Your God Is Right Here
God?
Something had gone wrong.
The Saintess, who was meant to take part in the Church's announcement, remained nowhere to be found, her whereabouts still a mystery. Naturally, the announcement stalled, and though the faithful searched for her high and low, no trace of her turned up — and the minutes simply kept slipping away.
Among the crowd waiting for the announcement, murmurs spread that it had all been idle rumor after all. A few even claimed the Church had invented the tale itself to inflate its own standing.
Eventually the unrest began to churn through the Church's own ranks as well, and to mediate the situation, the Pope stepped forward in person.
"The Lady Saintess is away at the moment, in the midst of saving others. I ask for your kind patience, my brothers and sisters."
When the Pope of a great empire stood before the crowd pleading so earnestly, even those who chafed at the delay knew better than to speak out of turn — most people, at least.
But that was, strictly speaking, the standard for "ordinary" people.
"Hm... Might something be the matter?"
At that single remark, the crowd split apart like the Red Sea before Moses. Among those swept aside were nobles of no small name and men rumored to be dangerous in their own right — and still, no exceptions were made.
Because of who he was.
"We greet His Imperial Highness, Prince of the Empire."
"Spare me the greetings. I've come on personal business today."
Prince Philian — Kiana's older brother, and the most favored candidate to inherit the throne — had shown himself at the Church.
"Personal business, you say...?"
"Word of a Saint's appearance is spreading even through the common streets. How could I, the next Emperor of the Empire, possibly not come to see for myself?"
For some reason, the broad smile he wore as he said it left everyone watching with a bad taste in their mouths.
The Prince of the Empire was a man of many rumors. Some said he worked tirelessly for the Empire's stability; others whispered that he had his fingers in the underworld.
Of course, even sweeping every last rumor aside, on a purely personal level I couldn't stand the guy.
A purely personal impression, granted.
But as I stared at him with that thought, he noticed me — and stared right back.
"Hm? Your Holiness, who is that man?"
"Ah, a brother who joined our flock only recently."
"Hm... If I recall—"
"Brother? Would you kindly go and fetch the Lady Saintess for us? I ask this of you."
At some point the Pope had slipped up right in front of me, and with an expression meant for my eyes alone, he laid his desperation bare.
'Please... hurry! I don't care what you have to do — just bring her back, now!!'
'...Understood.'
It seemed the Pope's inner voice carried all the way to me.
We settled the rest with a few gestures, then each turned and headed our separate ways — the Pope, to soothe the crowd sick of waiting; and I, to find a Saintess whose whereabouts no one knew.
And as I pressed forward, another window flickered into being before my eyes. This one red, unlike the last.
Its contents were more than enough to root my feet to the floor.
≪ Requester: The Sun ≫
≪ Objective: Rescue his proxy, held captive somewhere within the Church ≫
≪ Reward: ??? ≫
That fucking bastard. Seriously.
'You wicked little brat — I said get to work, now!!'
'Kheheh... pretty, even at your age...'
'Ugh, disgusting... seriously.'
Meanwhile, the very Saintess everyone was frantically searching for was deep in a nightmare.
Raised in an orphanage, she had suffered ugly things more times than she could count, and because those memories still festered as trauma, the nightmares never stopped coming.
And the ending was always the same.
'Kyaaagh! A m...monster...!!'
'S...save meee!!!'
'W...wait... you know me, don't you? Huh?! U...ughk—!!'
Her small whimpers cut off the moment the nightmare reached its end. Not long after, a body every bit as small as those whimpers stirred upright.
'Wh...where... where am I...?'
"Awake at last, Lady Saintess... heh."
At the voice drifting out of the darkness, she reached out on reflex — only to be stopped short by the clank of iron. At some point, chains had been wound tight around both her arms.
Not that it would have mattered. With her holy power, she could have crushed them like paper.
'Wh...what?! Why won't my holy power...?'
"Something not going your way?"
Turning toward the voice once more, she made out the silhouette of a fat man sauntering lazily out of the dark.
"...Bishop Rignil...?"
"Haha, we meet again, Lady Saintess."
"D...did you do this?"
The instant the words left her mouth, he let out a low, greasy chuckle — kheheh — that curdled by degrees into outright madness, until he was clutching his belly and wheezing, kek-kek-kek, unable to stop. Only after laughing himself hoarse did Rignil wipe the tears from his eyes and speak.
"Khihihihi... finding it hard to grasp your situation, Lady Saintess? Because I'd say this is hardly the time for questions..."
"...Why are you doing this?"
"Allow me to explain that part."
With those words, a second silhouette appeared behind Rignil — he, too, a face burned into the Saintess's memory.
"Priest... Antonio?"
"Oh... to think you'd remember a lowly man such as I... How befitting of a virtuous and beautiful Lady Saintess."
"Spare me your honeyed words..."
The Saintess was no fool. She could see perfectly well that these two had conspired together to put her here. But the important thing was that she still didn't know why.
