Chapter 4. Flight and Service (13)
Chapter 4. Flight and Service (13)
"Hey."
"Yes?"
On the way back down from the rooftop garden.
Ria suddenly called out to me.
"Hey. Why don’t you come work with me?"
"Yes?"
That made even less sense.
What was it—I felt like I'd heard that line somewhere before.
I mean...... in some noir movie.
Of course, that didn't mean Ria was going to shove me in among organized criminals, and it didn't seem like she meant having me infiltrate some group of Hunters either.
Literally, she was suggesting we do "work."
Work, huh.
When a person stays cooped up at home too much, their mental state tends to deteriorate, and most of the reason for that ultimately comes down to "having no money."
If you had money overflowing and couldn't handle all that excess time, traveling all over the world and tasting every delicacy under the sun, would your mental state ever deteriorate? If you played all the games you wanted and binge-watched drama seasons, you'd actually be emotionally fulfilled.
Since that isn't possible, you just work and try to live that kind of life at least on weekends.
In that sense, I've never done anything resembling real work in this world.
Helping with church work could be called work, I suppose, but honestly speaking, it was never anything that required expertise.
Even if it isn't a professional job, doesn't every kind of work have its own expertise? Salespeople have their own, service workers have their own.
No matter how I thought about it, walking around the church holding a broom didn't strike me as all that professional. The work I did when volunteering was only slightly harder than that—the type of work itself was the same.
"What kind of work?"
After mulling over the correlation between the work Ria did and the work I did, I asked.
"Hunter work."
At Ria's words, I blinked.
"Hunter work?"
Seeing me repeat it like a parrot, Ria shrugged.
"Your skills—they probably aren't too bad. If you can pull your own weight, you're actually nothing but a plus factor in a party, right?"
"I—"
"Ah, ah."
As if she knew exactly what I was about to object to, Ria waved her hand back and forth.
"I'm not telling you to take money for your Holy Power. That's just a plus factor—think of it as a bonus that comes along."
Ding.
The elevator stopped.
The doors opened, and we stepped out. Most of the Hunters had apparently gone off to do their own work, because the hallway wasn't crowded. Well, even with a base salary, the money coming in this month depended on performance, so most people would want to work a lot and rack up results.
Especially since the Association bought materials at favorable prices. Of course, it was a bit cheaper than the private market rate, but the fact that they'd buy anytime, reliably, was appealing. Even if a private market rate existed, you still needed someone to buy from you.
"So people with that 'plus factor' are pretty common?"
I'm not an idiot.
When a "plus factor" is so big that the person's actual value doesn't matter, that happens often. You can't help but learn that in the course of living in society.
For example, someone's relationship with influential parents behind them, or a close relative who actually held a position at the company.
"Sure, there are."
Ria puffed out her chest as she spoke.
"For example, looks."
"......."
"What? No, I'm serious. Even when I go buy a single material, they throw in an extra one."
I mean, I didn't even say anything.
Of course, Ria is pretty. If we're going by face alone, I think I'm prettier, but Ria has a better figure than me, so does that make it a draw?
Somehow, I suspected that more than her looks, the fact that Ria's father was a Hero, or that Ria was on uncle-niece terms with someone high up in this Association, probably worked even more in her favor...... but well, if that's a "plus," then it's a plus.
"Is that so?"
But still, I couldn't completely shake off my doubt.
Of course, I don't doubt for a second that my looks would be a "plus." Honestly, I don't even want to go near Lee Si-yoon too often. Because I'm sure the reason Lee Si-yoon was able to grow close to the Saintess in various ways in the original was their mutual appearance.
Lee Si-yoon is simply handsome, and in my case, I'm pretty, I have a good figure, and above all, my appearance stands out a bit. If only the continent were different, I'd be a common race, but in this country, I'm a race that's unusually hard to see.
Come to think of it, it's strange.
I don't know how the original Saintess ended up operating in this country, but I just popped out at age five.
Leaving aside the fact that I had no parents, there was no story at all before that. The Church had tried in its own way to look into my past, but even my early childhood didn't appear on any nearby CCTV footage.
I just walked in, step by step, from a CCTV blind spot and stared blankly at the church's front gate.
......Well, anyway, none of that matters right now.
Because somehow, I had a feeling that the "plus" factor Ria saw in me might not just be my looks but my Holy Power itself.
"Strictly speaking, it'd be a bit hard for us to form a party. We're both affiliated with the Church. We're not official Hunters."
"Probably so. You're planning to use your position, right? Free dispatch requests."
I know my own rights, at least. They were just all stripped away early on, so I never got to use them.
"You know your stuff."
Ria grinned at my answer.
"We'll get 'hazard pay.' Obviously, taxes will be taken out, and there'll be 'donations' going back to the Church. It's a win-win. It's actually one of the Church's main sources of income."
"......Is that so?"
"Well, our case is a bit unusual, but the Church periodically dispatches the Knight Order all over the place."
That would be when the country, not the Hunter Association, is short on manpower for its own work.
