“Please take this as well.”
“This is far too much compared to the money I gave.”
“Oh my, I’d be even more ashamed if I took money from the one who saved my son.”
There was no helping the flustered reaction to such excessive kindness.
It was because the amount received far exceeded what had been paid.
“Then I’ll accept it just this once.”
“That’s not something you, Priest, get to decide, is it?”
‘What a headache.’
I realized further words were useless against such a resolute answer.
But it wasn’t as if I couldn’t understand their feelings.
Most of the soldiers who had nearly died and clung to life were their sons, their husbands, and their fathers. Or perhaps they were neighbors or friends.
As such, it was only natural for the market merchants to be so favorable toward me.
‘If I stretch the truth a little, I just got enough provisions to last half a month for four copper coins.’
I looked down at the baskets in both hands.
They were filled to the brim with the merchants’ goodwill, from grains to vegetables and fruits—it would be faster to find what wasn’t there.
If there had been no limit to what I could carry, I might have ended up with far more.
‘And on top of that, I even got meat I can’t even eat myself.’
I stared at the large chunk of meat sitting prominently in one corner of the basket.
I thought about returning the meat, but then I recalled Priest Malza and changed my mind.
Priest Malza was a girl of only fifteen now.
At an age where she was still growing, proper nutrition was crucial.
‘I can’t keep a child from eating meat just because I don’t eat it myself.’
Recalling that even monks fed meat to their young acolytes, I gripped the baskets firmly.
It was after breaking a sweat under the excessive load that I returned to the church.
“Did you buy all of this?”
As soon as I stepped into the lodging, Priest Malza’s eyes went wide.
“The merchants gave it to me out of kindness. It’s a blessing.”
“Wow, incredible.”
Priest Malza circled around the baskets, making a fuss.
It was understandable.
Not only were the baskets packed full of all sorts of ingredients, but some were piled so high they blocked the view.
“Oh, by the way, did the workers eat the stew?”
I set down the load and asked, recalling it belatedly.
“Yes! They must have been hungry—they wiped it clean.”
“..Good to hear.”
In more ways than one.
The biggest relief, perhaps, was that not a single drop of that porridge remained.
“Let’s move the ingredients first.”
Just as I was lifting the baskets, pretending nothing was wrong—
Thud!
A heavy boom echoed from beyond the building.
It sounded like something massive had toppled over.
Judging by the direction, it had to be from the chapel.
“Could you sort the ingredients for me? I’ll go check on the chapel.”
“Oh, yes!”
The chapel was right next to the lodging.
It was practically attached, but the buildings were separate, so I had to go outside.
As I opened the door and stepped into the chapel, the first thing that caught my eye was a haze of dust.
‘Hm.’
Inside, a commotion had already taken place.
In the center of the floor lay the Goddess statue, cradling a bouquet, toppled over.
No, it wasn’t simply toppled.
It was split in two at the waist, lying scattered across the floor.
And beneath the debris, I could see a person’s leg.
“Are you alright?”
I snapped out of it belatedly and rushed over.
The workers, who had been frozen in place, turned to me with pale faces.
“W-We have committed a mortal sin! Priest!”
“..?”
Their reaction was strange.
But this wasn’t the time to question why.
“Let’s get the person pinned underneath out first.”
I headed straight for the fallen Goddess statue.
The statue was only about 5 feet 3 inches tall, but being made of stone, even half of it seemed to weigh a considerable amount.
Yet the workers around just exchanged glances and refused to move.
“What are you doing?”
Even when I urged them, it was the same.
A few cautiously stepped forward, but in front of the broken Goddess statue, they couldn’t bring themselves to reach out.
“Move it right now.”
“Th-That’s…”
“There’s a person trapped underneath.”
Irritation bled into my voice, but they still hesitated.
Whatever the reason, I couldn’t just leave it like this.
‘Power of Bless.’
I cast a buff on myself.
As a radiant light wrapped around my body, strength surged into my muscles in an instant.
It was a physical enhancement buff I rarely used, since it wasn’t efficient unless one was a melee-class Awakener.
But for a statue split in two, I could manage to lift it somehow.
