The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound

*****

*****

Chapter 149 – Volunteering during the Golden Holiday (6)

Dolores L Quovadis, the Saintess of the Rune order religion, and the daughter of the Quovadis Clan, one of the seven great clans.

She didn’t particularly like Vikir initially. No, she was closer to the side of disliking him. From the first time they met at the academy, she had a strong aversion to Vikir’s image.

“Vikir, Cold Department- Class B, from the remote regions. What did you do to accumulate this many demerits?”

“… ”

“Regardless of how many attitude points you have, you know that accumulating demerits is bad for your grades, right?” Depending on the circumstances, you may even be required to skip lectures and perform community service, do you understand?”

“I understand.”

“… Watch yourself.”

He was a lazy freshman who had accumulated a full load of demerits shortly after enrolling. Even when he was criticized for laziness or breaching restricted areas, he didn’t show any signs of embarrassment or remorse.

He was not only lazy, but he was also impudent and arrogant. Moreover, as soon as he joined the school’s newspaper club, he didn’t hesitate to hurl harsh words at the “Night Hound.”

“He’s undoubtedly a villain.”

Something surged within Dolores when she heard Vikir insult the Night Hound. Who does he think he is to pass judgment on someone? How could a spoiled, lazy, and comfortable freshman, listening to lectures in a cozy environment, judge others, especially in such a sheltered place as this?

Dolores thought of the Night Hound. Although he was currently a suspect in the Quovadis’ orphanage terror incident, she firmly believed he wasn’t a bad person.

The vivid memory of treating patients during the Red Death outbreak remained etched in her mind.

“I saw him treating patients even when they were covered in filth. How can I judge him as a villain?”

The Divine Power that the Night Hound showed was not something that could be easily mimicked or acted out. Indeed, despite his rough and scarred soul, his spirit exuded a purity greater than that of any clergyman.

Dolores didn’t know who the Night Hound was or where he came from. But she could guess that he must have walked a long and thorny path, and she believed that his scars and the flowers that had bloomed from them were truly holy and noble.

She didn’t like people who insulted martyrs, so Dolores couldn’t hold any positive feelings toward Vikir.

When Vikir covered her mouth and pushed her against the wall, she was initially perplexed.

However, after seeing Quilt pass by in the corridor, she felt angry. She was the Saintess of Quovadis, and Quilt was nothing more than a lower-ranking noble, even from an outsider family. Her status made Dolores’s grievances entirely justified.

“Hahaha, even if you forcefully lay with a Holy woman, all you have to do is make a donation and all sins would be forgiven.”

Quilt had uttered offensive words about Dolores. So, she became even more furious at Vikir. If it weren’t for Vikir, she would’ve immediately left the place and punished Quilt.

Afterward, Dolores scolded Vikir and ran away in embarresement. And just seconds later, she regretted her outburst.

Dolores’ anger initially subsided over time, and she began to reflect on her own mistakes, as is typical of a kind-hearted person. Dolores remembered the previous situation. Vikir had clearly covered for her and attempted to assist her in an awkward situation. To be honest, Dolores found it difficult to confront Quilt in any situation. Sometimes in life, people who are lower in status do not feel like lower-status individuals. Quilt was one of those people for Dolores. His carefree, audacious, and relaxed demeanor made her uneasy.

Quilt’s absolute self-confidence stems from money, especially from the enormous bribes he gets offered in the name of indulgenses.

As the head of the Indulgentia family, Quilt had built a thick network of connections and power by distributing bribes disguised as offerings to various places. With his wealth and strong ties with higher-ups, Quilt was undoubtedly an individual who couldn’t be easily dealt with, even by Dolores, the Saintess of Quovadis.

Therefore, Dolores couldn’t do much besides getting angry when she was openly insulted by him. Besides, the conflicts within Quovadis had already become known worldwide through newspaper articles.

In such a situation, Dolores couldn’t simply blame Vikir for his actions in trying to protect her. In the end, she had to admit it within herself.

“…No, I should be thankful instead.”

Dolores eventually came to acknowledge this. If she had encountered Quilt in the corridor earlier, she might have lost her composure and made a mistake. She realized that Vikir was a person who had prevented such an incident from happening inadvertently.

Moreover, Dolores had another thought:

“It’s stifling.”

