I Became an Undetected Priest Impersonator - Chapter 20

WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became an Undetected Priest Impersonator ◈

Chapter 20

──────

I Became a Head Priest (4)

"Gah, it's a disaster! The Solar Church's Saintess! The Saintess, the Saintesssss!"

"..Please explain calmly."

I had a rough idea of the reason.

But I couldn't mention the Gallery, so I pretended not to know and waited for the Lord to speak.

"The Solar Church's Saintess has announced a pilgrimage! Hah, but our city is on her route..!"

He looked like he'd come running in a hurry, because he couldn't even breathe properly.

His words were a mess, too, but I could more or less make out what he was saying.

"I see."

Still, there was one thing I couldn't help wondering about.

"But is there a reason you came looking for me instead of Priest Margaret?"

The Saintess coming and the Lord rushing to find me were two separate matters.

If he needed someone connected to religion, then judging by experience and by the size of the church, Priest Margaret was the more fitting person to look for.

The Lord's answer, however, was simple.

"Priest Margaret heard the news first, took her leave, and vanished.."

"..."

Then the Lord took a crumpled piece of paper from inside his coat.

When I unfolded it, a familiar handwriting met my eyes.

-I hear the Solar Church's Saintess is coming.

I'm taking my saved-up leave to get some rest.

So slave away in my place on the clinic work and the Solar Church Saintess business, Priest Flowie.

"Oh.."

Experience really wasn't something to underestimate.

She'd vanished the moment she got the news, so in many ways, you had to call it impressive.

Of course, the result was that I had to take the shit for it.

"I understand. But I have no experience with this sort of thing at all, so I'm a little flustered. Is there something I'm expected to do?"

"There is one thing. It's also what I came to ask of you."

"I'm listening."

The Lord hesitated for a moment.

But it wasn't something he could leave unsaid, so in the end he opened his mouth.

"I think we need the Flower Church to host the Solar Church's Saintess."

"..Not your residence or the Earth Church, but our church?"

I wasn't trying to dodge.

I asked out of pure bewilderment.

It made no sense to me that I was being asked to host a saintess at a place that had only just been completed and had a mere two people in it.

"With Priest Margaret gone, Priest Flowie is the only one who can serve as the city's representative priest."

I wondered why it had to be me, but when I thought of what Priest Margaret and I had in common, I had no choice but to shut my mouth.

It was Heal. More precisely, we were the only two people in the city who could use miracles.

‘..Maybe I should just vanish, too.’

I seriously considered it for a moment.

But I dropped the idea soon enough.

Having received a church from the Lord, it wouldn't look good to turn down his request.

Even if that church had been a ploy to settle me in the city.

"I can do that much. But may I ask when the Saintess will arrive?"

The pilgrimage route that had been posted on the Gallery wasn't short.

It was a schedule passing through several cities, so I figured there'd be quite a bit of time to prepare.

But the Lord's answer that followed exceeded all expectations.

"In four days.."

"..?"

For a moment I thought I'd misheard.

"Did you say four days?"

But the Lord, while he averted his eyes, didn't deny it.

I could see now why Priest Margaret had fled so early.

"That's earlier than I expected. Do you happen to know why?"

"Hic, I'd like to know that myself. Why on earth must I face such a trial..!"

"My, my."

The Lord's face looked genuinely close to bursting into tears.

At least I could tell he wasn't lying or hiding anything.

"For now, I'll do my best to host her. So please, stop crying."

‘Especially with that face. Please.’

With a face that looked like he'd squeeze his people dry now quivering with tears, I couldn't help feeling uneasy.

"Sniff, I'm counting on you."

After he finally calmed down, the Lord left with Charlotte, who'd been waiting outside the church.

After seeing the two off, I couldn't help sinking into thought.

‘I don't get why she'd skip the announced route and start from somewhere near here.’

But there was someone who might know.

"Goddess, do you happen to know anything?"

-Hmm, I don't know.

-But the Saintess there is Dad's Saintess, so you could just ask her!

The answer came after a little time had passed.

-Waaah, I got scolded..

"..."

Honestly, I hadn't expected much.

-That's so mean!

‘I guess the Gallery is the only place to look for information right now.’

Ignoring the goddess's voice, I reopened the Gallery I'd turned off.

I wondered if any more information about the Saintess had been posted.

