Chapter 4 – 004 – The Unlucky Priest #4

004 – Priest of Misfortune # 4

“What the fuck!”

Nomad couldn’t sleep at all.

It was clear that if he slept, he would forget to breathe, and if he could not breathe, he would fall into eternal sleep.
In this painful situation, Nomad remembered the unfamiliar man’s words.

“… Curse. Okay! He said he was casting a curse of awareness!”

The man in the dark called this a curse.

Fortunately, this place was a monastery in its own way, so there were many ways to curse.

“I don’t know what kind of guy he is, but he cast a hex on me, he’s such a fool! “As soon as you get better, I’ll catch you and hang you!”

Nomad hurriedly ran out of the room in search of “Holy water,” Which is most effective against hexes and curses.

He headed to the chapel and was startled the moment he found a bowl of holy water on the dark platform.

“What, it’s all muddy water!?”

The holy water was already contaminated with dirt and was bubbling for some reason.

The same goes for other water bottles.

No matter how much divine power Nomad, a veteran priest with 20 years of experience as a monk, poured out, the water did not become clear.

Is there anyone in the world who could pollute holy water like this?

If it exists, it is only something bearing the name of mortal sin.

“Ah… “Ahh!”

Nomad ended up losing his mind due to this ominous appearance and the reality that even breathing was difficult.

“It’s the devil!!! A devil appeared in the monastery!!! The devil has polluted the holy water!!! As predicted by the Crescent Moon Witches, the devil has appeared in the world!!!”

Nomad, whose tension was at its peak, dropped the holy water on the floor and stumbled.

Kuung-.

The candlestick placed on the sermon podium fell to the floor due to the impact of colliding with Nomad.

When the candle touched the holy water that soaked the floor, the heat rose like a flame poured with oil.

Grumbling! Crackle, crackle, crackle, roar!

A chapel suddenly engulfed in flames.

“No! My monastery! My everything! No! How did I get to this point! How can I! Heo, heo, heo!”

Nomad flapped her clothes to put out the fire, but the bright red flames went beyond the chapel and engulfed everything in Emiris Monastery.

When the monks hurriedly woke up and found the chapel, the Nomad was screaming like a half-lost madman.

“It’s the devil… ! The devil… ! Puccino… There is a devil… ! As prophesied, the devil… ! Send Jeon Seo-gu to the Crescent Moon Sisters! Jeonseo-gu! The devil… Inhale and exhale… ! Huh!”

Puccino, the monk director, was almost driven out of his mind by the sight of the crazy Nomad sending the pigeons in the cage flying in all directions.

“Bishop—no, Director! Come to your senses! What about breathing? What is inhalation and exhalation? Huh, huh, huh… !?”

Director Puccino caressed his neck and chest.

It was strange.

While he was breathing heavily, the people who woke up shouted.

“Fire! Boo, it’s fire! “Fire!”

“Everyone wakes up! Turn off the lights! Turn off the lights! Contact the city!”

People were busy carrying water in wooden bowls.

# ​ ​​​ ​ ​ ​ # ​ ​ #

“Fire?”

As I was testing my divine power with holy water in my room, I felt very puzzled when I saw the monks busily pumping well water.

The heat that quickly spread throughout the monastery was so hot that I frowned as I felt like my face would get burned.

“This is why people cannot live after committing sins. “If you commit a crime, you have to pay this price.”

In my opinion, this Monastery of Emiris was condemned. They are deceiving people, exploiting their labor, and colluding with cultists, so it is worth it to burn.

There are so many heretics who have colluded with some kind of cult near this city of sodomy.

In the first place, it was clear that since I was practicing in a place like a den of sin, I was unable to concentrate and did not accumulate divine power.

Now that things are like this, training will have to be done somewhere else.

“…”

When I looked up at the sky, I saw the North Star shining particularly brightly and something seemed to flash in my mind.

“Now that you think about it, there is a place a little north that is perfect for training. If I go there, I might be able to learn the prayer on the gold plate.”

Cathedral of the city of Durgien.

The owner of the place was Archbishop Archibald, a priest with a gold plaque.

I started to feel better about going to see him.

I remembered that when I had no choice but to invade the royal capital, the Archbishop of Durgien fiercely fought against a group of cultists.

In particular, I remembered the fact that the vicious Archbishop Ras was angry and said, “Archbishop Durgien, I really want to kill that bastard with my own hands.”

I have never met the man in person, but judging by the fact that Lass the Madwoman hated him, the archbishop was a very good man of faith.

“I want to meet you. “I need a good teacher.”

The believers, including me, are like sheep and each tries to go his own way, so we needed a good shepherd.

This was the reason why I could not live my religious life alone.

In this life, which I obtained thanks to the Holy Grail, I wanted to meet the deeply religious archbishop in person, talk about faith, consult on various things, eat together, and have him as a religious teacher and colleague.

If you do well, you might get noticed and become his disciple.

Becoming an archbishop’s disciple would truly pave the way for becoming a priest.

If we compare it to the 21st century, it would be like getting a job as a pastor at a large church where you get paid as much as an executive at a large company!

With that feeling, when the day dawned, an investigation team was dispatched from the Durgien region to investigate the truth behind the fire that broke out at the monastery.

The leader of the investigation group was a Knights Templar wearing chain mail and a surcoat, and was a woman in her mid to late 20s.

If it were 5 years ago, I would have been surprised to see a young woman wearing her armor and doing difficult knightly work?

This is a world where the three miracles of “Auror,” “Holy Power,” And “Mana” Exist.

If a woman had an aptitude for aura, divine power, and mana, she could become strong enough to rival a UFC champion.

