Chapter 21 – At the Temple

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After finishing our business with the adventurer and trade guilds, the last stop for today was the temple. It’d be wrong if we didn’t go to greet the people in the temple properly, seeing how we were going to leave Ann in their care and store all the remaining food and Ann’s belongings over there.

“So, how are things at the temple?”

“Ah, about that…”

Since breakfast had fluently transitioned into a duel, I didn’t get much time for a proper chat. The issues of the training school and the shortage of labor were about the only things I had briefly been told about, so I used the journey to the temple to ask Ann about some more details, but somehow Ann’s reply was awfully dodgy.

Don’t tell me she’s being bullied over there…? She’s a priestess just like them, but she’s still a newcomer from another country. She doesn’t have any backers or connections in this environment where she’s surrounded by strangers alone. There’s the donations, and the training school is acting in very conspicuous ways. As such, it’s quite possible that she’s being bullied and isolated out of jealousy and opposition.

“You don’t really need to worry, Ann. I mean, Masaru had also been quite flashy.”

“I’ve been simply healing people in a normal way, you know?”

Normal way? Our normal, eh…? Somehow I now understand the situation. She went too far with that normal.

“How much of normal did you use?”

So far as it went, I asked what exactly she did.

“All of it,” answered Tilika bluntly.

“All of it, huh…?”

If you add the refugee camp to the total numbers, this place has a slightly bigger population than a town. In other words, a fairly big number of people. Going by Ann’s current ability, she can handle the healing, which I did at the town of Theorie and Fort Golbass, with ease even if the workload excels those two by leaps and bounds.

“Several priests had apparently collapsed as they couldn’t bear the hard work. As a result, many people suffered thanks to the medical treatment getting delayed, so she couldn’t cut corners there. Ann really did well in that situation.”

Even when the idea is to not stand out, the option of simply not healing the sick and injured doesn’t really exist. It’s not like she saved them while trying the impossible. She could save everyone by just healing normally.

“And so you got serious, huh? Oh well, no choice then, I guess.”

“I wouldn’t go as far as calling it serious, though…”

“Her having handled all of the healing backlog with ease was actually the bad part about this!” Ellie said and although she was talking about it being bad and flashy, she looked quite happy.

Ann has been occasionally saying stuff like her not playing that much of an active role among us, but the level of her healing magic and her mana capacity are both pretty good. Even if you were to search the temples of this world, you probably wouldn’t find any healing practitioners who excel her. And those abilities of hers had finally been exposed to a great number of people, including the temple.

As of yet, she hasn’t shown her true capability, but even the part she demonstrated was already pretty crazy. And now that it has come to this, the temple probably doesn’t want to let go of Ann.

Is the temple trying to tie her down by using all sorts of means while claiming that it’d be a silly waste for her to be an adventurer? I mean, back then they told me to devote all my effort to playing a support role, too.

“If I go like ‘yesterday was actually the absolute limit of what I can do’ or some such, it might unexpectedly work out one way or another…”

“Yeah, not in a hundred years.”

“Figures…”

Ellie can only use Heal and it’d have been great if I had helped her with the healing, but since it must have seemed to her as though I was busy with my own stuff, she probably held back on asking for my assistance.

“It’s certainly true that Ann alone was more than enough to cover the healing, but her alone being enough was also the core of the problem.

“Should I stay back as well if it looks like things are going to become a hassle? There’s also the matter of the beastkin.”

I’d feel bad if I departed without making proper arrangements for the beastkin. Ellie’s family will be fine as long as she can drop in for a face-to-face meeting with Teleport, and as for the training, we can just resume it after everyone returns to this place.

“It’s not like it’s become too much of a pain, and you have your training to care about, don’t you Masaru?”

“That’s it! After wrapping up things with my family as quickly as possible, I’ll definitely head over to the training of the master swordsman.”

“If you’re so worried, how about I stay back?” Tilika offered.