Vikir had certainly frowned when looking at Quilt. From this, one could infer that Vikir also didn’t particularly like Quilt’s actions. In this regard, Dolores shared a similar opinion with Vikir. This led her to view Vikir in a slightly better light.

“Still… pushing an unknown girl against the wall like that wasn’t right. We’re not… in any kind of romantic relationship.”

For a girl who had never experienced romance, being pushed against a wall by a boy was a very vivid memory. Even now, she couldn’t help but feel her heart race when she recalled that moment.

“I was really surprised.”

Dolores fanned her face slightly, feeling it getting warmer.

“Maybe… apart from being lazy, he might actually be a good guy.”

Within Dolores’s heart, Vikir’s evaluation rose slightly. It was a surprisingly lenient evaluation for someone who usually held the belief that a strong sense of ethics and diligence equaled goodness.

A bit more time passed. Dolores searched for Vikir. She wanted to apologize for what had happened in the corridor earlier.

However, even after searching the entire orphanage for half a day, she couldn’t find Vikir. During a break, when the first-year students were resting, Tudor, who had been chatting in front of the restroom, provided some information:

*****

*****

“Eh? Vikir? He was with us until earlier, helping with the restroom cleaning. Oh! Just a while ago, he went to the cafeteria. They said they were short on staff there. We played rock-paper-scissors to decide who would go, and he volunteered to go first.”

With this information, Dolores went from the restroom to the cafeteria. Inside, she found Sanchu eating with the children and said:

“Oh, Vikir? Until a while ago, he was serving meals to us, but he heard that the hot water wasn’t working in the cafeteria, so he went to check the plumbing. He didn’t have a proper meal because he was too busy with the food distribution…”

From there, Dolores went to the plumbing room from the cafeteria. Inside, Figgy, drenched in water, pointed ahead with his finger and said:

“Ah, Senior! Good afternoon! You’re looking for Vikir, aren’t you? Right now, he’s in the laundry room. Just earlier, Vikir volunteered to fix the plumbing so that we could do the laundry. He hasn’t had lunch yet, busy with the repairs…”

Dolores headed from the restroom to the cafeteria, then from there to the plumbing room, and finally to the laundry room. In the laundry room, Sinclaire, who was doing the laundry, greeted her with a salute:

“Hello, Senior Dolores! Why are you looking for Big brother Vikir? Oh, until a while ago, I was washing laundry with him, but the kids wanted to play, so he went to the playroom with them! The kids are full of energy, you know!”

Dolores asked, “Why are you calling him big brother when you’re his age?”

“Why do I call him ‘big brother’ when I’m his age? Hahaha, That’s right, he told me not to call him ‘oppa,’ so I call him ‘Big brother.’ now, Ha-ha!”

Dolores went from the restroom to the cafeteria, then to the plumbing room, the laundry room, and finally to the playroom. In the playroom, she found Bianca, who was reluctantly giving piggyback rides to the children, and she sighed as she spoke in a weary voice:

“Who are you looking for? Vikir? Ugh… he was giving piggyback rides to the kids just a moment ago, but they wanted to go play in the playground, so he went to prepare it for them. Even so, he’s been helping the kids a lot, and they’re full of energy…”

Dolores had to head from the restroom to the cafeteria, then to the plumbing room, the laundry room, the playroom, and now to the playground.

As she made her way to the playground, she couldn’t help but wonder, “How much work can one person do in a single day?”

Vikir had already done the work of about ten people. He had cleaned the restroom, worked in the cafeteria, repaired plumbing, handled the laundry, played with the kids, and even prepared the playground for them. Each task was exhausting, and he had already completed so many by mid-morning.

Regular academy students usually had no inclination for such hard work. How could these pampered kids, who had never done such tasks, understand this? Yet Vikir, without any complaints, silently bore all these difficult tasks by himself.

(Of course, Dolores had no idea that Vikir was deliberately working in different places to gather information while appearing busy.)

However, Dolores had another thought: “My judgment was so wrong. He’s incredibly diligent.”

She had thought of him as lazy and careless all this time. Dolores was embarrassed by how prejudiced she had been. She had always believed that she treated everyone without discrimination or prejudice. Yet, she had looked at her junior, a fellow club member, with such biased eyes.

