chapter 3
Chapter 3:
"The legs are what matter most."
"Hm? But you swing a sword with your arms?"
"The hips, the knees, the tips of your feet—that subtle sensation is where it all begins. You dimwit!"
Thwack—
The Sword Master's wooden sword moved slower than a fluttering butterfly, yet hidden within each swing was a principle that made it impossible to dodge.
Under that great Sword Master, I trained for 8 years. For 5 years after that, I rolled through the field and reached the Sword Master's level in my own way.
I don't know how close I've come to Kelliban at this point—but at the very least, it means I'm more than capable of killing a bloated Archbishop in a single stroke.
***
"Ugh…! Gwaaargh…!!"
Divine Power apparently couldn't cure baldness either—the Archbishop knelt clutching the place where his arm had been, and the top of his head was conspicuously bare.
"…! Wh—what is the meaning of this…!"
"Heh."
The moment Airen saw it, she rushed over and used her Holy Arts to stanch the Archbishop's bleeding. It wasn't enough to grow a new arm, but the flowing blood quickly closed and the pain dulled to a stop.
"Airen, I didn't think you'd help him. Have you actually grown fond of this man?"
I had kept wondering. How you would react. What circumstances could possibly lie behind all of this. Would you weep and beg forgiveness? Or would you lay out your story piece by piece and ask for judgment? If not that, then with what kind of face would you face me?
'Ah.'
Airen was staring at me with an expression drained of all color. It was the look of someone facing the thug who had just cut down their lover.
"Bwahahaha—!!"
I swept my bangs back, tilted my head, and laughed like a madman. Because the sight of it was just too absurd.
"It—it's a misunderstanding. Leon! So, so this is…."
"Are you trying to make excuses? Go ahead then. I'm dying to hear what you'll say."
"This is…."
Airen couldn't bring herself to speak easily, perhaps still scrambling to construct some excuse even now. The first to open their mouth was, unexpectedly, the grotesquely aged Archbishop.
"I—I was catching her as she was about to fall. I have no—no idea what sort of filthy imagination led you to do something like this…! This will not be overlooked so easily…!"
"Oh, is that right? Inventory."
Space split open and a small black void appeared in midair.
Whether it was Leon's body or something I was born with upon possessing him, I had tremendous talent not just in swordsmanship but in magic as well.
Thanks to that, I had been able to develop a few useful spells on my own, and Inventory was one of them.
I rummaged around inside it for a moment, pulled out several sheets of paper, crumpled them in my hand, and tossed them in front of the Archbishop.
The rounded wad of documents hit the ground with a thud and rolled to a stop at his feet.
"…Wh—what are you doing?"
"Read it. There'll be something interesting in there."
"…Airen, unfold the paper and show me—"
"Unfold it and read it yourself. Think carefully—the blade closest to you right now is my sword."
"…."
The Archbishop moved his 1 remaining hand and struggled to unfold the intricately crumpled paper.
For some reason, it bothered me. I'd crumpled it as tightly as I could to make it difficult to open, yet he was managing it reasonably well with just the 1 hand.
Shk—
"Nnngh—!!!"
So I cut off the left arm too.
I barely moved. Simply swinging from where I stood was more than enough to sever his arm.
"Leon…!!"
"Shut up and stop the bleeding, or he'll die of blood loss soon enough."
"…Leon."
Airen seemed to sense that saying anything more would only cost her, so she bit her lip and deployed her Holy Arts. The Archbishop's bleeding gradually staunched, and I could see the consciousness he had been about to lose to pain slowly returning.
"Ngh… why…! Now I can't even read the paper…."
"There's this, you know."
I stuck out my tongue—Nyeh—and pointed with my finger. The Archbishop was writhing on the ground in agony, but when he caught sight of my gesture, he opened his mouth as if in a fit of rage.
Yet in the end, not a single word came out.
Killing intent. I had directed my full killing intent—laced with murderous will, grudge, and hatred—solely at the Archbishop.
He trembled like an aspen leaf, staring into my eyes, then hunched his body down. Spittle dripped onto the ground as he worked his tongue out and struggled to unfold the paper with it.
The sight of it looked exactly like a grub crawling across the floor.
He bent and straightened his knees to shift his body, then moved his tongue against the ground and managed to separate the layered sheets of paper.
"Oh—not bad at all."
I gave a small clap for that pitiful effort, genuinely impressed.
"This humiliation… I will never forg—"
The Archbishop's enraged words cut off the moment his eyes landed on the contents of the documents I had thrown.
Every act of sexual misconduct, violence, and corruption he had committed within the church—and beyond that, even human trafficking. Every last piece of evidence was recorded there in meticulous detail.
And the document that appeared to have been written first….
"The Saint Expulsion Plan…?"
13 years ago—the corruption he had orchestrated to have the Saint expelled to the Empire ahead of schedule. Written there was the motion he had put forward behind closed doors to the Bishops: that Airen should be treated not as the reincarnation of the Goddess, but as nothing more than a pig with an oversized Divine Power reservoir.
"How—how did you…?"
"I must have looked like a complete fool to you. Watching you all act like it never even occurred to you that I might have planted spies—that was honestly quite amusing. Did you know?"
"Since when… just since when…!"
"5 years ago."
By now the Archbishop's expression had gone completely ashen. The documents contained not only clear evidence, but also laid out in full a plan for how all of it could be proven and brought to public light.
"The Goddess says it's time for your judgment."
A face painted over with despair. Don't worry—I have no intention of killing you.
Fft—
I moved the sword lightly. All I did was shift my feet slightly, yet a gust of wind filled the alley.
"Nnnnngyaaaaaaaaaaaaaah—!!"