If you manage to become a pupil of the master swordsman, it’ll boost your reputation tremendously. If things take a wrong turn and you even manage to follow in the footsteps of the master swordsman, it’d earn you unfathomable fame. Personally I’ll be fine as long as I become strong enough to survive. Also, I’m not really that much of a fan of harsh training regimens…

“I’ll be alright by myself if it’s a small period of time. I’ll also keep an eye on the beastkin whenever I find some time, so go with a peace of mind and work hard at your training, Masaru.”

“And if you still worry about it, I don’t mind postponing matters with my family, okay? We can stay here after sending you guys off to the Village of Swords.”

It looks as if they’re not going to allow me postponing the training, much less dodging it altogether, no matter what might happen.

“Got it. Let’s stick with the schedule then.”

Well, the matter with Ann hadn’t been mentioned to me, so it’s probably not that big of an issue.

■　■　■　■　■　■　■　■　■　■　■　■

As soon as we stepped inside the temple, we were surrounded by more than ten priests.

“Sister Angela!”

“Is this your adventurer husband?”

“Angela-sama, does it look like you’ll be able to stay back here?”

The priests swarmed us in droves, all speaking at once.

“Yes, it has been decided that I will stay back.”

Cheering broke out no sooner than Ann answered like that.

We told them that we’d first go to speak with the head priest and left them, but as they saw us off, they were all celebrating.

Once we were guided to the head priest’s place, we were treated so friendly that it didn’t lose out to the lower priests.

“Of course, of course! We shall look after Sister Angela like a precious gem. The temple knights staying with us right now are the best unit among all temples in the empire. You might as well say that no other place would be as safe as this. You won’t need to worry about anything!”

Me just lightly touching on the topic of Ann’s safety triggered him to go on a frantic tangent about how they’d protect her. At the least, it doesn’t seem like I need to worry about her getting bullied or anything like that.

“So we can have her work for us starting right away? Everyone will be very delighted, I’m sure!”

According to what the head priest told us, Hilagis’s temples appear to be basically all destroyed. It’s not to the extent of the annihilated elves, but those with the power to fight were probably drafted to the front as the country was resisting the onslaught while retreating.

Priests have a strong belief compelling them to save people. And according to the head priest, the losses among the priests and knights were so staggering that you’d want to cover your eyes.

As there had been calls for aid, personnel were dispatched from the empire’s temples. Many of the Hilagis survivors were recruited for the battles to recover the land and the number of priests was way too low to take care of the refugees. This situation had been continuing for many months.

Eventually, some priests started to collapse from overwork, causing the situation to deteriorate even further.

I see. This certainly won’t give them any time to rest up.

“We cannot thank you enough for kindly making the decision to leave your wife with us. And on top of that, you even provided us with food, donated a big amount of money, and constructed a training facility,” the head priest said while bowing deeply.

Officially, all of this is set to have been done by me. In reality, I’ll hurry to obey if there’s a request from my wife, and the party’s operations are decided based on all of us discussing things, but it’s true that I have the final say and it was me who suggested we invest our funds this time.

“Please do not mind it too much. We’re just doing what we can do.”

As I went with a humble style here, it led to me getting thanked even further. So far as it goes, I made them promise to keep the support anonymous, but it cannot be helped that it’s already become a rumor in the temple. If we were too open about this, it’d widely spread, even beyond the walls of this fortress. On the other hand, if we hide it too offensively, it’d make us seem like masked priests. In short, it’s hard to find the right balance. The food is something we cannot hide anyway.

After cutting the drawn-out conversation with the head priest short, we stored the game we caught in the temple’s storage, but because the space was limited there, we couldn’t store everything. As such we cleaned up a lumber room in a hurry and turned it into a new storage. Free priests and knights came over to help and started to quickly carry crates and boxes around while telling us to leave the physical work to them.

It’d be over in an instant if I handled it with the item box, but whatever. They apparently came to take a look at Ann’s face rather than helping. On that occasion I greeted the knight captain, who had visited as well, and asked him to take care of things, if something were to happen. Temple knights are quite reliable after all.

