Ronald dusted off his gold-and-red linen robe and explained to Orum:
"The pay for this mission is pitiful, but the Captain is very interested in the mission itself, especially that 'portal.'"
"Also, intelligence reports indicate that minotaur traces have appeared near Locke Village. We can hunt them along the way."
Ronald turned and patted the carriage, shrugging helplessly.
"As for negotiations, the two in the carriage are useless right now. It's the Captain's daily meditation time, and Raygore's would only terrify the civilians."
"We'll stop here for thirty minutes. The mission files mention that the witness, Reid, not only saw the goblins appear but also picked up a special item that appeared alongside them."
"The Captain instructed us that if this item truly comes from another plane, we should buy it directly."
Before walking toward the inn, Ronald gave one final reminder:
"Orum, people in these lawless areas outside the city are very sensitive.
We need to be more careful with our words and actions to avoid disputes. Understand?"
"Understood." Orum responded calmly.
Ronald greeted the two people inside the carriage, then led Orum toward the Grass Inn.
On the slope in front of the inn, black sewage flowed across, reeking of rotting fruit, as if no one had cleaned it since the day it was built.
The moment they stepped through the door, an even more intense, nauseating stench hit them head-on.
In the height of summer, the entire inn was like a steaming pot of excrement.
On the filthy outer wall of the kitchen, hundreds of flies had gathered, frantically sucking at the sewage.
Such temperature and scenery were enough to make an ordinary person pass out.
A burly woman sat at the kitchen entrance, using her calloused, rough hands to deftly process some black wild vegetables, plucking the small thorns from the stems one by one.
Looking at these black vegetables, Orum's memory stirred. He recognized this unnamed wild plant; it seemed to be a specialty of the kingdom's southern border.
His predecessor's parents often mixed its stems and leaves into thin porridge for dinner.
Noticing their approach, the woman stopped her work.
She lifted her head, a pair of wary eyes fixed on Orum and Ronald, greedily examining their bright, clean clothes that looked completely out of place in these surroundings.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" the woman asked, her voice harsh and deeply guarded.
"Good afternoon, madam." Ronald removed his bowler hat and bowed slightly.
"We are two adventurers looking for a guest. His name is Reid, black hair.
Two days ago, he checked into the Grass Inn with his wife and lovely daughter."
"Looking for Reid?" The woman pointed at three dormitory-style earthen-walled houses in succession, then impatiently shooed them away.
"He's in one of those rooms! Find him and get lost. We don't welcome outsiders here!"
Just as she spoke, Orum keenly noticed that her gaze involuntarily darted quickly backward toward an independent gray house.
Orum instantly understood, but his face remained impassive, eyes lowered, quiet as a servant at Ronald's side.
"Thank you for your guidance." Ronald thanked the woman, his polite smile impeccable.
He led Orum toward the inn rooms the woman had indicated.
As soon as they turned the corner and left the woman's line of sight, Ronald suddenly lowered his voice:
"There's a black mine shaft hidden in this inn, right behind the gray house."
"How do you know?" Orum asked curiously.
"I guessed," Ronald said with a cold smile. "Maybe it's a black mine shaft, maybe a warehouse for hiding stolen goods, or maybe just a few corpses that are difficult to dispose of..."
Ronald took a deep breath, his eyes growing colder. "In any case, I smell the stench of sin."
A flash of killing intent passed, and Orum instinctively reached for his sword hilt, but halfway there, reason made him forcibly stop, changing the motion to touching his hair instead.
Now wasn't the time to alert them.
As for Ronald, this priest who worshipped Lathander, being able to smell out criminals with his nose, Orum had no doubt.
The power of the Morninglord was so great that he could naturally grant his followers various miraculous abilities, including the talent to perceive evil.
Noticing Orum's movement, Ronald praised in a voice only the two of them could hear:
"Yes, exactly like that. We need to pretend nothing happened first."
With that, Ronald whistled casually, his eyes rolling around, his face full of nonchalance, hands clasped in front of him.
"Your acting is way too obvious! Why are you whistling?!" Orum cursed internally.
"Ahem, after we finish the mission, we'll come back and clean this place out."
Ronald seemed to realize his performance was a bit over the top and had already attracted others' attention.
