Poverty Doesn’t Make You Good (5)
“So, what did I tell you, Priest?”
“Ah….”
“Didn’t I say not all the poor are good people?”
When I lowered my head, I caught sight of a woman who looked as if she had been through hell.
I already knew exactly what had happened, of course.
I’d been watching this foolish woman’s little adventure from beginning to end.
Her face was smeared with tears and snot, and frozen stiff with fear.
She was looking at me as though I were a rope thrown down from heaven, and yet I couldn’t muster even a shred of pity.
What interested me most, though, was the temperature change.
Seeing how completely she’d been transformed from the woman she’d been this morning, I felt the corners of my mouth twitch upward.
Human beings really are entertaining.
The very poor she believed she ought to protect had become the aggressors, while I—the man she’d despised—had become her savior.
It would have been strange if I hadn’t laughed.
Personally, it was the funniest situation imaginable.
Her face was swollen from being hit, and her hair was a complete mess.
There were bruises all over her, and she was bleeding from some scrape or other; compared to the neat, orderly image she’d first presented, she was a mess.
If I hadn’t appeared, she might have been in serious trouble.
“Ah….”
The tears pooling in her eyes spilled over in an instant.
I could feel the bandits tugging at Sun Heeyoung’s hair as they stared at me.
“And who the hell are you?”
“That isn’t something trash like you needs to know.”
“Hah… I’m so lost for words I can’t even speak. Who the hell are you, you bastard?”
“Don’t move.”
Of course, I had no confidence that I could kill everyone here myself.
I was a fragile mage, and they outnumbered me.
It wasn’t that I trusted Jung Hayan, either, even though she was already behind me, chanting a spell.
What I trusted was them.
The trash who had been too busy indulging their own desires.
Human beings who were strong in front of the weak and weak in front of the strong.
Sure enough, wary expressions flickered across their faces. Though my clothes and Jung Hayan’s didn’t differ from theirs all that much, our brazen confidence was making them shrink back.
“Wh-where are you from?”
“That’s not something you need to know.”
“Th-that….”
As I glanced back slightly, Jung Hayan spat out the spell she’d been muttering.
Before the words had even fully left her mouth, an unknown surge of mana flooded the area and began binding them where they stood.
Cries erupted from every direction at the incomprehensible situation.
Sun Heeyoung, who had been trembling with her eyes wide open, hurriedly ran toward me as well.
She had realized I was the one who could protect her.
“Didn’t I tell you it was dangerous?”
“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for helping me.”
“You can stand a little farther away. You’re safe now, Priest.”
She was clutching the leg of my pants.
“So? What do you think? After looking around like this?”
“Thank you. Thank you for helping me. H- hurry, p-please, hurry and get out. Please… out of here….”
Looks like she’d lost the ability to think properly.
She seemed so overwhelmed by fear that all she could think about was getting out of here as fast as possible.
I didn’t know exactly what kind of tutorial she’d been through, but this woman clearly had no tolerance for situations like this.
From my perspective, it was like stepping in something foul when I’d wanted a serious conversation.
This wasn’t good.
I wanted to talk to her about more than just rescuing her.
“Let go of this.”
“Huh?”
“Let go, I said, you woman who doesn’t know how the world works. Before I throw you back over there.”
“P-please don’t. Please… please….”
“What do you think?”
“Wh-what….”
“Now that you’ve seen these people up close because you thought they were pitiful, what do you think?”
“Y-you were right. You were right. You were right about everything.”
She wasn’t thinking at all.
All that remained on her face was desperation.
Not regret over her own beliefs, but a frantic cry to escape this situation.
“Hayan, release the spell.”
“Yes, Oppa.”
“Don’t! Please don’t!”
Of course, I wasn’t talking about the binding spell on those men.
I meant the illusion spell cast on Sun Heeyoung.
I wanted her face fully exposed.
As Jung Hayan slowly drew back her mana, Sun Heeyoung’s face became fully visible.
“Look straight over there.”
“Huh?”
The faces of the trash who had been tormenting our precious Priest also began to drain of color.
They were realizing exactly who they’d laid hands on.
They didn’t look remorseful so much as they looked like everything had gone horribly wrong, but they understood at least one thing: they’d grabbed the wrong person.
After all, these bastards had just attacked a crucial talent beloved by every clan under the sun.
Just looking at the filth hurling curses at her made me want to laugh.
“P-pri….”
“You want to live?”
Since they were nodding, I immediately lifted the corners of my mouth and spoke.
“Can you kill this woman?”
Their faces said they had no idea what I was talking about. It looked like I needed to explain myself more clearly, so I went on.
“I asked if you can kill her.”
Like livestock enchanted by something, those bastards nodded again.
“Wh-why would you say something like that?”