According to the knight captain, another fortress, which had been built on Hilagis’s side, has become the front line, making this fortress of Blumdaal the second defense line. A fair amount of troops has been deployed to the zero line, so he didn’t seem to be worried at all since they’d have more than enough time to deal with things, even if something drastic happened.

“Somehow it seems like things will be alright,” Ann said.

She was storing her belongings in the room assigned to her and sorting things after we finished the food storing, which had turned into a bit of an uproar.

This place does look to be quite safe and Ann is being pampered quite a bit, too. The people here have been welcoming towards her. And although Ann appears to feel quite uncomfortable about it, it’s not like it’s a problem, since that’s all there is to it.

“I hold an extremely low position in the temple, you know?”

“What are you talking about now after all the time? Ann, you’re a high-ranking adventurer and the wife of the lord. You have all the right to act more proudly and brazenly.”

As a matter of fact, there were talks about her becoming the head priestess when we were building a temple in our fief. There’s no way that she can describe herself as an underling for all eternity. Even though the room assigned to her was simple, it was big enough that all of us could stay here. Guest rooms with more luxury existed as well, but this much seemed unobtrusive.

“These sorts of things will probably happen more often in the future, so you need to get used to it, Ann.”

“It’s not like I’m as bad with these things as Masaru, but still…”

“But, if you have to deal with it yourself, it’s unexpectedly tough, right?”

Ann nodded silently.

I can also watch things indifferently without much of a care if they don’t affect me personally, but the pressure from drawing plenty of attention and expectations from many people weighs much heavier than I imagined, even if it’s out of good will.

“In the first place, it’s weird that we’re still being regarded as nameless adventurers.”

We’ve become fairly famous in the kingdom due to the victory in the gladiator tournament, but our original goal was to make a name for ourselves in the empire as elites. However, even after we’ve reached A-Rank at long last, we couldn’t publicize our achievements in the elven settlement, which were the reason for our rank-up.

We had overturned the state of the war with one party alone. If we had been allowed to announce that publicly, our names would be likely hailed as heroes right now, but in reality, we’re nameless A-Ranks.

Well, it was out of the question since the whole matter was related to the demons.

“Isn’t it fine for us to simply be nameless adventurers?”

“At any rate, Hilagis is going seriously at it, so this much is only the beginning of the beginning.”

As for Hilagis, I have already resigned myself. The oracle is out and I cannot keep saying “demons are scary” while fighting against demons. I also obtained good guards. Besides, many high-ranking adventurers have also joined Hilagis. During the times with the elves, the high-ranking adventurers did such a good job that it was comparable to my performance. In the end, I suppose it’ll depend how Hilagis is going to hold up.

“So you see, because of that I came up with a good idea. Let’s hold a party!”

Still, this girl definitely doesn’t waver once she’s made up her mind. Suddenly bringing up the talk about having a party; has she been holding a grudge over the matter with Hilagis and the party, which was supposed to take place in the village, being thwarted? But, doing it in this place would be way too crazy, I think.

“How’s that a good idea?”

“It’ll be a party for collecting donations. We’ll be able to gather money on a greater scale.”

“Oohh, I see. A charity party, huh?”

Nobles have light parties at such occasions, using them to build personal connections and such. Because it’ll be a charity party, it’ll be impossible for the attending nobles to turn up empty-handed, so it looks like it could become a good means to gather further donations, just like back when Franceska had paid 50,000 gold. And I think the temple will be more than willing to help us as well, if we do it.

“Even tiny nobles like us have paid more than 5 million. So, if others skimp on the donations, it’ll hurt their reputation. I’m sure we’ll be able to gather quite a big amount of money!”

Ellie will increase her personal connection while becoming more famous. It will also help the refugees. And it’ll even be beneficial to me.

“It’d be pretty taxing to hunt while doing your training, right? If we gather enough money over here, you’ll be able to fully focus on your training, Masaru.”

With this plan, I can assist the refugees while also devoting my attention to my training. There’s no need for me to attend the party either.

