Protagonist Knows Everything - Chapter 52

With trembling hands, Jeriel picked up the pendant, her brother’s pendant.

“This… this is….”

“Huh. What is it?”

In response to my profound question Kasha tried to pinch my sides again. Needless to say this time I avoided it.

Jeriel turned to me and bluntly said, “This was a gift from my brother.”

“Yeah? As far as I know, Ms. Jeriel doesn’t have any family.”

“I had. Paul Juana. A cute and small kind hearted person, he was my younger brother but…”

She paused for a few moments.

“But… unfortunately he left this world long ago.”

At that, Kasha covered her mouth. Kasha also had someone she didn’t want to lose, Elena, so this revelation might’ve had some greater effect on Kasha.

Then Jeriel wrapped that pendant in her hands and began weeping.

“He bought me this on my birthday….even with his frail body… he worked for a whole month only so that he could give me something good.”

“……”

“It was stolen because of my negligence. Because I couldn’t handle it properly.”

(T/N: No Jeriel wasn’t present in the house when the robber broke in. But she still blames herself for it.)

As she fell to the ground, tears streamed down her face.

“Waaah! Aha! Ha!”

*sob* *sob*

(T/N: From now on ‘*sfx*’ will replace [sfx])

It was like a child crying in agony. It seemed like she was crying out all her tears that she had saved over the years.

Looking at the sight, Kasha’s eyes became red. And with tears welling up in her eyes she hugged Jeriel. She hugged Jeriel tightly with her arms, all while rocking from side to side.

Because of course, Jeriel was way taller than Kasha.

“Jeriel. Don’t cry.”

*sob*

“Sorry. I won’t.”

*sob*

“What? I understand. You can cry as much as you want. ”

Not only me, but all of the people who were passing by stopped for a few moments and looked at Jeriel and Kasha. It was quite an odd sight. It wasn’t common for two adults to sit on the road and cry, even by these standards.

‘Ok. This seems like the right time.’, I thought as I stepped in.

“Jeriel.”

*sob*

“Paul. I miss you.”

“Jeriel.”

“Ughh. oh…… yes?”

*sob*

“So it’s a precious gift from your brother. I am glad that you found it.”

Jeriel replied, while wiping away her tears, “Yeah. I wonder how this coincidence happened.”

I wetted my lips and said, “It was not a coincidence.”

“Huh?”

“This was a gift. A gift from Jui.”

Jeriel’s lips trembled at those words. But I kept speaking in a natural tone.

“If not, then how will you explain this? Jui, who was apparently your imaginary friend appeared in this merchant’s dream and led both of you here so that you’d be able to find this pendant.”

“……”

“The two of you met the same person inside your dreams. That can’t be a coincidence.”

‘So far, so good.’

I was done with my part, if this didn’t work, then it’s over.

Jeriel shut her mouth firmly and stayed silent for a bit. I grew more and more anxious as I waited for her reply.

After a while, Jeriel finally spoke, “Maybe Jui is…”

“……”

“An angel.”

‘Bingo.’

I wasn’t expecting Jeriel to admit that Jui was a goddess in the first place. She’ll reach there eventually. But this will be the first step towards that.

And fortunately, the plan was a success.

“It must be. She came to me on the day Paul died.”

“Jeriel.”

I called out to her but she didn’t respond.

“She was an angel sent by the goddess. Jui.”

Suddenly she looked up at the sky and shouted. But standing in the middle of the road I felt quite embarrassed.

“Right? Jui? That’s correct right?”

“……”

“Please answer me. I am here. I still need you. Without you I’ll be lonely. So come back please!”

The people around us were looking at her as if she were an actual crazy person.

But Jeriel didn’t seem to care much.

Goddess. Now is the time…

“Oh!”

At that time, Jeriel’s expression changed. Soon for the first time today, a smile hung on her face.

“Where did you go, Idiot?”

“……”

“Oh. Sorry for calling you an idiot? You’re an angel aren’t you? That’s why you found me that day. Hey, if you’re an angel then should I use honorifics while addressing you?”

Her last question was unnecessary.

Jeriel worshipped the god who had sent that angel, so, needless to say she will have to use honorifics….

“Uh? I can call you the way I did before? No way, I can?”

……

That person- No, that goddess.

At least she should’ve displayed her authority as an angel, what was she thinking?

“Huh? No. Okay I will.”

“……”

“Jui! I really like it.”

The plan had gone a bit off track, but we were able to achieve the result nonetheless.

