Thirin Becomes Demure
The guild door burst open with a violent bang. A woman charged in as if she meant to rip the hinges clean off.
“Emily!”
Her scream tore through the building like a siren. The entire guild fell deathly silent. The woman—hair a wild mess, one shoe missing—stumbled inside and sprinted straight for the reception desk.
“Miss! You said you found our Emily! Our Emily—!”
“Ah, um, about the missing child, just one moment—”
“Where is she? Is Emily here? Where’s my Emily—”
“Mom!”
A freckle-faced little girl came running out from the lounge in the back.
“Mom!”
“Emily!”
The girl rushed toward her mother. For a split second the woman’s eyes rolled with raw emotion.
“Emily!”
Slap!
The woman’s hand cracked across her daughter’s cheek.
“Emily! How many times have I told you not to wander off by yourself?!”
“U-uh…!”
“How many times, how many times did I say it?! Why don’t you ever listen to me? Why? Why won’t you listen?!”
“M-Mom…!”
The little girl burst into heavy sobs and buried herself in her mother’s arms like a terrified kitten.
“Mom, I’m sorry… I’m sorry… Mom…”
Only then did the woman’s own tears spill over. She cupped her daughter’s face, kissing her forehead and cheeks again and again, whispering between each one.
“It’s okay… it’s okay, my baby… I’m sorry. Mom’s so sorry… I should have watched you better… I should have protected you… Mom should have…”
Thirin watched the scene in complete silence.
Soon other parents began arriving, each repeating similar tearful reunions. The guild filled with the sound of relieved sobs and scolding.
Thirin felt strangely unsettled. A prickling discomfort crawled through her chest, like something inside her desperately wanted to be scratched in a way that would feel both cool and irritating at the same time.
…Indigestion?
Now that she thought about it, swallowing the Divine Core whole like that had probably been reckless. Her stomach did feel a little off. Maybe she should grab some fried potatoes from the stall out front before heading back.
Just as Thirin was licking her lips at the sight of the potato stand, a middle-aged man in ragged clothes approached and stopped directly in front of her.
“Excuse me… Are you, by any chance, the person who saved Rebe?”
“Who’s Rebe…?”
“The child who went missing recently and then came back. I’m her father.”
Thirin gave a small nod. She had never bothered learning the children’s names. She hadn’t rescued them out of personal connection.
The man stared at her with bloodshot eyes. Thirin tensed, wondering what he was about to say. Instead, his trembling hand reached into his coat and pulled out a small object.
“I don’t have much, and I don’t know much, but…”
“……”
“I know a favor must be repaid. So please…”
It was an old, worn pouch. In wuxia terms, it would be called a coin sack. Thirin looked from the pouch to the man’s face—bloodshot eyes, rough hands, threadbare clothes. A wave of intense discomfort washed over her.
“Put it away.”
“But…”
“I already received fair compensation from the guild,” she said coldly. “Taking anything more would be unfair.”
She looked him straight in the eye and added, “Besides, the bastards who kidnapped those kids were stealing their baby formula. Don’t lump me in with those formula thieves. Use that money to buy the children some snacks instead.”
“But…”
“I have nothing more to say.”
With that, Thirin turned and walked back into the guild. She marched straight to the reception counter, irritation clear in her voice.
“Get Rina out here!”
“P-please wait just a moment! I’ll call her right away!”
Thankfully Rina appeared before Thirin’s mood could sour any further.
Rina glanced around the hall, then quietly beckoned Thirin over.
“Miss Thirin. Would you follow me? I’ve prepared a private room.”
“Can’t we talk outside?”
“No. Actually… this isn’t the kind of conversation we can have openly in a city that houses the Pantheon.”
“Hmm.”
The room Rina led her to was a small consultation chamber on the second floor. The moment the door closed, the noisy clamor of the main hall vanished as if it had never existed—clearly soundproofed.
Rina poured a cup of tea and got straight to business.
“The fact that you obtained a Divine Core is something straight out of legend. But precisely because of that, you must be extremely cautious.”
Thirin nodded. She had already guessed as much. Back in that cultist temple, even mentioning the sand god in a negative light had made the priest visibly uncomfortable.
“Because of the Pantheon?”
Rina nodded.
“Yes. The Pantheon worships all gods equally.”
She let out a small sigh.
“From their perspective, even if it was a forgotten cult deity, the idea that a mere human destroyed and claimed its divinity would be… highly unpleasant.”
Thirin snorted.
“But gods fighting each other is fine?”
“That’s a matter between gods.”
Rina smiled awkwardly.
“The priests of the Pantheon tend to think a little differently from ordinary people. Their perspective, their concepts—they’re not quite the same.”
She refilled Thirin’s empty cup and continued.
“The moment they become priests, they abandon their personal names and live solely as agents of their god. They can still pursue wealth and fame if they wish, but becoming a priest usually means detaching from worldly desires. It’s quite ironic.”
Thirin nodded again.
Come to think of it, they all looked so similar I couldn’t tell them apart anyway. No point remembering their faces.
But why are they all so damn unlucky? Occupational hazard?
