After the Prayer
After the prayer, things progressed at lightning speed. The magic tool I had been searching for was quickly brought before me, and the people of the Magic Tower immediately set out to capture and punish the one responsible for this incident.
"Bring the bastard in charge of today's auction right in front of me! Now!"
"Yes, sir!!"
"I don't know which son of a bitch it is, but I'll prepare a funeral feast for him today."
The Magic Tower erupted into chaos. It had already been in an uproar, but this was even worse. Perhaps because the elder's fury was far more terrifying than mine, the mages desperately searched for the instigator. Thanks to that, the culprit was found quickly.
"I-I have committed a mortal sin! Please forgive me!"
The culprit was Richard Jenkins. One of the many senior researchers in this Magic Tower, and the man who had been manning the counter today. Of course, I knew him. After all, he was someone I had seen just a few hours ago.
With a face drained of color, he kowtowed before me and the elder.
"So, you know you've committed a mortal sin."
"Yes, I'm sorry! I never imagined it would escalate this much..."
"But here's what I think. If you've committed a sin worthy of death, shouldn't you really die?"
"Please, at least spare my life...!"
The man trembled like a leaf in the wind. At that moment, I realized something new.
'Ah, so the entire Magic Tower wasn't trying to screw me over after all.'
It must have been my own paranoia. Turns out this guy had acted alone.
Thanks to that, my hostility toward the Magic Tower eased a little. Though things had spiraled out of control over a minor misunderstanding, it was over now.
The elder's gaze bore into Richard for a long time. His punishment was decided swiftly.
"Don't worry, you won't die. Our Magic Tower wouldn't execute someone over a single mistake."
"...! Then—"
"However, you will be excommunicated. From this moment on, you are no longer a member of our Magic Tower."
"...!"
Richard's face turned ashen upon hearing the sentence.
"No! Please forgive me, Elder! Have mercy...!"
"Take him away."
"No! Nooo!!"
Several mages dragged him off somewhere, his screams echoing through the halls.
Excommunication. A punishment unique to the Magic Tower, different from mere expulsion. All of the sinner's magic tools are confiscated, and the mana circles they have built are destroyed. In an instant, a mage becomes an ordinary person with no abilities. Considering that mana is a mage's second soul... it might as well be a death sentence.
In short, he was screwed. He should have been more careful about who he was dealing with.
It was an excessive punishment, but I didn't feel sorry for him.
"This is truly unfortunate... All because of one mage like that..."
"It's fine. I received the item properly, after all."
Perhaps because I'd been using black curtain mode too much, polite speech kept trying to slip out. I consciously switched back to scoundrel mode. Still, since we were in the middle of a transaction, a bit of courtesy wouldn't hurt.
"No, this is something we should naturally provide. From our side as well, we'd like to offer some compensation. After all, this incident occurred due to a mistake on the Magic Tower's part. Tell us what you want, and we'll accommodate it within reason."
"If that's the case..."
I accepted the offer without hesitation. No reason to refuse when they were offering more.
Fortunately, what I wanted came to mind immediately. They were the books I'd planned to purchase once the auction ended.
"Could you perhaps obtain a few black magic books and one subspace pouch for me?"
Black magic was necessary for my own growth, and it was about time I acquired a personal subspace. The party's bag had large-capacity subspace magic applied, but since it was shared, I couldn't use it freely.
When I made the request, the elder's expression grew troubled.
"Black magic... You're asking something difficult from us, who primarily research flame magic."
"It's not that hard to obtain. If you search the black market thoroughly, you could easily find one or two books."
"It's not a matter of difficulty. It's a matter of conscience. If someone from our Magic Tower, which pursues righteousness, were to hand over black magic... what would people think?"
Conscience, my ass. These were the same people who overhunted phoenixes and sold black magic tools. They pretended to be clean, but this place was rotten enough.
After a moment of silence, he sighed.
"Still... it's not that I can't accommodate it. I'll grant your request this time. I'll send my disciples to scour the black market."
"Much appreciated."
Thus, I listed several types of black magic I wanted and left the Magic Tower. In my hand was the item I had so desperately desired.
"Hehe."
The Blood Pouch Necklace. An item capable of storing blood in its fresh state. To others, it might be nothing more than an unpleasant magic tool, but to me—who could directly manipulate blood—it was a spare mana battery.
"Time to head back."
Satisfied, I returned to the lodging.
And the next day, a rumor spread through the capital.
* There lives a crazy troublemaker in the current imperial capital. A scoundrel with immense power roams the streets. That scoundrel supposedly turned the Magic Tower upside down overnight.
It was the first thing Lily heard upon waking that morning.
And ironically, even without hearing the name, Lily knew exactly who the protagonist of the rumor was.
"Haah..."
Needless to say, it was the hero.
"What the hell is that guy doing..."
