43. War (5)
43. War (5)
The Ners' attack plunged the citizens of Mederun into great chaos.
The Ners, which had sprouted from the ground, ignored the outer walls—often called the fortress walls—and even scaled the inner walls, moving as if the fortifications didn't exist at all. It was truly chaos incarnate.
However, the center of Mederun City was pure tranquility.
Because Mederun is a trade nation frequented by many merchants, many people mistakenly believe it to be a city where everyone lives well and is happy.
But that is not the case at all.
No city is purely happy. Mederun City, in particular, has a significant dark side.
The fact that it is a hub for trade and merchants also means it is easy for refugees, vagrants, and criminals to slip in.
Because of this, until Lea built the Orphanage, the slums within Mederun City were filled with criminals and murderous mercenaries.
While it appears to be a sturdy trade city from the outside, it harbored massive problems on the inside.
Knowing this, Gwen continued to patrol to prevent crime even after becoming the Knight Commander.
At the very least, the simple fact that the strongest person in the city patrolled every single day was enough to suppress crime.
The problem is that the city itself has no intention of solving such issues.
Because it makes money.
As it is called a trade city, trade is active, and the auction house in Mederun City runs quite vigorously as well.
It is no exaggeration to say that everything you could possibly want, or even things you might wonder, "Does this exist?" can be found in Mederun City, as goods pour in through countless trades and merchants.
Even if those things happen to be alive.
I am not talking about animals. I am talking about human trafficking—humans, elves, beastkin, and so on.
Naturally, these human trafficking deals do not take place in normal auction houses. They are conducted in the Dark Auction House.
From human trafficking to things that are utterly abnormal, illegal, or inhumane, they are sold for prices that defy imagination.
And those profits came to Mederun City as a huge gain.
In other words, it means the Dark Auction House is also managed by the city.
The person managing that auction house is the Corrupt Cleric who just entered the room where Lea is lying.
This man is a clergyman, yet he cannot use Holy Power. He has never even received Holy Power in the first place.
Yet, he works as a cleric in Mederun City.
Looking at it this way, it seems like a hopeless city, but in reality, the citizens do not feel that at all. Rather, they love and adore this city.
This is because the profits earned from running the auction house are not entirely used to fill their own pockets; about 70% of it is used for the citizens.
In the end, what the citizens and outsiders see is a very happy city.
That does not mean this is a normal city, however.
Because there are people who find that quite disagreeable, and that person is also the Corrupt Cleric.
The Corrupt Cleric is extremely obsessed with women.
And that obsession was directed at Lea.
Once Lea, who is called the Saint, appeared, rumors quickly reached him, as he runs the cathedral that serves the Goddess.
In a time when there is no Saint even in the Upper Kingdom, a Saint appeared in this city? Naturally, it was an absurd story, and he moved to meet the woman called the Saint.
And the Corrupt Cleric fell in love with Lea at first sight.
He realized in an instant why people called her the Saint.
He used many means to obtain Lea, but all of them failed. Yet, such a Lea is now lying unconscious in the place where he took refuge?
There could be no better opportunity than this.
Deceiving the knights by claiming he had received orders from the Lord, the Corrupt Cleric entered the room where Lea was and immediately used a magic tool to block any sound from the room from leaking outside.
The Corrupt Cleric approached the bed, breathing heavily.
"Ooooo..."
Seeing Lea, whom he had only seen from afar, right in front of him, the Corrupt Cleric felt his penis swell up immediately.
That thing, which hadn't moved for a long time, had stirred.
That was how beautiful Lea was.
Flawless, jade-like skin, perfectly groomed eyebrows, lips that he wanted to lick right this instant, large breasts that he felt he could knead for a lifetime without getting tired of, and voluptuous hips that looked like they could bear children for a lifetime.
Saint? No. This woman is a Goddess.
The Corrupt Cleric reached out his trembling hand toward Lea's chest.
==
Just as I was about to watch Heris's situation, someone entered the room where I was alone.
Even with my eyes closed, I could borrow the vision of my children through the Hive Mind, so I looked at my room through the eyes of a child as small as a fingernail.
As soon as I saw the human who had entered my room, I was startled.
I remember the erotic manga I saw when I was a man, where hypnosis or bad middle-aged men would appear.
Not just any man, but that kind of uncle—greasy, face always full of sweat, pot-bellied, and having taken zero care of his body.
Such an uncle was wearing a priest's robe similar to mine.
The moment I thought, "Was that my prejudice?", the uncle approached me, looking like he was in heat to anyone who saw him, breathing with rough, "Huuuk, huuuuk" sounds, and his crotch bulging.
A sense of disgust, which I had never felt since opening my eyes as the Queen, dominated my entire body.
This wasn't something I felt as a woman; it was that my mind is male, and the fact that a man was looking at me and approaching me in heat was just so repulsive.
It had only been about two months since I started living as a woman, but I had become quite accustomed to a woman's body.
Honestly, I'm not sure if I can even call my body a woman's right now.
In fact, I know that my body is a form that mimics a human.
I have breasts, and I have female genitalia.
