Holy Crusade 2
Inside that newly built little temple, I found myself thinking those thoughts as a neatly dressed nun posed a question to me. Whether she was just a nun or someone revered as a saint like the voice I'd heard before, I couldn't say. Well, given that Han Se-ah wasn't reacting, she probably wasn't a saint.
Anyway, when a modern person hears the words holy crusade, two images probably come to mind.
The first is the Crusades waged in the name of the Pope, tied to Catholicism. The second is Islamic terrorism carried out under names like jihad. And the holy crusade in the world of Heroes Chronicle could fairly be called a curious blend of those two.
"Brother, you have made quite a name for yourself as the Giant-Slayer, have you not?"
"Haven't heard that one in a while."
In Heroes Chronicle, a holy crusade was essentially a kill order. An expression of the Temple's will to halt every outward activity and eradicate a single target.
It meant making the nuns who wandered remote places healing those who had not yet found the Goddess's embrace stop their work and return. Making the priests who had set out on long journeys to spread the Goddess's will come back. Even the monks suppressing bandits and the Temple knights who had gone out to subjugate monsters — no matter how urgent their tasks seemed, everything was pushed behind the crusade in priority.
Halting every act the Temple was supposed to perform — charity, missionary work, bandit suppression, networking as a power bloc — and committing to the annihilation of the enemy. That was the declaration of a holy crusade. Literally, by any means necessary.
"Brother, it is embarrassing to ask, but there is something I would like to request of you."
"If you want me on the vanguard, I'm always game."
"My, what a gallant brother you are."
And that "by any means necessary" included hiring mercenaries and adventurers as well. Since it was a sacred war waged in the Goddess's name, there was no thought of monopolizing the glory for themselves — only of achieving the goal as quickly as possible.
So of course I would be chosen as the blade the Temple would wield in this crusade. I was an upper-grade adventurer who had brought the information, had received the Goddess's oracle and earned the recognition of the Temple knights, and even had a candidate saint as a companion.
"...What's this? Roland-sensei looks way too used to this. You've done a holy crusade before?"
"I have no interest in my viewers' perverted fantasies.... Anyway, looking at how this is going, even without party NPCs connected to the Temple like Irene unnie or Roland-sensei, it seems like this quest story lets you ride the Temple's support on player reputation alone? Since the main scenario can't progress without the Temple's help."
As I naturally conversed with the Temple knight, my party members behind me started whispering with wide eyes. Grace clung to Katie and Irene, while Han Se-ah stood by Irene's side, pretending to listen to the party while talking to her viewers.
The topic was how surprising it was that I seemed to know what I was doing. Grace and Katie latched onto Irene asking if a holy crusade had ever happened before, while Han Se-ah analyzed from a gamer's perspective why the Temple had declared one.
"Roland, what were you talking about?"
"Have you participated in a holy crusade before?"
The moment the Temple knight left, Grace and Katie practically threw themselves at me. Looking at those sparkling eyes full of curiosity, I didn't think a half-hearted brush-off would shake them off. And never mind Grace — when had Katie gotten this close...?
Whether it was the spoiled behavior unique to noble young ladies, or a sense of camaraderie from being bound under the Goddess's name, at some point she'd started clinging to my arm just like Grace without any reservation. Unlike Grace, who was feminine to the point of being voluptuous, Katie's slender figure was blocked by her breastplate so there was nothing improper to feel — but still, having a beautiful girl cling without hesitation was a little flustering for a man. That was only natural.
"I've never participated in a holy crusade. But I've taken plenty of Temple commissions."
"Temple commissions?"
"Grace, who do you think asks adventurers to take monster-hunting jobs in poor, remote rural villages?"
I couldn't ignore those curiosity-filled eyes, so I started explaining.
When a mountain village chief finds a wandering monster has appeared, crossing mountains and rivers all the way to a city or the nearby lord's guild isn't easy. If they're lucky, a swift herb gatherer or hunter from the village makes the trip, but there are plenty of poor villages with neither such talent nor even silver coins to offer as reward.
