The Saintess's Atonement
Serena, the Saintess of the Goddess Church. Before she set foot in the Demon Realm, she had been a hardliner who believed every single demon should be hunted down and killed. Naturally, she became the vanguard for the hardline bishops, publicly endorsing the Crown Prince's rebellion and fiercely opposing the Emperor's proposal to discuss peace with the Head Mod after his ascension.
However, when the benevolent and gentle Goddess suddenly began issuing extreme commands, Serena felt a sense of unease. Though hesitant, she ultimately followed the divine decree, entering the Demon Realm to spread the plague.
But as she wandered through the Demon Realm, witnessing the rampant disease and terror, her perspective began to shift.
"*Cough, cough!*"
"*Sigh...* I have to go out and work... *cough, hack!*"
"Dear! How can you work in this condition? Please, go back inside and rest."
"Is Daddy sick?"
"N-no. Daddy is fine, so go back inside first. *Cough!*"
Every time she passed through villages and cities in disguise, Serena caught glimpses of the daily lives of the demons—the very beings she had been taught to call minions of evil and cursed spawns.
'They're just an ordinary family, no different from those in the Empire...'
She realized that demons were fundamentally no different from herself.
'What have I done?'
From the city laborers who lived hand-to-mouth, to the farmers whose entire families were bedridden, leaving their annual harvests to rot, to the merchants, sailors, miners, and herbalists—the entire economy of the Demon Realm had ground to a halt, threatening the livelihoods of countless innocent souls.
She couldn't comprehend why the Goddess would command her to bring about such a tragedy.
So, though it was late, Serena tried to make amends. She began diagnosing patients and offering medical advice on the gallery.
Later, she resolved to persuade the bishops and priests to halt this cruelty, intending to take full responsibility and atone for her sins.
"Ah, you mean those demon scum? They're getting exactly what they deserve."
The bishops and priests cursed the demons without a single change in their expressions. Furthermore, when she repeatedly spoke against their agenda, they accused the Saintess of falling from grace.
"Gulp! *Gurgle!*"
After being repeatedly dunked underwater, Serena was stripped of her holy power, captured by the demons, and left on the verge of death.
And then...
"Hey, you've been kidnapped."
"Gasp!!!"
Serena bolted upright, drenched in cold sweat. She found herself nestled in warm, fragrant bedding.
"W-was it a dream?"
She let out a sigh of relief and looked around. The room was pitch black, making it impossible to see anything.
She tried to gather her holy power to conjure a sphere of light, but...
"...Huh?"
The holy power she had always used without a second thought felt completely dry, like a parched well. Not a single drop remained.
"W-why?"
As panic began to set in...
Creeeak.
The door slid open, and a blinding torrent of light poured into the room.
"Oh, you're awake?"
Click!
The overhead light flickered on, filling the room with a brilliant glow. Serena flinched, shielding her eyes with her hands. Once her vision adjusted to the brightness...
"Y-you? Then it wasn't a dream..."
Standing before her was the very man who had whispered those intimidating words, *'Hey, you've been kidnapped.'*
"What do you mean, dream? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"...Pardon?"
He claimed to have kidnapped her, yet the first thing he asked about was her physical well-being. What was his angle?
"I checked for injuries while changing your clothes, but you might have internal damage or something."
"Y-you changed my clothes...?"
She looked down. Instead of her familiar Saintess vestments, she was wearing a clean white T-shirt and black shorts.
She slowly raised her head to look at the man's incredibly relaxed expression.
A sudden, horrifying thought crossed her mind.
'Does that mean... he saw me naked...?'
Serena clutched her shoulders with both arms.
"Kyaaaah!"
There was a saying I remembered from my past life.
Never save a drowning man.
The proverb "Save a drowning man and he'll ask for your bundle" didn't exist for nothing.
Out of pure goodwill, I had saved her from being taken as a prisoner to Kronendike. After she collapsed, I gave her a quick checkup and laid her down in a bedroom to rest.
"W-what did you do to me?"
"......?"
"T-to me... unconscious and soaking wet... y-you did something unspeakable...!"
The moment she woke up, she was framing me as a pervert.
'Well, she did get waterboarded after arguing with her own people. The mental trauma must be severe.'
Plus, she had been delivered via the Gallery Exchange, and the moment she arrived, she was greeted by me, Reina, Reddy, and Blackie. It was understandable that she'd be startled. When I looked back after she fainted, the others had been standing there looking incredibly menacing.
I tried to be understanding, but...
"Y-y-you pervert!"
