It was a day when rain poured down in torrents.
After several days of relentless heavy rain, all the shops on the street had long since closed.
I wandered alone through the empty streets, where not even carriages were in sight.
“Ha…”
Perhaps it was because my clothes were soaked through.
It felt as if someone were grabbing my ankles, making it hard to move forward.
At that moment, a bright light appeared in front of my eyes, which had been hazy and gray.
As if guided by a signpost, I approached the warm, shining light almost instinctively.
“Stop.”
A trainee knight guarding the temple blocked my way.
“The service has already ended. Go back.”
Seeing me drenched from the rain, he muttered as if annoyed.
“Trying to come to the temple looking like that.”
I pretended not to hear him, lowering my head as I spoke.
“I want to see the cleric. My little sibling…”
“That person is busy right now. Besides, you can’t just see them because you want to.”
Despite the obvious annoyance in his voice, I didn’t step back.
“My little sibling is very sick.”
“If a child is sick, go find a healer. The temple is not a place for the poor to beg. It is a place to reflect on the words of God.”
A curse formed in my clenched teeth at his cold voice.
Damn them.
“Please… my sibling’s condition is very serious.”
The man, who had been scoffing at my plea, suddenly narrowed his eyes.
“You’re from the slums, aren’t you?”
“…”
“My goodness. You’ve got some nerve. Trying to set foot in the temple despite your low birth.”
I clenched my fists at his absurd muttering.
It was then that the temple doors, which had been firmly closed, opened.
A figure in a pure white clerical robe emerged, accompanied by a small shadow cloaked in a hood.
The moment I saw the white robes, I ran toward him blindly and clung to him.
“Cleric, please… my sibling…”
Before I could finish speaking, my body collapsed weakly into the rain.
The bronze coins I had gathered at home spilled onto the muddy ground.
It had taken me months to collect them.
As I hurriedly gathered the scattered coins, the cleric frowned at me as if I were filthy.
Brushing the mud off his sleeves, he scolded the trainee knight who had pushed me to the ground.
“Byuern, you were supposed to prevent such people from loitering around the temple.”
“Such people.”
That phrase hurt me more than lying in the mud, drenched and miserable.
“I apologize. I’ll move them away immediately.”
The knight, bowing at the cleric’s words, approached me with a menacing expression.
The moment his strong hands grabbed my armpits tightly, I let out a furious shout, sensing I was about to be dragged away.
“You bastards!”
The pent-up anger that had always hung around my throat poured into the air as if vomiting blood.
“God is merciful! You say He saves us! You say all life is precious!”
I knew.
We were not included in the “precious lives” they spoke of.
To them, a “precious life” meant someone who could give much for God.
“That insolent wretch…”
The cleric’s face turned red as if he had been insulted.
I knew I should stop, but once my mouth opened, it wouldn’t close.
“Who decided we’re not worthy?”
From the moment I was born, I had no choice in life.
All I could do was accept a future that had already been decided.
No matter how hard I worked, I could only earn enough to survive day by day.
To care for my little sibling, I had to work, and each time I went out to earn money, my sibling at home endured the illness alone, only for it to worsen.
It was a vicious cycle with no way out.
Why should a life that no one blesses be born?
Even if I asked hundreds of times, no one ever answered.
I myself did not know the answer.
My body ached in places from the rough handling as I lay on the ground.
Someone suddenly offered me a white handkerchief.
I stared at the handkerchief, then lifted my head to see who it was.
Beneath a dark hood, a pair of green eyes, gentle and kind, looked at me.
“Miss, it’s better if you don’t come closer. Being a girl from the slums, who knows what you might do?”
The trainee knight cast a scornful look, trying to stop her.
“I don’t know. To me, she doesn’t look dangerous. Isn’t it remarkable that a powerless woman was pushed to the ground?”
The handkerchief’s owner’s remark made the knight flush.
“Can you stand? Here, help this lady up.”
“Yes.”
A man called Hugh, standing behind the woman, lightly helped me to my feet.
Though not gentle, his hands were far more respectful than those of the trainee knight who had pushed me.
That said, he didn’t seem particularly pleased to help me.
His gaze toward me was chilling.
“Your generosity is admirable, but…”
The cleric who had been observing the scene spoke.
“These people neither give thanks nor offer tributes. They cling here only to seek help. If you help them every time, they will never escape this life.”
It was only because of poverty that we couldn’t give tributes.
Having nothing, we couldn’t solve problems on our own, so we had to ask for help.
And yet, after enduring so long, these words finally spilled out of me.
When I glared at him, the cleric cleared his throat awkwardly, offering a weak excuse.
“I am going to pray to God through the night… Miss, you understand how important this is, don’t you?”
“I see.”
The noblewoman smiled gracefully.
“You plan to pray through the night? Then surely you can bless the child more fully than ever.”
“Eh… yes?!”
“The Lord watches over all and grants His servants the power to show mercy.”
The cleric faltered at her clear words.
Neither the knight nor the cleric had a response.
His sharp, reddening eyes turned on me.
I was used to it.
The weak are often abused, and the cowardly remain silent, venting their frustrations on someone even weaker.
And I was at the very bottom of the food chain.
“Since I was so moved by the teachings you shared with me, perhaps you could show that mercy to the child as well?”
“Well…”
The cleric hesitated, sighing.
“Then let’s do this. After the early morning prayers, if there is time, I will come see the child.”
Hearing the reluctant words, I gritted my teeth.
“If there’s time?”
I had never left the slums.
The cleric had never once looked into the neighborhood where I lived, from the time I was a baby until I became an adult.
Right now, he cowered before the words of a noblewoman, but would he keep his promise once she left?
‘He’ll probably make some slick excuse again.’
Even if he broke his promise, I wouldn’t be able to protest properly.
As always, only unfair outcomes would befall me.
And over time, one becomes resigned to that reality.
‘But if I just accept it now…’
What about my little sibling, poor Oliver?
“Miss.”
I didn’t care about shameless insults.
What mattered was my little sibling, barely hanging on to life.
If I could save him, I could endure any further criticism.
I lifted my head and spoke to the noblewoman.
“Could you lend a carriage so I can bring my sibling to see the cleric?”
The noblewoman blinked.
“The fever won’t come down, and the child is very sick. I want the cleric to see him.”
“Nonsense!”
Hugh, who had been silent until now, shouted.
I ignored the murderous glare in his eyes and bowed low before the noblewoman.
“If you help us just this once, I will do anything.”
“You think you can do anything? This person must leave here tonight!”
His shouting made me shrink instinctively.
The courage born of desperation trembled like a flame in the wind at the knight’s outburst.
The noblewoman looked at me quietly and asked softly,
“The child must be very sick.”
“He is my only family.”
He was my one and only family.
In the slums, where people starved, froze, and died of illness, he was my only hope.
