I Quit Being a Priest

There was a slightly unexpected incident, but in the end, I succeeded in purchasing plenty of spare clothes, including underwear.
The sensation of pressure on my chest and the wind that seemed to flow unusually well between my legs due to the skirt weren’t yet familiar, but at least there were fewer stares directed at me than when I was wearing those ill-fitting rags earlier.
So, I comforted myself that this would be a sensation I’d get used to soon enough, and moved toward the address the guard had written down for me.
The Central City’s office was even more massive than I had imagined. There were numerous professional devices, each worth hundreds of thousands, no, millions, lined up, and there were many strange things I had never seen before, as if proving the Empire’s scientific prowess.
The village I lived in wasn’t a rural backwater with nothing, but coming here made me feel somewhat smaller.
Surprisingly, getting an ID issued didn’t involve complicated procedures or require a long time.
The Central City appeared brighter than any other village on the surface, but in reality, it concealed the greatest darkness.
Because there were as many people without an identity as there were those with one, creating a new ID was no big deal.
In other villages, it would have been difficult to forge information like date of birth and residence, but here, just mentioning the name of one of the slum areas in the Central City often resulted in a simple ID being made.
In a place where the majority hadn’t even registered their births, there was no way for them to verify false information.
That’s why the Central City was a peculiar place that would make IDs even knowing they were fake.
I pushed the newly made ID into my wallet. It was a bit stiff because it was newly made, but that made it look more shiny and presentable.
“You said you handle holy power, correct?”
“Yes.”
The administrator, who approached me with a somewhat suspicious tone as I was turning to leave, tapped his desk a couple of times with his finger, as if trying to draw my attention.
“You’re one of the rarely blessed ones from the slums. Holy power has high utility, after all.”
Most humans handle mana. The supernatural substance that regenerates in the blood that constitutes bodily fluids.
We called the ability to handle that mana as magic power.
However, there were rare individuals who possessed holy power instead of magic power. An uncommon case, slightly more than 5 percent of the total population.
We called it a blessed power, the power that heals humans, builds barriers, breathes life into other beings, and purifies.
But.
“No.”
I had never once considered the holy power constituting my body as a blessing.
It has wide utility, but in the end, it just means I can’t handle mana. I can heal others, but I can’t inflict wounds, making it difficult to protect myself.
Holy power is a blessed power?
No.
It is.
“I am a cursed person.”
It was closer to a curse than a blessing.
A terrible curse of being abandoned by mana, the authority given only to humans.
I still resent not having the mana that everyone else has.

