Profession, Merchant Volume 10 Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Chapter 8 – Priestess, at the Land of Exile, I

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An isolated island at the end of a journey of more than eighty islands across the ocean floor.


The white waves crash against the rugged rocky shore overlooking the ocean, making huge waves.


In the middle of this deserted landscape, a silver-haired girl in a priestess’s robe sat with her arms around her knees.


Her piercing eyes stared out to the sea.


Her long eyelashes were curling to the zenith, and the pure whiteness of her cheeks, which still held a hint of innocence, were reminiscent of the spider lilies found along the riverbanks of a certain nation, though there was no flower in this area other than hers.


She was standing in front of this beautiful blue sea. Her face didn’t look like she was on a vacation trip, but that was to be expected; this was a deserted island, and she had been condemned to exile.


Exile. Banished to an island. In other words, she was a sinner.


This girl had committed the terrible crime of drawing a lot of dirty, perverted, sexually graphic books and selling them in large quantities on the market.


Despite her pretty appearance, she is a person who does such outrageous things.


Well, that’s when the little girl, perhaps in a fit of boredom, kicked a pebble that was on the tip of her little right foot.


In the middle of the white waves, however, she saw a raft wobbling as if it were about to capsize.


Well, it resembled like a raft, actually, considering it was just a few logs tied together with rough rope. But whichever way you looked at it, it was strange to see something like that floating around on this supposedly uninhabited island.


She looked closer. She saw that there seemed to be a person on the raft, and when she strained her eyes even more, she realized that this ‘person’ was familiar to her.


It was none other than the merchant himself.


Slowly, the girl stood up and patted the bottom of her priestess robe to remove the sand from her body.


Then, her long silver hair fluttering like fine silk in the beach breeze, she floated in the air and flew against the wind towards the surface of the sea.


But the speed wasn’t fast at all, and she even gave off a feeling of dizziness and lethargy.


“Hey, you. What are you doing?”


“Uwaaa! You surprised me there.”


The merchant was tied to a post that looked like a mast that had been erected in the middle of the ‘raft.’ But because he was tied low, he was drinking seawater with every wave and was in a real life and death situation.


“Miss Priestess? Why are you in a place like this… No, more importantly, please help me!”


“Sorry, I don’t think that’s possible.”


“Why not?”


“Right now, I can’t even use magic power strong enough to lift you up.”


This was true, for although she was somehow floating in the air, her gait seemed unsteady and unreliable.


“What the hell…habububub…”


Waves hit the merchant, and they were so strong that it looked like the raft was about to capsize.


“Then why did you come over if you can’t help?”


“Moral support? I know you’re having a hard time, so I thought I’d cheer you on.”


“U-uwaaaa!”


And just like that, the raft capsized due to extremely high waves.


〇●〇●


“Ugh, I thought I was going to die.”


In the end, the priestess managed to save the merchant’s life after dragging the his overturned raft to shore.


However, the raft he was strapped to was upside down the whole time, meaning that his entire body was dragged under the sea throughout the process. It was a miracle that he had survived.


Now that he was completely cooled down, the priestess gathered some pine branches and used a little flame magic to light a bonfire.


The merchant saw this and commented.


“Hey, priestess. Your magic is much weaker than before. Are you tired or something?”


“About that…”


The priestess undoes the breast button of her priestess uniform.


Through the normally closed collar, her pearly, milky-white skin can be seen, and her adult-like collarbone writhes lazily. Looking up from there, you can see some sort of collar around her slender neck, which looks as if it might snap in a heartbeat.


“I was left here in exile, you see. This collar controls the rate at which I use my magic.”


The collar is made of a metallic material with a dull, shiny silver color. And it is decorated with a red sphere in the center, as if to symbolize restraint.


“Eh, the priestess was also exiled to the island?”


“Also? Wait. You too?”


Being exiled to an island should never be an honorable thing and is a reason to be looked down upon. Still, even with this brand, when two people are put in the same situation, no matter how criminal the other party is, a strange sense of solidarity will be born between them.


“So, how long have you been here, Priestess?”


“I’ve just arrived. Look, do you see a large ship in the distance over there?”


The priestess’s finger points to a distant passenger ship-like shadow between the vast expanse of sky and sea.


“I was on it.”


“I was treated very differently!”


“I can’t help it. I’m a girl.”


“But I’m much weaker than you! It is so unfair!”


The merchant looked angry. But he had no choice but to keep quiet. But it’s no use because the priestess’ sharp ears can hear him whispering, “I knew it. Women are assholes. They bring nothing but trouble, no matter what they are.”


At that moment, a beach breeze blew in,


“Heechi~”


and the merchant sneezed, but not the kind of sneeze you would expect from a man his size.


It was a bit cute, to be honest, almost like a girl’s.


“Hey, you’ll catch a cold if you keep wearing wet clothes like that.”


Saying that, the priestess put her hand on the hem of his clothes and tried to pull them off.


“No, no, that’s not necessary!”


But just as she does so, the merchant panics and waves his hand away.


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