Blacklist (1)
The voice was clear and refined. ‘What an infuriating voice.’ It was the exact same tone that reminded me of what had happened that morning. No matter how much I drank, my mood refused to improve. I grabbed the glass in front of me and emptied it in one go.
If I kept ignoring her, most people would eventually give up and leave. It wasn’t as if female mercenaries were rare, and it wasn’t like she had to cling to me of all people.
“I’m not sober enough to deal with you, so get lost.”
“Did something upsetting happen? Is that why you’re drinking so much?”
“……”
“Was I too harsh earlier? But at the time, I didn’t have a choice. It wasn’t just me who was there.”
She had been babbling on and on for a while now, but none of it registered. I didn’t want to listen, and I certainly didn’t want to talk. No matter what she said, I felt no motivation to respond.
“Are you very drunk? Can you even recognize people anymore? That would be a problem.”
I wished I could be left alone, but the constant interruptions made me consider buying more alcohol and drinking somewhere else.
“What about your wound? Did you just wrap it with bandages? You didn’t apply any medicine? Haven’t you ever heard that you shouldn’t drink when you’re hurt?”
“You’re noisy. Just get lost. Can’t you tell by looking? I’m in a bad mood. Whether I’m hurt or not, why are you butting into someone else’s business? Stop paying attention to me. Unless you want to get stabbed and die early.”
My clothes completely covered it, so the bandages shouldn’t have been visible. Yet she had noticed anyway. I reached for the bottle again to refill my glass.
At that moment, the man who had sat down beside me snatched the bottle before I could grab it.
“What the hell do you think you’re—!!”
It was like pouring oil on a fire. The rage that surged up was uncontrollable. I shot to my feet, ready to grab him by the collar.
But the instant I saw his face, I froze in shock. The last person I had ever expected to see was sitting right there.
“I went through so much trouble to get here. Are you really going to treat me this coldly?”
The man who had crushed my desperate hopes was smiling at me. The miracle I had prayed for was looking straight at me.
Thud.
Was it the alcohol? My legs gave out and I collapsed back into the chair.
“H-how are you here?”
This was no place for someone so precious. The hygiene was terrible, the place reeked of mercenaries’ stale sweat, and the sour stench of liquor mixed with constant crude swearing. He didn’t belong in such a rough environment at all. He probably hadn’t even known places like this existed in his entire life.
Yet this noble man had come all the way here to see me. I wasn’t foolish enough to miss what that meant.
‘I have to catch him.’
I was stunned, unable to process how this had happened, but I couldn’t let this miracle slip away. The foolish mistake I had made that day had to end there. Because of that thought, I instinctively grabbed his hand.
“O-our Ena…”
My body moved as I wanted, but what came after was the problem. The shock of his appearance had sobered me up for a moment, but the intoxication quickly returned, making it hard to move.
“I know. I know what you want to say. Can you stand?”
“Just… give me a moment.”
There happened to be a glass of water with ice in it. I splashed it directly onto my face.
Splash—!
The icy water struck my face, instantly clearing my head.
“I’m sober now. I can walk. You’ll do it, right? That’s why you came, isn’t it?”
A priest had slipped out of the temple at night and come to a tavern frequented by mercenaries. And he had come alone. It was already unbelievable, yet he had ventured into this dangerous place to find me.
‘He must have been trying to avoid attention. The reason he refused me before was because that knight was standing right next to him!’
This was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. I had to seize it. Priests were supposed to show mercy and compassion to everyone, but that grace was never extended to someone like me who was on the blacklist.
“Shh— I’d rather not draw any attention. Can we move quietly?”
“Thank you so much. I’ll repay this kindness with my life.”
I didn’t dare utter the word “priest” in case it caused trouble, so I kept my voice as low as possible while expressing my gratitude. After paying the bill, we left the tavern as quickly as we could.
The priest, hood pulled low, spoke.
“First, could you lead the way? There are too many people here.”
“Uh… okay. Thank you!”
With the priest following behind, I headed toward home. I needed to stay alert, but the alcohol kept trying to pull me under. I slapped my cheeks, but when that wasn’t enough, I even pressed on my wound. The pain and the trickle of blood finally sharpened my mind.
“Hoo… Can we walk a little faster?”
“I’m fine, but…”
“I’m fine too. I’m sober now. Let’s go.”
We had to head deeper into the darkening alleys, which made me feel embarrassed, but there was no helping it. Being placed on the temple’s blacklist meant giving up many things—including the ability to take on jobs that risked your life. My comrades could go to the temple for healing if they got hurt fighting monsters, but I wasn’t even allowed inside. That was why, despite having the skill to fight properly, I was stuck working as a porter going in and out of the labyrinth.
“This is it. It’s pretty shabby, sorry.”
It was the kind of house I was ashamed to show others. As soon as we entered the crudely built wooden home, I saw my sister sitting there with her eyes wide open.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you asleep?”
“Because you didn’t come home, sis.”
“If I’m late, just go to sleep like I told you!”
“Have you been drinking?”
“Yeah. Just a little. And didn’t I tell you to keep a light on at night? It’s freezing in here!”