I couldn't figure out what he was thinking. I'd thought we could finally relax after catching one of the Four Heavenly Kings, but he'd already caused this much chaos.
At first, I wondered if he was up to something significant... but upon investigation, it was nothing more than crude antics, like a third-rate thug.
Though the Magic Tower invasion was somewhat major, there appeared to be no seriously injured or dead in the process.
He only chose ambiguous actions in every way.
Thanks to that, Lily couldn't guess his intentions at all.
Now she was even confused about his true nature.
In the past, she'd suspected he was a hidden agent. A secret spy of the Demon King's army who would betray them when they were most vulnerable.
If the hero's party disappeared, humanity would become even more precarious.
But that thought had faded recently.
Because they'd already experienced the most dangerous moment once before.
During the battle with the Insect King, she'd truly thought they were going to die.
Insects swarming from all sides, and an Insect King with a lifeline as tenacious as those insects. Though she couldn't see clearly amid the chaos, the hero had clearly stood his ground and fought without retreating.
If he'd only run away then, they would have been annihilated.
So naturally, the theory of the hero being a hidden agent disappeared.
Nevertheless... she couldn't let her guard down.
There was no particular reason. If she had to name it, it was intuition.
Even if she tried to believe in him, an inexplicable unease made her hesitate.
She muttered inwardly.
'There must be some ulterior motive...'
Perhaps he was aiming for something bigger.
Maybe he'd offer them as sacrifices once they grew even stronger, or perhaps he needed more scapegoats beyond the party.
The hero's party was merely a gathering of the most promising talents from various regions—not the strongest party.
There were many powerful individuals in the world. The Empire's knight commander, Camilla's father, the masters of various Magic Towers, and even the Great Elder of the Elf Forest.
Each of them was a shield for humanity.
Even if the party were annihilated, humanity would remain solid for a while.
For example, the previous hero's party had been quickly wiped out, yet humanity was still alive, wasn't it?
So to end things more surely...
He might be waiting for the right moment.
To raise humanity's trust level...
...But then, why was he doing such scoundrel-like things?
"Haah, I don't know."
Lily's mind, which had been lost in speculation, snapped back to reality.
What was the point of thinking about something with no answer?
For now, she should just study.
With that thought, she focused on her book once more.
The content she was studying was the usage methods of brain-attribute magic and space magic.
She was diligently preparing for the next battle.
*
Meanwhile, it wasn't only Lily who had heard the rumor.
The rumor had also reached the Saintess, who had been praying in the church.
But unlike Lily, she didn't find the hero's actions absurd.
Contrary to how meaningless they seemed at first glance, his intentions appeared clear to her.
She knew the curse he carried.
Thanks to that, she could quickly understand.
It was all groundwork to act more freely.
Thanks to that, she even felt a moment of admiration.
"As expected... He's quite clever."
He also possessed decisiveness.
No matter how meticulously one planned, acting like this when you clearly knew what you'd lose wasn't easy.
The hero was someone who knew how to choose the lesser evil to avoid the worst.
The more she observed, the more remarkable he seemed.
At first, she'd only been surprised by the nobility of a hero making such a difficult choice.
But the more she saw, the more other abilities stood out.
Strong, strategic, decisive, and knowing even things they didn't know in detail.
What on earth had he done before becoming a hero...
Sometimes she found herself wondering.
'What would the hero without the curse look like...'
For now, proper judgment was impossible.
Even if she tried to judge rationally, unpleasant emotions welling up from within clouded her reason.
So she merely thought about it.
If there were no curse...
What kind of feelings would she have had toward him?
First, judging by the most objective aspects, he was quite a decent man.
Contrary to his power, he was very kind, brave, and reliable.
Except for having learned black magic, he fit the typical image of a hero.
And objectively speaking... he was also handsome.
It was just that proper judgment wasn't possible because of the curse.
If you examined his features one by one, he belonged to the category of quite a handsome man.
Fortunately, it seemed he hadn't offered his face as a sacrifice.
So, if there were no curse, perhaps...
Really, perhaps...
She might have fallen for him.
Because objectively speaking, he was the person closest to her ideal type.
Of course, that was only when viewed objectively...
"...Really, what am I thinking."
After daydreaming for a while, she soon snapped out of her imagination.
Perhaps because she felt embarrassed while imagining, her cheeks were flushed.
What was the point of such fantasies anyway?
It's not like the curse would ever be lifted.
She cleared her mind and resumed praying.
To overcome the upcoming difficulties, God's power was needed more than ever.
It was when she had been praying like that for about an hour.
"S-Saintess, it's an emergency...!"
Suddenly, a priest who had been greeting the believers approached her.
At a glance, he looked quite urgent.
"Y-Young Master Hero has arrived at the church!"
"What?"
She tilted her head in confusion.