#13.5 Interlude: The Most Noble Knight Eve (Noa, Heart - Casino Bunny Girls)
A casino had appeared. It was one of the changes that came with raising the territory level to 5.
The hotel had grown even larger and more lavish than before, and the casino occupied an entire floor of it.
The casino's staff were members of the Holy Light Kingdom's reconnaissance team. The scant patrons were all succubi, who had positioned the lewdly dressed staff in front of them and were enjoying betting games—stripping away what little clothing they had left or forcing them into humiliating acts.
A few others were playing seriously, wagering chips.
Chips here could be exchanged for mana.
In one of the casino's private rooms, Gaon sat at a table, enjoying a simple game of poker. His opponent was Lilith, the brothel's owner.
"The Most Noble Knight?"
Gaon parroted her words like a parrot as he received the cards spat out by the automatic shuffler.
"Yeah. The Holy Light Kingdom's greatest knight. The strongest, the most noble woman."
"...You know her well."
"Not really. I've just heard the rumors."
A chip slid thinly across the green felt. It was heads-up between the two of them. Lilith pushed the button toward Gaon with an ecstatic smile. The tip of her tail rhythmically tapped the side of her chair in delight.
"Ahh, even just from the rumors, I can imagine it, right? Glossy black hair and jewel-like black eyes. Tall stature, and above all, a body sculpted to perfection by the gods themselves! Strong, noble, devout... she has to be a virgin. Oh man, how delicious would it be to suck the yin energy out of a woman like that~."
Lilith's eyes sparkled like a child's. She was clearly drooling over the woman.
Gaon had already heard about the Most Noble Knight too. The name had come up during his interrogations of Noa and Heart.
Holy Knight Eve. The Holy Light Kingdom's supreme sword. A woman who had appeared like a comet a few years ago, inexplicably gathering immense trust and rising to a key position in the church—all while shrouded in veils of mystery.
When Gaon had first heard about her, a question had floated up in his mind.
I don't remember a woman like that.
She was supposed to be such an extraordinary, alluring heroine. She should've shown up in reviews or strategy guides. Among the Holy Light Kingdom's female characters, the only ones that stuck in his memory were the Pope and the three saintesses. For holy knights, just some straightforward male character with a refreshing vibe...
He hadn't memorized every strategy guide, and he'd never actually played the game himself, so it was possible he'd overlooked her. But it still felt a bit off.
"Anyway, if you're ever going to topple that woman someday, I could help out. For a price, of course?"
A tempting offer, but he'd think about it later. He was scared to ask what kind of price she had in mind. And he had no plans to tangle with such a terrifying woman right now anyway. If the time came and he really needed it, he'd consider it then...
"Anyway, Your Majesty, show your cards."
Prodded by her tail tapping impatiently, he obediently revealed his hand.
A royal straight flush in hearts.
Lilith let out a shriek-like sigh upon seeing it.
"No way, what kind of cheat are you pulling?!"
"I'm not cheating."
"Then how do you keep hitting royal flushes three hands in a row?!"
As if he knew. It was just pure coincidence. Lilith knew that too. As a succubus, she could tell if someone was lying.
With a resigned sigh, she tossed her cards. Full house—not a bad hand at all, but it couldn't beat a royal flush.
The dealer standing beside them moved a massive stack of chips over to Gaon.
Ahh, such a waste of mana. All that mana Lilith had scrimped and saved running the brothel vanished into thin air. Plenty of it was fresh winnings from the casino floor.
"You're really not cheating?"
"I told you, no... I'm surprised too."
"I know, I get it, it's just too surprising. It's not like you're just lucky—earlier at roulette, you lost ten spins straight. Does poker just suit you?"
Not really. He'd never once felt like poker was his game. Some days it just clicked, that was all. Normally, he got nothing but garbage hands.
Like those ten straight losses at roulette earlier.
Lilith eyed him with keen interest.
"What is it... extreme variance? Some people are like that. But you're the first human I've seen with swings this wild."
Was that good or bad? Come to think of it, the orcs had hit a jackpot out of nowhere too, which was how they'd ended up like this. He'd won big three hands straight, but after that, a string of brutal losses meant zero net profit.
Am I just incompatible with gambling...?
Woooow—kyaaang! Kyaaang!
The perilous Bewitching Forest, overflowing with deadly beasts and poison. Someone was stumbling frantically through it.
A highly precarious gait. In fact, she'd already tumbled to the ground several times, covered head to toe in mud.
She was a young woman. A girl. But something about her felt off, uncanny.
