Chapter 8 - Crawling Creep.
Translator: Homia
Tl/N: 교화 = Enlightenment ==> Reformation, “The act or process of steering someone towards the right way by teaching.” It has more than one meaning, but reformation is the most appropriate. I’ll change it in the previous chapter too. (~_~)
A priest of Reformation.
Those from the church of Reformation wore clothes that usually come to mind when you think of a paladin. Heavy iron armor and a large battle hammer.
The priest of Reformation was one of the most difficult jobs in this game.
The heavy armor, which seemed very difficult to move in at first glance, was a blessed item that became lighter as the depth of the priest’s faith deepened, and that battle hammer of moderate weight had a blessing that increased the depth of faith as soon as it was directed at the enemy.
A profession that specializes in close combat.
The first person to speak was a middle-aged priest of Reformation with scars all over his face. Years of experience were felt in each of those scars.
I should avoid melee fights as much as possible.
“Devotion to the righteous life. I never thought I’d meet a priest who worships the god of maintenance in a place like this. My name is Obs, and I’m a priest of Reformation. They are also walking on the same path as me, the big guy’s name is Cornu, and this is Petina.”
At the introduction of Obs, who seems to be the leader of the three, the priests called Cornu and Petina bowed.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Petina was a woman of average stature, with light brown short hair that suited her well. But it was none other than Cornu that caught my attention among them.
He was a head larger than a burly adult male, and had a big thick horn growing in the middle of his forehead. Cornu was from the one-horned tribe that was rarely seen in the human-centered northern kingdom.
“Nice to meet you, too.”
However, that’s not why I was interested in the one-horned tribe.
They are able to attack with divinity, the fatal weakness of the Priest of Corruption.
I could freely use objects under the blessing of other gods and disguise myself as a priest of another god, but if, by chance, my identity was discovered by them, I couldn’t have a friendly relationship with them in any way.
The weakness is very clear, the possibility of forming a friendly relationship with the other churches’ forces was completely blocked. That was the priest of corruption.
An awkward silence was about to fall between me and the reformation priest, but Erin has naturally intervened in the conversation.
“The reformation priests will probably stay here helping mercenaries for a while. Just like Priest Marnak!”
That was fortunate news at least. Even if it wasn’t right now, there’s still a chance to steal the relic I was looking for.
In the end, what level of friendship should we have?
In fact, there was no need to steal the holy relic. It was okay to get the relic, absorb the divinity of corruption, and then return it.
The problem was that when the divinity was absorbed from the holy relic, the divinity of corruption was flowing out for a while.
Now I needed to go through a total of three steps.
-
Stealing the sacred object somehow.
-
Absorb divinity as far as possible from those priests.
-
Put it back.
It was complicated.
It’s natural and obvious that I’ll be treated like a madman if I ask them to touch the relic for a moment.
Do I have to steal again? I’m not a priest of corruption, but a bandit of corruption.
“Priest Marnak?”
I thought for too long. Obs, the man with the scars, looked closely at my face and said.
“We have something scheduled after this, so I think we should go unpack for now. Let’s put off our conversation until next time.”
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Yeah. I needed to get my plans together. I replied with a big smile.
“I look forward to meeting you next time.”
The three priests bowed and naturally disappeared into the mercenary guild.
Inside?
Erin opened her mouth, looking at the backs of the priests, as if she could hear the sound of my heart.
“The reformation priests have decided to stay in the Mercenary Guild while they are here.”
“Are you okay with that?”
“Our mercenary guild usually provides accommodation for the priests who visit us at a small price. Because they’re priests.”
No way…
“Then that’s why you let me sleep here yesterday?”
Erin laughed bashfully.
“Yes! Of course, I let you sleep here because you’re a priest!”
The winter wind blowing outside hit my heart, which was warm for a short moment. Yeah, that can’t be true.
Her bright green eyes blinked in front of me.
“No way? Did you think I let you sleep here because I was interested in you?”
“Not at all.”
Yes, exactly. I thought this pretty lady had a sneaky black heart for me. Black like a pencil.
“Actually, I’m interested in the priest, so it’s true that I did him a favor.”
“What?”
Erin, after glancing around, came up and whispered softly into my ear. Her warm breath tickled my ear.
“We have a large supply of groceries coming in tomorrow night, and I was wondering if you could put up a blessing to keep them safe for a long time.”
I stepped back and patted my ear.
“Why are you whispering such a story into my ear?”
Erin grinned like a mischievous kid.
“Why?”
