“Ho-Hold up, hold up! Sure, we do that, but who the hell is gonna pay?”
“These guys ain’t got no more than the clothes on their backs!”
I got a response. What’s more, it hadn’t been “Atonement money?! How dare you!” but rather a practical question of who would pay. If they’d rejected the idea flat out, things would have gotten complicated, so I very gratefully snapped at the opportunity they’d given me.
Inside my head, the mental machinery that Gus had equipped me with was being set in motion.
“I will pay!”
Murmurs again spread throughout the crowd.
“Settle down, everyone.” Tom calmed the villagers, then asked me, “Why is that, holy warrior?”
“It is because demons are my mortal foes and caused my parents’ deaths.” While I exaggerated a little to make myself sound more convincing, it wasn’t a lie. It was true that Mary and Blood had died because they had stood against the demon forces. “And I am a priest bestowed with my god’s protection. I have sworn an oath to my god, the god of the flame, to drive away evil and bring salvation to those in sorrow. If evil demons have done harm to these people, then these people shall have my aid.”
I declared my position as I stood and gestured dramatically. These speaking tricks had also come from Gus.
“Furthermore, the demons cannot be left alone to occupy that village. I will head there to fight them. That being the case, you, the man over there—” I pointed at Meneldor. He was looking at me, dumbfounded. “You are a talented hunter who knows the woods, are you not? I would like to hire you to track down the demons. You will be paid handsomely.”
The buzz of chatter arose from the villagers once more. If they could reclaim their demon-besieged village, there would be no need to fight each other. The outstanding grudge could be settled with atonement money, and they could call it even. Everybody wins, with the sole exception of one benevolent holy warrior that nobody knew from Adam, who would suffer a reasonably large loss.
They talked things out amongst themselves, and it wasn’t long before they came to the same understanding. The fact that I had tossed a few gold and silver coins in front of them had also given them an effective push.
“Are you certain abou’ all this, sir?” John asked me. “This arrangement’s all upside’s far’s I can see, but there’s nothing in it for your good self—”
I smiled back at him. “If you gain from this situation, then it will have been the gods blessing you all for your good natures,” I said while praying to my god for a tiny miracle. “Gracefeel, god of the flame, ruler of souls and samsara, is watching over your lives with eyes of mercy.”
As I spoke those words, the miracle I wished for appeared. A tiny flame rose up before the village square’s shrine dedicated to the virtuous gods. A low gasp came from the onlookers, who chanted words of gratitude and offered their own prayers.
I helped people in a crisis while spilling as little blood as possible. And though I might have overdone the presentation a little, I reminded them that You exist, as well. I suffered a bit of a financial loss, but as Your hands, as Your blade—maybe the way I overcame that situation wasn’t too bad...?
After I whispered this in my mind, I got the feeling that somewhere, my god had given me a little smile.
I talked it over with everyone, and we had a representative from each village take part in a sworn ceremony to settle their bad blood.
As soon as that was done, I set about protecting the survivors of the demon-attacked village who had been physically unable to participate in the raid, such as women, the elderly, and children. They were huddled together around a campfire in the forest, shivering from the cold. They were frightened of me at first, but after I got Menel to explain the situation, they quickly understood.
Many of them were injured or starting to catch colds, so I healed them using the blessings Close Wounds and Cure Illness. Then, I got the first village to shelter them temporarily, with the promise that it would only be until I retook the village that had been attacked.
They took them in with open arms, though I was pretty sure there wasn’t an ounce of goodwill in why they did so. It was just that we’d struck a deal; they were probably also considering the value of holding them as hostages against the men, who they’d also been forced to take in for the time being. That said, protection was protection, and I was glad for it.
I imagined what would happen if I died trying to take back the village. It was possible they’d become unable to support the people they’d sheltered and be forced to kill them. As I prayed by the shrine, I thought about how I had to win at all costs.
Meneldor approached me. “What’s your endgame?”
“Hm? What I said it was. I’m not hiding anything.” I couldn’t ignore the spread of the demons, and I wanted to keep everyone from killing one another. All I had done was take the measures necessary in order to make that happen.
“Oh, right, I’m working for you already. I guess it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
Oops. That wasn’t how it was meant to go. I felt like it was important to get Menel’s approval. “Can I hire you to reclaim the village and track down the demons?”
He frowned. “Uh, brother? I incited pillaging and murder. Are you sure you don’t need to pass judgment on me, O holy warrior?”
“I’ve already closed the book on that by paying them compensation. And you didn’t do it by choice, right? You couldn’t abandon the village—the village that helped you—in its hour of need.”
I could have just said that a sin was a sin. All of them, Menel included, had technically had the option of lying down and dying without harming anyone, and if they had been able to choose that option, that may have been very noble.
But choosing to steal from another instead of accepting death wasn’t despicable; it was natural. Even more so if they had people like women and children they felt an obligation to protect.
“I’d prefer not to pass judgment on a normal person making a normal decision if I can help it...”
He tutted. “Ever thought I might hold a grudge and stab you in the back?”
“If I die, it’s the villagers who suffer.” At least until I took back the village from the demons. I couldn’t imagine that the silver-haired hunter in front of me was incapable of weighing the gains against the losses.
Menel finally looked away. “You’re an easy mark. Someone’s gonna rob you blind someday soon, and that’ll be the end of you.”
“Maybe, yeah.” I couldn’t help smiling. That was a future I could imagine. I reminded myself that I couldn’t keep on taking from Gus’s gift; I had to earn money somewhere to make back the amount I’d used.
“Keh. Whatever, brother. I’ll work for you. I need the money for them, anyway.”
“Yeah. Thanks for your help.”
Menel’s lips curved cynically, and he nodded. “On that subject, what are we doing then, master?”
“Moving on in, I guess? We can’t afford to waste time...”
That was followed by silence and a faultfinding stare.
I... I did have a plan... of sorts... But maybe I should have expected he’d be against this. Maybe I had been a bit thoughtless...
“Eh, you’re right.” Surprisingly, he nodded. “We had better move fast. I mean, there’s a good chance the guys in the village have become undead.”
I fell silent. I’d forgotten.
Just as this world was filled with the protection of the virtuous gods, it was also filled with the benevolent protection of the god of undeath, Stagnate.