I Became the Moon Goddess' Apostle in a Dark Fantasy-Chapter 49: The Weight of Wealth

It was finally Raven’s time.

He knew he would attract a few different stares, but at this point, he was used to them.

"My name is Raven Marlowe,"

Zuri and Carroll immediately raised their brows.

An expected reaction.

"Pevon and I were friends for a while back in Ivory Kingdom, and I am sponsored, not directly sponsored, by Cardinal Eve Marlowe."

He made sure to specify that he wasn’t a nepo baby.

Cough!

Pevon coughed lightly, "Yeah, ’friends’."

"Are you-" Carroll wanted to ask something, but Zuri immediately blocked her off.

"Carroll and I also go back a few years," She was quite diplomatic and understanding.

"I know you have been asked this many times, but are you..." She slowly approached the question, analyzing Raven’s reaction to this question.

Which was surprisingly normal.

"Yes," He confirmed, "I am her youngest brother, and she’s the sweetest person I know."

Gulp!

The rest of the team gulped, doubting his words.

Was he sure about the sweet part?

She was straight-up demonic to them.

"By the way," Zuri was proving to be quite swift at mitigating any sort of awkwardness, "I have already collected our new IDs as the Silver Pike Corps from inside, so we don’t need to do it anymore."

Damn!

The others were quite amazed.

Being so competent at social interactions was one thing, but also being this considerate.

’Golden scar!’ Raven exclaimed internally.

Maybe she could help him be more grounded in general.

And help him with the Janet situation.

Carroll had a smirk that screamed inaudibly, ’This is my friend.’

Pevon looked at them, impressed.

And then he looked back at his friends.

He couldn’t help but sigh at this composition.

"Thank you for your consideration, Zuri," He thanked her, followed by the other two.

"Should we depart?" Carroll asked, agitated at the time this was taking.

Anyone could tell by a single glance that she was quite an introvert.

So, they agreed, nodding one after another.

They all climbed up their respective horses and finally started the journey.

A 6-day-long journey to the East.

Their first-ever mission.

...

Their pace for the journey inside the city was quite slow, but as they exited the city into the vast wilderness, their horses galloped at a rapid speed.

Carroll and Zuri’s horses were unsurprisingly not the fastest; the other three had to match the speed.

And since the Coarsers weren’t going at their full speed, it was relatively comfortable.

They made a few small talk about the mission, but that really was the extent of it.

A few hours into the journey, their pace had slowed down a bit due to the forests.

Taking this chance, Zuri sneakily pulled up near Raven and whispered, "Forgiveme if I am crossing a boundary here."

"Is there some issue going on between you and Janet?" She asked as politely as she could, "We really could not afford any issues or mistakes during our first-ever mission."

Raven was pleasantly surprised and happy, even.

"Nice timing," He whispered back, "Please see if you can help me."

Zuri gave him a simple nod, "Of course, I would gladly."

"So..."

After that, Raven started narrating his side of the story to her.

Summarizing every time she was let down or upset with him

From the time he paid for her inn fees when she showed her first let down, to just a few hours ago when he had bought the horse for them.

And halfway into the explanation, Zuri turned her head towards him, looking at him with deadpan eyes as he continued narrating the story.

As he finished, Zuri spoke, "I think I might know the reason behind this."

Raven noticed her expression and groaned, "Please don’t give me the same look as Pevon."

"I know this has something to do with my money, but," He expressed his concern, "I don’t know why she would be upset at me spending the money?"

"Ok, I apologize, but here’s the thing!" She finally turned her gaze to normal, "From what I know, your family is very rich, am I right?"

Raven nodded, fully agreeing to that statement.

The Marlowe family’s status was no secret to the world.

Their business wasn’t just limited to the Ivory Kingdom, but to many other neighboring nations, including the Holy State of Solis.

"And, what do you know about Janet’s family background?" She talked to him with patience like a school teacher.

"She is the daughter of a bishop in the Orient City," He answered, "You might even have unintentionally met him there."

"So, here’s the thing about normal or even somewhat rich people like the rest of us," Raven inched closer to her, perking up his ears as she began.

"Unlike poor people, we aren’t dying for money, due to which we retain some amount of humility and pride in our self-sustenance."

Raven nodded

"And unlike ultra-rich people like you, we don’t find splurging this amount of money normal."

Mhmm!

He hummed, trying to put himself in their shoes.

In his past life, he was extremely poor, growing up in the slums of Seoul.

For people like them, getting money, no matter the source, was a good thing.

A blessing.

As he grew up to finally got out of there, and his parents died, leading to no social life.

This led him to have a distorted sense of money, which never got better.

And this Raven, who always grew up in extreme wealth, so his sense of money was also quite distorted.

For him, splurging like this regularly was no big deal.

But he realized he shouldn’t use that as an excuse.

He decided not to complain and just listen.

"So," She inhaled a deep breath, and asked, "Do you see where I am getting at?"

Raven contemplated and nodded a while later, taking a guess, "Her pride is hurt because of that?"

Zuri gave him a small nod, "You are partially right. There are quite a few things here."

"Pray tell."

"First things first, she is probably feeling guilty and ashamed for surviving off your money," She took a small pause and continued, "Next, you made a decision for them without even consulting them."

"It creates a sort of invisible and often hurtful hierarchy based on money in the group, which can also hurt her pride."

Raven was amazed at her wisdom.

He never thought of this.

But they didn’t know that he didn’t mean these.

"And it also took away from their choice of contribution."

"Wow!"

He looked at Pevon and Janet’s backs as they slowly trotted forward, oblivious of what was going on behind them.

He didn’t know there was so much thought-process behind these subtle behaviors.

He felt bad now.

But he wanted to make things right.

"What should I do?"