Chapter 170
Chapter 170
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 170
Chapter Title: Behemoth - 4
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‘The Heresy Inquisitor is already here?’
As far as I knew, Stella should still have been in the Holy Kingdom. It was the player who was supposed to hunt Behemoth, not the Heresy Inquisitor, after all.
She had to stay in the Holy Kingdom to avoid getting flak for just sitting around while the player was out demon-slaying.
Even assuming she’d teleported straight here the moment Behemoth was caught, that still meant she’d left the Holy Kingdom at least a few hours earlier.
But Behemoth’s full resurrection had only happened a few hours ago at most. Proof of that was how the city had still been running somewhat normally when I’d swung by here right before heading out for the rune.
The timeline was way too tight. It was almost as if she’d known Behemoth would resurrect from the start.
“…….”
Stella seemed to be in a similar state of shock. She looked utterly stunned to see me. Her face was frozen in sheer astonishment, mouth agape as she stood rooted to the spot.
The tips of her fingers trembled faintly. Her green eyes darted back and forth nonstop between the bloated, pig-like Behemoth that was now vibrating intensely and me standing in front of it.
Her grip slackened, and her mace clattered to the floor. A loud thud echoed as the ground nearby caved in halfway, but no one paid it any mind.
“Heresy Inquisitor, are you all right?”
I was the first to break the silence. We couldn’t just stand there staring at each other forever.
“Uh, I... Y-Yes...”
Her response was a “yes,” but her expression and tone were far from reassuring. I sighed inwardly and sheathed the Wingless Nightmare at my waist.
“How did you end up here? I only came because the lord asked me to drop by. What about you, Heresy Inquisitor? You’re not about to say it was just a coincidence, are you?”
Stella, still unable to hide her shocked expression, stammered out a response to my question.
“I-I picked up a trace of Behemoth... and it led here... His Holiness the Pope said that, uh, now that the monster’s dead, we could investigate even uncertain leads thoroughly... so he told me to check it out...”
‘Ah.’
Her words were so disjointed and halting that it took me a moment to piece it together, but I got the gist of the causal chain.
With me having slain the forsaken creation of the gods, their biggest worry was gone. So the Holy Kingdom had ramped up their purge of demon worshippers in earnest. That let them pick up Behemoth’s trace earlier.
Not only that, but with no need to keep the Heresy Inquisitor and Heresy Interrogator on standby for another forsaken creation awakening, they’d sent them out full throttle.
In the game, the player hunted Behemoth right before the DLC storyline kicked off, and the Heresy Inquisitor and Interrogator had to take turns watching it, so they couldn’t leave for purges without solid proof.
If they struck out and a demon awakened elsewhere in the meantime, their response would be even slower than if they’d stayed put in the Holy Kingdom from the start.
‘Whoa, so that’s how it rolls?’
I’d gone to the Holy Kingdom and taken out that forsaken creation underground, and now I wondered just how many times the story had twisted as a result.
Getting summoned to the imperial palace, the World-Devourer showing up, my ties with the popes—everything was a snowball effect rolling after that forsaken boss fight.
‘At least it’s not messing things up, so it’s fine.’
Stella arriving early wasn’t bad at all. If anything, it’d help sort out the territory’s chaos faster, which was a good thing.
In the game anyway, once the player killed Behemoth, the Heresy Inquisitor showed up with her battle priests and stuck around under the pretext of purification until enough time had passed.
The orders from the Holy Kingdom’s Heresy Inquisitor and battle nuns would feel way more reassuring to ordinary folk than commands from a lord who’d once been charmed by a demon.
It might be tough on Cassandra, but she’d have to handle what came next on her own.
“Got it, Heresy Inquisitor. Mind if I ask one favor, then?”
“Ah... Y-Yes. What is it, honored guest?”
“I’ve got some business to take care of starting now. Could you handle cleaning up after the demon for me?”
I jabbed a thumb over my shoulder at Behemoth’s corpse. Stella nodded meekly. I patted her shoulder a couple times to signal I was leaving it to her, then left the room.
Right away, I heard someone flop down behind me. It had to be Stella. The shock from that pillar of light must’ve hit her hard.
“…….”
“…….”
Two battle nuns who’d come with Stella stood in the hallway.
Their nun habits were a bit less revealing than Stella’s. Nearby lay the mace and shield that had fallen. And they were staring at me blankly. Sanity seemed in short supply here too.
The battle nuns stood with dazed expressions like they’d witnessed a miracle, then startled at my footsteps and plastered themselves against the hallway wall.
Their figures made their chests jut out prominently in that pose.
I averted my gaze with effort and checked the spot where I’d tied up Helga. It was empty. The curtain wasn’t torn; the knot had been undone, leaving it mostly intact aside from some slight wrinkles here and there.
