A Very Logical Eviction

Tae-hyun cried out desperately. In that split second, his intuition screamed at him. *Ah, this guy really is Pelmas's ancestor!*

"W-why are you reacting like that? Dice gambling is a sacred prayer. It is a holy ritual where we place our trust in Lord Archisus and surrender ourselves to fate..."

Even the excuse is exactly the same?! Had that bastard Pelmas been using his ancestor's sacred prayer as a justification for his gambling addiction all along?!

"Then let us settle this with the dice."

"—?!"

"If I win, it means Lord Archisus does not wish for you to gamble with dice. Surely a High Priest of the order wouldn't lose to a mere lay believer like me?"

"—...!" Pelmas's expression stiffened at Tae-hyun's words. No matter how humble he tried to be, he didn't think he would lose to an ordinary believer. He was, after all, a High Priest. When it came to piety, he possessed the absolute confidence that he wouldn't lose to anyone in the order.

"What an amusing proposition. There is no way I would lose, is there?"

"No one can truly know the will of the gods. I occasionally hear the voice of Lord Archisus, and surprisingly, he despises it when people lose themselves to dice gambling! Even the most skilled gamblers should only play once in a while!" Tae-hyun's voice was filled with absolute sincerity.

I must win here and snap the present-day Pelmas back to his senses! Tae-hyun steeled his resolve. If he could change the past, he could change the future. If he defeated Pelmas's ancestor here and forced him to ban dice gambling for generations to come, the Pelmas of the present might actually change.

"Very well. Let us dare to ask the will of the god!" The two followers of Archisus held their dice and clashed fiercely. The surrounding priests and holy knights even gathered to watch the spectacle.

"Ohhh... Ohhhhh!"

"Who on earth is that believer? He's holding his own against Lord Pelmas! No one here should be able to match Lord Pelmas's skill with the dice!"

"Exactly! Isn't Lord Pelmas's dice made from a blessed, special gem, making it even more powerful?!"

"I don't know who he is, but looking at his shabby attire, he must be quite poor. He's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠definitely a commoner."

*Using a special dice is basically cheating, isn't it?* Tae-hyun thought. But to seasoned gamblers, rolling with a superior dice was also considered a part of one's skill. If you didn't like it, you should have gotten a better dice yourself! However, no matter how powerful Pelmas's dice was, and no matter how much experience he had in gambling, he could not defeat Tae-hyun.

Tae-hyun rolled overwhelmingly high numbers back-to-back, securing an easy victory. It was a triumph of the Luck stat!

"This... This is impossible! Did the god truly despise my dice gambling all this time?!" Rather than the defeat itself, Pelmas was plunged into despair by the shocking realization that he had misunderstood the will of Archisus. If he had been misinterpreting his deity's will all this time, how could he ever atone for such a sin?

*Pat.* Tae-hyun placed a hand on Pelmas's shoulder and spoke.

"No. The god does not hate your dice gambling. Rather, he sent me to entrust you with a far more important task."

"C-could it be...!"

"Lord Archisus must have sent that man!"

"Indeed! Those shabby clothes were surely given to him by Lord Archisus to test our faith!"

*...Karbanog. Is my outfit really that terrible?* Tae-hyun asked Karbanog with a slightly sour expression. He wasn't even wearing a disguise; he was dressed perfectly fine in armor and an overcoat, yet the reviews were incredibly harsh. If other players called him shabby, he wouldn't care, but having NPCs insult his fashion sense made him strangely self-conscious.

Karbanog offered his comfort. Ancient fashion was always impossible to comprehend! With a deeply moved expression, Pelmas grasped Tae-hyun's hand and spoke.

"It would be no exaggeration to call this person, sent to us by Lord Archisus, the Guide of Archisus!"

"The Guide of Archisus! The Guide of Archisus!"

"No, he is even greater than that! Since he looked ahead and showed us the path we must walk, let us call him the Prophet of Archisus!"

"No. That's quite enough." Tae-hyun cut him off with a deadpan look.

Thanks to his victory in the dice game, Tae-hyun was able to quickly build rapport. He already possessed a high Holy stat and massive church contribution points. On top of that, his class was literally the Avatar of Archisus. It was only natural that building affinity was incredibly easy. The surrounding believers were so fanatical that even if he just stood there breathing, they would gasp, *Look at the way he breathes! It's so beautiful!*

Pelmas spoke with a repentant look.

"I shall restrain myself from dice gambling in the future. I will draw up a weekly schedule and only play on designated days."

"Just don't do it at all."

"...Once a month?"

"I said, don't do it."

"Yes, sir..."

"At any rate, Lord Archisus told me more than just to stop your dice gambling. He commanded me to aid the Archisus Church in confronting a continental crisis. Is there any such crisis occurring right now?"

"Hmm. The enemies of the continent are so numerous that it is difficult to single out just one."

"I heard the Karbanog Church is under threat. Is there any hostile faction that is directly threatening them?"

"The Karbanog Church?" At Tae-hyun's question, a look of understanding dawned on Pelmas's face.

