Chapter 9 – LV.One Priest Seo Yun – [Four]

Seo Yun raised her head and looked at the faces of the people turned toward her.

First, she saw Oh Haengbok, grinning from ear to ear as if something was incredibly amusing. Kim Jihyeok was smiling subtly. And Park Taeyang was glaring at her for some reason, but she had no time to ponder why. She was still bewildered. What on earth had just happened?

“Seo Yun? You should step aside now.”

At Oh Haengbok’s words, Seo Yun unconsciously moved out of the way. Kim Jihyeok passed by her side.

“Kim Jihyeok… Rogue!”

After the teenagers’ turn, it was the adults’ turn.

The adults were either those who had failed their Class Change before and were retrying, or those attempting it late. There was an incident where a young man who changed to a Martial Artist burst into tears, vomited, and fainted, but in the end, nothing major happened.

Oh Haengbok shouted.

“Alright, dismissed! Those who didn’t get a Class Change, don’t be too upset… Those who did get one, come see me for a moment!”

Only at that moment, when the Orc’s voice echoed in her ears, did Seo Yun finally feel a sense of reality.

Belatedly, she thought. What did I change to again?

Oh Haengbok stealthily approached and spoke.

“Hey, Seo Yun, our Priest! Congratulations! I usually don’t congratulate people on their Class Change, but this is really…”

Looking at the menacing face of the Orc Vampire directed at her, Seo Yun thought. I’m fucked. She muttered inwardly that she was in real trouble.

Like this, leaving the village had become difficult.

Seo Yun had decided to leave the village two years ago.

Two years ago, Seo Yun opened her eyes amidst the ashes of ruins. When she lifted the small, naked body that was clearly not her own, she was utterly bewildered.

She didn’t know why she, who had died, had been revived in such a body, or why the world had ended up like this, but she started walking.

Wandering through the ruins in cold and confusion, she encountered a group of people. They said they were from Happy Village.

Led by them, she arrived at the village.

Seo Yun had to stand briefly in front of a certain tent, as the person who brought her said she first needed to see the Chief.

The conversation she overheard in front of the tent went roughly like this.

“Chief? I heard you brought a girl to the village.”

“Yeah. Why?”

“So, what should we do with that girl?”

“Didn’t I say to take care of her here? Send her to the aunties to get washed and fed.”

“Nothing else you want to take care of personally?”

“Why are you asking me that?”

“Well, she’s really pretty.”

“Of course a girl is pretty.”

“No, I mean she’s unbelievably pretty. I don’t know if she’s a mixed-blood or what, but she doesn’t seem like a child from this world.”

“So what do you want me to do about it? You’re not telling me this because you think I’m a pedophile, are you?”

“Even if you’re not a pedophile, Chief, other bastards could be, that’s the problem. I think you should personally step in to protect her. Unless you want to see some lunatic drop his pants in front of her.”

“Then, call her in…”

At the command to enter, Seo Yun stepped into the tent and froze.

A muscular monster with grayish skin, Oh Haengbok, was standing there.

Oh Haengbok stared piercingly at Seo Yun and muttered like this.

“Damn. She really is pretty.”

“Right? I was shocked too when I saw her.”

Once again, Oh Haengbok carefully examined Seo Yun’s face.

“She’ll be even prettier when she grows up, won’t she?”

“Probably?”

And Oh Haengbok laughed.

“Alright, what’s your name… Seo Yun? Pretty name too! So, Seo Yun? From now on, you be my little sister. If anyone bothers you, use my name. My name? Oh Haengbok. There’s no one in Incheon who doesn’t know this name.”

After that, Oh Haengbok showed interest in Seo Yun and periodically checked how she was doing.

He personally acted as her guardian to prevent adult men from taking the orphan girl lightly and approaching her. He even declared that anyone who laid a hand on Seo Yun’s shoulder would immediately be considered a pedophile and have what’s between their legs ripped off.

Amidst all this, Seo Yun couldn’t feel relieved. Thanks to that protection, there were no creepy middle-aged Misters or the like, but what about the protector, Oh Haengbok himself?

The Oh Haengbok she met that day clearly liked her appearance. He even made remarks that seemed to anticipate the future.

Even afterwards, the attention Oh Haengbok showed her was quite excessive, and it clearly seemed to be because of her outstanding looks.

And considering that Oh Haengbok was a dictator who was practically the king of the village, if he truly showed ill intent, there was no proper way to fend him off.

Because of such worries, she couldn’t even reveal her original age. For now, she seemed to look young enough that he didn’t show sexual interest, but if she revealed she was actually an adult, she could really be ‘fucked.’

Along with that, she worried. Would Oh Haengbok leave her alone once she became an adult woman? She didn’t know.

She couldn’t live harboring such anxiety. She resolved to leave as soon as she was considered an adult. And the age considered an adult in the village was seventeen in Korean age.

But on the first day of the new year, even a week after turning seventeen, Seo Yun couldn’t leave the village.

Seo Yun lamented as she crossed the village. If she had become a Warrior, she could have left the village right away.

If Seo Yun, a Warrior, had run away in the middle of the night, the villagers would have found it reprehensible, but they probably wouldn’t have considered it a major issue. One or two Warriors more or less didn’t make much difference.

But if Seo Yun, a Priest, had run away in the middle of the night, they would never have let it go. A Priest is far too important to simply let leave as they please.

Oh Haengbok, walking ahead, asked.

“So, Seo Yun? You received your Priest training well, right?”

Following behind, Seo Yun answered.

“Yes. The auntie taught me well for a week.”

