WeTried Translations
Translator: [IncomeElastic]
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◈ I Became an Undetected Priest Impersonator ◈
Chapter 35
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I Became a Neighbor (4)
The glass bottle holding the holy water fell to the floor and shattered to pieces.
‘Looks like I'll need to prepare for a house call.’
But what happened shortly after made me stop.
Golden vapor spread from where the holy water had broken, and the patients who breathed it in went limp and collapsed.
The same phenomenon kept happening afterward.
Patients coming into the clinic, the family members who'd brought them, it made no difference: the moment they breathed in the scent, their curses were lifting.
It wasn't long after that when the Lord of Limbeld, who'd been watching all this in a daze, cried out urgently.
=Before the scent blows away, hurry up and bring every citizen in the city here!
=And close all the windows too!
The broadcast screen shifted elsewhere a little later.
It was because the clinic's interior had filled with citizens until there was no room to stand, and the streamer had finally come out of the building.
=Seriously, what the hell is all this….
It was the reaction of someone dazed by a situation too hard to make sense of.
But for me, watching the broadcast, there were a few things I could more or less guess.
The decisive part was how the unconscious patients had suddenly started convulsing and lunged at people.
‘A Mind Parasite, huh.’
It was a floor monster that had reigned as the nightmare of the Tower's early days, forcing people to sleep and ultimately making comrades kill each other.
It was also an opponent I myself had once had trouble with.
But these days, that was ancient history.
‘There's a saying: if you don't know, you have to die.’
And put another way, that's no different from saying there's nothing much to it once you know.
Funnily enough, it described that thing exactly.
‘It's almost a shame I only realized this now.’
With that, I headed for the Lord's Castle.
Specifically, to give the Lord the method for taking it down.
Of course, getting there wasn't entirely smooth.
"Hold it right there. Your clothes alone are suspicious. We'll need to question you."
"…"
Setting aside how far the road was, there was a checkpoint, as you'd expect of the place where a lord lived.
"Hey..! You wanna get in trouble? That's the Flower Priest!"
Thankfully, thanks to another soldier who recognized me and stopped them, I managed to get through the checkpoint.
After that, the Lord, who'd come running after receiving the report, reacted fiercely to the main point I raised next.
"You've identified the source of the curse?!"
"Yes, and the solution isn't difficult either."
I paused for a moment.
I still wasn't used to the term Tier that they used here.
"Three knights at the 3rd Tier would be enough."
Roughly speaking, three D-Rank Awakeners would be more than enough to get the job done.
But hearing this, the Lord's expression stiffened in distress.
"Um, Priest."
Then, as if confessing a shameful fact, he opened his mouth with difficulty.
"The Limbeld domain has no knights."
"Pardon?"
I was wondering how it could possibly make sense for a domain not to have a single knight.
"Honestly, even our domain has only my daughter Charlotte as its sole knightly force."
"…I'm only asking out of curiosity, but why are there no knights?"
Dazed by the situation in Millers, which was hardly any different, I asked.
"Well, once someone's a knight, they all want to go to the bustling capital, not some backwater province."
"…"
It was a realistic reason.
‘So in the end, it's either me going over to help, or waiting for the Saintess to stop by quickly.’
I was frowning, deep in thought, when it happened.
The Lord smiled meaningfully.
"But what about a 4th Tier knight?"
It wasn't hard to catch his meaning.
"…Well, this calls for congratulations."
In the end, he meant that the female knight who'd hit a wall had risen to the 4th Tier.
"Ahaha! Our domain may have no specialty products, but we have plenty of talent! It's on a whole other level from Limbeld, which has nothing but wine!"
The Lord's cheerful voice rang out boisterously.
Naturally, a smile found its way to my lips as well.
‘At least there'll be no house call.’
Charlotte arrived not long after she was summoned.
After hearing the whole situation and explanation, Charlotte readily nodded.
"If anything, this is a job I'd like to ask for. What knight would turn down a chance to earn merit?"
With her own willingness confirmed, there was nothing left to hold us back.
"Then before you set off, I'll cast on you every blessing I'm able to, starting now. Please don't resist, and accept them."
-Even if you get buffed and stronger, it's only two to three times at best.
-Way too strooong!!
"…I wonder when the Earth Goddess will ban her daughter's Gallery."
"Pardon?"
"It's nothing."
