Better safe than sorry (part 3)

"..."

The man looked around just in case, but the silence of the night was giving off the feeling of tranquility and nothing more.

With that, the priest reached towards his waist and...

*crack* *ZAP* "...GHGHHH..."

A dry snapping sound came from behind him, and some sort of power was unleashed and struck the unexpecting man in the back, sending jolts of electricity through his muscles and tendons, forcing them to tense up to the point of disabling any kind of movement.

*thump*

The paralyzed priest started leaning forward until he hit the wall in front of him and then started sliding down, unable to do anything to stop the movement.

"Khhh...! Khhghh...!"

The graying man tried to let out his voice but only produced some crackling sound as his exposed teeth were clenched so hard his gums started bleeding.

"Uwaah...! You can't even speak? Wow... weaker potency because of age, yeah, right, heh. Sure~ "

"KHHHH...!"

A sound of footsteps announced someone's presence even before that person spoke up - although the latter part of it didn't sound as if it was addressed directly towards the victim... Even so, the priest burst multiple blood vessels in his eyes, trying to force his eyeballs to move and locate the speaker.

"Yes, yes - I know that you are there. Don't struggle - it is pointless. What do you think got you? Even an adult male in his prime wouldn't be able to move properly from between four to eight minutes after getting affected... you should know what I am talking about, don't you?"

"...!"

Fighting against the effect of the phenomenon called magic was pointless, and the priest realized how bad his situation was when a small hand with the index finger and the thumb was covered with yellow dust – the residue left from the paralysis pellet being crushed.

The graying man tried to figure out who really trapped him, but with just the hand and the voice, he was confused about whether the person who ambushed him was a woman or a young boy.

One thing was certain – it wasn't the work of any low thug! Even the most basic, gimmicky magic pellets had prices starting with one small silver coin. The more useful the magic spell sealed within, the higher the price got.

Of course, the pellet's price was influenced by the potency of the magic, but still, even a low-quality paralysis pellet was in the middle of the price range and not something any low-life could afford...

...and judging by the ruthless proficiency of the paralysis that was affecting him, the quality of the pellet used agaisnt him was that of the top-of-the-shelf kind.

The man was trying to rmember whether he did something to anger someone wealthy and influential, but no one like that came to his mind...

"Ghh? Khhh...!? Gkhghhh...!"

Then, all of a sudden, the hand left his sight, and the paralyzed priest realized that his attacker had started to rummage through his pocket with the efficiency of an experienced thief. As the ambusher got dangerously close to the prayer book, the priest became noisy again.

"There it is~!"

"KHHHHHHH!"

The prayer book left the safety of the priest's pocket to the content cheer of the new owner and the wail of the previous one.

"Ah, yes. This must be it. The ingredients listed mostly match with the list of things bought by young Miss Zorvivia past these two weeks... Huh... we were missing only this much? Interesting."

"KHHHH! GHKKHHHH!"

The words of the assailant struck a nerve with the paralyzed priest – whoever they were, they knew too much for the attack to be a coincidence.

*thump*

"KHHH?!"

The paralyzed man's head ended up being lightly smacked by something somewhat hard - like a book - causing him to crackle in shock.

"Shut it. Now that I look at it... you have more useful information noted here... I'll be taking some of the bookmarks, but here's your book back~"

"GHHHHH!"

The attacker scoffed, and the priest raged, feeling the weight of the book being slid back into his pocket.

"Now, now. Don't waste your energy with me. I am not going to harm you. Someone else will..."

"KHH...! Gh... kghhhh...?"

The cheeky robber nudged the priest in the side, causing the man to crackle first in anger and then with confusion and sudden fear.

"Yeah. Someone else."

The mysterious ambusher confirmed his earlier words sounding as if he was looking over his shoulder, possibly waving at someone.

"Because you see... we know that you tipped off the authorities about the tonic. Not only did we confirm it independently, but you even openly visited a brothel the same day the kingdom's soldiers showed up... Honestly, you should have played your cards better and at least act as if you were apprehended and interrogated for at least a day... I guess you were using the wrong head, huh..."

"..."

The attacker breathed out in disappointment and pointed out, leaving the paralyzed priest utterly stunned.

"You see... I don't even mind you as a person, personally. We all do our best in this world. But you see... because of your snitching, quite a lot of people – innocent people – have been captured and interrogated very roughly. Some poor old man, watching the house while his grandchildren were out earning money to support their whole family, got beaten up so much that he could barely walk now. And he's a lot older than you, so you can imagine it's not something that he will recover from easily. You can surely imagine why his grandchildren aren't happy... you know?"

"Khh...! G-ghhh!"

The mysterious voice explained, sounding as if he was feeling compassionate, and the terrified priest crackled who was still unable to move even an inch.

"It is kind of ironic that I am saying that to you, a priest, but... it's time to atone for your sins, mister."

The unidentified ambusher snickered at the situation while walking away.

"Khhh...? Khghh...!? GHHHH!"

The paralyzed priest tried to call after him, but he got no response.

...but then, only a couple of seconds, the sound of footsteps approaching from behind caught his ears again...

"...!"

Only this time, it wasn't just one person.

"Well, well, well... I am ashamed to say that if our young friend didn't show it to us, I would never believe that a member of the temple would visit a brothel..."

"KGHHH!"

Some unknown man grabbed the priest's right shoulder and scoffed while leaning over.

"Grandpa Pete would always donate to your temple. He always gave as much as he could, even if he had to skip a few meals... Because he believed it would go to a just cause. And it turns out that you spent it all on playing around, you shameless bastard...!"

A woman grabbed the paralyzed man's left shoulder and leaned in so much that he was able to see her.

It was a brown-haired woman who was amongst the people lining up for the free medicine for the past two weeks...!

"Not only that... because of you... because of your greed, Grandpa might not recover...!"

Tears gathered in the corners of the brown-haired woman's eyes and...

"!!!"

...she raised her hand, brandishing a knife whose blade reflected the faint light of the dim torch barely reaching the alley they were in, and terrified the incapacitated man to no end...

"One thing that I can do for him is to send you to the other side first!"

"Kh-khhh...!"

*shing*

The woman scoffed... and the knife in her hand whistled through the night air, cutting the corrupted priest's voice short.