The Thief (1)
After dealing with the thieves one by one, the only people left were the little girl's family and a few women. She begged us desperately to let her stay at the temple, saying that if she left like this, the only work she could find would be selling her body. But that was no different from blackmailing us. 'If you don't help me, it'll be like throwing my life into hell.' The weak aren't necessarily good. We knew that all too well from experience. Naturally, threats involving one's own life didn't work on us. We reminded them of reality—that even if they said such things, they would still receive support money and leave. We also made it clear that while we could help find jobs for those who were physically sound, we couldn't extend any further favors. There was no telling when or where people in far worse situations than hers might appear.
“I hope you make a good choice.”
We gave them three months. If someone was a bit greedy, they could stretch the support money over those three months, scrape together every last coin, and rent a place that collected monthly payments. Since this was Labyrinth City, there were plenty of things they could do even without taking the jobs we arranged. Of course, if they planned to earn money the easy way, that wasn't our responsibility.
Sister Melody accepted our decision without objection. She had only refrained from stopping people from following us—she had never once said she would take them in.
“What happens to us?”
Once we finished sorting out the ambiguous cases, the people we actually needed to take in remained. They were worried they might be abandoned too. Since there was no need to keep them trembling any longer, I spoke up.
“We'll find a place for you all to stay soon. So don't worry—shall we head to the temple together?”
The children cheered loudly. “So what Big Sis said was true?” “Since they're priests, they won't treat us badly, right?” “Of course, you idiot!” “Do they feed us well too?” “I wanna eat till my stomach bursts every day like today.”
Even though they'd lived through so much hardship as part of a criminal group, the children's innocence hadn't disappeared. Of course, they never would have shown this side of themselves if we hadn't approached them first with kindness.
“You all remember what I told you, right?”
“Yeah!”
“Good. Then everyone, start.”
Wondering what they were about to do, I stared blankly as they all shouted “One, two, three!” and bowed their heads to the floor in unison.
““Thank you so much for helping us!!!!!””
It seemed the little girl had planned this cute gesture with the children. Thanks to them, none of us could hide our warm smiles.
“Let's all live well from now on.”
“You don't have to give us delicious food like today. We'll eat anything just fine.”
“We'll work hard too! We can clean and even mend torn clothes.”
“Please speak casually with us!!”
The children really had a way with words. Of course, knowing that these weren't words spoken purely from joy but to hide their anxiety, I couldn't feel entirely happy about it.
“From now on, you'll learn many things at the temple. But it won't be to use you to make money. Once you're adults and can fully take responsibility for yourselves, you'll become independent. That's probably still a distant story for you all.”
The children's faces brightened as if they understood what I meant.
“Whew, I almost choked on all that food we ate. Thank goodness.”
“So we don't have to be separated, right?”
At such a young age, how could they have so many worries? I wanted to create a safe environment where these children could be properly protected as soon as possible.
* * *
“Thank you.”
“You've already said that many times. Are you going to thank us again?”
“It's not enough no matter how many times I say it. The children are so happy.”
“The place you're staying now is temporary. We'll find somewhere better.”
“Please don't. We've always crammed several people into one room to sleep. The kids probably think this place is heaven. There's no need for anything better. If it's too much of a burden, it might become troublesome later. As long as you give us a place where we can stay together and a guardian to keep the bad people away, we can handle everything else ourselves.”
This child had become far too accustomed to taking responsibility from a young age. Even after the thief group was eliminated, she seemed to think it was natural for her to look after her family.
“I don't know how you came to think that way, but you're also one of the children we need to protect.”
“Huh? Me? I'm fine.”
“Because you're strong?”
We'd had a similar conversation before. She had said that since she was strong, it was okay for her to do these things.
“You know it! Yes!! I'm strong, after all.”
“Even if you're strong, you're still young.”
“…Being young doesn't help at all with living. It only gets in the way.”
“But it helped you enter the embrace of the temple, didn't it?”
“!!”
“You don't need to worry about your family. From now on, we'll protect them.”
“Then what am I supposed to do now?”
To the girl who seemed lost without a goal, I said, “There will be so much for you to do from now on. There are mountains of things you'll need to learn.”
Of course, it would be problematic if this child tried to become a heretic inquisitor.
“Have a good dream.”
