Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 159

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Barona, the Royal Capital.

A young man entered an alley leading to the slums. He paused, stopping in his tracks as he looked around.

His name was Rico.

“It’s incredibly… different.”

He thought he had taken the wrong turn. It was much cleaner than the slum he remembered.

Although there was a musty smell from the warehouse due to the lack of sunlight, there was no foul odor that seemed to rot the nose. There were no traces of vomit, and no rats as big as puppies that weren’t afraid of people.

Rico’s oldest memory was the kind face of the old priest who approached him when he collapsed with a fever in the alleys of such a slum.

Rico, who awakened his divine power by chance.

He had been studying in Bartia, the holy city in the West Continent where the main temple of the Pantheon was located, and had just returned to his home country after a long voyage.

It was because he had received news that the old priest who had taken him in was nearing the end of his life.

“I hope it’s not too late…”

Rico started moving again.

The deeper he went into the slums, the more he realized how different it was from his memories.

‘It must be thanks to the new King?’

Basically, from the moment a priest is registered with the Pantheon, they are somewhat free from nationality, but they don’t shed everything from the secular world.

The fact that Rico was from the Lionel Kingdom was like a fingerprint that he had to carry with him until he died.

Rico quite respected Evan, who was leading the development of the Lionel Kingdom. That feeling welled up even more as he walked through the streets of the slums.

The eyes of the slum children he saw from time to time were shining, and the eyes of the adults were filled with hope. He also saw groups of three soldiers patrolling the slums.

Things he couldn’t have imagined before he left for the holy city of Bartia.

“Hey? Rico? You’re Rico, right?”

Someone shouted loudly. Rico naturally stopped and turned his head towards the sound.

One of the soldiers said something to his colleagues and ran towards him.

‘Who is it?’

He couldn’t recognize him right away because of the helmet.

“It’s me, it’s me. Can’t you recognize me?”

The soldier slightly lifted his thick beard. A roughly torn scar was visible.

“Ralph? Is that really Ralph?”

He was a close friend who gave Rico the opportunity to awaken his divine power. He looked completely different from when he was a skinny child.

“I couldn’t have imagined it.”

“Haha, I’ve changed quite a bit.”

Ralph showed off his large biceps and laughed heartily.

“You’re still the same as when you were a kid. Did you just come back from Bartia? The reason is… because of the priest, right?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go together.”

Rico glanced at the soldiers watching them from afar.

“Is it okay?”

“Of course. We were on our way back after being relieved anyway. It’s okay if we stop by the priest for a while and then go back. Wait a minute.”

Ralph went to his colleagues who were waiting blankly. After hearing what he said, they looked at Rico once and nodded before turning around.

“Let’s go quickly. The priest said he really wanted to see you, Rico.”

Rico moved with Ralph to the place where they spent their childhood together.

“It’s changed a lot, right?”

“Yeah. I felt it from the moment I arrived at the port, but this place is really… completely different from when I left.”

“It’s all thanks to His Majesty the King.”

Ralph’s face was filled with respect for Evan.

“When the Red Star Fever was at its peak, I…”

Ralph began to list the achievements Evan had made. Rico listened to him silently with a faint smile.

Listening carefully to someone’s words was a basic quality of a priest, regardless of which god they served.

Most of Evan’s major achievements were things he had heard so much about on the way back to his home country that he was sick of them. But there were also many stories that Rico was hearing for the first time.

Establishing orphanages for children with nowhere to go.

Maintaining the sewage system for waste disposal.

Rounding up criminals in the slums.

And so on.

“I was also on the battlefield when the kingdom recaptured the Northwest. You should have seen His Majesty cut down the Empire’s 7-star knight with a single blow. You used to dream of becoming a knight before you awakened your divine power.”

“You participated in the recapture of the Northwest?”

Rico, who had been listening quietly, asked back in surprise.

“Most of the kingdom’s soldiers participated. I was on guard on the walls of Bellington Fortress, where it was snowing heavily, even at dawn when the Northwest recapture operation began. While I was anxiously waiting for the Khan to attack, the fortress’s airships suddenly took off all at once and flew towards the Northwest! Wow, it still gives me goosebumps even when I think about it.”

Ralph continued to talk non-stop. Rico listened without showing any displeasure and moved his feet diligently.

Before he knew it, he had arrived at a familiar alley. It was where Rico had roamed as a child.

But the building that should have been there was gone.

A two-story building made of proper materials stood in its place, not a dilapidated pile of planks that had been used to build the orphanage.

“Could that building be…?”

Ralph smiled.

“That’s right. As you know, the priest didn’t receive much support because he didn’t serve a specific god. But after His Majesty the King ascended the throne, massive support was given to the orphanages in the slums. Let’s go in.”

Knock, knock.

“Who is it!”

A girl opened the door slightly and peeked out. She was a cute child with freckles in the transition period from girl to lady.

“Ah! Uncle Ralph! You’re here again?”

“Jani! I told you not to call me uncle!”

“Who’s the person next to you…?”

“Say hello. This is Rico. You’ve heard of him, right?”

“Ah! The person the priest always talked about? The best talent our orphanage has produced? The priest said that a welcome guest would come today, and it’s really amazing.”

“Enough, where’s the priest? Is he inside?”

“Yes. Come in.”

Rico was guided by her to the second floor.

“Priest. The welcome guest you mentioned this morning has arrived.”

