Chapter 230
Chapter 230
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 230
Chapter Title: The Colorless Nun
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I was exactly ten times more shocked than when I’d first read what was written on the paper.
This cramped room felt even more suffocating, and I barely suppressed the urge to kick the door down and bolt right then and there.
“…Hmm.”
I closed my half-open mouth for now.
Seeing Verita beaming at me, I concluded I needed a moment to gather my thoughts.
‘This could be a trap… but it doesn’t feel like one.’
Summoning people into a small room for one-on-one talks…
It was a suitable method for rooting out cultists, but it had one fatal flaw.
An imbalance of information.
Out of our group of ten, only one person—this nun in front of me—could monopolize all the intel.
If I could fully trust this woman, that’d be one thing, but otherwise, things could turn dangerous fast.
‘Or maybe this whole thing is part of the test.’
The Heroos hero institution.
The cult’s sworn enemy.
Even the Iron-Blooded Duke, after three years there, had said he’d learned little about cultist hunting from them—which spoke volumes about how deeply Heroos understood the Dark Cult.
In other words…
This could all be training simulated from a real scenario.
It wasn’t just about identifying cultists.
It might even evaluate how you escape false accusations as a supposed cultist.
That would make sense in a general training context, but…
‘Two things.’
This woman had let slip remarks I couldn’t ignore.
First: Why introduce herself as a devotee of the Colorless faction out of the six factions…?
Second: How could she pinpoint me not just as a mere ‘cultist,’ but specifically as a ‘High Priest’?
High Priests were the cult’s core forces, shrouded in the utmost secrecy.
You could tell just from how my treatment back home changed after capturing one.
I’d leapfrogged past Hiro and Nero—who’d been steadily building heroic careers—and been promised the sub-family head position overnight.
Even Heroos, which clashed with the cult most frequently, rarely encountered High Priests.
Naturally, being accused as one would be even rarer, so I doubted this had much practical value as training.
“Have you sorted your thoughts?”
Verita asked in a leisurely tone.
She still wore that smile.
How much time had passed?
Subjectively, about a minute, but maybe a bit more.
I’d been lost in thought for no short while, yet she’d said nothing, just watched me the whole time.
Only then did I get a proper look at Verita.
Around twenty years old. Pale peach-colored hair and eyes, refined features, attire and expression that left no doubt she was a nun, and an aura to match.
‘…Colorless devotees.’
From what I’d investigated, they were the most elusive faction in the Dark Cult.
They hadn’t caused any major incidents in the past century or so.
I’d crossed paths with cultists plenty of times, but never once with the Colorless faction.
That didn’t change the fact that they were still imperial enemies as cultists, but…
‘Hmm.’
I felt mounting pressure to speak up soon.
Deny it, play dumb…
Before I could react that way, I realized it the moment our eyes met.
This woman was utterly convinced by her own words, and nothing I said would shake that certainty.
Even stranger.
How had she detected the evil instrument inside me—something even countless experts had overlooked—and by what method?
“Why do you think I’m a High Priest?”
So I just asked.
I’d laid a bit of insurance, but it was half an admission that I was one.
If this was a leading interrogation, I figured I’d play along.
“Ahaha.”
Fortunately, Verita’s expression shifted dramatically—no triumphant ‘Gotcha, heretic!’ moment.
Nun Verita flashed her signature sly grin and covered one eye with her palm.
“I’m a priestess of the Colorless and also a protector. There’s no way I wouldn’t recognize you, High Priest.”
“That’s too vague. You didn’t just guess, did you?”
Verita let out a low chuckle, and that instant, her eye color changed.
From peach matching her hair to a brilliant gold.
“My eyes are a bit special. They can precisely identify comrades, and the range is wide too. Thanks to that, I knew the moment you first set foot in this city, High Priest.”
A chill ran down my spine.
Meaning, if she wanted, she could detect me anywhere in a whole city.
“What’s your goal.”
“What does the goal of a lowly thing like me matter? What matters is what you desire, High Priest.”
Verita wiped the smile from her lips, resuming her nun-like demeanor.
She clasped her hands as if in prayer and spoke.
“…Savior who has appeared after centuries. The one and only being who can commune with the Judge. Command me. Even if it grinds this wretched body to dust, I will surely fulfill it.”
“So you’re saying you’ll obey my orders?”
“That is my duty.”
Her beaming smile looked suspicious.
I asked.
“If I tell you to keep my identity secret?”
“I’ll hide it until my dying breath.”
“Even if another Colorless devotee asks?”
“I’ll never answer.”
“If the Black Church Lord asks personally?”
“The same. I don’t serve the Black Church Lord.”
She answered without hesitation, but I couldn’t take it at face value.
Finally, I asked.
“If I order you to die here.”
A brief silence this time.
Verita lowered her eyes slightly and said.
“If it’s for the church, I’ll gladly offer this life.”
“…….”
The reason I brought up death was simple.
One of my meager talents: I could somewhat discern true intent in answers involving life and death.
And unbelievably, Verita was sincere.
Meaning she was prepared to end her life if I truly commanded it.
This woman I’d met less than an hour ago was showing me this attitude?
I was inwardly baffled but kept it hidden and asked.
“You said you already found the cultists. Who?”
“The knight. And the old man.”
Just as I’d expected—not one, but two.
The very pair I’d pointed out without much thought.
No twists, which was the twist, I guess.
“Should I count you as a cultist too? Meaning, does Heroos know your identity?”
“No. You’re the only one here who knows what I am, High Priest.”
“…….”
