Abandoned Priest at the Hero’s Party

The Fatal Price

Rocca tries to follow me wherever I go. When I offered to meet Mr. Rowena alone, he never tried to let me go.

“He could attack you.”

He squeezed his head and expressed the reason why he should be by my side. Of course, that cannot be said to be impossible. But it’s nothing to worry about.

“Rocca, this is where I go to apologize. It has nothing to do with you, and you have nothing to do with force.”

…Is that right?

However, what I am trying to convey to Rowena this time is not a simple apology. An angel has presented me with new possibilities. The possibility of returning those already tainted.

“It’s my job. So let me handle it.”

Of course, you can’t completely do everything as if nothing had happened.

Even if the tainted can be purified and restored, the slaughter and destruction they have committed cannot. Even those who have already been subjugated and killed have no hope of reviving.

So, even if I succeed in washing away the tainted elves, it’s just picking up some of the water I’ve already spilled. It doesn’t change the fact that you have to apologize in the end.

“I will follow you.”

“Rocca.”

I put my hand on Rocca’s shoulder, who was in pain, and just stared at him. To be honest, if this kid wants to stick to me, I have no choice. It’s not like I can defeat Loka by force.

However, authority comes from actions, not force. Roca still followed my authority.

Instead, he persuaded me with his dazzling eyes without giving up on his regrets yet. You can’t even open your eyes like that. What did you learn from watching Kisea?

That Mr. Kisea left us briefly to go through the process for now being awarded the title. So, if it’s been a while, there’s only the two of you left, me and Roka.

The child seemed to really hate to throw away an opportunity like this, and his expression was full of trembling. Still, he finally understood me.

“Then I will come back later. Instead, you can do weird things with the elf.”

that’s weird

Well. I’d be happy if I went and didn’t get hit in the cheek.

*****

I thought Mr. Rowena was living inside the Imperial Palace, but it wasn’t. Come to think of it, he is also a true diplomat. Living in the Imperial Palace is a strange picture.

The guide given by His Majesty took me outside the Imperial Palace to the Gonggwan Street. As there was a chaos in the system, diplomats from each country remained silent and did not come out of the embassy.

It was just the two of us on the quiet street, as if dead mice. One of the dogs, the guide who guided me to the wooden mansion, asked me to finish the guide.

“Your Majesty has already contacted the ambassador, but please be careful. In my experience, the elves were not a group they would associate with even in peacetime. The elves from Elvenheim are the most difficult people for our Foreign Office staff to work with.”

“is that so? I don’t think Ambassador Rowena was the type of person who received that kind of evaluation.”

“That is why he is an ambassador. most sane After all, you are trying to do something. Except for him, they are all these people who are trying to legally enjoy pleasure by using immunity. Even as usual.”

He murmured, lowering his voice, as if he was telling some great secret.

“At times like now, if it’s severe, it won’t be any less.”

“I can’t believe my ears…”

“Believe it. The other day, a friend of the Imperial Enforcement Bureau caught a staggering amount of drug smuggling. If you follow the tail to find the body, this time you will make a big achievement and you will get promoted quickly, he said confidently. So do you know where all those drugs came from?”

gulp. I swallowed saliva. Of course, I don’t know where the drug is produced.

But somehow, it seemed. He waited for me to swallow my saliva and then added.

“It is as expected. Right here. I got caught properly by the immunity, and eventually caught a few tails. It’s a very personal opinion, but I don’t know why they are diplomats.”

The man grumbled, and now I could neither cry nor laugh.

“The rumors are already circulating. So-called diplomats are just a bunch of drug dealers who take and sell clean drugs from Elvenheim to make money. With the money we earn from selling drugs to the people, we bring the products of the Empire and supply them to Elvenheim.”

“haha…”

“If you say something like this, you will be punished wherever you go…”

He looked around and muttered in a very low voice. It seemed to me that anyone needed someone to listen to this.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing that the reaper wiped out Elvenheim. In my opinion, it is only harmful to the Empire. It is the largest and overwhelming drug producing region of any place we know of.”

Rowena-san looked at such a place and asked me to save it.

No matter how you look at it, there was no reason for this person I was seeing for the first time today to lie to me. it’s just a complaint Who would lie to the complaints they hold on to others?

“Please, be careful. There are people who say that elves value life, but that is just an illusion based on their appearance. The Empire’s drug industry is now dominated by the Elven Cartel.”

However, because you said so badly, I became suspicious. If your Majesty is no fool, and if the elves are doing so much harm, then why are you still retaining diplomatic privileges?

“Actually, that’s something we’re also questioning. In fact, we always report to our superiors. Diplomats in Elvenheim do not have diplomatic qualifications. But when the above tells me not to argue further, what should I do? I can only believe that the superiors have their own reasons.”

