Chapter 53 – Clearing the Slums (2)
‘Pontiff?’
We do not know what position the priest held among the sisters of Agnes. But just by listening to it, I can tell that it’s a fairly high position. Thanks to that, cold sweat drenched his back, but he put his energy into managing his expression.
“Okay.”
“Yes! I’m out of my mind. No matter how you touch the priest…”
Orga clicked his tongue, saying, “Assholes.” He drank coffee because his throat kept burning. Well, write.
“Anyway, that’s it. Would you like to accept this request?”
I thought about it without answering right away.
‘How did you find the body?’
The old man’s body was thrown deep into the sewer, and Agnes’s sisters do not know the old man’s whereabouts. Since you said you robbed thugs for two weeks earlier, you’re saying that you found them in two weeks…
‘It’s impossible in the usual way. If that’s the case, it means they found it with dots.’
But then another question arises.
‘Isn’t the point blocked by the status window?’
I naturally believed that the status window would have taken care of it. But seeing as Agnes’s sisters found the old man’s body, it’s clear that they used fortune-telling.
I folded my arms and rolled my head, then shook my head.
It is a status window where he defeated Werther, the wolf king, and even killed an old man called a priest. Even thinking about cancer, there was no reason why divination could not be stopped.
If so, two things come to mind.
Did you twist the dots, or didn’t need to block them?
In the case of the former, it must have literally twisted the dots. What the status window did was changed to what the slums did.
The latter case is when divination was not omnipotent. If you think about it, it’s strange that you can even find the person you killed by doing some fortune telling.
Anyway, the important thing is that Agnes’s sisters misunderstand why the old man died.
‘If I had known properly, he would have come to my house instead of putting in a request like this.’
To put down the knife
After thinking about it, I asked Orr.
“How much does the request cost?”
“I’ll give you 10 copper per head separately for the base price of 1 silver.”
“Do you give away that much? It’s similar to the days of the Raynald family.”
“It was different from then. Did you say Agnes’s sisters are grinding their teeth.”
“…”
“How is it. Would you like to receive it?”
“It must be difficult to hear the details of the request, right?”
“Yes. Apparently, this is like a covert operation that strikes at once.”
“Am I alone?”
“No, you can go with your companion. With that in mind, I brought up the story to Yoosung.”
“All right. Then take it.”
Orga smiled brightly.
“You choose wisely. Then, let’s start talking about the request.”
Orga started explaining the request.
“Yoosung will probably be placed in the sewer along with the others.”
“You mean the sewer?”
“Yes. To catch those who run away.”
“What if I run away to somewhere other than the sewers?”
“We’ll surround all the places you can run to, so don’t worry about that.”
“I see… But if it gets too noisy, won’t the guards come to stop it?
Leaning back in the climbing chair, he made a slightly arrogant face.
“Has everything been discussed with you already?”
“Oh, I see…”
Did you mean talking to the chief of the guard or higher up? Grinding teeth doesn’t seem to have come out of nowhere.
After that, the explanation continued. It was mainly about the group I would be assigned to, the location of the sewers, and the criminal gangs in Kalita.
After she finished her explanation, she handed over a wooden plaque signifying that she would carry out her request.
“Then, see you at the guild early the next morning. You can’t be late!”
“Okay, I’ll see you then.”
I left the guild with my wooden shield in my pocket. Before going home, I thought about one thing.
‘Take the artifact? Don’t you?’
One thing is certain: Agnes’s sisters didn’t notice us. If that’s the case, I wonder if I can take the relic with me now.
‘No, it’s not too late to take it after Agnes’s sisters leave.’
I headed home
* * *
Bubbling boiling water.
Potatoes and cabbage went in there. Kara and I looked at the pot with anxious eyes. Seris pouted her mouth.
“Why are you both looking at me like that? I am no longer the old me!”
“Huh. Know.”
“Right, she is not the sister she used to be.”
“Then why are your eyes the same?!”
“Uh huh, keep doing what you’re doing quickly.”
I waved my hand around, and Cerys took a quick glance and started pouring the ingredients back into her pot. Seeing that, Kara whispered a small whisper to me.
“Brother, is this really what you do well..?”
“It can’t be helped. He said he would do it today. I am anxious too.”
“Sprani made by my sister after a long time…”
Kara’s expression softened. She poked her around my waist.
“Brother, if you fail, will you eat it all?”
“What? Where is that We should eat together.”
“I am a patient.”
Kara pointed at her ankle with her glance. The bandage I had wrapped two days ago hadn’t come off yet.
“What does that have to do with this?”
“It doesn’t matter! My brother said that the patient needs to rest.”
“Eating well and resting well is resting. Eat well today.”
“Where is that… Uh, sister..?”
Kara’s complexion turned pale. I slowly turned my head while still stiff. Seris was throwing her ingredients randomly into her pot.
“Ceris, what are you doing?!”
Chilling out, I approached Seris. Regardless, Seris’ hand did not stop. She hastily grabbed her by the wrist, but she let go with force.
“Haha, do you think you don’t like my food that much? Then I just eat chowder and eat it. I think this will taste better too. Why? Surely you don’t like this, do you?”
“Oh, sister, calm down. It’s my fault!”
Kara limped over and grabbed Seris’ arm. Cerys turned her head to Kara.
“Oh, Kara, you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s my fault for being stubborn that I can’t be. Are you sorry sister?”
“Hey…”
Seeing Cerith’s face, Kara contemplated her and backed away from her.
What kind of expression…
“Ceris?”
“Yes, Mr. Yooseong?”
