I kept forgetting because she kept conversing normally, but evil gods were not sane.
[Oh! Apostle! Stop for a moment! Let us look at that over there before we go!]
In other words, no matter how lively that bitch seemed, I never knew whose head she might take at any moment.
[Apostle! Please!]
“I told you not to call me apostle.”
I whispered quietly. After all, it would look strange if I seemed to be talking to myself.
[By the way, it was easier than I expected to get outside the Order.]
“When they say I can’t go out, that doesn’t mean I can’t leave the Order. It means I can’t leave the capital.”
Since the Order managed the entire capital, it was more or less the same thing.
This was a country where the king was the Pope, and the Pope was the king.
“And stop talking to me.”
[I cannot.]
Mm. I had hoped for too much from an evil god. It would be better not to answer her at all.
[Apostle?]
Ignore her. Ignore her.
“We’re here.”
At last, while ignoring even Kalla’s words, I arrived at a restaurant.
“......”
Naturally, I checked my wallet. Perhaps because I was an apprentice holy knight, I was a little short on money.
“I didn’t know you’d choose somewhere this expensive......”
“Of course I had to choose somewhere expensive after what you did.”
At the voice, I turned around and saw Pell standing there.
“Look over there......! It’s Sir Pell!”
From far away, I heard people whispering when they saw Pell. What was this? Did they think we could not hear them?
“Let’s go in. You said you were buying, right?”
“You know how poorly paid apprentice holy knights are.”
“If you had a problem with it, you shouldn’t have thrown me at Sir Harkan.”
[......? Apostle? Did you not say Harkan was like a father to you? Why did you throw this child......?]
Honestly. I told her not to call me apostle.
“Let’s go in.”
“Eat only a little, all right?”
“That depends on how you behave.”
......If things went wrong, I might have to throw in even what I had been saving.
“Do you have a reservation?”
When we opened the door and entered, a server showed us a service smile.
“Yes. It should be under Karix.”
“Hmm? Wait, Pell. I never made a reservation......”
“Yes. Please follow me.”
Wait a moment.
“When did you secretly make a reservation behind my back?”
“By the way, I heard you suddenly collapsed that day. What caused it?”
He was blatantly changing the subject.
“It wasn’t anything much......”
Mm.
[It was not anything much?]
No. Strictly speaking, it was a very big deal.
I made a contract with an evil god and became her apostle, ta-da!
“Mm......”
But how was I supposed to explain that?
“Karix?”
“I guess fatigue built up a little.”
“......What would you even have to be tired from?”
As expected, that did not work. But I could not exactly say I lost consciousness because I made a contract with an evil god.
“Weak bastard.”
“......What?”
At those words, I stared at Pell’s face. Pell was openly mocking me.
“To think that Karix fainted. You really have gotten weaker.”
......This bastard?
“Back in my day, Karix was so vigorous that he cut down three believers of the God of the Sun and stayed perfectly fine, and he even split mithril with his bare hands!”
“No, I told you, I’ve never split mithril.”
“To think a child like that collapsed from mere ‘overwork’ when he had nothing to do. You really have gotten weak, haven’t you?”
“You’re provoking me, aren’t you?”
“Correct.”
After saying that, Pell gulped down cold water.
[I can see why the two of you are friends. So why did you throw him at Sir Harkan?]
Strange. Pell used to be a rather quiet fellow.
“So, what do you want?”
“What do you mean?”
“There is no way you would buy me a meal just because you threw me at Sir Harkan.”
“Honestly, how harsh. Do I look that stingy to you?”
Unfair. I was sure I spent money rather well.
“Look at you. Before arguing about whether you look stingy, shouldn’t you apologize first for throwing me?”
“Ahem!”
[No, I am asking why you threw this child at Harkan.]
Stop talking already.
“In other words, the Karix I know clearly approached me with some scheme in mind.”
Pell said that while stabbing a dish that had appeared at some point with his fork and bringing it to his mouth.
“That much can be inferred.”
“But it’s not as if I’ve never bought you food.”
“I pestered you until you bought it a few times.”
That was because apprentice holy knights earned little......
[So my apostle was stingy?]
“Yes. I’m stingy.”
[He admits it?]
“You admit it?”
Why did the two of them say the same thing? It felt disgusting.
“Well, yes. Just as you said, Pell, I have a favor to ask.”
