Forsaken Priest of the Hero's Party-Chapter 31: Riding the Spring Breeze

You know, in hindsight...I should have gone to fetch the Princess myself instead of sending Roka.

“Did you two perhaps fight?”

The atmosphere between the two who returned was truly icy cold.

I didn’t expect them to walk back having a friendly chat, but I hoped they would get a bit closer. Even that may have been too much to ask for.

“Fight? I like Roka so much, how could we fight? Right, Roka?”

“...That’s right. We didn’t fight or anything.”

Looking at the two, I could be certain.

Let’s not leave these two alone. Never. I’d rather move together with one of them. If I left these two together, it seemed like one of them would get hurt.

‘If those two wish to learn how to act through the Sapling, I must deny them.’

The air between them is so heavy. Anyone can see they clashed.

Roka slowly approached me and snuggled up. I thought she was going to say something, but that didn’t seem to be the case. She just seemed to have missed my pats. When I stroked her head, her tense body relaxed.

Yet, as Princess Ardein stared at Roka’s relaxed face, her expression twisted into a severe frown.

Hm? Now why would she behave like this? My little wolf is such a cute child. What could have displeased the Princess?

Hm. My Roka is kind, polite, and smart...Even if she hates studying.

Roka never complains when I send her on an errand. She eats well, sleeps well, and above all, she is cute!

“Saint. That mut... no, does Roka usually act like that... so... subservient in front of you?”

Looking at the kid nuzzling into my chest, the princess’s expression went beyond absurd to having a hint of shock and fear. It seemed like she herself didn’t know what to say.

“Hm? My Roka is just a little attached, that’s it.”

“A little attached...? This...This kid looks like she can’t live without you...”

Ahahaha.

My Roka is the cutest. Seeing her stare at me with such puppy-like eyes, made me pet her even more. When Roka smiled sheepishly, the princess finally sighed.

“Sigh...I... this goes beyond my expectations, you are truly in danger.”

“Are you talking about me?”

“Well, it’s fine now. I’ll be by your side from now on.”

Anyway, after petting Roka like that,

And neatly brushing the fur on her ears.

The princess and I began preparing for our adventure. The princess also had quite a bit of field experience, and I too had followed the hero’s party around, so preparations started wrapping up quickly.

“We don’t need to pack water, right?”

“Indeed, but it might be prudent to take some canteens. Should we need water I can create a temporary spring.”

“While the Winter is passing, the weather is still a bit chilly, shouldn’t we pack thick clothes, Saint?”

“There’s no need. The Blue Bird’s Feather will safeguard our journey.”

Come to think of it, the miracles I received from the Lord are mostly ones that aid in adventures.

They can be used for other purposes besides adventuring, but if I don’t set out on a journey, they might as well rust. I received the sanctuary’s candles, the reviving spring water, and the Blue Bird’s Feather all during adventures.

However, those are fundamentally miracles.

Miracles bestowed by the Lord, I merely am the conduit for his might.

This humble priest has served the Lord for nearly 20 years. And yet, in my greed, I have used the powers granted to me, to create my own techniques and minor Miracles.

“For packing...Let’s just use a plain jar. We also need to get as many candles as we can.”

“What? A jar...?”

“Ah, you see, while this is not something granted to me by the Lord, I managed to achieve this using His power...”

I call it a Minor Miracle, or an Ability.

The Plain Jar. It can serve as a portable storage.

Things stored inside don’t weigh anything, don’t spoil, and are preserved. If you put in warm soup, no matter how much time passes, it will still be warm when you take it out again.

Well...Even if I call it the Plain Jar, it can be used with anything, even a small object that can fit in my pockets. Since abilities are entirely applied and used by me, this level of utilization was simple.

While the size of the object used as storage can affect their overall capacity, something like this will be incomparable bigger than a normal backpack.

“Also, should we run out of food, I can bake us some mud...But I’d rather not do that.”

The ‘Mud-Baking’ is also another Minor Miracle I created.  If you bake sand, it becomes cookies, and if you shape and bake mud, it becomes bread. The texture and taste are no different from bread baked with wheat flour.

“Baking and eating mud...?!”

“Saint...There’s no need for that...Should matters become as dire to necessitate eating mud...I’ll simply reveal my identity and procure some money.”

However, I rarely used this ability unless it was to save those who were truly starving.

