The Priest Wants to Retire

〈 Chapter 59 〉 Useless

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Just like sugar cubes thrown into coffee, melting away without a fight.

Bubbles that rose to the surface of the faint consciousness, submerged in darkness, reminded me of a time long forgotten.

It wasn’t a dull, gray memory, but a bright, sunny recollection.

“Hero Punch!”

By now, it was just something I accepted.

However, during the party formation days, every time we did something, the party leader would forcibly attach the prefix “Hero” and yell it out loud, which gave us quite a headache.

“What a surprise! You dodged my ambush! Be careful! Priest! This monster is no ordinary monster!”

“Dear sister. An attack accompanied by such a loud shout is more appropriately termed a ‘death warning’ than an ambush, isn’t it?”

In our party’s dictionary, the word stealth didn’t exist.

Only phrases like “Charge headfirst” were packed into the cover of a book with “Justice” written in big letters.

No, I even doubted if the concept of a dictionary requiring higher knowledge actually existed.

Having a leader with a vehement nature, whose every action in battle was quite boisterous, made it hard for us to engage in any activities requiring subtlety, such as ambushes or distractions. No matter how high the rewards, they were just a pie in the sky for our party.

As a result, one day I curiously asked her.

Hero. That faded title. That archaic sense of righteousness.

Why was she so attached to it?

She answered like this.

“I want to be someone who has no shame beneath the heavens.”

That calm voice, so different from usual.

Those distant, wistful eyes that seemed to look somewhere far away.

Why had I forgotten it until this very moment?

“The true me is too insignificant. Even if I walk under the bright sunlight, I’m not someone who can be proud. So, I constantly remind myself.”

With heartfelt wishes held close.

Pummeling those fervent aspirations into this fist.

I shout with all my might, reaching up to the heavens.

I’m the Hero!

“How about it! Priest! If you feel like it, why don’t you try it once?! I can specifically pass on everything about my Hero Punch to you!”

I’ll pass, thanks.

I think that was my response.

At the time, I thought she was just a girl entering puberty speaking with heightened emotions, so I didn’t take it too seriously.

But.

If I had known this would happen, at least I should have learned how to swing a fist or something.

Such hazy regrets flickered through my mind.

◈◈◈

“How dare a mere creature…!”

My fist hurts.

Based on the level of pain, I would guess I’ve at least cracked a bone.

I felt no sensation of hitting a living being with the back of my hand.

Only the heavy, dull sensation lingered, like I had shattered a thin mirror.

I decided not to look at my fist, which was peppered with unknown shards, dripping with blood.

After all, it’s usually more painful to look at an injury.

“How could a Ha Gye In like you touch my essence!? More importantly, how are you still conscious!? With blessings like that, you should be a cripple by now!”

Something far away suddenly yelled at my pathetic fist.

At first, I thought it was just an illusion my weak heart created, allowing me to throw my fist with all my might.

But that wasn’t the case. Who are you?

Now it seemed too late to feign ignorance.

Since it had come to this, I decided to play it a bit brazenly.

“Who are you to impersonate me?”

I was once immersed in adventuring.

When facing such a suspicious being, it was common sense to not underestimate them.

Especially in a place like this, a dungeon.

A location where slackening for just a moment could mean losing limbs.

It was absurd to let my guard down here.

Right, that’s how it should be.

“Hee, heeek! I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry…!”

The shocking sight before me was enough to bleach my thoughts.

It wasn’t a fleeting mirage from a dream, nor was it a vague vision from memories.

There she was.

The Hero was crying.

Desperately calling out to me, yet her lost gaze was only chasing after empty air.

It was easy to guess she was not in her right mind.

The usual courage was nowhere to be found; she looked so pitiful.

Who could recognize that wretched girl sitting there, unable to find any support, as a Hero?

As I pondered this, my weary legs were already slowly making their way toward her.

“Hero…”

Just as my bloodied hand, raised unconsciously, was about to stretch out toward her.

“Don’t touch my vessel—!!!”

A loud voice pierced through my consciousness.

The owner of that fearsome voice was someone I had blown away earlier.

Suddenly.

A rough, strong hand gripped my arm.

It was too soon for self-reflection on how I had just said one mustn’t let their guard down in a dungeon.

As if a syringe were injecting drugs directly into my blood vessel, an overwhelmingly powerful white something clamped down on me.

“I shall bring upon divine retribution personally!”

Right after the noise of someone shoving a cotton swab into my ear made its way into my head, I felt a pressure as if an otherworldly being was sitting on my soul.

Invisible hands seemed to crush my heart, forcibly accelerating the blood flow within me.

Yes, it was a terribly familiar feeling.

A sensation so familiar I had grown accustomed to it.

“No matter how much you scatter mere fragments of the flesh, to thrust such a filthy fist before my sacred presence! How dare you stain the vessel I worked so hard to obtain! You should consider it an honor to perish by my noble hands! Do it, mere creature! Hah! Huh?”

As any adventurer should know, one must never underestimate a suspicious being they encounter.

That was a lesson I had been drilled with countless times by the veterans when I was still a rookie adventurer.

However, being inherently weak, my ability to threaten someone was practically catastrophic.

Even if I frowned hard, corrected my tone to sound fierce, or occasionally showed off some strength, it all felt awkward and clumsy.

The threatening face I’d practiced so hard often became a joke when I was too tired in front of my comrades.

Since the day Apis’s incisive remark likened me to a small dog yapping at a large one, I’d thrown all that in the garbage.

Even right now, I had no idea what kind of expression I should have.

“W-Why isn’t it working!? T-This can’t be! A normal human’s soul would be completely desaturated by now with the holy power I poured in! Why… is… it…”

Just as I slowly shifted my gaze toward the face of the being gripping my arm.

It suddenly fell silent.

Immediately after, I felt the strength draining from its hold on my arm.

“What… What’s going on! What’s with that gaze! I am a being of great stature, far above that of a Ha Gye In! Even in this form where only fragments of my strength are present! You… with just your little finger—!”

It was like it was spouting nonsense while trying to sound dignified, reflecting the typical image of a scared human.

With a face that seemed to plaster a stiff piece from someone else on its own soft features, it looked like a person wearing a broken mask pack, making me inadvertently smile.

Smirk.

The right corner of my mouth formed an unnatural arc across my cheek.

As if it had seen something it shouldn’t have, it began to back away clumsily after that.

“Hehe, no way!”

But that pitiful escape ended up failing.

As it released my arm which it had been gripping tightly, I also roughly grabbed its arm.

“If you even dare to touch that filthy hand to this vessel! I shall trap your sinful soul in the darkness of the abyss! Even now, it’s not too late! If you release that unclean hand, I can generously deduct ten years from your remaining lifespan…”

“Did you cry?”

“W-What? What do you mean?”

“Did you cry?”

Squish squish.

Unintentionally, a vicious wave from my joints escaped as I inadvertently applied pressure.

Not long after, the particles of the human face that had been masking it crumbled like sand and fell to the ground.

Beneath that mask was a woman whose appearance, by objective standards, was quite beautiful but marked clearly with deep fear.

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