Mistaken for a Masked Munchkin

Javert's Iron and Justice (10)

"Miss Leysha! I came again today!"

"This is the food the Church is providing this month."

"Ah... Javert, you're here."

"Thank you for always looking after me like this."

"Thanks to you, I haven't starved yet."

Steady volunteer work in the slums.

As time passed, there were naturally people she grew close to.

"What am I supposed to do... I keep accepting help from you."

A woman in her mid-twenties with a haggard complexion.

She was exactly ten years older than Javert.

She had borne a child young, and she was a widow living in the slums.

"Please don't refuse. Just take it."

"You haven't been feeling well lately, either."

Leysha had a gentle nature.

Since she liked listening to other people's stories, she and the cheerful Javert suited each other in many ways.

Javert liked chattering away to Leysha, and Leysha enjoyed listening to Javert's little stories as well.

"Thank you, Javert..."

"Would you like to talk for a bit before you go today too?"

It was a friendship that had lasted a full three years.

In a way, Leysha was the person Javert felt most at ease with after the old couple.

Leysha seemed to feel the same way. Whenever the girl came to visit, she would always smile faintly.

"...Miss Leysha?"

But that day, the woman's mood was strange.

Her smile looked forced somehow.

Javert caught that sense of wrongness right away.

After all, they had seen each other at least a few times a month over the past three years.

"Are you okay? You look really pale..."

Her face had gone white.

Her already haggard air had worsened even further.

The woman looked as if she might burst into tears at any moment, her eyes wet.

"Ah, it's nothing..."

"You don't have to worry about it."

Leysha shook her head and said it was nothing.

But Javert kept asking why.

Depending on how one looked at it, it was meddling; depending on how one looked at it, it was her way of being attentive.

The girl's repeated questions finally made tears spill from the woman's eyes.

"Hngh..."

Leysha crumbled like a sandcastle.

Leaning into Javert's arms, the woman sobbed.

"Javert... what do I do?"

"My daughter is so sick."

"Hngh, ngh... she can't even eat properly, and she's burning up with fever."

"I brewed medicinal herbs and fed them to her, but they haven't had any effect at all..."

Her only family.

Her daughter was sick.

She said she had searched for a way to help all along, but there had been no way to heal her.

Javert suggested getting treatment from priests, but Leysha quietly shook her head.

"I can't ask the Church."

"You know that too. I'm a wanted criminal..."

The young widow, Leysha.

The one who had killed her husband was none other than Leysha herself.

Javert had heard that she had done it to save her daughter from the abuse that repeated every day.

Afterward.

The woman ran away with her daughter and lived in a remote part of the slums.

So she said that even if she went to the Church, she would only be arrested without question.

"I'll be imprisoned right away."

"No, if I could save my daughter that way, I would do it. Prison, even execution, would be fine."

"The problem is... even if I went to the Church prepared for that, I can't be sure she'll be treated right away."

Leysha spoke while sitting slumped on the floor.

As if in despair, she added a few more words.

"Priests move under the Church's orders."

"If it were ordinary volunteer work, then maybe, but there's no way they would just provide treatment that takes so much effort for free."

High-grade treatment that could be received quickly went to wealthy nobles.

On the other hand, free treatment required a very long wait for one's turn.

Javert had heard that even at a small church, the line was backed up by half a year.

"It's too late to wait for her turn."

"But in her current state, my daughter won't last even a month..."

There was no guarantee her daughter would endure half a year.

Leysha only shed endless tears.

"What should I do? I..."

"I lost everything, but I can't lose my daughter too."

"Um... then, how about asking my parents?"

"Both of them are active priests, so maybe they'll find some way to help."

"No. Even they won't be able to go against the Church's principles."

"In the end, the result would be no different from me visiting the Church myself."

"I'd be imprisoned right away, and my daughter would be left without treatment..."

The woman's complaints sounded pitiful.

Most of it was true as well.

After all, ordinary priests could not arbitrarily change the order of treatment.

It would be unacceptable to the patients who had been waiting their turns before her, and to the Church, which had laid down its principles so carefully.

'But.'

That was not a problem for Javert.

With the level of status her parents, the Droit couple, held, they could find any number of other methods.

They could even take high-grade treatment that would have gone to nobles and make it available for free.

"Even your parents won't have much of a way."

"If you tell them, I'll be imprisoned immediately instead, so it would only backfire..."

In short, it was an obvious lie.

The woman had lured Javert in.

The girl was still young.

She did not grasp how high-ranking her father was.

She also did not know how the Church's internal system worked.

"There's no way."

"At this rate, everything will be over."

It was a trap that cleverly took advantage of a child's ignorance.

Naive as she was, Javert listened with a grave look on her face.

The woman's crying pricked at her heart.

"I think this really is the end."

"My child is burning up with fever and crying while clutching my sleeve..."

