The group of young people stood in front of me, and the one who appeared to be the leader licked his lips before smiling. “Hello! I don’t believe we’ve met. I am Daniel, a militant for the Holy Gods, and I can see that you must’ve been quite blessed by them, since such beauty can only be achieved by their hands.”
Nicole didn’t react to what the man said, as she tried her best to keep her eyes on the phone. As for me—the person that those words were directed to—I just looked at the man with one eyebrow raised. Words like those, I had heard many times already in my life, and what’s more, I already knew the true nature of the Holy Gods, so it wasn’t a compliment for me.
“What business do you have with me?” I asked after a moment, trying to hide the annoyance that he caused me.
He chuckled and nodded a couple of times before turning his eyes to the greatsword that rested on the side of the bench and to the armor and clothes I was wearing. “I can see that you’re quite the capable fighter. It would be a shame not to use those great powers that the Holy Gods have granted you to fight against evil, and bring light to the darkness of this world.”
I frowned. Those words would’ve made me happy before, and I would’ve even praised the man for his faith on the Holy Gods, but all I could hear now were nothing more than the words of a fool, one that was tricked just like me into believing in beings that didn’t care about anything other than themselves, and that would eventually toss him aside like dirt on the road.
“I am not interested in fighting for those Holy Gods,” I plainly replied, the frown almost turning to a glare.
The smile on the man’s face slowly faded. “Is that so… I only hope that your soul hasn’t been tainted by darkness, sister.” His expression then quickly turned into a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Regardless, if you ever find the right path in life—the one that the Holy Gods point to—then you’re always welcome to join us.”
From one of his pockets, he pulled out a small piece of paper, presenting it to me so that I could see the words written on it. “Followers of Leyfall…”
“That’s right. You, more than anyone, should know why it is so important to join us. With the powers of the Holy Gods, the gift that was granted to us will rise to even higher heights and we’ll find peace and bliss in their side!” the other young man standing next to the leader exclaimed, his mannerisms just like the ones I’d see in any devout believer of the Holy Gods from my world as he raised his hands up and looked up to the sky, as if the Holy Gods could see him.
I would’ve stood up and praised their faith once again if I’d heard it a few weeks ago in the battle against Salrak, but now, I just felt the pain of their sword striking me in the chest as their Holy Power burned my body when I thought about them.
“I won’t aid the Holy Gods,” I firmly replied with a glare this time.
The smile on their faces faded yet again, and I could feel their eyes turn cold as they looked down on me. But I wasn’t going to back away from their glares, as I’ve faced far worse than them.
“Are you sure…? It would be a shame if by the will of the Holy Gods the darkness in your soul would have to be forcefully expunged,” the young girl to the man’s left threatened, her expression hardly hiding the disdain she was feeling for me.
As I was opening my mouth to answer their threats, Nicole quickly reached for the piece of paper the leader still held in front and smiled at them. “I-it’s okay! We’ll think about it! H-Hehe”
The leading one’s face lightened up as he turned to smile back at Nicole. “It’s good to see that there’s still light in some of us. Hopefully, you’ll be able to show the path to your friend.” He turned to look at me once more. “I shall take my leave now. May Their light lead you to peace.”
The group gave a soft nod my way before turning and going to the counter of the restaurant, where they ordered food similar to the ones that I and everyone else in this restaurant was eating.
“Phew, that was terrifying,” Nicole sighed as she put away the piece of paper in a pocket before turning to look at me with concern. “Why did you go and make them angry like that?”
I scoffed and looked back at the group of believers that chose to take their food and walk out of the restaurant. “I have no desire to help the Holy Gods.”
“I know that, but you could’ve at least taken the pamphlet and said ‘yes, yes,’ until they left. That’s usually what I do with them.”
“The Holy Gods… they don’t even deserve that.”
“Okay…” Nicole replied with a wavery voice. “I thought that you would find yourself more aligned with them, since you look like the kind of person that would fight for what’s good, just like they claim to do.”
I shook my head. “What good is there in fighting others simply because you’re told to do so? Or in the name of someone else? That would only make you a fool and the consequences would be devastating. I know that all too well.”
“W-well… if you say so…” Nicole trailed off and turned to look at the phone connected to the string. “I think your phone’s already charged a bit, if you want to use it.”
I looked down at the phone, but I didn’t see any significant differences between the moment we placed it here and now. Still, I reached for it and tried turning it on just like how Nicole taught me. Surprisingly, it turned on again, and after a few seconds, the screen was glowing just like before.
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This time, I pressed my finger on the ‘app’ for the bank that I was supposed to already have an account with. It was then that I saw something that required a ‘user’ and a ‘password’, but I didn’t know what that meant, so once again I turned to Nicole for help.
“What do I do here?” I asked while showing her the screen.
She looked at it for a second. “Well you do what it says, just write out your username and password.”
I frowned and looked back at the screen. “I don’t know them.”
“Eh?” Nicole exclaimed. “You forgot them?”
“I guess you could say that…”
“Hmmm, well it’s still early, so I guess we can go to that bank and try to see if they can help you,” she said and quickly stood up from the bench. “Alright! Let's go!”
