Yan, who had been continuously suppressing his laughter with the single-minded determination to maintain social dignity as the High Priest’s attendant, finally reached his limit. To think that someone who acted so haughty and blatantly disrespected the High Priest and the former High Priest would suffer such humiliation. It was so refreshing that he wanted to thank the Goddess.
“Pfft…”
Once laughter escaped, explosive laughter followed in an instant. Yan burst into laughter until his stomach hurt. Jes was covering his mouth as if blocking a cough that was about to burst out, but anyone could see that the corners of his eyes were filled with mirth.
Perhaps the excessively flashy wig had been the source of his self-esteem, because Nick couldn’t say a single word and merely turned red like an octopus well-boiled in boiling water.
“Jes, Yan.”
Yan, who had been laughing so hard that tears welled up in his eyes and he was bending backward, suddenly snapped to attention at the calm voice. The voice that was always kind and warm was unusually subdued. Thinking he had done something wrong, Yan shut his mouth.
Rou headed toward where Yan and Jes were. His hair was completely soaked with water and pulled at his body like weights. Eventually, Rou walked while holding an armful of his hair, but even so, his hair kept getting stepped on underfoot, making it quite uncomfortable.
Rou was simply walking while wrestling with his hair, but to Jes and Yan, who were already half-intoxicated with faith, it looked like an incredibly sacred sight. Jes silently vowed that as soon as the temple’s finances stabilized, he would have that image immortalized as a mural.
Yan stared blankly at the elegant gait before coming to his senses a little later and running to hold up Rou’s hair from behind so it wouldn’t drag on the floor. Finally standing before Nick, Rou opened his mouth.
“How sorrowful it must be to have no hair. How can you mock him so openly like that?”
Rou recalled himself when he had been a bumblebee. His round, plump bottom had always been covered with soft, fluffy fur, and the Goddess cherished it so much that it was Rou’s pride and joy. When the Goddess was exhausted from work, Rou would crawl up onto the back of her hand, and then the Goddess would pat his plump bottom with her fingertips and take pleasure in it.
There had once been a trial that befell the bottom that both Rou and the Goddess cherished so dearly. He had entered an elongated flower and, not realizing that pollen had gotten all over his bottom, Rou had wandered around for quite a while like that.
By the time he learned that the flower was a poisonous plant, his fluffy fur had already all fallen out and his bottom had become desolate. The Goddess comforted Rou, saying that it was a poisonous plant and it could have been much worse, and Rou’s bottom quickly became fluffy again. The Goddess had blessed him after that so that no plant could ever harm Rou, but even now, thinking about that time made Rou’s head spin.
Perhaps that was why. Looking at the human’s smooth and shiny head, he kept remembering his own bare lower body from the past. Rou looked at the soaking wet Nick with a pitying expression and then crouched down in front of him.
“How pitiful.”
Rou’s eyes as he said this were filled with melancholy. Jes and Yan were impressed by Rou’s mercy, and Nick rolled his eyes as if he couldn’t understand this situation.
First of all, the High Priest’s choice of words was quite unpleasant. No hair? When he had hair so abundant it dragged on the floor. Yet when he looked at that pitiful face, it seemed sincere, so it was unclear whether he was mocking him or not.
Judging by Jes and Yan’s attitudes, it seemed sincere, but since being deceived by what nobles showed on the surface was not something that happened just yesterday or today, Nick was uncertain. Then suddenly, a warm touch was felt on top of Nick’s head.
Starting from his crown, Rou traced down to the temples beside his ears with a touch as if feeling something strange. To think a head could be this smooth. It was a bit surprising. Rou silently thanked the Goddess that Brukisel’s hair was abundant.
If it weren’t for the jet-black hair that resembled ebony remaining, even if Brukisel had red eyes, he wouldn’t have recognized him right away.
Moreover, his hair greatly contributed to creating his cool, sharp, yet dangerous atmosphere. Since Brukisel didn’t seem likely to lose his hair like Nick, it was expected that he would be able to maintain that beauty for a long time.
With that, Nick became certain it was mockery. Just as he was about to challenge the High Priest, asking if someone in the Goddess’s embrace could be so rude to a believer, he heard a voice warmer than the touch.
“How cold and lonely you must have been.”
The bald head didn’t feel very good to touch. And so, probably no one had ever patted this human’s head. Rou patted Nick’s head a few more times with a pitying heart. When Nick contorted his face bizarrely, Rou firmly grasped his wrist.
The High Priest was not someone a lowly merchant like himself could dare to covet. However, sitting this close and even holding hands, he couldn’t help but have improper thoughts. While Nick was blushing and hesitating, Rou placed the ends of his hair on his thick palm.
