I Quit Being a Priest

Where is Luventus Village? A place that travelers who set out to subjugate the Demon Lord pass through at least once.
Of course, it’s not particularly close to the magic boundary, but it’s a village with a path leading there.
Apart from such ominous affairs, it’s a place with an impressively free atmosphere and awakened civic consciousness compared to other villages.
And as a characteristic, it was also a village where the liquor market developed because its specialty, derived from its unique terrain, became the raw material for alcohol.
Another group of travelers visited there. Whether they were brave travelers heading to the magic boundary or refugees fleeing from magical beasts.
However, judging by their attire, they seemed to be the former.
They looked exhausted, as if their journey here had been arduous, and the clothes they wore were all torn.
The first place they visited as soon as they entered this village was a tavern.
The tavern was where all information within the village circulated.
Most people who visit taverns either have information they want or come to relieve stress from their journey, but in their case, it seemed to be both.
“Welcome.”
The tavern owner greeted the guests with a hearty laugh. Perhaps because they were travelers he hadn’t seen in a while.
Given the decrease in people challenging the magic boundary these days, he seemed quite pleased by the visit of travelers.
After all, the remains of magical beasts they caught being distributed to the village would also make life easier for the residents.
“…Three glasses of the local specialty, please.”
Karnel ordered drinks from the tavern owner. There were no side dishes. He wasn’t in the mood to fill his stomach anyway.
And not long after, three glasses were placed in front of Karnel.
If he broached the main topic from the start, they might be wary. So Karnel raised his glass. It was a motion requesting a toast with his companions.
Iris, with a furrowed brow and sighing, and Yuria, watching the moody Iris’s reactions, raised their glasses and clinked them with Karnel’s.
As befitting a specialty from Luventus, where the liquor market was developed, the taste of the alcohol was excellent.
It seemed like some fruit had been fermented, capturing the first taste refreshingly, and the aftertaste felt when it went down the throat was strangely sweet.
Usually, in front of alcohol, especially such good alcohol, the atmosphere would heat up, but this time it just didn’t lift their spirits to that degree.
“…It’s delicious.”
Iris briefly spat out the lingering alcohol in her mouth and said so.
In a place where only awkward silence had settled, it seemed like something had to be said, but since her mood hadn’t risen as much as she had drunk, it was just an impression she barely uttered.
Yuria and Karnel had similar reactions. The taste of the alcohol was excellent, and if side dishes were added, it would already be a luxurious meal, but they didn’t particularly want to do that.
“You travelers don’t look too happy. Did something bad happen?”
The tavern owner approached them, perhaps not liking that they were emitting a funeral-like atmosphere even after entering the tavern.
However, the reply to his words was completely unrelated to the question.
“How many priests are there in this village?”
The thin yet sharp voice was Iris’s. Since the purpose of why they came here from the beginning was closer to information gathering, she seemed to want to achieve her goal quickly.
“I’ll pay for the information, so tell me.”
“Hmm…”
Iris extended a sum of cash in front of the tavern owner. The tavern owner wasn’t one who easily gave out information, but this time Iris’s eyes were fierce, and in the end, he had received money, so he sighed as if he had no choice and opened his mouth.

“Priest… priest…… I’m sorry to say this after receiving money, but the priests around here have suddenly disappeared, so I can’t tell you exactly. I don’t think I’ve seen any for at least the past month.”
“Suddenly disappeared?”
Karnel, who was watching from the side, narrowed his brow. It was a bit strange that priests, who weren’t that numerous to begin with, suddenly disappeared from the village.
“Yes. From what I hear, it’s not just in Luventus. In other villages, there’s even talk of an entire church being attacked by terrorists who took away all the priests inside.”
“…That’s definitely strange.”
At this point, Iris had already concluded that the church terror incident and this incident were related.
Humans who manifest holy power instead of magic power make up about 5 percent of the total population.
However, the substance that came out of the shell dragon’s body had a concentration of holy power that one or two priests couldn’t infuse.
So, if you list the given clues, it seems that some crazy terrorist group is gathering all the priests in this area.
And the byproduct is the shell dragon.
If not prevented in advance, the matter could spiral out of control. In the worst case, if that silver-haired man, who was a former comrade, was captured by them, it would be over.
For those who could create magical beasts using the concentration of holy power, the entry of that man’s holy power into their hands had to be prevented at all costs.
“Sigh…”
Even after emptying a glass of alcohol, far from feeling the effects of the alcohol, Iris seemed a bit anxious, biting her nails in impatience.
