Sometimes Useful, Sometimes Kind
Pitia stared at the simple black bread resting alone on the table and widened her eyes in disbelief.
She reached for the chair beside the table with trembling hands and looked at Arian.
“W-we are really… really…”
Damien straightened his posture on the opposite side and watched Arian as Pitia’s voice trailed off helplessly.
Arian sighed deeply with a face full of regret.
“Please forgive me, High Priest. If I had brought ingredients from the Demia Temple, we wouldn’t have had to serve such a meager meal…”
Hearing that fragile, trembling voice made Damien swallow his laughter.
I don’t know what she’s up to, but I’m sure she’s acting again.
“No, no. Arian, it couldn’t be helped. The… the temple’s food supplies aren’t great, and there are so many people there…”
“Even so, I had to harden my heart while thinking of you, High Priest.”
“How can you say that? You’re so kind.”
Damien took a sip of water and watched the scene. Suddenly he choked on the water and coughed.
Arian turned to him. Though she wore a kind face to seem kind, Damien sensed a sharp, intimidating aura coming from her expression.
He shook his head lightly in response to “It’s nothing.”
Arian’s sharp gaze swept across his face once.
I guess that’s what she meant. “You’ll be good?”
Damien nodded.
Arian turned her gaze back to Pitia.
“I’ll have to go down to the village to get some supplies.”
“The village? How are we supposed to go down there? This mountain is too dangerous, Arian.”
Pitia tried to stop her, but Arian shook her head and spoke firmly.
“We’ll find a way. I’m still young and have only been protected by my parents, so I’m worried about being able to handle it alone. Adults are needed so that the villagers will listen to me… but I think it can be arranged. Since I brought the savings I’ve collected since I was a child, I should be able to get some extra money for the supplies…”
Watching Arian weave her web of deception and lies, Damien recalled last night.
“Then, work hard.”
Arian’s voice was unusually tense when she said those words.
There was gratitude, regret, and even exhilaration hidden in that voice that mixed with tears.
She’s unexpectedly soft-hearted.
And her body is weak too.
Damien swallowed his concern and watched Arian. She was waiting for Pitia’s reply while pretending to be a brilliant student.
“Must you really go all the way to the village?”
Pitia asked in an unwilling tone. Arian smiled sweetly in response.
“Don’t worry. I’ll get everything I need.”
Pitia shook her head at the smile.
“How can I send you alone? Let’s go together. I don’t know if I can help, but—”
She reached out and gently took Arian’s hand resting alone on the table like a fallen lily.
Arian’s small hand made Pitia realize how young she really was.
It’s impossible to assign responsibility for supplies to such a child.
Suddenly Arian grabbed Pitia’s hand tightly.
“Really?”
Pitia’s face turned blank.
Without hesitation, Arian shot up from her seat and left the dining hall happily exclaiming, “Then let’s go right away! I’ve already planned a way!”
Left behind, Pitia stared at the hand she had just held and slowly widened her eyes.
Her mouth fell open in shock.
“No way, no way…”
Damien murmured inwardly as he stood up.
I don’t know what Arian is thinking, but I prepared to follow her when she stepped out of the temple to prepare for that moment. Pitia grabbed Damien’s arm.
“Damien, Arian, Arian—”
Pitia seemed about to ask if Arian had lied to her, but the saintess hesitated and finally managed to squeeze out one sentence without accusing others.
“Isn’t it a bit too proactive?”
Mmm. Damien glanced briefly toward where Arian had disappeared and shrugged without answering.
Since Pitia said they would go together, I had to take her down no matter what.
Even if we came back up, she would need to see a doctor after coming down and get new clothes.
Ah, clothes. Thinking about getting clothes made my head spin a little.
How wonderful it would be if I could just walk into a department store like in modern times and pay the exact amount. How many more years must we spend in District 14 for that to happen? Maybe a thousand years?
As I walked out of the temple at a steady pace, mentally calculating if there was a tailor in the lower village, I remembered the tailors exist but the seamstresses might not. Then I heard a click of the tongue behind me.
“Have you finally come to the point where you realize you shouldn’t go out alone?”
I turned around and saw Damien walking toward me.
My gaze naturally drifted to Damien’s clothes. Even the Hamilcar successor wears undyed garments. Could I really find clothes suitable for the High Priest of our temple?
Or use the Hamilcar successor to somehow get a tailor—
I gave up immediately after looking at Damien’s refined face.
He has a face like a child who would think even if you smeared poop on his eyes it was eyeliner.
He knows nothing. I thought his clothes were high-class before I looked closely too.
Oh, you’re useful sometimes, useless sometimes.
As I shook my head and started walking again, Damien chased after me.
“Hey, you were cursing me inside, weren’t you?”
“No, I wasn’t.”
Calling someone useless isn’t cursing, right? Well, I didn’t say it out loud.
And you’re saying you’re useless. In combat, you help a lot. But there aren’t many fights, so that’s why.
