“Once, someone came to us saying they had food poisoning.”
After the lunch distribution ended, my older sister spoke as we had a late meal.
The food we were eating was the leftover rice and side dishes after serving others.
Thanks to what my sister had said earlier, the preparations were enough, and there was more than enough for us to eat.
It felt a bit strange to be sitting in the shade of a corner of the church’s front yard with a tray for a meal. It was like having a picnic, but at the same time, eating off a tray made it feel a bit off.
Still, the food was good. After all, it’s hard for curry to taste bad.
“Food poisoning?”
I looked down at the tray I was eating from in surprise.
It’s extremely difficult for demons to infiltrate among humans on the battlefield.
While demons can use high-level magic to disguise themselves to look like humans, the kingdom wasn’t unaware of such magic.
In the magic tower, there was a department researching demon-specific magic, and they had added a counteracting magic to the boundaries surrounding human territories, regularly modifying and enhancing it.
Most camouflage magic would break when passing through those boundaries.
Moreover, priests were sent to various places, sprinkling holy water and praying, essentially “disinfecting” the area.
Most demons suffer pain when holy power touches them, so very few would purposely enter human lands to endure such suffering.
To step into human lands, a demon would need to endure that pain without flinching, but that transformation magic is high-level and inefficient, which meant it was rarely attempted after the first few tries.
There were plenty of high-ranking priests in the front-line units, so it was almost impossible for demons to sneak in and poison food. But unfortunately, even without that, food or water often got contaminated.
The small creatures living on contaminated land, like insects or rats—no matter how much we tried to purify the land, we couldn’t catch every last one.
Even though priests regularly “disinfected” the areas, in battlefields, even they couldn’t guarantee their survival.
If all the priests in a unit died, the remaining soldiers had no choice but to eat the contaminated food to survive.
Ironically, in the Demon King’s territory, those “contaminated” supplies were often the only available, “least contaminated” food.
And the end result was usually a miserable death. Rescues were rare. Even if a rescue did occur, most of the time the internal organs would have been horribly twisted by the magic.
“Oh, don’t worry. We always check carefully. I don’t want to be blamed for helping and giving bad food. It would be unfair if someone says ‘they gave spoiled food just because it was free.'”
“Ah……”
“And if it was really food poisoning, that person wouldn’t have come alone.”
Indeed.
I nodded. Surely, if the food was contaminated and only one person got sick, it wasn’t because the food was spoiled. It must have been because that person’s body didn’t react well to it.
Or maybe the illness had nothing to do with the food at all.
Or maybe……
“Right.”
My sister smiled bitterly.
“It’s just a lie. They’re saying they’re sick because of us, and now they want money.”
“……”
I didn’t know what to say.
Still, I was generally welcomed wherever I went. After all, I was the one who saved people in situations where they might die.
Even if they resented me, it wasn’t really hatred toward me. It was just their way of trying to find a cause, unable to accept their situation. If they were truly bad people, it’d be easy enough to ignore them.
What mattered most was that in the kingdom, they treated me as an important person.
If a noble disrespected me, I could formally protest to the kingdom, and in fact, most nobles were dealt with by the authorities.
But here, it was different.
This volunteer work wasn’t something the country was doing, and even if it were, they couldn’t help every volunteer individually.
If someone was assaulted or injured…… well, the country couldn’t do much but call the police.
“So, what did they say?”
I asked, and my sister chuckled and looked over at the pastor.
“The pastor suggested they go to the hospital together.”
“Okay.”
Well, that would solve everything.
If the diagnosis was food poisoning and it came from the food we served, the church could compensate for the damage. If not, they could look for another cause.
And if they were faking it……
“So, what happened to that person?”
“They made all sorts of excuses and ran away.”
My sister said, then picked up a piece of kimchi with her chopsticks.
“The pastor was wise……”
“Huh?”
My sister blinked in surprise at my muttering.
“Ah, no. I thought that at first, but when I heard more later, I don’t think that was the case.”
“Really?”
“The pastor was genuinely worried and suggested going to the hospital. Even when the person ran away, he followed them, asking with a worried expression where they were going and why they weren’t going to the hospital.”
“……”
I turned my gaze to the pastor.
We could only see his back, so I couldn’t make out his expression, but from the relaxed smiles of the others sitting around, I imagined the pastor must have had a similar expression.
“So…… in a way, he chased away evil with good intentions. He truly is a religious person.”
My sister laughed.
If you just listened to her, you’d think she was a church goer, but when I asked her about it before, she said she didn’t attend.
She’d once received help and kept in touch with the pastor, now gradually assisting him in return.
“I never really wanted to believe in God.”
She said that with finality, so I figured she didn’t really have any religion.
Still, I was relieved to know that the pastor was a good person……
“So, how did you end up helping with the volunteer work?”
When I asked, my sister paused, looking thoughtful for a moment.
“Well…… I’m not sure.”
Honestly, I already knew how she would answer. I’d asked her that same question before, multiple times.
She was pretty much the same as before. Kind, and still wanting to help those in need.
So, my question came out a bit impulsively.
I wanted to hear her answer from back then.
The words that had stuck with me all this time, the ones I had always carried in my heart, and without realizing it, I asked them.
“……”
But my sister didn’t answer immediately. She just gazed off into the distance, lost in thought.
“……Because of this world?”
I said it in a rush, and immediately realized how impatient I had been.
Of course, I didn’t think she would connect this with my past self. She had said that to many people, not just me. It was something her friends also knew well.
“Huh?”
My sister blinked in surprise at my question, as though pulled back from her thoughts.
“No, it’s just……”
I flustered, not expecting that kind of response, and stumbled over my words.
“Well, I just think it’s good to help each other…… so……”
And so, I finally blurted out what I had been dying to hear.
My sister stared at me for a while, her eyes wide in surprise.
Of course, it didn’t mean her beauty disappeared entirely…… but it was a little scary. What if I had made her feel uncomfortable? Thinking about it now, it wouldn’t have been strange if she thought I was a stalker.
“……No.”
After a long pause, my sister slowly put down her spoon and spoke.
“No. It’s not such a grand reason.”
“…….”
I opened my mouth in surprise at her answer. But it seemed she didn’t notice the change in my expression.
“Really……”
She looked down at her tray, almost embarrassed.
“Really, when I help people like this here…… it makes me feel like I’ve become a slightly better person.”
She spoke softly, as though revealing a secret deep inside her heart.
“I’m just someone insignificant, but helping someone even for a moment…… it makes me feel like I have some worth. So…… that’s why I’m here.”
It was the first time I had ever heard such words from my sister.