But that didn’t matter. My goal was to send the message that I was friendly even to commoners—I mean, priestesses that weren’t affiliated with the Temple—and I’d surely made that clear. If I ever needed to make use of her down the line, perhaps to appease the common masses or to check the demands of the Temple, she should be more willing to help. That was the idea, anyway...until somehow, she supposedly turned out to be “all but confirmed to be the Angel” and “not a human that had been blessed by the Goddess, but the Goddess’s own kin”?!
The reports had come from the merchant, along with the hunter party of five women who had declared Marth One, all claiming the same thing. In light of those testimonies and the variety of information they’d received up to that point, the guildmasters of the Hunter’s Guild and Commerce Guild had decided they needed to report to the local lord immediately.
I have no choice but to deal with this!
Well, for the town and as its lord, it was a great honor that the Angel had decided to stay here. That much was certain...but she was supposedly being targeted by some unscrupulous types. If something happened, this town—this country—even this entire continent—would all fall to ruin!
What am I supposed to do?! We don’t have Fearsome Fran here, the legendary great hero and guardian of the kingdom who saved every living being on the continent by rebuking the Goddess Celestine herself!
No, that wasn’t quite correct. She might not be in this specific town, but she was still somewhere on this continent. She would have to be over a hundred years old now but was said to still be alive—unless she’d passed away since he’d last heard of her, that is. That was actually quite possible, considering it was already a wonder she had been alive at such an old age.
Anyway, in order to prevent this town from becoming known as the devil town for having angered the Goddess Celestine and causing her to destroy the continent, I would gladly give up my family’s lives, my own included. It would be a small price to pay.
What I couldn’t figure out was, why did we have to keep the fact that we knew the Angel’s identity hidden from her? Especially when the Angel herself acted as if she had no intention of hiding who she was. I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but I had to do what had to be done for the sake of my beloved wife, my children, my entire family, the people of the territory I ruled over, my fellow countrymen...and everyone who lived upon this continent.
“So...how have your philanthropic activities been going?”
It was during the post-meal tea time with the lord’s family that I’d been asked the question. Discussing heavy topics or anything work-related during a meal was considered bad etiquette, so I’d expected the main purpose of our meeting to be brought up around now. I got the impression that he would’ve preferred not to have this conversation in front of his wife and children, but he also hesitated to talk about it while we were alone together, so here we were. He must’ve come to this conclusion after taking my position into consideration, which should be commended.
“Oh, I’ve been going to orphanages and visiting the sick and wounded as usual. Though, all I’m able to offer is food service, a few small donations, and prayers, merely for peace of mind. From what I could tell, the Temple’s branches here only offer services to those who can afford to pay...” I said regretfully.
“Hmm,” the lord frowned.
I hadn’t meant that as a jab. The Temple stood apart from aristocrats, lords, and officials. A local Temple branch only took orders from the Great Temple in the royal capital, so even if the lord didn’t like what they were doing, he had absolutely no say in how they operated. Even if he tried saying something, they would just tell him that as their lord, he should use his own money to help the poor, and he’d have no way to argue against that. Yet they requested donations not only from the general populace, but from the lord too. Donations were meant to be offered out of the kindness of people’s hearts—it was wrong for the Temple to ask for donations or set a price as if it were a service fee.
Because of the incidents in the Holy Land of Rueda before I’d gone into the Item Box, I didn’t have a good impression of the Temple authorities. Sure, there were priests who seriously thought about the good of the people, but back then, they had been vastly outnumbered by the bad apples. Celes had stopped appearing before the people for over fifty years, if I recalled correctly. Supposedly, because of the events at the peace talks and how she’d shown herself when I vanished, there had been a resurgence of faith among the priests. What was up with that? The common people had always had faith, and the priests were the ones who’d stopped believing. What’s more, it’d been over seventy years since the last time she’d shown herself, and the priests who’d been alive back then and the elders who’d followed their teachings were still devout believers, but the generation after that—the relatively young priests—had been losing their faith once again. So, they were in an interesting situation where things were the opposite of the usual pattern, with the upper echelon having their heads on right and the lower parts of the hierarchy being rotten.
It was unfortunate for the general population, considering it was the rotten parts of the organization that they had to interact with on a daily basis. Though, that was part of the reason free priestesses unaffiliated with the Temple, like me, were welcome with open arms. We offered prayers for a small amount of food, which was pretty much nothing compared to what the Temple demanded. It made me want to be careful not to ruin the reputation of other, actual stray priestesses.
“Oh, it’s nothing for you to be concerned about,” I said. “The Temple is always like that, and that’s why there are priestesses like myself who distance ourselves from them and independently make an effort to help the less fortunate.”
“Yes...” the lord said. He sounded rather unconvinced, and his tone told me he wasn’t happy with the current state of the Temple. He must have been a good person who cared about the people and wasn’t the type who’d join forces with the Temple for the sake of money. It seemed the hunters were right when they’d told me this territory was a good one.
We continued talking, the lord enjoying some drinks while his wife, children, and I had tea, fruit juice, and snacks. I’d started wondering if he’d really called me here just to make regular small talk, but then the topics and questions began veering toward my personal information. It was starting to turn into a background check, with them asking about my family name and other details. It was also obvious that he was steering things so I’d get chummy with his kids. They were two boys and one girl, the oldest being around twelve or thirteen and the youngest being around five or six. I mean, I probably looked like I was twelve or thirteen to them, so I couldn’t blame them for thinking I was around that age, I guess. I mean, they also thought I was an aristocrat.
But even if their assumptions were true, his kids were sheltered little children who had barely ever left their manor while I was a vagrant who traveled solo and camped like it was nothing. He should’ve known that we’d be on such different levels in terms of common sense that we wouldn’t even be able to hold a conversation...or so I’d thought, but actually, the kids seemed interested in what I was saying. Maybe even a bit too interested. But it wasn’t that their father had instructed them to act that way—I could tell they were actually fascinated. I mean, it made sense. To them, I was about the same age as their oldest sibling and also from an aristocratic background. Of course they’d be intrigued by stories about my solo travels, camping out, getting chased around by monsters (which I made up), and punishing an appraiser who’d tried to trick me into selling my gemstones for cheap (which I played up for dramatic effect).
At first, the lord had been listening along and reacting with surprise like his children, but his expression gradually grew troubled. The children were so into my stories that I’d been talking nonstop, giving him no room to extract information. Well, he could get information out of my adventure stories, but those weren’t necessarily true. This continued for some time, and I could tell the lord was getting flustered. Suddenly, he shot me a wide-eyed, desperate look.
Ah! The look in the children’s eyes... They’re about to tell their dad that they want to go on an adventure too!
Their parents wouldn’t permit such a thing, of course, and so the siblings would end up running away from home to go on an adventure against their wishes. If that happened, they’d be dead or kidnapped on the first day.
So he was trying to tell me to stop... I guess I got them a bit too excited.