That meant Verita wasn’t a Heroos plant…
But like me, someone who’d come for promotion and gotten swept into this mess.
Putting us in the same precarious spot—exposed identities meant instant execution for both.
“Three more minutes have passed.”
Verita said.
“May I ask your goal one last time, High Priest?”
“B-rank achievement.”
No point hiding it, so I answered honestly.
“I see. Then I’ll assist you with all my heart.”
“…….”
For now, I’d reached a conclusion.
Maintain the status quo until a better plan came to mind.
A drastic option was silencing her permanently by killing her, but…
Eh.
First, I hadn’t judged yet if she was unhinged enough to warrant death…
Second, even if I succeeded, failing to prove she was a cultist would paint me as the madman who murdered a 72 Churches priest.
And third—the root reason…
This woman.
I couldn’t gauge her strength at all.
* * *
Stepping out, all eyes turned to us.
Naturally, since I was last, emerging with Verita.
I took my seat, and she walked to the front of the group.
“How’d it go?”
The scholar asked, and Verita replied.
“Thanks to my brothers and sisters’ cooperation, I successfully identified the cultists.”
The room stirred faintly at her words.
No one seemed to buy it outright—mostly skeptical reactions.
Which made sense.
They were all Heroos heroes.
They knew better than anyone that rooting out cultists wasn’t something doable in mere minutes.
Verita ignored the reactions and spoke.
“No time, so I’ll reveal the cultists now. Sir Peron, the freelance knight, and Erudi, the B-rank hero. You two are the cultists I identified.”
Naturally, eyes shifted to the knight and the old man.
Both glared at Verita with stone-cold faces. The knight spoke first.
“…This is the first insult of my life. As a knight, I know only one way to respond to insults—but before I draw, I’ll ask. As a 72 Churches priestess, surely you have evidence for this accusation?”
“Of course! My god said this: ‘Human nature reveals itself fully only before death.’”
“What does that…?”
“From now on, I will kill Sir Peron and Erudi here. In the name of god. Oh, no need to worry. If you confess your true identities, I’ll follow god’s mercy and halt the execution.”
“Hah.”
Verita declared it with a smile, prompting the knight to laugh bitterly and the old man to scoff.
“Enough of that. Even as a 72 Churches nun, this level of insult—”
“Let’s begin.”
The moment Verita extended her arm sideways.
Her hand vanished as if blocked by an invisible veil, reappearing gripping a vicious blunt weapon.
Like the one Church Teacher Juniang had used, but far more brutal—a morningstar.
‘A Blessing?’
The moment I questioned it, Verita’s figure vanished. Even I, on high alert, lost track of her movement for a split second…
Then came a crunch, and the old man’s right shoulder—who’d half-drawn his sword—shattered gruesomely.
“Guhk…?”
“Brother? Next is the neck.”
“You crazy bitch!”
The knight ground his teeth, drew in a flash, and swung at Verita. She raised her right arm without even turning.
‘No way she’s blocking a blade barehanded?’
I watched incredulously but poured internal energy into my eyes to see how she’d counter.
“……!”
The internal energy originated in Verita’s brain. Unbelievable, but true.
Lightning seemed to flash inside her skull, then in a blink, it surged to her fingertips.
Not racing through meridians, but teleporting at impossible speed.
I’d never seen internal energy move so fast inside a human body.
The mana density concentrated in her fingers was meticulously precise too.
How refined must one’s energy control be to form that aura coating in an instant?
It was like erecting a dozens-of-meters-high fortress wall in a blink.
Clang!
And naturally, no single blade could breach that wall.
The sword aura shattered futilely.
“Huh…?”
As the knight uttered a dazed voice, Verita snatched the broken blade and hurled it like a dagger.
Thuk!
“Arrrgh!”
It plunged straight into his left eye. The knight clutched his face, screaming.
“Hm? A bit shallow, I guess.”
Verita tilted her head just as the old man drew his sword with his remaining left hand.
B-rank hero Erudi.
My current target, Heroos’s core force in practice. Per the chain sickle guy, someone who could easily claim a branch chief position.
The killing intent on his full-force swing was viscous.
Erudi swung to kill. With his shoulder mangled, using lethal force wasn’t odd.
But even Erudi’s killing sword didn’t reach Verita.
She retrieved her morningstar and tilted its handle at a slant.
A round ornament capped the end, angled so perfectly that his bloodthirsty blade glanced off with a tick.
“Huh…?”
A hollow voice leaked from the old man’s lips.
His all-out technique deflected so emptily, his boiling battle lust from the wound evaporated instantly.
Boom!
His body flew like a cannonball, smashing chairs before slamming into the wall.
Coughing up blood, the old man rasped.
“You… you’re no nun—you’re a heresy inquisitor…”
“Ignorant of the church, aren’t you? Those roles are compatible.”
“…….”
Verita still smiled.
She scanned the bloodied old man, knight, and wrecked room, then spread her fingers.
“Now, I’ll give you three seconds. Confess as cultists, or die. 3, 2…”
“…I confess.”
The old man spoke first.
“…I am a cultist.”
Verita smiled faintly at his admission, then turned to the knight.
He bit his lip, nodding his chin ever so slightly.
“Hmm.”
Verita hummed in satisfaction, tracing a holy sign with graceful motions.
“…My god said confession has ever been among the bravest acts! I, Razbet, offer my sincere respect to your courage.”
Clapping enthusiastically alone, she finally addressed us.
“Now, the two cultists are confirmed, right?”
“…….”
Everyone in the room, me included, was speechless.
The scholar, who’d watched silently, muttered lowly.
“…Crazy bitch.”