kscans

Chapter 54 - The Man Who Brings Good Fortune

"The Man Beloved by God"?

What a simplistic name. Or perhaps "self-aggrandizing" is a better word.

That was the only way to describe the sheer lack of naming sense.

And now, that very group was setting something up in the plaza. They erected a platform, and the hooded figures around it arranged themselves in a fan shape. One of them, adorned with more decorations than the others, stepped onto the platform. He was probably their leader.

As if on cue, people began to gather one after another. Not more of his hooded companions, but residents who had been walking along the main street. Soon, a crowd of about a hundred people had formed.

The leader threw his hands high into the air and shouted.

"My comrades! Thank you for gathering here today. God is most pleased! May you be blessed for your devotion and faith!"

The assembled residents responded by offering up prayers.

After watching them for a moment, the leader continued.

"Now then, today’s topic is the same as always. Let us speak of this country’s future! Right now, this nation is rotting from the inside. It sits complacently on its rich resources, making no effort to develop or take action. The bishops of the Church preach that doing nothing is the best way to maintain peace, but they are wrong!"

"What this country must do now is fight! The Empire demands that we provide them with food at half the normal price under the pretense of fighting the monsters to the north! But in reality, those cowards are doing nothing but staring down the monsters—they aren’t fighting at all! It should be us, the Saint’s Church, who march forth under the banner of monster subjugation and fight on the front lines! The Empire need only devote itself to providing us with tools and weapons, free of charge! That is the one and only way for us to live in peace and tranquility on this continent!"

He delivered his speech with fiery passion.

The people around him erupted in thunderous applause.

My take on it? In a word: ridiculous.

I’d only heard simple explanations about what kind of country the Empire was; I’d never seen it for myself. But the fact that they were paying for food, even at half price, suggested they were willing to engage in commerce. Compared to that, this guy demanding free tools and weapons was nothing but an idiot.

He wasn’t willing to pay.

He had no intention of doing business.

He just wanted to force his own agenda.

How could such a self-centered fool attract so many people?

I asked Tina.

"I don’t know. To say such absurd things… he’s a bona fide criminal in this country. The Holy Knights of the Saint’s Church are primarily a defensive force; they would never willingly place themselves in a life-or-death situation. The hero of legend despised conflict. Based on that philosophy, the Church does not take the initiative to fight."

"That said, I have heard rumors that the upper echelons are just a bunch of people who only care about money. In other words, their focus is solely on acquiring wealth safely. From that perspective, the hooded man’s plan makes no financial sense. It would needlessly deplete their manpower and incur tremendous expenses. There’s nothing but downsides."

Tina looked thoroughly exasperated.

"But if he’s causing this much of a scene, why aren’t the Holy Knights doing anything?" I asked.

Tina pondered my question.

"That is strange as well. Even if he were connected to the nobility, it’s unthinkable that they would stand by and watch someone threaten their way of life."

While Tina was lost in thought, I decided that if we didn’t know, we should just ask. I approached a nearby resident.

"Excuse me, may I ask you something?"

The resident turned to me. "Yes, what is it?" he replied, so I continued.

"Why aren’t the Holy Knights doing anything?"

"You must be new to this town, huh? They can’t do anything. Anyone who messes with that group gets hit with a string of bad luck."

The man sighed.

Bad luck? What did he mean by that?

Just as I was about to ask, I heard the clanking of multiple sets of armor approaching.

I looked over and saw a group of men clad in knights’ armor.

"Well," the resident said, seeing them, "it’s faster if you just watch." He then fell silent.

The knights stopped a short distance from the group.

The one in the lead issued a warning.

"Cease this at once. Disperse immediately."

The group’s leader pointed a finger at them and yelled, "Fools! How dare you speak so rudely to me, a messenger of God! You are the ones who should leave this place!"

One of the knights began to tremble. "Captain, I’ve reached my limit." He was starting to draw his sword.

The captain stopped him. "Don’t! If we could, we would have already. But any action we take will only result in our own men getting hurt." The captain’s face was twisted, as if he’d just bitten into something bitter.

Men getting hurt? Was that group really that strong?

Just then, one of the hooded followers shouted, "Do you understand now?! Then be gone! Do not ruin our sacred time!"

One of the knights couldn’t take it anymore. "I can’t… Captain, I’m sorry!" he yelled, drawing his sword and charging forward.

At that moment, an arrow fell from the sky.

It struck the charging knight, embedding itself in his right shoulder.

At first, I thought it was an attack from the hooded group, but they weren’t carrying any weapons. In fact, they hadn’t done anything at all. The injured knight retreated with his comrades.

The leader seized the opportunity. "Citizens! Behold! This is what happens to those who oppose us! It seems there are still some who do not know! We have God’s divine protection! No disaster can touch us!"

He was using the knight’s misfortune as propaganda.

The surrounding residents erupted in applause.

