Hyde Sets Out to Suppress the Heretics! #5
The reek of burning stabbed at my nostrils from every direction.
Screams and howls filled the air on all sides, and I slipped through the chaos toward the women’s prison.
I was going to rescue Galatea, knight of the Holy Crusade.
“What the hell is going on right now?!”
“Looks like the knights launched an attack!”
“They’re holed up in the eunuchs’ prison! Let’s head there too!”
The frantic voices of the cultist fanatics echoed down every alley of stacked logs.
Thanks to Loras and his lot drawing attention so effectively, most of the cultists were surging that way in a mob.
Those knight bastards were underhanded, but their skill was the real deal.
They ought to buy me plenty of time—.
“Galatea!”
I stepped into the prison, now emptied like a tide had gone out, and found Galatea locked inside.
Of the dashing female knight there was no trace left; her face was bruised and battered all over, her clothes little more than rags—enough to make anyone frown.
“Where… is this… I am… Lady Diana’s…”
“Pull yourself together. It’s me, Hyde. Wood Badge monk Hyde. We met at Emeris Monastery. I’ve come to repay the favor of that travel pass I promised you!”
“All men who blaspheme the goddess must die—”
“Damn it. Tsk.”
Her mind was in worse shape than her body.
If the Crescent Moon Sisterhood castrated male captives and used them as slaves, they captured the women, tortured them, and brainwashed them into recruits.
Brainwashing was one of the heretics’ specialties, so it was hardly surprising.
After all, no one in their right mind would worship heretics and cults.
In a way, every heretic and cultist was a victim of brainwashing.
“I’ll get you out right away!”
I picked up a nearby rock.
Whoosh—crack!
I brought it down hard, and the crude wooden lock shattered easily.
“Come on, let’s go!”
“Ugh… nngh—”
I had freed Galatea, but she could barely walk, so I had to scoop her up in my arms.
Now all that remained was escape—.
Just as I thought that, a tremendous noise rang out.
CRACK-SNAP—!!!
I had heard the sound of a mansion’s main beam shattering once before; this was exactly that kind of noise.
When I stepped outside, I saw a giant of a woman—so massive she seemed to ignore the laws of perspective even from a distance—wielding a log and smashing the knights to pieces.
“That one—”
“It’s Lady Las! Lady Las of Wrath is using her power herself!”
“Kyahaha! Crush those knights!”
The women’s laughter-laced cheers explained the situation perfectly.
Great Sin Seat Las—.
The way she overpowered and pulverized the knights in an instant was almost surreal.
“Loras, you useless piece of shit. You should’ve held out a little longer.”
Right before my eyes, Loras and Tristan were seized by the cultist women. There was no sign of the one-eyed knight Baldwin.
Probably dead.
I ducked into the loft of a warehouse that looked sparsely populated.
Looking out the window, I saw frantic activity everywhere.
“Just from what we’ve checked, twenty sisters are dead!”
“Let’s tear these bastards apart!”
“Skewer them and kill them!”
The women were raging.
Then the cultist woman called Las of Wrath shouted:
“Build an arena!”
After that, a circular fighting pit was thrown together with torches and barricades, and Loras and Tristan were stripped naked and tossed inside.
Loras and Tristan came to their senses.
They were clearly going to be forced to fight each other.
“Las… what a cruel woman.”
Tristan and Loras.
One of them was definitely going to die.
If they were going to kill each other anyway, I hoped they would drag it out as long as possible.
“Sir Galatea. Could you wait here a moment?”
“Aaah—”
I left Galatea in the loft and slipped out of the warehouse.
With every woman busy watching Loras and Tristan kill each other, I headed for the prison that held the male captives.
“Hey! Slave! Why are you loitering around?!”
Someone approached me then.
A cultist woman with her face painted black with ink.
I held up the herbs I had been clutching for Dihon and said:
“Lady Las ordered me to give medicine to the prisoners.”
“Medicine? Yeah, their condition is pretty bad. Even I haven’t seen Lady Las that furious before. She really lives up to the name of Wrath. Well, she hasn’t been here long, though!”
She was volunteering information I hadn’t even asked for—clearly a woman who loved to talk. She must have been worked up by the roaring flames, the violence, and the smell of blood.
Indeed, the pupils visible through the black ink had shrunk tight with tension.
I asked in the most harmless, weak little-man voice I could manage:
“Um, er… where exactly did such a terrifying Lady Las come from?”
“You dumb slave bastard. You don’t even know that? She came from the witches’ council. Walpurgis. Some son of a bitch wrecked our funding source and slave procurement.”
So that was it.
Originally, Las of Wrath did not exist among the Crescent Moon Sisterhood at this time.
But because I had handed Bluebeard, the wicked Nicola, and Nomad over to the Inquisition, Walpurgis—the parent body of the Sisterhood—must have grown wary.