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Even if mud becomes bread, the fact that it was made from mud doesn’t change. So, unless there wasn’t food available, I wouldn’t perform this Miracle.

“So let’s prepare thoroughly before we go. It’s best if such a situation doesn’t occur.”

Even though I always pray, most of my prayers are to thank Him.

Not to demand from Him. Relying on the Lord’s power should only be done as a last resort. After all, it is we ourselves who are living in this world, and it is we who bear responsibility for our actions. Travel preparations had to be thorough.

If we faced a crisis even after thoroughly checking all the preparations, only then, I will pray to the Lord,

But if we don’t make the necessary preparations and suffer the consequences for it, would the Lord even answer my prayers?

That’s why it’s best for everyone to prepare so that such a situation never occurs in the first place.

“Make sure to bring enough money too.”

If one person holds the money and loses it, we’ll be homeless.

I do have another ability, the One Night’s Shelter, but this ability requires a large unclaimed land. It might be fine in the mountains or plains, but money is important if you want to stay in the city.

“When I came to this city, it was so cold that tears would freeze, but these days the weather has warmed up, so it won’t be difficult to walk.”

“I thought we were going to ride in a carriage?”

Surely she’s not suggesting we make the entire Journey on foot, is she? I mean...I could do it, but is there a need for it? This isn’t the Demon Realm after all.  As I thought that, it seemed Princess Ardein had it all planned out.

“There’s a place where we can rent a carriage. It’s not far from this city to there, so just trust me and follow along.”

If she says so, it must be so.

Riding the spring breeze that’s slowly driving out the winter wind,

Now is the time to head north to the capital. I’ll drop off Princess Ardein there, and then I’ll go even further north.

To a place where not even demons, let alone humans, venture.

The frozen wasteland where everything becomes encased in ice, to the North Pole.

*****Some people say that for one to value their homes, all they need to do is leave them. After all, a ‘home’ is oftentimes, a secure and comfortable place.

Seeing several centipedes and other insects scurry out from the crumbling cottage, the expressions of the Hero’s party, who had to stay in such a place during the night, twitched just as much as the fleeing centipedes.

“Honestly, I never thought I’d miss that shelter.”

Yurinel Lakponcia grumbled as she shook her head.

“But suddenly, I miss it.”

“We have to... sleep here?”

“It’s either this, or you can sleep in the wilderness. Isn’t this the best alternative? If we just chase out the bugs, I think we can get some shut-eye.”

Kyle’s ability, the One Night’s Shelter, was modeled after Helmut’s hut, the Village hunter from Yurinel and Kyle’s hometown.

Helmut was a kind man who loved children, so he often allowed the little ones from the Village to use his hut when he was away hunting.

The hut even had a spring behind it. To be precise, he built the hut where the hot spring was, but anyway, for the rural children with nothing to do, his lodge was a playground and a shelter.

I always hated when Kyle conjured that Miracle because it reminded me of that stupid village.

The One Night’s Shelter replicates that lodge, including the hot spring.

Helmut’s home was quite large, so even ten people could find shelter there, and the hot spring was the perfect place to wash up.

I never thought I would miss it so much. What a thing to experience in life.

It was not a bad place to rest for a day before departing, but the mistake was thinking it could be easily replaced by camping.

“Ugh... I feel itchy. Isn’t there anywhere to wash up?”

“I saw a pond earlier. Wash there.”

“The place swarming with tadpoles? No thanks. I’d rather stay dirty.”

Despite saying that, Parnell conjured a water pillar to wash her body. Seeing this, the others requested the same, so the Mage had to conjure the water pillar several more times.

The group then divided into their tasks, with one person keeping watch, while two prepared the meal.

While it was true that Kyle’s abilities could be replaced by human effort, its usefulness was undeniable.

“Saint, can’t you perhaps create something like a spring?”

“That’s not such a simple thing to do...”

Aridel spoke with an apologetic expression.

“The Goddess presides over the earth, not lakes and water sources. Of course, She is not the earth itself either. She can make the land fertile, but a spring is a bit...”

It’s not that she wouldn’t do it, but she simply couldn’t.

If there’s anyone to blame, it would be none other than the hero party themselves, who hired her as a saint without even an interview, saying she could start tomorrow.

“Then it can’t be helped.”

“Could you perhaps create something like a shelter for us?”

“W-was that originally the job of a priest?”

Aridel looked at Renheim with a perplexed expression.

Bishop Renheim shook his head.