Because of that, she couldn’t carry out her original escape plan—the plan to leave the village under the pretext of collecting outdoor supplies again and never return. On the very day of her Class Change, Oh Haengbok had instructed Seo Yun to receive education as a Priest.

“So now you can use Priest Spells, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good, perfect…”

Oh Haengbok walked along, chuckling. Seo Yun uneasily watched the Orc’s back, packed with muscle, and thought.

Does that bastard have ill intent or not?

Actually, being suspected like this might be unfair to Oh Haengbok.Anyway, that orc hasn’t actually done anything wrong. He’s never tried to touch me anywhere, nor has he ever examined my body parts as if licking them. He’s just shown an excessive amount of affection toward me all this time.

In fact, that affection might have arisen from pity and admiration for a little girl working day and night. Even if he really does like my appearance and shows affection because of it, he might not actually try to touch me…

But, damn it. The first impression was just too terrible to feel at ease. The trauma from that horrifyingly ugly monster orc calling me pretty on the day we first met was so severe that ever since, I’ve had a reflexive reaction just hearing the word “pretty” from anyone else.

Moreover, the problem was that in the worst-case scenario, Seo Yun wouldn’t be able to resist. The fact that her fate depended solely on the whims of the village dictator gave Seo Yun near-paranoid anxiety.

Feeling so uncomfortable and having almost no close friends, there really was no reason not to leave.

And now, Oh Haengbok was creating reasons why Seo Yun shouldn’t leave the village.

Oh Haengbok stopped in front of a tent. With a friendly wave, he said,

“Mr. Jinyeong, Ms. Hyeseon. How have you been?”

“Yes, Chief…”

The young man and woman standing in front of the tent bowed toward Oh Haengbok. Oh Haengbok shook his head.

“No, you should greet this young lady, not me? She’s the one who’s going to do the favor.”

The couple turned their heads toward Seo Yun. The woman asked,

“Are you a priest, miss?”

“Ah, yes.”

As Seo Yun answered, the woman bowed her head.

“Thank you in advance. We’re truly grateful.”

While Seo Yun bowed in return, Oh Haengbok instructed,

“Alright, Seo Yun? Light the fire. Inside that tent…”

Inside the couple’s tent was a hearth. However, there was no kindling or firewood fuel inside the hearth, but that didn’t matter.

Standing before the hearth, Seo Yun did as she had learned over the past week.

She focused her mind. She recited the spell she had acquired upon changing her class to a Level 1 Priest. Closing her eyes as if in prayer, she said,

“By the Goddess’s Grace.”

As Seo Yun slowly opened her eyes, her vision filled with a crimson glow.

A fire was burning in the fuel-less hearth. Seo Yun knew this was her doing.

The First-Tier Spell of a Hearth Priest, ‘Divine Flame.’ Supernatural fire. A fire that spreads heat by burning faith, not fuel.

Not even smoke rose from that fire. As the tent, which had been as cold as a freezer, began to warm, Oh Haengbok said,

“Pray to this fire every day. You know the fire only stays lit if you pray consistently, right? The usage fee for the flame is 1 Contribution Point per day, but that will be deducted automatically, so keep that in mind.”

Finally, receiving the couple’s bows, Oh Haengbok and Seo Yun left the tent.

Oh Haengbok said with a satisfied expression,

“They’re getting married this time, you see? Since they’re newlyweds, we should give them a separate home, but there weren’t any Hearth Priests available to create a fire. But now we have one.”

In this day and age, getting your own home is difficult. Not because houses are scarce, but because fire is scarce.

The surrounding mountains have already been completely deforested, turned into bare hills, and the street trees were cut down long ago, leaving only stumps. We can’t even get coal. How are you supposed to find fuel to light a fire?

And in this cold world, living separately without fire is impossible.

If the few Hearth Priests in the village light fires inside tents, hundreds of people have to live together in one giant tent. Privacy is almost impossible. At best, you can set up partitions made of leather and iron rods.

In such conditions, it’s difficult for couples to have intimate relations. So, the village prioritizes married couples who have started families, allowing them to live separately by providing a Hearth Priest’s fire, but there aren’t enough Hearth Priests to extend this benefit to every family.

And now, another Hearth Priest has finally been born. As many families as the number of fires a priest can create will be able to get their own tents and live separately. Thus, they will reclaim a little bit of the life from before, before the world ended.

“Let’s see, our Seo Yun’s Mental Stat is…”

“9.”

“Then you can use First-Tier Spells nine times? That’s amazing. That bastard Park Taeyang only has a Spirit of 4, so he can only use First-Tier Spells four times. How the hell did that bastard even become a priest?”

Even Park Taeyang, who is now being criticized, becoming a priest was considered a blessing for the village.

Seo Yun glanced outside the fortress wall.

Outside the fortress wall, the area around the village was surrounded by brilliant light sources.

That, too, is a priest’s miracle.

Beneath those light sources were fields.

Just as Hearth Priests can create flames, Sun Priests can create light sources that scatter solar heat. That miracle is essential for farming.

The gray sky, where the sun is obscured by ash and dust, doesn’t provide enough light energy for farming. Now, people can’t even farm without divine miracles.

With the birth of Sun Priest Park Taeyang, Happy Village’s farmland will have expanded even further. Seo Yun didn’t even want to imagine how smug that bastard must be right now.

‘In the Immortal Kingdom’s Rulebook, the priest class was also described as theocratic rulers, I think. In reality, priests are considered one of the three great nobles alongside Paladins and Mages…’