Chapter 24
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Voyeurism
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Shouts drew everyone's attention.
The Saintess slowly stepped out from the cradle.
"Ah, what... why is it so bright inside the gate."
The face of the usually sweet and ever-smiling Saintess was scrunched up tight.
The inside of the gate had its entrance door smashed, sunlight pouring straight in.
And after quickly scanning the interior.
The Saintess approached us, as if she'd figured out the cause.
"...Causing a disturbance inside the gate is a serious crime, mister. ...What are the guards doing."
The Saintess scratched her head as she came toward me.
"Oppa... do you have multiple lives or something? Why do you keep causing incidents like this. Earlier too...."
Her index finger poked firmly at my chest.
Why was her face so red.
"Hm? What's with this girl? Why is a person coming out from inside the gate, gatekeeper."
Erina's husband looked startled by the Saintess's sudden appearance from the cradle.
Tell me about it. I don't know either.
"I'm Logan, the knight newly assigned to Dawn Fortress here."
"What... you're a soldier?"
As if it was absurd that a soldier couldn't recognize the Saintess, she scratched her neck.
I remembered.
Logan, the knight from the smuggling event.
Whether because he relied on his natural physique to rampage or not, his personality was violent too—one of the early inspection targets to watch out for.
This explained why the guards couldn't stop him.
Probably needed at least four guards piling on to subdue him.
Two wouldn't have stood a chance.
In the game too, he was a headache every time he showed up during inspections.
He'd cause chaos if the inspection dragged on, and true to the smuggling event, his timing was random.
Calming him down took forever too.
I recognized him now because... his face never showed in the game.
On screen, his massive bulk always pushed his face off-frame.
So this was the first time I'd seen it.
His sheer size alone was enough to intimidate players.
The first time I saw him in-game, that faceless hulking mass filling the screen—I thought he was a demonkin.
'Didn't expect to see him this soon though....'
This made sense of him not recognizing the Saintess too.
She hadn't even emerged from the west until mid-game anyway.
She only sided with the demons later on.
Meaning she'd been holed up in the west until then, just like now.
Even I, who'd played the game to death, had no idea she was in the west.
An ordinary knight like Logan naturally wouldn't know either.
Logan kept talking.
"Not content with laying hands on Erina, you pull this slutty nonsense inside the gate. No wonder we can't hold the front lines."
"......"
The Saintess's body stiffened at his words.
Logan had just crossed the line.
She'd barely held back the demons here for years alongside the Hero.
No lowly knight had any right to say that.
The Saintess clenched and unclenched her fist, eyeing Logan's body.
This was about to get ugly.
Rumors of the Saintess killing someone wouldn't do her any favors.
By now, soldiers would be swarming in.
We'd dragged this out long enough—just needed to calm her now.
"How does a knight not recognize the Saintess...."
"Saintess...? Ha... desperate lies to save your skin. Lies need to be believable.... Ha, how could that bitch be the Saintess...."
I tried to defuse things by telling Logan the woman before him was the Saintess.
Please just calm down and get arrested.
But Logan scoffed at her, clearly not buying it.
Then came a sharp thwack from below, and Logan crumpled to the ground.
"...Couldn't hold back."
"Wha...?"
The Saintess looked down at Logan, flexing her hand.
I stared in shock at what lay below.
'How hard did she kick him.'
I knew the Saintess's strength was immense.
But daytime sapped her power too.
Both Logan's knee and the Saintess's foot were twisted grotesquely.
"I'm sleepy. So let's wrap this up quick."
"Urgh... you bitch, how dare you...."
Logan's face flushed beet red.
Humiliation at losing to a woman, or just the pain—who could say.
Maybe both.
Erina, terrified by the scene, sank to the floor trembling.
Right on cue, soldiers poured into the gate.
The entrance guards had called in reinforcements.
"D-dear, please stop now...."
"Ha... perfect timing. I'm Knight Logan. I came here on imperial orders to defend the Imperial West. But that gatekeeper molested my wife. And that bitch even used magic on me, a knight. Attacking an imperial knight on arrival is clear treason against the Empire."
Despite Erina's pleas, Logan explained the situation to the soldiers point by point.
He even pulled out his knight's insignia from his pocket and showed it to them.
He still didn't believe she was the Saintess.
Too bad a knight's badge wasn't some secret inspector seal.
Maybe elsewhere, but not here in the west.
The soldiers' eyes turned to the Saintess at his mention of "slutty nonsense."
And soon, they paled as they realized who the target of that "slutty nonsense" was.
Her foot was twisted grotesquely too.
Logan couldn't avoid arrest in this situation anyway.
Right and wrong could be sorted later—this kind of rampage was forbidden.
But if the target was the Saintess? That changed everything.
To these soldiers, the Saintess meant something else entirely.
Countless had their lives saved directly by her.
Soldiers who should've lost limbs walked whole because of her.
And now, seeing her foot's state, fury etched their faces.
"Arrest this imperial traitor who tried to assassinate the Saintess right now!"
"Why... why me. W-wait, I didn't know she was really the Saintess."
At the officer's command, soldiers surrounded Logan in unison.
And in the end, he was dragged away by the swarm.
The officer, surveying the gate's state, started to approach us.
"Could we have a quick word among ourselves?"
But at the Saintess's words, he just bowed and headed out.
And I spoke to Erina, trembling in the corner.
"Ms. Erina, you're free to go. Talk to the soldier at the exit, and he'll guide you to your husband."
"B-but the Saintess's foot...."
Erina hadn't done anything wrong, so she could leave via the exit.
But she hesitated, worried about the Saintess's twisted foot.