Gains over losses that make the people drug addicts. It makes sense to think that Elvenheim was giving the Empire something like that.

I don’t know what it is, but there must be a reason for the current relationship.

“Please don’t be buried in the dark, and come back alive.”

As if he didn’t want to be here anymore, he greeted me and left. I thought that it might have been a wrong decision to have left Loca slightly, very slightly.

Immediately, he shook his head and knocked on the door. are you there I came to visit Ambassador Rowena.

But no matter how much I knock on the door, there is no answer. It’s not that I don’t want to meet you and avoid me. There’s no such thing as being popular at all. Even if I listened, it was quiet without a single noise.

click.

I turned the doorknob just in case, and the door opened. It is a door with double or triple locks, including a lock. As if it was made to deter crackdowns as much as possible.

However, with all the security unlocked, it was opened defenselessly. As if there was nothing to protect anymore.

‘Elf.’

Not Rowena-san, but an elf I met for the first time, lying dead in the hallway that I saw as soon as I opened the door.

No, I’ll have to change the word. He didn’t sleep like he was dead, he died like he was asleep.

When I put my trembling hand on my cheek, it’s as cold as ice. No blood lines, no blood stains, no trauma.

Suicide. It is the most convenient form of suicide among dogs. He had a bunch of pills in his hand that he didn’t know what it was.

‘drug.’

You don’t even need to taste it. It was as if he drank more than a lethal dose of the drug.

I hurriedly went deeper. Perhaps it was to stop the crackdown, and every time I went round and round a corridor that was almost like a labyrinth, a pile of corpses appeared. My facial expression also darkened.

“This is… what…”

All these people, or all the elves, committed suicide? However, it is a fact that is difficult to accept.

However, it was difficult to see who made drugs into their diet to such an extent. There is no motive for that, and even if there is, it takes a number of points.

The question arose as to whether these many elves had unsuspectingly swallowed the drug-laden meal. Besides, all the elves were laughing.

died laughing He died with a smile. But why does that smile look like it was made up by force? As if trying to avoid something scary.

“Ambassador Rowena.”

The question was only known after seeing Rowena again. He too died peacefully, as if asleep on his desk with a forced smile.

I should have seen you sooner. I wondered what was going to happen in this brief moment, so I regretted leaving the Imperial Palace after seeing various things.

If it was, maybe it could have prevented this person from making such a choice.

There was a notebook lying on the desk. When I open it, I see a handwriting that looks like scribbled. I now understand why they chose to die.

[We feel that time is eating us.]

[No matter how far away, I can’t know. The world tree has collapsed. It no longer exists.]

An elf who escaped the flow of time with the power of the World Tree and enjoyed a time close to eternal life.

Because they no longer enjoy the privileges they once had.

[Everyone is afraid. Lost control. Actually me too scared. scared.]

[I feel that youth is not eternal. we will surely die I will grow old until I die. like those humans How can humans accept all of this so calmly?]

[Medicine, I need to take medicine. Then I might feel a little better.]

Perhaps the more I read this journal, which looked like a diary, I just sighed. This is a story I’ve heard too, but among drugs, some narcotics are said to have a strong analgesic effect.

How intense the effect is, it relieves pain that we normally don’t feel as pain.

Pain in the hand when clapping. Pain in the feet when walking around. Pain caused by moving muscles and bones. Unless the body is really sick, usually no one can feel the pain.

It is said that when the drug is administered, it feels as if all the pain has disappeared. All the pain we didn’t even know it was suffering is gone, and we can’t get any more comfortable than this.

However, the effect is not permanent. When the medicinal effect disappears, what we did not know was pain now becomes pain.

In exchange for a brief taste of paradise, I now feel the pain of my feet being crushed with every step I take. After all, you can’t survive without swallowing more pills.

The elves were intoxicated with the world tree, and thought that its effects would last forever. Now the protection was gone, and the pain they didn’t know came.

Human beings suffer from birth to death, suffering that they do not even know it is suffering.

Pain that grows old with time. The pain of having to face the fact that one day you will die. The pain of letting go of a loved one due to the limit of one’s lifespan. The pain that sickness afflicts him.

It’s just natural suffering that we have to face and live with.

The elves were exposed to it naked. I couldn’t stand it and found the medicine. Desperately swallowed the pills and fled from fear. But the effect is not permanent.

When he showed signs of breaking, he swallowed more pills. If it’s original, there’s no problem. Because the blessing of the World Tree always keeps the elves healthy.

But now there is no world tree. Whether it was a reaper or a demon lord, one of them destroyed it. The law that protected the elves disappeared, and the concept of lethal dose was born.

If you overdose on drugs like you used to, you’re bound to die just like humans do.

“ha.”

It was truly breathtaking.

In the end, I couldn’t keep my promise. Really in many ways.