Chapter 84 – The Cross of Memories #3

“Two of you?”
“Yes.”

For some reason, Kate’s eyes were looking at me with anticipation. A deep smile formed on her lips after she said that she would move alone.
I couldn’t quite understand Kate’s reaction.

Is it good to be with me?
Or are you mad at the thought of using me like a slave?
No, before that.

‘Why do we have to move alone?’

Rebecca says why can’t she join the party?
Before I could ask, Kate was the first to give her answer.

“An order came from the church. There are only two people who can participate in this quest. Besides, my partners are limited to adventurers below the silver tier.”
“Why are you issuing such useless orders?”
“This is the church’s job, but it’s also a review to evaluate my ability as a nun. If the adventurers hired with money come rushing in and clear the quest instead, that won’t be a review anymore.”

Kate reached out her hand and squeezed my sleeve, and she looked at me with a seductive look.

“…So, only the dreamer-sama should come. Let go of Rebecca-sama, who has always been close to you. If it’s difficult, can I convince Rebecca-sama myself?”

You’re going to convince Rebecca yourself? I couldn’t help but be taken aback by what Kate said. In Kate’s words, there was something like an obsession to move with me at least in this quest. She was determined not to let go of her sleeve until she answered.

“Oh, no. You don’t have to do that. You don’t even need Rebecca’s permission anyway. A fixed party doesn’t always work together.”

Until now, Rebecca and I have been sticking together whenever we did quests.
In fact, a fixed party was a law that could be moved separately depending on individual circumstances. In particular, there is no need to share short quests that end in a day trip. I’d never explained such an unspoken rule to a newbie adventurer, but common sense made it right.

“Is that so? It’s better if you don’t have to persuade. Then, you proceed on this condition, right? Let’s search the underground canal together.”
“Yes. Let’s try to match the sum of the two of us. It’s a party made up of wizards and priests, so we have to take into account the instability.”

In fact, it couldn’t even be called a party made up of wizards and priests.
Because Kate proudly declared that she would only walk her in the back. I’ll probably have to complete this quest by myself. There was nothing more I could ask for from Kate if she took a heal from time to time.

“Yes! I’ll work hard! Dreamcatcher!”

What are you working hard on?
Are you taking a hard walk?

A smile bloomed on Kate’s face the moment she heard my confirmation. She said you can’t spit on a smiling face. There is no need to stir up the atmosphere by bringing up the story of the walk.

Kate’s hand on my sleeve loosened.
Kate told me she laughed.

“Meet me tomorrow afternoon in front of the Adventurer’s Guild! Let’s join them at this building and set off for the underground canal!”
“Why the Adventurer’s Guild? Can’t we meet right in front of the underground canal?”
“Because you’ll need equipment to explore underground waterways. On the way, stop by a general store and set up exploration equipment together. Actually, it’s my first time exploring underground waterways.”
“Right.”

I had enough exploration equipment for underground waterways. They were items that were piled up one by one while completing quests in my newbie days. But unlike me, Kate probably had no reason to explore the aqueduct. Her nun, Kate, must have picked out and solved quests like honey since she was a newbie.

It’s my first time exploring an underground waterway!
It was a remark that felt a little envious to me, who lived as a jukdori in that dark place.

“Is it over? See you tomorrow.”
“Oh, wait a minute. I have something to ask you, Mr. Dream.”
“Yes?”
“It’s not related to the quest. It’s just my personal question. Feel free to answer.”

Kate caught me trying to get up from the table.
The moment I looked at it with a puzzled expression, Kate held the necklace she was wearing in her hand.
A necklace with a small cross dangling from the end of her string.

“Mongma-sama, have you ever seen a cross like this?”
“The Cross?”

A sudden question.
I looked carefully at the cross on the end of the necklace.
It was the cross that Kate had always carried as her trinket since the first time they met in the guild escort quest.
Kate had always taken the cross off her body.
It was a small cross, so it was always buried in Kate’s sternum.

“Do not know.”

I looked at the cross and tilted my head. Because I, a dream horse, couldn’t come into contact with a sacred object like a cross. If I wore a necklace like that, I didn’t know that there would be a fight for blaspheming religion.

“You really don’t know?”
“Really? You’ve never really seen them before?”
“Doesn’t exist.”

Even though I said no, I couldn’t help but be embarrassed. Kate was staring at me with a look of disbelief on her face. Kate opened her mouth, holding her crucifix in her palm.

“I can’t believe it! Mongma-nim must have seen a cross like this. You must have seen it at least once in your life. Like when you were a child.”
“Your childhood? How do you know that?”
“…That, well?”

At my question, Kate just kept her mouth shut. Then, as if she just had a good idea, Kate clapped her hands lightly. She then opened her mouth as she smiled.

“There’s no need to tell you the answer here! We’ll have plenty of time. We’ll have to meet again tomorrow, right? So, find the answer before we meet! Recall the memory of this cross!”
“Can’t I just teach you here?”
“Oh, no! This is the first order I give as a client! I’m in the position to hire the dreamer until tomorrow. It’s not like he can’t answer even a simple question, right?”
“Hmm.”