“I happen to have plenty of hair. Take as much of mine as you need.”
“What?”
“H-High Priest.”
Jes called out to Rou quietly, but Rou had already handed over his long, abundant locks. Nick looked back and forth between Rou’s clear face and the heavy hair placed on his hand.
‘Could it be… does he know everything that happened to me in the south?’
Nick looked at his wig, which had become a mess like hemp cloth. Thirty-nine years old. His hairline had already started receding from his mid-twenties.
The reason he had lived without hair for so long was not because he was ignorant of the wig market or lacked money. It was because the old nobles who were jealous of the wealth he had accumulated wouldn’t leave Nick alone if he wore a wig better than theirs. Because of that, Nick had to wear wigs that were obviously made from animal fur, which noble society openly mocked.
“…High Priest… your hair… do you mean it?”
“Yes.”
It was hair personally given by the High Priest. The hair, long enough to drag on the floor, was so soft it seemed to flow through his fingers, as if someone had meticulously cared for it for a long time. It was hair abundant enough that anyone with sparse hair would covet it.
To give this to him. To gift something so precious to someone as lowly as himself. It was something not even any high-ranking noble in the south possessed. Like a beggar receiving part of the holy body, Nick’s hands trembled violently. To confirm once more whether he had understood correctly, Nick looked at Rou.
Rou smiled benevolently at the wavering gaze. Reading what he desired in that beautiful smile, Nick was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. It was a moment when all the humiliation and disrespect he had endured was comforted.
At the same time, Nick felt ashamed of his petty heart. What was it to be disrespected by old men who had less money and fewer days to live than himself, that the High Priest would yield part of himself? Just how vast and great was the mercy of the High Priest and the Goddess?
Compared to the Goddess’s greatness, his wealth was less than a speck of dust, yet he had been showing off with it—the fact was so shameful and embarrassing he couldn’t bear it. Nick trembled with shaking shoulders.
The tears that welled up in his narrow, thin eyes fell down his cheeks in an instant.
“Uuugh, hic…”
Nick began to sob. Jes opened his eyes wide and tried to understand what on earth was happening, but the only information he could gather with his own two eyes was that a bald man was clutching hair while smearing tears and snot all over it.
Rou simply smiled brightly at Nick crying like a child, thinking simply that the bald man must be happy to have hair. When Rou spotted shining scissors in Nick’s bosom as he cried while stamping his feet, he brightened and took them out to personally place them in Nick’s hand.
“Go ahead and cut it.”
“May I dare to touch it… Please allow me to at least wash my body first.”
“It’s just hair, why bother. How much do you need? Will you take this much?”
Rou firmly grabbed the hair hanging down below his ears. He had simply thought it would be good if Nick took that much, but Nick’s face only turned pale.
Nick eventually personally held up the scissors and cut off the ends of Rou’s hair.
—Snip.
The scissors that Nick carried around to maintain his wig cut through Rou’s soft hair in one go. Jes buried his face in Yan’s chest as if he couldn’t bear to watch this horrific scene anymore, and Yan sniffled while patting Jes’s shoulder.
When the handful of completely cut hair fell, Rou had a relieved expression. It was enough that the hair that had been dragging on the floor no longer dragged, and since the part where Nick’s bodily fluids had gotten on it was cut away and his body was lighter than before, Rou decided to be satisfied.
“High Priest! How can you treat the holy body so carelessly! Don’t you think the Goddess will be saddened!”
When the Goddess was mentioned, Rou flinched for a moment. Although he had unilaterally cut the body the Goddess had given him, the Goddess was always busy praising whatever Rou did, so it would be fine. Rou lightly rose from his seat and said to Jes.
“Goddess Kaine won’t condemn giving to those in need either.”
“There’s a reason dogs have dog fur and pigs have pig fur. If you drape silk over a pig, will the pig know and be pleased? Not knowing its value, it will just get it covered in mud!”
“Stop it. Even if a pig has pig fur, sometimes it might feel like wearing silk. And we can’t reattach what’s already been cut.”
Nick felt uncomfortable as if he had become a subject of mockery, but the hair in his hand was too smooth to jump around and get angry. Before Jes could demand the hair be returned, he clutched it preciously with both hands.
“I… I thought I served the Goddess with my mouth, but I had never once thought about being with the Goddess. But at this moment, I keenly feel that the Goddess is alive and always watching over me!”
Nick crawled on his knees and prostrated himself before Rou.
“From now on, I will offer half of the profits from our trading company to the temple. And I will make sure all the continent knows that the High Priest is the new face of the Kaine Religion!”
Rou smiled brightly. So this was someone Jes praised as having deep faith.
He was a bit lacking in hair, but he was a good and kind-hearted human.