"I have to hurry back today too. Even while she's ill, she keeps waiting for me..."

The whispers stirred sympathy.

For immature Javert, they were words she could hardly shake off.

"Thank you for coming to share food again today."

"Thanks to you, I think I can help my child recover at least a little strength."

In the end, the girl was caught.

She grabbed Leysha as the woman tried to turn and leave, then spoke.

"U-um...!"

"In that case, how about I take a look at her?"

"I know how to handle divine energy too, so, u-um, I think I can somehow..."

Javert was a genius.

Despite her young age, her skills did not fall behind those of active priests.

She was also receiving trainee priest education, so examining a patient was well within her ability.

"Wouldn't it be okay if I did it secretly?"

"I won't tell my parents or the other priests!"

"R-really? Is that really okay...?"

"Thank you... truly, hngh..."

Javert abruptly promised her.

She would visit the woman's house soon.

Perhaps because she was relieved, Leysha burst into tears like a child.

'I promised.'

Javert had taken on responsibility.

The girl sank into thought.

'Still... I can't tell Mother and Father. If they find out, they won't let me act on my own. But if I don't step in, the treatment will be delayed. She's in critical condition right now, so I can't tell her to wait half a year.'

The girl's heart had already made its choice.

She had decided to help Leysha.

Of course, Javert had not rushed in without any caution at all.

Even if she did not tell her parents, she intended to bring at least one adult with her.

"In this situation... what do you think, Sir Rubin?"

"Would it be all right for me to help Miss Leysha?"

Rubin Carters.

The escort knight assigned to Javert.

He was a man who had stayed by her side for nearly four years after she had been taken in as a foster daughter.

From what she had heard, he seemed to be a high-ranking holy knight, and also Valter's friend.

'I can trust Sir Rubin.'

Rubin was also acquainted with Leysha.

Since he always followed Javert around, he had been with her during her volunteer work in the slums as well.

"This is a difficult situation."

Javert was certain the man would support her.

For good reason, as Rubin had always been soft toward the girl's stubbornness.

"There is nothing wrong with what Miss Leysha said."

"For free treatment, she would have to wait at least half a year."

"And she likely has no way to pay the terrifying price of high-grade treatment..."

"As you heard from Miss Leysha earlier, bringing this matter to your parents will likely be of little use."

He meant it would only make the situation worse.

Javert obediently nodded.

Rubin seemed to sink into thought, then finally accepted the girl's request.

"The slums... you may be familiar with them in many ways now, but they are still a place that can become dangerous at any time."

"I cannot send you alone. Instead, I will accompany you."

"I will also refrain from reporting it until the treatment is complete."

"I do wonder if I am indulging your stubbornness too much..."

"Really? Thank you, Sir Rubin!"

"If you're with me, I have nothing to be afraid of!"

"I was a little scared because we had to go deeper into the slums than usual..."

"I cannot abandon the duty I was entrusted with."

"Of course, once the matter is over, I will report it to your parents too."

"W-will... will I get scolded?"

"I ended up breaking the principle they always told me to keep..."

"You will be scolded a little."

"Even so, knowing those two, I think they will be happier that you helped someone."

"D-do you think so...?"

"Will they really be happy?"

"Of course."

"Are they not always kind to you, my lady?"

The escort knight answered that he would accompany her.

Thanks to that, Javert felt relieved.

'Then there shouldn't be a problem!'

Though she was breaking the rules, she had prepared this much, so it would be fine.

Javert clenched her fist with that thought.

Perhaps one could say her feelings had gotten ahead of her.

If the girl had been a little more mature, she might have made a different choice then.

But. A child of that age was too young to be mature, and she was still at an age where she did not know how well adults could lie.

'I can do it.'

Overflowing passion.

Javert was filled with the resolve to help someone.

'I'm going to help someone too, like Father and Mother.'

Perhaps it was because of the admiration she carried in one corner of her heart.

The girl had always lived with that thought.

She had met the Droit couple, received love, and at last gained happiness far beyond what she deserved.

So she believed that she too had to return love to her unfortunate neighbors.

The moment she had dreamed of every day had arrived in her life a little early.

'Let's do this.'

On top of that, the other party was someone she had built a friendship with over nearly three years.

At her side, an escort knight who had been with her for four years would accompany her.

It was an environment that could not be dangerous even if it tried.

Javert let down her guard and climbed into the carriage heading for the slums.

"Then... let's hurry and go."

"Miss Leysha must be waiting anxiously!"

The next holiday.

Javert left the mansion, saying she was going to do volunteer work.

The house where Leysha lived was a ruin located in the deepest alley of the slums.

"It's chilling. People even live in places like this..."

"I heard we still need to go much farther in."

It was also the point farthest from the nearby church.

In other words, the place where the Church's influence was weakest.

It was perfect for something shady to happen.

"Huh?"

And,

That mood soon became reality.

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