I Will Buy This Trash Land
I Will Buy This Trash Land
I entered the slums again, a trail of people in tow.
My reasoning was simple. If you wanted the most useless, garbage patch of land in the capital, it had to be in the slums.
The moment I stepped into the slums, a massive crowd began to follow me.
"Saint! Heal us!!"
"Grant us your divine grace!!"
There were way too many people following me. Was I going to get arrested by the police as the ringleader of an illegal gathering at this rate?
Damn it.
I had to make these people leave me alone as quickly as possible.
I looked around the slums until I found exactly what I was hoping for—the most garbage, most worthless-looking land I could see.
Dilapidated buildings on the verge of collapse and an abandoned factory that had turned ghastly and grim.
Industrial waste and trash lay everywhere, making it such a gloomy patch of land that you wouldn't set foot on it even if someone paid you.
It looked like the kind of place where junkies should be snorting white powder up their noses in some corner.
Just as I was about to enter the abandoned factory zone with the crowd still hanging behind me, a man who appeared to be a guard watching the factory walked toward me.
"You can't go any further! This is Karma family land!"
The old guard's eyesight must have been failing him, because he didn't seem to recognize who I was.
I slowly approached him and placed my hand on his head.
[Skill: Body Modification activated!]
I restored the old man's vision, fixed his arthritis, and brought his body back to normal. Only then did he recognize me and freeze up.
"Can you see now?"
"I-I can see. I can see! Saint!!"
"Then go and bring the owner of this land to me."
"R-right! Right away!!!"
The guard dashed off with a speed unimaginable for an old man and vanished somewhere, then reappeared shortly after with an elderly middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man looked exactly like...
Scrooge.
A ferocious, hard-hearted man from whom you'd expect gold coins to pour out instead of blood if you stabbed him with a knife.
He approached me alongside the guard, a surly expression on his face.
"I'm the factory owner. You asked to see me?"
"That's right."
"What's your business? If you're going to ask me to let these beggars in here, I'll have to refuse."
I shook my head at his words.
"Give me this factory site. I'll pay a fair price for it."
At that, the factory owner burst out laughing.
"Alright. I'll give you that. You must have heard the rumors, right? I built a doll factory, and it didn't work out. But even so, the factory site is huge. Do you people even have the capital to buy all of it?"
I shook my head.
I didn't.
The only money I had was what I'd earned working part-time at the restaurant.
Even if I scraped it all together, would it be enough to buy this factory site?
"The Lilia Order will purchase it."
Of course the Order would foot the bill.
The Lilia Order was one of the Empire's major religious orders, in name and in fact.
No matter how expensive, they would have more than enough money to pay for it.
Still, no matter how major the Order was, buying a plot of land this size in the heart of the capital meant that if I screwed this up, they'd take a serious loss.
Not enough to bankrupt the Order, but just enough to really piss them off.
Once they took that loss, everyone would know for certain that I was incompetent.
I looked at the High Priest.
The High Priest looked back at me.
His eyes were practically screaming, 'Even so, you can't seriously mean you're going to build a temple on this garbage land, right?!'
Yeah.
That was exactly what I meant.
"Purchase the site with the Order's funds. This place is absolutely necessary to fulfill the goddess's words."
I made up an excuse on the spot.
Of course, I didn't know a damn thing about the goddess's words or whatever.
I simply decided to buy it because it looked like the most worthless land in the slums.
If I poured all kinds of money and manpower into building a lavish, luxurious temple here, never did a single saintly thing, and lived a life of daily debauchery, they'd all fall away on their own, right?
"...Understood. If that is the goddess's will."
The High Priest stepped forward.
Then he approached Scrooge.
"I am High Priest Yodel of the Lilia Order."
"Jonathan Karma. I built a factory here because the land was cheap, and let me tell you, other than the fact that the land price is dirt cheap for the capital, this place doesn't have a single advantage. I don't know what you plan to do by buying this land, but you'll go bankrupt just like I did. I guarantee it."
"This is a matter directed by the goddess. We must purchase it."
Scrooge. No.
Jonathan Karma looked at us with a face that clearly said, 'What kind of idiots are these...' and then gestured.
"Follow me. We'll draw up the contract at my house. I'm actually glad to get rid of this useless land that was only costing me taxes!!"
And so we made our way to Jonathan's house.
***
I thought a factory owner would live in some lavish mansion, but Jonathan Karma was living in a shabby house near the slums.
It wasn't that he was sleeping on the street like the slum dwellers, but looking at the state of his home, he seemed no different from a slum dweller who only had a house to his name.
"Dear. You're home?"
As we entered Jonathan's house, a gaunt, skeletal woman who seemed to be his wife greeted him, coughing.
Seeing her, Jonathan started yelling.
"What's a woman who can't even take her medicine properly doing crawling out here making a fuss? Go right back inside and lie down in bed!!"
"I was just trying to make you a meal......"
"Is there anything to eat in this house?! Get inside and lie down! A woman who's good for nothing but running up the cost of medicine!!"
His blunt, shouting manner perfectly fit the image of a domestic abuser.
I could see the whole picture right away.
He probably tried to start a business by building a factory, and things didn't work out.
So his family relationships fell apart as a result.
Jonathan's wife, still coughing, carefully went back into her room.
From the room, the sour smell of mold and a stale, musty stench of rot that came from not airing it out properly wafted through the air.
It was so bad that even the High Priest had momentarily furrowed his brow slightly from the intense odor that assaulted his nostrils.
"Alright. I'll need at least 40,000 Saled. That's my condition!"
Jonathan shouted hard-heartedly.
