WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 143: Javert’s Iron and Justice (10)
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“Leysha! I came again today!”
“These are this month’s food supplies from the church.”
“Ah... Javert, you’re here.”
“Thank you for always looking after me like this.”
“Thanks to you, I haven’t starved to death yet.”
Javert volunteered in the slums regularly.
As time passed, she naturally grew close to some of the people there.
“What should I do...? I keep receiving help from you.”
Leysha was one of them.
She was a haggard woman in her mid-twenties, exactly ten years older than Javert.
Having had a child young, she was a widow living in the slums.
“Please, take it. Don’t refuse.”
“You haven’t been well lately, either.”
Leysha had a gentle nature.
She liked listening to others’ stories, which helped her get along well with cheerful Javert.
Javert liked chatting with Leysha, and Leysha enjoyed listening to Javert ramble about little things.
“Thank you, Javert...”
“Would you like to stay and talk for a while today, too?”
Their friendship had lasted a full three years.
In a way, Leysha was the person Javert felt most at ease with after the elderly couple.
Leysha seemed to feel the same. Whenever the girl visited, she would always smile faintly.
“...Leysha?”
But that day, something felt off about her.
Her smile looked forced.
Javert immediately noticed the difference.
They had seen each other at least several times a month over the past three years.
“Are you all right? You look far too pale...”
Leysha’s face had gone white.
Her already haggard appearance had worsened further.
Her eyes glistened with tears, as though she might burst into tears at any moment.
“Ah, it’s nothing...”
“You don’t need to worry about it.”
Leysha shook her head, insisting it was nothing.
But Javert kept asking what was wrong.
You could call it nosiness, or you could call it thoughtfulness.
The girl’s repeated questions eventually made tears spill from Leysha’s eyes.
“Sniff...”
Leysha crumbled like a sandcastle.
Leaning against Javert, she sobbed.
“Javert... what am I supposed to do?”
“My daughter is terribly sick.”
“Sniff, ngh... She can barely eat, and her fever is extremely high.”
“I even brewed herbal medicine for her, but it hasn’t done anything...”
Her only family, her daughter, was sick.
Leysha said she had searched for a solution, but there was no way to cure her.
Javert suggested seeking treatment from the priests, but Leysha quietly shook her head.
“I can’t ask the church.”
“You know I’m a wanted criminal...”
Leysha was a young widow.
She herself had killed her husband.
Javert had heard that Leysha did it to save her daughter from his daily abuse.
Afterward, Leysha had fled with her daughter and lived in a remote part of the slums.
That was why she said that if she went to the church, she would simply be arrested without anyone asking questions.
“I’ll be imprisoned immediately.”
“No, if it means saving my daughter, I’ll do it. I don’t care if I’m sent to prison or even executed.”
“But the problem is... even if I steel myself and go to the church, I can’t be sure she’ll receive treatment right away.”
Leysha spoke while slumped on the ground.
Sounding desperate, she added a few more words.
“Priests act according to the church’s orders.”
“They might provide ordinary aid, but they won’t provide intensive treatment for free.”
Wealthy nobles received premium treatment quickly.
On the other hand, people seeking free treatment had to wait a very long time for their turn.
Javert had heard that even a small church had a waiting list backed up by half a year.
“It’ll be too late if we wait our turn.”
“At this rate, my daughter won’t even last a month...”
There was no guarantee her daughter would survive half a year.
Leysha could only weep endlessly.
“What am I supposed to do? I...”
“I’ve lost everything. I can’t lose my daughter too.”
“Um... then what if we ask my parents?”
“They’re both active priests, so they might find some way to help.”
“No. Even they can’t go against the church’s principles.”
“In the end, it would have the same result as me going to the church myself.”
“I’d be imprisoned right away, and my daughter would be left without treatment...”
The woman’s plea sounded heartbreaking.
Most of what she said was true, too.
Ordinary priests could not change the treatment order on their own.
It would not be accepted by the patients who had already waited, nor by the church, which had carefully established its principles.
‘But.’
That was not a problem for Javert.
Someone with the standing of her parents, the Droit couple, could find another solution easily enough.
They could even redirect premium treatment meant for nobles and provide it for free.
“Even your parents won’t have any way to help.”
“If you tell them, I’ll just be imprisoned immediately. It’ll only make things worse...”
In short, it was an obvious lie.
Leysha had lured Javert in.
The girl was still young.
She did not yet understand how influential her father was.
Nor did she know how the church’s internal system operated.
“There’s no way.”
“At this rate, everything will be over.”
It was a trap that cleverly exploited a child’s ignorance.
Javert listened with a grave expression, innocent as ever.
Leysha’s sobs stabbed at her heart.
“I think it’s really over now.”
“My child’s burning with fever and crying as she clings to my sleeve...”