“Why, are you afraid you’ll be disciplined again because you beat someone up?”
[My apostle, you did something like that too?]
I mean, there had been something like that. Only once, though.
“No, that time, he was the one at fault.”
“That is true.”
Thanks to that, I had not received any major punishment. He had thrown the first punch too.
“Still, you know beating him into a bloody pulp was excessive, right?”
“His bones were all still attached, he wasn’t crippled anywhere, and I didn’t damage his organs.”
I had simply hit him painfully.
“In any case, today isn’t about that.”
“Then?”
Now came the main subject.
“I’m going out for a little while.”
“All right.”
“Mm. How should I run away?”
Pell’s face crumpled instantly.
“......Get permission to go out from Sir Harkan.”
“I’m saying I’m running away because I couldn’t.”
“Can’t you please live quietly for just one day?”
“I think I’ve lived rather quietly for the past few years.”
After Sir Slan dumped me in the archive, I had not caused many accidents.
“At least leave after a month.”
“You’re saying the exact same thing as Grandpa Harkan.”
Did everyone smear honey over the date one month from now?
“The Saintess is coming one month from now, so all apprentices have to be present then, don’t they?”
“Ah.”
Ah?
“The Saintess is?”
“Yeah.”
“......Why?”
A Saintess was, by nature, an apostle of Lady Aria. In other words, if the Saintess’s gaze fell upon me for even 0.01 seconds, she would absolutely discover that I was the apostle of an evil god.
‘If that happens.’
It would be immediate beheading. Or perhaps burning at the stake.
“Fuck......”
[Apostle. I think we are doomed......]
There was still a way. I could run.
“That’s why I’m going out without permission.”
“Did you hit the Saintess too?”
“......?”
Why did he reach that kind of conclusion?
“No, if you’re running away to the point of disobeying Sir Harkan, then isn’t that the only possibility?”
“Have you ever seen me beat Grandpa Harkan or Sir Slan?”
Did this bastard think I was a lunatic who did not even know where the line was?
[I think you chose the wrong friend......]
For once, I could not help but agree with this evil god.
“You did beat other Holy Knight Order captains.”
“No, those were sparring matches!”
If they were the ones who told me to fight, I had no reason to refuse!
“The only people who recognized those sparring matches as pure sparring were the captains of the Second and Third Holy Knight Orders.”
“What am I supposed to do when the others are lower level than me?”
Besides, it was not as if they were beaten into a bloody pulp just because they got hit during sparring.
“Usually, when I beat someone up, I have a justified reason.”
“That is true, but.”
“So tell me how to go out without permission before I beat you.”
“Cough! Cough! Keh!”
Perhaps the food Pell had been eating was caught in his throat, because he coughed violently and beat his chest.
“......I misheard that, right?”
“Want me to say it again?”
Yes. Since I was kind, I could say it again.
“No. Don’t say it.”
“What a shame. I was going to graciously repeat it for you.”
“What do I need to help you with?”
“A way to bypass the checkpoint.”
See? How nice was it when he behaved obediently?
“You certainly are a risk factor...... Then.”
[......Is this not a holy knight, but simply a thug......?]
“Shut up.”
“What?”
“No, not you. You keep talking.”
Because of the evil god beside me, my words kept getting tangled.
“Uh. Well, fine. If you want to avoid the checkpoint, you should get a potion or disguise item from the black market......”
If even Pell knew about it, I wondered whether it could really be called a black market.
[My apostle should curse less at his own god, should he not?]
“I’m not your apostle.”
“......?”
Ah.
“Sorry.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I’m truly sorry. Keep talking.”
At my words, Pell clicked his tongue and continued.
“In any case, the conclusion is that finding a potion at the black market would be best. You’ve been marked as a dangerous person, so you won’t be able to slip out by bribing the checkpoint guards or anything like that.”
Tsk.
“And these days, the Third Holy Knight Order is manning the checkpoints.”
“A bribe definitely won’t be enough, then.”
The silver lining was that it was not the First Holy Knight Order. If it had been the First Holy Knight Order, I would have been caught even if I used a potion.
[My apostle is weaker than I thought.]
“Then is there no day when your Order mans the checkpoints?”
“Even if it’s our Order, we won’t let you pass.”
As expected. If I got caught, the Seventh Holy Knight Order alone would be broken apart.
“Then I’ll give you this, so can’t you just take me out with you?”