“Personally, I’ve got some bad feelings about this woman, and I also think this would make for a good show. But there’s no need for trash like you to know my reasons. What matters is whether you do it or not. This is the chance I’m giving you.”
“…….”
“Refuse, and you die.”
“I-I’ll do it.”
“That’s better.”
Sun Heeyoung looked a little dazed.
“B-brother… how….”
“Shut up and do what you’re told, bastards. It won’t change anything anyway.”
“Are you really sure this is okay?”
He gave a small nod and continued.
“Of course.”
“Really?”
“Lucky or unlucky… I don’t know, but for now, thank you for saving me.”
“Brother… still….”
“Shut up, you bastard. This woman’s no different from the others anyway. The Saint of the Abandoned, my ass. Didn’t you see her sobbing just now? If you don’t want to do it, then get lost, bastard.”
“I- I’m not saying I’ll back out, but….”
“I’m saying I never liked her in the first place. Who the hell does she think she is, going around pretending she can save people and throwing a fit over it? I’m grateful I haven’t gone hungry thanks to her, sure, but I knew this would happen one day. Puh-huh. That’s just how life is, isn’t it? Who knows what’ll happen?”
“That’s true.”
The man with the burn scars must have gotten into the mood, because he started saying things that were pretty damn favorable to my side.
Just from his face alone, I’d already guessed he was a bastard, but seeing him turn out to be even more of a bastard than I’d imagined was enough to make me laugh.
Sun Heeyoung was no longer terrified.
Instead, she looked resigned.
I couldn’t tell exactly what she was thinking, but it was probably a lot more confusing for her than it was for me.
I didn’t know what it felt like to have the people you had devoted your entire life to serving turn on you, but it was probably something similar to the way Jung Hayan would feel if she lost me.
In the end—
“Huuu….”
With a sound like that, a miserable sob burst from her lips.
“Puh-huh-huh.”
The sight of those beasts laughing without the slightest hint of guilt was revolting.
Honestly, it wasn’t a pleasant scene.
I slowly took a step forward. As I approached, the men who had been trying to surround Sun Heeyoung naturally backed away.
When I slowly turned my gaze to Sun Heeyoung, she was looking at me with an expression that was hard to put into words.
“Y-you didn’t have to go… huff… this far.”
“Now we’re finally having a conversation.”
“You didn’t have to go this far… huff….”
“I only helped because I wanted you to look at reality a little more clearly. So, what do you think? This place?”
“You were right. Huff… you were right. I was wrong. I….”
“No. That’s not it.”
“What….”
“You weren’t wrong.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Exactly what I said, Sun Heeyoung. You weren’t wrong. You’re noble. The fact that you can sacrifice yourself for others is something ordinary people can’t do.”
“…….”
“I respect you. If I had been you, I couldn’t have gotten up every day and devoted myself to people like this. This wasn’t something you did for personal gain. Even though you could have taken support from guilds and clans, you didn’t focus on material greed; you preserved your own value. You suffered and put yourself at the very front, moving your body toward them. Yes, indeed.”
She looked dazed. She didn’t understand what I was saying.
“You’re in a lower position than everyone else. If I may be rude, I’ve even seen the place you live in. Considering your social standing, it’s absolutely not a fitting place. You gave up everything. Literally everything. The others also acted, yes. You made other clans and guilds take notice of the poor. That’s right. You are noble.”
“N-nonsense….”
“You didn’t make those people into pigs and dogs. What I said before was jealousy—jealousy of what you had that I didn’t. Those noble, beautiful, and sincere qualities are things I could never possess. I was the twisted one.”
“…….”
I could see her still crying.
I couldn’t tell whether she felt comforted or whether she was crying because of the situation she was in, but at the very least, I could tell her thoughts had begun to change.
“You were never wrong.”
“Yes… huff….”
“You’re noble.”
“Yes….”
“You’re someone worth respecting.”
“Yes….”
“What was wrong….”
“Yes….”
“Was them.”
“Yes.”
“Those thankless beasts, those pigs and dogs, are the ones who were wrong.”
“…….”
“The ones who betrayed you without even understanding what they were given are the ones who were wrong. People like this are what rot Lindel, the Holy Empire, and society from the inside out. Even when noble people continue contributing to society, nothing changes because trash like this remains. Yes. It’s because of people like them. The slums don’t improve, you get misunderstood for no reason, and the light of your nobility fades—all because of them.”
“Yes… huff….”
“Not the people who try to stand up, but the ones who don’t even think about standing are the ones who rot this place.”
“Yes. Yes. Yes.”
“Now then.”
“…….”
“Let’s begin true service, Priest.”
There was no reply to my bullshit.
Only Sun Heeyoung, slowly rising to her feet and taking the dagger I held out, came into view.
“Let’s build a beautiful Lindel together.”