Chapter 2. Encounters and Opportunities (8)
Chapter 2. Encounters and Opportunities (8)
The Hunter profession hadn't been established in this world for very long.
Even the most experienced Hunter had a career of only a dozen or so years.
As an individual career, that couldn't exactly be called short, but compared to traditional professions like the military, where people stayed for decades, it was fair to say it was still a newly created occupation.
Perhaps because of that, the Hunter in front of me wasn't someone with an overwhelming amount of seasoned experience either. How should I put it—when you think of an academy headmaster, don't you usually picture an old man with graying hair?
The person in front of me wasn't quite that old. By age, wasn't he much younger than my father from my Past Life? He looked like he'd just entered his forties.
Considering that being a Hunter was a job that overworked the body, he might even be younger than that.
"Chae-eun!"
The moment the Hunter saw Ria, he smiled warmly and waved. The bandage wrapped around that arm was stained dark red, and I felt my conscience prick me again.
"Uncle!"
It looked like a Hunter who was close to Ria's father had come over.
I remembered his name. In the story, there was only one person Lee Chae-eun called "Uncle."
So, I thought it was 'Hyeon-gang.' Kim Hyeon-gang. Yes, that was the name. A Rank 3 Hunter and quite a capable person, but his ability to run an organization was actually far superior, so his standing within his Association was higher than his rank suggested.
In fact, he was famous enough that most Hunters, even those from other associations, trembled at the mere mention of his name. Even the protagonist, Lee Si-yoon, was intimidated in front of him.
He was also one of the people Lee Chae-eun contacted whenever she wanted to back Lee Si-yoon up.
......Come to think of it, he was someone who probably had little to do with me. Since he was with the Association, his ability to influence the Church was somewhat limited.
After greeting Ria warmly, the man's gaze turned toward me. Then he looked back at Ria and said,
"Is this......?"
"Right. Oh, but she doesn't like 'that title,' so it'd be better to just call her Sister."
By "that title," she must mean the title of Saintess Candidate.
"Sister."
Having heard Ria's words, the man spoke to me with a somewhat deferential attitude.
"Thank you for coming to help like this."
"Ah, no, I haven't done anything yet......"
"In a fight, the psychological aspect has quite a significant impact, after all."
When he put it that way, I had nothing to say.
I'd heard that the magnitude of the Holy Power I could wield hadn't spread very widely among ordinary people or clergy of other churches.
A church without a Saintess Candidate had no reason to care about such things in the first place. If they had a Saintess Candidate, they likewise had no reason to care about me. After all, I was a Saintess Candidate in name only, with none of the rights of one.
As for ordinary people, there weren't many who were serious enough to need healing from a Saintess in the first place.
So I was only known quietly through word of mouth among the Hunters I'd healed, and in reality, my 'notoriety' far outstripped my 'fame.' I was the only Saintess Candidate who had been directly called out by a Cardinal and effectively expelled.
Still, was it a good thing or a bad thing that I was famous among Hunters?
"......By any chance, are other Saintess Candidates scheduled to come as well?"
"Yes, I heard two more are planning to come. And—well,"
The man glanced at me, then leaned slightly toward me and spoke in a low voice.
"......I heard the reason those two are coming here is also because of you, Sister."
I couldn't help but let out a small groan.
"You don't need to worry too much. We'll make sure you can stay separate."
"That's...... thank you."
Whatever else could be said, the highest-ranking cleric in this country was the Cardinal.
Moreover, since being a cleric wasn't a position with a term limit like the president or a member of the National Assembly, people often held the position indefinitely unless they committed a truly enormous offense.
Naturally, the longer one stayed, the deeper one's influence grew.
......Just like the Hunters, even if one's tenure as a cleric of this order wasn't very long, most clerics had often been clergy of other religions before that. Since these were people who knew each other through quiet connections, their influence naturally couldn't be ignored.
After I sent the Cardinal the letter saying "the concept of God is mistaken," the Cardinal wasn't the only one who replied.
Among them were my fellow Saintess Candidates.
I'd never faced them directly since my rights were stripped, but since they were people who had protested to me through letters, honestly, it was quite awkward.
"......Then, would you like to rest for a bit? We have plenty of refreshments here as well."
Could I really relax and munch on snacks in this situation?
But if I refused here, things would probably get awkward with this man too, so I just quietly nodded.
*
Snacks and tea were brought out, but I didn't touch them, and I couldn't even sit down, so I paced restlessly.
Ria looked at me like that and briefly made a face as if wondering whether to say something, but in the end she chose to say nothing. I was grateful for that. The thoughts running through my head right now weren't exactly positive.
Worrying about something without any basis is irrational and unreasonable. It's like being terrified at a crosswalk because you suddenly think you'll get into a traffic accident, or being terrified alone on a plane because you think it'll crash today.
But sometimes, ending up with worries that won't help no matter what you do was unavoidable.
