Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Making a Double Agent (1)
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The red eyes that had been prowling around the prison had vanished.
The monsters that roamed every night had fallen into a deep daytime slumber.
This news reached a certain faction that had been keeping a close eye on the prison.
The Holy See, who had been aiming to retrieve Anje.
"Everyone's here."
Archbishop Calix Angard's conference room.
Several holy knights sat around the long table.
However, unlike before when it was packed full, a few seats were empty.
"We'll start the meeting as soon as the surveillance team returns from the prison."
Since the controversial hearing incident, the main church's reputation had plummeted.
Now, there were even people viewing it not as the state religion, but as a cult.
Thanks to that, many followers had defected.
"The church's situation isn't great right now, but it's actually a good thing for us."
A crisis is always an opportunity for someone.
With the numbers down, the church desperately needed capable talent.
"In times like these, the Pope will have to rely on us more heavily."
In that situation, Calix and his shadowy faction were still top-tier personnel.
Lately, they had even begun absorbing personnel from other depleted departments.
"If we play our cards right, we might brainwash the other holy knights this time too."
"However, Archbishop, the knights from other departments have considerable magic resistance."
A few holy knights raised their hands and asked politely.
They were all Anje's seniors, recognized for their abilities and elevated to executive positions.
"That's why we need Anje. That girl has the skill to pierce through even the toughest men."
The archbishop tapped the desk like piano keys.
"Besides, her magic power has completely vanished recently. As if she's dead."
"We sensed it too. It's a very strange occurrence."
Anje's power was so immense that the Holy See could detect her holy power even from afar.
But for that power to suddenly disappear like that.
Suspecting something odd, they immediately dispatched surveillance.
And the results had just arrived.
"Archbishop, Vice Captain Schwain has returned."
A man in his thirties with an eyepatch over one eye.
The blue-haired Vice Captain Schwain entered the conference room.
"So, what happened to Anje?"
The archbishop inquired about his masterpiece's well-being.
The man, starved for promotion, opened his mouth with fervent enthusiasm.
"From continuous observation, Anje's presence has definitely vanished completely from the prison."
"Does that mean she might have died?"
Calix wore an incredulous expression.
The saintess he knew was no human who would die easily.
She had no humanity at all and would sacrifice all her slaves to survive for her goals— that was Anje.
"She didn't die. The monsters she controlled were all sleeping soundly during the day."
"Well, if she'd fought someone, she would have used them all."
"Moreover, we couldn't confirm her survival. She used to show her face at the window often before, but now the curtains are completely drawn."
"That can't be. Her hobby is basking in the sunlight by the window. She would never block out the light."
Calix, who knew Anje well, grew even more puzzled.
In response, the ever-enthusiastic perennial vice captain shared his opinion.
"It looks like she was ambushed by someone and suffered a major injury."
"What's the basis for that guess?"
The vice captain pulled a memo from the inner pocket of his white uniform.
Inside was a sketch of the warden's sleazy face.
"The warden Derek, who was directly managing her, was recently injured. His hand was bandaged."
"That's not enough to be certain."
"Additionally, the Eastern prisoner known to be as strong as Anje wasn't visible. Only Fred and Nix were there."
"Why didn't you approach those kids and extract information?"
"I tried, but they showed no sign of coming outside. As if they were under control."
"Something definitely happened inside the prison."
Archbishop Calix immediately put his cunning mind to work.
"The warden, who has no need for dirty work, is injured, and the powerhouse on Anje's level has been sent outside..."
The black-haired middle-aged man grasped the situation and finally curled his lips upward.
"It seems the Eastern Sword Ghost and Anje finally clashed. And both took heavy wounds."
"I think so too. For the unscathed Sword Ghost to leave the prison, treatment and isolation would be the main reasons."
"Fred and Nix could report this to the Holy See, so they hid him to keep him from leaving."
"Yes. There's also a 'special circumstance' that supports that guess."