While looking at Jeriel, my body started shaking back and forth.

“Tay! Tay! That’s great. That’s really good. Isn’t it?”

It was Kasha. She was really happy that Jeriel was able to reunite with Jui. Well, they never parted in the first place but Kasha didn’t need to know that.

I recollected my thoughts and opened up Jeriel’s records.

[Rank: A plus]

[Potential: Saint’s Talent (15% development)]

“…”

Her growth was ridiculous. Jeriel was a B-plus rank just this morning.

But this growth confirmed my speculation. The powers of nuns and priests are in direct correlation with their faith upon their gods.

‘Well, if it’s like this then it doesn’t matter if Jeriel addresses Parmel with honorifics or not.’

While I was busy thinking, Jeriel turned to me and said, “Thank you very much Mr. Tay. Today was a really great day.”

Suddenly her tears had ceased and she smiled as she bowed to me in gratitude.

“You have nothing to thank me for.”

“I have, it’s a bit difficult to explain but….”

“……”

“I feel like all of this started when I first met Mr. Tay. The goddess accepted me, I became an adventurer. And now, I even found my brother’s pendant.”

“Only good things have happened since I met Mr. Tay.”

I just scratched my head.

And at that time I heard the system’s voice

[You have obtained 500 HR evaluation points from Kasha.]

[You have earned 2000 HR evaluation points from Jeriel.]

[Level: 4th year Employee / Next level: 1st year Assistant]

[Points required until the next promotion: 5780/8000]

[Professional ability 1: Please also ask for this.]

[Trait 2: You can do that too.]

[Trait 3: Who can do this?]

[Trait 4: You have to be honest with me.]

Oh, good. I received quite a lot of points from Ms. Jeriel. Besides, she herself went upto A-plus rank, today was a success through and through.

Then I wore a faint smile and said, “Okay, but shouldn’t you thank the goddess as well?”

Jeriel smiled at those words.

“Yes. It’s just as you said.”

I nodded.

And she turned to the merchant.

“How much is this pendant?”

The merchant then said.

“You can just keep it.”

“Yeah? Can I do that?”

“Of course. So now please ask this person named Jui whether I can leave or not?”

It was funny to see the old man’s reaction to her question, because this wasn’t included in the plan. At the merchant’s words, Jeriel hesitated a bit.

However, soon she rummaged through her bag and brought out her purse. She had quite a lot of money which she had earned by doing quests. She had no idea about the price so she ended up handing too much money to the merchant. And fortunately enough, I saw that.

“Please take it.”

“But…”

“Take it. If you don’t take it then I won’t be able to rest easily tonight.

The merchant then quickly accepted the money. Then we slowly turned and bid farewell.

It was lunch time, so we decided to eat lunch and go back.

As soon as I entered the restaurant I said, “Uh. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“The bathroom?”, Kasha asked.

At the moment, I didn’t have any other excuse prepared so I just accepted it.

“Yeah.”

“Hehe. Just make sure that you come back before lunchtime ends!”

“……”

I pledged to resolve this misunderstanding later, and quickly headed outside to the place where the merchant had set up his shop.

As soon as he saw my face, he smiled awkwardly and said, “Oh, you’re back.”

“Hand it to me. The money that Ms. Jeriel gave you earlier.”

“Ah, um.”

“The pendant was handed to you by Dirk in the first place. So basically, my staff handed you the pendant for free.”

And as Jeriel paid quite a lot of money, the merchant was feeling rather regretful.

I kept talking.

“Your reward for participating in this act has already been paid.”

“Oh, I see. I’ll give it back.”

He couldn’t hide his disappointed face, but eventually he handed me the money.

I couldn’t hand this money to Jeriel so I decided to add it to her quest reward later on.

“One, two… um. Seems right.”

“That’s true.”

“You sure are meticulous.”

Then the merchant shook his head and asked, “By the way, I’ve travelled all around the continent, I’ve seen many things, many events, but this my first time doing something like this.”

“……”

“I did what you told me because of the reward, but what was it for?”

I put the money in my pockets and replied, “For nurturing talents.”

“Huh?”

“It’s nothing. You can go back to attending your shop.”

“And yes, make sure you don’t tell anyone about this.”

After that I headed back to the restaurant.

I went out saying that I’d be back in a few minutes, but when I came back, food was already on the table and most of it was gone.

Quite a lot of food to be exact.

Instinctively, I knew who was responsible for all this.

While I looked at the table, Kasha spoke in a rather proud tone, “I ordered something good for us.”

