The captain and healer had spoken about a daughter, whom Malin only met the day after returning to the city. Malin and the girls had looked everywhere but found no one, only learning today that the little one had gone to the nearby Church of the God of Misery to pray because her foster father and aunts and uncles were out working.
The God of Misery sounds somewhat like the concept in Buddhism, speaking of universal suffering and cultivating the next life.
Of course, this was what Malin thought when he first saw the name; the actual situation is that the God of Misery is quite hardcore—a deity who represents the poor and is a subordinate to the God of Justice.
At this point, Malin had already understood the deity’s philosophy, which indeed matched reality—the Church of the God of Misery admonished people that Fate divides life into ranks not as an excuse for the lower class to remain ignorant and foolish, but rather they should be devout, endure hardships, and be wise. These three concepts represent this deity. If the God of Justice is the one amongst this group of deities responsible for dealing death without concern and striking down those who object, then the God of Misery saves the world in another way—after all, the common people, lacking knowledge as a weapon and reason as a shield, are precisely the targets that evil pagans love to deceive.
The rural schools founded by the God of Misery significantly changed the chaotic state of the grassroots. Malin was not sure about other places, but in Carterburg and the surrounding villages and towns, finding a kid who could perform arithmetic might indeed be difficult, whereas finding a poor fellow who couldn’t even write his own name and believed every rumor was an even greater challenge.
In addition to this, the Church of the God of Misery runs the largest orphanage system on the entire Western Continent. Unlike other churches that select talented orphans, the Church of the God of Misery teaches without discrimination; as long as one is an orphan and not a different kind, even if you are a Spirit, as long as you understand human speech, the orphanage would take you in.
Therefore, the Church of the God of Misery’s human-shaped Spirit Martial Monks and Paladins are unique on the Western Continent. At least one Flower Spirit Clan and two Tree Spirit Clan chiefs emerged from the Church of the God of Misery’s orphanages, and the existence of Bear Goblin Saint Warriors and Kobold Paladins is also fairly common.
However, Tina truly was beyond Malin’s expectations.
She was a Kobold girl. When Malin saw the girl, it was clear that she’d been crying, but with the company of the Church of the God of Misery members, she still accepted the Longsword and compensation totaling 640 gold that Malin had brought back—one Magician’s head out of two had died at the hands of the girls, and the other was likely killed by that Elven Archer, so Malin split the six hundred gold into five parts, leaving the Warrior and Healer with two hundred forty, and shared the one thousand gold commission as well, giving the two four hundred in total.
Naturally, the accident insurance they had at the guild was not Malin’s concern.
"The young man from the Church of Misery who accompanied Tina didn’t utter a word as he deposited the money at the Church of the Goddess of Harvest’s bank. Then, in front of Malin, he handed the card to Tina.
Of course, Malin wasn’t worried about anyone pocketing the money. Not that he trusted these mortals, but he simply thought that playing such games in a world with a True God—where that deity could likely be an incarnation opened by their High God—would really be asking to die too quickly.
In the midst of the kobold girl’s words of thanks, Malin saw her and the young man who had come with her out of the church hall.
As the little ones outside comforted little Tina, the young man seemed to notice the sorrow in Malin’s heart and patted his shoulder, "Mr. Malin, this child’s father and Jack’s father both grew up in our church’s orphanage. After they reached adulthood, they left and founded this mercenary team... Tina’s father died in battle five years ago, and Jack’s father the year before last, and now Jack has died too..."
"...Thank you for resolving my doubts," replied Malin with a nod, expressing his thanks.
"Don’t mention it, sir. If there’s nothing else, I’ll take Tina home."
"I’m entrusting you with everything. If anything unexpected happens to Tina in the future, please be sure to contact me. I bear the oath I made with Jack, and if possible, I will do everything I can to help this child."
Malin watched as the young man took the church’s little one away, waiting until they were a distant sight before Faye approached, "Let’s go, we still have relics to return."
Yes, and the heir to the Dwarf’s legacy had also been found—identified with the help of Xingyan. This Dwarven lad was an Apprentice at the Church of the Dwarven Craftsman God; his father and Xingyan’s father, Steelblue, were old acquaintances. Hearing of this incident, Steelblue decided to take the lad on as an apprentice. It seems that Xingyan’s boyfriend has been settled.
The metallic axe head, the helmet, and the boots especially reclaimed upon hearing of the Dwarven story, along with three hundred twenty gold in compensation, were gratefully accepted by the lad named Grayrock—as a mercenary, his father had long reflected on his own end, and the son knew as well, it’s just that no one expected the end to come so quickly.
But at least Malin had killed the Chaos that had slain his father. After obtaining the helmet and weapons of the Chaos warrior, the lad declared that the moment he picked up the craftsman’s hammer, he would forge the purified helmet and Longsword into his first personal battle axe.