The promotion-hungry man immediately revealed the next drawing.
One so lasciviously detailed it could be mistaken for erotic art...
Depicting a white-haired maid with thick thighs and a generous bust.
"A maid who was never there before is cleaning the prison. I couldn't see her face from afar, but her figure was unmistakable."
"Hiring a civilian to clean up traces instead of using the prisoners?"
Calix asked seriously about the new face.
"Yes. They brought in outside help to clean quickly."
"You're sure she's a civilian?"
The vice captain recalled the maid's striking appearance.
"Yes, her skirt was short, and her figure was incredible—I couldn't forget it. No magic power either. So I had to look closer..."
The vigorous holy knights stared blankly at the exquisitely drawn maid sketch.
Those farther away even stood up.
"Vice Captain Schwain, mind if I duplicate this sketch with copy magic?"
"M-me too..."
"What kind of thighs are these..."
"Definitely a civilian. Hard to find a figure like that among those venomous mages."
Archbishop Calix eyed the huddled group with a sour look.
Like watching a brood of sex-starved serpents.
"Memorizing her appearance will improve work efficiency, Archbishop."
"Yes, no other meaning at all."
The executives solemnly made excuses in unison.
Seeing their shamelessness, Calix considered brainwashing them all.
"Anyway, it means they're going to extremes, even hiring civilians, to hide the situation."
The archbishop habitually stroked his chin.
Unable to even confirm his masterpiece's life or death.
However, this was definitely an opportunity.
Something had clearly gone wrong with the once-omnipotent her.
"This might be the perfect chance to retrieve Anje."
The main church's current situation was desperate.
Followers had dropped by 50%, and income had shriveled accordingly.
Even that income was being siphoned off by Sophia, who operated publicly.
The more she did, the more disadvantaged he, operating in the shadows, would become.
Now more than ever, he needed absolute brainwashing techniques.
To mass-produce slaves who would work for him for free.
"Good work. You can go now."
Calix pondered whom to deploy for the Anje retrieval operation.
"Dismissed already? Let me handle this personally right now."
"You?"
The archbishop looked displeased at the man in his thirties.
At him, who was a perennial vice captain past thirty-five.
"Yes. I've been monitoring continuously. No one knows the situation better than I do."
"But the opponent is Anje Renault. Even weakened, can you handle her alone?"
The archbishop took a sip of water.
As if the glass mattered more than the vice captain before him.
"Something definitely happened to her. And the warden is far below my level."
He absolutely didn't want to let this opportunity slip to someone else.
A life of constant jabs about being stuck as vice captain at his age.
If he shone just once now, when the church was in peril...
It would compensate for all the persecution he'd endured.
"Hmm. Still worrisome, though. Ah, not doubting your skills, of course. It's just the opponent..."
Even as he said that, everyone in the room knew.
Calix didn't trust his subordinate.
"We'll include you in the operation for now. But wait quietly until reinforcements arrive."
"......"
Vice Captain Schwain didn't answer immediately.
Joint operations with reinforcements meant splitting the rewards.
"Understood."
Gnashing his teeth, the vice captain headed to the prison first.
Two days later.
A rundown prison nestled at the foot of the Eternal Snow Mountains.
On the first-floor corridor, a white-haired maid was mopping.
"......"
Her red eyes, already impossible to read at the best of times.
Today, they stared blankly into space even more vacantly.
'What the hell did I do?'
In vulgar servant attire signifying her role as a maid.
Complete with frilly headband and cute ribbons on both sides.
She had bowed subserviently to a younger man.
And licked his fingers with a lewd expression.
Like a female pet, no less.
'Yeah, it was just the blood annoying me. That's all. I was irritated.'
Anje Renault desperately tried to erase the recent memory as she moved the mop around.
But she couldn't stop the heat rushing to her face.
'Just you wait. One week. Exactly one week, and I won't let you off...!!'
