WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

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◈ I Became an Undetected Priest Impersonator ◈

Chapter 14

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I Became a Building Owner (3)

The gist was that the dungeon had reacted to the boss's magic stone.

‘I can't be certain, though.’

It was worth a try.

I looked at the Key resting on my palm.

True, it was nothing but an empty shell, its energy drained away when the Original Piece was reclaimed, but it still worked as a vessel.

I slowly poured energy into it.

Recalling the sensation from when I'd infused energy into the Symbol.

Whoosh!

A brilliant light rising from my fingertips flowed into the magic stone.

There was hardly any reaction.

‘Was I wrong?’

Just as I was about to think so.

Thump-

A faint vibration came from my palm.

Thump, thump-

It wasn't my imagination.

The magic stone, which wasn't even alive, began to pulse like a heart.

At the same time, the red that had been glowing faintly grew a little clearer.

‘I had a hunch, but it really works.’

Even after I withdrew my energy, the pulse didn't stop.

I turned my gaze away.

By now, the portal that formed the dungeon's entrance was fading.

It was the portal that had started to blur little by little after the boss died.

If left like this, it would vanish completely before long.

With the magic stone in my grip, I stepped inside.

In an instant, the scenery before my eyes changed.

Every trace of the burning was gone, and the same landscape as when we first came in spread out before me.

‘The dungeon's disappearance has stopped, too.’

The fading portal was regaining its distinct form.

But it was too early to relax.

The dungeon's disappearance stopping wasn't the end of it. It would be a problem if monsters started appearing again.

Yet a fair amount of time passed with no sign of monsters respawning.

"I think it worked."

I said to Charlotte, who had followed me in.

"Truly?"

"The dungeon has definitely stopped disappearing, and no new monsters are appearing either. ..Of course, I can't be certain, so you'll still need to post some guards for a while."

The moment I finished speaking, Charlotte's face lit up.

Compared to her usual calm, it was a rather blatant reaction.

‘Well, that's only natural for a lord's daughter.’

The nearest sea from the city was roughly 400 kilometers away.

Now that they could skip that long distance and harvest sea resources, it was no wonder she was delighted.

She'd likely earn a considerable sum, though I couldn't say exactly how much.

‘If she has any conscience, she'll donate some to me, too.’

Hiding those thoughts, I congratulated her with a kindly smile.

…

We returned to the city around noon the next day.

"Well then, I'll be heading to the clinic."

"Why not come with me to the Lord's Castle and have a meal before you go?"

Charlotte offered as though she couldn't possibly let me leave like this, but I shook my head and refused firmly.

Delicious food was nice, but I had no wish to choke on it.

‘The Lord is a burden.’

His gaze was a burden in its own right, but above all, it was that fierce face.

"I see. It's a pity, but understood."

Realizing that further pressing was useless against my firm refusal, Charlotte finally gave up with a disappointed look.

After we parted, I headed for the clinic.

The moment I opened the door and stepped in, a familiar voice was the first thing I heard.

"So you're back."

Margaret spotted me and let out a sigh of relief.

"I was worried you'd never come back at all."

"Surely you didn't think I'd been hurt?"

"No."

Margaret snorted, as if to say how could that possibly be.

"I was worried you'd run off to another city."

"…"

"I'm joking."

‘It doesn't sound like a joke.’

Margaret stared at my face for a moment, then waved a hand.

"But what's this about reporting for work the instant you're back? Rest up today and come in tomorrow."

"Is that all right?"

"I did all of it myself before you showed up anyway."

With that, she leaned back in her chair.

"Besides, I'm not so cruel as to work a man to the bone the moment he's back from a business trip."

If that was the case.

There was no reason to volunteer for work.

"Then I'll see you tomorrow."

Not even five minutes after I'd walked into the clinic, I was about to head out again when.

"Oh, come to think of it, I hear your church is nearly finished."

My foot, already on its way out, stopped.

"Already?"

Wasn't that a shoddy job?

My brow furrowed on its own.

It had only been a few days since I'd been promised the church.

Even if they had started work that very day, a building could hardly go up in under a week.

"They repaired an existing building and gutted the inside so it could be used as a church, so I hear."

"I see."

That I could understand, to a degree.

"By my reckoning, it'll be done within the week."

Even so, it seemed awfully fast, but this was a world without labor laws, so I accepted it well enough and let it go.

"That's faster than I expected."

"Take it as a sign of how determined the Lord is."

It wasn't something to be wholly happy about.

Since I'd already said my greetings, I left the clinic without adding anything more.

‘Come to think of it, wasn't tomorrow the day I had to vacate my room?’

By coincidence, the week I'd booked was nearly up.

‘I don't like it, but I'll have to rely on the Earth Church for a few days.’

Margaret would grumble, but she'd allow it in the end.

Of course, if I explained my situation to the innkeeper, I suspected they'd let me stay a few more days too.

But I wasn't so shameless as to ask someone who earned their living from lodging to lend me a room for free.

Jingle-

"Priest!"

The moment I opened the inn door and walked in, a familiar figure bounced up and greeted me.

The innkeeper's daughter, who had been wiping a table, had practically flung her cloth down and come running.

"Have you been well?"

"Hehe, yes."

