I Don't Want To Work! - Chapter 113
CHAPTER 113
“My disciple isn’t a bad kid.”
As I wiped the arms of the brown-haired man who was in the worst condition single room, I kept coming up with excuses, one after another.
By the way, this guy was tied up the tightest.
“…I can’t believe it.”
Doubt flickered across the man’s face in an instant.
Well, it would be quite frightening to just tie someone to the bed and leave quietly, even if you tell them to be quiet.
I grinned and nodded.
“It’s true.”
“Good people don’t tie patients to beds.”
“Well, that’s true. But looking at him, he was kind when he was young.”
I grinned. After all, wasn’t his face still kind?
“You just said that in the past tense.”
“…”
That shut me up. But he was kind when he was young.
As I concentrated on wiping his body, the man quietly spoke up again.
“Why are you helping us?”
Changing bandages, making medicine, and now even wiping his body, the wary look in the man’s eyes didn’t diminish one bit.
If anything, it grew stronger.
But well, it didn’t bother me.
“We have nothing to give. It’s the same even if we go looking for the tribe.”
“Uh-huh, you don’t have to.”
I’m rich. Rich.
Am I not the princess of the empire, and one of the top five shareholders of the Upper Crescent Moon?
“I don’t believe it.”
“Don’t believe it then.”
I replied lightly as I carefully applied the ointment I made myself to his bruised skin.
“I’m just helping you. I can’t just send patients away.”
“…”
“Just like I said before, that belief has kept me going until now.”
Helping the injured.
That belief, which might seem foolish, had kept me going until now.
Honestly, my life had been long, with no two lives the same, and death had been too frequent.
It wouldn’t be strange even if my ego scattered.
There had been times when I almost lost myself due to overlapping lives.
So I needed something to penetrate through the countless lives.
Not the purpose given by others like Nectar.
An absolute something that I could decide on and hold onto myself.
I made it my belief and followed it.
“…”
The man seemed to have understood the meaning of my words even a little, as he fell silent.
Throughout wiping his body and applying ointment, his pupils followed my touch here and there.
Then, as if making up his mind, he furrowed his brow.
Whether he said anything or not.
After applying all the ointment, I smiled proudly.
“There we go.”
Then, closing the lid of the remaining ointment container, I said.
“I won’t be back for a while. Someone else will come instead, but you still have to take care of the basics yourselves.”
The man cut off my words about further instructions such as medication, ointment, and dietary precautions.
“You, speaking of which.”
His light brown eyes were fixed on me.
“…There’s something you’re looking for.”
“Of course, isn’t there?”
I lightly replied as I tidied up the used ointment tube and the remaining ointment.
Don’t people always search for something?
From small things like where they put their string to big things like their ego.
But where did my string go?
I need to tie up the chopped herbs.
“You found that recently.”
Huh?
As the man continued speaking, I paused my diligent movements.
When I turned my head, the man was looking at me, his legs pulled up on the bed.
“You’ve been searching diligently for the past few years.”
I narrowed my eyes.
What I had been searching for in recent years.
And what I had found recently.
They both pointed to one thing.
The temple of ‘her.’
The man spoke, his light brown eyes fixed on me.
“But that place is empty. The one you truly seek has already left.”
I looked back at him, meeting his light brown eyes.
“You’re a prophet.”
The man buried his head further between his knees in response to my words.
“Do you know about prophets?”
“I’ve picked up a lot of things here and there.”
I sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the man.
“I, I’m not perfect.”
The man replied shortly.
Our eyes hadn’t met.
“I’m not good at seeing… If I try to see it again, it takes a very long time. If I saw it now, I wouldn’t be able to see it again until ten or twenty years later.”
He was desperately talking about his uselessness.
“And it’s back and forth, seen and unseen…”
“Calm down.”
I patted his shoulder.
“I’m not keeping you here to use you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded lightly.
Well, it was an ability of prophecy.
Honestly, it was tempting, but I didn’t want to push it to the point of trying too hard to obtain it.
‘After all, prophecy itself is in the realm of the gods.’
If you glanced at it once or twice, you might not get caught.
But if you kept trying to peek into the future, you were bound to get caught by the gods.
‘I can’t tell the gods while going behind their backs.’
“Really.”
I shrugged my shoulders, showing both my palms.
“…I’ll believe you.”
The man nodded in response to my actions and bowed his head deeply.
“Anyway…”
Fidgeting with his fingers nervously, he began to speak.
“There’s nothing you want in the place you’ve already searched. It’s been a long time since she left.”
I furrowed my brows at his words.
She left?
