Chapter 260 - 253. Cutting Poppies
"Why would I go to that kind of place? Are there any sane people willing to step into a sewer?" the Saintess answered without hiding her repugnance.
"Willing..." Zein repeated the phrase she used. "Do you know how many people live in the red-zone willing to do so? Voluntarily?"
"How would I know? Probably all of the--"
"None," Zein said bitterly. "No one wants to live in such an environment."
Zein almost wanted to sigh long and hard. He knew how little the Temple made an effort to save the trafficked, neglected guides in the end zones. But to think that the Saintess, the Temple’s symbol and representative, had so little compassion to understand what was going on with the more unfortunate guide...
What pillar? What umbrella?
How laughable it was, how ironic, that every guide who had even ended up in the red-zones, in the slum and those illegal brothels, had prayed to the Goddesses, had put their hope on the Temple. They had prayed, hoped, wished, begged to be saved by this institution that was supposed to protect them.
Zein...Zein didn’t even know something like the Temple existed until he heard it uttered in a prayer of someone kidnapped by Umbra. He was glad though; he didn’t have to sport any false hope about being rescued.
"You’re right about that; no sane people are willing to live in a sewer," he looked at the Saintess, the blue eyes gleaming sharply in the darkening light. "Not even those rogue guilds."
"Are you putting on a pity play right now?" the Saintess laughed again. She waved her sleeve to light the lanterns around the pavilions, making the space brighter. "Are you saying because you’re so pitiful you can just be excused for doing crime?"
Zein did not flinch at the display of authority. He found it interesting, however, that the Saintess could use mana. But he could think about that later. He smiled and shook his head slightly.