I Became the Evil God’s Apostle 38

“Oh, good morning, Sir Knight.”

“Good morning to you. But what is that?”

The innkeeper, still in a good mood from yesterday’s events, greeted them with a beaming smile. Today the sun rose early, still affected by the calamity, and the sunlight remained scorching, but it seemed witnessing yesterday’s miracle had given him hope. Of course, that wasn’t a bad thing. Humans live using hope for the future as their driving force…

But what on earth was that? Ban pointed beyond the window, which didn’t have its curtains drawn since the sunlight wasn’t streaming in that direction, and asked. Fortunately, the innkeeper didn’t pick up on Ban’s strange expression and turned his head slightly in that direction before opening his mouth with an awkward smile.

“Did you see how all of Siol filled with water again yesterday? I discovered that this morning too… It seems Banan has exercised her divine power.”

The water shooting up from a massive fountain near the inn was forming some kind of shape.

The water that surged upward and fell back down continuously created what looked like a human silhouette, which was quite impressive, but the problem was that the silhouette looked far too familiar to simply marvel at. Moreover, it seemed Ban wasn’t the only one who recognized its identity, as the innkeeper glanced around cautiously before lowering his voice and whispering.

“It’s not just that fountain—several other fountains also have these large figures appearing. There is a legend that says when Banan is in a good mood, she creates sculptures with water through the fountains, but this is my first time actually seeing it.”

“…I see.”

“But the surprising thing is, that figure is… ahem, the form of the Evil God.”

“The Evil God’s form?”

Was Orma’s appearance recorded somewhere? Water can’t express his symbolic black hair and golden eyes, so how do they know it’s Orma? Did someone recognize Orma?

However, the innkeeper seemed to interpret Ban’s flustered reaction differently and quickly shook his head while waving his hands as if to say it was fine.

“Someone visited the sanctuary and asked the priest who Banan was sculpting, and apparently they kindly answered that it was the form of ‘Orma.'”

“……”

“And wasn’t there an eclipse yesterday? People are speculating that the Evil God caused that eclipse and Banan was so pleased with it that she’s sculpting like this. Well, I honestly find it hard to believe… but anyway, since the Evil God is said to control darkness, it’s not entirely strange.”

Ah, Banan… You’re deliberately doing only the things your son hates… Did she decide to go wild thinking Orma would never forgive her anyway? Why is she suddenly doing such strange things?

Ban sighed inwardly and slowly nodded. Now that it had come to this, there was no choice but to leave Siol as quickly as possible before Orma saw that sight.

Ban hurriedly gave his greetings and approached Jaena and Orma. He had thought Orma would still be harassing Jaena, but surprisingly, Jaena’s expression was full of excitement.

Seeing Jaena chatter “You promised, Orma-nim! Really!” and Orma roughly respond with “Yeah. So shut up already,” it seemed the two had made some kind of deal. Anyway, it was fortunate if they’d made up. Ban quickly helped Jaena to his feet and pressed Orma’s hood down deeper, saying,

“Let’s hurry and leave.”

“Where? Are we leaving Siol now?”

“No, we agreed to dispose of the jewels first.”

“Ah, that… Just how much are you carrying that you’re making such a fuss?”

Though he frowned as if annoyed, Orma obediently took the hand Ban offered and stood up. Then, until they left the inn and arrived at the jeweler they’d visited before, all he did was stare intently at Ban’s face or snap at the chattering Jaena to shut his mouth.

There was an incident where Jaena spotted Orma’s figure visible in a large fountain and exclaimed “Wow, look at that!” in wonder, but Ban desperately changed the subject, so Orma safely arrived at the jeweler without noticing anything. Of course, he couldn’t completely relax until they left Siol…

“Oh, you’re the customer from before. I was somewhat disappointed, thinking you’d decided not to sell after all.”

“Good morning. I had some matters and couldn’t come. Would it be possible to make the sale today?”

“Of course! I’ve accurately measured the price and sorted the gold ingots. Please wait just a moment!”

The jeweler welcomed Ban with a pleased face. He did flinch slightly when he saw Orma, who was tall and wearing a black hood pulled so deep his face wasn’t visible, and Jaena, who was tilting his head curiously with his tail swaying, but he didn’t say anything directly and headed straight for the safe.