I looked back at her with surprise. Isn’t she supposed to take classes in this academy? Can she just leave like that? “Don’t you have classes?”
“Hm? No, today I only had to take that one boring class, so I’m completely free now. It’s also the reason why I didn’t have to wear that uniform either,” she replied while turning her body to one side and another, as if showing me her clothes.
I did indeed notice that she wasn’t wearing the usual uniform that I would see on some of the other people that were either sitting in this restaurant or going around the campus. It was unusual for academies that would rather have people wear their colors all the time. “If you don’t need to wear that uniform, then why do people have it at all?”
As I stood up from the bench, Nicole turned to look at other people for a moment. “Well… the uniform does protect you, so if you need to do something related to magic, it’s better to be wearing it.”
“Is that so?”
Then the uniform would be similar to the armor and clothes that Bo’guth gave me. I looked down at them for a moment, and wondered if the uniform would be better than this, since so many people were wearing it, but I wouldn’t know until the start of the next week when I’m supposed to start taking classes here. I reached for the large sword that was resting next to the bench and strapped it on my back.
“Okay, let's go to one of those banks,” I said while looking at Nicole, who in turn was busy looking at her own phone.
“Hold on… I’m looking at the map to see where the closest one might be…” she said and I couldn’t help but look over her shoulder out of curiosity.
The image that was being displayed by her phone took me by surprise, mostly because I didn’t understand it at all. All I saw were lines, names, and different drawn shapes with a few circles on it. Nothing like what a map should look like since I couldn’t see buildings, or roads like how they were supposed to look from higher in the sky. I chose to stay quiet while she worked on the map, paying close attention to what she did, but in the end I couldn’t quite grasp it.
“Okay, there’s one a few minutes away. Let's go!” She said, putting away her phone and enthusiastically making her way out of the restaurant.
I quietly followed along, and this time I made sure to keep in mind exactly where we were going, paying close attention to everything on the way that would let me know what it was that she saw in that ‘map’ that would allow her to know the way.
* * *
We had reached a large building after a few minutes of walking. The bustle and movement that I had seen earlier today had for some reason lessened as not as many people were hurrying around, and the amount of cars was reduced.
The building was full of expensive merchant stores, most of them had a front of large glass doors and windows, and the walkways that connected all them were of glossy floors with powerful light orbs that were stuck on a high ceiling. The people here would also casually walk by each store while looking into the windows, eventually stopping on some of them to enter.
Many of the stores caught my attention, from the detailed imagery that they portrayed to the luxurious clothing and footwear that a lot of them would display by the windows. I wasn’t one to ponder over the looks of the clothing that I wore, since most of the time in my last life I would be wearing armor, but the ones that I saw here made me want to go in there and at least get a closer look at how they were made.
However, I wouldn’t have a chance to look at them as Nicole kept walking past them, her sights set on finding that bank that the ‘map’ pointed her to.
“It should be around here…” she murmured as we turned yet another corner and into a long hallway full of more of those stores. She stopped for a moment to look ahead. “Aha! There it is.”
At the back of the long hallway, a larger store stood out. It looked no different than the ones we had been walking by, the only difference being the lines of people that were standing close to its doors.
We quickly made our way to the bank, and Nicole stopped behind a man waiting on the line. “Excuse me, is this the line to enter the bank?”
“Hm? No, this is just for the ATM,” the man replied before pointing at a glass door. “I think you can go right in over there.”
After saying her thanks to the man, Nicole pulled me along into the bank. The place had a few people already inside, which created a murmur that would resonate inside the whole place. Most of the people looked older than both me and Nicole, with the only ones that stood out being the ones working behind a desk, wearing elegant clothes and well groomed appearances.
As for the place itself, it was no different than the rest of the large building that it resided on, with the shiny floors, clean white walls, and bright light orbs on the ceiling. However, there was something that caught my attention, and it was paintings on the walls that would glow and change shape constantly. I would assume they were some strange magical artifact before, but these resembled larger phone screens than actual paintings.
“Excuse me ma’am, you cannot carry weapons into the bank—even if you’re a high ranking magic user,” a man in dark blue uniform said, walking closer to us with his hand on top of an unknown artifact on his hip. “I’m gonna have to ask you to step outside.”
“Oh, um, I’ll take it outside, you deal with what you have to do,” Nicole quickly reacted as she started reaching for the large sword strapped on my back.
I hadn’t expected to be asked to remove my weapon, since all the time I’d been a Holy Hero, nobody had ever asked me to do that, but I still complied with the man, removing the sword and handing it over to Nicole, who nearly dropped it on the ground when I released the full weight of it on her.
“Gosh, this is heavy,” Nicole grunted, and dragged the sword to stand outside somewhere closer to the door.
“Hello! What can I help you with?” a well dressed woman with a dark blue luxurious suit asked with a large smile on her face.
I looked down at her and relayed the reason for my visit. Hopeful that with this, the coins from that check could be swiftly reclaimed and I could be on my way back.