“Wasn’t that originally the job of a dedicated supporter, or something the entire party had to work together to do?”

“The Bishop is correct.”

Lucia had no choice but to nod. It was a sound argument. What more was there to argue?

They were priests, not architects or people who dug for springs. As long as they properly healed in battle, properly treated wounds, and incidentally assisted in demon hunting with holy magic, they were doing their job.

What party asks priests to build houses and create springs? Even hero parties didn’t do that.

It’s not like we asked him to make those things.

Only then did Yurinel realize Kyle’s merit.

Things that had just passed by were actually not as simple as she had thought. They had just been used so naturally that they were taken for granted as part of daily life.

He just made it, and we thought it was natural.

Thanks to human nature adapting to easy and convenient things, everyone just didn’t object to Kyle doing it.

And like being soaked by a drizzle, they eventually ended up thinking it was naturally the priest’s job to do such things.

Looking back now, it wasn’t originally the priest’s job, but as the favor continued, it became taken for granted and they unconsciously thought of it as his job.

“We should have at least kept a supporter with us.”

“That again?”

“No, it’s regrettable. Even if it’s not something to whine about, it’s a bit regretful.”

When all those miracles and powers were cut off, the adventure became several times more inconvenient.

It’s not that there were no alternatives, but there are reasons why Plan B is Plan B.

Because Plan A is much better. Alternatives are ultimately just alternatives, and the most ideal situation is one where no alternatives are needed.

“Stop it. This isn’t something for us to get angry at each other about. No one knew it would turn out like this.”

It was as Yurinel said. One of the reasons Kyle’s absence was felt so strongly was because the times had changed.

The party, who had always purchased necessary supplies from demon merchants, only realized there was poison in them after swallowing the purchased food. Moreover, when they became vigilant, they felt eyes watching them from all directions.

Even a mere village child was a tool of the enemy, and even a goatherd in the mountains was a collaborator of the enemy.

There were no civilians, no, no civilian demons anywhere. Harmael’s dominion had somehow reached this outer edge of the demon realm.

The feeling that the demons were merging into a single unified organization grew stronger and stronger.

They easily expelled the poison by drinking the regenerating spring water they had stored last time, but now that they knew they couldn’t let their guard down anywhere, they always had to be careful.

They chose to hide in sparsely populated areas for that reason. As a result, exploring remote regions, which normally didn’t have much importance, had now become a daily routine.

Lucia sighed as she watched the campfire burn down.

“We have to be careful, very careful. This is enemy territory.”

The mage Parnell nodded as she started to cast some barrier and detection spells.

“In the worst case, Harmael herself might come looking for us.”

But if Harmael had any sense, she wouldn’t do that.

Yurinel laughed.

“So what if she comes? It’s not like we’re powerless.”

There was no guarantee that even if she personally came, she could destroy the hero party,

and Harmael’s authority couldn’t be considered perfect either. Demons are inherently prone to internal strife.

The more forces Harmael invests in capturing the hero party, the more difficult it becomes for her to maintain her rule. Because that means fewer resources to suppress and lead the stubborn demons.

If Harmael were to confidently step forward and lose to the heroes, from that moment on, no demon would sincerely follow her. Because demons revere power.

“It’s a needless worry. Even if we can’t beat her, we should at least be able to run away.”

An Emperor stepping on the battlefield by himself is a stupid and nonsensical thing to begin with. And even if...If Harmael achieves an overwhelming victory, she would barely break even.

The demon kings of various regions have submitted to Harmael but not surrendered, and are always ready to rebel and return to how things were.

They remembered that ideal era when they divided and ruled the demon realm.

They didn’t like the situation where that Harmael bitch was lording over them.

Of course, they were also demons, and wouldn’t rebel against Harmael to help the heroes.

At best they would be neutral, and even that was opportunistic. If the conditions were right, they could become friends, but that was the same as saying they could become enemies if the conditions were right.

In fact, the odds of them becoming enemies were overwhelmingly higher than becoming friends. The only demon king who could have become an ally was Horisa, the Demon King of Wind, who had committed suicide not long ago.

“Well, I guess so.”

So letting one’s guard down was forbidden.

Even if she spoke as if it was no big deal, Yurinel had many worries in her heart.

We need to be more careful.

“Hero, if you have a moment...”

When her mind was troubled, the saint who had quietly approached opened her mouth.

“Would it be alright if we talked for a bit?”