“Yes! You have a good dream too, Priest!!!”
After the meal ended and the remaining people were assigned rooms and went inside, I could finally breathe easily.
“Haa… Today really was a long day.”
After coming out of the Labyrinth, I'd treated so many people and even held a hastily prepared welcome party. A day that felt like two days had finally ended, and I couldn't help but feel that I'd lived quite fully.
“Shall we go rest now?”
Sister Melody nodded silently. We'd only roughly put our luggage down, and I was too tired to unpack today. I was thinking of putting it off until tomorrow when Sister Melody spoke in front of my door.
“Even though you're tired, may I check that for a moment?”
“Huh? That?”
Maybe because I was exhausted, my mind didn't work for a moment.
“…No. Please rest comfortably. I'll visit you tomorrow.”
“Ah! You're talking about the Holy Relic, right? I'm sorry. I'd forgotten. My mind was all over the place. Please come in. I think I'll feel more at ease if I check it before sleeping too.”
“Excuse me.”
The Holy Relic was something that couldn't be examined carefully enough, no matter how many times we checked it.
“After checking this time, I'll take it with me.”
“Ah… You're planning to take it directly to the Holy Empire yourself? I think it would be better to call someone.”
Though no one knew about the Holy Relic's existence except us, it was valuable enough to require proper escort personnel when moving it.
“No. Someone from the Holy Empire will come. But until then, I think it would be better for me to keep it.”
“I was supposed to keep holding onto it, so why are you trying to take it? Is it because you're worried it'll be hard on me?”
“I entrusted it to you because I had separate work to do inside the Labyrinth. Now that I don't, I should take responsibility again.”
“Hmm…”
“It'll be fine. I can stop it too. Of course, we should also consider the worst case, so if something happens, I'll come straight to ask for help.”
Yeah, originally it was Sister Melody who had obtained the Holy Relic, and she was much more of an expert in this area than I was, so it would probably be better to just hand it over. The reason I'd taken charge of the Holy Relic was to avoid dumping too much work on her.
“Wait.”
“!!”
Just as we arrived at my lodging and I was putting the key in the door to turn it, my body was suddenly pushed back, and Sister Melody stepped in front of me.
“W-why? What's wrong?”
When I asked, frozen in surprise at the sudden movement, Sister Melody frowned and glared at the door.
“There's a strange trace.”
“Huh? Strange?”
“…It's not a good trace. Someone opened this room and went inside. Look.”
Without turning the key, Sister Melody pulled it out and yanked the door with force. The door opened far too easily, almost pathetically so.
“!!!”
I was so shocked that my breath caught in my throat. A thief had broken into my room? This wasn't a normal situation. There was no way some bold fool would break into a priest's house just for money. I felt a sense of disbelief. Sister Melody was probably only suspicious as well. Since it was something only the two of us knew about, who could possibly steal the Holy Relic from that room?
“Are they still inside?”
“No, I don't sense any presence. Still, we should be careful. First, I'll check if anyone is hiding.”
“Okay.”
“Where did you put it?”
“Under the bed.”
Sister Melody must have had the same thought as me, because she immediately asked about its location. Since we'd been busy working without unpacking our luggage, I'd left it under the bed with the intention of hiding it properly later.
“It should be there, right? How would they know to take it? It's something only we two know about.”
Again, the only people who knew about the Holy Relic's existence were Sister Melody and me.
“It's not there. Did you put it somewhere else?”
“That can't be! I remember clearly. I definitely put it there! It's really not there?”
“No. It seems the reason someone broke into Priest's room was to take the Holy Relic.”
“How did they know? Who told them?”
The fact that this had happened inside the temple, of all places, was a blow to my pride.
“May I go inside? I think I need to check directly to see what's going on in there.”
“Yes. I've finished checking everything. Please come in.”
Because I'd been prevented from entering in case someone was hiding, I wanted to quickly check how messy my room was. As soon as permission was given, I went inside and looked around the room…
“Good heavens.”
I'd braced myself to some extent after hearing there had been an intruder, but the room was in far worse chaos than I'd imagined. Some things were completely broken, and everything was so thoroughly ransacked that there was no order left at all.
“That bastard!”
I hadn't even seen the person's face, but anger surged all the way to the top of my head.