As soon as the jeweler opened the safe, neatly organized gold ingots were revealed. Jaena’s eyes sparkled at the enormous quantity, but even he couldn’t help but be shocked by the jeweler’s next words.

“Is your cart outside? When I calculated it, the amount of gold ingots I had before wasn’t enough. So I prepared a bit more!”

“Hiii! H-how are we supposed to carry all that?”

“Didn’t I tell you? It would be impossible alone.”

“……”

The jeweler’s eyes gleamed as he said he’d prepared an amount they absolutely couldn’t refuse this time, but wasn’t the problem that there was too much…? Ban made a sour expression and first handed over the jewels he’d brought. They needed to complete the transaction even if they had to worry about how to carry it all afterward.

At times like this, I really miss modern Earth’s banks and card services. Still, if the three of us divide it well, maybe it’s possible… Ban began mentally dividing it up, thinking that if he took half, Orma took the other half, and Jaena just carried an armful, it might work.

Whether Orma knew what Ban was thinking or not, he stepped closer and looked over the safe before saying with an indifferent expression,

“That’s all? It’s not much.”

“…What?”

Did I mishear ‘that’s quite a lot’? When Ban asked back with a blank face, Orma chuckled and stretched his hand forward.

At the same time, his shadow slowly swayed and began to grow in size like a wolf before its prey. Though it had no snout, it seemed to open its mouth wide as it heaved, then swallowed all the gold ingots stacked neatly in the safe in one gulp.

Whether the startled jeweler gasped and trembled alone before falling on his backside or not, the shadow that had swallowed all the gold ingots shrank instantly as if nothing had happened and groveled at Orma’s feet, fawning at a size no different from anyone else’s.

“Wh-what on earth is… Hiii! P-please spare me!”

“…Please calm down. I mean… Ah! I-it’s a magical tool.”

Ban, also startled, hurriedly made excuses to soothe the jeweler. Fortunately, his quickly working mind came up with a reasonably good explanation as an improvisation.

The jeweler finally relaxed at Ban’s words and nodded with a dumbfounded expression.

“My goodness, what a fright… Though come to think of it, since you’re someone who possesses such relics, it makes sense you’d have a magical tool…”

In this world where Ban currently lives, there are no such things as mages, but it’s said that in ancient times, mages existed who researched magic while building towers high into the sky to reach the gods. Some magical tools containing their magic have been well-preserved and passed down like relics, and since countless embellishments have been added to the legends, people think of them as almost omnipotent tools, making it the most appropriate excuse to hide Orma’s power.

Fortunately, Orma only snorted at the excuse that divine power was a magical tool but didn’t say anything else. Ban could only let out a deep sigh after calming his startled heart and carefully leaving the jeweler.

“Why are you so surprised?”

“Didn’t you not want to reveal your identity to other humans?”

“Me? Well, it would be inconvenient if I got involved with them, but not to the extent that I need to hide my power. What difference does it make if that human knows who I am? We’re leaving Siol today anyway.”

You’re so full of yourself. Ban’s smooth brow furrowed with the irritation that suddenly surged up.

It seems like this is the first time I’m seeing Ban get irritated. Orma looked at him, then shrugged as if he didn’t know what the problem was.

“You didn’t even need me to come along for something like this in the first place.”

“What?”

“I saw before that you can use my power well too. Didn’t you think of this?”

Of course, since they were each wearing one of the pair of earrings, he could borrow Orma’s power… but he was just bewildered by the question of whether he hadn’t thought of this. He’d never seen the shadow swallow something and store it inside… Ah, wait?

“Could it be that the spear that was shining golden was also hidden in your shadow?”

“Obviously?”

“……”

“If you want to, you can take it out anytime too.”

Want to try? At his playful question with a face full of mischief, Jaena raised his hand and bounced around shouting “Me! I want to try!” but Orma simply ignored him.

Only Ban clutched his throbbing head and wondered what on earth his god had trusted about him to willingly share the earrings. This is like putting the house deed in a joint account when they’re not even married…

No, let’s think positively. In the first place, this money is Orma’s money, and all the wealth in his shadow is Orma’s money too. Moreover, if you really think about it, he’s an apostle extorting a gullible god…

Ban looked at Orma with a sour expression, feeling strangely like a kept man who’d hooked a sugar daddy and was freely swiping his credit card, but when their eyes met, Orma just rolled his eyes.