"No, I didn't—"
"Beast! A piece of trash who enjoys violating a sleeping, defenseless woman!"
I hadn't done a single thing, yet she kept calling me a pervert and a criminal, completely ignoring my explanations.
This was starting to...
"Get on my nerves. Want me to show you what a real pervert looks like?"
"H-hiiiieee!"
I made a threatening gesture, but...
"Head Mod!"
Reina, who had been watching from behind, quickly intervened, so nothing scandalous actually happened. I wasn't the type of actual creep to get excited over being called a pervert anyway, so I had no intention of doing anything.
"I was just kidding."
"...I don't think you were."
"It was a joke. Besides, you can't read my emotions because of my barrier anyway."
"Then will you turn it off so I can read them?"
"...First, get rid of those hearts in your eyes."
"Th-that's just my instincts..."
"Ahem. Anyway, are you Saintess Serena?"
"...The Head Mod? You?"
When I nodded, she gasped.
"B-but the rumors said you were a tsundere, half-succubus, half-cow-beastgirl beautiful archmage who makes banana milk and cold beer..."
"Ugh, someone actually believed that long-ass meme."
"S-so that was a smokescreen to hide your identity...!"
"I never said any of that. Seriously."
This was all the fault of those damn gallery trolls.
"I-if you are the real Head Mod..."
Serena slowly slid out of bed. She knelt on the floor and bowed her head deeply.
"I am sorry."
It seemed her protest to the bishops and priests about stopping the plague, which had led to her waterboarding, had been entirely genuine.
"Because of me, so many people are suffering and in pain. I sincerely apologize. So..."
"...So?"
"I will do whatever you ask of me. Anything."
"Alright, great. Then we need to move quickly."
"......!"
Serena nodded with a solemn expression. She slowly stood up, climbed back onto the bed, and knelt.
I glanced at Reina, but she just shrugged, equally baffled.
"What are you doing?"
"...Pardon?"
"I said we need to move quickly."
"Ah, yes. Then..."
Serena squeezed her eyes shut and started pulling her T-shirt over her head—
"What do you think you're doing?!"
Just before she could take it off, Reina lunged forward and stopped her.
"Why are you trying to strip?!"
"Huh? B-but he said we need to move quickly..."
"...How on earth did you connect those two things?"
"Well, usually it's like, 'I'll make you feel as much pain as you caused others!' or 'Pay for your sins with your body!'..."
"Wh-what?"
At this point, I couldn't tell who was the succubus and who was the saintess.
"Ah! You just had a look that said 'I don't know who's the succubus and who's the saintess here'!"
"...No, I didn't. How do you even read that from a look?"
"I just know!"
A relatively wholesome succubus, a saintess with a mind completely in the gutter, and a hero who, for reasons unknown, could regress into a babbling baby at any moment.
What a lineup.
'This is pure chaos.'
"You're thinking of something weird again!"
"...No, I'm not. But seriously, why is her face so red?"
Looking closely, her face was flushed even redder than before. Had she caught the plague she spread? I had checked her temperature earlier, and she didn't have a high fever.
"Head Mod."
"Yeah?"
"Um..."
"?"
Uncharacteristically, Reina scratched the back of her neck, her tail twitching nervously. She leaned in and whispered in my ear.
"Just in case, I cast a spell on her so she couldn't harm us. Her holy power was completely depleted, so it took hold easily."
"And?"
"That spell induces obedience and prevents the target from hiding their emotions."
"So..."
"Yes. The desires buried deep within the Saintess's heart are being laid bare."
Slap!
I facepalmed for the first time in a while.
"When does it wear off?"
"I released it just now."
However, looking at her state...
"S-so it wasn't... 'breed as many as you killed'...?"
It didn't seem like she would recover anytime soon.
'So she was actually enjoying saying those things deep down?'
This was mind-boggling.
Slap! I facepalmed again.
"Is her holy power still completely drained?"
"Y-yes. It seems so."
"Then cast a sleeping spell on her until she calms down."
"Ah, good idea!"
Perhaps because the bishop had thoroughly extracted every last drop of holy power from her body during their clash, Serena had almost no holy power left. With her magic resistance near zero, Reina's spell worked perfectly.
Serena, knocked out by the sleeping spell, woke up about two hours later.
"Are you feeling better now?"
"......I want to die......"
She was dying of embarrassment.
Serena had been entirely sincere when she said she wanted to atone.
"It's about time for dinner, so eat something before you continue."
"Y-yes. Just let me finish this one."
She worked tirelessly, churning out holy water. Thanks to her efforts, the water sources, rivers, and emergency patients of the Demon Realm were being freed from the plague.
