Wasn’t This a Night Game

I’ll Buy This Garbage Land

I marched into the slum once more, a string of people trailing behind me.

If you were looking for the most useless, the most garbage-ridden land in the capital, it’d undoubtedly be in the slums, or so I reckoned.

The moment I stepped into the slum, a huge crowd started following in my wake.

“Saint! Heal us!!”

“Grant us your grace!!”

Damn, too many people are tailing me. At this rate, I’ll get hauled in by the guards for inciting an illegal assembly, wouldn’t I?

Bloody hell.

Gotta shake these people off, quick as I can.

I surveyed the slum, finally spotting the most wretched, most seemingly worthless plot of land I could hope for.

Crumbling, dilapidated buildings everywhere, and an eerily transformed abandoned factory.

Industrial waste and trash scattered about, a dismal land you wouldn’t visit even if paid.

The kind of place where you’d expect junkies to be snorting white powder somewhere in the shadows.

As I, followed by a throng of people, tried to enter the abandoned factory zone, a man, seemingly a guard protecting the factory, walked towards me.

“You can’t go any further! This is the land of the Karma Family!”

The old guard, his eyes dim, didn’t seem to recognize me.

I slowly approached him and placed my hand on his head.

[Activating Skill: Body Modification!]

After restoring the old man’s vision, his arthritis, and so on, to normal, he finally recognized me and froze.

“Can you see now?”

“I, I can see. I can see! Holy One!!”

“Go and fetch the owner of this land.”

“Y-yes, I will!! I will do so!!!”

The guard, moving with a speed you wouldn’t imagine a body that old capable of, quickly ran off somewhere, only to reappear with an aging middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man looked exactly like…

Scrooge.

A grim, harsh middle-aged man who looked like gold coins would bleed out instead of blood if you stabbed him.

He approached me with a crooked expression, accompanied by the guard.

“I’m the factory owner here. You wanted to see me?”

“That’s right.”

“What’s your business? If you’re asking to let those beggars inside, I must decline.”

I shook my head at his words.

“Give me this factory land. I’ll pay a proper price.”

The factory owner erupted in laughter at my words.

“Alright. I’ll admit it. You must’ve heard the rumors, eh? Started a doll factory, didn’t go well. But even so, this factory lot is so vast, do you really have the capital to buy it all?”

I shook my head.

I don’t.

All I have is the money I earned from part-time work at the diner.

Even added all up, would that amount to enough to buy this factory land?

“The Lilia Order will purchase it.”

Of course, the Order has to pay.

The Lilia Order is undeniably one of the empire’s largest Orders.

No matter how expensive, they would have more than enough to pay.

Of course, even for such a large Order, buying land of this scale in the middle of the capital… if I screw this up, they’ll take a proper loss.

A loss that won’t bankrupt the Order, but will sting just right.

After taking that loss, everyone will know for certain that I am incompetent.

I look at the High Priest.

The High Priest looks back at me.

Even with that gaze, it’s a face that says, Surely you’re not thinking of building a temple on this trash heap of land, are you???

Yeah.

Exactly that.

“Purchase the land with the Order’s funds. This place is absolutely necessary to fulfill the Goddess’s words.”

I roughly glossed over it like that.

Of course, the Goddess’s words or whatever, I don’t know shit about that stuff.

It’s just that this land seems the most useless even amongst the slums, so I’m buying it.

If I pour all sorts of money and manpower into this, build a flamboyant and extravagant temple, and live a dissolute life every day without doing a single saintly thing, they’ll drop off on their own, right?

“…Understood. If that is the Goddess’s will.”

The High Priest steps forward.

And approaches Scrooge.

“I am Yodel, High Priest of the Lilia Order.”

“Jonathan Carmayo. I’m just saying, having built a cheap factory here myself, other than the dirt-cheap land prices for a capital, there’s not a single good thing about this land. I don’t know what you’re planning to do buying it, but you’ll fail like me. I guarantee it.”

“It is a matter dictated by the Goddess. We must purchase it.”

Scrooge. No.

Jonathan Carmayo gives us a look that screams ‘what a bunch of morons…’ before waving his hand.

“Follow me. We’ll draw up the contract at my house. I’m actually happy to be rid of this useless land that only cost me taxes!!”

And so, we headed to Jonathan’s house.

*

Being a factory owner, I thought he’d live in some extravagant house, but Jonathan Carmayo was living in a dilapidated house near the slums.

He wasn’t sleeping on the streets like the poor, but looking at the state of his house, he seemed no different from a poor man who just happened to have a house.

“Honey. You’re home?”

Stepping into Jonathan’s home, a woman who looked like his wife, thin and sickly, coughed, greeting Jonathan.

Jonathan, seeing her, immediately erupted.

“What the hell are you doing crawling out here if you can’t even take your medicine right? Get back inside and lie down!!”

“I was just trying to make you dinner…”

“What food is there in this house?! Just go inside and lie down! Worthless thing, costing me only for medicine!!”

The way he barked, so crude, it screamed wife-beater.

You could see the angles right away.

Looks like he tried to start a factory, get into business, but it didn’t pan out.

So, of course, the family’s relationship is twisted up too.

Jonathan’s wife coughed, cautiously retreating into the room.

Inside, the air throbbed with a sour mildew and a musty, rotting stench from the lack of ventilation.

So bad, even the High Priest momentarily wrinkled his nose at the sharp smell that clawed at his nostrils.

“Alright. I need at least 40,000 Salreds. That’s my condition!”

Jonathan spat out the words harshly.

The High Priest’s eyes widened at that.