“The devil took my breath away… Save me… I was wrong… Yo, forgive me… The devil…”

“Why is this guy like this? Devil?”

The female knight frowned when she saw Abbot Nomad, who had become a half-crazy madman.

It wasn’t just Nomad. Everyone in this monastery was complaining to each other of pain, saying, “I can’t breathe!”

The only one who is sane is me.

She asked me, the only sane person here in Sagai, with her brown hair neatly tied back and her face healthy and tanned.

“You there!”

“Who, me?”

“Yes, you.”

Female knight.

Are you speaking informally?

But originally, all female knights were like that.

Female knights’ pride is as strong as the armor they wear, whether it’s bronze or silver.

“I am Galatea, the Bronze Knight of the Knights Templar. According to the abbot, the devil appeared, started a fire, and polluted the holy water. Is that true? Also, they say the devil has spread a curse on this monastery?”

「Bronze Knight Galatea」

I knew quite a few of the knights’ names, but I had never heard of Galatea.

Still, if you are a bronze knight, you must be a veteran with at least 10 years of experience.

She had freckles on her face, making her look simple and pretty, but she was someone you couldn’t let down your guard.
A female knight with a bronze armor that I saw before single-handedly defeated 10 mercenaries with a single sword. In this world, the ‘knights’ were tactical weapons like tanks rather than humans.

I decided to give this prickly-looking human weapon as much as I knew.

“I am not sure what happened so soon after I joined this monastery. However, I overheard and know that the abbot was in communication with the cult members of the “Crescent Sisters.”

Female knight Galatea opened her brown eyes wide as if she was greatly surprised by my answer.

“The Sisters of the Crescent Moon? With those evil and cruel witches?”

“That’s right. Let’s search through the burned remains. The Sisters of the Crescent Moon and their followers leave traces by stamping their palms in blood. “If it wasn’t burned, it would be stored somewhere.”

“Okay? Okay! The story about the blood plate was famous!”

Zek-.

As the knight gestured with his chin, men who appeared to be his servants rummaged through the burned remains of the building.

They soon found a safe that was strong enough to survive fire. It was a safe that seemed too sturdy to be in this old, secluded monastery.

Kang-!

When the knight Galatea struck the lock of the safe with her sword, the door flew open.

Churrrr-.

It was so full of rolled up letters that it was pouring out.

The story was that the “Crescent Sisters” Used the monks like their lackeys. Also, like I said, there were a lot of papers with blood stamps made with the palm of one’s hand.

“You damned bastards! Who would have thought that the reach of society would spread to such a remote place! I’ll have to take him to the church for further investigation. Before that, I want to investigate the curse that made them crazy…”

Galatea touched the nape of the neck of the men who were having difficulty breathing.

Susseu-.

For a moment, I hope that my hands, which look rough for a woman, will shine with white divine power.

The brown-haired bronze knight Galatea clicked her tongue.

“I can’t sense any trace of the magical power that should have been used in the curse and hex techniques. There is no sign of a curse. Since it is not a curse, it cannot be healed with holy water or blessings.”

That’s not a curse.

Because my “Curse of Awareness” Is just a trick like a play on words.

But I decided to pretend like I didn’t know anything.

“Isn’t it because the fire broke out and damaged the respiratory system? “The respiratory system is delicate and vulnerable to heat, so it seems like you can’t breathe.”

In response to my opinion, the female knight Galatea nodded, saying, “It makes sense.”
Then, I took a water bottle from my waist and removed its cap.

“Then why is this holy water so polluted? Holy water with boiling bubbles. “I’ve been a nun for 10 years and a knight for 5 years, but I’ve never heard of it.”

“… “I really don’t know what happened.”

I really don’t know either.

No matter how much divine power was poured into it, the muddy holy water was not purified and only boiled.

“Right. It smells strange too… It smells like… Hmm… It smells… Very strange…”

Female knight Galatea put her nose to a leather water bottle containing contaminated holy water and continued to smell it. What does it smell like?

As I looked nervously, Galatea cleared her throat and looked away, her healthy, tanned face slightly blushing.

“Hmm, I’ll have to take the detailed ingredients to the church and inspect them in detail myself. Anyway, capture the heretics and take them to the interrogation center!”

Soon, ropes were tied tightly around the bodies of Abbot Nomad, Puccino, and their henchmen.

They were all monks who were exposed for having pledged their loyalty to the “Sisters of the Crescent Moon.”

I couldn’t hold back my anger at the fact that I almost got fooled by them, so I screamed and beat them up.

“You dream of becoming a priest but collude with a cult! Hey, you bastards who will be punished!”

How dare you try to sell me as a sacrifice to cultists.

“You brood of vipers! How can a priest fall into the path of a cult! These bastards deserve to be punished! Hell will be waiting for you! Nomad, you only get two!”

“Ahh! Ugh! Well, stop it! Hey!”

I was furious, but after yelling for a while, I felt a little better. But my hands hurt a lot. Hitting with a fist is not something everyone can do.

The knight Galatea seemed quite moved when she saw me being so indignant.

“Monk Hyde! Thanks to your accusation, we were able to catch all the apostates! “I just heard from your servants that you were the one who reported the sodomy villain Nicola and Bluebeard Paltman’s heresy?”

“Has that already become a rumor?”

As I sheepishly scratched the back of my head, Galatea looked at the burned ashes and then at me with a very pitiful expression.

“So, Monk Hyde. What do you plan to do next when your place has burned down? Let me know if there is anything I can help you with. If there is heavenly punishment, shouldn’t there be good luck?”

You’re helping me?