The Temple of Courage
A full week of riding in a carriage had clearly taken its toll. It took Huey a full day to recover before we could even start preparing to leave for the Demon Realm.
"Should we just travel in the evenings?"
"That does sound like a good idea, Master."
Huey muttered absently as he browsed sun-blocking robes at a general store, while Lucy agreed with a dubious look on her face. I spoke up.
"It'd be better to just tough it out and travel during the day, sweating and all."
I'd never been there myself, but the captain always said it was better to move during the day when crossing the desert.
"Apparently every annoying problem you run into out there comes out at night."
During the day, the searing sunlight kept the predators and monsters buried underground. At night, they surfaced. And the bigger problem was this:
"Once your day-night cycle gets flipped even once, you're completely screwed."
"The cute little customer is right. Moving through the desert at night is hardly something I'd recommend."
The shopkeeper, who'd been tidying her counter, cut in after overhearing me.
"Ugh, is that so…"
"Ren is right. Since we're heading into unexplored territory, better to take every precaution."
Pulling one or two all-nighters wouldn't have been a big deal. But once your sleep schedule got completely inverted, it took forever to get your condition back.
"Oh, right. You mentioned you were heading out to explore unexplored territory?"
"Yes."
Listening to our conversation, the shopkeeper pointed in one direction and smiled brightly.
"If you head out the city's south gate and go a little ways that direction, you'll find the Temple of Courage. You should go get a blessing before you leave."
"Oh, the Temple of Courage? Perfect. Huey, we're going, right?"
When traveling through harsh regions, a temple blessing was nothing to sneeze at. Especially in a place like the desert, where it was hard to even tell which ingredients were poisonous.
"Getting one would be nice, but… we don't have much money left, do we?"
"Blessings are expensive… ridiculously expensive, honestly."
Thinking about why we were broke made me want to thrash Huey all over again, but I decided to let it slide this time.
"You two should really be grateful to me."
"You're broke too."
"You blew through every bit of emergency cash you brought and now freeload off Master, yet here you are acting all high and mighty."
…These little brats, I swear.
"If you come with me, everything's free. Temple of Courage only, though."
My body had changed, but I'd confirmed the mark was still there.
"What? Why?"
"Are you making some kind of offering to the temple?"
Well, telling them the truth right here would have been fun in its own way.
"You'll find out when we get there. So, are we going?"
I decided to look forward to the looks on Huey and Lucy's faces when they learned the truth later. It absolutely, positively was not because they never believed a word of the stories I usually told them.
Nope. Definitely not.
"Of course we're going."
"If it's free, there's no reason to turn it down."
With our business at the general store finished, we asked the inn to hold our luggage for a while, left the city, and headed in the direction the shopkeeper had indicated.
"That was quick."
"It's quite large."
"No matter how many times I see it, this temple always looks like it reeks of sweat."
Before long, a pure white temple rose from the middle of the sand-choked desert. Just looking at the holy knights guarding the entrance was enough to make me feel short of breath.
"Tsk. Those guys really need to put some clothes on."
In the distance, holy knights stood with their bronze-toned muscles fully on display, as if the concept of a shirt simply didn't exist — white cloth embroidered with purple thread wrapped around their waists. I clicked my tongue.
"…Yeah, that is a bit much."
"Shh. They'll hear you."
Well, considering the god they served manifested looking like that, maybe it couldn't be helped.
"Welcome. This is the temple dedicated to Aldebaran, God of Lightning and Courage."
As we arrived at the temple entrance, a holy knight greeted us with crisp formality.
"Have you come to receive a blessing?"
"Yes."
"This way, please."
Following the holy knight's lead into the temple, we soon beheld a sight hard to believe existed in the middle of a desert.
"Your Grace. I've brought some special guests."
"Well done."
"Then I'll take my leave."
A massive fountain endlessly sprayed what looked like holy water, and standing before it was a muscular old man. At least the old geezer was wearing something vaguely resembling clothes.
"Ohhh, what a beautiful mark of the god… Forgive me, but are you Lady Ren?"
"Yeah."
"It is an honor to meet you. Though I am unworthy, I am Nahar, the one charged with overseeing this temple."
The elderly priest, dressed similarly to the holy knights at the entrance but with a thin cloth covering his upper body, introduced himself thus. More importantly, I was pretty sure I'd just heard him called Archbishop.
"What's an archbishop doing at a backwater temple like this?"
"Ren…!"
"Please show some manners!"
"It's quite all right, everyone."
