105. Childhood Friend – Fascination

“Hey, Reb. You came down right away this time. Are you going to the big town too?”

At the entrance of Demos Village, a young man waved happily at Reb.

That young man named “Dino,” who loved humming songs, whistled at the jerky Reb carried.

“Yeah. You should come too!”

“Sure, I will! But you should’ve seen it. Last night, Priest Leslie… haha, it was quite a scene.”

“What happened? Was there some kind of incident?”

“Well, it’s about…”

Reb pricked up his ears, surprised to hear something he didn’t know, but it turned out to be nothing significant.

The story was that Priest Leslie had drunk excessively and caused quite a ruckus.

He usually didn’t drink except during village festivals, and it seemed to have happened after Lena refused to take the money he had saved up. Lena took the {initial funds} and left.

Reb calmed his astonishment and chatted with Dino before parting ways. After telling him to meet again the next morning, he walked home, deep in thought.

There was a more serious change than the commotion caused by Priest Leslie.

Dino had just called me “Reb.”

‘Looks like the name has changed.’

After learning of his real name, even his father addressed him as Reb, as if that had been his name from the start.

Unless the conversation with Barbatos had been broadcast live, there was only one conclusion to draw.

That this Leo’s original name was Reb. The protagonists of this game called “Raising Lena” must have each had their own names. They lost their names when they became playable characters due to the game.

‘But what’s the point of learning my real name?’

Even after discovering his true name, no messages had popped up. Although there was a rather intense effect, it felt like a hidden element in the game that was inconsequential whether known or not.

Of course, Reb was glad.

Having lost his past memories and mixed with Minseo, he had constantly doubted his identity, but knowing his true name made him feel at peace.

And it felt like he had broken free from some kind of constraint. Though hard to express, it reminded him of something Kasia had said.

– “You can call me ‘sister’ now, Prince. It feels liberating. Somehow… I feel free.”

Reb felt similarly.

It was a sense of liberation as if the shackles binding his limbs had been broken. He hadn’t even realized such discomfort existed.

He hummed a tune as he entered his home. Tossing the jerky casually aside, he flopped onto his bed.

‘What should I do now…?’

Now that Oriax’s footsteps had faded, he thought about heading to the Conrad Kingdom to find the beggar siblings, but he still had some time.

It was autumn now, and the siblings would face calamity next winter.

Even considering the time needed to travel back and forth, he had half a year remaining.

‘Should I stop by Nevis first? I need to look into that too… And to be honest, the beggar siblings’ scenario is already tangled up.’

Gilbert Forte, the aftermath of killing that guy was greater than he imagined.

To clear the beggar siblings’ scenario, he would likely need Cardinal Berg’s help, but the Baron Gustave Monarch, who seemed closely related to him, was in Oberg.

A prince who killed a noble.

Not to mention, he was already worried that Count Gustave Peter wouldn’t be able to help Leo de Yeriel, especially after stirring up such a big incident.

So, what Reb could do was to persuade the siblings to avoid tragedy or…

[ Achievement: Apostle of Barbatos – You may borrow the power of Barbatos as much as the offerings you provide. You cannot serve other deities. ]

Gathering Barbatos’s power to deal with Prince Eric.

Lying on his arm, Reb recalled information from {History of the Deities}. When the “Apostle of Barbatos” achievement was unlocked, it seemed to have revealed additional information.

This world was one where divine power struggles were rampant.

The vast majority of humans were oblivious as the deities competed to gain strength against the supreme deity behind the scenes.

Strictly speaking, it was hard to call it a struggle.

This world belonged to the supreme deity. Deities were like fireflies before the sun, making the term “struggle” an overestimation of their existence. They were merely beings leeching off the power of the supreme deity.

However, the absolutely singular supreme deity showed indifference toward the world of its creations.

It was quite recent that he bestowed his divine power upon humans, and the first Holy Woman was born in the early Acaian Empire, spreading the supreme deity’s divine power.

With her rise, the persecution era for deities began. The Acaian Empire, in alignment with the Cross Church formed around the Holy Woman, swept away all the other races across the continent.

With the extermination of those races and the Empire’s declaration of “the Age of Humans,” countless deities vanished from sight.

Yet they hadn’t completely vanished.

Back then, barbarians often followed the gods of other races, and the early Cross Church, prioritizing humans, treated them generously.

The Cross Church began the massacre of non-converting barbarians only very recently, less than thirty years ago, leading to many deities still remaining.

Moreover, humans themselves had given birth to deities, and Barbatos was one among them. He was a young god born from the wishes of hunters.

Reb leaned to the side, lost in thought.

‘But how do I gather Barbatos’s power?’

Deities accepted anything deemed valuable.

Fortunately, what they valued was not drastically different from what humans considered valuable.

Something precious. Anything infused with the emotions of living beings was acceptable.

For example, the head and heart of the game that his father offered contained his toil and gratitude. And the prey must have mourned the loss of its heart and head immensely…

Those were delectable for the deities.

There were slight personal preferences, of course.

Oriax, being a very sensitive and violent deity, preferred the corpses of defeated enemies, while Barbatos… being the god of hunting, would likely prefer the bodies of hunted game.

‘Hunting, huh… Then I should probably catch a monster to make it worth my while? Regardless of how efficiently the offerings affect the deities, if I keep hunting trivial things, when am I going to gain power?’