Thwack!
The woman slammed her fist into my back with full force.
“Ack!”
“More importantly, how long are you going to keep slacking off, you fucker? Hurry up and do what Lady Las ordered! Eunuchs never have any backbone! Get your ass to the prison already!”
“Ugh—”
“The prisoner we caught this time seems to be that Archibold’s son. If we keep him alive, we’ll find plenty of uses for him later. Don’t you dare let him die. If he dies, it’s on you! Move!”
My back hurt like hell.
But since I now had permission to go to the prison, I bowed my head and ran for it.
When I entered the men’s prison, a familiar face appeared between the log bars.
“Lord Oscar.”
“That voice—H-Hyde—!”
“Shh. Keep quiet. I’ll get you out.”
Oscar Archibold.
He was locked in the prison.
The ironclad wall of the Archibold name must have saved his life once again.
“Hyde… I can’t see anything… My eyes… what has happened to my eyes? I see nothing. Before me there is only darkness… only darkness.”
“…….”
Oscar Archibold’s face had been seared by someone with fire.
The severe burns had left him so hideous that no trace remained of the handsome young man he had once been.
“I can’t see…!”
Oscar seemed agitated.
If this continued, the cultists might come in, so I first had to calm him down.
“The cultists wrapped bandages around your eyes, Lord Oscar—that’s why you can’t see. Once the bandages are removed, you’ll be able to see again, so don’t worry.”
“I-Is that so? Ha—thank goodness. Then, Hyde, be my eyes for me. I have no feeling in my arms and legs. How are my arms and legs?”
Oscar’s arms and legs were twisted and shattered in grotesque ways.
It was a miracle he was still alive.
Even more horrific was the blood gushing from his lower body. Someone had crudely packed cloth against it to stop the bleeding, but—
Oscar had clearly been castrated.
“…….”
These fucking cultist bitches.
Oscar was a villain, but had he done anything bad enough to deserve this much suffering—if someone asked me that, I would have to think long and hard.
Judgment belonged to the Lord, not to men.
“Your arms and legs are fine.”
“…Lord Hyde, I see now that you’re a poor liar.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know full well that my condition is bad…. I will probably die. No—I may suffer something worse than death…. I am an Archibold’s son, after all….”
“…….”
“Priest Hyde, hear my confession before I die. I must repent of the sins I have committed.”
“Oscar, I am a priest who does not believe in the sacrament of confession. Repent of your own sins through your own prayers. And you mustn’t talk too much. Your condition—”
“Manaan—yes, I killed them. But I had no choice. That man had begun speaking the truth about far too many things. It was a curse more powerful than any I had ever seen.”
“…….”
“Hyde, I will not ask you to save me now…. Instead, will you tell my father that I died proudly as an Archibold’s son…? Promise me.”
This bastard.
Running his mouth right up to the moment of death.
Truly the arrogant son of an Archibold.
“Hurry, Hyde. You are… already a member of the Covenant of Agarpe, are you not. My promise….”
At the same time, I raised my estimation of Oscar Archibold.
When a man stands on the threshold of death, he reveals the “true nature” he can no longer hide.
Only now did I find myself curious about this man named Oscar.
“Oscar, are you not afraid of death?”
“…I don’t know. But now that I cannot see, I understand. Hyde. You seem afraid of death. Have you… committed many sins…? Did you perhaps… set this whole board yourself…?”
“Ha. I am an innocent man without sin. Do not cast baseless suspicions, brother.”
“Impossible. Looking at you reminds me of my father. But I will believe you. I will save you, the innocent one—so please… tell my father… my final story… I beg you….”
“How does a dying man propose to save me?”
I had plenty of ways to escape with Galatea.
While Loras and Tristan were fighting each other, I could simply flee through the secret passage.
Even so, I had come to see Oscar because I wanted to confirm his death with my own eyes. Brainless knights like Loras or Tristan were one thing.
The courage to sneak into a mountain stronghold that might house a Great Sin Seat.
Oscar must have had some trump card he was relying on.
“Cough, ugh… Do you see the silver-badge cross hanging around my neck? This is a specially… made whistle. Blow it and something unimaginable will happen. Hyde, when that moment comes… you run.”
Slide—.
I placed the cross whistle into Oscar’s mouth as he wished.
Then, with his dying body, he blew the whistle with all his remaining strength.
Piiiiiiiiii—.
A sharp whistle.
That was the exact moment.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH━───!!!!
A sound that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end erupted from somewhere.
It was like a beast’s howl, or a scream, or a shriek. It sounded almost like grief, yet the voice that twisted and rose ended by carrying only one emotion.
Rage of unfathomable depth—.
Soon Oscar burst into loud laughter.
“You damn heathen bastards—all of you die!”