The slums of this world were no different from the slums of Earth. The smell of sewage, the crushing weight of despair, the eyes that looked at you not as a person, but as a potential meal or threat. The only difference was the faces.
Clack. Drag. Clack.
A boy hobbled toward us, clutching a makeshift crutch made of splintered driftwood. He couldn't be older than twelve.
"Lady Julienne... how was mom?" he asked, his voice cracking with puberty.
I looked at him—messy orange hair, freckles dusting his nose, and eyes that held a defiant spark. There was no mistaking it. This was Kara's son.
"She is well, Chip," Julienne said softly, kneeling to be at his eye level. "Gaston has a gift for you in the carriage. Go check it."
As the boy limped past me, I felt a surge of cold anger. His leg wasn't just broken; it was severed at the shin, healed poorly into a stump.
The God of War, I thought bitterly.
Kara had said he was "discarded" for being weak. In this kingdom, weakness was a sin. They didn't sacrifice limbs for power; they sacrificed the children who didn't fit the mold of a perfect soldier. It was a vanity project written in blood.
"So, Priest-san," Julienne said, standing up and dusting off her dress. "What is your plan?"
"I'll follow your routine," I replied, scanning the perimeter. "You seem to know this place better than I do."
"I... I try to visit when I can," she admitted.
"Tell me, Lady Julienne," I asked, keeping my voice casual. "Why is this district so far from the main village walls?"
She sighed, looking toward the distant fortifications. "It was my husband's wish. He said... he said it was to protect them. If invaders come, the main village might be besieged. By keeping the vulnerable out here in the open field, they aren't trapped in the crossfire."
I looked at the open plains surrounding us. I looked at the dark forest bordering the north.
Bullshit.
It wasn't a sanctuary. It was a buffer zone. An alarm system. If an enemy army approached, these people would be the first to die, their screams alerting the "real" citizens behind the stone walls.
I glanced at Julienne. She believed the lie. She was a puppet, dancing on strings held by a man who wasn't even here.
"I see," I said, keeping my thoughts to myself. I glanced at Sofia, who was standing rigidly behind her mistress.
I noticed the dark wet spot still drying on her maid uniform near her inner thigh. I gave her a knowing grin.
"Shall we, Sofia?"
She turned bright red and looked away. "Y-Yes, Priest-sama."
We walked the muddy alleys for hours.
Julienne distributed food and blankets, while I did what I do best. I became the showman.
"Gather round!" I called out, my voice amplified by a sliver of magic.
I didn't preach from a book. I told them stories. I told them of a world where life was valued not for its strength, but for its heart. I told them of Lunaria, the Goddess who didn't ask for blood, but for love.
And for those who were too broken to listen, I offered flesh.
Squelch. Rip.
Twenty times. Twenty times I severed a piece of myself, attaching my regenerating tentacles to the stumps of old veterans and the crushed limbs of beggars.
"A miracle..." an old man whispered, flexing his new, blue-tinted fingers.
By the time the sun began to hide behind the mountains, the entire slum was looking at me with something dangerous: Hope.
[Gained: 500 DP]
"I'm spent," I announced, wiping sweat from my brow. My back throbbed. "I need to return. I need Pearl-san to... heal me tonight."
Julienne and Sofia froze. They didn't just understand the innuendo; they had heard the "healing" process in vivid detail last night.
"R-Right," Julienne stammered, her face flushing. "We... we are having a feast tonight. To thank you."
She turned to the boy, Chip, who had been following us silently all day. "Chip, would you like to join us? You can see your mother."
The boy's eyes lit up. "Really?"
Julienne replied, "It's your reward for helping us out so much today."
"Wait," I said, stopping Chip. "There is one thing left to do."
Julienne and Sofia froze, watching from behind me, curious about what I was going to do.
I pulled a chair over with a tentacle and gestured with my head. "Sit down here, boy."
I watched the boy sit and then focused on his stump. "What do you think of me, Chip?" I suddenly asked.
He looked up, startled. "I... I want to be like you."
"A priest?" I raised an eyebrow. "Don't you want to be a warrior? I could grant you strength. I could give you a weapon."
"No," he said firmly.
He looked out the window, his small hands clenching into fists. "My mom... she suffered a lot. She sacrificed her happiness, her dignity, just to make sure I was fed. Just to keep me alive."
He turned back to me, his eyes burning with a resolve that seemed too big for his small body.
"I don't want to be a warrior who takes lives. I want to be by her side. If she ever grows weak, I want to heal her. Just like you healed those people today."