My sister looked far too cold. Even if she tried to keep warm, it clearly wasn’t enough.
‘Honestly, she can’t manage without me looking after her.’
If I had known she would be like this, I never would have drunk. ‘Wait, no?’ If I hadn’t been drinking, I wouldn’t have met the priest. Wanting a drink today had truly been a stroke of heavenly luck.
When I lit the lamp, my sister’s eyes widened as she noticed the priest standing behind me.
“Sis, behind you…”
“Do you know who I came with?”
Unable to calm my excitement, I asked my sister.
“Who is it? Wait, sis, finally! Should I call him brother-in-law?”
I nearly choked from the unexpected remark. Coughing violently, I quickly pulled back the hood I had kept low and removed my robe. Since I wasn’t wearing priestly robes, she probably wouldn’t immediately realize I was a priest. Still, it was better than keeping the hood down in such a suspicious way—it would lessen her wariness.
‘She’s so thin. How old is she? Is the age gap with her sister that big?’
Looking at the girl’s frail body compared to her sister’s, it was clear she had suffered greatly until now.
‘I hope it’s an illness I can cure…’
While I observed the younger sister, the mercenary explained our relationship to her.
“You idiot! It’s not like that at all! What are you saying with that dirty little mouth of yours!”
“Aww, I got my hopes up for nothing.”
“Why would you get your hopes up?”
“Then who is he?”
“The priest who’s going to cure your illness.”
“…A priest?”
At the mercenary’s words, her sister’s face hardened.
“Why did you bring a priest? I don’t want this. Tell him to leave.”
“Leave? What nonsense are you saying? You need to get treated! I know what you’re worried about, but this person isn’t like that. He’s really kind. You can trust him this time.”
“No! I told you to stop already. Why did you bring another priest to take something from us again?! I’m not getting treated!”
The younger sister was having a full-blown panic at the word “priest,” while the mercenary was desperately trying to calm her down. There was no way such strong rejection had appeared for no reason.
‘Why did they end up on the blacklist?’
The blacklist wasn’t something just anyone could get on. The sin couldn’t have been light. But if the perpetrator had been blacklisted, the younger sister wouldn’t be reacting this way. And I wasn’t unaware of the problems within the Holy Empire.
‘Corrupt priests.’
Could it be that these two had been unjustly placed on the blacklist because of one of those corrupt priests?
“Ahem. Could you listen to me for a moment?”
“Ah! I’m sorry. My sister didn’t mean any of that, so please don’t take it to heart. She’s still young, that’s all.”
The mercenary looked quite desperate, probably afraid I might change my mind.
“Yes, of course. However, after hearing what your sister said, I have some questions. May I ask why you were placed on the blacklist?”
“Huh? That’s…”
It wouldn’t be easy to talk about one’s own wrongdoing. Of course, I still didn’t know if it truly was a wrongdoing that had gotten them blacklisted.
“Even if you don’t answer, there will be no disadvantage to receiving treatment, so please don’t worry. I came all the way here—there’s no way I would refuse to treat her now. And even if you tell me, I won’t refuse treatment.”
“…It would be better for you not to hear it, Father. It’s not exactly a pleasant story.”
“A priest tried to rape my sister!!”
The mercenary had tried not to say anything, but her sister suddenly burst out with the truth.
“It was that priest who did wrong! So why does my sister have to be treated like this?! Because of that incident, she’s been banned from entering the temple for the rest of her life!”
“Hey!! Stop it!”
“It was that priest who did the bad thing!!”
I had suspected they might have been blacklisted because of a corrupt priest’s wrongdoing, but the truth was far worse than I had imagined.
“It was my fault. I should have just beaten him, but I ended up killing him.”
“!!”
At the mention of killing a priest, everything finally made sense. Honestly, just being placed on the blacklist after killing a priest was actually quite lucky. There was no way the Holy Empire would have allowed someone who murdered a priest to walk around freely as a mercenary.
‘It must mean the priest’s crime was severe enough that they had to overlook these people.’
They could have quietly buried the priest’s death, but instead they deliberately put the victim on the blacklist. It was full of malice. It was probably a warning to keep quiet and not make a big scene.
“So that’s what happened.”
“You can’t say no now. I won’t give up.”
I nodded at the mercenary’s desperate words.
“Of course. I will treat her.”
The mercenary let out a sigh of relief at my answer, then turned and scolded her sister.
“You stop it too! This priest has nothing to do with those people. He’s risking himself by coming here to treat you. If you keep acting like this, how are you any different from the people who treated us badly? Just like we didn’t deserve to be cursed at, this priest has no reason to put up with your tantrums.”
Her sister’s eyes were glistening with tears, as if she felt wronged. Seeing that, I felt more pity than displeasure. It wasn’t as if her resentment had built up in just a day or two. Having been on the blacklist, the kind of things she must have experienced were obvious. Taking a little resentment was nothing.
‘Honestly, it’s embarrassing.’
A priest should have acted like a priest and never done something so filthy. What was so attractive about that scum that he even took revenge? He should have been ashamed enough to offer compensation, yet instead he pettily added her name to the blacklist and showed his ugly true colors. My face burned with secondhand shame.