Chapter 13
The gist was that the dungeon had reacted to the boss monster's magic stone.
‘I can't be certain.’
But it was worth trying.
I looked at the key resting on my palm.
Though it was merely an empty shell drained of energy when the Original Piece was recovered, it was still serving as a vessel.
I slowly infused it with energy.
I recalled the sensation of infusing the symbol with energy.
Fwoosh-
The bright light rising from my fingertips was injected into the magic stone.
There was no reaction.
‘Was I wrong?’
It was just as I was about to think so.
Thump-
I felt a faint vibration in my palm.
Thump, thump-
It wasn't my imagination.
The magic stone, despite not being alive, began to pulse like a heart.
At the same time, its faint red color gradually grew more vivid.
‘I had wondered if it would work, and it really did.’
The pulse continued even after I withdrew my energy.
I turned my gaze.
By then, the portal forming the dungeon entrance was growing faint.
It had begun to fade little by little after the boss died.
If I left it like this, it would soon disappear completely.
Holding the magic stone in my hand, I stepped inside.
The scenery before my eyes changed in an instant.
All traces of the fire had vanished, and the scenery that unfolded before me was no different from when I had first entered.
‘The dungeon's disappearance has stopped too.’
The fading portal had regained its clear form.
But it was still too soon to relax.
It wasn't enough for the dungeon's disappearance to stop. It would be a problem if the monsters appeared again as well.
However, even after quite some time had passed, there was no sign of the monsters respawning.
“It seems to have worked.”
I said to Charlotte, who had followed me inside.
“Really?”
“The dungeon's disappearance has definitely stopped, and no monsters have appeared either. ..Of course, I can't be certain, so we'll still need to keep some guards posted.”
The moment I finished speaking, Charlotte's expression brightened.
Compared to her usual calm demeanor, it was a rather blatant reaction.
‘I suppose that's only natural for the lord's daughter.’
The nearest sea was roughly four hundred kilometers from the city.
It was only natural for her to be happy now that she could gather resources from the sea without having to cross that vast distance.
Though I couldn't say for certain, it seemed they would be able to make a considerable amount of money.
‘If she has a conscience, she'll donate some of it to me.’
Hiding my ulterior motive, I congratulated her with a genial smile.
…
We returned to the city around lunchtime the next day.
“Then I'll be heading to the clinic.”
“Why don't you come with me to the lord's castle and have a meal before you go?”
Charlotte made the suggestion as though she couldn't bear to let me leave just yet, but I shook my head and firmly refused.
Delicious food was tempting, but I had no desire to get indigestion while eating it.
‘The lord makes me uncomfortable.’
The lord's distinctive gaze was burdensome, but more than anything, that rough-looking face made me uncomfortable.
“Is that so? It's a shame, but I understand.”
Perhaps she realized there was no point pushing me after my stubborn refusal, because Charlotte eventually gave up with a disappointed expression.
After parting ways with her, I headed to the clinic.
As soon as I opened the door and entered, a familiar voice was the first thing I heard.
“You're back.”
Margaret spotted me and let out a sigh of relief.
“I was worried you might never come back.”
“Surely you didn't think I was hurt.”
“No.”
Margaret answered with a scoff, as though there was no way she would think that.
“I was worried you might run away to another city.”
…
“I was joking.”
‘That didn't sound like a joke.’
Margaret stared at my face for a moment, then waved her hand.
“But what do you mean by coming to work the moment you get back? Get some proper rest today and come in tomorrow.”
“Would that be all right?”
“I was doing everything myself before you came anyway.”
With that, she leaned back in her chair.
“And I'm not so heartless as to put someone who just got back from an assignment to work immediately.”
In that case.
There was no reason for me to volunteer for work.
“Then I'll see you tomorrow.”
It had been less than five minutes since I entered the clinic, and I was about to leave again when.
“Ah, come to think of it, I heard your church is almost finished.”
The foot I had been about to move stopped.
“Already?”
At this rate, wasn't it shoddy construction..?
My brows naturally furrowed.
It had only been a few days since I agreed to receive a church.
Even if they had started work that very day, it would be difficult to construct a building in less than a week.
“Apparently, they repaired an existing building and gutted and remodeled the interior so it could be used as a church.”
“I see.”
That made it somewhat understandable.
“At this rate, it'll be finished within the week.”
Even so, it still seemed too fast, but this was a world without labor laws, so I accepted it well enough and moved on.
“That was faster than I expected.”
“Think of it as proof that the lord is serious.”
It wasn't exactly good news.
Since we had already said our farewells, I left the clinic without adding anything more.
‘Come to think of it, was tomorrow the day I had to vacate my room?’
Coincidentally, the one-week period I had arranged was nearly over.
‘I don't like it, but I'll have to impose on the Earth Church for a few days.’
Margaret would gruffly complain, but she would ultimately give me permission.
Of course, even if I explained the situation to the innkeeper, they would probably let me stay for a few days.
But I wasn't shameless enough to ask for a free room from someone who made a living through lodging.
Jingle-
“Priest!”
When I opened the inn door and entered, a familiar figure hopped up and greeted me.
The innkeeper's daughter had been wiping down a table, but she dropped the cloth as though tossing it aside and ran over.
“Have you been well?”
“Hehe, yes.”