“Hmph!“
I grabbed the upper half of the Goddess statue that had fallen to the floor.
A hundred kilograms, give or take.
Maybe even more.
If it hadn’t been broken in two, I wouldn’t have dared to try alone.
Borrowing the buff’s power, I barely managed to lift the stone and shove it aside.
Thud.
As the stone hit the floor, dust rose once more.
Only then did the full condition of the worker pinned beneath become visible.
“Ugh…“
His back was bent at a grotesque angle.
Because he’d been crushed, he seemed unable to breathe properly, and his complexion looked poor.
‘Heal.’
But as long as he wasn’t dead, I was confident I could save him.
Light bloomed from my fingertips and seeped into the patient’s body.
Crackle—
The twisted spine returned to its place, and the sound of broken bones aligning followed in succession.
His grotesquely misaligned body quickly regained its original form.
Only after confirming that his ragged, near-breaking breath had also calmed did I withdraw my hand.
I then turned to the workers around me.
Their faces were still stiff.
“Let’s hear the reason, then.”
The gentle expression I usually wore while playing the priest was nowhere to be found.
As I looked at them with cold eyes, their shoulders shrank.
It took a moment to get an answer.
After hesitating for a long while, one worker finally spoke up in resignation.
And after hearing the explanation to the end—
“..So, let me get this straight.”
I was so dumbfounded that words failed me for a while.
“You’re saying that because you knocked over and broke the Goddess statue, you were afraid of divine punishment if you touched it wrong, so you didn’t dare lay a hand on it?”
No one could answer.
A few even hung their heads.
It was hard to hide how pathetic I found it.
No matter how strong the influence of religion was in this place, I never imagined they’d stand by and do nothing while a person was dying before their eyes—all because of one broken stone statue.
“..Do you see that statue as Lady Iris herself?”
The workers looked puzzled.
They stared at the broken Goddess statue as if it were only natural.
Asking whether the statue of Iris looked like Iris—their expressions said, what are you talking about?
“Surely you haven’t been worshiping a mere stone instead of the Goddess all this time?”
Only then did understanding dawn, and a few eyes went wide.
“And do you truly believe Lady Iris would be angered over a single broken statue made in her likeness?”
The truth is, I don’t know.
But a being who would let someone like me—an imposter—walk around unchecked wasn’t about to get angry over something as trivial as a broken statue.
If anything, I’d have been struck by lightning first.
“If anything, worrying about the statue while a person lay dying is the real blasphemy against Lady Iris.”
The workers’ expressions grew even stiffer.
“I doubt you’re in any state to keep working, so please, head home for today.”
I glanced at the worker still lying on the floor.
“Take that person with you and let them rest. The treatment is done, but it would be best for them to take it easy for at least a day.”
“..Yes, Priest.”
“And I won’t be holding anyone accountable for this incident. Don’t worry yourselves over nothing.”
Only then did a sliver of relief appear on the workers’ faces.
But that relief wasn’t enough to erase their fear, as they helped their injured colleague along, bowed their heads several times, and hurried out of the chapel.
“…”
Once everyone had left, the chapel fell silent as if by magic.
In the settling dust, only the broken Goddess statue remained, left alone.
I slumped onto one of the chapel’s pews and met the statue’s gaze.
Before me lay Iris’s idol, its lower half severed, still clutching a bouquet as it lay fallen.
Perhaps their reaction had been only natural.
After all, this world was one where the power of religion ran deep.
Maybe I was the strange one, lifting and tossing aside a holy statue without a shred of hesitation.
‘Tsk, even so—a person was dying right there.’
Recalling how they couldn’t even reach out a hand while their colleague was dying, I couldn’t even muster a bitter laugh.
“Funny enough that I can’t even laugh.”
And at that moment.
-Exactly.
In the empty chapel, a stranger’s voice chimed in agreement.
“Am I hearing things?”
I tilted my head, wondering if it was an auditory hallucination, when the voice spoke again.
-As if.
‘Definitely a hallucination.’
The tone was one I’d seen a few times in the gallery, which only confirmed it, and I cast a purification skill on myself.
‘Purification.’
-Puhahahaha!
But the voice was still there.