It's a body that looks like a woman at a glance, but I know. My body right now is just a creature called the Queen mimicking a human body.
I don't even know the reason for that, actually.
I was in this body the moment I opened my eyes.
Even now, if I put my mind to it, I could completely discard this human appearance.
But I was scared.
Because I think my mind is being maintained because it at least has the form of a human.
If my appearance didn't look like a human at all and just looked like a monster, would my mind be able to hold on?
I don't know.
It seems I still have a human mind to this extent because the reflection I see when I look in the mirror or take a bath looks human.
But no matter how much of a human mind I have left, I have absolutely no desire to be molested by a middle-aged man, especially a pot-bellied uncle.
In the first place, even for women, I feel appetite instead of sexual desire, yet that kind of uncle is breathing "Huuu! Huuu!" and approaching me while erect.
The hand he is reaching out is a gesture that anyone could see is meant to touch my breasts.
It is truly, extremely disgusting.
No, wait, aren't you a cleric, uncle?
I was just feeling through the Hive Mind that our children were enjoying eating delicious humans, and I was trying to watch Heris's fight, when suddenly some fat uncle comes to rape me.
An uncle who looks like a high-ranking person at a glance.
Actually, the reason I came here was because of high-ranking-looking men like that, but this is too disgusting.
If, and this is a big if, my human mind were to become stronger and I were to feel sexual desire, the person I would have a relationship with would absolutely not be a man.
The moment the uncle's hand was about to touch my chest, I snapped my eyes open and grabbed the Corrupt Cleric's wrist.
"Ugh!? W-what! H-how did the sleeping incense not work!?"
Sleeping incense?
Had he been spraying something like that in this room?
I'm sorry, but my body is a vessel containing the essence of all creatures, not a human body.
It is a body presumed to be immune to all Ners toxins and what are called debuffs in games.
"Damn it! I was going to have my way with you nicely!"
He raised his fist toward me and swung it down at my face.
Naturally, the fist did not reach my face.
"W-what!? Gggghhh!"
Blocking both his hands, I pushed the uncle over just like that.
"Damn it! I was going to cherish you for a long time...! I'll just turn you into a bitch!"
I was dumbfounded as the uncle shouted at the top of his lungs and pulled a syringe from his robes.
A cleric is pulling what clearly looks like drugs out of his robes.
Furthermore, seeing as the knight who should be outside isn't coming in despite all this commotion, that tool placed on the drawer next to the door must be a sound-blocking device.
The moment he stood up with the syringe and started running toward me, I realized that this uncle was a man useful for my plans.
In a world where knights recognize the Lord's castle and a Goddess exists, a person who is a cleric is carrying drugs?
This means he is a person of quite high standing in this city.
Flash.
I closed my eyes and opened them.
"Hiiiiiiik!?"
I slowly approached the uncle, who was startled and fell on his butt the moment he saw my eyes.
The uncle scrambled backward as much as I approached.
I picked up the syringe that was lying at my feet.
'Drugs, huh...'
I am curious.
Not about using it, but about the taste of a human who is on drugs.
The corpses that died in the slums definitely had a poor taste. Perhaps it was because of the drugs?
Well, the drugs aren't important.
Since this human, who carries drugs even inside this castle, is high-ranking here.
My plan definitely benefits from this human's existence. No, I need him.
But I didn't want to let him live.
The sight of him getting an erection and being in heat while approaching me is something I hate even thinking about now.
I don't know if I hate it because of my male mind or because I'm a woman, but I just hate it.
I don't want to keep him alive.
"S-save me!!! I, I don't want to die!"
Actually, it seems I already had a strong desire to kill him.
On top of that, I think I intentionally revealed the Queen's appearance because I wanted to kill him as painfully as possible.
Ha...
I usually don't think emotionally like this... When I was a man, I always acted rationally and coldly.
Because that was how I survived.
And even after opening my eyes as the Queen, I have acted to be acknowledged by the creatures as their Queen.
I have no memory of acting emotionally in that process.
But is it because my body itself is female now? I feel awkward that I am trying to act purely emotionally, something I detest and hate.
Even if my mind is male, am I becoming feminine because it's a woman's body?
But so what.
This is not Earth.
This is another world.
Acting emotionally won't ruin my life.
I just think it's a little detour.
Is this trash the only high-ranking person in the castle where the Lord lives? There must be more.
I slowly approached the trash, who was struggling to open the door.
The door was already blocked by my children. Not knowing that, I stepped directly on the foot of the uncle who was doing all sorts of things to open the door like a madman.
Kwajik!
As his foot was crushed softly like silken tofu, the trash started screaming.
I didn't even want to hear such screams, so I abandoned the thought of torturing him and killing him, and just kicked the trash's neck with my foot.
It was a kick, the entirety of which I had learned for a short while at a Taekwondo gym in elementary school, but with my overwhelming physical ability, the trash's neck vanished, and his head flew into the air.
"I want to take a bath...."
I said, as if whining, and looked at my hand.
I want to wash the hand that touched the trash's wrist immediately. And I wanted to wash off my body, which he had scanned with those horny eyes, with a bath right now.