The Archbishop, cut where he should never have been cut, slammed his forehead into the ground and rolled every which way. Since the wound left no visible mark on the outside, Airen had no idea where to even begin applying her Holy Arts.
"You don't need to worry, Airen—it won't be fatal."
"Wh—where exactly did you…."
"Under the Goddess's protection, 1 of the 7 sins deserving of judgment. Lust. I simply carved that out."
"N—no! …! W—wait, so this means…!"
Airen jolted in alarm at my words and looked at the Archbishop with anxious eyes, then belatedly became aware of her own state and turned her face away again.
That confirmed it for me once more.
"You've become a slave to carnal desire, Airen. To think a Saint's morality could sink this low."
"No—no, that's not it."
"Saint this, Saint that—in the end, maybe you were always just a woman with an oversized Divine Power reservoir. Ah, or should I say female?"
"…Leon!!"
Just then, soldiers appeared from the entrance to the alley. They emerged from both ends of the alley, encircling me, Airen, and the now-castrated Archbishop at the center.
"Archbishop Henvil, guilty of countless crimes! We are here to strip you of your title and take you into custody!"
"Hold it! This is the Capital City of Levanheart! It is proper that the Imperial Army conduct the escort!"
The Holy Kingdom soldiers stationed in the Capital City and the Imperial soldiers leveled spears at one another and held each other in sharp tension. High-ranking officials and Bishops might smile and socialize on the surface, but this was proof they were ultimately checking each other at every turn.
I didn't particularly care which side took him, so I stepped back and watched.
After a brief sorting-out process, it was ultimately the Holy Kingdom side that took Henvil. His every crime had now been exposed and he was a fallen man, but he had nonetheless once held rank above Archbishop, so it was only natural.
"As ever, the Hero delivers! May you remain always righteous under the Goddess's protection."
The situation was resolved quickly, and since I had already filed the formal accusation in advance, there was no particular reason for them to take me along.
Losing both arms was nothing compared to the crimes he had committed. And the soldiers likely felt it was too much to push back against the Hero, who was at the height of his standing.
Of course, the Holy Kingdom itself would later use this incident as a pretext to come at me with a sour face—going on about how the Archbishop should have been punished by the church, and so on.
'Doesn't matter. You're next on my list, Holy Kingdom.'
With that, a short time passed, and silence settled back over the alley.
The only ones left in that heavy air were me and Airen.
"…Why did you go to such lengths to prepare all of this?"
I looked down at Airen, sprawled flat on the ground and asking that as if she were some tragic heroine.
The sheer absurdity of it made me pause, scratching the back of my neck as I considered where to even begin.
"Because I knew you were being mistreated by the Holy Kingdom."
"…That means!"
"Yeah, you're right. Originally, this was material I had been preparing to free you from the Holy Kingdom."
It was the truth. It was a thought I had held when I still cared for her.
I had intended to expose the Holy Kingdom's corruption and see to it that she was properly recognized as a Saint.
—That was all in the past, of course.
But whether Airen had lost her mind from the shock, or simply had no grip on reality to begin with—she stopped the tears that had been streaming down her face, crawled toward me on her knees, and grabbed hold of my trousers.
"S—so you did love me, Leon. I love you—I've loved you for so long. I'm confident I can make you happy."
She opened the eyes she always kept shut and put her strength into pulling my trousers down.
I looked down at her with a soft smile.
"You want this too, don't you? I can give you an adult's plea—"
And then I kicked her in the lower abdomen.
"Ugh—"
She curled in on herself, wheezing as if her breath had been knocked completely out of her. It wasn't full force, but I hadn't held back entirely either, so the impact must have been considerable.
"Airen, did you know?"
"Hkk—ugh… wh—what…."
"Your eyes. They're brown right now."
"…!"
Blue eyes—the mark of a Saint chosen by the Goddess. The Airen who had lost them now was, in the most literal sense, nothing more than a pouch with an oversized Divine Power reservoir.
"The Murder Snail. Do you know what that is?"
She stared blankly in shock and shook her head. Whether it was from losing her blue eyes or from being struck by me, I couldn't say.
Not that it mattered.
I crouched down and whispered into her ear.
"I'm not going to do anything to you right now. You understand?"
"Why…."
"And I'm going to send you back to the Holy Kingdom. You'll probably have to keep up an act for the rest of your life—if anyone finds out you've lost the Blessed Eyes, they'll find out you've been stripped of your Saint status. But even if that never comes out, you won't be treated well. Henvil isn't the only one who dislikes you."
"N—no. I don't want that."
"You won't die, though. If you lie flat like a worm and live meekly, you'll probably manage to keep breathing. But listen—someday, I will kill you. More wretchedly than what happened to Henvil. I don't know when that day will come, but I will without fail kill you."
"No…! I don't want that…! I don't want it…!!"
"Live well, Airen. I truly loved you."
"No—no, no. I love you, Leon, I always loved you…!! It was to protect you…!!"
"Shut up, go spread your legs somewhere, and live."
"No…! Ah—aaaaah! Aaaaaaaaaaaah—!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Thud—
What a detestable sight, the way she screamed. Even that lovely face of hers looked like it was turning into something hideous, so I lightly clipped her chin with my fist and knocked her out.
"Revenge really does feel refreshing when it's done right."
I felt a clean lightness wash over me as I stretched.
So then, next up….
"Vincent?"
***
"Vincent, what's wrong? Hm?"
"N—nothing. Did you hear a scream, Serin?"
"I didn't hear anything."
"Hmm…."
I could've sworn I heard it—maybe it was just my imagination. Well… if Serin, the Hero party's best hunter, didn't hear it, then I suppose that settles it.
"Ah, Serin. Can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"About us dating—when are you going to tell Leon?"