Anje planned to inflict every humiliating play she'd ever read about on him.
But for now, all that shook were her cute white twin tails tied to the sides.
"Who does he think he is, comforting me when he's so much weaker?"
Anje grumbled as she diligently soaked the corridor floor.
Almost fearing she'd truly become a passive female maid within the week.
'No, that would be total disqualification as a saintess. I have to regain my former dignity somehow.'
The haughty, blood queen-like demeanor she'd shown when first meeting Derek.
To reclaim that, she stared at her reflection in the mirror.
'The only way to win human hearts is through fear and domination.'
She tried making her imperious face again.
Glared with her now-larger eyes to form crimson crescent moons.
'Everything else is just pretense and illusion.'
But it just looked like a sulky maid.
Frustrated, she glared at the glass as if to shatter it.
That would summon the corpse vultures waiting in the hills to smash the building.
But.
The hills showed nothing anymore.
'Yeah, they're all napping... Hm?'
She spotted something in the dense forest.
Amid the drab greenery, smooth metal glinted.
Even without her powers, the saintess's sharp eyes remained.
She quickly realized someone with a sword was watching her.
However, by the time she noticed.
Her magic-powered foe had also realized the maid's identity.
"Anje Renault...?"
The lewd maid he'd been watching was actually the target.
Looking completely devoid of magic power, no less.
"Was that outfit some kind of disguise?"
Realizing the target was defenseless, Vice Captain Schwain stood immediately.
"Warden Derek, you devious bastard. I never suspected."
No powerhouses around the prison now.
He could snatch her right now, and no one could stop him.
But if reinforcements came...?
Everyone would swarm like dogs, causing chaos.
The vice captain decided to seize this once-in-a-lifetime chance.
Shwaaaa—!!
The Holy See's veteran knight leaped onto the tree.
The moment he wrapped magic around his legs.
Like a coiled spring, he shot up and landed at the window in an instant.
"Found you. Crimson Saintess."
Vice Captain Schwain's black eyes burned solely with promotion prospects.
He drew his sword and slashed the window.
"I'll knock you out nicely. You're my one ticket to salvation."
The glass shattered.
Sharp shards rained toward the white-haired maid.
Anje couldn't react to the barrage.
She was just a fragile beauty now.
"Oh no..."
Anje squeezed her eyes shut against the oncoming black shadow.
She bit her lip, dreading being dragged back to the Holy See.
Life in the brutal underground would start again.
Locked in a tiny cage until brainwashing completed.
No more comfy cell bed, no one who saw her as human...
Nothing.
"No, I won't let that happen."
But.
A voice flipped her thoughts completely.
Not a single glass shard reached her.
"Anje, you're someone I absolutely need."
He'd been watching her to prepare for this.
Regaining his dark lord powers let him detect the intruder's aura instantly.
He pulled Anje's slender body into his embrace, back to the window.
The sharp shards poured onto his back.
"Derek Minster...?"
The twin-tailed maid in his arms murmured blankly.
Holding her tight, he whispered softly.
"Don't worry. I'll protect you for the next week."
This was to teach her that the strong must protect the weak.
She'd realize faster through experience than mere persuasion.
If she remembered this moment, she'd truly help others.
Preventing doom while becoming a saintess who saves the world.
"......"
The maid released her bitten lip and hugged his back tighter.
"Well, this kind of wish isn't so bad."
For now, staying weak felt okay.
Her eyes held the first realization of being protected's warmth.
"Wait here a sec? I'll handle it quick."
He placed hands on Anje's thigh and back.
Despite the voluptuous weight, he lifted her effortlessly.
"Eek...!?"
Embarrassed, she covered her face with both hands.
As if recalling a biblical scene of a saintess shielded by a prophet.
Docilely, she let herself be placed in the corridor corner.
"This feeling... what is it."
The dazed white-haired maid.
Anje stared up blankly at the warden's broad back facing the holy knight.