Chapter 187

David, the priest in charge of the Astram branch, smiled kindly as he spoke.

If you just looked at his face, it was the very image of a benevolent clergyman’s smile…

But because of the wiggling black tentacle pattern on his clothes, no matter how hard I tried not to misinterpret it, to my eyes, he looked like nothing but a villain plotting some evil scheme behind that smile.

“Ah, ah…”

I turned my head away from David’s kind smile, but no matter where I looked, all I could see were suspicious things.

A child playing a game similar to “Mugunghwa Flower Blooms,” burying their face in a church statue and counting numbers, while a priest sneaked up behind them.

It should have been a heartwarming and peaceful scene, but since the priest sneaking up behind the child was also wearing clothes with the same wiggling tentacle pattern, it looked like nothing but a cultist trying to kidnap the child.

Even the nuns distributing meals to the homeless and disabled were wearing nun’s robes with wiggling tentacles on them, making it feel like the food might be laced with some dangerous drug.

And in the center of the church, the religious statue, which should have looked solemn under the sunlight streaming through the window, instead had the appearance of tentacles descending from the sky to envelop the church in despair. It looked more like a depiction of humanity’s doom than a religious symbol.

I thought I had stopped judging other races in this world based on appearances ten years ago.

But the image of the Black Tentacle Cult kept giving off nothing but ominous vibes, no matter how hard I tried to ignore it.

People like Mari, Karina, and Serena, who were born and raised in this world, probably just thought, “It’s a bit of a unique religion,” without much thought. But for me, with my knowledge from a past life, it felt like poison, and I couldn’t shake the discomfort every time I saw it.

Ugh! No! Get out of my head!

“Mr. Kurt, are you listening?”

“…I’m listening.”

While I was distracted by the sight of the church, David had already disappeared.

In his place were two women, their figures hidden under loose robes, though their feminine curves were unmistakable.

The only clue to their identity as members of the Black Tentacle Cult was the wiggling tentacle-shaped pendants hanging outside their robes.

“Nice to meet you. We are priests dispatched from the Holy Kingdom. We heard that you will be escorting us during our stay in Astram…?”

“Yes! Don’t worry! We’ll do our best to ensure your safe stay in Astram!”

Mari confidently reassured one of the women, but I felt a sense of déjà vu from her words.

They requested us as escorts?

That’s strange.

Because one of the two women, the taller one, seemed to be quite skilled.

Though she hid her body under the robe and suppressed her aura, so the others didn’t notice…

But her skill was at least on par with Karina, if not slightly better.

Why would someone of that level need escorts?

No, if they were important enough to be dispatched directly from the Holy Kingdom, it still felt excessive to assign a party with two Silver Rank Adventurers as escorts.

Maybe it was because I already had a bad impression of the Black Tentacle Cult, but even their request for us as escorts felt suspicious.

I couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the whole situation.

“Let’s start with introductions. I am Daria, a senior nun from the Holy Kingdom and the one you’ll be escorting.”

“And I am Aila, also a senior nun.”

The two women introduced themselves.

Aila was the taller one with a well-trained physique.

Daria was of average height with a more feminine figure.

Did Daria just glance at me…?

Before I could resolve my doubts, our party also introduced ourselves, and thus our escort mission officially began.

…

…

…

As we began escorting the two, the other three seemed to find nothing unusual about the two nuns from the Holy Kingdom. But I couldn’t shake my unease and kept a close eye on them.

My hunter instincts were telling me.

These two were hiding something from us.

“Do you know where the poor district in Astram is?”

“The poor district? What business do you have there?”

“Yes. The church regularly provides meals for those who can’t support themselves, but some people are too physically disabled to come to the church for food, right?”

Daria argued that it wasn’t enough to just distribute food at the church; they needed to go directly to the poor district to hand out supplies.

However, due to the poor security in the poor district, ordinary nuns and priests couldn’t go there easily. So, they wanted to take this opportunity, with us as escorts, to visit the poor district and engage in volunteer work.

“So, you’re using our escort mission as an opportunity to help the people in the poor district?”

“That’s right. If you feel uncomfortable about being used like this…”

“No! There’s no way we’d feel bad about that! You can use us as much as you want for something like this!”

“Oh my. Thank you for saying that.”

Hearing Daria’s words, the other three were moved by her character and eagerly supported her.

But as I watched, my sense of unease only grew.

There was nothing wrong with their logic.

But why did two people dispatched from the Holy Kingdom need to do this volunteer work instead of the local nuns and priests?

It didn’t make sense.

To assign two high-ranking individuals, who even needed adventurers as escorts, to something as simple as volunteer work in the poor district.

The story didn’t add up.

At that moment, Daria noticed my gaze and met my eyes.

She didn’t look away and smiled sweetly as she spoke.

“Mr. Kurt, you’ll help too, right?”

“Ah. Yes. I’ll do my best to help.”

And so, we headed to the poor district while escorting the two.

No matter how much the Holy Kingdom’s church worked on charity, its reach couldn’t extend to everyone in the city.

It’s said that cities with the Holy Kingdom’s church have better treatment for orphans and the lower class compared to other cities, but that’s only relatively better.

In the end, no matter how hard the church tried, the poor district was a gathering place for criminals beyond salvation.

I could feel the lecherous gazes directed at the nuns, whose feminine figures couldn’t be hidden even by their robes.

But even the criminals in the poor district didn’t dare approach us, with four adventurers escorting the nuns.

“Indeed… I can understand why the church wouldn’t easily send people to do volunteer work in a place with such poor security.”

“It’s like a gathering of bugs around trash.”

“Ugh… That’s disgusting.”

The three openly expressed their disgust at the criminals living in the poor district.

But Daria, the one receiving those gazes, smiled kindly and said to them.

“Please don’t look down on them too much. They might just be unfortunate people who never had the chance to meet good people or receive a proper education. What we truly need to avoid and overcome isn’t the people in the poor district, but the societal structure that makes their existence inevitable.”

“Sister Daria…”

“Indeed…! My thoughts were too narrow.”

“The nuns of the Black Tentacle Cult really think differently.”

The three were moved by the words of the two suspicious women, dressed in robes and wearing wiggling tentacle-shaped pendants.

It was like watching cultists deceiving the masses to bring chaos to the world.

…No.

Daria’s words were indeed humanistic and moving…

But coming from people dressed like Satan worshippers, it created a real-time cognitive dissonance in my mind.