Reb clicked his tongue.

Unfortunately, there were hardly any monsters in the southern continent. It was troublesome, but that wasn’t all.

‘How does one use Barbatos’s power?’

Prince Eric summoned Oriax, conjured monsters, and pushed back knights using power, yet Reb still knew nothing despite becoming an apostle.

‘No. This should have been taught. The moment I became an apostle, there should have been a skill menu or some incoming information so I’d know what to do.’

This game was seriously maddening about even the tiniest details.

He didn’t expect it anymore, but wasn’t it a bit much? So now what?

‘Should I ask Barbatos? Or am I still unable to obtain his power, which is why I don’t know?’

As he pondered this unsolvable dilemma, Reb muttered, “Ah, I don’t know,” and decided to get some sleep.

He thought he would hold another sacrificial rite later as he buried himself under the blanket, exhausted from the day spent in the lodge.

*

The next morning, Reb headed toward the big town with the village youths. They all sweat profusely as they pushed the cart with all their might. Among them, Hans was absent.

“Where’s Hans?”

“Who knows? Haven’t seen him lately.”

“He’s probably slacking off somewhere. It’s not like it’s been just a day or two.”

Exchanging trivial gossip and jokes, the youths arrived at Torito. As the sun began to set, they set up a tent around the cart and fell asleep.

The next day, they went to a nearby stream to wash up and set off to the market to sell the items they had loaded onto the cart.

As Reb entered the market with his jerky…

“Please, this time I really want to go too.”

“No way. We can’t take a rookie like you who has no experience.”

“But I’ve been trying so hard…”

“No. I’ll send you next time. Next time.”

Reb saw Hans squabbling with a merchant. He seemed to plead for something but suddenly burst out in frustration.

“That ignorant jerk…”

The merchant clicked his tongue, and Hans turned sharply, stomping his feet in anger.

Reb tried to ignore and pass by, but he accidentally locked eyes with the grumpy Hans approaching.

Hans came over and sneered.

“Hmph! Serves you right. You pretended to be so close with Lena…”

“…Get out of the way. What’s your problem?”

“I’m just telling you the truth. Lena never cared about someone like you or me. You saw it, right? She waved goodbye happily.”

Reb frowned and turned to walk away, but Hans, being the loose cannon he is, kept rambling.

“She won’t come back to this hick town again. Lutetia is the capital of the Holy Kingdom, huh? Priest? Yeah right. Just said that to get out of this backwater. What’s a woman doing being a priest?”

Ah— so annoying.

Reb felt the blood pressure rising on his forehead.

He thought, ‘Should I just smack this punk?’ but took a deep breath and relaxed his fists instead.

He had once slapped this jerk before. But when a scenario starts anew, everything resets to normal, making that act meaningless.

‘Sigh. What good would it do to hit him? He’ll be leaving soon anyway… Just ignore him. Ignoring is the answer.’

He had already hit and even killed this guy once before. He decided that such past sins would remain buried in the past, and aside from this time when he was being such a nuisance, he hadn’t particularly done anything wrong.

Patience. Just ignore him.

And wasn’t everything he said just wrong?

Reb shook off the thought and calmed himself down. He walked past Hans with determination.

But what he spat out from behind twisted his mood again.

“And what does Lena think she’ll study there? I heard there are lots of handsome young men in the city, so she’ll probably just get carried away and start fooling around. Ugh! Damn it.”

Reb flinched, his pace slowing, but he kept walking. He searched for a merchant to sell his jerky while the rising frustration showed no signs of fading.

Lena not being interested in him, leaving happily… He didn’t care about those things. It was just that he had no idea what he was talking about.

However, the idea of her getting swept away by some handsome guy was irksome.

It reminded him of Lena, who was victimized by Gilbert Forte’s suave manners.

Of course, that guy was already dead, so there was nothing to worry about… but it was irritating. He didn’t mind being insulted, but he couldn’t stand it when Lena was insulted.

Reb stifled the rising killing intent as he approached a merchant and haggled over the jerky.

But that young merchant also ruffled Reb’s feathers.

“You’ve got it all wrong. I don’t know who advised you, but this is terrible.”

The young man, who looked like a total rookie, scanned Reb from head to toe and said.

“At this rate, it’ll spoil quickly. Hmm, let’s see. You still look fine for now… how about this? It’ll be hard to sell if it’s past the expiration date, so this is a fair price.”

Reb held the coins offered. Even though he had brought quite a bit of jerky, the price the merchant quoted was pathetic.

This wasn’t the first time.

He had experienced this kind of treatment before, so without further ado, he slammed the coins down on the table and tried to leave with his jerky…

– Look into his eyes.

He glared at the merchant.

Reb’s eyes glowed a deep red, and the merchant’s attitude shifted instantly.

“Oh dear, can’t I even joke around? I thought you were a newbie selling for the first time, so I just wanted to tease you a bit. My apologies.”

With a friendly smile, he patted Reb’s shoulder and pulled out silver coins. He handed over a bit more than the market price, just enough to avoid a loss as he asked, “What’s your name? Let’s do some business. I feel like I’m going to be trading with you for a long time.”

Reb finished the conversation suitably and left the market. He returned to the cart and collapsed, utterly exhausted.

[ Enchanted Eyes ]

The abilities of Barbatos have been unlocked.