Chapter 20

Turning my head toward the sound of footsteps, I saw a boy in priest robes running hurriedly.

“Looks like that kid is the owner of the tomatoes.”

“I guess so.”

Judging by him clutching a bag with a broken strap, it seemed the strap had suddenly snapped and caused this mess.

“Thank goodness you picked up the tomatoes, Duke… Huh?”

As I was answering, I lost my words upon seeing the face of the boy getting closer.

Pale skin that was almost white, and facial features arranged neatly.

Hair that looked like it was woven from gold thread, and golden eyes that would shine brilliantly in the sunlight.

The boy was a remarkably handsome youth.

But I wasn’t surprised merely because the boy was handsome.

‘That face is definitely…’

The boy’s face was overly familiar.

Definitely familiar.

Right, how could I forget.

That child is-.

“G-Go. Run, away.”

My lucky star.

My salvation.

The man who opened the prison door I was locked in.

The owner of the tomatoes was the person who helped me before my regression.

While I was staring blankly at the boy, he, having run up to us, bowed his head deeply.

“I apologize. The tomatoes spilled because my bag broke.”

Even then, I couldn’t open my closed mouth.

* * *

Contie, with his eyes narrowed, scanned the two children in the carriage alternately.

‘What on earth is this bizarre atmosphere.’

He hadn’t expected something like this.

“Hey there, little priest. I’ll give you a ride to the temple.”

“It’s fine.”

“Fine? You seem to have too much luggage to walk.”

“……”

“Just get in when someone offers you a ride. Making yourself suffer out of stubbornness is something only fools do.”

“Then, I will take you up on your offer. Thank you.”

Yeah, even when he let the young priest into his carriage, he hadn’t expected this kind of atmosphere.

To think the little Marshmallow would be this interested in the young priest.

“Excuse me, how owd awe you?”

“Excuse me, what’s youw name?”

“Excuse me, awe you… um, I mean, by any chance, does fiwe come out of youw hands?”

For people meeting for the first time, she had so many questions, the tiny child’s mouth wouldn’t stop.

Her white cheeks twitched constantly, and her lavender eyes kept sparkling without losing their light.

In contrast.

“I am seven years old.”

“I am Calix.”

“Fire does not come out.”

The boy answered diligently, but his eyes were empty.

To the point where one wondered if a child’s expression could be that emotionless.

Marshmallow too.

And that young priest too.

‘Kids these days must have a hard life.’

Contie, sitting crookedly, rested his chin on the window.

Far in the distance, the temple, which was likely the young priest’s destination, could be seen.

* * *

“What’s this. What brings you here so early today?”

It was when Calix entered the temple.

A priest who was loitering at the entrance with nothing to do approached him and spoke.

“You’re always slow as a snail, arriving only around sunset.”

“……”

At Calix’s lack of response, the priest furrowed his brow.

“Anyway, how insolent. This is why kids born with mana are bad luck. Is it because you inherited the blood of those vulgar mages? Tsk.”

“……”

“Now hand that over!”

Thwack.

The priest roughly snatched the bag from Calix’s arms.

“If even one thing is missing, I won’t let you off!”

Having issued a stern threat, the priest turned his back with a huff.

Calix, standing rooted to the spot, stared at the receding back of the priest.

More precisely, at the bag he was carrying away.

The bag was perfectly fine, just like usual, as if the strap had never broken.

“I’ll fix youw bag! Mewony can fix it fow you!”

The owner of the carriage he had gotten a ride in.

It was thanks to the daughter of Duke Panteyebe.

The small, young Lady had used her ability to fix the broken bag.

‘It’s strange.’

He didn’t know much about nobles, but he knew that the Panteyebe duchy used the ‘Authority of Darkness’.

But why did the Panteyebe Young Lady have the ‘ability to repair objects’?

Could it be.

‘…Is that child a mutant like me?’

No.

Even if that child were a mutant, she wouldn’t be like him.

‘Because I am… a dirty mutant.’

Calix was originally an orphan wandering the streets.

For some reason, he didn’t have memories of his childhood.

The only thing he remembered was that his name was ‘Calix’.

From the first moment he could remember, he had been wandering the streets.

Then one day.

“You, you were born with divinity. Come with me.”

A priest took Calix away.

He had recognized the faint divinity within Calix.

But not long after becoming an apprentice priest, a shocking truth was revealed.

“Wait. This kid… I think he has mana?”

“What? He has mana?”

“How can someone have both divinity and mana?”

“This is a total mutant?!”

Not only divinity but also mana was discovered in Calix.

Furthermore, unlike the faint divinity, the mana only grew larger by the day.

This was no different from a curse to Calix.

In the Empire, ‘abilities’ and ‘divinity’ are regarded as special and great powers, whereas ‘mana’ is-.

“To think he has such a dirty power. No wonder I felt bad luck.”

Treated as ominous and dirty.

‘The power of petty, despicable traitors.’

Though it’s treated like this now, very long ago there was a time when mana and mages were revered.

Back when the dragon who founded the Empire was alive.

Because originally, mana was a power the dragon distributed to humans.

The humans who received the dragon’s power became mages, and they were treated specially and drew people’s envy.

But the mages’ greed ruined everything.

From a certain moment, mages who coveted greater power coveted the dragon’s power.

In the process, the saintess who was the dragon’s lover died, and the greatly enraged dragon retracted the mana he had distributed to humans.

Many mages lost their mana and became ordinary people.

There were mages who retained their mana, but compared to before, it was only a faint power.

After that, the dragon, having lost his beloved lover, chose eternal rest.

Leaving ‘abilities’ to the three families who devoted themselves to him, and the glory of continuing the ‘dragon’s bloodline’ by feeding his blood to the children of the emperor who was his close friend.

So when you think about it, ‘abilities’ and the ‘dragon’s bloodline’ were also blessings based on mana.

But the Empire thoroughly separated the mages’ ‘mana’ and the blessings left by the dragon.

Because they couldn’t lump together the great dragon’s blessing and the disgusting traitors’ power.

Vile traitors who repaid kindness with enmity.

In the Empire, mana, excluding the blessings, became a piece of evidence proving one was a descendant of traitors.

‘In a way, that’s true.’

Because I, too, am no different from a traitor in the temple’s eyes.

“I took you in because of your divinity, but to think you harbored such a dirty power. And now I can’t even kick you out.”

Not only was it unfitting for the ‘benevolent temple’ to kick someone out, but the problem was that Calix possessed ‘divinity’ along with ‘mana’.

Kicking out an apprentice priest with noble divinity?

That was something that had never happened in history.

From that day, Calix’s quarters were moved to the temple’s warehouse.

“I don’t even want to look at you, so stay stuck in there.”

“If you have any shame, clean the temple. Since we took in your dirty power, you should at least be useful.”

The priests’ harassment began.