RTGDB 04

Chapter 4

The sky was cloudy.

The sun was clearly up, so why did everything look so gloomy?

“Excuse me.”

Dantellion lowered his gaze and placed his hand on the old doorknob.

Creeeeak.

The musty smell of dust reached him first.

‘Is this place empty?’

Somehow… the place gave him the strange feeling that time had stopped.

Clink, clink.

Cold metallic sounds rang out whenever he moved. He slowly surveyed the interior.

After a moment,

his footsteps suddenly stopped.

“……”

He was standing in front of an old pile of cloth with something bulging in the middle.

A silvery-gray thread—or rather, hair?—was sticking out from the edge.

At that moment, the cold, emotionless face of the holy knight cracked ever so slightly.

Without realizing it, he reached out and lifted the blanket.

Then he let out a short breath.

What came limply into his hand was…

A rag doll with crudely stitched limbs.

Crookedly drawn eyes, nose, and mouth. A tiny sticker shaped like a thumb stuck to its chest…

Why.

Why had he thought there would be a dead child underneath that white cloth?

‘A child.’

That was practically the very thing he had the least connection to.

A familiar headache began throbbing.

With a low sigh, Dantellion straightened his back. His neatly arranged, long silver hair cascaded over his broad shoulders.

“Sir Dante!”

At that moment, his adjutant came running over.

“As you instructed, I’ve dispatched all the holy knights to Zone Z. We’ll soon begin moving the residents to the temple shelters!”

“Good work.”

“Yes, sir. But…”

Adjutant Marc glanced at Dantellion before cautiously asking,

“Why exactly are you here, Commander…?”

“……”

“We can handle something like providing relief to the poor among ourselves…”

Dantellion was silent for a moment before answering in his polished voice.

“Of course I should be the one to handle this.”

In truth, though,

even he did not know.

Why exactly had he come here?

He had simply heard his adjutant report that he was going to ‘Zone Z,’ and his body had moved on its own.

Was that all?

Before he knew it, he was standing in front of this shack.

‘…This is irritating.’

It was the first time he had ever been so unable to control himself.

After all, the only things that had ever driven him were the temple’s doctrines and his duties.

As a holy knight, he was skilled at discarding unnecessary things.

Emotions, desires, relationships, affection, and so on.

But why today?

‘Was there perhaps something I was looking for?’

But… what?

An object?

…A person?

“……”

At that moment, the core near his heart throbbed violently.

A stabbing pain shot through his right arm and left eye. He endured the agony until his jaw clenched, then slowly exhaled.

‘My divine power…’

Why had it become so corrupted?

He had no memory of when his divine power had become tainted. He could only speculate that perhaps the western monster extermination campaign had simply gone on for too long.

Unlike the other holy knights, however, even purification medicine had little effect on him.

Because of that, whenever the pain came like a seizure, all he could do was endure it.

‘Is God… testing me?’

He was a man who had been born and raised to serve the goddess. He had never once gone against that mission.

‘If You give me a trial, I shall gladly accept it.’

The moment he grasped his prayer pendant, the agitation disappeared.

His face was once again covered by an indifferent, dry expression.

“Commander!”

At that moment, Marc, who had been checking the carrier pigeon, urgently called out to Dantellion.

“This is a report that just came in from Squad Two. They found illegal drugs and traces of strange magic in the village chief’s house!”

Dantellion’s gaze turned cold.

“And… there’s also a report that a wagon seems to have left through the northern gate—”

As expected.

No wonder this place had been strangely bothering him from earlier.

‘So God really did guide me here.’

There were signs of a crime.

His straight, well-manicured hand tightened around his sword.

“Pursue them.”

He spoke with the stern, austere expression of an apostle.

“Effective immediately, seal all entrances and exits of Zone Z and secure the village chief first. And…”

Without realizing it, Dantellion added one more thing.

“Question the villagers as well and investigate whether anyone among them has gone missing.”

“Yes, sir!”

He did not know why those words had come out of his mouth.

But he had a strange intuition.

If someone had escaped from this place, he had a feeling that person absolutely must not be allowed to get away…

Dantellion abruptly turned and left the shack.

His heart was pounding strangely hard.

As he habitually reached for his prayer pendant, he realized that he was still holding the rag doll.

“…Oh.”

His empty gaze stared at the doll.

Normally, it was the sort of object he would never have spared a glance.

Yet for some reason, it was difficult to let go of it.

‘I suppose I should find its owner.’

He placed the doll inside his cloak pocket and walked away.

And at that very moment.

…Plop!

The thumbs-up sticker attached to the doll stuck itself to Dantellion’s body, then was softly absorbed into him.

It happened so quickly that he did not notice.

He merely thought…

that it had somehow become easier to breathe.

Dantellion’s vacant gaze stared straight ahead.

Unfortunately, his sky was still gray.

“Ungcha!”

Crash! Rumble, rumble, rumble…

The wagon rolled down the ravine and shattered into pieces.

“No way… I really have to throw away my wagon too? I could get at least five gold for that if I sold it!”

Uncle Paul looked crestfallen as he stared at his corpse wagon.

