Chapter 78

Dineez Adventurers Credit Union “I can’t lend you a single dina. You don’t qualify for a loan.” Shock flashed across the young man’s face. “H-huh… Guess that makes sense. I wouldn’t loan me money, either.” It was the dead of night. A shabby altar stood under a bridge, next to the employee entrance to a drainage tunnel that had long been left unrepaired. A lone young man was speaking to it. While that may not sound like sane behavior, he wasn’t hallucinating from alcohol or hard drugs. There was, in fact, a voice coming from the altar. Almost as if it had a mind of its own. “It’s not as if you’re asking to make your dream come true, like if you wanted to open your own store or become an idol. You just need to apply yourself. You don’t need money for that.” “Th-that’s not true! I’m at the end of my rope here.” “Hmm. Objectively speaking, you’re already a decent man. You’re aiding those in need with your work serving at a soup kitchen. You even helped bury some people who died on the street.” “How…how do you know all that?” The young man stepped back timidly. The altar seemed to know everything about him. “I try to keep an eye on as much as I can in this city. I could hardly do this job otherwise.” The young man nodded, sweat running down his face. “R-really…? Then you should know it was just happenstance I helped those people.” “You didn’t do any of it out of the goodness of your heart?” “I…developed a gambling addiction and lost the bar I used to own. I even borrowed money from my girlfriend to save it, and then I gambled that away, too… Someone assumed my debt for reasons I can’t get into, but no restaurant’s gonna hire me as a cook now. I’m so broke, I’m living under a bridge… I started to help at the soup kitchen ’cause I didn’t know what else to do. I wasn’t trying to do good or anything.” The young man confessed everything to the altar. He told it about how immature and foolish he was. How he didn’t have enough money or food to save anyone at the soup kitchen. How he wanted to make food others would enjoy, even with the cheapest ingredients. And how he thought if he could do that, he might be able to establish himself as a cook again and go back to making a decent living. The details spilled out of him uncontrollably until he was on the verge of tears. A grown man losing it before a piece of wood. “I can’t trust myself. I know I’ll just get tempted by some get-rich-quick scheme or waste it on something else. I don’t deserve a single dina of your money.” “…You lack self-awareness. You may be a terribly flawed person, but there is good in you.” “H-huh…?” The young man was unsure of what the altar meant. “…I see. You don’t want to pursue a dream until you feel worthy of having one. In that case, I’ll show you a path. Find the young woman who will come here beneath the bridge at the start of next week and turn to her for help. She’s in a similar position as you, but has far more skill, money, and virtue. Prostrate yourself before her and ask for her teaching.” “You’re telling me to become her apprentice? Why would she want someone like me?” “Don’t worry about that. The hard part won’t be getting her to accept you, but whether or not you can keep the momentum. As a former bar owner, you should know that well.” The young man seemed satisfied by those words. He bowed slightly before the altar and walked away. “…That was rare for you, President. It’s not like you to help someone who won’t make you any money,” another voice commented. This voice didn’t come from the altar but from a physical person, who had simply been skilled enough to mask their presence. “This isn’t always about making money.” “I didn’t think you were such a softie. You lent thirty million dina to a girl who dreamed of becoming an idol and one hundred million dina to a young student with no connections, and you actually managed to collect from both.” “Don’t make me sound so heartless. I only invest in people who I think will be able to pay me back. And…everything I’ve done has been in preparation for this moment. I’ve been sowing seeds to help as many people resist White Mask’s temptation as I can. I hoped this day would never come, but a part of me has always been anxious for its arrival.” There was a passion now in the voice that greatly contrasted its earlier calmness. “…I wanted to be the one to guide the boy when he was left all alone. I wanted to love him just as Richard and Robin wanted me to. But I couldn’t do it. He suffered so much, but all I did was watch. That is my nature.” “Don’t speak of yourself like that.” “…We need to be absolutely sure of ourselves here. One wrong move, and all we have done will come to naught. Those who have lost everything cannot miss their chance to gain it all back.” The person by the altar left, and the owner of the voice also disappeared. All that remained was the worn-out altar standing alone under the bridge.