Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: Making a Double Spy (2)
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Vice Captain Schwein had let Anje slip right out from under his nose.
He glared coldly at me as I blocked his path.
"The warden, huh."
Veins bulged on his forehead.
As if it wounded his pride that he hadn't sensed me approaching.
"How did you close the distance so fast? I didn't feel a shred of presence from you."
"Must mean your skills are lacking. Or should I call it faith, since you're a holy knight?"
I shrugged off the uniform jacket draped over my shoulders.
And laid it gently over Anje's legs.
"I have no interest in debating faith with scum like you."
From the Holy See's perspective, I was already one of the wicked.
The holy knight with an eyepatch over one eye righteously leveled his sword at me.
But...
The tip of his blade twitched moments later.
"The wicked one here is you and your actions. Anyone can see you're the monster trying to kidnap a frail maid."
"Does that girl look like just a simple maid to you?"
I turned to gaze steadily at the twin-tailed maid covered by my uniform jacket.
She certainly appeared to be nothing more than a beautiful servant.
"She does right now."
"That woman brainwashed hundreds of citizens and killed a regional lord. By your precious empire's laws, she deserves execution."
Mentioning imperial law like some cultist.
At that, I narrowed my eyes like an old serpent.
I always welcomed a refined war of words like this.
"What if that lord deserved to die, and the citizens already harbored resentment toward him?"
"What are you getting at?"
Having memorized every detail about the prisoners already,
I began to poke holes in their view of Anje as nothing but a weapon.
"Anje's magic back then was closer to a courage-boosting buff than outright brainwashing. The citizens already wanted the lord dead, so there was no need to brainwash them."
"What do you know about mental magic? Got any proof it wasn't brainwashing?"
The 35-year-old holy knight scolded me like I was some kid half his age.
"The proof is in how the citizens lived their lives after falling under Anje's magic."
In response, I fixed him with the stern gaze of a man in his fifties lecturing a 35-year-old.
"If she'd forced them with powerful brainwashing to kill the lord, they'd all be suffering severe trauma now."
Anje, whom I glanced back at, offered no reply.
She had no intention of justifying her actions.
"But the citizens Anje supposedly brainwashed all returned to their normal lives without issue. She even took the blame for their crimes."
Since ancient times, she never hesitated to kill, but her targets were almost always villains.
She never enslaved the common folk.
"So you're defending the saintess's actions now? Saying she deserves absolution?"
He had a point there.
Even if all her victims were villains, crimes were crimes.
"No, she deserves punishment, but you lot have no right to judge without knowing the full context."
Meaning her crimes didn't warrant torture and enslavement through brainwashing.
A prison sentence in the empire's worst facility like this one would suffice.
"Insolent fool. This is Archbishop's direct order."
"What does the archbishop have to do with me? I'm the warden here."
My firm declaration shut the vice captain up.
"I'm the empire's officially appointed warden. In this place, I am the emperor."
"......"
I clasped my hands behind my back leisurely.
And flashed a sly smile like some aged prime minister.
"Even the pope or the emperor would need to request a visitation to see a prisoner."
I pointed a finger at him gripping his sword.
I could subdue a guy like him easily without a blade.
"That's the law of your empire."
The vice captain let out a groan.
Probably figured arguing was a waste of time.
"You sure can talk a good game. No wonder they call you the giant serpent of the north."
"Thanks for the compliment."
"But I'm just a knight carrying out orders. I have no desire to tangle with you further."
"Right. When words fail, draw your sword."
Schwein began channeling blue mana into his blade once more.
I drew my own sword from my waist in turn.
The one I'd picked up in the training yard during my early days as warden.
"Anje, mind stepping back a bit more?"
"...Got it."
Anje pulled my jacket tighter and retreated slowly.
But she didn't flee.
She stood her ground, steadfastly watching my back.
Schwein frowned at how close we'd become.
"She's fallen into something even worse than brainwashing. I'll save her myself."
The seasoned man on the cusp of middle age shook his head at my foolish choice.
He charged to redeem her personally.
"Once her holy power fully recovers, you're done for—and so are we."
His bastard sword came at me aggressively.
True to a veteran, his swordsmanship was rock-solid.
Whoooosh!!
A heavy strike swung exactly as trained, with no flourishes, tricks, or feints.
Anyone lacking fundamentals would parry and risk wrist injury.
'Sure. If they were untried noble brats short on practice.'
Holy knight swordsmanship wasn't much different from imperial style.
They just added holy power; the basic forms were identical.
Dodge the honest neck slash by ducking.
Knowing he'd expect a low strike, I thrust at his face instead.
"What the...!!"
Sure enough, the holy knight flinched, caught off-guard while guarding low.
His vast experience let him react just in time.
But that was it.
I wasn't about to give a guy whose balance crumbled a second chance.
Having consumed my family's elixirs and the imperial secret potions, I'd regained about a quarter of my strength.
Finally, a golden power began to infuse my once-feeble blade.
"Wh-what is this? Is Anje controlling you or something?"
The vice captain panicked at how I matched him evenly.
Reinforcements would arrive soon; he needed to secure the target first.
"What did you do to make your sword feel so heavy?"
"I've been toiling away even for your gods' share."
Now he was the one getting pushed back.
And he was a veteran Sword Expert at upper intermediate.
"What does that mean...?"
Claaang!!
Through the crossed blades gleamed his green eyes.
Those eyes, dulled by countless years of trials, caught my gaze.
