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This new priest was really annoying, he had a childish personality and seemed to look at me with utter hate. What have I even done to him? Oh right, I guess I just ridiculed him. Will this create a grudge now? Really, mortals make grudges out of the smallest of things, they don’t even learn from their mistakes. They just hate them instead. How do they expect to grow if the only thing they feel is frustration and hate each time they fail? Well, he looks young, perhaps around his early to mid-teens. I didn’t know priests could be this young. I cannot expect a youngster to have the same patience as an old man such as myself.
“Get down from there, you damn ruffian!” He cried. “Or else…!”
“Or else what? You priests keep chasing me down as if I’ve been doing crimes when I am just helping the people and getting something in exchange.” I said. “There have been several times when people cannot afford to pay me but I don’t really mind. I am just helping them, I don’t expect anything back, those goodhearted enough can give, and those without anything to give can always give me a smile and a “thank you”. That’s all I need. So why? Why are you chasing me down as if I have done some sort of crime?”
I decided to confront the priest, while the other two that were with him, including the Priest that checks the talents and spirits were going around town following the chains that were spread over all the houses, the red-haired priest had a short yet sharp hair, looking as if he was an urchin or something.
“Y-You…! Do you think we are chasing you down because we think you’re a criminal?! Have you been thinking this the entire time, stupid kid?!” He roared. “Just come down and apologize! The Head Priest just wants to talk to you and thank you for what you’ve been doing! He even thought about inviting you to become a priest at your damn age!”
“Huh?”
I looked at the man while squinting my eyes, was he saying the truth? I activated the Emotion-Attribute Magic Spell of Tier 1 named “Emotion Aura Detection”, which allows me to see the emotions of people as auras of colors, when someone lies, their aura usually becomes bluish green, which means they’re holding back their true emotions to pretend to say something false.
I looked into this mans’ emotion aura, and it was red, gold, and orange, like the blazing flames. He had no speck of emotions that he was holding back, in fact, he’s the upfront type that probably doesn’t even know how to pretend or even lie… He’s saying the truth, without a doubt.
I looked at him and decided to ask him again.
“Are you saying the truth?” I asked while remaining in silence for a while.
“Yeah! That’s the truth, you dumb idiot! Now come down and apologize!” He roared. “Agh, my Mana is all depleted, and my Spirit got all entangled! This is the fucking worst…”
Now that it has come to this, what should I do? Should I keep escaping or should I confront them for once and see what they really want? He’s saying the truth but even then, there could be ways to mask emotions, perhaps he was even brainwashed, or he doesn’t actually know the truth behind these actions. If he doesn’t know the truth, then he cannot really lie about something somebody else told him.
Maybe I am being a bit too overly cautious in that regard, but I will wait for the Head Priest and the other Priest to come here and ask them personally the same thing… And well, they didn’t take that long. The two reached the red-haired man as they helped him pull back his spirit, but due to the lack of mana, the spirit simply moved back to his spirit orb and dissipated. The man almost fell to the floor if it wasn’t for the two priests that caught him in time.
The Head Priest was an old man, looking like he was on his 70’s already, or even older, he had a long white beard and a bald head, and tired eyes. Meanwhile the other priest was a man on his mid thirties with short brown hair and glasses, his eyes were as sharp as knives and looked at me hatefully…
“I waited for you to come because I wanted to ask you a few things as well, if you dare attack me again, I won’t even talk to you again.” I said. “Do you really intend to do what this man told me? Congratulate me and attempt to invite me into becoming a priest?”
The two priests looked at one another and nodded in silence, they seemed to be intimidated by my position. A child of my age doesn’t go around jumping rooftops so easily as I did, but it doesn’t become so hard when you can use a slight amount of wind to help you jump higher.
As they nodded, they began to speak, the brown-haired man with a sharp gaze and eyeglasses spoke first, seemingly a bit tired of me in his tone of voice.
“The Head Priest has been insisting on catching you because he wants to talk and met the legend of the village. You’ve been helping the people for a long time now and it feels wrong for him to not somehow talk to you, seeing how what you’re doing is our job, but you’re doing it even better and without expecting any remuneration.” He said. “If possible, we would like to recruit you as a priest, your abilities are very useful.”
“Indeed, young man, come down here, let us talk for a while. I know of a restaurant right there where we can sit down, share a meal, and talk about the good things you’ve done.” Said the Head Priest. “It would be nice to know you better.”
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