Chapter 197 – Slowly, but Surely
“Wise travelers, I hope your rest in Haire proves beneficial to your journey.”
Ratel’s and Lia’s faces stiffened at the praise from the priest, who was draped from head to toe in neat but expensive-looking fabric.
“We can only offer you our gratitude, Priest.”
Jing, who was slightly better at controlling his expression, forced the corners of his mouth upward as he answered.
The smooth-faced priest did not appear interested in having a lengthy conversation with them either, because he promptly turned around and left.
The knights following him carried considerably heavy pouches.
It was the money Jing had offered to receive permission to pray briefly inside the temple.
The sum required for a mere traveler rather than a resident of the city to enter the temple was beyond imagination, so very few people actually paid it.
That was why the priest had offered them such generous praise before leaving.
Two knights blocked Lia’s view as she continued staring after the pouches.
“You only need to follow us now. We will take you to the prayer room.”
After speaking arrogantly, they led the way to guide Ratel, Jing, and Lia.
Although Lia obediently followed them, she repeatedly looked back at the departing priest.
“How much was all that?”
Lia whispered without taking her eyes off the pouches.
“Just think of it as enough to cover five years of living expenses.”
Lia’s mouth fell open at Jing’s answer.
“You should consider it an expensive lodging fee. Prices in Haire are fairly high.”
“They’re far too high. Our village wasn’t particularly cheap either, but this place is like another world. I had only heard stories about it. I never knew it would be this expensive. Is everyone living here wealthy?”
Jing smiled bitterly as Lia looked around in disbelief.
“Most of them are. But it cannot be helped. This territory is protected by a member of the Imperial Family. The surrounding villages must live while accepting the risk of monster attacks.”
“Be quiet.”
The knight walking ahead interrupted Jing’s explanation.
Jing watched their reactions and silently nodded.
Until they reached their destination, Jing was willing to obey their instructions.
However, someone slightly less concerned about the knights’ reactions stopped following them and approached the wall of the temple corridor.
“Hey! Follow us quietly! This is not a place where someone like you may wander as he pleases!”
One of the knights angrily shouted when Ratel abruptly left the group and stopped beside a window. Ratel ignored him and quietly gazed outside the temple.
“So the others cannot afford the luxury necessary to endure this place.”
Jing sighed at the beginning of yet another independent action and looked in the same direction as Ratel.
“And it seems the others have arrived just in time.”
Three people lay prostrate while another three stood upright, facing them.
On one side stood two knights and a priest. On the other were two poorly dressed adults and a child.
“Please, please help us! We spent everything we possessed to build a life in Haire. If we are expelled from this place, we have nowhere to go!”
Jing and Lia understood the situation.
This was everyday life for everyone else.
Ratel regarded the family crawling across the floor with a surprisingly indifferent feeling.
He knew that he was not sentimental enough to pity people he had never met.
As always, he watched them from a step removed, as though appreciating a painting.
“Please, please save us. Our child has a bad leg. If we leave Haire, he will not survive long enough for us to settle elsewhere. Please show us mercy just this once.”
The woman who appeared to be the child’s mother pleaded with her face nearly pressed against the ground.
The fee required to enter the city was one silver coin.
How much did it cost to settle here? How much money had to be offered to the temple at regular intervals?
It was natural to pay a price for a safer life.
It was only natural.
“More and more of those people have been appearing lately.”
One of the knights who had approached to drag the abruptly halted Ratel away muttered resentfully.
“What do you mean?”
Lia asked cautiously.
“You do not need to know. Stop eavesdropping on other people and follow us quietly.”
Lia secretly glared at the knight, who had muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear before answering her irritably.
“That applies to you as well. If you disobey our instructions one more time, we can throw you out immediately without allowing you to pray.”
“……”
Although those words were directed at Ratel, he casually ignored them.
The knight’s face alternated between red and blue with rage.
“P-Please calm down. He came from the countryside, so this is his first time seeing such an enormous temple.”
Jing hurriedly calmed the man, who appeared ready to draw his sword.
Regardless of whether the knight felt murderous toward Ratel, the lives of Haire’s less fortunate residents continued unfolding.
The priest, who had stood silently before the family as they repeatedly begged for mercy, finally opened his mouth.
“What is mercy? Are you asking me to pretend the offerings you owe never existed, or are you asking for more time?”
Perhaps interpreting his question as a small glimmer of hope, the man who appeared to be the child’s father urgently answered.
“P-Pretend they never existed……? We would never make such a shameless request, Priest. Please give us only a few more days. We will certainly……”
“What do you believe an offering is?”
“P-Pardon?”
The priest’s languid voice interrupted the man, who blankly repeated the question because he could not follow the abrupt change in subject.
The priest turned toward the enormous, magnificent castle visible in the distance.
The imperial castle, incomparably larger than the temple, displayed its grandeur amid the swirling snow.
“I ask because more people seem to be forgetting important facts lately. Facts such as where everything you offer ultimately goes and why it must be that way.”
Taking his eyes off the castle, he slowly approached the people lying upon the cold floor.
The knight standing beside the priest appeared flustered.
“All of this is a test. Every moment of life is a test.”
Only then did the child’s parents seem to realize that the priest before them had no intention of showing their family compassion.
“Think of it as climbing a cliff. If you make the wrong choice for even a single moment, you tumble to the bottom. Once you have fallen, everything ends, does it not? What you are asking of me is equivalent to demanding that I somehow put your shattered bodies back together after you have fallen.”
