It’s over. From now on, I better steer clear of that tavern…
After “escorting” Truth back to the estate, Reg finally scaled the wall and snuck back into his single dorm at the academy, arms full of stolen goods.
He knew exactly why Truth had suddenly ordered him to commit robbery— it was a warning.
As long as he sincerely followed her lead, there would be plenty of benefits down the road.
But if he dared to betray her, he’d end up just like those guys in the tavern— nailed to the wall with a bloodied blade!
That’s what Reg thought.
In truth, Truth simply wanted to throw him a bone so he’d be more diligent in the future…
“She’s that strong— effortlessly taking on five demon hunters— and yet she’s pretending to be a priest? What’s the point of that?
Wait, she can use healing spells, so maybe she is a priest… Hm…”
In his dorm, having stashed away the loot, Reg fell deep into thought.
Truth had conjured weapons out of thin air at the tavern— is that really something a priest could do? And that unnatural strength— what was that about?
There were so many mysteries, but Reg didn’t dare ask too many questions.
Sigh. If his mom ever found out he’d become someone’s lackey, she’d probably rush to Deya City in the middle of the night just to personally kill him.
After all, he’d brought shame to the family.
Reg picked up a finely crafted sun emblem from his bedside and examined it carefully. If anyone with knowledge saw this badge, they’d be utterly shocked.
Because the very first Hero of this world bore the symbol of the sun— this sun emblem was the crest of his family!
That’s right, Reg was a descendant of one of the most powerful families in the world— the Hero’s lineage!
But he didn’t really like his family, to be honest.
As the youngest of his generation, Reg was constantly overshadowed by the brilliance of his older brothers.
Whenever someone asked who he was, they’d exclaim in surprise, “Oh, there’s a youngest son in the Hero’s family?”
To avoid disgracing the family, Reg’s mother imposed even harsher training on him, yelling things like, “You’re a descendant of a Hero— you can’t lose to anyone!”
To the members of his family, honor meant more than anything. Eventually, Reg had enough. He was sick of the pressure to always be the best. He just wanted to go on a fun adventure.
So he left a letter behind and ran off to Deya City. He was sixteen at the time.
Things had gone smoothly for him in Deya. Not only did he get into the academy, he even met Suna, his long-term meal ticket.
It looked like his adventure was about to begin— until he ran into Truth in the fog…
“I still don’t get why Truth would present herself as a priest. She’s clearly that strong… Could it be that using her power comes with some kind of price?”
Reg started thinking about stuff like equivalent exchange he’d heard about before.
“Forget it. As long as Truth’s not a demon or some big villain into dark magic or whatever, it’s fine.” Reg tried to comfort himself and put the sun emblem away.
Just then, he noticed a black mark had appeared on the back of his left hand— when had that shown up?
The mark was squirming, slowly spreading, eventually forming a strange yet kind of cool-looking black sigil.
No matter how much he shook his hand, it wouldn’t come off.
“Dark magic?!”
Who cast it? Why couldn’t he remember a thing?
The moment the black mark settled into place, a terrifying image flashed through his mind:
A world flooded with boiling blood. At its center stood Truth, wearing a white priest’s robe soaked in crimson, silently watching him with those chilling, curious eyes…
In the next second, Reg shuddered in his dorm, drenched in cold sweat. What did this mark even do? Surveillance? A self-destruct trigger?
Looks like he really drew the short straw. Truth turned out to be a big villain who actually used forbidden dark magic…
The next day, the sun rose over the horizon.
Truth woke up in her spacious bed. She realized that if she didn’t sleep, she’d start feeling irritable. It seemed the human body really did have its limits.
She wondered if Reg had been scared. Last night, she’d secretly marked him with an ancient party communication sigil— now she could call on him to do work whenever she wanted.
Alright, better head out early. Since she couldn’t find Earl Suho, Truth decided to look for Suna first and ask about that butler, Norton…
Twenty minutes later, the academy gate guards didn’t even glance at Truth in her priest’s robes, letting her stroll right in without a fuss.
It had to be said, the academy really lived up to its name as a place full of energetic young people. It was already bustling early in the morning.
Everyone seemed busy, and Truth noticed something peculiar— they didn’t seem to care at all about the dungeon collapse from a few days ago?
Wasn’t the collapse supposed to have killed a bunch of students and teachers? How come no one held a memorial service or even a basic funeral? These other-worlders sure were cold-hearted!
In truth, adventurers all understood one thing: death on the road of adventure was inevitable.
If you couldn’t accept that, how could you become a great adventurer?
In this adventure-centric world, it was actually Truth’s thought process that didn’t quite fit…
Still confused, Truth continued walking toward the teaching building and soon ran into someone familiar.
Mailun, just finishing his morning training, was resting on a bench by the road. The moment he saw Truth in the distance, he practically exploded:
“It’s you!”
His shout drew the attention of nearby students, who all turned to look at Truth and Mailun— and quickly recognized her:
“Hey, isn’t the priest Suna forcibly kissed in the dungeon?”
“So pitiful… she’s so cute, and Suna just had her way with her.”
“Hm… I guess I kind of get Suna now. If that little priest looked at me like that, I’d kiss her too.”…
“Uh…” Truth was utterly confused. How did she get so famous?
Mailun, red with fury, stormed up to Truth and pointed an accusing finger:
“It was you! You seduced my Suna, you homewrecker!”
Everyone had always said Suna was a tsundere who said one thing but meant another, and Mailun firmly believed it.
Every time she insulted him, he thought it was just her pride getting in the way. Deep down, he was sure she liked him.
Then Suna went and kissed Truth right in front of everyone, and for the first time, Mailun began to doubt whether she was really just playing hard to get…
But there was still one possibility: maybe Suna had been seduced!
Hah?! Me? Seduce? And now I’m the homewrecker? Clutching her staff, Truth gritted her teeth slightly. This guy’s brainpower was beyond saving. Explaining anything would be pointless.
So Truth smiled and whispered just loud enough for Mailun to hear:
“Big mouth this morning. Did you only leave the house after licking your mom’s [bleep]?”
“What did you say?!”
Mailun’s eyes went wide in disbelief. Did he hear that right? Did those words really just come out of a priest’s mouth?
Even a demon’s whispers weren’t one-tenth as vile as that!
So crude. So despicable! To defend his honor, Mailun decided to muster all his lifelong learning and strike back:
“You… you’re a disgrace to priests! The worst of the worst!”
“Oh.”
Truth took 0 mental damage and decided Mailun was absolutely pathetic.
Tftc!