"Now that you mention it, one comes to mind. I shall assign the holy knights of our order to accompany you. Would you be willing to help resolve this matter?"

"Oh!" Tae-hyun's face lit up. Who knew the Archisus Church could be so generous?

*Yes. This is how church quests are supposed to be.* Normally, when a religious order issued a quest, it went something like this:

"There is an evil entity, 'A'. Of course, we would not send you to deal with 'A' alone. The holy knights and priests of our order shall accompany you, so will you subjugate them together?" ...They were supposed to provide support like this. In contrast, the Archisus Church quests in the present era usually went like this:

"There is a Demon Duke, and you must defeat him alone without any support. Support? Your Holiness knows very well that our church has no such thing. Oh, and while you're at it, we'd appreciate it if you could plunder the Duke's castle. Our operating budget is a bit tight... What? You'll bring the entire castle back? What a joke. Castles can't fly, so how could you possibly do that?"

It was the equivalent of giving someone 50 cents, telling them ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to buy bread and milk, and demanding they bring back change! No matter how patient Tae-hyun was, the Archisus Church's quests were always designed to drive a person mad. Yet here they were, offering him such robust support.

"Just leave it to me. I will resolve it immediately."

"...Huh?" Tae-hyun paused. The quest window itself was fine, but the content was somewhat questionable.

*...Don't tell me they only became friends with the Karbanog Church because they didn't have any other friends.* Had they already ruined their relationships with all the other major churches, leaving them with no choice but to cozy up to the Karbanog Church, which had no reason to compete with them...?

*Let's not overthink this.*

"Then let us set out."

"We shall follow you, Guide!" Clad in the distinct armor of the Ancient Empire and radiating a majestic holy light, the ancient elite holy knights of the Archisus Church exuded an overwhelming aura. Their levels easily seemed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to surpass 600 or 700!

*The regular holy knights in our church right now probably aren't even level 300...* This meant that if he brought just one ordinary knight from this era to the present, they could easily serve as a Holy Knight Commander. The scale of the ancient era was truly mind-blowing!

*Ugh. I promised myself I wouldn't overthink this.*

"Seeing how much support you are providing, the enemy must be quite formidable. Are they demons?"

"No. However, one could say they have colluded with demons."

"Then are they warlocks?" The class most likely to collude with demons was, of course, warlocks.

"They are not warlocks either. Yet, their inner hearts could be considered far more wicked than any warlock's."

"...Is there really such a thing??" Tae-hyun was starting to get a strange feeling. Could there really be someone that evil?

"We have arrived."

"...Wait. We haven't even gone outside the city gates..."

Indeed. The place the holy knights had led him to was not some dungeon outside the city walls, but the Phytos Church temple located right inside the city.

"Did I misunderstand something? Ah. Is there some wicked criminal hiding inside? And the Phytos Church is refusing to cooperate out of rivalry?"

"Haha. You certainly have a sense of humor, Guide. It is nothing of the sort. Those bastards are simply refusing to vacate the temple and are holding out inside."

"......" Tae-hyun clung to his sanity and asked again.

"If this is the Phytos Church temple... isn't it the Phytos Church's property?"

"Of course it would be. If we hadn't spoken to the Lord of the Castle and had the Phytos Church banished from this city, that is!"

"...!" *These absolute lunatics!* Tae-hyun was dumbfounded. They had already completed all the groundwork before he even arrived.

"The Lord of the Castle listened to our persuasion and agreed to banish the Phytos Church. Because those Phytos Church bastards are still stubbornly holding out inside, the priests of the Karbanog Church cannot use the temple in peace!"

*Are those guys holy knights or bandits?* Tae-hyun agonized. Was it right to proceed with this quest? If it were a standard Archisus Church quest, he wouldn't have hesitated, but the fact that it was a Karbanog Church quest weighed heavily on his mind. He might end up creating unnecessary enemies for the Karbanog Church. Regardless of his dilemma, the holy knights shouted at the top of their lungs.

"You wicked scoundrels of the Phytos Church! How dare you hold out in the temple despite the Lord's decree! Do you wish to invite divine wrath upon yourselves?!"

"Our Guide has arrived! If you do not get lost immediately, we shall annihilate you all!"

From inside, the furious shouts of the Phytos Church echoed back.

"Do you think we would fall for your schemes after you dared to bewitch the Lord of the Castle to banish us? Give us even a single reason why we should be driven out!"

Tae-hyun suddenly grew worried. Could they actually name even one?

"Ha! Did you think we couldn't? We shall list your crimes! The crime of extorting several times the normal taxes from the local residents! The crime of purchasing luxurious treasures with those taxes! The crime of deliberately avoiding the subjugation of the Hungry Chaos and sending other churches to their deaths instead! The crime of succumbing to demonic temptation instead of vanquishing them! And the crime of attempting to sow discord among the imperial royalty!"

"Everyone does that much! To think you would try to banish us over such trivial matters!"

"Silence! For the sake of the Empire, we of the Archisus Church shall sweep away useless mold like you!"

*...Wait, what?* Listening to the exchange, Tae-hyun was thrown into confusion once more. *We actually sound like... the good guys here?*