Life is work. Therefore, to live means to do any work. Whether one defeated an evil black magician or saved the lives of over three hundred people, it didn't matter; as long as one was alive, one had to work. That was the truth.
“Ah, my fate. I can't rest easy.”
I sighed in front of the three hundred refugees.
The temporary shelter was made by the regressor overturning the earth. The food was filled with what remained in Piu Village and a little support from the regressor.
However, in this land where people offered a bowl of water and prayed first when they fell sick, there was no one to treat the refugees whose bodies and minds were exhausted. Callis, who hailed from the Military Nation, considered mental injuries to be whining, as was typical of the Military Nation, and the regressor only knew peculiar treatment methods like hangover cures or purification.
But people make positions, and positions make work. If you wipe out only the worker ants in an ant colony, the ants that were playing will become worker ants.
I became a doctor and diagnosed the injured refugees.
“Ugh. My head feels like it's going to split open... I'd rather you just kill me.”
“Really? Is that your real wish?”
“...Ugh, no. Please make it hurt less...”
“That can't be helped. The only way to reduce the pain is anesthetics.”
“Even that...!”
“What you ate in the black magician's prison was exactly that anesthetic. It's a similar thread. It'll hurt even more when you wake up from the anesthesia. Just endure it.”
I shooed the patient away, waving my hand. The barbarian, who had been groaning while holding his head, glared at me with resentment and left the tent.
“Quack...”
Hmph. I don't care. I am a quack. Reading minds and letting them endure the pain they can endure. That's my job.
In the first place, the moment they walk out on their own two feet, they don't really need treatment.
I glanced at the tent set up far away. Among those who were sacrifices for the black magician, those who barely had a thread of life left were lying there. They had consciousness, but seeing their thoughts cut off unnaturally, it seemed their lifeline didn't have much left.
Cleaning up is more tricky than saving them. Looking at it this way, it's fortunate the regressor hasn't prevented the destruction yet. Because cleaning up a world that has survived destruction is much harder than preventing the destruction.
I finished the rough diagnosis, fed medicine to those who needed it, and barely had some free time. Then, Rash flung the tent open and came in.
“Teacher, you're here! Oops. Should I have knocked before coming in!”
“There's not even a door, so what knock? Anyway, why is the healthy Mr. Rash here?”
“It's nothing else, but I have a favor to ask!”
“Ah, I've developed a favor allergy lately.”
Rash, ignoring my obvious dislike, stated his business.
“That, over there, I heard you need an officiant? when making a marriage pact. They say you need someone respected and trusted, like a shrine maiden, to watch over it. So I want to ask the Teacher to be the officiant!”
I didn't know I'd receive a proposal to be an officiant while living this life. Until now, I'd only been a dealer at a gambling table at best.
“That's fabricated. I've never been a teacher, and I got into Tantalus by cheating.”
“It's fine! My people don't know well whether the Teacher is a teacher or a swindler anyway!”
“I don't mind doing it, but we need to match the timing. Because I'm not staying here for long.”
“Is that so? Then we'll hold the wedding quickly! Callis! Come here for a moment!”
Wait, you're doing it now? What kind of wedding is faster than opening a gambling table?
“Is it okay to do a wedding so roughly?”
“Roughly? I've already told the whole village several times, and I've received the Offering God's permission through the shrine maiden. It was just a problem with the way of getting married, so we kept putting it off.”
If it's the Immortals' wedding, it means burying the bride and groom together and leaving them for nearly a month, right? The Immortals wouldn't think much of it, but Rash, who had studied abroad, was inwardly aware of how barbaric that custom was.
It practically says don't marry unless you're both Immortals. That's why they're trying to hold a different ceremony.
“But right now we have wedding gifts and the Teacher's group, don't we? Is there another auspicious day? Now, with good guests, is the best time!”
“Hmm. In a word, you want us to add some weight to it, right?”
“Hahaha! That's right! If it's just the etiquette of a foreign country, only Callis and I know it, so it'll feel empty. We need guests from the same place to save face!”
He speaks loudly but thinks a lot. I guess being simple doesn't necessarily mean being stupid.
Then again, the physiology of an Immortal and a normal human is too different. Immortals can abuse their bodies, but a normal human would quickly worsen and die. The premise is different.
“Rash? Did you call me?”
While I was listening to Rash's marriage plan, Callis lifted the tent flap and appeared.
“Oh. Callis!”
The two shared a deep kiss as soon as they met. They didn't seem to care much that I was here. It was only after they did everything, sucking and biting each other, that they paid attention to me.
“Anyway, for what reason did you call me?”
“Ah. Here. I'm trying to ask the Teacher to officiate.”
“What? To a criminal, not even a priest?”
“What does it matter? No one will know anyway. And the Teacher has the power of a Druid. A Druid means sages of the forest. You might not care, but in our village, they are respected more than just about any priest.”
“Druid...? I don't think that was in the special notes.”
Humans are evolving creatures, you know. How long are you going to only remember me from my Abyssal vermin days?
Callis withdrew her suspicious gaze and spoke.