He scratched the back of his head and grumbled something, though I could barely hear him.

I was pretending to be calm, but my heart was still pounding!

‘I almost got caught…!’

Just a little while ago.

“Is anyone there?”

When Dad came to the shack,

I used every ounce of strength I had to erase the drawings on the floor and escaped through a small hole behind the house.

“W-Why on earth did Dad come here?!”

I ran madly through the alley while rubbing the back of my neck.

“There’s no one here after all…!”

Originally, there had been a small mark here.

The ‘symbol of the direct bloodline of the Ducal House of Klein,’ which had been faint when I was a baby and gradually became clearer as I grew.

In my previous life, the old woman from the slums who took care of me discovered this mark and sent a letter to Dad before she died.

But in this life, my connection with Dad had been completely severed.

Therefore, the mark had naturally disappeared as well.

‘I don’t understand what’s going on…’

Anyway, after that,

I ran at full speed until I reached the man in front of me…

Uncle Paul.

In other words, the undertaker of this district.

“Mister! Please let me leave this place too!”

“Gah! You scared me!”

Since Uncle Paul was responsible for disposing of corpses, he had relatively free access in and out of Zone Z.

‘Most importantly, according to my memories from my previous life, Uncle Paul was supposed to leave Zone Z today and head north!’

“You brought this, right?”

I held out a flyer advertising immigration to the north.

“They give you a house! And land too!”

“Uh, yeah, that’s true, but…”

And that was how I managed to escape Zone Z hidden inside Uncle Paul’s corpse wagon.

And just a little while ago, we even disposed of the wagon to erase any traces of our escape.

We also made sure to throw our belongings, one by one, into the ravine.

If anyone followed our trail, it would look like we had fallen down here and died, right?

“Seriously, do we really have to pretend to be this dead?”

“You said you didn’t want the holy knights who came to your village to catch your trail!”

“Well… that’s true. I once escaped after being forced into labor at the Imperial Palace. If they catch me, I’ll be going straight to prison.”

“Exactly!”

I wiped the sweat from my forehead as I told him that it was better to be safe than sorry.

‘Phewww. That was really like weathering a storm…’

It felt as though all the strength had been drained from my body, and my arms and legs were trembling.

Still, there was one thing to be thankful for.

“You have to stick close to Dad, okayyy!”

Just before leaving the shack, I had managed to leave behind a divine-power sticker.

I had no idea where that quick thinking had come from, but thank goodness.

Of course, because of that…

[(Empty) The sticker book is empty (Empty)]

“Whimper…”

I had become a truly penniless little beggar child with zero money and zero divine-power stickers…

But it was okay!

‘If Dad can just get better, I don’t mind being a little beggar!’

“Hoo… Kid! Hurry up, or I’m leaving you behind!”

“N-No, wait!”

I jumped onto Uncle Paul’s back.

He carefully headed toward the forest, making sure not to leave footprints.

I tightly wrapped my arms around his neck.

“Tch… Does this little fluffball even know what kind of man I am before following me around like this…?”

Uncle Paul grumbled.

‘Do I know what kind of person you are?’

Of course I do.

‘My benefactor!’

In my previous life, I once asked Dad.

“B-But… how did you know that I was your daughter…?”

It was back when I was still unused to the idea that I had a father.

As if he wasn’t bothered by me constantly fidgeting, Dad held me tightly in his arms and said,

“I received a letter. Children who escaped from Zone Z delivered a letter written by a woman named Annie before she died.”

“Reeeally?”

“They said an undertaker named Paul secretly helped them escape by hiding them inside his corpse wagon. Do you happen to know anything about that?”

Zone Z was an isolated slum.

A place where it was an everyday occurrence for the youngest and weakest to die first.

If you lived in a place like that, some people became villains who stole other people’s bread.

But others became people who showed kindness for no reason at all.

Thanks to Uncle Paul’s kindness, I had been able to meet Dad.

‘What happened to Uncle Paul in my previous life after he went north?’

Was he happy?

I didn’t know, but…

‘This time, I’ll definitely repay his kindness!’

I clung to Uncle Paul’s back like a backpack and gently rubbed my cheek against him.

“Heheh, that tickles, you little rascal.”

Then I quietly turned my head to look behind us.

“……”

I could see the tiny outline of Zone Z beneath the hill.

I thought I could faintly hear the rough sound of horses’ hooves…

But it was already nothing more than a distant sound.

Dad’s voice still lingered in my ears.

But I shouldn’t think about it anymore.

‘I don’t want to see Dad.’

I had seen him far too much in my previous life.

I really, really didn’t want to see him anymore.

So… this was just a goodbye.

‘Goodbye, Dad.’

I secretly waved my hand.

This time, Hani had become independent early.

‘Forget everything and live happily ever after!’

And so, I left the capital.

Then, about three weeks later.

After a long and eventful journey,

“Woooooow!”

“We’re in the northeeeern region! Yaa-hoo!”

The two scruffy little travelers finally arrived in the north!

[Errand complete! (Client: God of Travel)]

[“Yaa-hoo! Go to the north and shout!”]

[Reward: 10 Pure, Pollution-Free Divine Power Stickers]

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