“I need to go back quickly today, too. Even while she’s suffering, she keeps waiting for me...”
Whispers stirred sympathy.
They were words that inexperienced Javert found impossible to brush aside.
“Thank you for coming to distribute food again today.”
“Thanks to you, I think I can help my child regain even a little strength.”
In the end, the girl took the bait.
She stopped Leysha as she turned to leave.
“W-Wait...!”
“Then... what if I treat her?”
“I can use Divine Power, so I think I can somehow manage it...”
Javert was a genius.
Despite her young age, she was no less skilled than active priests.
She was also training as a priest, so treating someone was well within her ability.
“Wouldn’t it be all right if I did it in secret?”
“I won’t tell my parents or any of the other priests!”
“R-Really? Is that all right...?”
“Thank you... truly, sniff...”
Javert made the promise on the spot.
She said she would visit Leysha’s home soon.
Perhaps relieved, Leysha burst into tears like a child.
‘So I promised.’
Javert had taken on a responsibility.
The girl sank into thought.
‘Still... I can’t tell Mother and Father. If they find out, they won’t let me go on my own. But if I don’t act, the treatment will be delayed. She’s in critical condition right now, so I can’t tell her to wait half a year.’
Her heart had already made its choice.
She had decided to help Leysha.
It wasn’t as though Javert was rushing in completely unguarded.
Although she wasn’t going to tell her parents, she intended to take at least one adult with her.
“What do you think of this situation, Sir Rubin?”
“Would it be all right for me to help Leysha?”
Rubin Carters.
He was the knight assigned to protect Javert.
Since she had become the Droit couple’s adopted daughter, he had stayed by her side for nearly four years.
Javert had heard that he was a high-ranking Holy Knight and a close friend of Valter’s.
‘I can trust Sir Rubin.’
Rubin knew Leysha, too.
Since he always accompanied Javert, he had been with her during her volunteer work in the slums as well.
“This is a difficult situation.”
Javert was certain that Rubin would support her.
After all, he had always been soft when it came to the girl’s stubbornness.
“There is nothing wrong with Leysha’s account.”
“If she seeks free treatment, she’ll have to wait at least half a year.”
“On the other hand, she cannot afford the terrifying cost of premium treatment...”
“As Leysha already told you, telling your parents about this will not be of much use.”
It would only make the situation worse.
Javert obediently nodded.
Rubin appeared to ponder for a moment before finally accepting the girl’s request.
“The slums... You may be familiar with the slums by now, but they can become dangerous at any time.”
“I cannot let you go alone. I will accompany you instead.”
“I will not make a report until the treatment is complete.”
“I may be indulging you too much...”
“Really? Thank you, Sir Rubin!”
“If you’re with me, there’s nothing to be afraid of!”
“I was a little scared because we have to go deeper into the slums than usual...”
“I cannot abandon the duty entrusted to me.”
“Of course, once this is over, I will report it to your parents as well.”
“W-Will they be angry?”
“I broke the principles they always told me to follow...”
“You may be scolded a little.”
“But I think the two of them will be happier that you helped someone else.”
“R-Really...?”
“Will they really be happy?”
“Of course.”
“They have always been kind to you, haven’t they?”
The guard knight said he would go with her.
Thanks to that, Javert felt relieved.
‘Then there won’t be a problem!’
She would be breaking the rules, but she had taken this many precautions. It would be fine.
Javert clenched her fist as she thought that.
Perhaps her heart had gotten ahead of her.
If the girl had been a little more mature, she might have made a different choice then.
But she was still too young for that kind of maturity, still at an age when she did not know how well adults could lie.
‘I can do this.’
Javert overflowed with enthusiasm.
She was filled with determination to help someone.
‘I’ll help someone too, just like Father and Mother do.’
Maybe it was because of the admiration she carried in her heart.
The girl had always lived with that thought.
She had met the Droit couple, received their love, and finally found happiness she did not deserve.
So she believed she had to return that love to the less fortunate people around her.
The moment she had dreamed of every day had simply come a little early.
‘Let’s do this.’
Besides, Leysha was someone she had known for nearly three years.
A guard knight who had been with her for four years would accompany her.
With both trusted companions there, danger seemed impossible.
Javert let down her guard and climbed into the carriage bound for the slums.
“Then... let’s hurry.”
“Leysha is waiting desperately!”
On her next day off, Javert left the estate, saying she was going to volunteer.
Leysha lived in a derelict building located in the deepest alley of the slums.
“It’s creepy. People live in a place like this...”
“I heard we still have to go much deeper.”
It was also the point farthest from the nearby church.
In other words, it was where the church’s influence was weakest.
The perfect place for something shady to happen.
“Huh?”
And then, that ominous foreboding became real.
Footnotes:
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