Saint (1)
Saint (1)
Watching the monsters that were severed in one stroke, Dajian was in denial of reality and looked around.
"—Huh? What is this...."
Dojin slowly retrieved his sword and exhaled. He had poured all his strength into that strike. Because of that, he seemed about to collapse from exhaustion any moment now... but the basics of combat were about presence.
If he showed weakness now, even after wiping out the enemy, Dajian would likely attack him with a fierce momentum.
What mattered was bravado. The bravado of appearing as if he was still composed and had the energy to fight more.
Dajian slowly took steps backward, fleeing from Dojin.
"You, you... Right, a Knight Order. Did the Knight Order come to capture me, or the Magic Tower's execution squad? Or perhaps the Church's Inquisitor...."
"You talk too much."
Dojin slowly approached him. Dajian panicked and sprayed Black Magic. Dojin, whose energy had dropped, didn't even think to dodge and just advanced while getting hit.
With every Black Magic he sprayed, limbs grew numb and energy drained. One eye temporarily lost its vision, and even the will to walk forward was stripped away.
All sorts of curses clung to his body. Dojin realized firsthand why Black Mages were shunned. Such dirty magic would be incredibly useful in combat, but at the same time, no one would want to use it.
People sometimes compare humans to demons, but that doesn't mean there's no good. Black Magic was the magic used by those who had crossed the line of decency that humans must uphold.
"It seems you don't want to die?"
"O-of course not! If I complete the magic I'm developing, countless patients can be saved from all kinds of diseases! They can be freed from suffering!"
As if struggling for his life, Dajian shouted, asking if he didn't also feel pity for those patients.
Dojin let out a hollow laugh upon hearing that absurd statement.
"That's not for you to say."
He knew none of those acts were ever for the patients' sake.
Calling it something done for the patients was hypocrisy.
Just as the technology gained from the atrocities of human experiments during World War II may have contributed to saving lives, it never made those acts good.
Dajian was just one madman consumed by demonic obsession.
Traditionally, madmen should be isolated from society.
"D-don't come any closer!"
Dajian made his last struggle. The genius Black Mage who controlled the underworld was not present here.
What remained was one coward who had shown his true colors. A tumor of society who, because he was so cowardly, made countless people suffer and die.
Squelch.
"Aaaaaaagh!"
He cut off his leg. It was the left leg, just like Ilone's. With his leg severed, he screamed, tears and snot running down his face.
"Try solving it with that fancy magic of yours."
"Gyaaaah! You crazy bastard!"
"Seems you can't."
Dojin ignited flames on his sword. It was the last of his flames. He used them to cauterize Dajian's leg.
From the pain of his leg burning, he finally fainted. This was enough. He couldn't grant him the release of death.
"Whew... Why is this so tiring."
He had promised to return before dinner got cold. Sorry, but it seemed he wouldn't be able to keep that promise.
Sitting atop the corpses of the monsters he had defeated, he watched the ceiling collapse. The fire he had started before entering had ultimately destroyed the building.
The outside was visible. Under dazzlingly bright moonlight, a crowd of people had gathered. Well, of course, after such a big fire. It was only natural people would gather before the fire spread.
The Otherworld's firefighters used a Magic Tool with a large Magic Stone attached. They sprayed water from the Magic Tool to extinguish the flames.
The Guard Force stormed into the building once the fire was out. Dozens of criminals with severed wrists, the beheaded Wolf Beastman, and the narcotics packed in boxes.
It wasn't hard to figure out what kind of place this was.
"Don't move!"
The moment the Guard Force entered, they immediately restrained Dajian, who was dressed like a mage.
Dojin was about to applaud them for doing a great job. But the moment he raised his hand, the startled guards swiftly restrained him too.
"Don't move!"
"......No, I'm—"
"Quiet! Don't open your mouth!"
"So, you see..."
"I said don't open your mouth!"
Wham. Dojin was hit by a club swung by a guard and lost consciousness.
When he awoke, he was behind cold iron bars on a cell floor.
'Dinner must be completely cold by now.'
Looking at the morning sunlight streaming through the gaps in the bars, I realized morning had come.
And that the dinner I had asked them to prepare must have gone cold by now.
'How embarrassing.'
I said I'd be back before it got cold, but at this point, it wasn't just cold—it had probably all spoiled.
While passing the time with such thoughts, a jailer approached from the distance.
Jingle, jangle.
"......Come on out."
"......Already?"
Clinking the keys as he approached, he opened the prison cell door and announced my release. Hearing that, I was taken aback but slowly got up.
Having slept on the cold stone floor, my whole body felt stiff. Crack, crack-crack. Loosening my cramped muscles and stepping outside, the jailer looked at me with an expression of curiosity.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Ah, no... My apologies."
"—?"
The jailer was being unnecessarily deferential. Sensing something off, I thought at first that Ilone, who had awoken, had insisted on my innocence and gotten me out... but that alone wouldn't elicit such a reaction.
She was a captain of the Guard Force, but just a department captain within it. She wasn't the chief overseeing the entire force.
As I wondered who could be someone influential enough to affect the entire Guard Force, I stepped outside.
Given back my clothes and sword, I squinted at the sun I was seeing after half a day.
Under that dazzling sun, a Holy Knight waited, exuding a majestic presence that seemed to repel even the sunlight.