Of course, Iris also knew that that unlikable man wouldn’t be easily captured by others, but she couldn’t rule out the possibility.
“But why are you suddenly looking for priests? If you want to recruit a priest as a companion, go to the church to the east of here.”
“There’s a church?”
“Well… isn’t it normal for even small villages to have one or two churches? Although our village isn’t that large, if you go a bit east from here, there should be one.”
The tavern owner let out a small sigh. He had seen guests asking him for information quite regularly, but among them, Iris’s atmosphere was sharp enough to cut if touched carelessly.
After the silver-haired man left, the person who gave instructions disappeared, so Iris took on that role instead.
In Iris’s view, Yuria was a bit unreliable, and Karnel wasn’t particularly bright.
“So, what are you going to do, Karnel?”
“…”
There was no more information to gain from the tavern. They didn’t have the companion they wanted, nor enough clues for the problem they needed to solve urgently.
Shell dragon, church, terrorists, priest, holy power.
Combining the information given now, they couldn’t reach an answer.
More information was needed to reach an answer, and action was required to obtain that information.
“The longer we delay in this incident, the harder it will become. If a significant number of priests are already captured, who knows when they’ll be squeezed dry to create magical beasts.”
“Sorry to interrupt suddenly, but if that’s the case, why don’t we just set bait first?”
Watching Iris recite the situation aloud and organize it, Yuria finally spoke up.
Her face was a bit flushed, perhaps weaker to alcohol compared to Iris, and she continued speaking as she placed her empty glass on the table.
“You know. You said all the priests around here are being captured. Then, if we deliberately have a priest wander around this village, couldn’t we catch them in the act?”
“That’s… but the problem is where to find that priest. If these incidents have been happening consecutively, the church would also be wary of us.”
Yuria’s words had merit, but there was the fundamental problem of where to get that priest.
Even if they went to the church and explained, it didn’t seem like they would listen.
“Wait a moment.”
Iris was about to suggest ending today’s exploration and returning, but before she could open her mouth, Karnel raised his hand faster.
“I have a better method.”
Karnel stopped the conversation and spoke as if asking them to listen to his story. From three years of traveling with him, it was a verified fact that he wasn’t bright.
He wasn’t so bad as to be called stupid, but he always showed weakness in aspects that required thinking.
Therefore, neither Iris nor Yuria seemed to expect much from his words, but this time, Karnel’s action was shocking.
Karnel’s foot touched the ground a bit strongly. That somewhat forceful step soon led to a leap.
-Bang!!!
The speed of the one called a hero in the world was fast. So fast that even Iris and Yuria, his companions, let alone the tavern owner, who was just an ordinary person, couldn’t track his movements with their eyes.
In a moment, he quickly stepped, leaped, and then grabbed the head of a man with a black hood sitting at another table and pushed him against the wall.
With a loud boom, the tavern’s wall partially collapsed, with some debris falling to the floor.
“…We can just ask the person directly.”
“Wait! What are you doing!”
At his sudden action, the tavern owner was too shocked to even scream, and instead, Iris let out an astonished scream, but Karnel’s expression was more calm than ever.
“I sensed demonic energy. He’s been eavesdropping on our conversation all along.”
“…Huh?”
Karnel took action because he was confident. Though a bit slow-witted, he was skilled at sensing others’ presence or detecting demonic energy.
“And look at this arm. It’s clearly not a normal human arm.”
Although it was hard to notice because the arm was tightly wrapped in bandages, the arm that was partially exposed due to the impact of Karnel pushing him against the wall wasn’t of human skin color.
A thick arm with a purplish hue, as if the blood had drained.
Iris clicked her tongue at the form that was unpleasant to her eyes and placed her hand on that arm.
“…Holy power.”
She faintly sensed holy power. A substance that wouldn’t be in a body unless one was born with holy power.
“If they’re kidnapping priests in this area, they probably divide their personnel a bit and patrol their respective areas. So I caught one.”
Given that priests in the village had been kidnapped to the point of extinction, from their standpoint, they wouldn’t have some means to track priests.
Then how did they manage to capture priests whose whereabouts were unknown?
If one thinks simply rather than complicatedly, it’s an easy problem.
Somewhat troublesome, but they create surveillance by spreading their “eyes” throughout various villages.
It would require quite a lot of manpower, but if it’s a large-scale group, it’s not a big concern.
“Anyway, we caught one.”
Since Illis left, Karnel had become a bit more taciturn. No, is it right to describe that appearance as having become taciturn?
Karnel, who brushed off the wall debris on his clothes without any change in expression, seemed to have become a bit less humane than before.