Chapter 99 – Careful Preparation (6)
14. Careful preparation (6)
In many ways, the bland night passed and morning came. In particular, the pieces of my past that Ar had talked about before falling asleep were still floating around in my head.
“Is your sister still not back?”
“Uh.”
Last night when Shay was washing Ar, Kaya, who ran out saying she wanted to be alone, still hasn’t returned. Ar, who was quietly eating the soup, stopped moving when the story of Kaya came up and started to look at us.
“What’s the matter. Like someone catches it. It’s okay because no one steals it.”
“Joy.”
Yesterday’s Ar and today’s Ar were literally different people. From a pitiful beggar she has transformed into an arrogant girl. At the same time, the resistance seemed to decrease.
Hot bath? Warm rice? A soft bed?
I don’t know what softened her heart, but it wasn’t a bad sign.
“Shay, what are you thinking?”
“Shouldn’t we learn about Ar first? What about the captain?”
“For now, I will have to keep looking. Hasn’t it only been one day? I need to find out where Kaya is.”
“If it were my sister, she wouldn’t have been in bad shape, but I’m worried.”
“I have a place to guess.”
As Shay said, it was also important to pay attention to Ar, a werewolf with no information at all. However, Ar decided to leave it to Shay for now. As she told Kaya, the more candidates the better. If Arr seemed to be okay, but if he didn’t fit in with our corps of warriors at all, wouldn’t it be a waste of time, money, and emotions that he’d spent so far? If the werewolves are a class that can only be active in the 1st and 2nd rows, Kayana and I will inevitably become idiots unless we find skills exclusive to the back row… That was not going to happen.
‘The combat nun also has healing skills, but she’s less efficient than the healing nun, and the problem is that you can’t get her right away. All of that, as God intended, the skill is so good that I beat it with a mace rather than a heel…’
That wasn’t the only problem.
Party retention. Or utility.
Will the wolf class possess one of the two?
“Then, see you later. Follow the words of Ardo Shay.”
“Yes, Captain!”
“…”
I passed Ar, who was furrowing his eyebrows as if disapproving of my words.
‘It’s like I was kidnapped overnight, so I can’t feel good. No matter how good the intentions and treatment are.’
He said there was no violence when he was brought… It was an issue that needed to be addressed through further discussion.
I was about to head back to the southern section I was supposed to be in charge of, but turned around. As I walked down the familiar road, the Monastery of the Church of Raella appeared. Unlike the Monastery of the Order of Justitia, which is said to be guarded by the Crusaders at the entrance, the monastery of the Church of Raella, which is always open wide, moved deep into the depths.
“I thought I’d find a way to please you.”
It had only been a few days, but it was not an easy task to go to a place that was truly terrifying with my will. But what can I do? That this is the first place that came to mind.
Ki-Ik-
I was startled by the creepy door sound. I thought it looked too intimidating, so I cleared my throat and looked inside. Kaya was nowhere to be seen.
“Kaya.”
But I heard a very weak breathing sound from inside. I found the source of the sound and opened the partition.
“… Kaya.”
In the farthest corner of the cubicle, in that narrow, dark space, Kaya knelt down and prayed in front of the statue of the Goddess.
Naked.
“Kaya!”
And there were bloody whip marks and whip marks all over her naked body. Blood bruises are basic, and there were places where blood and ooze flowed.
“Ah… Leader… ?”
“You, what the hell!”
“Yet… Penance is not over…”
“What is repentance!”
It was fortunate that I came here first. She vaguely thought that she would chew on her actions, but she never imagined that she would do such a serious ‘repentance’. I forcibly hugged the resisting Kaya.
“Is she doing this because she thinks her own behavior is wrong? Uh?”
“…”
“Why are you hurting yourself so much? Did you even have to do this!”
“It would have been a crime to accuse an innocent person and almost kill him. If the captain and Shay hadn’t stopped it, she would have killed her for sure. My sin is great. So.”
“You are mine. Your body is mine too.”
“Leader.”
“It is good to confess to the goddess. But this is not it. Apologize to the party Talk, clear up misunderstandings, and ask for forgiveness. Self-inflicted like this, what changed? Is your conscience filled? Did your actions that attacked Ar disappear? It’s not!”
“Oh…”
I couldn’t be relieved even for a day. Kaya has become so dear, supportive, and precious to me in so many ways, but there are times when she can be this violent and frightening.
“Let’s go to Cestia-sama and ask her to heal you.”
“No, no. You must be busy, but I can’t ask you this. I can do it alone.”
“Really? Aren’t you trying to hurt yourself again?”
“It wasn’t self-harm, it was repentance…”
“Sup!”
Damn, such a horrible thing as repentance. She thought she had gotten used to this place, but she couldn’t help the huge gaps that sometimes appeared.
“Today, without thinking about going anywhere or doing anything, rest well at the inn. Healed by Shay too. Okay?”
“…”
“Why no answer?”
“All right. Leader.”
“Okay. I’ll check later in the evening, so get healed properly. I will really check.”
