Chapter 35 - Foul Play

“Well, then… I look forward to working with you.”

“You… you’re the one the captain promised to send?”

“Indeed, Sister.” The priest replied, expressionless.

I stared at him blankly. How could that man give away the main healer of the corps just like that? Was that even allowed? The main healer was irreplaceable, especially when considering Mayer’s immense health—other priests’ healing wouldn’t even be enough to heal a scratch of his. How could he be so willing to hand over such a priest to a special unit that would last for only God knew how long? Putting aside his role as a watcher, the priest must be here to keep me from dying inside a dungeon no matter how.

Even August wasn’t free from the limitations of a human as resurrection magic was impossible for him to cast. Regardless, he was a high-ranking priest capable of bringing a man back from the brink of death. Although there was a precedent for a high-level priest being chosen by God to learn resurrection magic, there was no such individual in the present era at least.

Level 99, the prerequisite to learning an ultimate skill, was by no means easy to reach. It wasn’t the domain of humans. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that achieving this feat was equivalent to taking a step closer to the realm of God, as all ultimate skills were on the scale of a natural disaster or a miracle. In Fabian’s case, he would learn a spell of tremendous power upon hitting level 99, one that could rip apart heaven and earth. But strictly speaking? It was nothing but a possibility.

The person with the highest level I had ever met was Mayer Knox—he was level 80 and even he needed far more experience than he had available at the time to reach level 99. Simply put, it was impossible to reach that goal. The odd thing, however, was that my ultimate had been available to me from the moment I had opened my eyes to this world. Was it because I was an irregularity, a transmigrator? Then again, what of it? I would never use that skill, not with the risk it entailed.

My ultimate skill ‘Scale of Souls’ was a resurrection spell that could bring back the dead by sacrificing oneself. While it was a truly amazing merit to be capable of using resurrection magic that even priests couldn’t use, despite not being a priest myself, considering that the spell would cost my life… there was no way I’d ever use it. Speaking of which… There was a time when I was willing to use Scale of Souls for Fabian because I thought everything would be over if he died… In retrospect, it was a stupid and moronic thought to entertain.

In any case, having August in my unit was quite good as I didn’t want to die like any normal person. At least with a priest like him with us, no one would have their arms neglected to the point of needing amputation because the priest didn’t have enough holy power. Whatever his purpose, be it for surveillance or something else, I decided to gratefully accept this staffing and offered a handshake of goodwill to August. “Then I look forward to working with you.”

The priest didn’t accept my hand, instead simply giving me a curt nod and making the sign of the cross. I was no good with this guy; I could only awkwardly take back my hand at his brusque response. As a near introvert, I found it hard to get along with people like August. I wasn’t brazen enough to keep talking to a silent person, nor was I accustomed to silence enough to clam up in tandem.

Nevertheless, I had no choice but to get used to it. Ever since he joined my unit, August followed me around constantly, like a bodyguard. Perhaps things might’ve been different if he weren’t so large, but with the way he constantly radiated his presence behind me like a halo, it wasn’t easy to ignore him. Alas, it wasn’t long after his arrival that rumors spread of August joining the special unit, which was an expected result considering how he stuck close to me. The hilarious thing, though, was that the negative reputation of the special unit reversed. Apparently, while I wasn’t trustworthy, August’s entrance into my unit made for a completely different story.

I would be the first to admit that it was incomparably safer to have him around and understood their rapid change in attitude; after all, we all only had one life to live. And so, the corps members who had been avoiding me all this time began to show themselves, one after another. Thanks to this, I could personally inspect my potential new members instead of looking through them on paper only.