"It's a Saintess Candidate privilege, right? A way to prove yourself."
"......Prove that I'm qualified to become a Saintess?"
"No."
Ria wagged her finger, denying my words.
"I'm telling you to prove you're ‘materialistic.’ Distance yourself from Church work and focus only on anything involving money."
"So...... in the end, you're telling me to make money with my Holy Power?"
"No."
Ria put her hands on her hips again and puffed out her chest. I forced myself to keep my eyes from drifting there and raised my gaze.
Ria's face was brimming with confidence.
"I'm saying use me."
Ria thumped her own chest with her hand.
"As it happens, your 'knight' knows the Association people well, is the daughter of a Hero, and even has excellent talent as a knight, right? Act like you're making money off that. The Hunters won't have any reason to hate you, and at the same time, outside observers won't look at you too favorably, and the Church will get a headache, won't it?"
"......Oh."
That's actually pretty plausible.
And besides, strictly speaking, it's not really exploiting her. Ria has her own benefits too.
Mainly in the direction of rebelling against her father.
"I like it. So, how should we split that 'hazard pay'? 7 to 3, I assume?"
"......No, no matter what, isn't that a bit too much?"
At my question, Ria made a dumbfounded face.
"Still, it should at least be 6 to 4."
"Huh?"
I tilted my head.
"Wouldn't a 40% share be too much for someone at my skill level?"
"......Huh?"
"......Huh?"
Seeing me tilt my head, Ria tilted her head too, so I tilted my head again in the opposite direction.
"No, I mean, that proposal—you were proposing that you take 3? Not 7?"
"No matter what, I have a conscience. How could I ask to take 7? What exactly do you take me for?"
"I thought you meant it as the price for lending your status."
"......?"
As I floated a question mark over my head, Ria let out a deep sigh and grabbed both of my cheeks with her hands.
"Mmph."
My cheeks squished inward, making me look like a fish.
"......Let's split it 50–50. Half and half."
Before I could even object, Ria continued with a serious expression.
"Among Hunters, splitting the reward evenly among all n members is the norm. That way, everyone tries to team up with people around the same Rank. It's an unspoken rule."
......Is that so?
"And, when negotiating, you're supposed to push for the side that's more advantageous to you."
Is that so?
For someone saying that, wasn't Ria also thinking she'd get 4?
No, more importantly, I'd like her to let go of my cheeks soon.
*
What am I supposed to do with this girl, really.
Chae-eun looked at Anna and couldn't get a read on her at all.
Okay, she understood that Anna had decided to live conscientiously.
Honestly, she liked it.
Good grief—she chose to defy God, and her choice was to live kindly.
Unless someone was so twisted that they couldn't stand seeing such an upright person without wanting to break them, they couldn't help but think well of Anna.
But at the same time—they'd think the same thing as Chae-eun.
What do I do with this girl.
Honestly, simply living in the Church might have been the ideal life for her. If anything, she had exactly the kind of personality suited to religious devotion—innocent and righteous.
.......
The thought that she didn't want to let her be dirtied by society—it crossed her mind, just a little.
But at the same time, Anna was hoping to get out of that Church.
If that was the case, she wanted to help with that too. No matter what kind of world it was, she didn't want such a good kid to go completely unrewarded.
And at the same time, a rebellious feeling rose up.
The world isn't like that.
The world I've seen isn't as bright as what you want it to be.
Like an adult who wants to tell a child who still believes in Santa Claus that no such thing exists, she also wanted to tell this kid with her absurd values.
How can you think like that until you're an adult? Do you really not know the world? And—
"......."
But whenever Chae-eun watched Anna scrunch up her face and squirm to get out of her hands, those thoughts didn't last long.
"Pwah!"
When Chae-eun released the strength in her hands, Anna whipped backward.
"What do you think you're doing!?"
"Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to."
"Y-you, you—!"
Anna bristled as if she were about to say something nasty.
"What are you, some kind of gorilla!?"
"......Huh?"
A weird nickname that seemed like something an elementary schooler would come up with.
But at those words, Chae-eun couldn't help but bristle for a moment.
"Who's a gorilla!?"
"Looking at your grip strength, you're definitely a gorilla, so what!?"
Ah, seriously.
In the end, Chae-eun bickered with Anna the entire way to the office where Lee Si-yoon and the other Hunters were waiting.
"If I'm a gorilla, then what are you, all soft and squishy—some kind of house rabbit?"
She said that much and thought maybe this nickname wouldn't make her that angry, but—
"R-rabbit!?"
For some reason, it seemed to work extremely well on Anna.
"You can't even get away, so you're definitely a rabbit. You're so soft that even if I took a bite, there'd still be plenty left—those cheeks of yours."
"Soft!? Bite!? Are you done!? Who are you calling fat!? Me, when I'm this pretty!?"
Huh.
Seriously.
What do I do with this girl.
But even while thinking that, Chae-eun couldn't help feeling that the argument was a little fun.