“…Let him in.”

A weak voice.

-Let’s go together.

Rico’s heart ached as he heard the voice of the old priest who had carried him when he was dying.

The girl slowly opened the door.

The old priest, who was clearly ill, was lying in bed with a kind smile.

“I’m so glad. I thought I would be leaving on a long journey without even saying goodbye to you, Rico.”

Rico slowly approached the bed, sat on a chair, and took the old priest’s hand.

The emaciated and dry hand was terribly cold.

“I heard the news. Like me, you couldn’t find a god to serve?”

The old priest’s gaze turned to Rico’s left chest. There was no symbol of the order that every priest who served a god had.

“That’s how it turned out.”

Rico looked down at his chest and smiled awkwardly.

He, who had been praised as having at least the qualifications of an archbishop, had even gone to Bartia, where the main temple was located, at the suggestion of the Pantheon, but in the end, he could not find a god to serve.

“Didn’t your heart move?”

“The generosity of the Mother Earth, the kindness of the Water Goddess, the courage of the God of War, and the words of the countless gods belonging to the Pantheon only brought peace to my heart.”

The old priest nodded slightly as if he understood.

“Don’t be impatient and try to find it slowly.”

Rico’s eyes widened.

It was because he felt that the old priest had found the god he had been searching for so long.

“Priest, could it be…!”

He couldn’t hear the answer.

The old priest’s eyes were closed. He had received the call of God and had left on a long journey.

***

The children in the orphanage are troublemakers.

“You guys! I told you not to draw on the walls!

“Eek! The freckled witch has appeared! Let’s run away!”

“Let’s run away!”

“She might kill us like the witch from the island country!”

Jani, the leader of discipline, gritted her teeth at the words “witch from the island country.”

A terrifying villain who was exposed for murdering seven members of the royal family, including her grandmother, and was executed. She was associated with such an island witch who was rumored to be alive even after being executed, which made her snap.

“You little punks!”

Jani rolled up her sleeves, grabbed a broom, and chased after the troublemakers.

“Wahahaha!”

“Try and catch me, freckled monster!”

She couldn’t catch the nimble children.

Eventually.

“Ouch!”

She tripped on the doorstep and fell badly.

Blood was flowing from her scraped knee.

“Ugh… Waaaaah!”

Jani cried sadly.

She was the leader of discipline, but she was still a girl. Moreover, it was a sensitive time when her secondary sexual characteristics were starting to develop and her mood was fluctuating three or four times a day.

The current situation, where she was being teased for her freckles and injured while chasing the children, made her accumulated grievances explode.

“S, Sis!”

“S, Sorry!”

“I won’t call you a monster again!”

The children hesitated and apologized to Jani.

“Waaaaaaaaah!”

Jani still didn’t stop.

At that moment, when the children were restless, a large shadow covered her.

“Are you okay?”

It was Rico, who took over the operation of the orphanage after the death of the old priest.

“P, Priest…”

Jani, who had been crying sadly, suddenly stopped crying.

Unlike Ralph, who was burly and large, Rico had an intellectual appearance that suited glasses well. Her face turned red at the thought of showing such an embarrassing appearance in front of him.

“You’re badly hurt. Just stay still for a moment.”

Whoa-!

As soon as a warm light orbited around Jani’s knee, the bleeding stopped.

“Wow! Hooray for the priest!”

“Thank you!”

The children applauded and cheered.

Rico looked at the children with a stern face.

“You guys. I heard everything from upstairs. You called Jani a freckled monster, right?”

“……”

“……”

The children became quiet at once.

A soft lecture followed. The children were much more afraid of Rico’s lecture than Jani’s shouting.

“So, from now on, you have to listen to Jani. Got it?”

“Yes!”

The children shouted in unison.

Rico took a handful of small candies from his pocket and gave them to Jani.

“Here, Jani, give these one by one to the children who erased the graffiti cleanly.”

“Yes. Leave it to me, Priest.”

Rico smiled at Jani, who replied with a determined expression, and then went back up to the second floor.

“The kids who came in recently are different from when we were kids, right?”

Ralph, who had heard everything that was said below, said to Rico.

“I guess so. When we were kids, we couldn’t even imagine saying anything to the older kids.”

Rico, who was sitting in a chair, smiled bitterly as he recalled his past memories. Ralph nodded as if he knew the difficulty.

“Is it hard?”

“Much more than I thought.”

Children don’t grow up with love alone.

They need to eat well and sleep well. And to do that, you need money.

Rico desperately realized why the old priest had been going around looking for sponsors almost every day. What he knew in his head was on a different level from what he was experiencing directly.

Rico shook his head and looked at Ralph.

“So, what brings you here today?”

“I’m here to let you know that I’m participating in the Western Expedition this time.”

“Western Expedition?”

“It seems that His Majesty has decided to subjugate those monsters in the Twin Forest this time. I applied as soon as they were recruiting volunteers.”

“…Won’t it be dangerous?”

“It will be dangerous. But there’s a rumor that His Majesty the King is leading the expedition himself. I can’t just hear about that historical event. Well, besides that, there’s also the fact that the rewards are great when I come back. Ah! I know that priests are also being recruited. I heard that they give considerable benefits? Should I find out for you?”

Thump, thump.

The sound of a heart beating.

Rico flinched.

It felt like a revelation that he had to be with this expedition.