Still, while making me believe that they’re being considerate of me out of kindness, they’re actually just taking measures so that I cannot skip on the training, damn it.

But, even if it’d be better for me to do the sword training, it shouldn’t be indispensable. If we’re talking about necessities, I should prioritize Hilagis, basically this place, where the oracle has appeared. Getting experience points is also important.

And even though they should be well aware of all that, they’re pushing me to take the training. I can understand Ellie doing that, but for even Ann and Tilika to go along with it…

“Even if I were to become good at swordsmanship, it still won’t change the fact that I’m mostly using magic, right? Wouldn’t it be smarter to gather experience until Hilagis?”

“Masaru, you should meet the master swordsman. That’s indispensable,” Tilika insisted seriously.

“Hmm, but why?”

“That master swordsman wandered the deepest parts of the demonic domain by himself, apparently fought the demon king, and came back despite being injured.”

“Apparently?”

“It seems like he fought against something or someone, but even the master swordsman didn’t know his opponent’s true nature. Besides, since he couldn’t win, he didn’t feel like going into the details about it. That’s why it’s said that his opponent used to be the demon king.”

Soloing the demonic domain is pretty amazing, I think, but didn’t he come back after losing and running away? No wait, I guess there’s still value in listening to his story. The probability that I will be forced to enter the demonic domain sooner or later is quite high. I should make sure whether he truly met and fought the demon king.

It’s an important story so I wonder whether someone might have already gotten the information out of him, but it seems like that swordsman is a moody guy who doesn’t respect authority at all.

“Come to think of it, Masaru, you come from a distant land, so you occasionally don’t really understand what we mean, do you? Now listen closely: the master swordsman is incredible, okay? I happened to hear that he only got scalded after getting directly hit by a Flare,” Ellie explained.

“Huh? What’s up with that?”

If you’re hit by a Flare, it’ll go up in a crazy huge explosion on impact, no? And he’s got only scalded after a direct hit?

“The magician, who fired the spell, put himself on guard, believing that he’d be killed, but the swordsman only tapped his shoulder and told him, 『Point that power at monsters, not me』. Also, let’s see…

He annihilated ten fully-equipped knights with a fallen twig. He shattered an orichalcum sword with an old, blunt sword.

There also exist several stories of him having defeated dragons. The one I like the most is how he marched into a dragon nest, which the dragons had built close to a remote border village, and defeated the boss dragon.”

They very likely set up their nest there for breeding. More than a dozen dragons gathered and started to build a nest. The master swordsman entered that place alone, fought the boss, and made his opponent faint. That swordsman sure loves to do stuff alone, huh?

“When the other dragons realized what had happened, their boss was already bowing his head to the master swordsman. He apparently left the nest with an air of composure while leading the flock.

He boldly stormed a royal palace from the front, defeated all the guards, who blocked his way, and talked directly to the king. He defended against demon attacks for three days and nights. Anyway, there exist simply too many legends of that swordsman to list them here.”

He can defeat anyone, be it human or demon. And the only stain on all these stories was the “something or someone” that appeared in the initial story. Therefore it must have been the demon king.

“All of it is true,” Tilika brought her recount of the master swordsman’s tales to an end.

She’s guaranteeing it, so it must be true.

“So how about it? Do you now feel like receiving his training, Masaru?”

Leaving aside the training, I do feel like seeing that guy now…

“He was searching for a successor, wasn’t he? Now matter how you think about it, that’s impossible for me, right?”

It feels like he’s more of a brave or hero than a swordsman. Just what sort of successor is he looking for anyway? Even I can probably make a dragon faint with magic, but how do you defeat fully-armored knights with a twig? Getting through a flare with just burns? It’d be only natural for him to not find any successors.

But, with everyone remaining silent, Sati was somehow staring at me with eyes full of expectations.

“…Me?”

“Personally I have a hunch that you will become able to do at least this much sooner or later, Masaru,” Ellie muttered.

Everyone nodded at that.

I see. So Ellie is harboring such expectations of me…wait, that’s impossible. Absolutely impossible!

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