Sighing inwardly, I finished preparing the buff.
The buff, wearing the mask of a blessing, was bestowed on her right after.
"The new mountain I came to see after reaching the 4th Tier looked so daunting."
The face murmuring this was flushed, as if lost in the afterglow.
"And yet you've shown me the way again. Thank you, Priest Flower."
Charlotte's beaming smile struck me, all of a sudden, as beautiful.
Of course, that thought didn't last long.
Because of the confession Charlotte made right after.
"Please, feel free to call me Lotte anytime."
"…Please, anything but that nickname."
And she'd gotten the name wrong again, too.
"Heh heh."
After that, Charlotte ran off to Limbeld without even riding a horse.
She looked for all the world like she was faster than a horse, but what left me uneasy anyway was probably that nickname issue she'd tossed out at the very end.
But I soon stopped worrying about it.
There was nothing more I could do anyway.
Beyond this point, it depended on Charlotte's hands, not mine.
It was then that I turned around.
"Then, with my business finished, I'll be on my way."
"No, since you've come all this way, at least have a meal before you go. Our head chef is truly excellent."
Unfortunately, I couldn't. Without me, Priest Malja would have to fend for herself at mealtime.
‘I can't make her cook that pig-slop stew again.’
It was a request I couldn't grant, so turning it down wasn't anything new.
"I'll leave the meal for another time."
"Hmm, then why not take some food with you, at least? If I send the Priest off empty-handed, I'll be the one catching flak."
At that, I nodded readily this time.
If anything, it was something I'd have asked for myself.
It was after we'd gone down to the kitchen that the Lord gave instructions to the head chef, who was in the middle of cooking.
"Chef! Pack up some food for the Priest. And fill a whole basket with it!"
"I can't carry that much."
"Don't worry. Would I send the Priest off without even a carriage?"
The Lord only burst out laughing, as though I was worrying over nothing.
Finding the Lord's reaction more and more burdensome, I was about to take the food basket and be done with it.
In a corner of the kitchen, some jars that felt oddly familiar caught my eye, and I asked without thinking.
"May I ask what those jars are?"
"Ah, I suppose the Priest wouldn't know. They're crocks for storing our region's traditional food."
Saying so, he sheepishly lifted a lid to show me.
And what appeared inside was kimchi, the last thing I'd ever imagined seeing here.
‘You never can tell with this place.’
"Come to think of it, you mentioned you're a vegetarian, Priest. Would you like to take some?"
"…I won't say no."
It had been too long since I'd had Korean food to turn it down.
…
"Oh, this is kimchi!"
As I was setting out dinner so it wouldn't get late, Priest Malja's eyes went wide at the sight of the kimchi, and she lit up.
It was a fairly familiar reaction.
‘Well, of course Priest Malja would know it.’
Quietly conceding the point, I pushed the plate of dished-out kimchi toward Priest Malja.
"Since I showed interest, the Lord gave it to me. I brought back quite a lot, so help yourself."
"The cabbage harvest was poor this year, so kimchi has been scarce, and thanks to you I get to eat some like this."
Priest Malja smiled brightly, the hurt feelings from my dumping the nuisance customers on her seemingly washed away by this.
"You haven't tried it yet, right? Give it a go. It might not look like much, but it's delicious!"
"…"
It was no wonder I felt like I was getting a kimchi lecture from a foreigner.
"Heh heh, it's good, right?"
"Yes, it's delicious."
For the record, since no fish sauce had gone in, it wasn't as tasty as I'd expected.
I checked the broadcast through the Gallery after finishing dinner.
[Live) Sexy Goblin Zero-Two Dance 24-Hour Non-Stop Broadcast. Currently Goblin No. 4 Sortieing.]
[Live) Watching a Real-Time Musical Together.]
[Live) What the hell is up with our domain right now.]
Though the viewer count had dropped considerably, I was relieved the broadcast was still running.
On the broadcast screen, Charlotte, who had just arrived, could be seen.
‘If she follows the strategy, taking it down should be quick.’
But Charlotte's attempt at the strategy ended up fizzling out, unable to even properly begin, contrary to expectations.
It was because of the Saintess's party, who'd shown up belatedly.
To be precise, Priest Patch was the one who'd stopped Charlotte's attempt.
=Aaaagh! What do you think you're doing!
=And why on earth did you strip the citizens!
I was the one who'd ordered all of it.
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