I am back – Chapter 35

“Good job.”

The pastor said with a gentle smile.

No matter how reserved one might be in forming relationships, there’s always basic etiquette to maintain in mutual interactions. For instance, handling rude customers with as much grace as possible while working, or at least offering a simple “thank you” to the people you’ve worked alongside.

Since I was planning to keep following my sister, it was not ideal for relationships with others to become strained. Besides, weren’t these nice people gathering periodically to do good deeds? I couldn’t just throw a wrench in the works because I was uncomfortable.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

I bowed politely to the pastor as I spoke.

Up close, I noticed he had quite a few wrinkles on his face. His hair was peppered with gray, and his eyebrows had completely turned white.

According to my sister, he was younger than he appeared.

While I wouldn’t say he was an old man by any stretch of the imagination… based on my personal experiences, he looked like someone who had been through a lot. Among those who stood against the Demon King’s army, there were often knights and priests who had served for a very long time in one place.

Those who had lived long and had faced the Demon Race in real battles often had this kind of expression: a gaze that seemed to look far away, yet when you met their eyes, it felt like they could see right through you.

The pastor extended his hand, and I took it as well. His hand was very rough—hands that had spent a long time working hard.

“Oh my, you have quite a strong grip.”

The pastor chuckled as he said this. A lady standing nearby playfully slapped his arm, asking what he was saying to the girl, but the pastor just kept smiling warmly.

“Right, was it Cha Si-hyun?”

Even though he seemed younger than he looked, he must have lived several decades longer than me, yet his voice remained polite.

“Ah, yes.”

In that moment, the pastor’s gaze turned toward my sister.

Though there was no dialogue exchanged between them… I could understand why the pastor looked at her.

He said he had helped her. If that was the case, he must know her story, and I would play quite an important part in that. Considering my name, it would be odd not to see my sister when he heard “Cha Si-hyun.”

…Though that wasn’t the way I wanted to claim importance.

So, did the pastor know a lot about me too?

A curiosity arose, but it struck me that there was no need to dig deeper.

“Do you go to church, by any chance?”

The pastor asked, looking at me steadily. His dark eyes were focused on me.

“Uh, no…”

I replied, feeling a bit embarrassed. Since there was a goddess I believed in, I didn’t have any intention of attending church. When I was in that other world, I did go to church quite often. Mostly, I followed Pia there.

In fact, for any priest of a certain level or higher, you could feel the goddess’s presence through prayer, even without going to church. There was no need to attend church simply to maintain one’s faith. However, one of the duties of a priest was to help the congregation feel the goddess’s presence, so going to church was more like an obligation.

In my case, I could actually converse with the goddess directly. However, as I was bound by the duty of being a hero and not specifically a priest, there wasn’t much reason for me to keep attending. But Pia, being a saintess, always made it a point to stop by the church whenever we reached a new area. Naturally, the party members followed suit, and the congregation was always delighted to see us.

There were benefits to visiting the church. The prayers of the worshipers also served as a means to summon divine power. The overwhelming divine power brought by the news of the hero party’s visit greatly eased our weary minds and provided us with mental stability. It wasn’t just the divine power; it was also the gratitude expressed by the people.

Having received great help from both the goddess and the congregation, I didn’t want to abandon that faith.

That’s why the question of whether I attended church felt somewhat awkward. I felt like I shouldn’t answer that way for some reason.

Religion is a rather sensitive topic of discussion, isn’t it? No matter how tolerant a religion might be, there are definitely aspects that you cannot compromise on. When those aspects clash, emotions can get weird.

And the most sensitive aspect of religion is the belief in the existence of a deity and what that deity actually represents.

“I see…”

But it seemed that the pastor was not asking out of a desire to persuade or convert me.

“But you do believe in the existence of a god, right?”

“Huh?”

I blinked at his sudden question.

It was a puzzling question.

How could he have figured out that I had a religion? Or was it just a wild guess? If he was judging solely based on appearance, then it was more likely just a guess. I hadn’t shown any signs of praying in front of other people.

And since it was the pastor who asked, it was obvious he was referring to the Christian god.

“No, that’s not what I meant to say.”

The pastor quickly shook his head as if understanding my thoughts.

“What religion you have and which god you believe in is something I cannot meddle with. Just as nobody can dictate another person’s faith in their own god. Whether you continue that faith or decide to abandon it, that’s something only you, as a believer, can choose.”

“Ah, yes…”

As the pastor spoke to someone, it was the first time I saw him talking like this, and the gazes of those around us began to shift a little.

The murmuring voices of people who had been chatting quietly faded. Those who had been greeting one another paused their conversation to look our way.

Even my sister widened her eyes, alternating her gaze between me and the pastor.

Right. My sister and I were both in a similar situation in the pastor’s eyes. Of course, I’d never shared my worries with him, but from his perspective, I and my sister were the only ones here serving who were considered “people without religion.”

“Do you believe in the existence of a god?”

The pastor quietly asked again.

“…Yes.”

I answered once more.

At my response, the pastor’s lips curved into a smile. It was as if he was genuinely happy to hear it. The fact that I believed in a god seemed like something he should be genuinely delighted about.

…It felt a bit strange. Someone I’d just met today seemed to know me somehow.

But no matter how hard I stared at the pastor’s face, no familiar person came to mind. At the very least, he wasn’t someone I knew.

“Then I have nothing more to say. I have no right to force you to continue that belief. Just…”

The pastor paused for a moment before continuing.

“Yes. I just wanted to express my happiness.”

That statement felt a bit cautious.

I couldn’t quite grasp why it felt that way.

“…Yes…”

That was all I could reply with.

*

“Have you seen the pastor before?”

My sister asked me, and I shook my head.

On the bus ride back.

It was still too early to consider it the end of working hours, so there were fewer people compared to when we went to church. We found seats in the farthest back corner.

“No, I haven’t seen him even once.”

“Is that so?”

My sister’s expression turned pensive at my answer.

“It seems the pastor felt something about you. Hmm, maybe it was a different reaction than the kid who followed me last time?”

Now that I thought about it, he had indeed run off immediately. While we had done the volunteer work that day, he hadn’t shown up again, so I suppose that might have stuck in his memory.

“Oh, come to think of it.”

My sister suddenly remembered something and asked.

“Do you have a religion?”

“Um, well…”

I pondered over how to respond.

If I said I had a religion, then the question about which one would come up, and then I’d be stumped for an answer. I could probably brush it off with something like “a Christian religion,” but the truth was, I was still working on Saturdays and Sundays and not actually going to church. While not all Christians spend their weekends at church, skipping out altogether would still feel unnatural.

“Uh, um, well… I’m not sure I should even call it a religion.”

So I decided to just be vague.

“I think there’s a god that exists, but I don’t have a religion… or something along those lines.”

At least in this world, I felt like that wouldn’t count as a lie.

“Oh, I get what you mean.”

My sister smiled as she said that.

“But isn’t that a little different from faith? It’s not quite the kind of thing that the pastor would be happy about, is it?”

As my sister tilted her head like that, I awkwardly laughed, “Ah ha ha.”

…He really was a unique person, that pastor.

Next time we met, I wondered if I should ask him to explain what he meant in more detail.