‘I am gonna whack you someday.’

***

That night was a normal night.

The goddess didn’t call for me, so there was no need for me to go visit her. And for the first time in a while, I had some peaceful sleep.

And I had a dream. In my dream, everything was engulfed in a bright golden light.

‘It’s a dream.’

While admiring the surroundings, I heard a voice. A voice directly inside my head to be exact.

“It’s our first time meeting like this.”

It was completely different from what I had heard from Jeriel’s vocal cords, but I somehow knew. That it was Goddess Parmel.

I said, “If you were able to have conversations like this then why did you call me to your house every night?”

“Huh. That’s the first thing you ask? You’re a peculiar person after all”

I couldn’t see the goddess to be exact.

Either she was quite embarrassed, or she existed as a golden glow behind the clouds.

“How many times do you think I have visited humans like this? Even Jeriel hasn’t met me in this manner.”

“……”

“You’re the first person in 300 years to have met me like this, the first person after Peterine. You should be a little bit happy.”

I was really happy. But my face probably had a rather serious expression. Goddess Parmel didn’t like that, that was for sure.

“You’re a weird man.”

“I just like to listen.”

“Jeriel recognized me as the god’s messenger. It’s not much but It’s way better than being an imaginary friend.”

“Sorry to interrupt but, at that time, why did you ask her to address you like a friend as always?”

The goddess fell silent.

But soon after she answered.

“Well, I didn’t want to stop. For decades, that kid had called me her imaginary friend and had treated me as such, and now suddenly she saw me as an angel…”

“……”

“I don’t know why I did that. But I thought Jeriel would be happier if we continued to interact as friends like we always did.”

……

Well, if both of them are happy then I had no objections. Then the goddess hurriedly changed the subject.

“Anyway, I wanted to express my gratitude directly to you. Not with Jeriel’s voice, but with my own voice.”

“I didn’t do much.”

“No. You did a really good job. So as promised I’ll give you my blessing.”

This was a great opportunity.

I said without hesitation, “If possible, can you make these blessings last forever? Not just overnight like last time.”

At those words, the goddess burst into laughter.

“Hahaha…Why? What do you intend to do? Are you gonna jump into more dangerous situations from now on?”

“I don’t do that on purpose. It’s just my work.”

I was sure to meet Nortel again, so for that, I’d need as much protection as I can get.

The goddess didn’t ask anymore questions and said, “Okay. You deserve my eternal blessing anyway.”

“If possible, not only me, but Kasha… Um…no. Bless all of the people of the Hagnut guild, all of them whose names I’ll say..”

The goddess was a bit shocked. Her voice trembled a bit as she said, “You’re a really greedy person.”

“……”

“Okay. I accept. I’ll bless them, now tell me the names.”

I smiled at those words and called out the names one by one.

Of course, I did not mention all the people of the Hagnut Guild. I only mentioned the people I believed in, and the ones who believed me. The people who are the closest to me in this world.

Specifically, they were Kasha, Sain, Elena, Dirk, and Limer.

I didn’t mention Jeriel cuz, Parmel would protect her with all her might nonetheless.

The rest of the guild members are also close, but not as much as them. Sain along with Kasha and the others were the ones closest to me, so anyone with bad intentions will target them. So, having them receive the blessing was the most favourable choice.

Then the goddess said, “I have something to tell you.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t leave Jeriel’s side. If you get too far from her, your blessings will be useless.”

“Yeah?”

“There are rules that a god can’t break. A God’s power must be manifested only through humans. So if you get too far away from Jeriel, the blessing will disappear.”

The goddess was hesitant with her words.

“And now Jeriel is an A plus class by your standards. But she still isn’t strong enough to be able to manifest all of my powers.”

I just tilted my head and said, “In other words, if Mr. Jeriel continues to grow, the power of blessing will become stronger, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then, I’ll be satisfied with the first level. So please do it.”

“……You say that as if you’re filling up some papers.”

That moment. Even though I knew it was a dream and an illusion, I inadvertently closed my eyes.

A strong golden light illuminated everything, even my close eyes weren’t able to keep it out. The light enveloped me, and I felt warmth, a warmth unlike anything I had ever felt.

The light finally subsided and when I opened my eyes, I heard a voice.

“Once again, thank you for everything.”

“……”

“So let’s see how much more Jeriel will be able to grow.”

And the next moment I woke up from my dream.

Suddenly, the sun was shining through the window and I could hear the birds chirping.

“That was a good dream.” I muttered as I stretched, “I have to go to work.”