I Just Wanted to Avoid Death - Chapter 39
Upon returning to the temple, Yeshion quietly stared at the broken doorknob to his room. Had something happened during the few days he was gone? The doorknob was completely smashed.
“There was a bit of commotion.”
“……”
“As a result, the doorknob of Priest Yeshion’s room was broken.”
Yeshion let out a long sigh.
‘Commotion, sure.’
It was clear that either Eldis had broken it, or Adelio had destroyed it while looking for him. It had to be one of the two.
“For now, you can use my room. I’ll be in my office, so it’s no issue.”
“…I think I may have misheard something.”
“It’s dangerous to stay in a room with a broken doorknob.”
At Eldis’s remark, Yeshion lowered his gaze.
After his tumultuous encounter with Adelio, everything anyone said now sounded sarcastic to him. Since that statement had come from the mouth of a beast, it felt as if he were being invited into a snake’s den.
Yeshion chose his words carefully, suppressing his frustration as much as possible.
“…I’ll think about it.”
Thankfully, Eldis didn’t insist. He merely said Yeshion could do as he pleased, telling him to rest before leaving the room.
Yeshion entered his room and collapsed into the chair. With the doorknob broken, the door wouldn’t close properly, allowing the noisy sounds from outside to filter in. However, it wasn’t the external noise that bothered him.
It was the turmoil within.
“…Why is it so difficult to leave a temple?”
Of course, in most of the novels Yeshion had read, it was rare for the characters to successfully escape. That was because they had involved themselves in the plot of the original story.
But still, Yeshion felt wronged.
He felt extremely wronged.
Everything he had done since he had been thrust into this body had been simple, ordinary, monotonous things.
Praying.
Caring for the sick.
Cleaning the underground prison.
Attending temple events.
All tasks that a priest would naturally perform.
The only thing he did that might have altered the original plot was his attempt to steal a medicine bottle that was likely meant for the saintess later.
‘Then why!’
Clenching his fists, Yeshion silently screamed.
His encounters with Adelio in the underground prison and later in his room… those could be excused. After all, Adelio had always been unpredictable, coming and going as he pleased, even in the original story.
But this time, it had gone too far.
“Then I suppose we should make a connection now.”
The Adelio Yeshion knew would never say something like that.
He was a cold man.
A beast that roamed alone.
Despite living a life full of grandeur, Adelio had never truly opened his heart to anyone.
Yet this time, Adelio’s behavior was as if he were asking Yeshion to open his heart first.
“Eldis is no different.”
Yeshion had expected to clash with Eldis. He was well aware that working hard as a priest would only make him seem like an oddity.
However, the “oddity” that Yeshion had expected was different from the one he was facing now. Yeshion had assumed Eldis would view him as someone acting with ulterior motives.
But it wasn’t that simple.
‘…Eldis healed me.’
Eldis Paveloka was not the type of person to do that.
As someone who valued his position and divine power, Eldis never healed anyone who wasn’t a high-ranking noble or a member of the royal family. If healing were needed, he would simply call for a senior priest to take care of it.
‘So, why?’
Yeshion couldn’t shake the questions that plagued him. One, in particular, stood out: the question Eldis had asked him. It wasn’t just that Yeshion’s behavior had changed from the “Yeshion” he knew; it was as if Eldis suspected he wasn’t the real Yeshion.
“Maybe I should’ve stayed and had that conversation instead of running…”
At the time, Yeshion had panicked, thinking escape was his only option. But after meeting Adelio, Eldis seemed far more manageable.
If only he had stayed and listened to Eldis, he might have gotten at least a clue.
“But…”
Eldis had the kind of personality Yeshion found most difficult to deal with.
Someone who smiled when they spoke but whose words were laced with thorns. Someone whose statements were always laden with hidden meanings, making it hard to discern their true thoughts.
To Yeshion, that was Eldis.
‘Is there any point in overthinking it? I failed to escape, and things have gotten strange anyway.’
Groaning as he debated with himself, Yeshion finally threw himself onto the bed.
Instead of straining his brain with endless speculation, it might be better to just dive headfirst into the snake’s den. If he was curious, he could just ask directly. Eldis would tell him something—whether it was the truth or a lie.
‘I only avoided Eldis because I thought he might kill me.’
But putting aside the fact that Eldis had killed him before, he was generally a calm and rational person.
Though he invaded Yeshion’s personal space as easily as Adelio did, at least Eldis didn’t force anything on him.
“In that case…”
Maybe it would be worth figuring out Eldis’s intentions. At the very least, Eldis wasn’t trying to harm him at the moment.
