A Savior Who Came Into Hell
Intermediate-level magic and above is restricted for 24 hours.
The restriction on my power appeared without fail, as always. But the fact that intermediate-level magic and above was unusable meant I could still cast lower-tier spells. On top of that, there was no limit on my physical abilities, so this particular penalty was relatively mild.
Not bad.
After quickly taking stock of the situation, I looked at the Saintess standing before me.
holly trust. On the Apocalypse Gallery, she was one of those ordinary users the kids mocked as a concept-obsessed roleplayer.
The moment I saw her, I understood exactly why she begged for salvation on the boards every single day. Missing an arm, a leg, even one eye, she dragged her ruined body toward me. Choi Yebin, standing at my side, might as well have been invisible — the Saintess's gaze locked on me alone.
"You are the Administrator, aren't you?"
A stranger had warped into an unknown space, yet she showed not the slightest surprise. The girl dropped to her knees and began to pray.
"Has my prayer finally been answered? For the Administrator himself to come and deliver me like this..."
"How did you know I was the Administrator? For all you know, the friend next to me could be the one."
"I can sense people's auras. From you, I feel a brilliant destiny. The girl beside you is also bound up in that destiny of yours. That is why I believed you were the Administrator."
"Well, you're right. I am the Administrator."
Missing a hand, she couldn't clasp her palms together in prayer. Instead she rested her remaining hand against her chest, closed her eyes with a solemn expression, and began to recite a prayer. Something about her felt strangely out of place. She wore a nun's habit, and both the aura and dignity she projected matched a Saintess's perfectly. But the room she occupied was thoroughly dilapidated.
"Is this where you live?"
"This is a holy sanctuary granted by God. It is my only refuge."
She spoke with a gentle expression. The place reeked of a sewer in the corners, and mold blanketed every wall — and she called this a sanctuary, the house of God. Something was very wrong.
"Do you belong to any organization?"
"I am a Saintess of the Ruasta Church, affiliated with the Ruasta Temple."
A Saintess belonging to a temple. Ordinarily, a Saintess received the finest treatment imaginable. Why she was being treated this poorly was hard to understand. Clearing up that particular mystery, however, turned out to be easy enough.
Bang. Bang.
A rough noise rose from outside, and a man soon shoved his way through the door.
"Who the hell are these bastards?"
Sword in hand, the man raked his irritated gaze up and down me and Choi Yebin.
Step back and stay still. For 24 hours, we can't leave this novel. The starting point is a sealed space, so be careful.
Since lower-tier magic was still available, I used Message Magic to signal Choi Yebin. Whether she caught every word or not, she pulled her hand out of her clothes at once and edged back a half step.
Paying us no mind, the man flung a loaf of bread at her with an irritated flick of his wrist.
"Today's ration."
holly trust cradled the bread with care and offered her thanks. The man's response, however, was far from kind.
"And who are these people? Believers of the Ruasta Church?"
"No. They're acquaintances of mine."
The moment the girl said it, the man strode over and cracked her hard across the cheek.
"You fucking bitch. I told you to sit still and recharge your holy power, and instead you call your friends over like an idiot. I actually thought some moron believers had shown up with money to offer. Got my hopes up for nothing."
The man dripped with open contempt and murderous intent. I looked at him and asked a question.
"What's your name?"
"Ha? What do you need to know that for, you piece of shit?"
"I asked you politely. Why so aggressive?"
"Do I need a reason? Some scrawny bastard who came to gawk at the Saintess."
When he bared his hostility a second time, I rested my hand on the sword I'd brought with me.
"I was going to let this slide, but are you sure you can handle what you're doing right now?"
The man's face twisted. He studied me carefully, then asked in a dubious tone,
"You... look like a mage. Do you happen to know the priests?"
He seemed to be under some kind of misconception. But there was no real need to correct him. Judging by the expensive-looking robe, he had decided I must be someone connected to the priests of the Ruasta Church.
"And what would you do with that information? I don't ask three times. Your name."
"Elcardo."
"Elcardo, is it..."
