Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Church (6)
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With the Saintess's lackeys in tow, I set out to track down the hero party members and managed to gather them all without a hitch.
Far more members of the Saintess faction than I'd expected—info networks were embedded everywhere inside the Church.
The only ones I couldn't bring were Laura and Yumi. The Church had them under tight surveillance.
They didn't seem to care much about one lowly guard like me vanishing, but those two had ironclad protection.
They must know Yumi's the woman once called the darkness of the Mastain ducal family.
Anyway, once I'd rounded up the rest of the members, the basement was buzzing with activity.
Kani looked tired, like she hated all the commotion, but the moment Rainy walked in...
Her sullen expression brightened instantly, and she broke into a smile so radiant that an AI scan would peg it at 100% joy as she toddled right up to her.
"Rainy Saintess niiim!"
"Y-Yeah...?"
I'd already given Rainy a quick rundown of the situation on the way over, but she still looked flustered.
Kani plopped herself down right under Rainy's ample bosom.
"Uh... um..."
"Hehe, it's been so long, Saintess Rainy!"
Looks like Rainy and Kani had met in person once before.
Makes sense—they wouldn't be this excited otherwise.
"Eh...? Oh... right!"
"..."
But judging by Rainy's reaction, she didn't remember Kani at all.
Her tell when she lies was plain as day.
'Oh, Rainy...'
I'd already pegged Kani as a pitiful kid, but seeing her not even register in the memory of the person she idolized hurt me too.
"That time when Saintess Rainy petted my head! It felt so good!"
"Uh... yeah..."
"Hehe, I even pulled out the hair from the spot you petted and kept it to this day!"
"Maybe you should throw that away...?"
Even Rainy, with her rotten personality, couldn't bring herself to be harsh to someone who adored her this much.
It was surprising to see that side of her, but what shocked me most was...
'She kept the hair?'
Kani's obsession.
If she'd been born on Earth, she'd have made a stellar sasaeng fan for some idol.
"So, when do we shoot?"
Vine sauntered over, licking her lips.
This woman's been pent up lately.
Makes sense—she was firing arrows every day at the academy, but hasn't shot any recently.
"Hmm, should we just take 'em down right now?"
"You sure? It's still a major power like the Church, y'know."
I glanced around at everyone huddled together in the cave.
"Our forces are stronger than you think. We've got two heroes, two saintesses, two demonkin, and an archer-spiritist to boot."
"Hmm..."
"And once we pull out Laura and Yumi, that'll add a mage and an assassin."
"Sounds like we've got more than enough."
I nodded, affirming Vine's words.
A hero party is a powerhouse just by existing, and ours was basically the equivalent of two.
Even the Demon King would piss himself looking at our lineup. How's some puny Church supposed to stop us?
Their biggest backer, the Goddess herself, is on our side too.
Squinty-eyes was annoying, but if we struck with a surprise attack, I was confident we wouldn't lose.
Once I'd hyped up just how stacked our forces were, Vine nodded like she got it, but then brought up the part that didn't add up.
"But with power like this, why not just storm the Demon King's castle right away?"
"Huh?"
"Why not grab the Demon King and call it a day?"
Vine asked with the innocent face of someone totally clueless.
Whoa... you just nailed the **core** issue.
"Vine."
"Yeah?"
"There's a natural order to how the world works."
"What's that mean?"
"Eh... never mind the details. Point is, hero parties have to follow the clichés."
"What's a cliché?"
"..."
I pondered how to explain it for a second before deciding to gloss over.
"Just think of it as: sticking to the sequence raises our odds of winning."
"Well... Raden's got it all figured out, I guess."
Out of all our strong-willed party members—excluding Nania—Vine was tied with Yumi for best at listening to me, so she dropped her questions.
Thanks for the trust.
***
"You all set?"
Everyone in the dim cave nodded solemnly.
The party members, who knew our strength well, seemed relatively relaxed, but the Saintess followers' eyes brimmed with unease.
Surprisingly, Kani looked convinced we'd win.
"Positions."
"Positions!"
Over the past few days, we'd burned the midnight oil hammering out plans to topple the Church.
We'd simulated all sorts of scenarios and memorized the Church's internal layout down to the last detail.
We'd even recruited collaborators ahead of time.
"Positions!"
The crowd surged into motion, and I scanned the team assigned to me.
Nania, Kani, Dani.
A team so suspiciously stacked with women it threw off the gender balance.
But I'd organized it this way on purpose since I had to wrangle the problem children.
"Ugh..."
Kani and Dani were originally Church operatives.
Naturally, pureblood demonkin Nania was intimidated by them and made a sour face.
"..."
We'd already talked it over so they wouldn't outright bully Nania, but I could still feel the indirect pressure they put on her.
I soothed Nania as she darted behind my back and headed to our position.
Tweet tweet.
No matter how incompetent you call them, running a massive organization hones basic skills.
The Church must've sensed the unrest brewing inside, because they'd ramped up security big time.
"..."
The market, lively last time I'd seen it, now had half its shops shuttered tight, people hunkered down. The only one still open was the stall selling our territory's grapes.
"Man, security's brutal."
Amid the city-wide lockdown, the tightest defenses were naturally around the High Blood Hotel.
This hotel housed only the Church's VIPs, even on lower floors.
So it made sense they'd prioritize guarding it.
"Hmm..."
I checked my watch.
The agreed-upon hour for the uprising: 11:38.
These plans usually sync to half-hour or hourly marks, but the Church knew that.
That's why we'd deliberately picked a time off the hour.
37 minutes.
37:50.
37:59.
38 minutes.
The minute hand hit 38.
Boom boom boom!
Explosions rocked spots all over the Church interior, signaling the revolution's start.
Wheeee!
The Church reacted fast—somehow sounding alarms throughout the whole place—and their forces scrambled into action.
Their disciplined movements suggested contingency plans were in place.
Their smooth response gave me a twinge of worry that the revolution might fail, but the dice were already cast.
I watched the reinforcements swarm as alarms blared, then glanced back at the team waiting behind me.
They got the signal and sprang into action.
"Lord, grant this lamb a miracle."
Kani unleashed what looked like a Saintess-exclusive skill.
Vwooom!
A colossal Goddess statue materialized at the hotel's main entrance.
"Wh-what the...?"
The hotel guards panicked at the sudden Goddess statue, but they were devout Church believers at heart.
Just like always, they instinctively knelt and bowed before it.
While the entrance guards were pulled by the aggro, we slipped inside through the now-empty main gate.
Plenty more guards inside, though.
"Illusion of Enchantment."
Nania spread the same mist inside the tower that had once messed with her and Laura in the dungeon.
Anyone who could use holy power might resist, but most regular guards couldn't, so they fell helplessly.
"Urk... this mist...?"
A few holy power users resisted the mist, but those guys...
Slash.
"Handled."
Dani slit their throats effortlessly.
"Hmm..."
I'd planned to move with Dani at this point to subdue resistors, but by the time I did anything, it was already over.
'Well, I'm the ace up the sleeve...'
Comforting myself like that, I headed up to the top floor where Laura was waiting.