That's when the priests and nuns of the Goddess's faith step in. Priests and nuns who have learned holy arts and possess enough combat power to handle a wandering monster or two assess the situation while out on charity work and send the information to a nearby temple.
Then I scoop up all those commissions, thinking of networking and turning small change into a mountain, and tour the kingdom. And if some lunatics mess with those priests and nuns, the monks come charging out.
"Yes, Roland is right. The Temple has to look after every corner of the kingdom, but they're practically short on manpower, so they hire adventurers and mercenaries often."
"Ah, so that's it. In the north, there were priests who climbed the mountains in winter. The soldiers worried about them terribly.... So that's why Roland stays so calm no matter what comes up at the Temple?"
Honestly, experience was part of it, but thinking of it as a game scenario, it was flowing a bit predictably — but I couldn't say that outright, so I just nodded, and Katie's eyes seemed to sparkle even brighter.
The strategy the Temple had chosen was simple and crude.
Hammer and anvil.
"...Just me alone?"
"Yes. As it happens, a saint well-versed in the holy arts of enhancement has come down from the Capital."
Having me alone as the hammer made it feel more like awl and anvil than hammer and anvil, but listening to the explanation, it wasn't particularly strange. Apparently there was a saint specialized in enhancement holy arts — unlike Irene — whom I guessed was 5-star.
All the priests and nuns would gather under the saint's command and dump every buff on me, then I'd charge under the cover of the Temple knight order. In short, it seemed like a gimmick where one companion NPC got extremely enhanced, like when I'd ridden the golem on the 30th floor.
"Is that why you asked if I was the Giant-Slayer? Because you've already used this strategy?"
"Yes. Twelve years ago, we purged those tainted by evil together with a knight of the kingdom famous as a Giant-Slayer."
So the buff cutoff was roughly soloing a giant-type? Among large species, if you beat down things like ogres as a group you were a giant hunter, and if you tore them apart alone you were a Giant-Slayer — or so it seemed. This wasn't a title I'd given myself; it was something the kingdom's bards and the like spouted about in the Capital, so it wasn't exact.
The moment I stepped out of the little temple, a Temple knight latched on right away. A pretty nun had asked for permission, but a man was giving the detailed explanation — it almost felt like I was being used.
While I was having that random thought, Grace and Katie stuck right to my side again. Grace looked worried about me, while Katie seemed to be feeling a fairy-tale romance about being selected as the Temple's sword in a holy crusade.
"Alone... will you be okay, Roland?"
"A large-scale enhancement spell from a priest venerated as a saint at the Capital's Temple... I wonder what that feels like?"
Conversing like that, we went from the 30th floor to the 31st, then from the 31st to the 32nd.
Using the miniature temple as their starting point, priests and nuns in pure white robes advanced ever forward. Unlike adventurers who formed parties of about five for profit, this group of priests and nuns didn't even glance at mana stones fallen on the ground.
No matter how tough they'd become as undead, when fifty-odd priests unleashed holy arts all at once on a dozen lizardman skeletons, there was no way they'd hold out.
From ordinary starless priests to 3–4★ NPCs that viewers would jump at the chance to recruit as companions — nearly a hundred of them gathered and fired off holy arts like water guns at a water festival, so building another temporary temple at the safe zone on the 34th floor was only a matter of time.
"Whoa, we left late after the meeting on the 30th floor and we're already on the 34th. I was going to see how far we could go before ending the stream, but we've not only broken through this far before stream end — we've even done construction."
"Still, since it's a public event, they'll either push the strongest person or enhance the whole party somehow. Honestly, what Roland's doing isn't exactly the normal route."
The passage to the 35th floor, where the vines hadn't grown from the inside — no additional holy power had been poured in. In front of it, priests and nuns lined up in neat ranks like an army parted to either side, clearing a path for our party. The chat went wild at the sight, like it had been set on fire.
...These are just priests and nuns who changed into white clothes, right?
The way they moved, they looked less like people who usually did worship and charity and more like people who'd received formation drill training.