Good Deeds Bring Blessings
“Such depravity! To lose control so quickly and bare your savagery! Had you spared even a moment to look inward, you might have turned that ferocity into a proper driving force! But you could not endure even that brief patience, and so you were devoured by your own brutality!”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
No one dared speak after Harnok’s fierce rebuke. The basilisk, as if it had some objection, twitched its tail once before slumping limply to the ground, trembling, and then going still. At the very least, the other four had no objections—though that was only because they could not even begin to comprehend the situation.
In the midst of that incomprehensible scene—where a basilisk had been struck by its own petrifying gaze and then had its head smashed in by a sack—one of the two men who had first confronted the creature was the first to make a sound.
“Kuh, kuhk……!”
It was not words, but a groan.
“F-Father!”
The young man holding the torch rushed over in a panic to the man lying on the ground.
“Father! Are you all right?!”
“Hrk… hah……!”
“Oh no……!”
Celine, hearing the groan, hurried over without a second thought. The man lying there was an elderly man with clearly white hair. His dark skin was marked by a deep wound on his chest, and though he had tried to staunch the bleeding, the cloth was already soaked through and stained.
“Please step aside for a moment!”
“Y-You……! Huh? A n-nun……?”
The young man had been wary of the sudden appearance of these unknown figures in the middle of the wasteland, but his voice softened the moment he saw Celine’s attire. Celine had no time to respond. She gave a quick nod and lifted the man’s clothing slightly to examine the depth of the wound.
The situation was dire. One of the basilisk’s large, razor-sharp scales had pierced halfway into the old man’s flesh.
“Khh……!”
As Celine probed the wound to assess its severity, she bit her lip against the sudden pain. In the darkness, she had not noticed that the sharp edge of the scale had cut into her own pale hand.
Harnok nodded as he watched her hurriedly put her fingers in her mouth.
“Hm! Come here for a moment, Sister!”
With his massive frame leading the way, Harnok strode forward. The young man’s voice trembled at the sight of Harnok’s solid gaze and thick beard illuminated by the torchlight.
“W-Wait a second…?! Y-You……?!”
But Harnok reached out without hesitation toward the fallen elder.
—Crack—!
The barbarian gripped the razor-sharp scale with one hand and yanked it free without the slightest hesitation. The young man, who had struggled in vain to remove it himself, could only stare in shock as it came out in an instant. Blinking several times, he finally noticed blood dripping from Harnok’s hand. He must have been injured in the process of pulling it out. Objectively, it looked like a painful wound. And yet—the man was smiling.
“Hm! Now that it’s been removed, there should be no problem treating it, Sister!”
At Harnok’s words, Celine began examining the wound once more. Once she had finished her assessment, she gently channeled her holy power, healing the injury from the deepest point outward. A soft golden light touched the wound, and the torn flesh slowly began to knit together. The only sound from the nun treating the patient was the quiet recitation of the Lord’s Prayer.
“Huu……!”
Even for her, it had been a deep wound. She wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead, exhausted from expending her holy power. Seeing this, the young man finally bowed his head in gratitude.
“Th-Thank you! I truly thank you!”
“Not at all. As long as we follow the Lord’s teachings, we cannot turn away from those in need……? Kyaaah—! Sir Knight, what is this?! You’re hurt!”
The young man, who had been blinking in surprise at Celine’s frantic dash toward Harnok’s injured hand, was snapped back to attention by an unexpected sound.
“Tsk.”
It was Bellarne, clicking her tongue as she glared at Celine, who was now treating Harnok’s hand. When the young man met Bellarne’s gaze as she turned her head, he stood up awkwardly and opened his mouth.
“Ah, um, well……”
“The stab wound is deep, so don’t lay him flat. Prop him up at an angle somewhere.”
“Pardon? No, I mean…… Are you a physician?”
“Well, when it comes to blood, I suppose you could say something similar.”
The young man could only look even more bewildered at Bellarne’s amused reply.
—
“I apologize for not introducing myself earlier. My name is Teiran. This is my father, Aderon. Once again, thank you for saving both our lives.”
The crackling of the campfire occasionally punctuated Teiran’s trembling voice. Teiran appeared to be in his late twenties, while his father Aderon looked to be in his mid-to-late fifties. Though he kept glancing at Harnok while offering his thanks, he did not ask any questions. After all, this strange man had saved his father’s life.