Dolores decided to completely reassess Vikir and thought, “I should apologize for all of this.”

Finally, Dolores reached the playground where Vikir was.

On the other side of the playground, children were playing, kicking a ball around. A bit further away, Vikir was working on clearing weeds and rocks to level the ground for the children to play. While doing this, he was reading papers covered in writing.

“He’s studying,” Dolores marveled. Even in the midst of such volunteer work, he wasn’t neglecting his studies. This was a true example of a dedicated student.

“Did he do well in his studies?” Dolores didn’t know Vikir’s academic performance, but when they returned to school, she planned to check his written exam results. “I’ll offer to tutor him.”

Dolores was confident that she could be of great help, as she had never ranked outside of the top three in the third-year written exams.

While thinking about this, Dolores approached Vikir and cleared her throat. “Ahem!”

But when she finally decided to apologize, the words didn’t come out easily. She was known for apologizing right away when she did something wrong, but for some reason, it was difficult to do it with Vikir. Maybe it was because of the incident with the Night Hound.

“That’s just an excuse! I did something wrong, so I should apologize properly.”

Dolores cleared her throat again. “Ahem! Ahem!”

It was as if she was trying to get his attention forcibly.

Finally, Vikir turned his head and stopped reading the papers.

“…?”

Vikir put away the papers he had been reading as soon as he saw Dolores.

She spoke with an awkward tone, “Are you preparing for a written test? Studying this hard even during volunteer work?… Hmm, you’re surprisingly diligent.”

“What can I help you with?” Vikir’s tone was stern. It was likely due to his anger from the incident the day before.

Dolores hesitated for a moment and then stammered, “Uhm, well… Are you preparing for a written test during your volunteer activities? I asked some other friends, and it seems like you’re quite diligent in your volunteer work. Is it worth it?”

“Yes.”

“…”

“…”

“…Oh, is that it? Your response?”

“Yes.”

“…I see.”

Dolores was perplexed, unsure how to continue the conversation. ‘Was conversation always this difficult?’ she wondered. People had often approached her and initiated conversations, and the responses flowed naturally, even when she asked questions or shared information about which they weren’t particularly interested. Vikir, on the other hand, was unique. He didn’t say anything unless it was absolutely necessary. It didn’t matter if the speaker was the third-year student council president and a saint of the Quovadis Clan, one of the empire’s seven great clans.’

Dolores decided to be honest. “Actually, I came to talk about yesterday’s incident.”

“…?”

Vikir slightly furrowed his brow. It seemed like the memory of yesterday was uncomfortable for him. So Dolores decided to open up.

“Well, you see, there’s a bit of a situation at home, and maybe that’s why… I may have overreacted to you yesterday. Still, you were trying to help me, I suppose. I’m really sorry for yelling and…”

However, she couldn’t finish her apology.

Suddenly, Vikir abruptly got up and ran somewhere.

“Sorry, I…”

Dolores couldn’t finish her sentence.

Vikir was heading towards the area where many kids had gathered, near the sewage.

It was a place that was intentionally kept off-limits because it was so deep and dirty. Some children were already dangerously close to the sewage, and a few were peering inside.

Dolores hurriedly followed Vikir.

As she approached, she saw that Nymphet was whimpering. “Oh, the ball…”

The ball that the kids were playing with had fallen into the sewage.

Due to a lack of resources, the kids had been repairing and reusing the same old ball multiple times. Dolores had known this. She often sent new balls to replace the old ones, but the kids played with them so much that they quickly became worn out.

While Dolores was thinking about this, she heard a short, stern warning from Vikir. “It’s deep. Move aside.”

Dolores, puzzled, turned her head to see what was happening. Splash! Without any hesitation, Vikir jumped into the sewage.

Splash! Splash! Gloop…

In the disgusting sewage, Vikir swam as if he were swimming, eventually retrieving the ball the kids had lost.

Splish… Splash…

Vikir emerged from the sewage, and the children with surprised expressions came closer.

“It’s dangerous to play near the sewage. Go play over there… The ball is dirty, so let me wash it and give it back to you.”

Vikir said this calmly while shaking off the filth from the sewage.

Dolores, trying to understand the situation, suddenly felt an inexplicable warmth spreading throughout her body. She couldn’t comprehend this unusual and unfamiliar emotion.

*****

*****