**
“Sister…”
Shay, who was thinking about what to do with Ar’s clothes, became complicated when she saw Kaya, who was completely in disrepair. Carrying her in her arms, she asked Hendrick to heal properly and to keep an eye on her, but she seemed to be holding back her anger.
“Beautiful. Come this way.”
“No.”
Ar immediately refused, but Shay took Ar’s hand as if he hadn’t heard it and dragged him aside. Ar was uncomfortable with Kaya, so when he kept trying to escape, she locked Shay in her arms. Ar sighed.
“… Unni seems to have regretted attacking Ar yesterday. She did this to the extent that she had deep repentance.”
Repentance by taking one’s own life.
To blind both eyes or ears.
Amputation of one or more of the limbs.
Kaya’s penance was the most intense, except for those that permanently damaged her body. It meant that the shock and regret that Kaya had suffered was great.
Shay felt sorry that Kaya had hurt her because of her own hasty vows and her stubbornness. She said as she stroked Kaya’s head, who had practically passed out.
“My sister is a good person. She doesn’t change her expression very much and doesn’t talk much, and her basic expression looks cold, so it’s perfect for misunderstandings, but she takes good care of the captain and me.”
“…”
“That happened yesterday, and no matter how much I say that unnie is a good person, she won’t touch Ar. I know. Because it is more accurate to experience and feel a person’s evaluation than to hear it from others.”
Shay released Ar. Shay smiled at Ar, who was wary of escaping from her.
“I didn’t just attack you directly, I hurt you because of my curiosity. Sorry.”
Shay put ten gold coins on the table.
“The captain will probably be back before sunset. So he’d better go back before then. He doesn’t have a lot of money, but I hope he will be of some help when he passes away.”
“… You mean she even fought with that woman because of me, then let her go when the man isn’t around? For giving me so much money?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“At first Arr kept running away, so somehow I ended up bringing her… You don’t have to stay together in one place to talk and get to know each other, right? There is also a way to meet regularly.”
“What a plan.”
“Kung-kung? There is no such thing. Really. You can take that gold coin and leave right now. I am not chasing after you.”
Ar crossed her arms and glared at her Shay. But Shay really turned her nerves off for Ar and started nursing her Kaya. Ar is confused.
‘How… What are you going to do?’
Shay was sincere, but from Ar’s point of view, she felt like an extension of yesterday. She was caught by Shay yesterday because she was tricked by Shay into pretending to leave and hiding, and she’s still not convinced it wasn’t such a trick.
Ting~
Ar said she bounced gold coins for no reason, and she continued to watch Shay…
“I don’t think the fever will go down…”
Shay put her hand on Kaya’s forehead and she just put on a serious expression.
‘I do not know yet. Need to watch a little more I don’t know what will happen if I go out.’
Ar has not forgotten what happened yesterday. She still didn’t believe them, though not as much as yesterday.
So, for now, I decided to watch them without leaving.
It wasn’t because of being able to enjoy a soft bed and delicious food for free. Really.
**
‘Tsk. Is today also empty.’
I walked around from morning until the sun went down. I went to the warrior support center, the request center, and looked at many people in many places, such as each denomination or dungeon entrance, but no one was complaining.
‘It would have been nice if I could have seen at least a brief profile like the one at the Heroes’ Support Station.’
Gender and race can be confirmed with the naked eye, so even if you know the exact class, you should be able to filter it out to some extent, but that was too disappointing. It was almost a taboo to ask about the level, class, or possessed skill unless it was the same warrior corps.
Actually, more than that, the biggest reason was that Kaya kept caring about her and didn’t catch her eye properly.
‘I wonder if Shay did a good job.’
On the way back to her inn, Kaya bought her favorite bread. It had no character and tasted just like that. By my standards, it was just a bread that was nothing more than a nutrient supplement, but Kaya strangely enjoyed this bread, and she was the first to pick it up and eat it.
‘I felt guilty because of what I said last night, so I should comfort her.’
Also, lest it become a deep scar, lest it be misplaced and pus form. As usual, Kaya was a woman with many scars, so she needed to be handled with care.
Seeing the traces of her self-injury, I was actually worried about how I spoke harshly to Kaya, so I thought about what to say and how to bring it out. However, that worry vanished the moment I arrived in the room with a bag of hot bread.
“So, that’s not how it works.”
“Profit, I can do it too!”
“Do you know how many times that has already been said? Please come here.”
“I’m going to wear it, but why do you keep insisting that you do it for me!”
“Good clothes are gradually turning into rags, isn’t it a waste of money and time? Besides, if you get blood on your clothes, you have to wash them too.”
‘How did this happen?’
Arga Kaya, who had a bandage wrapped around her finger, was clumsily sewing on one of the clothes she was wearing, and Shay watched happily as Kaya was teaching her.
“Ah, chief. Are you here?”
“Uh, uh…”
“Lol.”
Shay laughed out loud.
“The two of you have gotten pretty close.”
No, so what happened while I was away… ?
