Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Salvation for This Poor Heathen!
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Auriell Stardust was caught in a whirlwind of complicated emotions.
She had visited the city's slums briefly before tomorrow's performance.
There, Auriell began doing what she always did, no matter where she went on the continent.
Distributing the goods she had brought for the poor and tending to the sick with the power of her sacred aura.
However,
even as she performed what others might call acts of charity, Auriell's heart was always filled not with the joy of doing right, but with pity and sorrow.
The supplies she brought were always insufficient,
and her aura ran dry before she could heal all the injured and ill.
The poor were always far too numerous.
And the sick and wounded were everywhere she went.
This held true even in Bennetsa, a city renowned for its abundance.
Watching the people disperse today, too, with expressions of disappointment.
Auriell made her way back to her lodgings with a heavy heart, weighed down by the harsh reality of it all.
Her body was utterly exhausted from overusing her aura.
Yet without showing a hint of it, Auriell silently followed behind her escorts.
Thinking that she needed to muster even more strength for tomorrow's performance...
Hoping that through her prayers,
the people gathered there would develop warm hearts willing to spare a single coin for the poor, rather than buying lavish items at the auction.
That was when.
"Huh?"
At some point, as she snapped back to attention, her escorts had vanished without a trace.
Assuming she must have lost her way while lost in thought, Auriell groped along unfamiliar streets, trying to find her way back to the lodgings somehow.
That was when.
"Wh... what is this? Who are you... Mmph!!!"
People suddenly appeared and pounced on her.
They looked like thugs, and they bound her, stuffed her into a sack, and began dragging her off somewhere.
The usual Auriell would never have been taken so helplessly.
But already pushed to her physical limits, she was captured without even putting up a proper fight.
'Wh... what in the world? Why me...? Could it be...?'
What flashed into her mind were the stories she'd often heard about slave traders.
Wicked fiends who kidnapped passersby and sold them at slave markets.
Come to think of it, wandering alone after losing her escorts made her the perfect target for such scum.
Caught in this sudden, unforeseen crisis, Auriell was gripped by deep confusion and bewilderment.
In such a situation, there was only one thing she could do.
Pray to the Lord above.
Calling out to Him in her heart—the only one she could rely on in this crisis—Auriell desperately pleaded for His merciful hand to reach out.
That was when...
-Splash!
"Ah!"
As if in answer to her prayer, the sack burst open in a blaze of brilliant light.
And what she saw next were two presumed slave traders, throats slit, slumped face-down on their bellies.
From Auriell's perspective, this was nothing short of divine salvation descending upon her.
She gazed upon the figure of her savior, convinced it was the will of God.
A man standing calmly before her, holding an oar.
Taking in his fairly large build, the black crow mask, and his plague doctor attire,
Auriell's heart began to swell with profound emotion.
This man was surely the savior sent by God Himself for her sake.
Honestly, his appearance leaned more toward an angel of death than a holy one,
but regardless, Auriell expressed her gratitude to her benefactor with a proper bow.
Convinced that this one who had carried out God's will must possess faith as strong as her own.
And then...
"Buddhism."
"..."
That conviction shattered in less than ten seconds.
The fact that he didn't even know her name was shocking enough,
but what delivered an even greater blow was that name from some bizarre heathen cult in the distant East she'd heard of before.
They bowed hundreds of times to a golden idol with frizzy hair,
forbade the eating of meat,
and trapped the souls of the dead—preventing them from reaching heaven—into the bodies of beasts or slaves, forcing them into eternal servitude,
while cursing the heads of believers bald with their horrific sorcery.
A wicked cult beyond compare.
Buddhism.
She never imagined she'd hear that terrifying name like this.
Auriell felt deep dismay at the realization that the man before her was a heathen who did not serve the Lord.
"...Th... then you mustn't. Believing in such an evil heathen faith... Anyone breathing the air of this land should naturally worship our holy Lord and Lady Magdalene..."
