I am back – Chapter 58

Even though the church wasn’t particularly big, it definitely wasn’t so small that it was unnoticeable either.

Sometimes, when I see local churches, they occupy just one floor of a two-story shopping center or are merely the size of a single shop.

However, this church had the entire two-story building to itself. It even had the pointed steeple that comes to mind when thinking of Korean churches, so it seemed unlikely that they were completely broke. After all, if it were a truly broke church, it wouldn’t be able to hold such regular volunteer activities like providing free meals.

That’s right. Volunteer activities.

My older sister said she came to this church once a month to volunteer. And she sometimes brought a ton of bread to share.

Maybe that’s why I unconsciously thought this church only held volunteer activities once a month.

But that logic didn’t really add up.

The day I went with her for volunteer activities was Wednesday. It was the middle of the week. Naturally, it made sense to assume that they would be distributing free meals the day before, the day after, or nearly every day. Just giving out meals once a month wouldn’t be enough to support the lives of those coming here to eat.

So of course, when we arrived, preparations for the volunteer activities were already in full swing.

“Uh….”

I was flustered by the unexpected situation when someone in the distance caught my eye.

I recognized the face of someone who had seen me before, even if they didn’t know my party members behind me.

“Oh my, Siyun!”

At the lady’s exclamation, several gazes from the surrounding people turned towards me. Then they shifted to my party members—Kalia, Pia, Dana, and Arna—one after another.

Fortunately, the pastor happened to be near the lady.

Hearing her call, the pastor turned towards me with a bright smile and walked over.

“You’ve come! I’ve been waiting.”

“Ah, did I come at a bad time?”

“No… I would like to say it’s not a problem, but to be honest, yes, it’s a bit busy. You might have to wait until we finish up…”

I glanced behind the pastor.

Since he was the only one who spoke to me, no one had bothered to stop what they were doing to come over. Everyone seemed busy. After all, there weren’t that many people who could come out to help on a weekday.

“Can I help out too?”

The pastor smiled brightly at my suggestion. The wrinkles on his face grew more pronounced with that smile. Yet strangely, his beaming expression made him look a bit younger than usual. Was it because that smile was genuinely warm?

“I would be grateful if you did.”

As I was about to take off my outer garment after hearing that, I felt the eyes of others turn towards me.

Most of the gazes were from the four people behind me.

“Oh, you don’t need to do this together.”

At my words, Kalia tilted her head.

“I’m not sure what you’re planning, but looking at the situation right in front of us, it seems like we could help without much effort.”

“Ah, that’s….”

“Is it a relief effort?”

Before I could respond, Pia jumped in.

A relief effort, huh.

Well, expressing volunteer activities like that makes it sound grander, but fundamentally it doesn’t seem all that different. After all, it’s about distributing food to the hungry.

Indeed, in Irrelaysia, welfare was mainly handled by the church. Wherever people gather, class divides appear. Naturally, among those, some had far more wealth than the king, while on the opposite end, there were the extremely impoverished who could barely survive day to day.

The church often conducted relief efforts for that extremely poor group, providing free treatment for the injured or sick.

No matter how much society can’t prevent class divides from forming, the kingdom knew well that leaving places to rot like that would ultimately lead to their collapse.

“Yeah, that’s right, I guess.”

“Well then, I’ll help too.”

Upon hearing my response, Pia immediately rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward.

“Even if it looks like this, I’ve distributed 500 bowls of soup in a day before. I’m confident I won’t fall apart while doing this.”

“No, but still, you all are guests…”

Yet even while I was saying that, Dana and Arna were already heading towards those who were actively volunteering.

“You won’t succeed in refusing that way.”

Kalia had already taken off her coat.

“Sure, you’re the hero, but we’re also comrades who walked alongside that hero. Everyone in this party is someone willing to help if it means assisting others.”

At Kalia’s laughter, I was momentarily at a loss for words.

The pastor, who was listening next to us, simply smiled like it was no big deal. Especially even after hearing the word ‘hero.’

Of course, I didn’t think that ordinary people would believe someone claiming to be an ‘ex-hero.’ Usually, they’d brush it off as a joke or consider if the person was a little out of their mind if they insisted too seriously.

But the pastor showed neither reaction.

…Well, that memo did have the church’s address written on it.

He might already be aware of everything. Even if that wasn’t the case, at least he would know that my party members were sent by the Goddess.

Seeing that expression, as if he understood completely, Kalia shrugged her shoulders and eventually followed after the party members who had already moved ahead.

“Did you know all along?”

When I asked that, the pastor shook his head and replied.

“There’s really no one in this world who knows everything. It’s just that we come to understand slowly.”

Then he turned around and returned to where he had been working.

As if to say that was where he ought to be.

*

With four of us standing there, the volunteer activities went much more smoothly than last time. There was no doubt about it for Kalia and Arna, and Pia and Dana had strength and stamina superior to that of ordinary people. Since they had to prepare meals for hundreds, there was a lot of heavy lifting of food ingredients, but everyone handled it easily, much to the surprise of other volunteers watching.

At first, people were flustered when four foreign girls suddenly joined in, and they started to approach us awkwardly with broken English, but soon they realized that these girls spoke Korean as well as any Korean person, and things became much more comfortable.

Oh, just for reference, Arna could effectively hide her ears.

Surprisingly, they had a month’s worth of preparation time before they came over here. True to her nature of always being a scout for our party, Arna thought, “Maybe I should hide that I’m an elf,” and brought a magical tool that could conceal her elven features.

The magical tool had a magic stone embedded in it, so it didn’t become useless after coming to this world. However, it couldn’t be used entirely here where magic was minimal; it could only cast an illusion that made Arna’s ears look like human ears. If someone were to touch Arna’s ears, her true identity would be exposed.

Of course, who would even go around touching someone else’s ears? In that sense, even with that limited function, the magical tool was doing its job perfectly.

No one among those coming for food caused any ruckus, so the volunteer activities were able to conclude smoothly.

After the activities ended, a few curious volunteers came up to ask where we were from, how long we had lived in Korea, but Kalia stepped in and spun a decent line that allowed us to avoid struggling to make up fake information.

Though it seemed some people found Kalia’s speech pattern a bit peculiar.

Anyway, so it wasn’t until well past three in the afternoon that we were finally able to sit down properly with the pastor for a conversation.

“Yes, you’ve found it well.”

After reading the memo I handed over, the pastor smiled and nodded.

“Did you know I had come from this world?”

“I felt it. However, I wasn’t sure.”

The pastor nodded at my question.

So that’s why he asked that question back then.

I swallowed hard.

I had a lot of things to discuss, but the first question that came to mind was one that might be quite upsetting if the pastor sitting before me was indeed a Christian.

Yet at the same time, I thought, “but wouldn’t this pastor not get too angry?”

“… Could it be that the God you believe in is… actually the Goddess, isn’t it?”

When I asked as politely as I could, the pastor wore the brightest smile I had seen from him that day and stood up.

He opened a drawer at the corner of his desk, rummaging for something, then brought forth two small statues and an envelope, placing them carefully in front of me.

The two statues looked like they had been crafted as someone’s hobby—but—

“It’s a statue of the Goddess.”

Pia said this so straightforwardly, as one of them resembled the Goddess I knew quite closely.

Yet it still seemed to carry a bit of an image like that of the Virgin Mary.

“I don’t want anyone misunderstanding after seeing it.”

The pastor chuckled as he spoke.