“That onion is just something you don’t eat.”
Ahem.
“Take it.”
“Haa.”
I placed the onion I had stabbed with my fork onto his plate.
He immediately stabbed that onion with his fork and put it into his mouth.
“......Why is your plate already empty?”
Whether he knew how earnestly I had been thinking or not, Pell had already placed his emptied dishes on the table.
“......By the way, Pell.”
“What?”
“I didn’t get a single bite.”
“What a shame. If you were sad about that, you should have eaten the onion at least.”
Damned bastard.
***
“One...... two...... three......”
The number did not go any higher after that.
“Hoo......”
That was all the money in my wallet.
“Three bills...... Can I buy a potion with this?”
[It does not look remotely possible.]
“You think so too?”
Potions were not just ordinarily expensive. The fact that they circulated in the black market said it all.
“How do I even get to the black market?”
I had only heard that there was a black market in the Holy Kingdom’s capital. I had never gone there. In the first place, I had learned about it only recently thanks to Brother Junknus.
[You do not even know that?]
“I’m an upright holy knight.”
[Hmm? But if you do not know where the black market is, where are you going right now?]
“To someone who would know its location.”
Strictly speaking, he was not exactly a person.
“Hmm? What brings you here again, Karix?”
“What are you doing again, Brother?”
[A dwarf?]
The place my feet brought me to was Junknus’s smithy.
“It feels like it’s been a while since I came here.”
“How long has it even been?”
“This is the first time I’ve come since I took the key.”
How long had it been since I took the key?
“Is that so? At my age, such things pass quickly.”
[This dwarf is an oddity, is he not?]
As expected of a god. She already knew that?
[What is this? He has gathered so many fascinating weapons that are hard to see anywhere else.]
The evil god wandered near the weapons and freely looked them over.
‘If I talk now, she won’t interrupt.’
At least until she finished looking through all the weapons, she would not speak to me.
“By the way, why did you come?”
“I need to go to the black market.”
“......I do not know how to go to such a place.”
Junknus broke out in a cold sweat and avoided my eyes.
“You said you got that key from the black market last time.”
“In any case, I do not know.”
If he was going to do that, why did he say last time that he got it from the black market?
“......Why are you trying to go?”
“I need a potion.”
“Ah! Is that so?”
At my words, Junknus’s expression relaxed instantly, and he took out paper and a quill pen while laughing heartily as usual.
“So? What kind of potion do you need?”
“Just a moment ago, you said you didn’t know anything about the black market.”
Was it really fine for someone’s words to flip like that?
Ah. Maybe it was fine because he was not a human but a dwarf.
“A disguise potion or invisibility potion.”
“Ah, yes! A disguise potion or invisib......”
Junknus was scribbling something on the paper with his quill when he stared at me with suspicious eyes.
“Why do you need that?”
“I’m going outside for a little while.”
“You need something like that to go outside?”
“Of course. It’s very important.”
If I wanted to go outside without getting caught, nothing was more important than that.
“Wouldn’t it be better to bribe the checkpoint guards inste...... Ah, Karix, you can’t do that.”
That was how I went out in the old days, though.
“Yes. In the old days, because you went out without permission over and over again, the Holy Knight Orders ended up standing checkpoint duty.”
“Those were memories too.”
“Tsk. Fine, I understand. I will ask if there is stock.”
[Hmm? My apostle has all sorts of memories, does he not?]
“I suppose I do......”
What the hell! Had she already finished looking through all those weapons?
“Get lost. I’m in the middle of a conversation.”
Fortunately, Junknus was busy looking for stock and had lost interest in this side.
[I am a god, you know? With mere inventions like these, I can understand their structure at a glance.]
“And that great god couldn’t undo such a simple seal?”
At my words, the evil god could not open her mouth even once and stood still.
[You......!]
It was rather amusing to see her face turn red and blue.
“Ah. They say there is stock.”
[Apostle, how insolent of you!]
“There is? How much is it?”
[Apostle! Do not ignore me!]
“Roughly......”
Junknus was flicking the abacus he had taken out and roughly calculating.
“It will be about thirty thousand ria.”
[Apostle! You insolent creature! Karix!]
Far too expensive, even for an expensive item.
“Could you, you know, make it a bit cheaper?”
“Hmm......”
[Do not ignore me!]
Haa, she was noisy.