Should I say it had become somewhat shabby?
The luxurious furniture that exuded a neat elegance and the silver crosses had disappeared. What replaced them were only cheap desks that one might see in a corner woodworking shop and iron crosses.
As it happened, since I needed to make some polite small talk, I naturally had no choice but to bring this up as a topic.
“Has the office changed a bit?”
“Changed, you say? It’s the same… I just reduced some unnecessary waste a little.”
While saying that, the old priest let out a hearty laugh, huhu.
He shrugged his shoulders and continued.
“What use are fine wooden furniture or silver crosses to a servant of God? They only cause unnecessary misunderstandings among the faithful… So I sold them all off.”
“Aren’t the temple’s finances ample anyway?”
“How could that wealth be ours? It’s an offering that must be dedicated to God… Moreover, among the patients who come to the temple, there are many who cannot receive treatment because they lack donation funds.”
That was a fact everyone knew.
But, conversely, wasn’t it also common knowledge that the temple had a lot of money? No matter where you went on the continent, the temple’s luxurious facilities were bound to attract attention.
Especially since it was one of…