Ria was right. There were many Hunters here, and quite a few clerics had already arrived.
They weren't people I could say I liked, but hadn't she said the other Saintess Candidates were coming too? Given that they were Saintess Candidates, their Holy Power should be considerable—enough to heal several seriously wounded people.
And I was here too.
"......."
So why was I anxious?
"Ah."
I was human, so I did sometimes have irrational thoughts, but that didn't mean I couldn't reach a conclusion. Especially when cause and effect were laid out this clearly, working backward from the result to the reason wasn't difficult.
If you saw news of a traffic accident on TV in the morning, it was natural to worry about your commute. If you heard a few hours before your flight that another plane had crashed, you were reminded all over again that the plane you were about to board could crash too.
And I already knew that Lee Si-yoon would face a life-threatening crisis.
It had already happened once, but if Lee Si-yoon and I were in a similar place, of course it could happen. The novel never stated how many times it occurred.
And in web novels, "danger" usually strikes at the moment everyone thinks they're safe.
And strictly speaking, I wasn't a Saintess. Could that have an effect? I thought it probably could. Human relationships affected incidents and accidents more than one might think.
What if—what if, hypothetically.
If the story subtly went off course, and I ended up unable to heal Lee Si-yoon, what would happen?
In a web novel, the protagonist is the protagonist no matter what anyone says.
A being fated to prevent great incidents and accidents and become the world's Hero.
What would happen if that protagonist died prematurely?
"......."
Had I been making a wrong assumption? Was thinking that simply removing myself would make the situation roll the way I wanted too complacent a thought?
"Ria."
"Hm?"
When I suddenly spun around and called her name, Ria, who had been staring blankly out the window, snapped her head up.
"Has Brother Lee Si-yoon not arrived yet?"
"Arrived...... should I say he hasn't? He should be heading back toward the Gate around now."
Ah, right. She'd said he'd already gone inside the Gate.
"They're not trying to catch it right this second, you know? They have to search little by little and first confirm whether it's really something you could call an 'animal,' and if so, where and how to strike to deal with it. And since quite a few people have been injured in the meantime, they have to be even more careful."
"......You said it was the worst thing you'd ever encountered."
"To be frank, it's just a beast, isn't it? It's just...... big or fast, that's all. Honestly, the parasites you mentioned, or things smaller than a person but carrying serious toxins, could be more dangerous. Well, in those cases, as long as you're careful about that specific part, you can handle it alone. What's actually scary is when the environment itself is hostile."
That was the conventional wisdom up to now.
But once the story truly got into full swing, the Gate Crisis would gradually begin to turn serious. Not just simple beast-like beings, but literal monsters that couldn't possibly be faced with one person's strength alone would pour out, and other forces preparing an invasion from beyond would appear—a group that could properly be called an "enemy" would emerge.
With Lee Si-yoon's skill at that point, he'd be able to handle it well enough, though.
"......."
"Are you that worried?"
"How could I not be worried?"
Ah, I felt like we'd had this exact conversation a little while ago.
Ria's eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at me.
"If you're really that worried—"
But before Ria could finish, a sound came from outside the building.
The warning sound you sometimes hear in underground parking garages when a car exits. It sounded like that sound turned up loud.
It was my first time hearing it directly, but I immediately understood that it was the sound signaling that the people who had entered the Gate had returned.
"Oh— hey!"
I dashed straight out the door, and Ria quickly shouted and followed behind me.
As I ran through the long room still full of wounded people, eyes turned toward me. Whether more people had arrived besides the clerics who were originally there, it was a bit more crowded than when I'd come in earlier.
I went outside and tried to find Lee Si-yoon and his childhood friend right away, but the area near the Gate was already swarming with people.
Judging by the screams and shouts I could hear, quite a few people had been injured this time too.
There were quite a lot of people around, and among them were some wearing what looked like black military uniforms, and others wearing what I could only describe as medieval knight armor with a few modern tactical pouches attached.
"Make way!"
A woman's voice called out from inside.
Then a white light shone, and I heard a few people exclaim in admiration.
......So one of the Saintess Candidates was in there.
Well, that wasn't something I needed to concern myself with right now.
"Brother Lee Si-yoon!"
When I shouted that, several people turned to look this way. A few of the men in particular had rather bewildered expressions, and some of the women, especially the nuns—
Hm, those looks weren't very friendly.
I was reminded all over again that my clothes weren't very nun-like. Come to think of it, maybe the looks I'd been getting earlier were because of this outfit rather than because I was a Saintess.
"Sister?"
Lee Si-yoon answered, emerging somewhat hurriedly from among the people at my call.
He looked very bewildered.
Well, he was alive.
I let out a small breath.
......But before I could step any closer, someone behind me suddenly grabbed my arm and yanked, and my body spun around in the opposite direction.
"Ria?"
Ria was looking at me with a somewhat angry expression for some reason.