Wondering if anyone had seen Helga, I glanced at the battle nuns still stuck to the wall. They shuddered at my gaze.
No proper answers from them like this. Guess I’d have to hunt her down myself.
Stella had seen it.
The massive beam of light crashing down from the radiant ‘sun’ in the sky onto the mansion before her eyes.
The sacred radiance spreading near the pillar of light, painting a scene like a majestic mural.
Even in the bright midday sun, the shape of the moon etched beside it.
She had witnessed it all with her own two eyes.
No, it wasn’t just Stella. Every battle nun here had seen it. And the Heresy Interrogator still outside the castle gates would have too.
In that brief moment standing her ground, Stella had agonized hundreds of times. Wasn’t even kneeling blasphemy?
Her battle nuns under her had already done so. They’d cast aside mace and shield, dropped to their knees, clasped hands, bowed low with foreheads to the ground, praising the descent of the holy light.
It was bewildering. They’d come here after hearing Behemoth had resurrected, so why had glorious, sacred radiance erupted instead of the horrific, foul demon aura?
Stella gripped her trembling body and mind, leading her battle nuns as she flung open the mansion’s doors. She had to identify that light cluster ASAP.
The mansion they entered was riddled with demonic traces everywhere. Hidden cleverly enough that ordinary folk wouldn’t notice, but not enough to fool a Heresy Inquisitor’s eyes.
Yet despite the traces, there was no trace of the demons’ repulsive stench. No doubt that light cluster had purified all the corruption.
Clenching her quaking heart, she climbed further up and flung open the only remaining door on the mansion’s top floor.
“Ahh...”
Stella beheld it.
A man bathed in the radiant light from sun and moon, wielding a weapon brimming with divinity, impassively gazing at the demon reduced to a mere corpse. And the light cluster enveloping him.
It might be irreverent. Nay, utterly blasphemous.
For a fleeting instant, Stella felt as if the man before her stood closer to the Sun and Moon than even their popes.
Once her worldview shook, the plunge into chaos was instantaneous. Amid the relentless confusion, she couldn’t even properly remember what happened next.
The honored guest kept asking her questions, but she had no clue what she’d answered. Or even if she had. She’d mumbled something, but whether it counted as a reply...
In the end, the guest gave up, entrusted her with the demon cleanup, patted her shoulder a few times, and left. A thrilling pleasure surged from where his hand had touched.
Her body throbbed. Not pain, but some unfamiliar ache.
“Lord...”
So perhaps it was only natural that Stella collapsed on the spot the moment the guest vanished.
A being exuding holiness beyond the popes shouldn’t exist.
‘Of all times, she shows up now...’
We’d parted without much talk, but I couldn’t shake the unease from Stella’s dazed expression. She’d definitely seen it. 100%.
No way she hadn’t. A light pillar that size would’ve been visible from anywhere in the city with the naked eye.
It had come straight from the heavens and smashed through the mansion’s ceiling—it was huge. If she missed it, she was either blind or physically incapable of seeing.
Her arrival itself was welcome for speeding up the chaos cleanup, but witnessing the light pillar? Not so much.
‘The battle nuns are probably all here in force too.’
In the game, the narration said the Heresy Inquisitor brought every battle priest under her command.
Even when she arrived late after hearing Behemoth had been purged, that was the case. So if she’d come to purge it herself, how many troops had she mobilized?
Meaning, the dozens of battle nuns she’d brought for Behemoth’s subjugation had a high chance of witnessing that heavenly light pillar.
And they’d react just like I’d seen.
‘No helping it.’
I let it go. Water under the bridge, and dwelling on it wouldn’t change anything.
My status in the Holy Kingdom wouldn’t shift because of this anyway. From the moment I got that precious brooch as the popes’ honored guest, my position was effectively right below theirs.
Those popes were intimate enough to ask me to drop formalities when no one was around. So I might even be on their level—or higher.
And that wasn’t all. The Heresy Inquisitor and Interrogator were solidly in my corner too.
Stella and Selene knew I’d slain the monster under the Holy Kingdom, and that I’d bedded the popes. Plus, Stella owed me a personal debt over Lucia.
With the Sun Pope, Moon Pope, Heresy Inquisitor, and Heresy Interrogator—the Holy Kingdom’s core—all on my side, my power was near-absolute.
One anomalous phenomenon added to that wouldn’t spark any dramatic changes.
‘Now, where the hell did Helga go...? Huh?’
I was pondering where to look for Helga when I halted at the sound of footsteps approaching from down the hall. It was similar to when charmed Helga had come looking for me.
But this was different. The hair peeking from the shadows was silver. And long enough to wrap around her body several times.
“Selene?”