"Right, you were there."
"......Do you know me?"
Looking at the Holy Knight, who hid her face, lowered her voice, and acted as if she didn't know me, I burst out laughing.
[Charlotte Balloy]
—......How did you know it was me?
The Saintess's Holy Knight.
She who had once worked as a maid at our mansion to keep an eye on me was standing there.
Whether Dojin had figured out her identity or not, Charlotte opened her mouth, lowering her voice as much as possible.
"......The Saintess-nim is waiting."
"Ah, yes."
Afraid that opening her mouth any more might reveal her identity, Charlotte said that and silently guided Dojin to the carriage.
After boarding the carriage, she glared at him as he yawned repeatedly with a tired, flippant expression.
As if sensing her gaze, Dojin turned his eyes to Charlotte.
"Holy Knight-nim."
"......What is it?"
"For what reason did the Saintess-nim summon me?"
Even though he roughly knew the reason, Dojin asked again to avoid raising Charlotte's suspicion.
Hearing Dojin's question, Charlotte hesitated about what to say, then thought that speaking too long might reveal her identity.
So she shut it down with one word.
"I don't know."
"Ah, yes...."
With that, Dojin couldn't utter a single word until they arrived. Whenever he tried to speak, Charlotte glared at him with a sharp gaze that could be felt even through her helmet.
Creak.
"We have arrived."
The carriage arrived at the mansion, and the coachman slowly opened the door. Getting off, Dojin realized a mansion like this existed in this city and let out an exclamation.
'Is this a palace or something?'
The mansion he lived in wasn't exactly small, but compared to this place, it was no different from an ordinary house.
Charlotte walked past the spaced-out Dojin and went inside. Dojin, belatedly coming to his senses, followed behind her.
Inside the mansion, there were only female attendants; perhaps because of that, whenever they made eye contact with Dojin, they blushed and smiled with their eyes.
"Wait here for a moment."
Arriving in front of the drawing room, Charlotte stopped Dojin and went in first to report to the Saintess.
"Saintess-nim, he has arrived."
"Really? Then—could you bring him in?"
"......Please be careful. The other party is a man, after all."
"I know. Don't worry."
A moment later, Charlotte brought Dojin, who was waiting with a dumbfounded expression at the door, inside.
Seeing the Saintess waiting in the room, Dojin let out a hollow laugh.
'Seriously, wearing that at home...?'
The Saintess was completely covered up, just like when he saw her at the festival. Even women in Earth's Islamic countries probably don't cover up to that extent.
She wore a veil covering her face over her head, a nun's habit covering her whole body, and even her limbs were covered with stockings and gloves.
But the peculiar thing was, despite being so covered with not an inch exposed, she looked incredibly seductive.
"......."
The Saintess watched Dojin, who was sizing her up, for a moment, then whispered to Charlotte. Charlotte relayed the Saintess's words exactly.
"The Saintess-nim says she welcomes you."
"......Pardon?"
However, from the perspective of someone meeting her for the first time, this manner of speaking was utterly ridiculous.
There was a person right in front, yet it wasn't like she was ignoring him. They say ancient Earth's nobles or royalty used such speech, but who would have thought this Otherworld also had such customs?
"Um, why are you speaking like that?"
Dojin couldn't hold back his curiosity. He also knew from the information obtained from Charlotte earlier that the Saintess wasn't particularly hostile toward him, so there was no need to hold back.
Then the Saintess, with an expression of interest that could be discerned even through her veil, poked Charlotte again.
"......The Saintess-nim has received God's Blessing."
"What's the problem with receiving a Blessing...?"
"Because of that, she receives so much attention even the gods treasure her. In return, the Saintess-nim has the duty to protect her perfect virginity of mind, energy, and body."
"......Perfect virginity of mind, energy, and body?"
"Yes, the Saintess-nim's beauty, voice, touch, everything. None of it is permitted to men other than God."
Hearing that, Dojin felt a bit absurd and looked at the Saintess. Any man who saw her bare skin would be blinded, any man who heard her voice would go deaf, any man who touched her skin would lose his life.
Limited to men, wasn't she essentially the ultimate weapon capable of annihilating all mankind?
Men could not see her, touch her, or hear her.
"Then why did the Saintess-nim summon me, a man?"
However, rather than being shocked by her ability, Dojin asked why she had summoned him.
He knew she had received some kind of Oracle, but he knew nothing about the Oracle's content or what she wanted from him.
The Saintess thought for a moment, then whispered into Charlotte's ear. After hearing the Saintess's words, Charlotte slowly opened her mouth.
"The Saintess-nim says she doesn't particularly want anything."
"......Pardon? No, then why did you help me?"
"That was simply what needed to be done. We couldn't keep the hero who wiped out the Black Mage and the criminal organization locked up forever."
"That feels a bit unsatisfactory."
The Saintess gave a sly smile seeing Dojin say that. Though she said that, it wasn't like she truly wanted nothing from him.
Rather, she actually wanted a great many things. If possible, she wished he could completely remove this tiresome curse.
Of course, that was impossible...
Dojin, for his part, while looking at the Saintess, was examining his own skill window.
'This... I think this could work....'
A curse that cripples any man who touches her?
If I just stick it in, it'll be solved.
Because I have that kind of ability.
The only flaw was that he couldn't just ask the Saintess to let him stick it in right away.