My chest tightened.
Damn it.
I looked at him, and for a second, I didn't see a human boy. I saw a mermaid.
I remembered finding Pearl five years ago. Her village had been destroyed by poachers. She was the last queen, squeezed for her tears, her tail severed, her arms gone.
To extract them, the mermaids are mutilated and severed. I found Pearl with the lower half of her body missing and both arms severed.
She had looked at me with those same defiant eyes. I had used four tentacles that day to save her. It had hurt like hell. But she had stayed. She had become my rock.
I really am soft when it comes to children and mature woman, I thought, letting out a long sigh.
"Chip," I said, my voice serious. "I'm going to give you a gift. But it comes with a life mission."
I sat idly in the chair I pulled.
"Hold still."
I grabbed Chip's stump, the rough, calloused skin beneath my fingers a testament to the hard life he had lived. My gaze was steady, piercing through the boy's fear. The flickering firelight danced across the severe lines of my face, illuminating the seriousness of the moment.
"Do you swear to protect the faith of this village?" I demanded, my voice a low, gravelly rumble that seemed to fill the small space. "To be the shield for the weak? Do you swear to uphold the ancient ways, even when the shadow falls heaviest upon us?"
Chip's breath hitched, his small frame trembling visibly, but he did not pull away. His wide, terrified eyes met mine, reflecting the absolute solemnity of the ritual. The weight of his impending commitment settled upon him, a burden too heavy for one so young.
"I... I swear!" Chip cried, the word tearing from his throat, raw with terror yet infused with a surprising, steadfast resolve. His knees were locked, his jaw clenched, and despite the sheer dread radiating from him, he remained utterly unmoving, rooted to the spot as the sacred oath bound him to the destiny of our people. He had passed the first test: the willingness to stand firm in the face of overwhelming fear.
"Then rise... God Knight."
Grip.
I grabbed my own left arm, my humanoid left arm. I focused.
Crack. Squelch. Riiiip.
"Gh—!"
Pain shot through my nervous system, white-hot and blinding, as if I tore a massive tentacle from my shoulder. This was the main limb.
Blood—blue and glowing—splattered onto the ground.
"Priest-san!" Julienne screamed.
"Stay back!" I barked.
I slammed the writhing, glowing tentacle onto his leg.
FZZZT-SQUISH.
Magic exploded in the air. The tentacle uncoiled, reshaping itself, hardening, turning from blue flesh into the appearance of a human leg.
Chip gasped, his eyes rolling back for a second before snapping open. He looked down. He had a foot. He had a knee.
"Try it," I wheezed, slumping back against the seat. My left arm is missing and only my right arm. It would take a days of "sessions" with Pearl to grow that back.
Chip stood up. He wobbled, then stomped his new foot. It held.
"Mom..." he whispered. Then he looked at me and threw his arms around my neck. "Thank you! Thank you!"
"Oof—choking," I rasped, patting his back awkwardly. "I don't do crying, kid. Don't make me sensitive."
I looked up. Julienne was covering her mouth, tears streaming down her face, and Sofia was openly weeping. Even Gaston, inside the carriage, sniffled. Among the people behind Julienne, some wept, while others rejoiced, with some of his agemates jumping up to cheer and hit each other playfully.
Julienne spoke as she hugged the boy "You really need to come with us to the kitchen. You need to show this to your mother."
"One last thing," I said.
I opened the Marketplace panel in my mind.
[Item: Wooden Totem of Lunaria][Cost: 500 DP]
Confirm.
Thud.
A heavy wooden pole appeared in the mud outside. It was carved with the benevolent, smiling face of Lunaria.
"There go today's earnings," I muttered.
We rode in the carriage. Julienne and Sofia sat on one side, Chip and I on the other.
I leaned out the window, shouting to the crowd that had gathered to watch us leave.
"Remember!" I bellowed. "This blessing is tied to your faith! If you abandon Lunaria, your new limbs will vanish! Do not forget who saved you!"
It was a lie, but I didn't care.
My eyes fell on Chip, whose gaze was fixed on the window outside. Except for you, I thought to myself. You have a duty tied to those legs.
A faint pattern began to shimmer on the new legs—an ability that only Chip would recognize, or perhaps I would, once I had regenerated my own left arm..
As the carriage rolled away, leaving a stunned silence in its wake, I leaned back and closed my eyes.
500 DP spent. One tentacle lost.
Pearl was definitely going to kill me.
But as I watched Chip marveling at his new leg, I knew the "punishment" tonight would be worth it.