Despite the insults, the knights did nothing more, remaining where they were with looks of pure hatred on their faces.

A short while later, the hooded group dispersed and left. The knights watched them go before leaving themselves.

Afterward, the streets slowly began to fill with people again.

"That arrow…" I mused. "For a shot from that group, it was incredibly precise. Does that mean they have a highly skilled archer among them?"

As I pondered this, a voice came from behind me.

"No, that was just a coincidence."

We turned around at the sound of the voice.

Standing there was a woman with short, golden hair, wearing a long-sleeved yellow one-piece dress. She had a slender build, and her chest was so flat it was practically nonexistent.

"A coincidence? What do you mean? Do you know where it was fired from?" I asked.

The woman nodded. "Yeah, I do. Before I came here, I saw some new recruits from the Holy Knights practicing archery at the training grounds. One of them slipped as he was about to shoot, and as he fell backward, he let the arrow go. It flew high into the air, toward the city. A soldier immediately ran after it, so I got curious and followed."

"Then I saw the arrow sticking out of the knight’s shoulder as he was being carried away, and I thought, ‘Wow, what an unlucky guy.’ But then I heard this group was giving a speech here, so I figured he must have provoked them and paid the price."

She explained everything in detail.

If that was true, it was an incredible coincidence.

An arrow accidentally fired by a recruit just happened to hit a knight who was charging that group. The odds of that were so low it was ridiculous to even try and calculate.

"I see," I said. "So that’s what the townspeople meant about good luck running out, and why the knight captain said his men would get hurt. So ‘The Man Beloved by God’ isn’t just an empty title."

Tina nodded in agreement.

With that kind of luck on his side, it was likely that a series of similar misfortunes had occurred in the past, and the man had used them as fodder, spinning convenient tales to gather his followers.

"In that case," I thought aloud, "we should probably stay away from that group. We don’t want to get mixed up in anything weird. Besides, we have no reason to get involved."

Tina agreed with my conclusion.

"I concur. We’re not so free as to waste our time on people like that."

The woman who had been watching our exchange spoke up. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

I nodded, and she continued.

"Are you two from the Kingdom?"

"We are," I said, surprised. "How did you know?"

"Because that group is famous enough to be rumored about here and even in the Republic. I haven’t heard any rumors about them in the Empire, though. But since you didn’t seem to react to his speech, I figured you weren’t from the Empire. No one stays calm when their home country is being bad-mouthed. Which led me to the conclusion that you came from the Kingdom. How’d I do?"

She puffed out her chest, full of confidence.

Her powers of observation were amazing.

To deduce all that from our short conversation… I realized I couldn’t afford to be careless with my words. After all, we had been allowed to travel to other countries under the role of spies.

If we were found out, we’d be pursued. I felt it was best to put some distance between us and this woman.

Just then, she asked, "Hey, hey. Why did you come to this country? The Kingdom is safe from the threat of monsters. So why?"

I gave her my prepared story. "Because it’s safe. I left the Kingdom to fight stronger monsters. That said, I can’t just waltz into the Empire. I hear they don’t have a very good impression of the Kingdom. I have no idea what they’d do to someone who just came from there, so I have no intention of entering. For now, I’m thinking of gathering information in either the Church or the Republic before deciding. We came from the mountains, so this was the first country we entered."

There was no way I could tell her we’d accepted a mission as spies as a condition for leaving the country.

I decided to use Bardos’s line of thinking as a model. I wasn’t sure what Tina thought inwardly, but she at least went along with it.

The woman considered my answer. "I see. Thanks for telling me. Well, I should be going now, mister. And may you, the beautiful one over there, stay well."

She waved and walked away.

She had a cheerful air about her. But calling me "mister"… I’m only twenty-four. As I was feeling a little down, I noticed Tina seemed lost in thought.

"What’s wrong? Something on your mind?" I asked.

"Oh, no, it’s nothing. I just felt a strange sense of dissonance during that conversation, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it was. It’s like I’m forgetting something fundamental. But please, don’t worry about it."

She said it with a gesture that implied it was nothing important.

Well, if she told me not to worry, I’d do just that. Pestering her would only cause stress. It reminded me of my boss back at my company on Earth, who would nag and make sarcastic comments relentlessly. I should just forget about it.

As I was thinking, Tina asked, "So, Shinsuke, are you sure you don’t want to get involved with that group?"

"Yeah. I’m a hunter. Hunting monsters is my job. I’ll take on villains if they come after me or if it’s a request. No matter how much trouble that shady group is causing this country, it’s a problem for the people of this country to solve. An outsider has no right to interfere."

"I’m glad we’re on the same page. Getting involved with people like that would just be exhausting. What should we do now?"

"For now, let’s find an inn. We can discuss what to do tomorrow in our room."

Tina nodded in agreement.

The sun was setting in the west. It seemed like a good time to call it a day.

We set off.

High above, a small point of light looked down upon the two.