Would help more if there were more fights? If there were more fights, I’d just go home. What nonsense is that. If I die here, I become an eternal slave immediately.
{Because I can have the glory of being a proxy for the most valuable person in the world.}
You sound so devoted.
I’d rather keep killing myself forever than live that kind of slave life.
While grinding my teeth and walking steadily, Damien grabbed my wrist.
“Where are you going now? Don’t tell me you’re heading to the Demia Temple?”
“Of course I’m heading to the Demia Temple.”
“You’ve lost it?”
Damien’s words made my eyes widen, so he quickly shook his head.
“I’m sorry. I went too far.”
Ah. I get why he’s acting like this. He thinks I was kidnapped.
“Ah, I couldn’t tell you because I was too busy yesterday. I wasn’t kidnapped yesterday.”
“What?!”
Damien yelled.
Ah, my ears!
I frowned at him, and he opened his mouth like a dying fish.
“Y-you…”
Can a twelve-year-old even grab the back of someone’s neck? Damien looked like his blood pressure was rising.
I quickly grabbed Damien’s hand. I hope I’m not accidentally dropping the Hamilcar successor to high blood pressure at twelve? He’s supposed to be an incredibly skilled mage, right?
“Yesterday was really busy. You didn’t even give me a chance to talk.”
“You…”
“You weren’t trying to avoid telling me.”
That’s true. I just didn’t think of it at the time.
“I forgot. I’m grateful that you’re worried about me. Yesterday was dark and there were some bad things too, so my head was a mess. Are you upset? Not angry?”
Looking up at him like a cat with shoes on, he closed the mouth that had been opening.
His expression of being wronged was still there, but the explosive tension from earlier had vanished.
“Fever?”
His ears turned red, so I reached out and touched his forehead to check the temperature. He flinched and stepped back.
But since I was still holding his hand, he couldn’t actually step back properly. He shook his head vigorously.
“No fever. No fever at all. And please dress properly. If you keep dressing like that, you’ll catch a cold.”
I nodded in agreement. I couldn’t say I have a body certified by the gods to be disease-free, so I just kept quiet.
I’m sorry about yesterday. There was a misunderstanding.
No, it was understandable.
The moment we entered the temple, the senior priest and Damien exchanged not-so-generous compliments. The atmosphere felt quite different from last night.
One was a representative of the intellectual class that had been passed down since ancient times, and the other was the next lord.
Under the bright sunlight, the two men showed perfect etiquette and deferred to each other.
Even after moving to the table, their conversation continued.
“I’ll speak bluntly.”
But I didn’t have time to maintain etiquette. Time was ticking away at this very moment.
Damien glanced at me with a bit of irritation at my rude attitude. Of course, it wasn’t even close to being embarrassing.
“We need to fix the education and compensate for the damage, but as you know, our temple is poor and lacks talent—”
“That’s not boasting.”
“It’s not boasting. I’m speaking honestly with a humble heart inside the embrace of the Earth.”
“R-really?”
The senior priest blinked nervously.
“Yes. Anyway, as I was saying, it’s very difficult to find a way to go down to the mountain. Damien can go, but at only twelve years old, he cannot descend this dangerous place with us and the High Priest.”
He looks allergic to words like “cannot” and “weak.”
He seemed about to open his mouth, so I used an emergency measure.
Thud—
I saw Damien’s face grimace slightly as his foot was stepped on under the table.
After a quick glance at his face, I returned my gaze to the senior priest.
“Priest, we, along with the High Priest, are trying to expand the possibilities of the Grand Hall through connections with the village.”
“Expand the possibilities?”
“Yes. All of us are either children of gods or disciples. Therefore, it is our duty to convey the will of the gods. Isn’t evangelism the ultimate reward for the gods’ mercy and love?”
It would have been better if he just said no. If he said no, the gods might even strike him with lightning.
The goddess Demia is the kind who would give me a pocket dimension for eating her nationwide Harvest Festival.
Although Arian wasn’t directly connected to the gods like Pitia, the priest who possessed divine power nodded gloomily and said “Yes.”
“If all the temples of the Grand Hall combine their strength, what impossible thing could there be. The repository of wisdom passed down from ancient times is right here.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“Why do people believe in gods or why don’t they? Actually, the two reasons are the same. Because it helps my life, or because it doesn’t help my life.”
The senior priest’s face darkened with anger.
“Worshiping the gods for such murky purposes—”
“Would the gods dislike it? Really? If one person worships, they might dislike it. Even ten or a hundred might not be okay. But what if a thousand people worship and place their gods’ statues in their homes and offer weekly donations? Would the true master of the Earth still dislike it?”
The senior priest’s anger turned into bewilderment. I watched his face and continued slowly.
“Human hearts are like water. They become cold in cold places and warm in warm places. Those who are embraced by the Earth may have murky intentions at first, but if they are purified by the Earth’s embrace and gain a clean will, that is truly the will of the gods?”