‘I thought if I found the temple, I would find her without any problems.’
A god expelled from the divine realm couldn’t last long in a place that wasn’t their temple.
So I naturally thought she would be in the temple.
“Do you happen to know where she is?”
The man shook his head at my question.
“I’m not sure. But, it’s not far. Not far at all…”
Not far? Did that mean she was close to the temple?
I furrowed my brows.
‘I want to ask a little more.’
But even if I asked, it didn’t seem like I would get an answer.
“…”
After a moment of silence, I lightly nodded my head.
“Okay, thanks for letting me know.”
I picked up the basket containing the ointment jar and stood up.
“Oh, and by the way, you.”
“…?”
The man lifted his head, buried between his legs when I called him.
“In the future, even if you see something, don’t tell me. You probably know better already.”
It was better not to keep poking at the realm of the gods.
‘The blood might have protected them originally.’
The reason prophets were born among the Rath Tribe was simple.
It was because they had divine blood.
And not just any divine blood, but the bloodline of the god of prophecy.
So, occasionally, prophets were born among the Rath Tribe, and it wasn’t a big problem to see the future.
But, nothing lasts forever.
Over time, the divine blood weakened, and prophets became even rarer among the Rath Tribe.
And the side effects started to become stronger.
“Oh, don’t tell me…”
I looked at the man.
“You, that illness…”
“No way!”
The man shouted.
“I told you before. I’m really weak, so most of the tribe doesn’t know I’m a prophet.”
“Most didn’t know.”
So, some did know, didn’t they?
“It seemed a bit strange to me.”
I said, rubbing my neck.
“When I treated other people, they told me these things.”
“You got sick while nursing others.”
I stared at the prophet.
“…,”
The prophet grabbed his clothes tightly, saying nothing.
Bone joints protruded from his dry and slender hands.
Naturally, my mouth opened.
“Did you, by any chance, get expelled?”
It felt strange from earlier, but I couldn’t believe it.
Although I had never met a prophet before, it was easy to imagine where they might be.
So I didn’t think they would drive out the prophet, who wasn’t just anyone.
“…,”
That’s the answer.
The prophet buried his head deeper between his legs and began to tremble.
“I couldn’t see the future. Even if I had been a proper prophet…”
“That wouldn’t be the reason you were expelled.”
It didn’t make sense.
Even if you were an exceptional prophet, you couldn’t see every future.
So, even if you couldn’t predict the epidemic, you wouldn’t be banished.
Why?
“That’s…”
After licking his lips a few times, the prophet finally managed to speak.
“The leader is my uncle…”
Ah, I get it now.
No matter how much he hid the truth, it must have bothered his nephew being a prophet.
And when this epidemic broke out, the leader would be the one most responsible.
‘So, to avoid his guilt and to remove his nephew, he blamed him.’
Most people didn’t know he was a prophet.
They must have deliberately spread the disease by assigning him nursing duties.
‘Bastard.’
A real bastard.
‘Everything’s a mess…’
I narrowed my eyes.
And at the same time, the very faint conscience left started to sting.
‘Did I push too hard?’
Thinking it was a haunted house and forcibly exorcising it, only to find out they were patients.
Moreover, there were no places for them to go after being chased out by the tribe.
Originally, I planned to let them meet with the tribe after treatment.
But after hearing this, I couldn’t just send them back.
“Ugh…”
I rubbed my face a few times roughly and then looked at the prophet.
Alright, the decision was made.
“Don’t worry too much.”
“What?”
“Even though I look like this, I have some abilities, you know?”
It wasn’t just some abilities, but quite significant ones.
“So, I’ll take responsibility.”
“W-What?”
The prophet’s eyes widened.
His face began to flush as if he heard something unbelievable.
Well, it would be surprising.
Suddenly, a person appeared out of nowhere, offering both treatment and responsibility.
I get it, I get it. I nodded.
Meanwhile, the prophet’s face was getting redder and redder.
“Just rest. I’ll take care of the future!”
“Huh?!”
Before the prophet could say anything, I quickly left the room.
‘For now, I need to go to Ringo’s.’
I need to find a place for those people to stay and something for them to do.
‘Even if they’re all healed, they won’t be back to full strength for a while, so I need to choose an easy job for them.’
It would be better to avoid any encounters with people as much as possible…
Thunk.
Lost in thought, I bumped into something in the corridor.
“Huh.”
When I looked up, I saw…
“Master.”
It was Lionel, smiling brightly while holding the box he retrieved from the underground treasure vault earlier.
I blinked slowly.
But, why does he suddenly look angry?