The girl nodded with a broad smile.
I had only been gone for two days, but the atmosphere was almost like welcoming someone home after a long absence.
“Oh, right.”
Then, as though she had remembered something, the girl's eyes widened.
“Priest, Priest! You have a visitor.”
“A visitor?”
Was there anyone who would come looking for me?
If it was someone from the Earth Church, they wouldn't send someone to the inn; Margaret would have told me herself.
And it hadn't even been half a day since I parted ways with Charlotte.
That left very few possibilities.
‘The lord?’
But the person named by the girl was someone I had never expected at all.
Indeed, it was the last person I wanted to face.
“She says she's a priest of the Goddess of Flowers!”
…
For a moment, my mind stopped.
‘Am I screwed?’
It was only natural for me to have that thought.
I might somehow be able to deceive a priest of a different religion, but I had no confidence that I could fool a real priest of the Flower Goddess Church.
‘..Should I run even now?’
The door was only a few steps away.
If the other person hadn't noticed me yet, I could still quietly slip out.
I was seriously considering an escape route.
“That flower-patterned outfit!”
An excited voice rang out from inside the inn.
“You must be Priest Flawy!”
‘Damn it.’
It was too late.
‘Does this make any sense?’
A religion with the fewest priests and churches in the entire land.
A priest of that religion had come looking for me.
Moreover, this was happening just as it was about to be a week since I began impersonating one.
Even if I was unlucky, this was far too unlucky.
…
“Wow..!”
The priest, who looked about middle-school age, continued staring at me in wonder even after sitting down.
More precisely, she was staring intently at my clothes.
“There are so many flowers.”
“..Is that so.”
“Yes!”
On the other hand, the girl's outfit was rather plain for a priest of the Goddess of Flowers.
Unlike my floral shirt covered in beautiful flower patterns, it had only a single small dandelion embroidered modestly near the chest.
If not for the symbol attached near her chest, it would not have been strange to mistake her outfit for that of an ordinary village girl.
‘For a priest of the Flower Goddess Church, her fashion sense leaves something to be desired.’
The thought briefly crossed my mind that adding around thirty dandelion embroideries would make it prettier, but I soon brushed aside the idle thought.
That wasn't important.
I had to get through this situation smoothly.
‘First of all, she's young.’
If there was one fortunate thing, it was that the priest looked young.
She still seemed to have her baby fat, and her height barely reached my solar plexus.
At least I was relieved that an elderly priest hadn't come looking for me.
Since she was young, there was a high chance that both her knowledge and judgment were immature compared to those of an adult.
That meant there was room to deceive her and get past this somehow.
“If you don't mind, may I ask you one thing?”
“Yes! Please feel free to ask, Priest.”
There wasn't just one or two things I was curious about.
Of those, there was one thing I was most curious about.
How on earth had she known about me and found me?
While I considered how to ask naturally without making her suspicious, I was fortunate enough to find a suitable question.
“You came here alone without a guardian, so why did you come looking for me, and how did you hear about me?”
The girl flinched and glanced at me.
“I'm not interrogating you. I'm asking out of concern as an adult, so please answer me.”
For the record, I was interrogating her.
“First, I heard a rumor that you were here, Priest.”
The mention of a rumor puzzled me.
It had only been about a week since I had fallen into this world and begun staying in this city.
At most, this was a world where horseback travel was the fastest means of transportation.
It was difficult to believe that a rumor could have spread to another region within a week in a place like this.
“A merchant uncle who comes here often told me. He said that an incredible priest of the Goddess of Flowers had settled in Millers.”
‘A merchant.’
I understood how the rumor had spread.
If there was a merchant traveling between villages and cities, the news could certainly have been passed along.
But for a merchant to spread the rumor in another lordship, and for the girl who heard it to reach this place, a week was absurdly short.
If she lived in a nearby village close to the city, it would not have been entirely impossible, but as far as I knew, there was no Flower Church anywhere in this area outside the city.
I had already confirmed that through Margaret, so this was something I could state with certainty.
“But as far as I know, there isn't a Flower Church not only in the city but anywhere in the lordship. Does that mean you came here from a neighboring lordship?”
“Ah, um, it's not a neighboring lordship. There isn't a church, though.”
The girl answered with her face flushed in slight embarrassment.
“..There was a priest, though. My grandmother even acknowledged me as a priest..”
“Without a church?”
“What did Grandma call it again? I think she said an unassigned priest or something. Yep.”
…
‘Unassigned’ meant being qualified without holding a particular office or post.
‘Were there cases of priests living as priests without a church?’
They said the Flower Goddess Church was such a small religion, so apparently some of its priests operated without even having a church.
I hadn't considered a case like this, and a headache began to form.
But not all my questions had been answered yet, so I forced myself to continue asking despite the headache.
“But there's one thing you still haven't told me.”
“Yes?”
“You still haven't told me why you came to see me without a guardian.”
I understood that she had heard a rumor.
I understood that she had continued living as a priest without a church in a nearby village.
But I still couldn't understand why a young girl had crossed a lordship alone to come looking for me.
“Well, you see.”
The girl neatly placed both hands on her lap.
Then, with a face that mingled anxiety and expectation, she cautiously opened her mouth.
“Priest Flawy, please make me your deacon!”