The child nodded with a broad smile.

I'd only been gone two days, yet it felt like greeting someone returning after a long absence.

"Oh, right."

Then, as if she'd remembered something, her eyes went wide.

"Priest, Priest! You have a visitor."

"A visitor?"

Was there anyone who would come looking for me?

If it were someone from the Earth Church, Margaret would have told me herself rather than sending someone to the inn.

And it hadn't even been half a day since I'd parted from Charlotte.

That left very few people.

‘The Lord?’

But the person the child named was someone I'd never imagined at all.

And at the same time, the very last person I'd have wanted to face.

"It's a Flower Priest!"

"…"

My mind stopped for a moment.

‘Am I screwed?’

It was no wonder the thought crossed my mind.

I could somehow fool a priest of a different religion with different doctrine, but I had no confidence I could fool a real priest of the Flower Goddess.

‘..Should I run for it, even now?’

The door was only a few steps away.

If the other party hadn't noticed me yet, I could slip out quietly.

I was seriously weighing escape routes when.

"Flower-print clothes!"

An excited voice rang out from deeper inside the inn.

"You're Priest Flowie!"

‘Damn it.’

Too late.

‘Is this for real?’

A religion with the fewest priests and the fewest churches in this land.

A priest of that religion had come looking for me.

And just when I was about to complete my first week of impersonation, no less.

Bad luck didn't get much worse than this.

…

"Wow..!"

The priest, who looked about middle-school age, kept gazing at me in wonder even after sitting down.

More precisely, she was staring holes through my clothes.

"There are so many flowers."

"..Is that so."

"Yes!"

By contrast, the girl's attire was plain for a Flower Priest.

Unlike my dress shirt, filled to the brim with beautiful floral patterns, hers had only a single small dandelion embroidered modestly near the chest.

If not for the Symbol hanging around that spot, it wouldn't have been strange to mistake her for an ordinary village girl.

‘For a priest of the Flower Goddess, her fashion sense is a little disappointing.’

The thought that it would look lovely with about thirty more dandelion embroideries flitted through my mind, but I quickly scattered the stray notion.

That wasn't what mattered.

What mattered was getting through this situation well.

‘First off, she's young.’

The one saving grace was that the priest looked so young.

Her baby fat hadn't even gone yet, and the top of her head barely reached my solar plexus.

I was relieved, at least, that an elderly priest hadn't come.

Being young, her accumulated knowledge and her judgment were likely immature compared to an adult's.

Which meant there was room to deceive her and get by.

"If you don't mind, may I ask you something?"

"Yes! Please, speak freely, Priest."

I had more than one or two questions.

But the one I most wanted answered was a single thing.

How on earth had she found out and come looking for me?

While I wondered how to ask without arousing suspicion, I luckily found a fitting question.

"You've come alone, without a guardian, and I'd like to know why you sought me out, and how you learned of me."

The girl flinched and glanced at my face.

"I'm not interrogating you. I'm asking out of concern, as an adult, so please answer."

For the record, it was an interrogation.

"Um, first, I found out you were here because I heard a rumor."

The word rumor gave me pause.

It had been only about a week since I'd fallen into this world, and about a week since I'd started staying in this city.

In a world where riding a horse was the fastest way to travel at best.

It was hard to accept that a rumor could have reached another region in just a week.

"A merchant uncle who visits often told me. He said an amazing Flower Priest had settled in Millers."

‘A merchant, huh.’

I understood the route.

If merchants traveled between towns and cities, news could certainly spread.

But for a merchant to go to another domain and spread the rumor, and for the girl who heard it to make it here, a week was ridiculously short.

If she lived in a village near the city, it wouldn't be entirely impossible, but as far as I knew, there was no Flower Church anywhere around here once you left the city.

I'd already confirmed that through Margaret, so I could say so with certainty.

"But as far as I know, there's no Flower Church in the city, or even in the domain. So did you come all the way from a neighboring domain?"

"Oh, um, it's not a neighboring domain. There's no church, but, um."

The girl answered, her face reddening a little in embarrassment.

"..There was a priest. My grandmother acknowledged me as a priest too..."

"Without a church, you mean?"

"What was it Grandma called this, an Unassigned Priest, I think she said, yep."

"…"

Unassigned: the state of holding the qualifications but not being given charge of any particular department or post.

‘So there are cases of living as a priest without a church?’

The Flower Goddess faith was supposedly very small, and it seemed there were even priests who operated without any church at all.

I hadn't considered a case like this, and my head began to ache.

But not all my questions had been answered yet, so I endured the headache and pressed on.

"But there's still one thing you haven't told me."

"Yes?"

"You haven't told me why you came looking for me without a guardian."

I understood that she'd heard a rumor.

I understood that she'd lived as a priest without a church in a nearby village.

But I still couldn't tell why a young girl would cross a domain alone to find me.

"Well, it's like this."

The girl placed both hands neatly on her knees.

Then, with a face mixed with anxiety and anticipation, she carefully opened her mouth.

"Priest Flowie, please, please make me your Acolyte!" [1]

 

Footnotes:


[1] Acolyte is a disciple who studies under a priest, much like a squire to a knight. The same person can be both a priest and an Acolyte. It is not the Catholic deacon.

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