“You’re asking 40,000 Salreds for this crumbling land?”

“Yeah!”

“Even after seeing all the trash and waste scattered across this factory site, you’re demanding that price?”

“Take it or leave it!!! 40,000 Salreds! That’s my condition!!”

A gangster’s price, utterly mismatched with this garbage heap of a land.

But it didn’t matter.

The Order would be paying anyway.

My goal was to waste their money by buying useless, trash-filled land at an absurdly high price.

The High Priest seemed hesitant.

But he glanced at me, then his expression shifted to one of fervent belief, and he nodded.

“I will contact the Temples of the Lilia Order across the nation. Paying a sum of that magnitude requires the consent of several regional Temples, so please wait a moment.”

“Tomorrow! Bring it all tomorrow, right away!! Otherwise, the deal is off!”

The High Priest’s face twisted even further.

“Tomorrow is impossible, even for us. Grant us a little more leeway. The sum you’re requesting is substantial, and we need some time to gather the…”

“If you can’t do it, no deal!! Get out!!”

Even *I* was taken aback by my own screeching tone.

If I were him, I’d have hurled insults or just walked away, but the High Priest, perhaps mindful of who I was, the Saint, didn’t let his displeasure show too much.

“Please, allow me a brief discussion.”

The High Priest led me outside the house for a moment.

“Saint. This is an absurd condition. Not only have you asked far too much for this land, but we’re also now stuck with the disposal of waste and other refuse. Furthermore, the vendor is demanding payment tomorrow. It seems best to abandon this transaction.”

“Nevertheless, we must proceed.”

*Because I’m determined to make your Order lose money. It’s the only way you won’t abandon me, treating me like I’m some kind of idiot.*

“…If you insist, I will comply, but according to the rules, sums exceeding 10,000 Salred require the consent of all regional Temples. Even so, procuring the funds by tomorrow is impossible. We need more time.”

High Priest Yodel looked utterly apologetic.

Being faced with such a look, from someone I was openly trying to screw over, pricked my conscience a little, but what could I do?

I… I need to live too!!

“Find a way to get the money by today, no matter what. This land, I absolutely have to buy it.”

My insistence made old man Yodel look troubled, lost in thought, before finally nodding his head.

“I understand. I’ll find a way to scrape together the money…”

“aaagh!!!!”

Before our conversation could even finish, a desperate scream suddenly erupted from inside Jonathan Karma’s house.

The tremendous sound made me and High Priest Yodel hastily return inside.

Entering, we saw people staring at the center of the room with expressions of horror.

“Lovers of the Sun! By the Sun!! It’s the Rotting Sickness!!!!”

“You kept a Rotting Sickness patient within the capital?! This is illegal!! Jonathan Karma!!!”

We heard the Sun Order’s paladins and the police shout in alarm.

Pushing past them, entering the room, the stench of rot and mildew intensified, and we saw Jonathan Karma and his wife, barring people with panicked expressions.

“Don’t come closer! Don’t come near my daughter!!”

“Our daughter can, can be healed!! Even with the Rotting Sickness, she can be healed!! We’ve given her medicine to suppress the contagiousness! She’s not a problem even if she stays here! Please!”

Scrooge’s face was completely shattered, unlike just moments before.

Scrooge, flailing his hands desperately, trying to protect his daughter, and Scrooge’s wife, embracing their daughter and wailing, looked utterly pathetic.

And rightfully so.

The two people’s daughter, the one they were trying to protect, looked horrifying, her entire body rotting.

Is this what Hansen’s disease feels like?

Black pus streamed incessantly from her festering skin.

Alive, a wonder considering the wretched state she was in.

In that state, the daughter thrashed, writhing in agony.

“It hurts!! It hurts!! Kill me!! Kill me!!”

The daughter screamed, struggling wildly.

The watching cops, unable to bear it, drew their pistols.

“Jonathan Karma!! You are under arrest for harboring a contagious patient in the capital without authorization!! Step away from your daughter now…Holy One! Holy One! Don’t!!”

I lowered their pistols, slow and deliberate.

Approached Jonathan Karma and his wife.

“D-don’t come closer!! Don’t come closer!! She’s my daughter! I can’t abandon my daughter!!”

His shouts held no threat.

He was now merely a pitiable middle-aged man, old, sick, and worn down by reality.

“I don’t believe in Healing Saints!! You… Do you know how many frauds like you there are? How much they took, using the excuse of curing my daughter? My wealth! My money! You’re all the same!! Don’t come closer!! You swindler!! You goddamn dog!!”

Jonathan Karma swung a fist at me.

My nose burst open, blood gushing out.

“Holy One!!!”

“That goddamn dog, daring to hit the Holy One!!…”

The Paladins moved to draw their swords, but I stopped them.

I wiped the blood from my nose and silently regarded Jonathan Karma and his wife.

“Step aside.”

Just look at that girl, suffering.

Even if I’m screwing the Order for my own selfish ends, letting someone suffer when I could fix them… that’s just too garbage, ain’t it?

I had to fix this woman.

The couple seemed to feel some kind of pressure, trembling and backing away, seeing my face not even twitching despite the nosebleed from their punch.

I went to the thrashing kid.

“It hurts!! It hurts!! Kill me!! aaarrggh!!”

Tears streaming, she writhed and convulsed as I placed my hand on her head.

Like those little girls selling matches in the back alleys.

Like this woman here.

It’s just…too damn pitiful, ya know?

“It’s okay.”

I cast the skill.

“You won’t hurt anymore.”

With a crack like snapping bone.

The woman’s body started to change.