Book 1, Verse 14

The two of us stood near the center of Clearwood. The open plaza in the middle of town was full of young children running about, and though I initially thought that they were playing, it turned out that most of them were performing errands and menial tasks for their family businesses or apprenticeships.

Vivian stood next to me, her hood pulled over her head so that her features were hard to see without being close.

The building that was in front of us was a more advanced building than the others in town; it was made entirely of sturdy looking stone bricks and bore a symbol on the large wooden doors.

The symbol depicted a dragon’s head being chopped in half by a large cleaver.

There was no other sign of what the building was, though the lack of windows and its larger-than-average size made me think that it was some sort of government building.

My father had always enjoyed those “Hunting Monsters” games.

He really should’ve been here instead of me.

“This is the Monster Tanners outpost.” Vivian said, pointing at the door.

I opened my mouth to object to the idea of hunting monsters, but stopped myself.

“Monster… tanners?” I asked, sounding extremely confused.

“Yes.” She replied. “What were you expecting?”

“Monster hunters.” I said plainly.

Vivian stifled a laugh.

“Shinko, you couldn’t fight a monster if your life depended on it.” Vivian said plainly.

“H-how–” I started, then remembered that I had been ‘raised in a monastery, where all I did was study the holy writ.’ Besides, even if that wasn’t my backstory, she was probably right about my lack of fighting ability. The biggest fight I’d gotten into in the real–in my home world–was between me and a particularly nasty cousin.

I nodded slowly.

“You have good judgment, Vivian.” I said slowly, then looked at the door to the ‘Monster Tanners’ outpost. “So if we want to raise money for our trip to Kuzges, working here is our best option?”

“It’s your best option.” Vivian said. “Unlike you, I actually have a decent amount of fighting prowess.” For emphasis, she produced a small knife from her cloak and twirled it between her fingers rapidly.

I sighed.

I briefly tried to remember how priests made money in my world; I think John said that their income came from the collected tithes of people who went to the church.

Considering that the church wasn’t looked upon favorably in this world, that was off the table for me.

Besides, I could never give a sermon. Pretending to be a priest was hard enough without that.

Vivian went to open the door, when I reached out to grab her hand and stop her.

She nimbly pulled her hand out of my reach and went to knock on the door again, but I moved so that I stood in front of her. She tried to weasel past me, looking more and more frustrated the more I stopped her from knocking on the door to the Monster Skinners outpost.

Finally, she stopped.

“What are you doing? You’re the one who said we needed money!”

“Yes but I really don’t want to skin and de-bone monsters for a couple coins.” I said plainly.

“So? Do you want money or not?” She said, sounding slightly upset.

I hesitated.

What did I know how to do that could make us some money?

I had worked in fast food for a few months, but aside from some basic communication skills, that didn’t offer much.

There was that brief stint as an inventory manager at an air conditioner repair place; though I couldn’t think of a single way any of the hard skills from that job would transfer to this world.

What job experience did I have that could fit in this world?

“Is Niels’ place the only tavern in town?” I asked Vivian quickly.

“Yes; why do you ask?” Vivian responded briefly, before her eyes widened. “Wait, you want to work for Niels?!” She asked, incredulous.

I nodded.

“If it means I get to avoid skinning and dealing with the disgusting bits of alien–I mean, unholy creatures, then yes.” I almost slipped up there; ‘alien’ means never seen before, but if I was ‘born and raised in a monastery’ then I probably would have heard of monsters in the context of them being evil creatures.

Vivian shook her head.

“In case you didn’t notice, Niels explicitly told both of us not to come back until, and I quote, ‘your god can help me.’” Vivian rolled her eyes. “How are you going to do anything like that?”

I leaned against the building of the Monster Tanners and thought deeply.

John would probably say something along the lines of, ‘We should pray for–.’

I smirked, and quickly turned around to press my head against the building.

“What are you doing?”

My prayer was simple; that Niels would allow me to work for him. I finished quickly and looked back at Vivian.

“Praying, that’s all.”

Vivian raised an eyebrow.

“Shinko, what about the laws prohibiting public prayer?” She asked.

“What about the laws prohibiting th–” I shut my mouth. I was going to say theft, but it was clear that saying that would only upset her for no good reason. “Um, as a priest, I’m called to obey the commands of the holy writ before the laws of man; only if they contradict, of course.”

“Wait, really?” Vivian asked, surprised.

That had been my reaction when John first told me about this concept.

“Yes; if the law commands something that is evil, then I am not required to follow the law; though, this doesn’t give me license to commit a different evil, it just means that I must not commit that evil. After all, something may be legal, but may be morally wrong.”

Vivian narrowed her eyes as she considered the implications for a little while.

“I guess that makes sense.” She sighed and put her hands on her hips. “So with regards to prayer, a law that prohibits you from doing so can be ignored? Are you commanded to pray or something?”

I smiled. That was actually the topic of the sermon I’d heard…

Two days ago, the one time I had actually gone to church with John.

My breath left my lungs.

“Yes. As a member of the church, I am commanded to ‘pray without ceasing.’”

A group of people suddenly came out of the Monster Tanners outpost and pushed past the two of us, interrupting our conversation. As they did so, an idea came to me about how to convince Niels to let me work for him.

Once all the people were finished passing us by, I looked up at Vivian with a confident smile.

“Vivian, why don’t you go and get started working with those ‘Monster Hunter’ types. I’ll go and talk to Niels about my employment.”

“Wait, right now?” She looked down at me and raised an eyebrow.

“Yes; I just thought of something that will help me get in his good graces.”

With that, I quickly waved her away and started walking toward Niels' Meals on my own.