Kate seemed to be eager to hear from me. She seemed not to give her any more hints. Kate quickly got up from the table and turned her back.

“Hey, where are you going?”
“See you tomorrow afternoon in front of the adventurer’s guild!”

With the fluttering hem of her nun’s dress, Kate quickly disappeared. I didn’t catch Kate walking out of her building. Her client said it was her order, so she must follow it anyway. You have to think for yourself to discover the identity of the cross. It was a really stupid order.

“A cross?”

I went back to the inn with my doubts.
I couldn’t figure out what Kate’s cross was. But if you think about it for a day in your room, won’t something come to mind? If nothing came to mind, I thought of inventing a plausible answer.

*

‘Why are you suddenly asking me for a cross?’

After returning to the inn room.
Time passed and it was late at night, but I couldn’t sleep because of the cross Kate showed me. Kate’s eyes were too serious to be simply a joke. Where had I really seen Kate’s cross?

How else do you know that I saw the cross?
It was a question that complicated her head the more she thought about it.

As I lay in bed thinking about the cross for a while, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten one important thing. She couldn’t reveal to Rebecca that she had accepted the quest. The fact that I was alone in this quest.

‘Should I talk to you tomorrow morning?’

There was still plenty of time to talk to Rebecca.
It was tomorrow afternoon that I decided to join Kate. It would be better to tell the truth about the quest in the morning and leave. It felt like I had to teach Rebecca that even a fixed party could move independently sometimes.
After making my decision, I thought again. It seemed that he would not be able to sleep comfortably if he could not find out the identity of the cross. As I sat on the bed, I remembered what Kate had said.

I thought I’d seen it at least once in my life.
Or childhood.

Memories before I became an adventurer in Joensuu.
When it comes to childhood, I have almost no memories of the orphanage. I grew up in an orphanage from when I was a baby until I became a teenager.

Evergreen Orphanage.
It was a private orphanage run by a nobleman in the central continent. I was put in an orphanage until I was 15, and then released when I reached full age. Afterwards, while wandering the continent, I settled down in Yoensu, which was a good place to live, and started working as an adventurer. This has been my life up until now.

I spent 15 years in an orphanage, so I couldn’t help but have a lot of memories about it.

‘Did I ever see a cross in the orphanage?’

If you’ve ever seen a cross, you’ve had it a few times. There were quite a few cases where religious organizations came to the orphanage to volunteer. There were many church members who wore crosses as accessories. However, the church members’ cross felt different from Kate’s.
Kate’s cross was a very crude thing.

Shall we say that it was made by clumsily carving a block of wood? Although it had the outline of a cross, it was inferior to real religious items.
It’s more appropriate to call it a toy.

“Toy.”

The moment I thought of the word toy, my mind flashed.
If it was a toy, not a religious item, it was something I always saw at the orphanage. At Evergreen Orphanage, children were presented with crude toys and the like on anniversaries. Of course, I have also received toys.

‘I threw it all away…’

Before leaving the orphanage, he threw away all his toys. However, even after a long time has passed, I still roughly remember what toys were scattered at the orphanage.
It’s funny, but toys were used like currency among children. The nicer the toy was, the more valuable it was as a currency.

‘A toy that looks like a cross?’

Cross toys!
I just remembered.
It was filthy unpopular among the kids.
Most of them were crude in shape and not worth collecting.

But what mattered to me now was not the value of toys. It was the fact that I must have seen Kate’s cross in the orphanage. Because there was a time when the orphanage had scattered crude wooden crosses of different colors in large quantities.

That was 10 years ago.
I was given a toy cross at an orphanage.
The same object as Kate’s cross.

“Uh?”

The moment I realized that, I was confused. It’s no wonder that I forgot about it. As a child, I immediately threw away the cross toy after realizing it was useless. But there must have been some guys like me who didn’t throw them away and took them as collectibles.

Is that so?
Thoughts raced through my head like a torrent.

A toy cross that was scattered at the orphanage.
Kate, who kept the cross.
The look in her eyes as she asked me about her childhood.

All thoughts were connected as one.
At this moment, I came to a shocking conclusion.

“Kate is from the same orphanage as me…?”

Did that blonde-haired nun actually grow up in the same place as me? That she had the same childhood as me in an orphanage? I can’t believe it! I couldn’t even imagine!

However, all clues point to Kate being from Evergreen Orphanage.

There were a few blonde girls among her classmates.
I couldn’t remember much about my classmates at the orphanage.
As a dreamer, I was isolated from my classmates and lived alone.
I remembered that there were about three blonde girls, but I had never talked to them.
But I didn’t know that Kate might be in the mix!

“Is it true?”

After realizing the answer, I was so shocked that I couldn’t sleep at all. Because I wanted to hear from Kate whether she was from Evergreen Orphanage. I spent it until late dawn with my eyes open and barely slept.

In my sleep, this thought suddenly came to my mind.
If she’s from Evergreen Orphanage, then Kate really is a nasty little girl.
It’s been a month since I kept it a secret.
I couldn’t even imagine what kind of eyes Kate was looking at me all this time.