If they were after her holy power, they should have moved on it already. And if they meant to control her, they would never have left her bound like this.
As though he'd read the question she was wrestling with, Antonio cheerfully supplied the answer.
"Curious why we've left you untouched, Lady Saintess?"
"...."
"Well, it's simple! We're attacking the Church today."
His words, tossed off as lightly as a child discovering a new toy, left both the Saintess and Rignil utterly aghast.
"Wh...what?!"
"Wh...what?!"
"Hm? Did I never mention it?"
Oblivious to Rignil — whose jowled face had flushed crimson with panic — and to the Saintess, still replaying the words to be sure she'd heard them right, Antonio simply smiled. He just kept on beaming that pure, childlike smile.
"H...hold on! You never said anything like that!"
"Ah, have no fear. We're not trying to destroy the Church."
"Ah, is that so... ahem... wait, what?!"
"We brought the Lady Saintess because we'll be needing quite a lot of her holy power. Well, her absence also makes the infiltration that much easier."
"Ah, r...right, of course."
Unlike Rignil, who swallowed it whole, plenty of it refused to add up in the Saintess's head. If that were true, her holy power should already have been drained to the last drop. And the Church's defenses wouldn't simply crumble because one girl was missing — the Church had the Pope, after all, and other Bishops besides.
While her doubts churned on, Bishop Rignil swallowed audibly beside her. Antonio watched him with that same amused interest — then, as if struck by a sudden realization, clapped his hands together with a sharp smack.
"Ah, that's right — we did agree to hand the Lady Saintess over to you, didn't we."
"Ah, ahem — yes, that we did."
"I'll head on ahead, then. Please, enjoy yourself. Still, I'd rather you finished quickly — I do have a use for her."
"Kheheh, much obliged..."
As Antonio turned his head toward the Saintess, something predatory flickered in his eyes, and what she saw was no longer a man at all — it was closer to a beast, drooling over its prey.
"...Do you have any idea what will happen if you lay a single finger on me?"
"Have no fear, Lady Saintess. After today, the Pope's seat will be mine regardless."
"...Stay away from me."
"And what exactly can you do, a Saintess who can't even call upon her holy power?"
So saying, Rignil closed the distance. The Saintess threw everything she had into stopping him, into running — but a girl not yet fully grown, her holy power sealed away and both arms bound in iron, could do very little.
Before she knew it, his face hovered inches from hers. Hot breath rolled from his mouth, and his eyes swam with lust. It wasn't as if a grown man had never loomed over her before — but never had she felt a gaze like this head-on, and so her reaction was no different from any girl her age.
"...."
"Why so quiet, Lady Saintess? Khihihi..."
"...Don't."
"And if you refuse? What will you do?"
With that, Rignil seized both her shoulders hard. Two massive hands settled onto her frail shoulders, pressing down before beginning to stroke — filthy fingers, almost tender. Against her will, her eyes squeezed shut and her head bowed; she bit her lip so hard it split, a thin bead of blood welling up.
"Heheheh... you smell wonderful, Lady Saintess."
"...Nn...gh..."
So saying, he buried his face in the nape of her neck and inhaled, and at that warm, repulsive breath, the whimper she'd been swallowing finally broke free. As though her reaction delighted him, Rignil went on sniffing at every inch of her — her neck, her shoulders, her legs, her armpits, her thighs — pausing now and then to drag his tongue across her skin, savoring every shudder.
When he'd finally had his fill, Rignil lifted his head with a satisfied air and wiped the drool from his lips, while tears of disgust and humiliation spilled from the Saintess's eyes.
"Now then... shall we get to the main event...?"
"D...don't... please..."
"...I'm afraid I didn't quite catch that?"
"P...please stop, I was wrong... hng..."
Her beautiful face was a mess of tears, twisted into a mask of weeping, and clinging to the desperate hope of talking her way out of this, she kept up apology after apology she didn't mean a word of. Watching her, Rignil stroked his chin.
"No."
"Ye...yes?"
"With that lewd little body of yours at my mercy... what man do you think would settle for an apology? Heh heh heh heh."
"N...no..."
"...Then lie back and take it, Saintess!!"
He roared like an animal and tore her robes open, baring her chest. The fabric straining over his groin was already swollen taut, past any hope of restraint. No amount of begging was going to stop him now. It was a shame he couldn't make out her face in this darkness, he mused — though in its own way, that only stoked his excitement — and at last, her chest and lower half lay completely exposed.
"Heh heh heh heh... you're going to enjoy this..."
"N...no!! Goddess!! F...Father!!"
"Where do you think a god's going to hear you?! Uwahahaha!!"
With that, Rignil shoved down his reeking trousers and lunged at her, his head already filled with nothing but the thought of violating her.
And then — the door burst open, and a shaft of light came flooding in. Backlit by that single blade of light, a dark silhouette took shape. In an instant, both occupants of the room had their eyes wrenched toward the figure, which held its silence for a long beat before finally speaking.