"See? He says it's fine. Honestly, you two are such cowards."
I dodged the hands of the two frantically trying to cover my mouth, and Nahar smiled gently as he spoke.
"To a person of honor such as yourself it may seem a mere backwater, but to the faithful of the Temple of Courage, this place holds great significance."
"Is that so?"
"Indeed."
Nahar simply smiled, as if that was all he could say. Well, that wasn't what we'd come for anyway.
"We're here for a blessing."
"I see. Since the occasion is rare, might I bestow the blessing myself?"
I nodded in reply — and Nahar suddenly tore off his upper garment.
"Your Grace…?"
"What on earth does taking off your clothes have to do with a blessing…"
…Yeah. Now that was an archbishop of the Temple of Courage. I knew something felt off about him wearing clothes.
"Aldebaran, God of Lightning and Courage, often manifests in this world."
"Tsk."
And most of the time, he appeared as a towering giant of a man with muscles on full display. The memory of that sweat-reeking form I'd once encountered made me quietly click my tongue.
"Thus, we consider striving to resemble Aldebaran in form to be the highest of virtues."
Honestly, like god, like devotee — every last one of them reeked of sweat.
"That's probably why the Temple of Courage has virtually no female priests or female holy knights."
I added that with full irritation, and Nahar clutched his chest as if struck to the core.
"Kh…"
Guess he was secretly disappointed about that.
"…May the courage of Aldebaran go with you, travelers."
Violet holy power flooded the surroundings and wrapped around our bodies. Before long, I felt vitality surging through me from the blessing's effect and spoke.
"Thanks."
"Not at all. Rather, we should be the ones offering thanks for the honor of bestowing a blessing upon a person of honor."
"Um… Your Grace? There's something I've been curious about for a while now. May I ask?"
As I was receiving Nahar's words of gratitude, Huey cut in, looking curious. Yeah, about time he got curious.
"Of course."
"You've been calling Ren things like 'mark' and 'person of honor' this whole time. What does that mean?"
Nahar looked at me with mild surprise, as if it had never occurred to him that Huey might not know.
"It's fine."
"Hmm. Are you familiar with the Trial of Courage held in Arcadia?"
"Ah, the one held at the Great Temple…"
"Yes, exactly. It is a place where the strong of the world prove the abilities they have cultivated before the god Aldebaran."
The Trial of Courage. Put simply, it was basically a fighting arena for the god's entertainment.
"Many challenge it every year, but those who pass can be counted on one hand."
"Well, yeah — passing that trial is the condition the Adventurer's Guild set for Mithril rank."
The entry requirement alone was defeating three bishop-class holy knights stationed at the Great Temple. It was the perfect place to prove your strength.
"Haha. So that's how it came to be, at some point."
"Wait a moment. Then does that mean…"
"Ren is…?"
It seemed they'd finally caught on to what Nahar was getting at. Huey and Lucy stared at me with shocked eyes.
"Those who pass the trial, receive Aldebaran's formal recognition, and earn the title of Transcendent — the Temple of Courage calls them persons of honor."
"Ah, so that's why…"
"Yes. Those individuals bear a distinctive mark left by Aldebaran himself, so the faithful who have undergone sufficient training can recognize them at a glance."
Nahar finished by explaining that the Temple of Courage provided everything it could free of charge to such persons of honor.
"See? I told you. I may not look like much, but I'm a pretty big deal."
These days I'd been weakened to the point I couldn't even properly match a Gold-rank adventurer, but still.
"Indeed. Among Transcendents, Lady Ren is especially spe—"
I was busy showing off when Nahar suddenly spoke up again, as if something had just occurred to him. What the hell is that old geezer about to say?!
"Tsk—"
"…cial— rather, she is quite famous."
Oh, damn it. They're already looking at me with suspicion.
"Famous…?"
"Ren. I'm going to ask nicely — stop hiding things and just tell us."
Watching Lucy crack her knuckles as she approached, I frantically shot Nahar a look.
"She is famous for an incident during the trial in which she destroyed the ceiling of the Great Temple, after which Aldebaran himself issued an oracle to grant her forgiveness."
"Th-that's what it was. Yeah."
"In any case, because of that incident, Lady Ren's mark is slightly different in form, which is how we could recognize her even with her appearance changed as it is now."
After sweating cold bullets through a desperate cover story with Nahar, I somehow managed to dispel Huey and Lucy's suspicions.
"If you don't want to talk about it, fine."
"I'm curious, but I suppose it can't be helped."
…There was a time when I still believed that, too.