“……We apologize.”
The parents lowered their heads to the ground again.
Sensing the ominous atmosphere, the child began sniffling.
A smile returned to the priest’s smooth face as he watched.
“However, perhaps this is another test.”
The parents looked up at him in surprise upon hearing his amused, taunting voice.
“Is this your only child?”
The priest openly examined one of the child’s legs.
It was shorter and thinner than the other.
The child’s parents withheld their answers, unable to understand why the priest had started behaving this way again.
When the priest frowned at their hesitation, the woman urgently answered.
“N-No. We have one younger child. Right now, that child is out on the street……earning money.”
Jing guessed that the word she had hesitated to use was “begging”.
The priest’s smile deepened.
“Excellent. No, this is perfect.”
“W-What do you mean?”
“I mean that God does not close every door. Leave this child with the temple.”
“Pardon?”
The child’s bewildered father asked again.
“I am saying that the temple will look after the child until you can pay all your offerings. It seems to me that neither the child nor the two of you would lose anything.”
“W-We apologize. We simply cannot understand what you mean by looking after our child……”
The priest looked down at the hesitant man, then pulled the prostrating child upright.
The child had been pressed against the cold floor and could not withstand the sudden force. He stumbled, but the priest held him firmly and prevented him from falling.
“I mean that the temple will give him work. He appears unable to use one leg properly. Surely he cannot crawl around on the cold ground begging like your other child.”
The parents’ faces reddened with shame, but they soon looked at each other as though unable to believe the tremendous privilege they had been offered.
“Would it……truly be acceptable for you to show us such mercy?”
“Of course. This is the final opportunity you will receive. If you make the wrong choice again, there will be no way to undo it.”
“Of course! Thank you. Thank you so much!”
The child’s parents once again bowed their heads to the ground and expressed their gratitude to the priest.
“However, I cannot allow you to enjoy such a benefit without paying a price. If you fail to pay your overdue offerings within one week, you will be banished from Haire. Permanently.”
“……Pardon?”
“You will never see the child again.”
“What do you mean……?”
Watching the parents’ foolishly bewildered faces, Ratel unconsciously clenched his fist.
In Limis, a person’s disappearance might have attracted considerable attention. But in this enormous city, where people entered and vanished every day, finding food for the holy relic could not have been particularly difficult.
When people lacked the minimum necessities required to live, they often lost their humanity and made foolish choices.
“What will you do?”
Although it was phrased as a question, the priest seemed to know that the answer had already been decided.
Even if the child never saw his parents again, remaining in the temple would surely be better for him than leaving with parents whose future held nothing but hardship.
The priest waited for the child’s parents to nod.
The parents looked at each other again. Then they turned toward their frightened son.
The child trembled anxiously as he met their eyes.
His mother slowly opened her mouth.
“……We will leave.”
“You have chosen wisely.”
The priest’s satisfied smile did not last long.
“We will leave with our child.”
It vanished because of the answer given by the child’s father.
The child’s parents recoiled, apparently frightened by the coldness spreading across the priest’s face.
“Do you understand what you are saying?”
“We seem to have been far too arrogant. We should have realized earlier that those who have already fallen have no way to climb back up.”
Carefully removing the child’s arm from the priest’s grip, the woman answered even more cautiously.
“That is the first time I have seen someone respond like that.”
Ratel heard the knight who had continued squawking beside him mutter those words.
That meant this was not the first time the priest had made such an offer.
He had probably targeted people who normally had no choice but to accept.
Ratel looked at the people who had nevertheless made a different decision.
Strangely enough, only then did he vaguely understand why he had continued watching this pathetic exchange.
Perhaps he had wanted to witness their choice with his own eyes.
“There is no need to apologize. In truth, it does not particularly matter which choice you make. I respect either decision.”
The priest nodded as though he understood.
“Seize them.”
Although his response could hardly have been further from understanding.
“Why? Why are you doing this?”
The bewildered parents anxiously surveyed the situation.
“It would be troublesome if others learned that this method of escaping their obligations existed.”
At the priest’s answer, the knights began handling the family more roughly.
“You three will wait here.”
Apparently deciding that the situation was about to escalate, the man guiding Ratel’s group attempted to leave.
Thud!
He tripped over Ratel’s foot and failed to take even two proper steps, let alone get outside.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
The remaining knight immediately drew his sword.
As though entirely unsurprised by this development, Jing struck the remaining knight over the head.
“Even I would have done the same this time.”
Jing spoke to Ratel, who kicked the other man in the head and knocked him unconscious as he tried to rise.
“I wasn’t planning to make excuses, so you don’t need to forgive me on your own.”
“Of course. I suppose you weren’t.”
Jing nodded once again.
The two leaped through the window.
Then they charged toward the people still attempting to bind the parents and child.
The task did not require more than the two of them, so Lia remained behind and watched them recede.
She reassured herself that this did not differ too greatly from their original plan.
Originally, they had intended to infiltrate the imperial castle by blending in with the workers transporting supplies inside. Still, perhaps knocking down four or five people along the way was acceptable.
Even if one of them happened to be a priest, it would probably……be fine, as long as they did not kill anyone.
“It’ll be fine.”
“Squeak……”
El, perched upon Lia’s shoulder, agreed with her self-hypnotic muttering.
As she stroked El’s head, Lia repeated Ran’s warning in her mind.
—Lia, there is only one thing you must be careful about. Do not kill anyone under any circumstances. Remember that.
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