Celis smiled and turned to me. She didn’t backtrack like Kara did, but her smile was colder than usual.
‘He looks angry…’
Celis rarely gets angry, so I was a little nervous. She kept her words in her head and spit them out.
“Wouldn’t it be hard to cook alone?
“No, originally, I cook alone. Besides, it’s chowder, so what’s hard about it?”
His voice was as cold as his expression. I was embarrassed, but I calmly continued.
“You must be very tired these days because you have been doing a series of requests. It’s going to be hard alone. So come join me.”
Cerys widened her eyes.
“…Yes? Together?”
“Huh. Wouldn’t it be more comfortable if we did something together?”
“Together…”
The corners of her mouth went up in a small murmur. The cold voice and expression had long since disappeared.
“Shall we?”
“Okay. Before that, would you like a ladle for a second?”
I was handed her ladle from Cerys. She took out the ingredients in her pot one by one.
“…Seris. Isn’t this a bit too much?”
What I did get was a raw tomato with a stem on it.
“Yes…”
Seris put on an embarrassed expression.
* * *
After dinner, Seris, Yuseong, and Kara had a conversation. This time with a cup of hot tea was one of the happiest times for Seris.
“You start early tomorrow morning, right?”
“Huh. The night is so dark that it’s hard. They say they attack in the morning when they are not awake.”
“Okay.”
“How was the equipment repaired yesterday? Are there any problems?”
“Yes, it was as clean as new.”
“Because Mr. Marlton is good at one skill.”
Kara, who was dozing off while chatting, fell face down on her desk. Yooseong lifted her up.
“Kara, talk when you’re sleepy.”
“Mmm…”
“You seem very sleepy. Seris, should we sleep soon?”
“Yes it is.”
Yoosung puts Kara on her bed. She turned to Ceris and said.
“Do you want to sleep in bed today? I’ll sleep outside.”
“No, I’m already comfortable on the floor.”
“Okay? Okay. Good night Seris.”
“Yoosung too.”
Seris came out of the room and closed the door. For a moment she looked at the door and thought.
‘I’m not going to have sex today…’
That was a bit disappointing It’s because I’ve been masturbating while listening to the sound of two people having sex all month long, so I’ve gotten used to it before I knew it. Now, instead of her heart aching, only her libido rose.
Is this resignation?
Seris laughed bitterly and took out her book. She opened the page she had last night and started her studies. But it wasn’t long before she closed the book again.
‘This is why when…’
Even with the books her grandmother gave her, studying writing was not easy. It feels like there are always new things coming up. Seris sighed at that vagueness.
She stared blankly at the cover of her book, pondering deeply. Then she finally pulled her letter out of the drawer. It was a letter she had taken out in a month. It’s because when she started studying writing, she promised herself that she would get the letters out when she was able to read them.
She tried to keep that promise as best she could, but she was disturbed by what was to come tomorrow.
‘To kill people…’
It’s a quest to kill gangsters in the slums. Although she is a criminal, she kills her people and for her it is her first murder.
‘I expected something like this to happen someday…’
When she was right in front of her nose, her mood was flustered.
‘Kara did a good job. I have to do it too.’
As an adventurer, she had to if she wanted to stay with the two of them. That was the reason she took out the letter. To capture her heart.
She opened the letter. There were many letters she did not know, but the letters she knew increased considerably. Seris felt a sense of satisfaction.
‘What letter is this?’
She found a letter in a book she didn’t know. As she pointed with her finger and asked to know, the pronunciation of her letters echoed in her head.
‘Ah, this is the pronunciation.’
Having learned her new thing, she nodded her head. She then opened her eyes wide as if she realized something.
‘Uh..?’
Seris found an unknown letter in her letter and pointed it to the book. The pronunciation of the letters comes into my head.
‘What have I been up until now?’
From the beginning, she was supposed to find out the letters she didn’t know in the book. She said that she would study writing for no reason, and she blew off a month. Her sinking feeling made her slump in her chair.
Celis stared blankly at her ceiling, then she vigorously raised herself up.
‘No matter what, it’s not worthless.’
There’s nothing wrong with her learning to read. Conversely, there were many good things to learn.
Even when she lived in the village, the adults had been frustrated because they couldn’t read the official letter brought by the official.
Also, if you know how to read, can’t you use the library? Right now, I don’t have citizenship, so it’s impossible, but I don’t know what it will be like later.
She rationalized her own foolishness that way. She picked up the letter and marked the unknown letter. She alternated reading letters and books.
‘…There are more characters I don’t know than I thought.’
As the content of the letter was not short, there were many unknown letters. There were quite a few letters I knew, though.
Even so, Celis smiled.
‘It’s okay, where can I read it?’
She started interpreting the letters she did not know by transcribing them into the book.
“Dear… Singlela… Baron…?”
Something was strange from the start. Seris, should her name appear here? For now, Ceris continued reading her letter.
The more her fingers moved, the more her Seris face hardened. Still, she didn’t stop. Her fingers stopped only at the end of the letter.
“…”
Seris started reading the letter again from the beginning. She hoped that maybe she had read it wrong.
She read it all It was the same.
She read it again. As it is.
Again. As it is
Again. As it is.
Again…
…
Time flies.
The candle wax continued to drip.
…
I’m sorry!!!
She announced a healthy rooster this morning. Bright sunlight streamed through the windows and lit up her house. Ceris was still reading her letter, and more than half of the candle had melted. Her fingers stopped at the end of the letter. Pop. Fell helplessly.
Haha…”
Seris laughed.
There was no vitality to be found in the eyes.
