder Parmon, Elder Closel, even Drant—they all turned their heads slightly.
With reactions like that, no point pressing.
Better to ask church folks later.
"Let's decide where to go first."
In a secluded spot with no people around, I pulled out my rattle right away.
Jingle—
I pictured the sea while looking at the map.
Jingle—
Then imagined walking there.
"Hmm... Seems like going by sea might be better."
Either way didn't matter.
No bad fortunes whichever path we took.
But the more I shook the rattle...
Jingle—
"Why does the sea keep coming up?"
"Does it mean we should go by sea?"
"No boarding a ship right away."
No ship in the near future.
Nor any mounts, for that matter.
"Ugh, shouldn't have come here."
It wasn't like before, where my eyes hurt and I couldn't see, but it was still annoying.
The temple was full of flashing lights everywhere.
Luna's light was comforting, though.
Jingle—
Jingle—
"The travel numbers are jammed up... but it's either today or tomorrow?"
On top of that, something like a guest was coming.
Lately, things felt stuffy; maybe I should ask Granny for a big reading...
If it were major, she'd have warned me already.
I was probably on the right track.
"Looks like we'll meet the guest and then move. Rest up today?"
After devouring the massive dinner the church prepared, I fell asleep.
Night was deep, so I figured the guest would come tomorrow.
But to show up in the middle of the night while I was sleeping...
"...Chris?"
Serena, lying beside me, rubbed her eyes and sat up.
"Feels like a guest arrived."
She looked around puzzled at my words.
Of course nothing was nearby.
They couldn't even enter from outside.
"My dreams have been restless... Guess it's someone new."
I picked up Luna, and Serena handed me the swaddling cloth.
"Thanks. Coming with?"
"Yes. Never know what might happen."
Stepping out of the temple, it was still dim predawn.
A guest waiting for me in the distance.
From the looks of it, they couldn't approach the temple.
"Sigh..."
It had been ages since I'd seen a soul like this.
- ....%&@!!!