My strategy was this:

After the ceremony, I’d ride back to the mansion with Lord Fenberg.

I’d use some excuse like being tired or needing to recover from fatigue and stay in for the day.

Tomorrow morning, I’d have Luciana and Irina go out shopping together.

Following women around while they shop is pointless anyway.

It would take time, and there would probably be things they wouldn’t want a guy like me to see.

Plus, it had been a while since the two friends had a chance to chat properly.

Then, I would take the letter of introduction I received from Naise and visit the top slave trader in Felbane.

...Of course, I’m not thinking anything like "buying lots of female slaves and having a great time."

But I think it’s important to actually see with my own eyes how the slave system works in this country.

...I’m really not thinking about buying a bunch of female slaves and having a great time!

If I was, I wouldn’t have donated 2,000 gold coins!

Still, money is necessary. Even if I want to buy and free slaves who were unjustly purchased, I can’t help them without funds. Of course, I can’t save everyone. I need to have enough money on hand for when it really matters. I’ll have to hunt more monsters.

...Mainly Logan and the others will be doing the hunting.

So the plan was: tomorrow I’d do some serious social studies at the slave trading house, and on the third day we’d prepare to depart in the morning and leave for the royal capital (specifically Tarbarne town in the Tarbal territory) by afternoon.

That was the blueprint I had drawn up.

But why did it turn out like this!?

It’s true that after the ceremony, I managed to return to the mansion smoothly with Lord Fenberg.

I gave various excuses about fatigue and withdrew for the day.

We had a delicious dinner and a nice bath, and I was able to relax.

Up to that point, everything was fine.

The next day, when I told them to have Irina and Luciana go shopping for clothes and other necessities on our full rest day...

"Irina-chan’s clothes and everything she needs have already been prepared by the maids."

Luciana replied with a bright smile!

Moreover, since Irina and I had separate rooms, I hadn’t known that Luciana had gone to Irina’s room at night to chat and catch up. That was completely outside my calculations.

Since I was staying as a guest of the Frontier Count house, I had turned off my magic perception, so I also failed to keep track of Irina and Luciana’s movements.

And so, for some reason, Irina and Luciana were both wearing pure white robes that made them look like female priests. As for me, I was dressed in an expensive-looking pure white robe with gold embroidery and had a rather ostentatious mask on my face.

We were once again riding the pure white carriage we had used during the parade.

From now on, we had to go around to each church and greet them.

I had already told them I couldn’t use magic.

Still, it seemed important for me to visit the churches with the two girls in tow.

Instead of my usual mage staff, I was given a divine staff with a blue gem.

Apparently, all I had to do was greet people with something like "Hello everyone, how are you doing?"

It somehow reminded me of footage from my Earth days of the Emperor visiting evacuation centers.

...That was probably a very disrespectful comparison.

Besides, my Life Force Recovery Healing is spirit magic, not holy magic.

The water spirit Wintia governs the source of life.

If I boost my swirling energy (magical power) and amplify Wintia’s power, I can achieve a powerful healing effect.

So I personally have zero faith in any god.

If anything, I hold a slight grudge. Damn you, God.

Me going to churches and greeting people... isn’t this basically fraud?

If there really is a god in this world, I’m definitely going to get divine punishment.

"His Messenger has arrived!"

"Welcome to our church!"

...Everywhere we went, we received a grand welcome. At this point, I was starting to feel guilty.

I shook hands with the people who had recovered. That part was fine, and if it made them happy, I had no problem with it. But I couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable with how the priests and church officials kept calling me "Messenger" and clearly treating me as an apostle of God.

Not that I was planning to give some passionate "You can do it if you try!" lecture or anything.

Still, this was a failure.

When I thought about it properly, letting just Luciana and Irina go shopping alone was obviously impossible. This isn’t Japan. Two noble daughters wandering around shopping by themselves? Absolutely not allowed. Of course maids and guards would tag along, which meant I’d end up being dragged into it too.

I want to punch yesterday’s naive self who thought I could just slip out alone.

"Messenger, when did you manifest in this world?"

An old priest with a very long white beard who looked like a sage or Santa Claus spoke to me.

"I’m not a Messenger, though..."

"Now now, more importantly, what do you think of this world? I hope you are enjoying your time here."

The old priest smiled and stroked his beard.

This feels familiar.

This is on the same level as the village chief of Caso village — conversation isn’t going to get through.

In the end, it’ll settle on me being treated as a Messenger.

It’s decided. I’m never coming to churches again. I swear it in my heart.

There was something else I realized that was extremely bad.

I know almost nothing about the gods.

There are many isekai stories with multiple gods.

I have no idea what kind of gods are worshipped in this world.

I never studied it because I wasn’t interested.

I should learn about the gods somewhere... or maybe just keep my distance from the church entirely.

The fact that I couldn’t keep any distance at all today makes me want to cry.

For some reason, both Luciana and Irina were dressed like female priests and were interacting with the gathered people. They seemed to be speaking very kindly — mostly to children.

Although the church wasn’t directly attached to an orphanage, because I had said I was visiting the churches, children from nearby orphanages had gathered. The girls were handing out sweets to them.

"I see... So you had a proper purpose. We could have just gone straight to the orphanage."

"Yabe-sama... If you visited the orphanage without going to the church, the priests would definitely complain later. It might even cause problems for the orphanage itself."

"Is it really that bad...?"

"The churches mainly oversee the operation of orphanages..."

"I see..."

The world is harsh...

Well, I want the children to feel a little happier. I’ll leave it to Luciana and Irina and just follow behind them.

I couldn’t make it to the slave trading house, but I’ll be happy that we managed to cheer up the children a bit.

If I get another reward during the audience with the King, maybe I’ll go around the orphanages and do a big fried Earth Bird karaage giveaway.

With those thoughts in mind, I followed behind Luciana and Irina.