He coughed once and his expression returned to normal.
Ronald and Orum came to the first dormitory, scanning the occupants who were either numb or asleep.
They didn't see anyone who looked like Reid or a mother and daughter.
Then they went to the second room, still no sign of Reid.
Just as Orum turned to head to the third room, Ronald stopped as if he'd discovered something, calling out to Orum:
"Wait for me a moment."
A moment later, Ronald emerged from the second dormitory, holding the hand of a thin figure wrapped tightly in a tattered cloak.
Ronald gently lifted her cloak, revealing the brown hair underneath.
It was clearly a little girl who looked less than twelve years old.
"This is..." Orum saw the little girl's face clearly and his breath instantly caught.
Not just because the little girl was malnourished, her face yellow and thin, like a skeleton.
But also because, from the tip of her nose across her entire left cheek, shocking ulcers had spread, and her swollen cheek was covered with countless red blisters clustered together, completely destroying what had once been a gentle face, as if half her face had been kissed by the devil.
Through her ragged clothing, one could clearly see that every inch of her exposed skin was covered with the same scalp-tingling red spots and ulcers.
Wounds from scratching the itchiness had festered again, creating a horrifying, unbearable sight on her skin's surface.
"Don't be afraid, child, look at me." Ronald knelt down, looking directly into the girl's eyes, his voice gentle:
"I am Ronald, a priest of the Morninglord, Lathander. Can you tell me your name?"
"...Mia." The girl's voice was barely audible, but her eyes were unusually clear.
Despite enduring tremendous physical torment, those eyes still retained obvious gentleness and tranquility.
Orum remained silent, a chill rising from the bottom of his heart.
He had already recognized this disease. It had ravaged the Middle Ages for hundreds of years, from nobles to commoners, all lived in endless fear and despair, their faces changing color at its mention.
This disease was called leprosy.
In the Middle Ages, leprosy was an incurable disease. In its early stages, it caused large areas of lesions, leading to disfigurement.
As the disease progressed to later stages, a leper's face would become severely deformed, resembling a "lion face" (protruding brow ridges, collapsed nasal bridge, thick everted lips).
The peripheral nerves would be hollowed out by bacteria, fingers and toes numb like dead wood, feeling nothing even when burned or cut.
Repeated injuries deepened the ulceration until finger joints fell off and toe bones dissolved, leaving behind curled "claw hands" and feet that couldn't straighten.
If facial nerves were damaged, it would cause incomplete eyelid closure, crooked mouth corners, or even blindness.
(/n: I don't know recommend searching for images while eating)
Such terrifying symptoms caused people with leprosy to suffer endless discrimination.
People firmly believed this was divine punishment for sin, that leprosy was a symbol of uncleanness.
Therefore, lepers were often forcibly expelled from human society, isolated in caves or wilderness, dying miserably.
"Leprosy. Fortunately, it's only the early stage, not yet deep into the bone marrow."
Ronald explained. He reached out one hand and gently placed it on top of Mia's head:
"Mia, don't be afraid. I'll treat you right now. You'll be fine soon."
Ronald began chanting in a low voice, his tone becoming unprecedentedly solemn:
"In the name of my lord Lathander, dispel the filth from this body. Dawn arrives, light is reborn!"
A rich, brilliant light, like the first ray of dawn's morning glow, a pale golden holy radiance, burst forth from his palm!
Instantly enveloping the girl's thin body completely!
That sacred power was like flowing liquid sunlight, seeping into every inch of Mia's body, washing away the disease entrenched within her.
Orum clearly saw wisps of black smoke forced out from within Mia's body, burning like fire under the holy light's illumination, turning to nothing in an instant.
First Circle Spell: Lesser Restoration!
In the blink of an eye, the golden radiance dimmed. Like a miracle, the ulcers on the girl's face had completely disappeared, leaving only new, delicate skin.
The red spots covering her body had also faded by more than half.
The shadow of death that had surrounded her was completely dispelled by this light of dawn.
"I..." Mia touched her cheeks in disbelief. She could feel that her body had undergone earth-shattering changes.
"It's all over, child, it's all over."
Ronald wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled brilliantly at the girl.