Hard to pinpoint where the unease came from. At a glance, she looked like an ordinary country maiden. If anything, maybe her eyes. Those deep, dark pools in a girl's face evoked the tempests of bizarre eras long past.
After sprinting deep into the forest for a while longer, the girl sensed the poison thinning and collapsed in relief.
Blood trickled from scrapes all over her body from the countless falls, but she had no time to care.
"Ha, ha, haha, hahahahaha!!"
The girl laughed. Fearlessly, even as monsters might swarm at the noise.
"I escaped! I escaped! Ahh, I'm alive, I'm alive, ahh...!! Finally, finally...!!"
Half-sobbing, she dropped to her knees right there and repeated "O God, O God" in grateful prayer.
But the object of her prayer wasn't the Goddess. Nor the newly emerged Nameless God.
The girl prayed to a certain evil deity.
She had even tried to incite an incident in Stonevic not long ago, yearning for that evil god's blessing.
"All of them, every last one will face divine punishment! Our god will not forgive you!!"
She—no, he—was that old man from the cultist group before. His plans shattered by Gaon Moon's retainers, captured and dragged away, reduced to a lab rat for Advisor Mea's experiments—enduring all manner of torments day after day.
This body was one result of those experiments. He'd traded his withered old husk for a young, vigorous one. But he felt no joy in it.
What enraged him was that those filthy unbelievers had dared toy with this noble form at will.
Anyway. He'd finally escaped that hellhole.
For some reason today, the prison door had been ajar, and Mea and the guards were all absent.
He'd wondered if it was a trap, but since he'd slipped out unscathed, it must've been mere negligence.
And not just escape—he'd scored a special prize along the way.
"O God, our god...! Bring ruin to the continent, salvation to us, our god...!"
ZZzt—ZZzt—
Instead of fleeing the forest, he stopped, drew a ritual circle on the ground.
A summoning circle for a Seed of Ruin.
It had failed in the warehouse before. Interrupted before enough sacrifices.
To call it again, he'd need sacrifices. He would. But...
"Heh, hehehe...! You fools... this is the one thing you'll be useful for...! If those bitches hadn't interfered, the plan would've succeeded without issue...!"
Muttering that, the old-man-girl pulled a small vial from her bosom.
Inside was a thick, blackish, eerie liquid. Pulsing with ominous energy.
No way to know how the cultists had harvested it. He'd stolen it from Mea's workshop.
That place, where they modified the cultists, was stocked with special reagents and catalysts like this. He'd just pocketed one that caught his eye.
It felt oddly like it had been placed right in his escape path... but surely imagination.
"【■■■■■】"
He chanted before the completed circle. A sinister, evil incantation. To summon a seed of the God of Ruin.
Once, he had been a kind-hearted, gentle soul. An ordinary pastor at a rural church, teaching the faith of the Goddess. He enjoyed minor indulgences now and then, but was otherwise devout.
Then one day, he received a revelation from an evil god. The Goddess was a lying sow, and her corruption had tainted the entire continent.
From that moment, his eyes were opened. Everything he'd seen as normal was filthy, defiled.
The continent was soiled. Under the Goddess's church, it brimmed with filth and depravity. A sow goddess who ousted the true god, deceiving lowly humans with lies and whores' bodies. Her fault that sin choked the land.
It must be swept clean. Purified. He yearned for that ruin. Prayed for it.
"Come, come, come! Ruin to this land! Purification to this land! Salvation and redemption to this land! You alone—you alone—are our god!!"
Finishing the chant and prayer, he spat his blood onto the circle. No need to cut himself—he'd bled plenty from the falls.
Then he uncorked the vial and poured its contents.
The vial held something evil and ominous he'd never touched before. It carried the presence of the 'God of Ruin' he served.
Likely harvested from something belonging to the God of Ruin. The aura was so potent, perhaps directly from the god itself.
He couldn't fathom how. No need to. All that mattered: this brought his desired divine descent one step closer.
"It's coming... coming, coming, coming! Finally, to this continent, to these foolish masses, your salva—"
As he poured the vial's contents, screaming in madness—
Puuk—
A sword burst from his gut.
A blade gleaming with holy light, piercing him from behind.
"......."
The frail girl—he—turned to look.
Behind him stood a black-haired, black-eyed holy knight he knew all too well. And one who shouldn't be here...
"The Most... Noble—"
Eve
Before he could finish, Eve yanked out the sword and slashed deeply once more.
The cultist's body split in two, collapsing atop the summoning circle he'd drawn.