The High Priest's eyes widened at his words.
"You mean to say you want 40,000 Saled for that crumbling piece of land?"
"Yes!"
"You're naming that price even after seeing the mountains of trash and waste covering that factory site?"
"If you don't like it, then don't buy it!!! 40,000 Saled! That's my condition!!"
It was a thuggish price, unfitting for a garbage piece of land.
But it didn't matter to me.
The Order was paying, anyway.
My goal was to waste money by paying a needlessly high price for a worthless piece of land.
The High Priest seemed to be deliberating.
But after glancing at me, his expression soon filled with faith and he nodded.
"I will contact the Lilia Order's temples across the country. We'll need the agreement of temples in various provinces to pay that amount, so please wait a moment."
"Tomorrow! Bring it all by tomorrow!! Otherwise, there's no deal!"
The High Priest's expression crumpled even further at that.
"Tomorrow is impossible, even for us. Please give us a little more time. Given the amount you've named, we need some time to gather it..."
"No deal if you can't!! Get out!!"
His belligerent tone was enough to piss even me off.
If it were me, I'd have cussed him out or walked out, but the High Priest, maybe because he thought he was in front of me, the Saint, didn't let his expression crack much.
"Let me step out and have a word with you."
The High Priest took me outside the house for a moment.
"Saint. The conditions are preposterous. Not only did he inflate the land price excessively, but we'll also be stuck dealing with the waste and all sorts of garbage. On top of that, the man is demanding we bring the money by tomorrow. I think it's best we don't go through with this deal."
"We must do it anyway."
Because I'd decided to cause your Order a loss. That way, you'd treat me like a moron and leave me alone, wouldn't you?
"......If that is what you wish, then I will obey. However, according to the Order's rules, any amount over 10,000 Saled can only be spent with the agreement of the provincial temples. It's impossible to bring the money by tomorrow, no matter what. We need a bit more time."
High Priest Yodel wore an expression of deep apology.
Seeing him make that kind of face toward someone who was trying to openly cause him a loss pricked my conscience a little, but what could I do?
I... I had to survive too!!
"Try to somehow get the money by today. This land absolutely must be bought."
At my unreasonable demand, Old Man Yodel deliberated as if troubled, then eventually nodded.
"Understood. I will somehow find a way to get the money..."
"Aaaaaaaah!!!!!!"
Before our conversation could even finish, a harrowing scream suddenly rang out from inside Jonathan Karma's house.
At the terrible sound, High Priest Yodel and I hurried back into the house.
Once inside, we saw people staring at the middle of the room with horrified expressions on their faces.
"By Lopers! By the Sun!! It's Rot Disease!!!!"
"You were hiding a Rot Disease patient within the capital? This is illegal!! Jonathan Karma!!!"
I could hear the Sun Order's holy knights and the police shouting in alarm.
Pushing past them and into the room, I saw Jonathan Karma and his wife blocking people with panicked faces amid the even stronger, wafting stench of rot and mold.
"Stay back! Stay away from my daughter!!"
"Our daughter c-can get better!! Even with Rot Disease, she can get better!! We've been giving her medicine to suppress the contagiousness! It's no problem for her to be here! Please!"
Scrooge's expression was completely shattered, completely different from just moments before.
The sight of Scrooge flailing his arms in desperation to protect his daughter and Mrs. Scrooge weeping as she clung to her daughter was utterly heartbreaking.
And with good reason.
The two of them were trying to protect a daughter whose entire body was rotting to a horrific degree.
Was this what leprosy looked like?
Black pus was continuously streaming down from her ulcerated skin.
She was in such a wretched state, it was astonishing she was still alive.
In that state, the daughter was writhing and thrashing in agony.
"It hurts!! It hurts!! Kill me!! Kill me!!"
The daughter screamed out in desperation.
The police officers watching from the side couldn't take it anymore and drew their pistols.
"Jonathan Karma!! You're under arrest for hiding a patient with a contagious disease in the capital without a permit!! Get away from your daughter right now... Saint! Saint! No!!"
I pushed down the officers' pistols and slowly...
I walked toward Jonathan Karma and his wife.
"S-stay back!! Stay back!! She's my daughter! I can't abandon my daughter!!"
Despite his shouting, he didn't look threatening at all.
He just looked like an old, sick, pitiable middle-aged man worn down by reality.
"I don't believe in some healing saint!! D-do you know how many frauds like you there have been? Do you know how much of my property! My money! They all swindled out of me under the pretense of curing my daughter? You're no different!! Stay back!! You fraud!! You bastard!!"
Jonathan Karma threw a punch at me.
The fist connected, and blood burst from my nose.
"Saint!!!"
"This bastard, how dare he strike the Saint!!......"
The holy knights tried to draw their swords, but I stopped them.
After wiping the blood from my nose, I silently looked at Jonathan Karma and his wife.
"Step aside."
I looked at that girl in pain.
I was trying to cause losses to the Order for my own selfish reasons, but letting someone I could heal keep suffering right in front of me was just too scummy.
I had to heal this girl.
Even as blood dripped from my nose after being punched, my expression didn't change. The couple seemed to feel some pressure from my appearance, because they trembled and cautiously stepped aside.
I approached the thrashing child.
"It hurts!! It hurts!! Kill me!! Aaaaaaah!!"
I placed my hand on the head of the young girl who was crying and flailing in agony.
The young girls who sold matches in the back alleys, too.
And this girl, too.
Wasn't she just so pitiful?
"It's okay."
I activated my skill.
"It won't hurt anymore."
Along with a cracking sound.
The girl's body began to change.