I drew my sword in a single motion and swept it to a stop a hair's breadth from his throat. The man froze, swallowing hard.
"Elcardo. Under normal circumstances, I would have taken your head with this blade. But you seem to have decent instincts, so I'll let you off once."
Elcardo's eyes darted frantically as he began to reassess his situation. Flashy swordsmanship despite wearing a mage's robe. He had heard of people like this. High-ranking figures connected to the priesthood were not only exceptional mages — they often took up the sword as a hobby as well.
The priests of the Ruasta Church always said the same thing. If a high-ranking associate ever paid a visit, you were never, under any circumstances, to offend him. Elcardo let out a wretched breath. He had accidentally crossed a high-ranking figure tied to the priesthood.
He dropped to his knees and began to beg.
"Just once... please, just once, spare me. I'm begging you."
"Tch. Get lost."
The moment I turned away, the man scrambled to his feet and bowed his head.
"If... if you need anything at all, just say the word. Anything. I'll do it."
"Hmm..."
I considered for a moment, then gestured to Choi Yebin.
"Stay here and talk with the Saintess for a bit. I'm going to take a look outside with this one."
Choi Yebin bowed her head without a word. Sharp as ever — she was playing along with my little performance. holly trust blinked at us in confusion, but luckily the man named Elcardo didn't notice anything amiss.
I stepped outside with him.
"W-what... what kind of order did you have for me...?"
"Elcardo. What role does that Saintess serve here? I'm curious about her."
"You mean Plimia? Why would you care about a defective product like that...?"
So holly trust's name in this place was Plimia. I filed that away.
"Do I have to explain every reason I take an interest to the likes of you?"
"N-no, of course not. It's just, if it's a woman you want, I could introduce you to a more beautiful, intact Saintess..."
"Enough. Tell me about Plimia."
The man fidgeted, then slowly began to spill information.
"Plimia answered God's call and came to the temple two years ago. At first she was a promising girl with exceptional holy power and a beautiful face, but not long ago she was dispatched to the battlefield and, as you can see, lost an arm, a leg, and an eye. After that her market value tanked, and she was banished here to the sales yard."
"Sales yard?"
"Ah... that's our slang for this place. See all these houses lined up? We gather the Saintesses who've been injured or broken somehow, and when a buyer shows up, we sell them. Saintesses are rare, so they fetch a good price."
"Aren't Saintesses the ones chosen by the god of the Ruasta Church? And you sell them however you please?"
"Things have changed a great deal recently — I take it you hadn't heard? A new Pope took over, and a lot has shifted. Under the new Pope, over a thousand Saintesses pour out every year, so they decided that offloading the ones with no market value would actually be a net gain. A Saintess is meant to be pure and beautiful, a representative face of the Ruasta Church. There was talk of simply killing girls like her rather than putting them on official stages or in public work where they'd damage the image. But plenty of great lords are willing to pay enormous sums just for the title of 'Saintess,' so this system was set up instead."
"I see. Filthy creatures."
"Yes, exactly. All the Saintesses here are filthy creatures."
Elcardo grovelled, scrambling to agree with me. Of course, the filth I was talking about wasn't the Saintesses. It was the disgusting bastards who assessed market value and sold them off like livestock.
"Is there anything else you'd like to know?"
"No. You've satisfied my curiosity. You can go. I'll look around a little and then leave."
"Understood. Um, about that..."
Elcardo squirmed like a dog that needed to relieve itself.
"Spit it out."
"Please keep today's events a secret from the priests. If the priests find out what happened today, I'm as good as dead..."
"I'll do that. I'll speak to the priests myself, so get going."
"Thank you! And as for that Saintess, I'll let you have her cheap. Her market value is so thoroughly ruined we were planning to put her to work as a whore later anyway."
At those words, I stopped for a moment. Then I spoke to the man again.
"Ah. There's something I want to say. Come over here for a second."
Elcardo walked slowly toward me.
I drove my sword straight into his heart.
"Guh... why...?"
He stared at me in disbelief — a question searching for a reason behind his own death.
I borrowed his own words for a short reply.
"Do I need a reason?"