Chapter 101
***
It was a week later when Simeon, who had been away briefly, returned.
“I’m back, young master.”
“Simeon. Have you finished your pilgrimage?”
“Yes.”
Just the two of us in the room.
The squint-eyed man smiled.
“Thanks to you, Saint, I was able to end my long wandering. This wretched prodigal has finally returned to the side of the gods.”
When we met again, Simeon was wearing the white robe of a healing priest instead of his shabby black cassock.
Simeon pulled a sheet of parchment from his breast.
One side of the old, yellowed paper bore a blue seal.
It was the <Seal of Purity> given to priests who completed their pilgrimage.
— [Pilgrim Simeon Ronald, proving that he has washed away all impurity and once again stands before the gods.]
“Then you’ll have to pay taxes again, Brother.”
“In return, I’ll be able to regain my rights as a healing priest.”
Pilgrims do not pay taxes.
No matter which city wall they cross, they can avoid inspection, and they also have the right to spend one night in every temple.
By the same token, they cannot enjoy the rights of a healing priest.
Those rights included getting the catalysts needed to use divine magic almost for free, or buying sacred implements at very low prices.
This parchment was proof that he had returned from pilgrim status to being a healing priest.
“All right, Simeon. Then I’ll ask the same thing again as last time: you want me to take you in?”
“That’s right. Please grant me the honor of serving you, young master.”
The squint-eyed man bowed his head.
Attendant priest.
It was a role like a secretary or aide to a high-ranking priest.
As you can tell from the bishop and Gregor, even a senior priest has one or two attendant priests following them around.
Normally, as a saint, I should have had at least one attendant priest of my own.
But because of my double identity, I had never kept anyone at my side until now.
Having Simeon as my attendant priest, huh....
He was a good fit in many ways.
For one, he had once been both a disciple of my parents and their attendant priest.
And because he knew about my double life, having him at my side would be perfect.
Still, there was one issue.
“Simeon. You are someone who observed my parents’ will most closely. And I am their child who inherited that will.”
“...”
“Then wouldn’t it be fair to say that Simeon and I are of the same generation?”
In short, wasn’t Simeon basically my senior?
Simeon is my parents’ disciple.
Treating him as my subordinate would be awkward in more ways than one.
“If Simeon doesn’t mind, I could treat you as someone of the same generation....”
“That must not happen.”
But Simeon’s reaction was firm.
“For someone as sinful as me to dare stand side by side with you, Young Master—no, Saint—that must not happen.”
Simeon bowed his head.
“I was the sole heir to the will of the Schnabels. The touch and hearts of those two remained as the one lamp in this foolish man’s chest. But I had not understood until now how great that honor was.”
“...”
“I did not regard it as a responsibility at all, but dared to think of it as a right I possessed. Whether the world was worthy of the will of those two. Whether that person deserved to receive that love. I dared to hold such standards and judge humankind in the name of those two. I even tested you, young master.”
His shoulders trembled once.
“That was arrogance. I am the most arrogant and vile of sinners. And that is not all. In my lowly body as a priest, I even dared to try to test the gods.”
Thump, thump.
Simeon beat his own chest.
“I do not think there is any way for that sin to be pardoned. For someone like me to stand in the same rank as you, Saint? One cannot smear mud on the sun.”
“I’m not the sun, but to answer that, the sun wouldn’t mind.”
“It would not, of course. You are not someone who would be tarnished by the likes of me. But I am far too sinful. So please, give me a chance to start over from the lowest point so I may atone.”
Bow.
Simeon bowed his head.
After silently looking at the crown of his head, I eventually spoke.
“Brother Simeon.”
“Yes, young master.”
“If that helps you ease the burden on your heart even a little, then go ahead.”
It would have been ugly to keep grabbing at someone who was trying to atone and stopping him.
What else could I do?
If he wanted to start over as a first-year resident, so be it.
‘It’s a little burdensome, but I can’t help it.’
To me, Simeon was like an uncle.
The thought of having someone like that as my secretary made the back of my neck itch a little.
But that was something only I had to put up with.
“All right. Then before you become my attendant priest, there’s something you need to do.”
Clack.
I placed a box on the desk.
When I opened the box, a brass cross appeared inside.
It was the graduation present my parents supposedly prepared for Simeon long ago — a brass cross.
“I’m only handing this over to you twenty years late. At the very least, I believed Simeon was still alive.”
Honestly, I had forgotten the very existence of this keepsake.
Anyway, since I had kept it safe and waited until Simeon came, I suppose I had been waiting in faith.
“Congratulations on your graduation, junior healing priest Simeon. May the God of Mercy be with you on the path ahead.”
“...”
The man carefully picked up the brass cross.
And then, in silence, he bowed his head and his shoulders trembled lightly.
*
“Simeon. Could you perhaps tell me about my parents?”
It started after Simeon officially became my attendant priest.
After he joined me, I asked him to tell me in detail about my parents’ accomplishments that I didn’t know.
Those were the people who used to carry their grimoires around instead of keeping them at home.
Because their research records were not in my possession.
Besides, for some reason, I kept hearing only about my parents’ accomplishments, while their research results rarely showed up in the healing field.
“If you know about it, Simeon, then you must know about the research my parents did too, right? Do you remember what parasite they were studying?”
“If that’s what you mean, the masters sent their research records along with me when they sent me off.”
Simeon said.
Apparently, in the two-person teleportation circle they finally gave up on, Simeon and the box containing the two masters’ research records were sent along together.
“I wanted to show the church these research records, but... some priests tried to make these achievements their own. So I took them back and kept them.”
