Raising Paladins

Episode 21. I didn’t know the driver (4)

Dalgrak, moongrak.

Fruit crates in the luggage compartment scratch each other and chatter.

While listening to that, Carl quietly looked at the distant mountain.

Time has passed 200 years, but the mountains and fields remain the same.

The architecture of towns and cities has changed slightly.

It seems that various devices that are helpful to humans have been invented.

However, nature is the same.

The sun, the symbol of God, the clouds that support it, and the water of the river are all the same.

Maybe 200 years from now.

Technology will advance and new leaders will talk all kinds of things.

But nature and people remain the same.

It sprouts, flowers, and grows trees, which shed their leaves in the winter.

We are born, we love, we get sick and we die.

While I was thinking about that, Terrence, who was holding the reins, spoke to me.

“When did you come to Meirium?”

“It’s been a few days now.”

After being saved from the danger of becoming an asshole.

Terrence fell in love with Carl.

Even though he urged him to speak softly, Carl was also speaking comfortably now.

“You were too. I thought it must be because I heard that someone I had never seen before was in the temple.”

“Do you know the temple people well?”

“I know the others, but Tira is my childhood friend.”

“… … There was such a connection.”

Carl looked at Terrence with a slightly suspicious look.

‘A guy who looks 30 years old is the same age as Tira?’

The hard work in the scorching sun made Terrence look much older than his years.

Regarding Terrence’s failure to confess to a woman named Merilda earlier, someone said, ‘It’s not the legs, it’s the face!’

I sympathized a little.

“Tira, when she was young, she was so condescending and used to get into fights with boys, so I wondered what she would be like when she grew up, but she became a priest. Everyone I was hanging out with was very surprised.”

“Did Tira have a fight?”

that cheerful guy?

In Tirae now, it’s hard to find anything like fighting spirit.

It’s Tira’s daily routine to think about how to be more kind to the sick and how to do laundry more cleanly.

No, if that is also a kind of fighting spirit, is it fighting spirit?

Anyway, I laughed when he said that such a guy had a big-hearted childhood (?).

“It seems that priest doesn’t know yet. Tira, that guy, is a rhinoceros who doesn’t care if he has a bad temper. Although she is slim, she is quite strong because she has been farming with her parents since she was young and taking care of cows and horses. Even the boys in the village were beaten by Tira one by one before their armpit hair grew.”

“Hoo… … How about you?”

“Heh, me too. Hiding in a strawberry bush in the middle of the night and startling a passer-by Tira, I hit her nose with her left fist. I remember my dad trying to kick me out for getting hit by a girl and giving me a nosebleed. The next day, Tira said she was sorry and made lemon tea, and I remember how delicious it was.”

“Tira’s lemon tea is excellent.”

“Oh, have you tried it?”

“hmm.”

every time i ate

Tira is taming Daryls with that delicious lemon tea.

I’m learning in great detail about the role of stick and carrot.

Carl smiled as he remembered Tira.

“Anything good?”

“I thought of Tira. I work very hard to become a good priest.”

“I will. He’s a guy who does everything with sincerity. I’m a fool who doesn’t know much about temples or priests, but I know that Tira will make a good priest. I’m sure it will.”

Tira, who took care of the knife she had never seen before, without any conditions.

Even though he might become the target of Hanson’s gang and cause a feud.

Just by looking at it, you could tell what Tira’s personality was like.

Carl also actively agreed with Terrence that Tira would make a good priest.

“hmm. You will be a great priest. I will teach you well.”

“Please take care of me. Even from our village, everyone would shrug their shoulders if a famous priest came out.”

“i get it. however.”

Carl pulled Daryl’s map out of his pocket and held it out.

He unfolded it and pointed to one part.

“What kind of place is this?”

The part the knife points to.

It was located halfway between Meirium and the destination, Tournoble.

Although the map is crude, the other parts are drawn in quite detail, but only there was a rough drawing, and there was no explanation, so Carl asked.

“There… … .”

Terrence glanced at the map.

His expression darkened slightly.

“It’s the border between town and town. To put it simply, it is a lawless zone.”

“Lawless Zone?”

“yes. Isn’t this the outskirts of the empire where the power of the central army of the capital cannot reach? Now, each town’s forces have vigilantes to protect the town, or the mayor’s soldiers maintain security. But those soldiers are few in number.”

“I guess so. The mayor’s privates would have been made up of the mayor’s money.”

In Carl’s previous life, two types of forces existed in the city.

One is the security guard, the troops of the city lord that Terrence just talked about.

Mainly, the knights from the academy are at the center.

The other is the holy knights of the temple.

After all, the battle priests and the most outstanding paladin among them are the center.

However, now the tribes of the Sun Temple have been reduced in power and almost do not exist.

It is said that the Noon Church and the Dusk Church are more successful than the Dawn Church, but it seems that they are not as good as before.

That’s why guys like Hanson’s gang must be active.

There is no way private organizations like the police force or Hanson’s gang are patrolling the outskirts of the city.

