5 – 4 very small helping hands
Cazeros unexpectedly expressed his joy as he decided to accompany me.
However, after a while, as she returned to her room and discussed the future, she said with a look of deep discomfort.
“But… to think that Santana-sama’s assets, including this house, must be handed over to the archbishop. No matter how much I think about it, it hurts so much.”
“hahahaha, since you reacted like that, it seems like Cazeros lost money, right? You don’t have to feel too sorry. Money is what you have to earn again anyway.”
Although it is said that they rode the same boat, even taking that into account, Cazeros is showing a more sincere reaction than me, the person in charge.
I said this with a light smile, but Cazeros slowly shook his head as he looked at me.
“Of course, Mr. Santana is someone who can do that. But… I’m concerned about those who remain. If this happens, what will happen to the lives of those who have lived with Santana-sama’s help until now?”
“..yes?”
Cazeros brings out unexpected words.
Regarding this, I started to show some embarrassment, and she continued with a bitter voice as she looked at me.
“I’ve been ignoring it all this time, but I knew Santana was helping a lot of people by buying houses and land. The fact that he has made it possible for people in need to use it by paying only a small tenancy tax, lending farmland, and giving out houses at a cheaper price than other places.”
“Umm.. that… that…”
At Cazeros’ words, I felt my face slightly heat up, and I couldn’t decide what to react to.
And, apart from my feelings, Cazeros continued to speak with sincere anger.
“Really… I really resent it. Santana just wanted to help those in need as a paladin, and he only accumulated wealth in a slightly unusual way for this purpose… I can’t believe that the archbishops are trying to excommunicate such a monk and rob him of his property…”
“Um… Um… ”
As a paladin who worships God, Cazeros is sincerely sorry for this messy reality.
However, seeing her like this, I, the person in charge, was feeling quite strange.
‘No.. I didn’t mean to help the poor or anything…’
As she said, it was clear that I had bought a house and a lot of land and lent it out for a small fee.
However, this was far from the reasons Cazeros thought of, such as mercy or benevolence as a paladin.
The biggest reason is that as a Korean, I like land and houses.
And another reason is that it was the best way to save money in my position now.
Although it is slightly different for each region, Paladins, a type of priest, had tax exemption rights as part of the status benefits for the land and houses they possessed.
Because you can’t pay tax on assets that belong to God.
Of course, there was a background in it that, according to the rule that priests cannot have children in principle, when the person concerned dies, the property goes back to the lord or monarch anyway…
Anyway, thanks to those advantages, I chose to accumulate assets here rather than entrusting them to a bank with a lower credit rating compared to the original world.
‘Since land and houses have been created like that, it’s a bit of a joke to just play around with them, so I put the rent at a cheap price and hired small tenants..’
Due to the nature of the clerical profession, it was necessary to maintain dignity and avoid the accumulation of notoriety that might hinder future work.
Besides, since the purpose of this was always savings, not exploitation for profit, I didn’t have much lingering about this, so I was rolling it out reasonably cheaply.
I had this background in lending land and houses to people at a low price, but…
Cazeros in front of me seemed to be interpreting this simply as my pure goodwill.
He said he did all this to help the poor.
‘Somehow, he seemed to react a little sensitively compared to other people’s work, so there was such a background. Well… Cazeros has always been faithful.’
If you think about it, there was a high possibility that this misunderstanding was also a big part of the reason why she unexpectedly decided to follow me.
From her point of view, the current situation would have been interpreted as ‘the archbishop excommunicated the paladin, who was doing his best to do good, out of personal greed’, rather than simply a matter of money.
From her point of view, who has always lived a devout life with the pride of being a paladin, this must have come as a great disappointment to the church.
Meanwhile, the paladin in question reached out to her and invited her to leave this disappointing place with him.
And in this situation…
The answer was so obvious.
‘From Cazeros’ point of view, there must have been no reason to remain in the power of the church and the place where chastity fell.
As I figured out the anger Cazeros expressed and why she was willing to drop everything and choose to follow me, I began to feel a little bit embarrassed.
Even though I didn’t intend to do anything particularly good, the fact that my actions were being recognized as grandiose by her as some kind of benevolent act of a saint made me feel ashamed unexpectedly from the person concerned.
‘I didn’t expect the deal to be this strong to receive unintentional compliments..’
However, apart from this misunderstanding, I felt that there was no need to tell the truth about this.
It’s not really a problem, and since what I was ultimately trying to do started with the intention of saving many precious lives, there was no big difference if you look deeper.
And above all, I did not want to disappoint Cazeros, who was looking at me at this moment and looking at me with longing eyes, even explaining the situation in a complicated way.
‘Well… good things are good, so I’m going to go over it in moderation.’
After organizing my thoughts on this part, I spoke to Cazeros, who was still in a bad mood, with a calm smile on my lips.
“Thank you for your concern, but Cazeros. You don’t have to break it down like that. Because there is a way.”
“… yes? That… what do you mean?”
“Whoops… You’ll find out the details if you slowly watch from the sidelines.”
She looks surprised at my unexpected story.
However, what I was saying to her at this moment was not just words of comfort, but sincerity.
In general, in the current situation, the correct answer was to give up the house and land, which are difficult to use anyway, and leave this place in a hurry with only cash.
Both time and law were on the Archbishop’s side.
The archbishop himself knew that fact, so he must have launched an offensive in the name of excommunication against me in this way.
It is also for this reason that he is not paying attention to me after the relatively ‘light’ sabotage that moved Nune and Tine was broken.
However… it would be very regrettable for the archbishop.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t that kind of a person.
In the scriptures that paladins read and learn, there was a saying that if you were hit on the right cheek, you should offer your left cheek.
but,
In the midst of this, the Archbishop, who is teaching this right now, is making a save first, and to follow it obediently was a foolish act in itself.
If the other person slapped the right cheek, the correct answer was to twist the wrist and break it.
‘Now then… Where should I make tears of blood pour from the eyes of that beggar archbishop?’
6 days left. It wasn’t long, but it was enough time for me, and at the same time, Cazeros was there to help me.
So, without hesitation, I immediately started executing the plan.
This city.. this country.. and furthermore, a plan to feed the archbishop b*tch a big taffy, who splendidly blew away the opportunity of salvation for the entire church power.