"What are those eyes? How can a fresh 21-year-old have eyes like that...?"
The vice captain realized the warden's eyes were steeped in far more seasons than his own.
And by the time he did...
A black dagger slid down from my sleeve.
"What else? The weary look from cleaning up after you lot."
My forearm had thickened like in my prime during my first regression.
One hand holding his sword at bay, I gripped the fallen dagger with the other.
"You have no idea the hell I've been through handling your messes."
Holy knights' vital points where holy power flows.
Wrist, side, ribs.
I pierced all three in one swift motion with the dagger.
"Gahhh...!!"
The man screamed as the blood vessels carrying his holy power were severed.
The blue aura around his sword vanished completely.
But the humiliation he faced was only just beginning.
His face darkened in the shadow of my backlit form, green eyes gleaming murderously.
Just like the beings holy knights deemed evil incarnate.
"D-Demon! The Satan who pushed the Messiah off the cliff to his death...!!"
These fools always framed crises in biblical terms.
Of course, I learned that only after slaughtering the Holy See's entire leadership in my past life.
"That's right. That's what you called me every time you died."
The vice captain collapsed, blood pooling around him, trembling as he scrambled backward.
"Hearing it again after so long... this dagger feels perfect in my hand."
I slipped several daggers—hidden in someone's pocket—between my fingers.
And at the moment I thrust my arm toward the air...
"Aaaagh...!!"
I drove countless daggers into both his palms.
Like hammering nails.
"Stay put right there."
"Wh-what else are you planning...?"
He was trying to stall for the reinforcements.
But soon, even that last hope shattered.
"Pulling time like this... looks like you have backup."
The perennial vice captain's face twisted.
"I'll handle them before they reach Anje."
"Even if you beat me, they're far stronger than I am. You think a punk like you can take them easily?"
The man with sealed arms spat defiantly.
Yet I ignored him completely and climbed to the window ledge.
"Things are different in the deep woods."
I leaped straight from the prison toward the wild hills.
Toward where powerful mana had been surging since earlier.
'Of course, the reinforcements are way stronger than this guy.'
But in these gloomy woods, it was a different story.
My current level matched my sub-commander days, right before ascending to Dark Lord.
Even then, I'd taken down holy knights in seconds.
I might get banged up, but if this turned the saintess back to the side of good...
It would be worth an arm or two.
I plunged into the forest with golden steps far swifter than before.
'Whereabouts...?'
But no matter how far I ran, I saw neither holy knights nor wild beasts.
The forest was eerily silent, as if swept by a massive storm.
'At my level now, I should sense strong presences... why nothing...?'
As I scanned the surroundings suspiciously...
"Huh?"
My jaw dropped at the absurd sight before me.
A splendid holy knight banner lay there, torn to shreds and trampled into the dirt.
"Ugh, save me..."
"Damn it, why is the monster back again..."
'What the hell?'
"Tch... Fool. Thinks beating me makes him something special."
Vice Captain Schwein muttered from his pathetic sprawl in the corridor.
He waited leisurely for the captain to return with the fool's corpse any minute now.
"He'll be back as a body in no time."
But...
His prone form darkened suddenly.
A twin-tailed maid stood boldly before him.
"Anje. What kind of mess is this? How'd a moron like you lose your magic and end up like that?"
"......"
The defeated holy knight poked fun at her.
"Pathetic. Without God's power, you're perfect as a noble's plaything."
Anje crouched before the mocking holy knight.
Gently brushing her bangs aside.
"Wh-what? Why are you just staring without a word...?"
"......"
He sensed something off in her unnatural silence.
Then, the moment he met the crimson sea swirling in her eyes...
"Uh...? You don't mean..."
The 35-year-old holy knight realized it then.
"My power's already more than half recovered."
That she'd been playing the fragile damsel all along.
The wooden floorboards in the corridor began to writhe.
Crimson blood seeped up from the cracks.
If he'd truly tried to abduct her...
Those hidden blood tendrils would have spiked up like thorns, impaling him.
"You're the fool. That's why you're still just a vice captain, Schwein—you couldn't even notice."
Anje sneered haughtily, like a queen in maid garb.
Her finger poised at the center of his forehead.
"Then that hug from the man earlier, and this lewd outfit... all on purpose...?"
"Keep that to yourself."
Red mana bloomed from Anje's fingertip.
The immense power she'd kept tightly concealed.
"Grrk... Damn it, erasing my memories... ughhh..."
The furious vice captain blacked out.
Forgetting the encounter with Anje's fully intact power.
Leaving the unconscious man behind, Anje gazed toward the forest.
"That was cute, Prophet."
The white-haired maid tugged lightly at the uniform jacket draped over her shoulders.
Her body shivered faintly, recalling the sensation of being held.
"Being protected like this feels refreshingly different from forced submission."
The memory of nestling in his broad chest, lifted like a princess.
Perhaps because it was her first time, her heart still pounded fiercely.
"Maybe he's right—there might be better ways than brainwashing."
The saintess double-checked the empty corridor.
Then, peering into the reflective glass, she practiced a fragile expression.
With womanly eyes she never would have dreamed of before.
"Like 'love,' for instance..."
Anje flushed at uttering such a vulgar word herself.
Pricked by her conscience, she glanced down at the corridor's sole occupant, Schwein.
Even unconscious, he seemed to mock her subtly.
Anje tossed a nearby rag over his face.
And resumed cleaning the corridor with her regal demeanor restored.
Back to the oblivious, fragile maid once more.