"Go back and wash your body thoroughly, change into clean clothes, and it won't recur."
Hearing Ronald's words, Mia first froze, then awkwardly wrung her hands at the hem of her clothes, wanting to speak but hesitating.
"What's wrong?" Ronald keenly noticed.
"I... I don't have other clothes."
The girl's voice was barely audible.
Ronald looked at what could barely be called clothes, more like rags on her body, suddenly understanding. He took several silver coins from his pocket and pressed them into her palm:
"Go buy some clothes. And don't let anyone see you have money."
Ronald instructed.
"Thank you... thank you..." Mia accepted the silver coins, sensibly hiding them in her sleeve.
"Goodbye, Mia." Ronald turned and walked a few steps toward the third house, but Orum stopped him.
"Look back." Orum said.
Ronald turned back and saw Mia standing alone at the entrance of the second room, still watching them.
Her emaciated body was like a small tree, as if it could be snapped by a strong wind at any moment, falling to the ground, never to rise again.
Feeling Mia's gaze, Ronald suddenly understood something and asked: "Don't you have any family here?"
Mia shook her head vigorously.
"An orphan... in a place like this, there's no way to survive."
Ronald sighed, saying to the girl with compassion: "Wait for me here.
At most a few days, when I finish my mission, I'll come back and take you to the relief house in Blackwater Town."
Hearing this, Mia's eyes suddenly brightened. For the first time, intense emotion appeared in her gaze, as if a frozen winter river had shattered thunderously under the warm spring sun.
"Thank you, Lord Ronald!"
"Thank the Morninglord! Have faith in Lathander, He will illuminate the world for you!" Ronald laughed.
...
After saying goodbye to Mia, Ronald's confident expression suddenly stiffened, gradually becoming somewhat pale.
By the end, there was even a sense of exhausted weakness.
Ronald's body swayed violently, stumbling, about to fall to the ground!
Orum quickly caught him, asking in surprise: "What's wrong?! Spell consumption too great?!"
"No, I remembered something painful," Ronald explained weakly:
"When I encounter something unbearable, I apply for divine power to seal away the memory of that thing."
"And just now, at the moment I made that promise to Mia, I remembered something truly terrible."
"What?" Orum asked urgently, his heart alert.
Ronald's hand rested on Orum's shoulder, his pale fingers trembling, his voice full of pain: "I remembered... this month's loan payment... I can't pay it back!!"
(/n: Gu hahaha)
Orum: "??????"
Two minutes later, Orum learned the whole story from Ronald.
It turned out that the relief house in Blackwater Town, specifically used to shelter orphans and widows, was established by Ronald and several other followers of Lathander pooling their funds.
However, after the relief house began operating, various unexpected expenses skyrocketed, quickly draining Ronald's account.
To maintain the relief house's operations, Ronald also borrowed a large loan. After each monthly payment, his pockets were nearly empty.
"This is... serious mismanagement, isn't it?" Orum looked at the grief-stricken Ronald with half-closed eyes.
"As a member of the Ice Eagle, you have a high income. How can you not even pay back your loan?"
"If you can't pay back your loan, are you still going to borrow this money? What about the others you partnered with?" Orum pressed.
Mentioning his companions, Ronald's expression became even more tragic: "They also took out loans, even larger amounts than mine..."
"You all truly are followers of Lathander, stepping up when there's trouble, huh?" Orum covered his face.
After thinking for a moment, Orum helped Ronald to a shabby chair and asked: "How much do you owe?
I'll help you cover part of it, and you can pay me back later when you have the chance."
"I'm short 150 gold coins... Orum, are you really willing to lend me money?" Ronald lifted his head in disbelief. "Could it be..."
"Are you also a follower of Lathander?"
Orum: "..."
A moment later, Orum said to Ronald: "I'm not a follower of Lathander. I just think you're genuinely a good person, worth my investment."
"However, I must go to your relief house and review everything, see what went wrong, and thoroughly fix it."
"Otherwise, with just the few of us, we can't bail out a ship with a completely broken hull."
"Also..." Orum looked at Ronald with half-closed eyes: "Stop using divine power to forget about your debt payments from now on."
"Even Lathander must be speechless!"