EP.154 The Lost Lamb (02)
My legs were heavy. I felt like there were lead weights in my shoes.
Maybe if the weather was nice, it wouldn’t matter.
The sky was still stained with ominous dark clouds due to the incessant bad weather, and the muddy ground had already dirtied my shoes after just a few steps.
It was a terribly messy morning, but there were still a few people wandering around the dim streets.
A butcher carrying large and small chunks of meat on skewers, not even sure what animal they came from.
A stableman meticulously grooming the horses while yawning.
A housewife, realizing the rain had stopped, hurriedly hung up the laundry she had piled up.
It was a scene some might dismiss as disorderly, far from the capital’s organized life.
But personally, I found this free-spirited scenery to be much more comforting.
The capital of the system. A small city nearby. Ishik.
This is an aside, but this place resembled the hometown where I grew up in many ways.
“Excuse me…”
Thud.
A light impact suddenly tapped my back.
Right after that, I felt the weight on my back pocket lighten significantly.
Turning my head slightly to glance ahead, I saw a small child clutching a familiar wallet tightly in both hands, fleeing hurriedly from me through tattered old clothes.
Another pickpocket.
This was the fifth one since I started staying in this city to gather information.
Yesterday, it was a skinny woman with a newborn baby. The day before that, a one-armed man who looked like a former knight.
And now, it was a scruffy little kid, barely half my size.
A village with such a diverse range of pickpocketing talents is probably rare to find.
It’s not unusual for beggars who have failed to find stable jobs to target unsuspecting outsiders.
That I had been hit by pickpockets so frequently, while my comrades hadn’t encountered even a single one, must mean I looked quite easy to fool.
I felt a little down.
Of course, if I made up my mind not to fall for it, I could avoid such things, and I could reclaim the stolen money whenever I wanted.
But even just glancing at their desperate escape made it clear how hungry they were, snatching away the anger in me entirely, and I just couldn’t muster the will to retaliate.
“Looks like the outskirts of the capital haven’t changed…”
A very unpleasant déjà vu of which I had not felt in a long time suddenly rose in the back of my mind.
Due to the geographical conditions, with the meeting room situated there, one can easily enjoy a comfortable life in the capital. In contrast, the small cities under the influence of the Vatican only had a shabby church standing out alone, and the further one moved away from the capital, the exponentially higher the proportion of lower-class citizens became.
It was a truly sad matter, but at the same time, it was unavoidable.
Because of the double burden of the taxes enforced by the state and the donations collected by the Vatican, the majority of the common folk, who represented most of the system’s citizens, were barely able to scrape together enough to make a living.
Even if the royal family, worried about the people’s famine, made a big decision to lower taxes, it became a futile exercise as the Vatican doubled the donations under the pretext of ceremoniously holding blessing ceremonies.
Baptisms and blessing ceremonies.
Now that I understood the ugly face hidden behind those sacred titles, sometimes I even found myself confused about which side the real Demon King threatening human life was on.
I also agreed with the Vatican’s claim that we must slay the Demon King to ensure humanity’s survival.
But maybe, for us, there are certain roots of evil we need to eliminate before we even consider the Demon King.
Rather, maybe…
Yes, rather…
Just as something dark began to bubble up in my suddenly calm thoughts.
“Huh…”
I paused my restless thoughts with a deep breath.
As I’ve seen the Saintess’s condition visibly improve lately, I wondered if it had caused my mind to relax.
In recent days, the chances of dangerous thoughts suddenly flitting through my mind had increased.
To prevent such silly thoughts from arising again, I decided to reset my focus and firmly fix my gaze on my original purpose.
What I needed to do now was to join the Hero, who was investigating clues regarding the Holy Sword, discuss our future plans, and if her mood was, as I had heard, sour, then work on lifting her spirits.
I was only a little ways from the agreed meeting point with the Hero.
Shaking off the lingering distractions, I hurried my footsteps.
“…!”
It was just then.
A haunting melody I could not afford to ignore echoed sorrowfully in my ears.
◈◈◈
The security in this system can’t be described as good, even in jest.
Unlike a certain warm country where bags left in cafes would still be there the next morning…
This place is a hazardous magic realm where even the security of the bag in your possession is uncertain.
Even the capital’s streets, lined with Imperial Knights, become deadly when you accidentally step into a dark alley.
There was no need to elaborate on how bad the security was outside the capital.
“How dare you try to rob a priest!? Let go! Or not!?”
“Ugh! Ack!”
In a murky and crowded dark alley.
Nervous shouts and painful moans sounded simultaneously from beyond the shadowy darkness.
Thanks to the echoing sounds, I could roughly deduce their location, but due to the complicated geography filled with twists and obstacles, it took quite a while to reach my destination.
After trudging through, nearly drying out the mud stuck to my shoes, I finally arrived.
“Huh? You are…?”
“Ugh…”
After confirming with my own eyes the scene I had dreaded, rage boiled within me as if my entire body was on fire.
The child who had just stolen from me was now trembling under the foot of a robust man of similar height.
That alone was enough to make my blood boil, but what astonished me even more was the attire of the man committing such an outrageous act.
His white clerical robe, differing only in color from my own black robe.
It meant that he was a priest just like me.
“Oh, who could you be? A noble priest serving the same God as I. It’s a pleasure to meet you. May God smile upon you.”
After seeing my attire, the man’s demeanor immediately shifted as he clasped his hands and bowed respectfully.
From the monk gloves he wore, I could guess that he was a priest who had some skill in combat.
While he looked similar to me, his balanced stance and the sharp energy enveloping him made it clear he was far more capable than I was.
“What are you doing?”
I squeezed out the remaining rationality to barely throw him a question.
He responded, seeming surprised that I would even ask.
“Haha, this foolish one was committing a crime, so I was delivering the appropriate punishment.”
“Punishment, you say?”
“Yes. I’ve heard that outrageous acts of robbing priests have increased lately, so I had been keeping an eye on this area. And, just as I suspected! This wretched being was loitering in the alley with stolen goods! But unfortunately, I couldn’t recover the stolen items. It seems he hid them nearby while trying to escape from me…”
As he rambled on about his long-winded speech, the man slyly slipped his left hand into his pocket.
If he was going to be so obvious about it, he might as well not make excuses.
Now that I see it, his courteous language was only a facade, while the intention peeking from his furrowed brow stank worse than trash lying in the street.
He was essentially saying this to me: “I touched it first. Get lost.”
“Well then, I’ll take this!”
Thump! Crack!
I instinctively slammed my fist into the face of the man who tried to pass by me smugly.
Right after that, he was thrown against the wall like a waterlogged piece of tissue, letting out a fierce scream.
“What the hell are you—!?”
With blood streaming from his nose, he glared at me disdainfully amidst the impact, which meant he must have taken the fall correctly even while flying through the air.
Hitting people is hazardous, but hitting a child was inhumane. So this time, I had no qualms.
Clatter.
Without even glancing at the sharp hostility stabbing at my back, I hurriedly rushed to the child.
“Ugh…”
“It’s okay. I’ll heal you quickly.”
His jaw was likely shattered, so he couldn’t speak properly, but thankfully he seemed to be conscious.
“Hi, hi…”
“It’s okay. You don’t need to strain yourself speaking.”
I carefully held back the child, who was trying to convey something with his broken jaw while tugging at my collar.
“You bastard—!”
Not even turning back at the robust voice that was coming from behind me, I simply raised my voice calmly.
“Baong. Bind.”
Immediately after that, a clever chain shot out from my arm and stretched behind me like it was a living creature.
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