Celine waved her hands dismissively at the gratitude.
“As I said before, it is our duty as followers of the Lord’s word to help those in distress. There is no need to thank us. That aside, we were simply on our way to the territory, but why were the two of you—”
“Kuhk!”
At that moment, Aderon, who had been propped up against a rock in the wasteland, began coughing and blinking his eyes open. Teiran, who had been listening to the nun, gasped and called out to his father.
“Father! Are you all right?!”
“Ugh…… Teiran…… Are you…… safe……? I was clearly struck by the basilisk’s tail…… Ah……? A B-Bahon tribesman—?!”
Aderon, as if he had poured all his strength into those final words, broke into another fit of coughing. In response to his son’s question, he reached out with his weakened arm, trying to shield him.
“S-Step back, son! I don’t know why a Bahon tribesman is here in the west, but……! As you can see, we’re dried up and useless……! So please, I beg you to just let us go……!”
Aderon’s reaction was entirely natural. The basilisk might be gone, but a Bahon tribesman? It was like escaping a wolf only to run into a tiger.
“Wait! Father! That’s not it! These people saved us!”
“Wh-What……?”
At his son’s frantic words, Aderon looked around in confusion and spotted the basilisk’s corpse, its head completely crushed like a sack of stones, slumped lifelessly on the ground.
—
“This is terribly rude of me. I didn’t even realize you were our saviors……”
As Aderon bowed his head in embarrassment, Harnok let out a hearty laugh and thumped his chest.
“Not at all! Anyone who has just escaped mortal danger would be too exhausted to think clearly! Think nothing of it!”
Aderon stared blankly at Harnok—partly because of the drum-like sound coming from the man’s chest, and partly because he was unmistakably a Bahon tribesman—and cautiously asked,
“But…… you said you were a paladin, correct? What reason do you have to dress like those fearsome northerners?”
“My appearance? Ah, that’s not it. I am—”
“H-He has an incredibly noble heart!”
Celine practically threw herself between Aderon and Harnok, as if leaping from a cliff into water. With her hand pressed against Harnok’s chest, she desperately tried to convey with her trembling eyes: Please, say nothing more!
Of course, Harnok did not understand. But he did notice her lips moving, and so he nodded—much to Celine’s silent relief.
Once the situation had settled, Celine quickly whispered to Aderon,
“The knight has such a noble heart that he even pities the Bahon tribe, who do not believe in the Lord. That is why he dresses like them—to always keep his compassion for the Bahon people in his heart.”
It was an explanation that made no sense whatsoever. As Aderon stared blankly, Celine continued whispering, fighting back tears.
“L-Look…… Do you see the Lord’s Prayer tattooed on him? What kind of Bahon tribesman would ever get the Lord’s Prayer tattooed on their body? I was shocked when I first saw it too, but…… anyway, he is definitely a paladin, not a Bahon tribesman.”
Only then did Aderon nod. As she said, there should be no Bahon tribesman in this world with the Lord’s Prayer tattooed on them—even though one was standing right there. Letting out a sigh of relief, the nun quickly began moving her lips again.
“By the way, what were you all doing out in the wasteland? And at this hour of the night? We were heading to the territory, but you two had no reason to be here, right?”
“Ah, we’re merchants.”
Teiran quickly showed them the bundle he was carrying. Inside were various minerals.
“We heard there were rare rocks and came to find some. Originally, they were near where we live, but on the way back after obtaining them, we got caught in a dust storm and ended up wandering all the way out here. This place isn’t exactly safe, so we were trying to hurry back even at night…… but we ended up disturbing a basilisk’s nest.”
“But what about you, Sister, and your companions? Where were you heading in the middle of the night to be crossing the wasteland?”
At Aderon’s curious question, Celine’s golden eyes widened.
“Ah! We were originally trying to go to Paymond Territory, but we ended up getting lost……”
“Pardon?”
Celine tilted her head at Aderon’s surprised reaction. Huh? Was there something surprising about what I said? Aderon smiled gently before giving his answer.
“What a coincidence. The place where my son and I live is none other than Paymond Territory.”
Indeed, good deeds bring blessings.