Having just finished the essential tasks in the Central City, I stopped by a tavern.
The emptiness and void in a corner of my heart from leaving the party hadn’t completely disappeared yet.
I still felt like Karnel would be beside me if I closed my eyes, and that those two bitches would be grumbling behind me as usual.
I had been with them for three years. A time that’s long if you consider it long, short if you consider it short.
To be honest, the time spent with them wasn’t all that bad.
I slashed through demon folk with them, and when we set out on journeys, it was more enjoyable than rotting in the Order of the Sun God, I genuinely thought so.
I thought Iris and Yuria were just a bit cold to me, not really bad people. I certainly thought that, but now it felt like I had been betrayed all at once yesterday.
I had thought they truly believed in my worth.
But it was different.
Karnel certainly acknowledged my value, but the other two didn’t.
When the image of the priest profession was declining, people questioned the necessity of a priest in the hero’s party, which was like the hope of humanity, and as a result, a lot of criticism poured onto me.
Their opinion was that if a role other than a priest entered a 4-person party, the potential would rise even more.
Come to think of it, Iris and Yuria had been cold to me since then.
Looking back now, those two probably had been firmly planning to kick me out of the party for a while, not just yesterday.
Maybe leaving earlier was actually the right answer.
“…I’d like to order.”
“Sure. What would you like?”
“Beer…”
But still unable to shake off the feeling that something was missing, I craved alcohol.
“Miss, aren’t you a minor?”
“…I was born in Imperial year 674.”
I said, shoving the newly made ID towards the owner.
As with any country, anywhere, IDs have birth dates written on them. Even if it was made at the Central City’s office and was just a formal figure that hadn’t even been fact-checked, that wasn’t the owner’s concern.
He just believed the information on the ID.
“674, so you’re twenty-two? You look younger.”
The owner, with a slightly disgruntled expression, pushed the ID back to me and poured beer into a large glass.
And watching his actions, I corrected one fact.
“I’m twenty-three.”
“Is that so? My apologies.”
It didn’t take long for a large beer glass to be placed in front of me.
The glass, larger than my face, was somewhat heavy, and as I lifted it with both hands and brought it to my lips, the owner let out a chuckle, apparently finding the sight quite amusing.
“Kekeke, you’re a funny young lady.”
Regardless, I gulped down the beer in the glass. The bitter, refreshing beer went down my throat, leaving only the lingering scent of alcohol.
I don’t particularly like alcohol. No matter how much alcohol I poured into my body, the holy power constituting my body purified even the toxins of that alcohol.
For me, it was just a liquid with a bitter taste, but now, that bitter taste seemed particularly strong.
Yet in the past, I always drank that bitter liquid as if I enjoyed it. It was because of the companions beside me.
Although I had a cursed body that couldn’t feel intoxication, drinking with them was enjoyable. If I could share a toast with them and be together in that place, I would empty several glasses of beer.
But drinking alone was bitter and fishy.
It was just a glass of alcohol, nothing more.
“Tsk, from the looks of it, you have some circumstances? You’re not getting drunk at all.”
I replied with silence to the owner who clicked his tongue, looking at me with pity. The bitter and fishy aroma of alcohol still lingered in my mouth.
Though I didn’t get drunk on alcohol, now, just now, I felt like I was getting drunk on this atmosphere.
“I don’t know what happened, but just drink for now. Sometimes, time can be a remedy.”
This is why I don’t like alcohol. I couldn’t understand why people drank this, what feeling intoxication brought that made them drink so much.
It was also one of the reasons I undervalued holy power. Sometimes, being different from others in a special way could actually isolate a person.
“Life… is really bitter.”
“Kekeke, isn’t it?”
It was a remark I made as if lamenting to the owner, with my gaze lowered due to being completely drunk on the atmosphere.
I wasn’t particularly expecting an answer, but thankfully, he empathized with my words.
I brought the glass to my lips again and drank. The beer I drank while somewhat calmed was refreshing.
Of course, if you ask if refreshing means I didn’t taste the bitterness, that would be a lie, but that too wasn’t bad.
The owner, who had been a conversational partner even to someone like me while wiping glasses with a dry towel, now felt quite familiar.

If time had just passed like this until the large glass was completely emptied, I would have met tonight’s evening with some comfort in my heart, but as with all things, not everything always moves according to plan.
I hear footsteps approaching from behind. Those footsteps don’t continue for long and reached their destination as soon as I noticed them.
“Are you alone?”
An unfamiliar man sat next to me. He didn’t look particularly pleasant.
Of course, deciding someone’s first impression based on that might be disrespectful to the other person.
But.
What was particularly unpleasant was that from our first meeting, he placed his hand on my shoulder, pretending to be familiar.
Of course, a similar situation had occurred earlier at the clothing store, but that had been a touch with the intention of checking if I was wearing underwear, and it ultimately helped me, so I could let it slide.
However, the touch reaching me now was extremely unpleasant. Enough to instantly evaporate the mood I had carefully cultivated.
“Remove your hand. It’s unpleasant.”
I tried to nervously remove the hand attached to my shoulder, but because he applied force to the hand holding my shoulder, it couldn’t be removed.
“What are you doing?”
I was a bit irritated and held holy power in my hand, with the intention of making him look quite bad if he didn’t remove his hand.
However.
“Try not to disturb that man’s mood.”
It was the owner who had been watching.
“He’s a big shot from the back alley.”