The fact that Hanson has set up a few outposts is also to prevent invasions from the Outer Lawless Zone.

So there is a grim zone in the guard gap between the two cities.

Carl, who instantly understood Terrence’s explanation, asked him.

“The lawless zone is 90% of the reason why a convoy is needed to transport fruit.”

“you’re right. Actually, that’s the way to get there, because Captain Hanson has set up a few outposts, and the occasional horse raiders don’t want to fight Hanson’s gang. but… … .”

slap!

hee hee hee!

A horse that was blinded by the wild grass that bloomed on the roadside.

Terrence, who ruled the horse with a whip, looked at the knife.

“The scavengers who live in the Lawless Zone are ignorant bastards who will stick their weapons first, no matter who their opponent is. It’s even more extreme after learning that the fruit procession from Meirium must cross the Lawless Zone.”

“Is there no way back?”

“There is, but it takes too long. A week is enough. Then the condition of the fruits will be bad.”

“You’ll have to go through lawless zones to get your money’s worth.”

“yes. The scavengers found out about it, so these days you almost have to risk your life to ascend. If you’re traveling on a small scale, you can don a black cloak and make your way through the lawless zone in the middle of the night. But as you can see, the year-end peddling is huge. That’s why we pay a huge escort fee to Hanson’s gang.”

“hmm… … .”

Carl rested his chin and was lost in thought.

Seeing that, Terrence was a little worried.

I wondered if the talk of the lawless zone had intimidated me a little.

But Carl had other ideas.

‘You mean scavengers live in colonies in lawless areas? Then all the wealth they robbed will be piled up there.’

Perhaps the outcasts who wandered from city to city became a group of robbers as they settled one by one in the lawless zone.

They wouldn’t have robbed passing merchants and entrusted them to temples in the surrounding cities.

I’m sure their fortunes are piled up somewhere in the Lawless Zone.

Carl planned to gulp it down.

‘Because it was stolen from someone else anyway, and I can’t find the owner one by one… … It’s okay to use it for something good, right?’

Carl looked at the sun in the sky for no reason.

Then, a question popped up in Carl’s mind.

‘Wait a minute, do temples continue to store wealth these days?’

Even in Carl’s previous life, the temple performed a variety of tasks.

Treatment of the sick, sales of healing potions, local sacred security and welfare, etc.

One of those various tasks was to take care of the local people’s money and valuables.

However, at that time, it was possible because each temple had a considerable size of the Holy Knights.

Now that all the temples have shrunk in size, they really won’t be able to carry out the valuables storage business except for a few.

“Terrence.”

“yes?”

“Where do people leave their money these days?”

“That is, of course, a jewelery workshop.”

“Jewelry workshop?”

“yes. What’s wrong?”

“It’s not like that… … .”

Carl fell into a short thought again.

and after some time

“Are the jewelry workshops taking care of crones, jewels, and valuables and issuing certificates?”

“you’re right. It says how many jewels you entrusted, and how much you get paid.”

“Are you talking about interest?”

“yes. If you deposit 1 megakron, you usually earn 10 cron interest per year.”

“I see. The work of the temple was done by the jewelry workshop. There are no troops in the temple to protect the valuables and jewels, so I found another substitute.”

“What do you mean by that? What is a temple?”

“no. don’t mind.”

As soon as the temple lost its former majesty, people would immediately go to find the crones and various jewels they had entrusted to them.

But I would have been too anxious to leave those precious things at home.

So, while looking for a new place to keep it, it must have been a jewelery workshop.

Because the jewelery workshop has a strong safe that stores the jewels that rich people entrusted to them.

In addition, thanks to the absolute rule that money always attracts dung flies, places like jewelry workshops always have a small group of enlisted soldiers.

Perhaps the locals found the safest alternative.

Of course, it was a painful change in history for Carl.

‘Keugh… … What a great business to take care of cron and receive interest… … !’

Taking other people’s money and lending it back to others.

The lender receives interest and pays part of the interest to the lender.

What about the remaining interest on that?

It was all part of the temple.

There is also a branch that manages the sanctuary of the temple only with the profits generated from the crone and valuables storage business, so efficiency is said to be all over.

The honeypot business was taken away.

From the point of view of the reincarnated sword, it was to the point of jumping up and down.

‘There’s nothing left right. Selling broken glass, unable to heal divine power, and now even storing valuables… … !’

Carl unknowingly tore his hair.

Then Terrence asked with a worried face.

“excuse me… … Are you okay? If you’re concerned, may I suggest avoiding the Lawless Zone?”

Terrence still thought Carl’s pain was due to the Lawless Zone.

Carl said to Terrence.

“no! Let’s go to the Lawless Zone right now! Run to the place where the most scavengers appear!”

“Yes?”

“hurry! I need to meet them right now!”

“… … ???”

Carl suddenly pulled out the wooden sword from his waist and became indignant!

Terrence was puzzled as to what the hell was going on.