21 – Reunion of Four
Arnas was a small village.
And so the houses were not very far away from each other.
In this world, you did not know when a monster might appear, and there was a limit to monster repellents. Due to this, the houses were close together, making the villages smaller.
The building that Aize and their friends visited was near the center of the village.
“You should have told me that you were coming. I would have prepared.”
A man with black hair smiled with a troubled expression in front of the door of his house.
No—it was really more of a church.
Church of the twin moons. Arnas headquarters.
Jayce Ode’s house.
“Well, don’t be like that. After all, I brought over a guest.”
“That is why. Had I known Aize was going to come, I could have done all kinds of things.”
“There is no need for any of that.”
Jayce shook his head. He was a lot different from how Aize remembered him.
First, he was taller. He had been the smallest out of the four, but he had now surpassed Tor.
Also, he was not wearing his personal clothes, but black priest garb.
Though, his smile and the way he scratched his cheek was still the same.
“It’s been a while Jay.”
“Yes. Welcome back, Aize.”
Aize extended her hand…but Jay chuckled and raised his hand to the side of his face.
She was surprised for a moment—and then she noticed something in Tor or Enya’s faces and nodded.
“Welcome back.”
The sounds of their high-fives rang in the air.
The four laughed and were reminded of the times when they were happy together.
“So, you know what we came to talk about.”
Said Enya.
Jay nodded and invited everyone inside.
The inside of the church had not changed at all. The ancient statues, the shining stained glass. But it all contributed to the divine air.
They went through a door that was to the side of the chapel, and entered the private area. And then they sat down around a table with Jay.
“So, about your father…”
“Is the priest not here today?”
“Aye. As always, he is looking around the village.”
Yes, Aize nodded. It would be fastest to just ask him, but now that she thought about it, he was usually going around the village and checking up on people.
“It’s fine. I heard everything from him. …Well, I’m sure that Tor didn’t want to see him anyway.”
“…What? Still?”
Aize said, and Enya nodded with a chuckle. Tor averted his eyes.
Tor had been one of the worst delinquents in Arnas, and he had been caught by the priest many times as a child, and been lectured. And he never forgot about that.
“It’s not really like that these days.”
“No, that stubborn old man never stops talking about the past.”
“What are you talking about?”
Tor said, and then the calm voice of a man suddenly interrupted them.
Tor nearly jumped out of his chair.
Aize also turned in his direction.
It was Father Ralca.
Tor looked at Jay for an explanation, but even Jay was puzzled.
“Father, what about the examinations?”
“I finished up early. I had a feeling that I might be needed here.”
He was a calm man and thought he was nearly fifty, he looked younger.
“Father, it’s been a long time.”
“Ah, Aize… It really has been a long time. But I am glad to see that you look well.”
Aize stood up and Father Ralca squeezed her hands.
They were the same hands that she remembered. Rough. They showed how much he had labored.
“I have heard about what happened. If there is anything that I can do…as powerless as I may be, let me help you.”
She sensed a little guilt in his voice.
It was surely related to something that had happened to Aize in the past.
Aize nodded without saying anything.
“Tor.”
Next, Father Ralca’s attention turned to Tor, who had been attempting to quietly sneak out of the room. Tor froze and looked at him.
“Yesterday, you did not return home. Mia was worried.”
“M-my mother…I’m an adult now. And it happens all of the time…”
“Parents will always be worried about their children. You should go home today, so she will be relieved. Do you understand?”
“Ye-yes…”
Tor and the priest were not a good match… Still, Aize knew that they did not hate each other.
Tor had been raised by his mother. His father had been killed by monsters when he was young.
And so he would often leave and go to Jay’s house…where the priest was.
For Tor, perhaps the priest, who always worried about him, was like a father.
Even if his lectures were always quite long.
“Well, that is enough lecturing for today. You wanted to talk to me, didn’t you?”
The priest said after serving tea for everyone there. Aize and the others looked at each other.
“Yesterday, Jayce asked me a lot of questions about it. And so I have an idea…”
“Then father…”
“Yes. It is true that those strange men talked to me.”
“About what?”
The priest took a sip of the tea and placed it on the table. And then after a short silence, he hesitantly opened his mouth.
“It was…about the monsters that appear in this area.”
“Monsters…?”
“Yes. They mainly wanted to know about the transformations of monsters that appear in these areas.”
Enya thought about it. Aize and Tor looked at each other in surprise.
Asking a priest about monsters was not that strange in itself.
It was the Hunter’s Guild who kept track of the monster now, but in the past, that job had been the job of the church. Especially in the countryside, where there was no guild.
Spread love—the first words of the holy scriptures of the twin moon church. The core principle is to ‘serve within the limitless love of god.’
In other words, love others, love the land, and love the world. Help each other with love.
It did not matter whether you were a believer or not. They taught that you should help each other.
Monsters were enemies of god and the people. And so the role of the church was even more
important.
“In other words…they are Hunters?”
That conclusion did make some sense.
A Hunter going to an unknown land and asking priests for information about monsters while conducting an investigation… It seemed quite possible.
“I don’t know about that.”
It was Father Ralca who answered Enya.
“They were not wearing the badges of Hunters. It wasn’t just one or two. None of them were wearing it.”
“Ah, I see.”
Indeed, the Hunters that Aize had come to know recently had been wearing badges on their chest.
“Father, do you have any idea why they would want information about monsters?”
Aize asked, and Father Ralca pondered on it for a moment.
“Tor.”
“Huh? Me?”
“As someone who patrols the area, you know, don’t you? How recently…no, during the past few years…the change in the monsters.”
Ahhh. Tor raised his head and glanced towards Enya. But she looked away as if to tell him to answer it himself.
“Ah, uh… Yes…”
Once he realized that everyone was looking at him, Tor began to sweat. Enya sighed with exasperation.
“New types of monsters have appeared and are growing in numbers. To be precise, things like the gray spider.”
“Gray spider…?”
They were spiders that were about the same size as humans.
The guild gave them the rank of D. Which meant they were not very strong…
“Hey, wait.”
Aize pulled it out of her memory.
Gray spiders…she had learned about them in class.
When it came to exams, Aize was among the top of her class. Not quite as high as Sherry, but she was always within the top ten.
And so she could remember without too much trouble.
Gray spider. Their tendencies, abilities and something else that had been discovered in recent years.
“Could it be…an elyzium vein?”
Aize muttered…but the others all looked puzzled.
Thanks for the chapter.