Even now, the holy water she produced was being uploaded to the Gallery Shop for free, distributing it to the users. Before long, the disease plaguing the Demon Realm would vanish without a trace.
'Holy water, huh...'
I couldn't help but recall how certain degenerate websites referred to a beautiful woman's sweat or saliva as "holy water," and briefly wondered if that was how she made it.
Fwoooosh!
But it was actually quite mundane. She simply knelt before a pile of bottled water and offered a solemn blessing. Still, it clearly demanded a massive amount of physical stamina.
"...Head Mod."
"Yeah?"
I was eating a double bulgogi burger when Reina stared at me with glaring eyes.
"You seem to be having a lot of strange thoughts today. Do you perhaps... fancy the human Saintess?"
"...Huh?"
Reina's eyes took on a terrifying glint.
"If you keep this up, I'll find a way to break the Gallery Barrier, even if it kills me..."
"Whoa, that's a terrifying thing to say. Stop!"
"The Head Mod must have upset Reina. Right?"
Whoosh, swoosh~
"Upset her? No way... Wait, what did Reddy just say?"
"...He said 'Save me'."
"Reddy, you!"
At that, Liv's eyes also turned sharp.
Meanwhile, Serena wiped her sweat and stood up, watching the scene with a gentle smile.
Their first meeting had been so disastrous she never wanted to think about it again, but looking back, she was incredibly glad things turned out this way.
'Yes, he truly is the Head Mod.'
An affinity that transcended race. The patience and self-control to hold back despite possessing the superhuman power and authority of the Gallery's Head Mod. And...
"Ah, you're done?"
"Yes, I'll eat and get back to it."
"The urgent cases are mostly handled, so take it easy. Here, take this."
...The kindness to look after her even in the midst of utter chaos.
She took the hamburger and fries, which felt fresh from the shop.
'So warm.'
That warmth brought an inexplicable sense of peace to Serena's heart.
And...
She decided she would reveal her username when the opportunity arose, and took a big bite of the burger.
The food with the long name—the Quattro Cheese Double Bulgogi Deluxe Burger—was absolutely delicious.
In a secluded, shaded corner of the Demon Realm lay Luceren, a city perpetually shrouded in deep darkness.
At the lobby of the Queen's Castle—a bizarre structure whose upper floors loomed larger than its ground floor, yet never collapsed—mana thick with yin energy gathered toward a large landscape painting hanging on the front wall.
Soon, the surface of the painting rippled, and a black-haired succubus in a captivating, revealing outfit stepped gracefully out of the frame and landed on the floor.
As if they had been waiting, several succubuses rushed out from both sides.
""Mother!!!""
"How have you all been?"
The mistress of the house had returned after a long absence.
"You came back quickly this time!"
"I suppose so. Has anything happened?"
"There was a lot of talk about a plague outside, but Luceren was perfectly fine."
This was Luceren, a city inhabited by succubuses and a few incubuses. Although members of other races visited for pleasure, they were only allowed as far as the taverns built outside the city gates. Thus, Luceren remained safe from the plague.
With plenty of stored essence and no need to eat or drink, it was, in a sense, the safest city during this epidemic.
The Queen greeted her precious daughters one by one, hugging them and stroking their hair.
Finally, she asked.
"Where is Reina?"
"Who knows? She's probably locked in her room browsing the gallery again."
"I keep telling her to go out and make some friends."
With a sigh, she headed toward the room of her youngest daughter, her constant source of worry.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Reina, are you inside?"
"......"
There was no reply, nor could she sense any of the annoyed emotions Reina usually projected.
'Is she sleeping?'
The Queen gently opened the door.
But...
"...Reina?"
The room was spotlessly clean, devoid of any signs of life. There wasn't even a trace of residual mana, which should have remained if she had stayed there even briefly.
This meant Reina hadn't set foot in this room for at least a month.
"Wh-where did she go?"
"W-we don't know."
"With so many sisters, not a single one of you noticed she was gone? *Sigh.* Where on earth did that innocent child go... What if something happened to her?"
"Um... Mother?"
Among the crowd of daughters, one succubus slowly raised her hand.
"Xenia? Do you know where your sister went?"
"No, not exactly."
Xenia flew over lightly and landed beside the Queen, expanding a Gallery window to show her.
"But she's safe. She's browsing the gallery right now."
"Browsing the gallery? That old Abyss Magic Gallery?"
Beside the account of her precious youngest daughter, which they had finally located...
"Her username is... 'Only Looking At You'. And oh my... is she a sub-mod?"