True to a Gallery where all kinds of information and nonsense tumbled around together, it wasn't hard to find the post I wanted.

Title: Why is the Solar Church Saintess suddenly going on a pilgrimage?

Author: ㅇㅇ(71.71)

Normally someone at the level of a saintess can't just move around freely, even just for political reasons, right?

But she suddenly announces a pilgrimage and says she's already set out, super suspicious

[I know why]

ㄴ[oh, why]

ㄴ[It's to become the bride-to-be of me, Ham Pil-won, 29th-generation descendant of the Ham clan of Gangneung]

ㄴ[you fucking bastard, seriously]

I scrolled past the comments full of nonsense.

Then one comment that bothered me caught my eye.

[Think about why the former Admin died]

ㄴ[? why the former Admin? didn't they just die?]

ㄴ[idiot, the former Admin was the Deputy Tower Master of the Azure Mage Tower]

ㄴ[??? is that for real;;]

That part was news to me, too.

But it wasn't as if nothing came to mind.

It was the Gallery error that happened right after the news of the Azure Mage Tower's Deputy Tower Master being executed.

It was too much of a coincidence to be chance.

And if I remembered right, the stated grounds for the Deputy Tower Master's execution were none other than the charge of summoning a demon.

ㄴ[so the former Admin really got executed for researching demon summoning?]

ㄴ[how would I know that. could've been researching dimensional travel to get home and got wrongly caught]

ㄴ[but if you assume it really was demon summoning research, the execution makes sense, and so does the sudden Saintess pilgrimage]

‘Demon summoning, huh.’

Thinking of the demons I'd come across while studying theology, the Saintess's sudden pilgrimage announcement wasn't hard to accept.

Of course, it was still in the realm of speculation, so it was hard to be sure, but there was no more convincing guess than this.

Having grasped the rough information, I closed the Gallery.

It wasn't long before I lay down on the bed.

‘I'm tired.’

Maybe it was because so much had happened in one day.

Not long after lying down, my eyes were already closing.

…

……

"Mm."

With a vague feeling that I'd had a restless dream, I woke up rubbing my stiff left arm.

I'd gotten up quite early, at dawn, but perhaps the sun had risen even earlier for the others, because the workers had arrived before the sky had even brightened and were already at work.

‘They came earlier than I expected.’

It was unexpected, given how I'd worried they might not come at all after yesterday.

But when I looked closely, their faces were different from the workers I'd seen yesterday.

‘New people?’

Still, it wasn't that new workers had come to replace the old ones.

For one thing, the carts weren't loaded with shovels or lumber, but piled high with flower seeds, saplings, and the like.

I was watching in silence, puzzled by the goods that had nothing to do with repairing a church, when it happened.

A man dressed noticeably neatly among the workers came up to me and bowed his head.

"I'm Otto, Administrator of Millers. The Lord sent us as a token of his apology and thanks."

It was all a gift from the Lord.

‘At least he has a conscience.’

Of course, what came out of my mouth, unlike what I really thought, was quite priestly.

"Excessive wealth is forbidden to a priest, but I can't possibly refuse flowers. Please tell the Lord I'm grateful."

"I'll be sure to tell him."

And so flowers and flowering saplings were planted in the yard, which had felt too bare for a Flower Church.

It wasn't a big reward for the job I'd agreed to take on, but I'd ended up with things that would have felt like a burden if I'd tried to buy them with money.

"Wow, are those flowering trees?"

Priest Malja, who had come outside before I knew it, looked at the flowers and saplings with sparkling eyes.

"They say these are elderberry saplings."

"Elderberries?"

"Beautiful flowers bloom in full in early summer, and once they've grown, they bear fruit every summer. They say the fruit is fine to eat and also good for making liquor."

In many ways, it was a tree that couldn't have suited a Flower Church better.

Besides, I'd even thought about making liquor from crops grown at the church, so the elderberry saplings were a rather welcome gift.

‘Since I've been paid in advance like this, I can't slack off.’

I stroked the leaves of an elderberry sapling that came up to my solar plexus.

And just as I was sprinkling Heal over it as if watering it, wishing it would grow well without pests or disease, it happened.

-Good morning! Oh..

As if she'd only just woken up, the goddess started to speak and then fell silent.

"What is it?"

-You shouldn't just go giving Heal to trees like that..

"?"

I found out the reason before long.

The difference was slight, but the sapling had definitely grown.