Volume 2 - CH 8

The amount Renas-sama revealed is equivalent to the amount of my Milford family’s decades of annual income. Even if it is said to be the rewards he earned by fulfilling the request of subjugating the Demon King, this income is too much. In any case, it is too much money for a villager even if he is the Hero.

“How could he . . .?”

It is unbelievable, but he couldn’t have done something suspicious behind the scenes, right . . .?

While I was harboring my suspicions . . .

“So even if you become Greed’s wife, you are rest assured that you will not be penniless. Right, Aria?”

Giving me a thumbs up and a wink, Renas-sama added, “Don’t worry.”

……I was suddenly filled with a murderous rage.

There is no need for me to worry, not even for a moment, about the purse after marrying the Hero!  On the contrary, I have never even thought about being married to the Hero!

Geez, what do they really think of me? After this, we will talk about this . . . a little seriously.

“It is not only Greed. Actually, I am also a slightly rich person.”

Milly-sama said with a beaming smile.

——According to Milly-sama, many of the intermediate-level demons who attack and kidnap humans prefer to collect the possessions of humans. These are jewelries, valuable magic and artworks. The type of goods that they prefer to take depends upon the person (demon?), but the bottomline is that they are indiscriminate. They seem to only gather the valuable things.

So, the Hero and the others will be asked to defeat the demons but . . .

“Of course, we will get the treasure. It is a part of the reward.”

Is what she said. Therefore, they defeat the demons who took the valuable treasure away from the humans and then snatch . . . no, no, no, they retrieve it.

Of course, they will properly return the items to the original owner. However, there are some things that the owner does not recognize. Whether those were stolen goods or sold through illegal channels, those must have been gotten through shady means. The treasures collected by the Hero and his members will be temporarily stashed in the temple. [T/N: Sacrilege.] Therefore, when the real owner goes to the temple and requests to retrieve the treasures, he can take them.

But obviously, shady people will not just simply lend their hand.

As a result, precious treasures unknown to the owner remain in hands of the Hero’s party.

“These treasures are sold by the temple and converted to the continental currency and then handed over to the Hero and his comrades. The temple receives a commission and we get our cash, so we mutually benefited from each other.”

“……Wh-What a splendid give-and-take relationship.”

I heard that the heroes and the temple of the goddess have an inseparable relationship, but I am . . . surprised that they were also tied in monetary terms. With this, the sacred image of the temple is also ruined.

Well, even temples need money. It costs money to support and dispatch the priests, build temples in various places, and for maintenance. Income from donations is not enough. Having money has never been better.

But if possible, I do not want to know such rough story ever . . . Tohoho?

Returning to the original story, aside from my laments, the Hero seems to earn all his cash by doing so. However, there is a problem.

Yes. The problem is that nobody wants to take the money except for Milly-sama,

Renas-sama is a priest, so he can only take the minimum amount of money he needs. Rufus-sama is a prince who did not lack money, so he only accepted the minimum amount. Farah-sama is not inclined to accept any amount of money unless it is needed to buy an equipment. As for Rufaga-sama, it’s no use to have a human money so he also did not take not even a cent of it.

In other words, they have excess money.

And Greed-sama—As what I have guessed, he was not interested in the money at all. Taking nothing other than the necessary amount of money, he said, “Do what you see fit, Milly.”

Well, knowing that such handsome man who is detached from this world is a miser, I felt that something snapped within me. For Greed-sama to say things such as, “Money? What’s that? Can it be eaten?”, it suits him well!

And so, since almost all of them have the same sentiments, Milly-sama, who also does not need so much money, became bewildered and as a result——she deposited the excess money on adventure guilds and temples as Greed-sama’s savings.

“After all, I was told to do what I see fit.”

Milly-sama said with a smile, but her eyes were not smiling at all.

It seems that she is angry because the other members were also disinterested. For sure, it looked like she was “greedy” for the other member’s share. Why do I have to feel guilty for receiving a just reward? It felt like I could hear Milly-sama’s inner turmoil.

Thanks to Milly-sama’s risky actions, Greed-sama’s savings increased. In the middle of their journey, they happened to get acquainted with a merchant by chance, who told them, “Please lend me a little capital. I will definitely return it!” They loaned him some money and as a result, they received double when his business had a big hit.

When Greed-sama suddenly bartered straw, he had a treasure upgrade in the end, and I got to say a lot of retort. It seems that Greed-sama’s savings keeps on increasing.

“Greed sends much of his money as remittance to his parents in the village,” Renas-sama said, grinning.

“Well, for me, I think they are not qualified to receive it.”

Renas-sama, your smile suddenly emitted poison.

Perhaps mishearing it, Milly-sama added, “That’s right. They, well, accept it with indifference. I wish he should just leave them alone, but he is strangely sincere.”

They said with a smile while spewing poison. With both of them smiling, the conversation turned scary!

Perhaps there is a problem with Greed-sama’s parents, I suddenly thought. Because the both of their tone seems to imply plenty of things regarding Greed-sama’s parents.

Milly-sama grinned at me when she realized what I thought.

“I’m sorry if I offended you. But I just want to tell you that both of them are not qualified to be his parents.”

“Yes. Even at the very end, we feel indignant for the unnecessary prejudice they have for Greed.”

Renas-sama nodded ant turned to look at me.

“This is what I wanted to talk to you about, Aria. Because Greed will never say this himself. But I would like you to know, Aria.”

Seeing Renas-sama’s usual sunny smile being replaced by a serious expression unnerved me.

“What happened was—shortly after Greed was born, my father, Lyell, came by chance to the village of Langrea.”

Renas-sama said in a hushed tone.

“At that time, there was not even a small temple in the village and no priest so he was welcomed. Then my father was consulted by a couple.”

“Greed-sama’s parents?”

“You’re right. They complained that their newborn son is strange. So when my father went to their house, he was amazed. It seemed that all types of spirits are interested in the baby, that is, Greed.”

“Full Spirit Protection  . . .”

“Human beings with [Spirit Protection] are precious. So Father told them to raise him carefully. However, because they could not see the spirits, cannot hear their voice and cannot feel their presence, they felt nothing but fear.”

“So what did Greed-sama’s parents do?”

“With feelings of dread and fear, they couldn’t take care of their child.”

As Renas-sama said that, he showed me a lonely smile.

“They were just normal villagers, neither good nor bad. Therefore, they could not accept that their child possessed power. It resulted to child neglect.”

“Then how did Greed-sama grew up? He would not have been able to live alone as a newborn infant . . .”

“They certainly cook him meals. But because they cannot carry him, they could not feed him. Who do you think took care of Greed on their behalf? It was the spirits….. But spirits are not human beings. That’s why being reared by them, Greed did not grow up right.”

Renas-sama smiled apathetically and I could not retort. It is because I was shocked by his next statement—

“Who do you think my father saw when he dropped by Langrea again after a few years? It was a child who looked like a doll, who could not talk, could not smile or cry.”

—Greed-sama’s past is much harder than I thought.