We put our things away, then Father Claise led us to the church’s courtyard.
“This way. Are you sure you’re okay sharing the same room?” he asked.
“Yes, that is no problem at all,” Rosalia answered. “We went through much on our journey here, so I prefer to be together. Right, Royce?”
“Yeah. I gotta look out for her, after all.”
As a side note, Rosalia had this to say about my gruff talk from earlier: “I think the way you were speaking was vivacious and wonderful, but please go back to your normal voice. I’ll have to come up with a punishment for Meg.”
She said this with an uncommonly serious expression on her face, so I went back to normal. Nonetheless, I decided to keep my tone a little more casual.
Is this really the right move? What if Weiss’s tremendously noble aura accidentally comes pouring out? I thought.
Suddenly, I heard children’s voices coming from nearby. The boy with the injured leg from earlier was talking to an older girl about something that sounded rather awful.
“Malta might’ve been kidnapped by some real bad people, so I’m gonna go look for her!”
“But you can’t! Father Claise said it’s dangerous to walk around the city alone. Maybe her parents came for her.”
“Don’t you get it?! There’s no way that’s what happened!”
“Ah, those children are orphans that we’re taking care of here at the church,” Father Claise explained to us. “There was another girl, but she went missing while out shopping. I do hope she is okay…”
“Oh, I see. I hope she’s all right as well. Do you have any idea what might have happened?” Rosalia asked him.
“Well…” Father Claise looked down sadly. “Recently, I spotted someone wandering around outside the church. At the time, I thought maybe I was just imagining things, but…”
“Do you think he was a kidnapper?” I asked. “How revolting.”
Father Claise let out a sigh in response to my words, and his face grew serious.
I had things under control in our territory now, but I was aware that in some places, people had been kidnapping children from slums and orphanages to sell into slavery. It was probably the same here. Now that I thought about it, the lord of this region was on Barbaro’s list of slavers. I was starting to get a bad feeling about all of this.
Father Claise clapped his hands together, getting the children’s attention.
“Come, Keith, Catalina. We have guests. Say hello.”
Keith said nothing.
“Hello, miss. I’m Catalina. It’s nice to meet you.” The young girl introduced herself politely, then turned to scold Keith. “This unfriendly boy is Keith. Hey, you need to introduce yourself.”
“Ugh, fine,” Keith responded sourly, completely disinterested in all of this.
I could tell from their behavior that she was the one in charge. In contrast to Catalina’s greeting, Keith lowered his head toward us with great reluctance.
Rosalia crouched down to match the children’s height and smiled. “We’ll be staying here for a little while. I’m Rosalia, a traveling priestess. This here is Royce, my bodyguard. Catalina, Keith, it’s nice to meet you both.”
I followed suit and greeted the children. “I’m Royce the adventurer. Nice to meet you.”
It seemed that was more than enough to get the children to lower their guard.
“Wow, you’re a traveling priestess? I want to be a priestess when I get older. Can you tell me all about what you do?”
“Huh?! An adventurer?! That’s awesome!”
The two were fascinated by our occupations and wanted to know more—their eyes were practically sparkling. I wasn’t surprised. Boys were always into the sorts of adventures that appeared in heroic tales and, by association, the people who went on them. Even in my previous life, when I was a kid, I’d seen tons of boys get obsessed with the heroes or protagonists in video games and all sorts of manga. Personally, I was more into rival characters or the ones who stood no chance against the hero. I liked the stepping stones in the stories.
“My, my. It appears as though you’ll both fit in quite nicely.” Father Claise let out a sigh of relief at the children being curious instead of frightened of us.
Unfortunately, that peaceful atmosphere quickly faded as we were approached by the girl we came here to help.
“Father Claise, I have finished cleaning.”
“You have my thanks. Well done.”
Of course, it was Astesia. Everyone who noticed her grimaced. As for her, well, she didn’t ever seem to react.
“Ugh, I wish I didn’t have to see your face.”
“Come now, Keith,” Claise chided him, “She’s an important member of this church. Aren’t I always telling you that we must be kind to all who believe in God?”
“Sure, that’s what Lord Zeus says, but… You might be a little nicer to her now, but you complained about her all the time too!”
Keith shouted back at the father and then ran toward the courtyard. Unlike earlier, Catalina did nothing to rebuke him for his rudeness, following after him instead. Astesia watched the two of them blankly, then shot a look of complete disinterest at us before delivering the bare minimum of what one would describe as a greeting.
✦ ✦ ✦
“It does not bother me. I am Astesia. Nice to meet you.”
It almost felt like she had no interest in the world whatsoever. However, I knew how she really felt thanks to beating the game. Rosalia didn’t move a muscle, so I stepped in to introduce myself first.
“It’s a pleasure,” I said in greeting. “I’m Royce the adventurer.”
“And I am Rosalia. It is…nice to meet you,” Rosalia said through a smile that was stiff, but a smile nonetheless.
“We’ll be staying here for a little while, so if you need any help, please let me know,” I said. I winked in an attempt to break the tension so she wouldn’t immediately hate me.
“You… Could it be?” Her eyes widened. “No, that’s impossible. Pardon me, I must go and pray.”
Astesia turned on her heel to leave. It was only for an instant, but I noticed that expressionless mask of hers slip.
I hope she realizes I’m on her side…
“My apologies,” Claise said. “She’s a bit strange, you see. She can be rather unfriendly, but she does her job well.”
“Please, don’t worry,” Rosalia replied, “I was also quite rude…”
I had to do my best to resist the urge to jump in and explain that the reason everyone was so cruel to her—and the reason she in turn was so unfriendly—was because of the curse cast on her. Just knowing the “why” wouldn’t solve anything if I couldn’t dispel the curse.
Fearing Astesia’s talents, the Hades Church cast a very specific curse on her: She would be “hated by everyone except for members of the Hades Church.” Thanks to my love for my fave character and the pact I had with a Divine Beast, it looked like I had some resistance to the curse.
That was why even Rosalia of all people hesitated to greet her, and why a child like Keith couldn’t hide his disgust. Eventually, Astesia would find herself in a pit of despair from the hatred and loneliness, leading her to join the Hades Church when they treated her like an actual person.
Don’t worry, Astesia. I’m going to help you. I was brought here to save my faves, I said to myself as I stared at the door she had left through.