Chapter 531: Side Story. The Little Boy of the Temple (2)

The red flag tied to the creature was the familiar of the mercenary Shurd, who had fought alongside him.

The reason Gale snapped his head around the moment he heard Hildebert’s story wasn’t because he cared whether Shurd was dead or not. Shurd was the kind of bastard who deserved to die. And in fact, he had died. His throat had been pierced by a spear in the canyon.

The problem was that bastard’s familiar.

Spider-hounds were vicious by nature. But that lunatic Shurd had fed his familiar human flesh after every battle. Naturally, it had developed a taste for it. Once, it had tried to devour a sleeping mercenary, causing complete chaos.

And now that horrific thing was still alive.

He had assumed it had died alongside Shurd in the canyon.

Why was it always things like that that clung so stubbornly to life?

“What did it look like, roughly?”

“The red-flag creature?”

“Yeah, that ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) thing.”

“It looked like a wolf or a dog... but it had a lot of legs.”

Right.

A spider-hound.

Gale rolled his eyes. With its master dead, the spider-hound was no longer bound. It was a spark of disaster. Not quite a catastrophe yet—after all, it had been injured in the battle. So for now, it was probably sneaking around at night, preying on sheep.

But once it recovered, it would definitely start hunting people.

It would become a blazing disaster, devouring everything around it.

And what that spider-hound had never had enough of... was children.

There was no way it hadn’t memorized the scent of the boy who brought the sheep out every day.

Gale buried his face in both hands.

As he let out a long sigh, the sound of small footsteps approached.

“Mister, are you hurt?”

For a brief moment, irritation surged.

Gale lifted his head and glared at Hildebert.

The child flinched and stepped back.

But not far enough.

“Mister?”

Hildebert blinked.

“Are you sad?”

“Are you fearless, or just clueless?”

Didn’t you just ask if I was a scary person?

Gale’s cold words made the white-haired child’s eyes widen.

“What does ‘clueless’ mean?”

Gale let out a sigh.

So he’s never been hit before.

Lucky bastard.

He found himself envying the child’s innocence. At the same time, he regretted having learned what he now knew.

If he hadn’t realized that the creature eating the sheep was Shurd’s familiar, he wouldn’t have cared whether this white-haired brat herded sheep or got eaten alongside them. He would have just taken the food and water the kid brought, and the moment he could walk again, he would have slipped away quietly.

But the moment he learned this annoying truth, he couldn’t just leave the child from the temple alone.

It wasn’t sympathy. It wasn’t gratitude.

People died easily. Children died even more easily.

Wasn’t this kid originally meant to die cold on the roadside? The fact that he had been picked up by a proper temple, grown without starving or being beaten—that alone was something.

Gale had always disliked children.

Unless he was paid, he didn’t help people. Just managing his own broken body was already more than enough.

But everything changed when the other party was a priest.

Gale couldn’t call himself a believer, but he didn’t deny the World Tree either. He couldn’t. Not after fighting even once against one of its children—yellow-eyed like a beast, reviving again and again no matter how many times it was pierced down.

A mercenary granted the World Tree’s forgiveness—marked by those yellow eyes—was worth three or four times more than an ordinary one.

Sometimes even five or six times more, depending on the situation.

The curse of the sacred tree was real. And the blessing of the World Tree was no legend.

That was why most mercenaries didn’t touch priests lightly.

Especially not those who clearly possessed divine power.

If this really was a temple established by the Empire...

“Kid.”

“Yes?”

“Is there a sacred tree here too?”

The child had mentioned a priest visiting before, but Gale asked to confirm.

The boy’s face lit up.

“It’s in the center of the temple!”

Hildebert beamed and started talking eagerly.

“The sacred tree is really beautiful. I’ll show you later, mister. The priest said this temple was built around the place where the sacred tree grew. Apparently, that’s how temples are usually built. And the sacred tree grows from a branch of the World Tree, so it’s like a child of the World Tree. Sometimes when I have nightmares, I go see it, and on cold nights it glows white—”

“Enough. Shut up.”

Gale cut him off bluntly.

Hildebert’s eyes widened again.

This time, his mouth fell open too. He looked completely unable to understand the reaction. It seemed like he was hurt by the cold response.

But he didn’t run away.

I wish he would.

Gale sighed and stared up at the ceiling.

“So what that priest said is true.”

“Priest Mar?”

The kid recovered fast.

“Priest Mar never lies!”

So it really is an official imperial temple.

Damn it.

Now he had no choice but to save this kid from Shurd’s man-eating spider-hound. If he let the child die, he might end up cursed or something.

Gale, like most mercenaries, was somewhat superstitious.

“You should be glad you’re from a temple.”

“Why?”