"Religious freedom was declared in Westphalia quite some time ago, no? Whether I believe in Buddha, or Shub-Niggurath, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, that's my freedom."
"Shub... Shub...? Sp... Spaghetti...? Wh... what... such blasphemous words..."
Unable to comprehend... probably another name from some grotesque heathen faith she didn't know—Auriell felt her head spin for a moment.
This man seemed already deeply mired in heathenry.
She had encountered plenty of such people wandering the continent... especially ignorant heathens who didn't know the true faith.
But for her savior—the one who had effortlessly slaughtered her kidnappers—to be a devotee of some evil, fanciful heathen god!
Feeling profound pity at that fact,
Auriell resolved to bring the light of the Lord to this poor soul lost in misguided beliefs.
Since he had saved her, she felt obligated to save him in return.
'But clumsy preaching won't work... Here, I have no choice but to use the best method I know.'
Turning the hearts of those lost in darkness is exceedingly difficult.
Even His Holiness the Pope had spoken of how heathens were the sort who could hurl stones,
and thus the church harbored extremists who advocated summary execution of heathens.
Yet through her experiences, Auriell knew they could change.
With a method even more powerful than sermons.
A way to truly move people's hearts.
"Um... excuse me. If it's not too rude, I'd like to offer a small token of thanks. Would that be alright?"
"I told you, no prayers."
The man was sinking the decapitated bodies under the canal bank as he spoke.
Watching his rather curt demeanor, Auriell felt an uncharacteristic tension as she cautiously replied.
"It's not that. H... here, this..."
"?!"
Sensing something peculiar, Auriell carefully pulled out what she carried in her bosom.
A small medal shimmering with silver light.
As if he knew what it was, the plague doctor spoke in a voice tinged with surprise.
"This... no way?"
"It's an invitation to the Grand Auction. I'm performing there tomorrow... please... come watch. It... it could greatly impact your life."
She had invited people this way before, but today felt profoundly different.
Her heart pounded, mingled with deep anxiety.
Worrying excessively that he might refuse her invitation...
That was when.
"...Got it. I'll make sure to come."
"Ah!"
His response filled Auriell's heart with intense joy in an instant.
In a buoyant mood she couldn't quite understand herself, her cheeks flushed slightly as a quiet smile graced her lips.
*
I'd gone to the trouble of rescuing her, only for this Auriell or whatever girl to hit me with "Jesus to heaven, nonbelievers to hell"... well, not quite, but still preaching church to me.
Honestly, she was starting to get annoying, and I was thinking of just dropping her off somewhere and leaving,
but in that moment, all such wicked thoughts vanished from my mind, replaced by one that bubbled up naturally.
'Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!'
I'd never cared about religion in the slightest, but what she'd handed me was valuable enough to inspire such thoughts.
The silver medal now in my hand.
This "invitation" item from the original story was a rare game-exclusive obtainable only from some ruined noble mansion—just one in existence.
A key item granting free access to the central hall where the forbidden Grand Auction took place.
In other words, with this, I could boldly enter without dealing with the soldiers outside, leisurely browse the auction from within, then smash everything at the perfect moment, grab the goods, and stroll out.
'I was planning to force my way in... but this makes things way easier.'
An unexpected windfall I hadn't even hoped for.
Filled with profound joy at that fact,
and realizing that this Auriell girl—who I'd been clueless about until now—must be no ordinary person to hand out such a precious invitation,
I carefully racked my brain, trying to recall anything about her from the original story.
However...
'...Hmm... nothing really comes to mind.'
No matter how I thought about it, there was nothing.
The name Auriell Stardust had never been mentioned even once,
and there were no items related to her either.
'There is something religion-related... but it's probably not connected to her.'
An item tied to my very purpose here, coincidentally.
But figuring it had nothing to do with this nun girl,
I awkwardly—but now with a growing sense of familiarity—piloted the gondola toward the place she'd asked me to take her.
The truth that she was also new here and had just picked a spot at random dawned on me much later.
'Still, Buddha seems better after all... Om Mani Padme Hum...'