“Anyway, I understand,” Thirin said, crossing her legs. “Eating the Divine Core might rub the Pantheon the wrong way. Even if one of the gods themselves vouched for it. And the guild, as an organization, has to be careful about even mentioning it. Unlike the idiot adventurers making a scene downstairs, you people have actual politics to worry about.”
Rina stared at her silently for a moment, then broke into a gentle smile.
“…Thank you for understanding our position, Miss Thirin. You really are different from the others.”
Pure admiration shone in her eyes.
Thirin simply shrugged. She was a modern person. She knew exactly how complicated and delicate an organization’s official stance could be. It was completely different from a lone individual who could say whatever they wanted.
“If it had been a normal adventurer, they’d probably be flipping the desk right about now while shouting ‘So what?!’ right?”
Rina smiled.
“Please note that I never said those words. And as a guild employee, I hope you understand it’s difficult for me to express personal opinions about other adventurers?”
Thirin let out a small laugh.
“Anyway, let’s get to the point. You didn’t call me up here for small talk.”
“Correct.”
Rina straightened her posture and lowered her voice.
“There is a small church belonging to the Savior Cult on the outskirts of the city.”
“Savior Cult?”
The face of a certain tactless old man who had been flirting with the bakery widow flashed through Thirin’s mind. At the same time she remembered that crazy idiot Heshik. Before he died, he had claimed the Savior Cult was actually the Romance Cult and that he was simply practicing its doctrines.
That old fool said it wasn’t the Romance Cult but still tried to seduce a widow. What a tactless geezer.
“Why are they involved all of a sudden?”
“The Savior Cult… actually has several different factions,” Rina whispered, as if sharing a secret. “Most simply help people quietly, but a few insist on actively following the path of the ‘Savior’ they believe in. To put it nicely, they have very strong convictions. To put it another way… they have very strong personalities.”
“Hmm.”
A Savior Cult priestess with a strong personality, huh.
Thirin thought back to the past year. Whenever she couldn’t find a decent inn, she had often stayed at Savior Cult churches. Of course it wasn’t free—she had paid more than the cost of the city’s expensive inns under the guise of “lodging donations.” She had called it “flexing.” After all, getting lightly overcharged at tourist spots was part of the experience, wasn’t it?
Still, the Savior Cult had never actually demanded payment from her. To Thirin, they had always seemed like a group of kind, slightly gullible uncles and aunties. Sure, there were a few weird aunties who kept asking if she had a man and offering to introduce her to one, but overall they were decent.
Among all the Savior Cult priests she had met, the one with the strongest personality had been that old man.
“So?”
“Fortunately, one of those ‘strong personality’ priestesses is currently staying in this city. She usually travels around providing free medical care…”
“Medical care?”
“Yes. She primarily treats patients who can’t afford the Pantheon’s expensive healing fees or who have been turned away by them.”
Rina chose her next words carefully.
“She might know something about how to handle a Divine Core.”
“She plays doctor and knows about Divine Cores too? Impressive.”
“Yes, she is. However…”
Rina averted her gaze slightly, looking uncomfortable.
“…Her personality is, um. Quite unique.”
“Hmph.”
Thirin shrugged.
No matter how unique her personality is, can it really be worse than mine?
Even she had to admit that over the past year her own personality had grown rather eccentric. Of course, Thirin had originally been kind and well-behaved. It was only after suffering through this tiresome fantasy world that she had changed. In a barbaric place like this, you needed a bit of bite to survive.
She was confident she wouldn’t lose to some “unique” priestess.
That was a misconception.
For the sake of achieving Rebirth, Thirin never delayed important matters. She met the Savior Cult priestess the very same day.
Golden hair and emerald eyes. But she smiled so widely that her eyes were nearly closed in constant crescent moons.
Thirin swallowed.
She had high standards. Seeing her own 180-charm face every single day meant ordinary beauty barely registered. Yet the woman before her was no pushover. Even without makeup she was easily 120. The kind of appearance that could charm 100% of men and 20% of women. The kind that made certain numerical values related to attraction shoot straight up.
But the moment the priestess opened her mouth, charm stats stopped mattering entirely.
The Savior Cult priestess who supposedly provided medical volunteer work said:
“So the problem is menstrual cramps.”
“Th-that’s… part of it?”
For some reason Thirin couldn’t bring herself to speak casually.
The priestess nodded solemnly.
“Simply removing the pain is not a fundamental solution. To truly cure it, we must eliminate the root cause of the suffering.”
“Heee…”
Now this was interesting. One of the reasons Thirin wanted to achieve Rebirth was precisely because of menstrual pain. She listened intently.
“What should I do…?”
The priestess spoke with complete seriousness.
“The pain of menstruation can be resolved through pregnancy.”
“……Pardon?”
“It is a simple truth. Menstruation occurs due to the absence of pregnancy. In other words, if you become pregnant, you will no longer menstruate.”
“……”
The priestess took both of Thirin’s hands.
“Please fall in love. If you give birth to a child, everything will be resolved.”
A cold sweat ran down Thirin’s back.
Solving period cramps with pregnancy.
Thirin’s madness had always been fake. And as a rule, fakes become polite when they encounter the real thing.
Thirin politely placed both hands over her stomach and demurely pressed her knees together.
After an entire year, Thirin had finally become a proper, modest lady.