"Ah... right."
At Erina's words, the Saintess unwound a bandage from her thigh and wrapped it around her ankle.
Her ankle snapped right back into place.
"Better now?"
"Ah... you really are the Saintess.... I-I'm so sorry about my husband. Gatekeeper, I'll come visit again later...."
Erina bowed repeatedly in apology, then staggered out through the exit.
Now, only the Saintess and I remained inside the gate.
"......"
"Ha... Oppa, wanna talk for a bit?"
The Saintess smiled brightly as she approached me.
For some reason, her eyes gleamed strangely.
Carmilla de Saint Croix.
After slipping out of the Demon King's castle, she'd lived cooped up inside a cradle at the supply base.
She'd wrap herself in bandages and sleep within it.
Then limbless soldiers would come, and she'd hand them bandages.
They'd weep thanks, she'd brush it off half-heartedly, then drag her weary body back to sleep.
She hadn't started it for gratitude, but years slipped by.
And one day, Carmilla had become a human saintess.
The base overflowed with priests tending her like a goddess.
Just a demonkin with special powers, though....
But as a nocturnal creature, she had nothing to enjoy among humans.
Medieval nights were far too dangerous. No one ventured out.
Especially not here in the west, right on the battlefield. Not even shops stayed open.
Her vampire life was utterly, soul-crushingly boring.
So she tried smoking human cigarettes.
Figured it might make life bearable.
Day by day, the habit hooked her.
She couldn't wake properly without a cigar first thing.
In the end, she turned to booze too.
Every morning, she'd snag one of Hans's prized wines and chug it.
It'd mellow her out enough for sleep to come easy.
Hans griped about wasting the expensive stuff bottle by bottle, but she didn't care.
What would soldiers say if the Saintess pounded beers at a tavern.
The nearest bar was Hans's wine cellar.
But waking for smokes, drinking to sleep—she felt herself dying bit by bit.
Forgetting why she'd even fled the Demon King's castle.
Then one day, a fun guy named Anderson showed up.
Woken by the rain, she climbed to the second floor for a smoke.
He was a gatekeeper applicant, so she pranked him with a body search.
Soldiers usually fled without meeting her eyes, being the Saintess and all.
She figured he'd bolt too....
But he strode confidently behind her.
Carmilla panicked but couldn't back out after her own words.
Then, the instant the body search began, drowsiness overtook her smoothly.
She couldn't sleep without her cradle.
Common to all vampires, not just her.
No vampire she'd known ever dozed off from a man's touch.
She figured none ever would.
But waking, she felt fresher than after cradle sleep.
No morning stiffness headache, no wine hangover.
So she asked for seconds.
'Surely he'll do it once more.'
She tried intimidating him with her Saintess title, but this Anderson was off from the start.
For one, that Rain saving him didn't add up.
The prickly girl she'd known for years, pouring that much care into a stranger.
In the end, she used every card she had to convince him.
And when sleep finally claimed her again, she felt the greatest satisfaction of her life.
Yes, this was happiness, this was pleasure.
Compared to sleep, booze and smokes were nothing.
They'd just been sleep aids anyway.
But Carmilla's blissful naps didn't last.
Suspicious noises came from outside the cradle.
'Felt like faint commotion earlier....'
- Smack!
A sound like flesh striking flesh pierced her ears.
What was that.
At first, she thought it was supply base folks slapping someone awake.
But then a thud and a familiar voice followed.
- ...What's wrong with my body.
A sweetly flushed voice.
Familiar, yet ticklier than usual to her ears.
'No way... Rain.'
She tried ignoring it as gatekeeper business and shutting her eyes.
But that voice lingered in her mind.
Sorry Anderson, but she cracked the cradle door to peek.
What she saw shocked her.
Rain ripping at her own uniform.
Standing before Anderson in just regenerative undergarments.
Then turning, shaking her hips vulgarly at the gatekeeper—she nearly fainted.
Rain claimed it was just adjusting for the search.
But to Carmilla, it looked like pure seduction.
'Is that crazy bitch for real? What the hell is she doing.'
The Saintess clamped her mouth shut. Afraid her voice might leak.
First time seeing Rain like that since Envy died—no, ever in her life.
She thought she'd never see it again.
Anderson's hand traced Rain's waist curve slowly.
Carmilla's face heated in an instant.
Wittingly or not, she cracked the door wider for a better look.
Very slowly....
And when Anderson lightly smacked Rain's ass.
- Slap.
'Insane...!'
Drool trickled from Carmilla's mouth.
Had anyone but Envy ever smacked that firm rear.
Voice threatening to escape, she mashed her hand over her mouth.
Still, the cradle door inched open.
And Rain's reaction next stunned the Saintess.
'She's reacting like that...?'
Rain bit her lip, enduring the sensation.
Sensation should've been numb in her body, yet the smack made her shiver pleasurably.
Anderson raised his hand to smack her ass hard again.
Rain even urged him on, hesitating as he was.
Thrusting her hips further, up on tiptoes.
Carmilla's heart pounded wildly.
'That standoffish bitch doing that? Wait... what happens if he hits her.'
Carmilla couldn't hold back anymore.
Her face had been flushed for ages, breath coming in gasps.
Hot snorts flared from her nose.
Drool streamed from her mouth, down her arm.
She burned to see Rain's next reaction.
Her lower belly tickled unbearably.
Fingertips trembled.
'Please, just do it already.'
Before she knew it, Carmilla had flung the cradle door wide, cheering them on silently.
And finally.
"Hic."
Carmilla hiccuped, unable to contain her anticipation.
Thus, she awakened to something new.