“Rash. I have a suggestion.”
“Don't tell me you don't like the officiant? Even so, the Teacher is the only suitable person right now, so how about bearing with it a little?”
Is my officiating to the point where it needs to be endured? He suggested it first, but there's a limit to rudeness!
That wasn't her intention, though. Callis shook her head and answered.
“No. It's not about the officiant. If we hold the wedding in the Military Nation's way, both you and I will become outsiders of this land. My and Rash's proposals will be ignored much more easily, and Piu Village will stagnate as it is without any significant improvement.”
One might think it's an overreaction over a marriage, but a ceremony has that much meaning. Speaking of marriage, it is originally the union of two different bloodlines. Unless they are going to be completely independent, it naturally results in one side belonging to the other.
A ceremony is an event that shows ‘where one belongs’. Even if Rash put his right arm into it or whatever, by stubbornly insisting and holding the wedding in the way of beyond the prairie, they would be treated like outsiders.
“Then what do you propose we do?”
Rash knows too. But he couldn't help it. If they held the wedding in the Immortals' way, Callis wouldn't be of this world.
Even bringing the Wool of the King of Sheep was all for that wedding. To fill the lacking authority with an offering.
However, Callis approached it from a different perspective.
“I will go through the Immortals' wedding ceremony.”
If they could just endure the trial of the Immortals' wedding, they could have both. It was an extremely gambling way of thinking.
Naturally, Rash flared up in anger.
“It's dangerous! A month, and that's a month with dirt covered on top! You have to endure that weight entirely without outside help!”
“I'll bring food, and I'll protect myself with magic. If I prepare adequately, I think there's a high chance I can spend the month safely.”
“It's a high chance, not a certainty!”
“Rash. If I'm with you, I can overcome it.”
“That's exactly the problem!”
Rash clenched his fists so hard his veins bulged and spoke.
“I...! Don't have the confidence to keep watching you grow weaker before my eyes...!”
I somewhat understand the regressor's feelings. It's good that they're absorbed in their own world, but leaving me standing like a backdrop makes me feel a bit bad.
Well, that's that. I understand both sides' arguments. Whatever choice they make, it won't change much.
If you ask which side is my preference, I naturally prefer taking the risk, but.
“Rash. I'm curious. Can't you just sneak out in the middle of it?”
“...That's difficult. The couple to be wed are placed in a basket with their bare skin pressed against each other. That basket is buried deep underground under the shrine maiden's supervision. They make breathing holes, but it's hard to dig up through the dirt from the inside. Because my strength to dig through the dirt will also dig through Callis's body.”
“What if you dig a passage in advance or make some extra space? Just because you're buried underground doesn't mean you have to stay uncomfortably in there, right?”
It doesn't have to be this exact method. Buried in the ground? Just escape. After playing around for a month, you can just sneak back and pretend it was hard.
“Are you saying we should cheat?”
“Cheat? Call it flexibility. No matter how traditional it is, burying a person in the ground for a month doesn't make sense. In times like this, it's wise to just let it slide moderately.”
“Indeed...! As expected of the Teacher! To think of deceiving the ritual! An idea an ordinary person couldn't even imagine!”
Why on earth couldn't anyone think of this? Am I weird? Am I the weird one?
Callis also admired my statement.
“As long as we don't get caught, it's a good enough method. However, it seems difficult to make a passage that big without being seen by the people burying us. We need a tight-lipped collaborator, but...”
“I'll ask Ms. Shay. With the power of Jizan, she should be able to dig a secret passage without anyone knowing.”
“Thank you!”
I'll do it for you. But why are you acting so innocent? You, who were in an illegal organization within the Military Nation, are worse than me, a petty criminal.
“Wait a moment. I'll go keep watch.”
Anyway, we're plotting a fraud that is being called flexibility. It's no good if someone hears. I went out of the tent and looked around.
YW9peUx5cktZYXhyU2hzY1VsMkQ0Y250a3I2djE4bzhkQzE1UEMvbG5kMHVWRW1GTEZWQUNPSW02aWlqUm81Vw
In my eyes, I saw a very peculiar person walking this way.
Barbarian tribes are usually barbaric even in their clothing. Immortals either took off their tops entirely or covered up roughly, truly living up to the expression “just throwing something on.”
However, the Immortal approaching me was hiding their body tightly. From head to face, entirely, as if they shouldn't reveal their skin.
But even in the midst of that, only one place. The area around the mouth was unnaturally open. I saw clearly through that empty hole.
The corners of a mouth that looked like they had been cut from somewhere and sewn on.
“Teacher? Why are you standing out there so blankly... ‘Mouth’?”
The shrine maiden of the Offering God. Among the Immortals who offer a part of their body and gain the power of immortality, the chosen ones who have offered their eyes, ears, and mouth.
The shrine maiden who actually communicates with their god had come in person to convey the god's will.
‘Mouth’ walked straight toward us and spoke in a bizarrely ringing voice.
““On behalf of the Offering God's mouth, I have come to convey the Offering God's will.””