Anyway, those old geezers.
Since my parents were already dead, they must have thought they could naturally turn the unpublished discoveries into their own achievements.
Simeon said he couldn’t bear to hand the research records over to such priests, so he kept them himself.
“Then may I take a look at them?”
“You alone in this world are worthy of seeing them. If necessary, I can even erase my memories....”
“You’ve gone too far, Simeon.”
After stopping Simeon from suddenly going overboard.
I was able to receive their research records through him.
My parents’ research records were heavy enough to need both hands.
A dozen notebooks bound with worn leather straps.
Bundles of loose sheets stitched together, pasted excerpts, and over a hundred hand-drawn diagrams.
Mud stains and sap stains remained at the edges of the pages.
After sending all those research records off as a parcel, I returned to the academy research lab.
After that, I spent every spare moment, even mealtimes, going through my parents’ records.
Through that process, I discovered one thing.
‘You’re not parasite specialists...?’
No, strictly speaking, they were indeed parasite specialists.
They just weren’t specialists in parasites alone.
‘My parents seem more like ecological researchers than doctors.’
The first page alone was a little strange.
— [The empire’s southern region, swamp mosquito collection log]
— [Outskirts of the Demonic Wastes. Black Silver Herb specimen collection report]
— [Whitehorn Ridge Cave, bat guano collection record]
“...”
They were formidable in many ways.
Unlike a coward like me who hides inside the walls,
they directly studied the ecosystem out in the Demonic Wastes beyond the walls in order to understand the ecology of parasites.
‘No wonder all the disciples except Simeon fell away...’
Seriously.
They were peculiar in many ways.
Anyway, the records they left behind while exploring the empire’s southern and northern regions were varied.
However, some errors could also be found in the process.
[A parasite that climbs up a swimmer’s nasal cavity and gnaws at the gray matter of the brain — provisionally named the Sosa parasite]
For example, this creature.
More precisely, it was some kind of amoeba....
Naegleria amoeba? Fowleri amoeba?
I don’t remember, but it was a record of that famous brain-eating amoeba.
My parents were classifying this amoeba as a parasite.
‘This isn’t a parasite; it’s a protozoan.’
They even recorded fungi as plant-like parasites.
I guess that’s because this world lacked the relevant concepts.
It was a research notebook that seemed to need reclassification in many ways.
But,
‘Amazing.’
Such trivial mistakes did not diminish the value of this research notebook in the slightest.
Rather, the more I checked it, the more I could only think about how amazing my parents were.
‘So my godfather’s old praise of my parents hadn’t been empty talk after all.’
My godfather had always said this.
That my parents were truly wonderful people.
I had thought they were simply amazing because they had gone off to volunteer in medical support on the southern front.
But after seeing the research records, I changed my mind.
‘They’re true geniuses, not a manufactured genius like me...’
I am not someone who makes new discoveries.
I am someone who uses memories from my previous life.
Strictly speaking, I was closer to pretending to be a genius.
But my parents were different.
Without even the memories of a previous life, they made discoveries like these.
As they say, it’s hard to go from 0 to 1.
Maybe if my parents had lived longer, they might have become authorities on infectious diseases.
‘Seeing these research records, I understand why the priests were blinded and tried to make them their own.’
Rather, Simeon was the incredible one.
The fact that he hid them for twenty years and never turned them into his own accomplishment.
That must mean his respect for my parents and his faith in the gods were extraordinary.
‘As expected, it would be best if I polished this up a little and published it as the accomplishments of Simeon and the Schnabels.’
Publishing it as my own was too uncool.
Just sorting it a little and then announcing it as my accomplishment would be far too shameless.
Instead, there were two big things I could take from these research records.
One thing was the methods my parents had devised for studying these tiny microorganisms.
‘To think they used magic instead of a microscope...’
And the other was,
‘There are detailed notes on the ecology of fungi. If I had this...’
I could now intentionally cultivate fungi.
Of course, the process would be a bit grueling and long, just like making a vaccine.
I’d have to create black magic that didn’t exist.
Like with the mosquito-control spell, it would probably take a few years.
‘Even if it took decades, it wouldn’t be strange.’
Still, just seeing a path ahead already made me excited.
Once I made up my mind, I called for my master right away.
Since it was about making magic, I thought my master would probably like it too.
‘He liked it when I made the vaccine and the mosquito-control spell last time, so would he like this one too?’
However, I needed to be a little careful when it came to persuasion.
Black magic using fungi as a catalyst can be used to bring down even an overpass if used properly.
But if a disciple suddenly said, “I want to make a spell that mass-produces fungi!”
how would my master react?
— “Are you dreaming of reviving the 13th Month Magic Tower?”
I’d have no excuse if I got labeled an isekai Nazi on the spot.
In reality, black magic can topple a few fortresses with ease if you set your mind to it.
‘Tsk. It looks like before I make the fungus-proliferation spell, I should prove blue mold’s effects first.’
There is always an order to things.
If I got excited and skipped that order, I’d have no right to complain even if people misunderstood me.
‘Let’s take it step by step.’
First, I needed to gradually convince healers of the existence of bacteria.
The reason I had put this off until now was simple.
Because I’d have to tell the healers that they had killed people by not washing their hands, and there was no way they’d take that kindly.
So I had endured it.
If I brought up germ theory with my meager authority and skills, there was a chance I’d be socially buried.
But now there was no need for that.
I had a way to prove that bacteria existed.
And I had the authority to advance the theory.
‘Because I can’t keep putting it off forever.’
Now, at last, I could take my first steps.
Thanks to my parents.
Thinking that, I closed the book.