My pocket began wriggling violently at the dizzying voice.
‘Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!’
I quickly grabbed onto my pocket and smiled reverently.
“I can give you as many blessings as you want to keep the food from spoiling. Instead, would it be okay to stay here at the mercenary guild for a while?”
It wasn’t a problem for me to put a simple blessing of corruption unnoticed by the priest of the Reformation Church.
“If the priest wants to stay here, it’s great!”
Great? Great…?! I pretended to be nonchalant, gently pressing down on my wiggling pocket.
“Then I’ll thankfully stay for a few more days.”
“Yes, if you’re in your room and you’re bored, come out and talk to me. Well, excuse me, I have some work to do first.”
Erin went back to her workplace, and I returned to my room with two gold coins.
‘Kill!’
“Mother, that’s too much. Why don’t you use brighter and finer words?”
‘Kill! Kill! Kill!’
“What do you mean? I’m just here to retrieve the holy relic. There’s not a speck of black heart for that red-haired lady. I’m telling you.”
‘Kill…?’
“I mean it. You’ve seen me for the past five years, don’t you know me well? I really have only mother in my heart. Ha, this is really bad! I will make you feel my pure heart!”
I massaged mother, pressing her palm with my hand. With all my heart.
‘K… I… L… L…’
My corrupt mother, who was about to say something, was so absorbed in the massage that she could not complete her words.
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After I fully relaxed mother, I came back down to the first floor of the mercenary guild, and only the one-horned man was there, sitting in a chair. The one-horned Cornu made eye contact with me and smiled warmly.
“Oh, isn’t this priest Marnak?”
Feeling the need to gather information about the relic, I naturally went and sat in front of Cornu.
“I didn’t expect to see you again this early. It’s really nice to meet you. By the way, where did the other priests go?”
“Priest Obs and Petina have gone to greet the lord of Guise.”
“Why didn’t you go with them?”
Cornu smiled awkwardly and scratched his cheek.
“Since I’m not from the human race, some of the lords of the northern kingdom are opposed to me.”
Among the aristocrats in the northern kingdom, where most of the population is human, quite a few found it uncomfortable to face other races.
“I don’t think Lord Thredon cares about that at all.”
Suddenly, Erin, who approached, pulled a chair and interrupted the conversation. Cornu smiled gently and replied to Erin.
“Is that right? I should have visited him with the other priests.”
“Our Lord Thredon has a very stoic personality, and although he is cold-hearted in dealing with people, he is very good at his work. He’s distinguished between the public servants and vassals’ swords. There are a lot of enthusiastic supporters of Lord Thredon in Guise, so it’s better to be careful if you want to gossip about him outside.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
I asked gently.
“But why did the other priests go to see the lord?”
When priests enter the city, there was no law that required them to greet the lord unconditionally. The fact that they went to meet the lord obviously had a different purpose.
Cornu peeked at Erin and slowly opened his mouth.
“Actually, on our pilgrimage, we’re following a prophecy from ten years ago. Priest Obs is the one who thinks that the end of all life is the ‘demon’.”
Demon? Crazy! Things were going very badly. I asked as casually as possible.
“Do you think that the lord is a demon?”
Cornu smiled and waved his big hands.
“Oh, no, not at all. If I really thought Lord Thredon was evil, would I have stayed here? It’s just that Priest Obs goes to check every time he stops by a city. The priest has a “holy relic” that can tell if the opponent is a demon or not.”
Bad. Very bad. It couldn’t have been worse. It was clear that a lot of people were going to die.
If Thredon had just been possessed by a demon, the two priests of the Reformation Church would have easily dealt with him, but he was a demon who spent forty winters in that body.
If he used his power in return for the body he was attached to, he could bring a part of his body from the other world to this land.
Whoosh!
The earth was shaking and screams echoed through the city.
I and Cornu rushed out of the mercenary guild.
And we saw it.
A part of the demon that came down to this world by destroying the mansion of the lord.
“Gaaaaaaaaah!”
The black skin that covered his whole body was so thick that no spear or sword could pierce, and the sharp teeth visible through the wide-open mouth were the size of a human head.
Bang!
A huge hammer made of pure white light fell on the head of the huge demon.
It was the ‘hammer of punishment’, one of the representative powers of the reformation priests.
Cornu looked at me and said urgently.
“We have to go help!”
He looked at the demon running wild in the distance, and his face stiffened.
“Go ahead. I’ll be right behind you.”
While the three Reformation priests stopped the demon for a while, I had something to do on my own.
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