“If you weren’t, I would’ve already hit you at least once.”

He meant it.

“At your age, you need to get hit a little while growing up.”

That’s how you build aggression. That’s how you learn to be wary of people.

“Just looking at you, you’ve clearly never been hit. You grew up soft, didn’t you?”

“You’re not supposed to hit people.”

“You are.”

“They said you’re not... and why would you hit me?”

“Because you’re noisy.”

“I’m noisy?”

“And clueless.”

“What does ‘clueless’ mean?”

“Hey, if you don’t want to get hit, stop asking questions and get lost.”

“But I’m the one who brought you here.”

Hildebert suddenly said something surprising, his voice subdued.

“I saved you, so why do you want to hit me?”

For the first time, Gale was caught off guard.

He couldn’t quite explain why, but that question startled him deeply. He turned his head sharply, then stared blankly at the child in front of him, unable to speak.

The boy looked a little downcast, but still not afraid.

Even after hearing he might get hit, he didn’t shrink back in fear. He looked straight at Gale.

As if he truly didn’t understand.

As if, no matter what Gale said, he would never be afraid and run away.

***

He couldn’t go hunt the spider-hound right away.

Gale wasn’t even able to walk properly yet. To deal with that thing, he needed legs strong enough to support a strike that could sever limbs.

The man-eating spider-hound was injured too, so there was still time.

So Gale decided to focus on recovery until his leg healed.

Before learning about Shurd’s spider-hound, his injury had been nothing but irritating. But now that he had something to do once it healed, he found himself oddly satisfied with his current state.

Had there ever been a time in his life this peaceful?

He even found himself thinking he might just settle down here as a freeloader.

While he lounged idly in the barn, sheep died steadily every day. And Hildebert’s smile gradually faded.

But whether one sheep died or a thousand, that wasn’t Gale’s problem.

As long as the temple brat stayed alive, no curse would come back to him.

He also liked that any possible pursuit had completely stopped within the temple grounds.

And the decent food the boy brought him wasn’t bad either.

It was also good that Hildebert followed his instructions and didn’t chase after the creature.

If the kid had ignored his warning and gone after the red-flag spider-hound, Gale would have let him die—curse or no curse.

But Hildebert obediently followed his words: as soon as the forest fell quiet, he returned straight to the temple, buried among the sheep.

Though each time, his eyes were bloodshot from seeing sheep get dragged off and killed at the rear.

“You grilled these mushrooms yourself?”

“Yes.”

Even so, Hildebert kept bringing mushrooms.

“When I get hungry while herding, I grill them.”

“Where do you get fire?”

“I ask a fire creature I befriended. It lends me fire.”

What kind of nonsense is that?

Gale found it absurd, but didn’t bother asking further.

He had no intention of getting too close.

“When do you even slaughter sheep?”

“Only on the days the head priest decides. Does your leg still hurt, mister? There are lots of secret spots in the mountains I want to show you.”

“If you bring me some lamb, it might heal faster.”

The boy puffed his cheeks.

Ignoring Hildebert’s reddened eyes and sullen expression, Gale asked for water.

“Oh! We’re out, I have to go fetch some!”

“Then go fetch it.”

“Yes!”

That part was strange too.

This kid wasn’t following orders out of fear.

Not for money either.

He simply did it because Gale asked.

Even if he saved him from the spider-hound, this kid wouldn’t last long outside the temple.

Gale thought that as he drank the water the boy had fetched all the way from the river outside.

He’s meant to be a priest...

Either way, Gale spent comfortable days thanks to this foolishly naive child. The temple priests hadn’t come looking for him since that day, making it even easier to rest.

He did wonder what they were thinking, sending a child who hadn’t even hit puberty alone to face a mercenary. But since it was an imperial temple, it wouldn’t be strange if they had some kind of surveillance magic mixed in.

Sweet times always passed too quickly.

One day, he realized his leg had completely healed.

Good thing it wasn’t too late.

Just yesterday, ten sheep had died in a single day.

That meant the creature had recovered too.

He had to go finish it before it was too late.

And then he would leave...

“Mister.”

So this is the last time I’ll taste this damn good mushroom dish.

Thinking that, he savored the grilled mushrooms when a familiar voice reached him.

In front of him stood Hildebert, ready to go out with the sheep.

“Mister, what’s your name?”

Gale rolled his eyes and looked at him.

The boy looked the same as always. Messy white hair sticking out in all directions. The necklace with a fishing bone tied at the end, where he would later string mushrooms. The mountain goat horn he used as a cup. The wooden staff taller than himself.

“If you know, you’ll get hurt.”

Gale said it while examining the staff.

“I told you to stop asking questions.”

“Why would I get hurt?”

“...Ha.”