Red Flavor
The police seemed taken aback by the sudden turn of events.
They reflexively drew their pistols and clubs, but as expected.
They couldn't swing or shoot them.
Of course they couldn't.
Just try to leave so much as a scratch on my body.
See what happens.
"Th-this is a clear violation of public authority!!"
"Disregarding legitimate law enforcement under imperial law and wielding miracles like this is an illegal act!!"
Right.
They were correct.
It was an illegal act.
But when I beat up that factory manager and the baron in the capital, did you think it wasn't an illegal act then?
"Illegal? So be it."
"What?!......."
"And what exactly can you do about it?"
"......."
"Are you going to shoot me with your guns, beat me with your clubs, drag me off like a dog, and throw me into a detention camp? Just like you did to all these workers here?"
The police didn't answer.
Right.
It must have been daunting for them.
Because I was an existence too terrifying to touch.
I used Time Stop to release the policeman I had forcibly suspended in the air.
Half-strangled and unconscious, he crumpled to the ground.
"Treat these people, and when they no longer need treatment, they will leave even if you tell them not to. Until then, don't get in my way."
The officers helped up their unconscious colleague, gauged my mood, and then retreated feebly.
The patients who had crowded around me and their families began to shout as if a weight had been lifted off their chests.
"Yeah!! Get lost!! You bastards!!"
"We're human too!! We have the right to be treated like humans and to live like humans!!"
"And you talk of exile!! Since when did the pharmaceutical companies and doctors ever consider us important?!"
Amidst the jeers and condemnation, the police withdrew powerlessly.
The workers seemed to feel a sense of relief, but I sensed something strange.
Logically speaking.
When someone appeared who healed workers for free without consuming any social resources whatsoever, shouldn't they have welcomed it instead of trying to drive him away?
And besides, touching me would only provoke the Imperial Household and the Pantheon, wouldn't it?
What on earth were the upper class of this city thinking when they took such measures?
"Saint!! My daughter!!"
Such thoughts vanished at the voice of a father who frantically brought his injured daughter before me.
Right.
Why was I sitting here pondering common sense?
This was a place ruled by greed-crazed bastards who chewed up children for money.
It was entirely possible that the pharmaceutical companies and doctors, feeling threatened because their unrivaled position in this city was being shaken, had mobilized the police.
"You don't need to worry anymore."
I placed my hand on the child's body and healed her simply.
Seeing his daughter perfectly well, the father hugged her tightly and began to wail.
"Thank you. Saint. Thank you."
I patted the father's shoulder.
"Return in peace. Your child will not be sick anymore."
It wasn't something I could do for long.
Because I had to prevent my authority from growing by devouring Faith.
But at least until the moment I could no longer do it, I intended to save these people with all my might.
It was in my nature.
Seeing others suffering and not acting, when I had the power to save them, was something I absolutely could not do.
***
It was typical for most clergy, priests, and holy knights to back down when the police tried to drive them out by citing the law.
After all, this city was never particularly favorable to religion, and no one was willing to proselytize while bearing the burden of breaking the law.
But this so-called Saint wouldn't leave so easily, as if it were only natural for him to stay.
Furthermore, if he were an ordinary priest, they could at least beat him and throw him out as a last resort, but this Saint bastard was the most important figure to the Imperial Household and the Pantheon, so they couldn't do that either.
[You son of a bitch!! Just leave! I said leave!!]
Mammon sent the police several more times after that to try and expel the Saint.
"How many times must I tell you that your presence here is illegal?! Free treatment is something only Labor Theorists do!! And on top of that, assaulting police!! We will forcibly deport you!! Get out of this city!"
Since beating him with clubs or shooting him would cause the situation to spiral out of control, they even tried to be as gentle as possible by putting handcuffs on his wrists and dragging him out.
Of course, it failed.
Seeing the police try to subdue him with physical force, the Saint silently loosened his belt and held it in his hand.
And with a single lash that split a police shield, he displayed monstrous superhuman strength and drove the police away.
The way he swung the belt was comparable to a berserker rather than a Saint.
"Why on earth are you doing this here, Saint? Just return to the capital. You gain absolutely nothing by staying here and healing these people."
When forcing him out became difficult, they tried a conciliatory approach this time.
"It's filthy and smells. And I can see you haven't been able to eat, wash, or rest properly. I have prepared a royal seat on an express train. You can even shower on the train. Go there, wash up, eat, drink, rest, and return to the Order of Grace."
Of course, this didn't work either.
"Didn't I tell you? I will not leave until the sick people here are healed."
"Don't be like that, just return to the capital now. Why are you deliberately going through such hardship here? If you go to the Order of Grace, you will be treated much better."
"Because this is the right thing to do."
Mammon felt an urge to manifest on the surface and tear that Saint's mouth apart.
Judging by the fact that he hadn't summoned the holy knights of the White Order and the Pantheon, it seemed he didn't yet know that Mammon was scheming behind the scenes of this city.
So it wasn't as if he was deliberately doing this to figure out his identity and spite him.
Was he simply doing this out of pure goodness and kindness?
[Where on earth did a picture-perfect saint like that come from?]
Mammon couldn't hide his bewilderment.
Among the many Chosen of the Pantheon who existed 300 years ago, such a character was rare.
The Evil God had come and fed him some unconvincing nonsense, like a dog farting, that Asmodeus of Lust was pretending to be a Saint, but looking at him, Mammon knew that could never be Asmodeus.
He was clearly one of the shattered Divinities of the Pantheon, fallen to the earth during the Heavenly War and reborn in a human body.
Otherwise, there was no way such a fundamentally good being could exist.
[How on earth am I supposed to chase away that fool of pure goodness?]
Assassination?
Impossible.
The Imperial Household and the Pantheon would arrive faster than a bullet.
Exile?
It didn't work.
Couldn't drive him out by force, conciliatory measures failed, and he wouldn't listen even when they shouted that it was illegal.
Then how could he be driven out?
One method came to Mammon's mind.
[If I can't drive you out by tormenting you, how about making the beings around you suffer?]
Causing the beings around him to suffer because of himself.
In Mammon's experience, the kinder a being was, the more effectively this method worked.
And that Saint, who was healing people in his city, was the kindest being he had ever seen.
[What if I show him the workers around him suffering because of the Saint? What then? Could you still endure it?]
***
Peter and Anna, along with Jim and Amy, were tasked with running a free soup kitchen and distributing food to the people.
The kindness they had shown by sharing their black bread with me despite their poverty was shining through again.
"Saint. Please have some soup."
After over 12 hours of doing nothing but healing without proper rest, my mind was reaching its limit.
I could force my body to rest using Body Modification, but my mind could not hold out.
Seeing my tired expression and frequent sighs, Anna handed me some soup and said that.
After eating the soup, I lay down on the street to close my eyes for a moment.
There was no time to rest.
I'd sleep for exactly one hour and then hurry to get up again.
I couldn't stay here long anyway, to prevent the Demon King's Authority from growing any stronger.
I had to leave soon, and before that, I had to heal as many as possible.
I had just closed my eyes for a moment under a blanket on some straw mat the workers had scavenged from somewhere.
I opened my eyes at the sound of something breaking.
"Wh-why are you doing this?!"
"A free soup kitchen. You're doing something Labor Theorists would really appreciate. I'm very suspicious that you might be a Labor Theorist. I'll have to take you in for questioning."
I could see the police smashing the free soup kitchen.
And this time, the level of armament was completely different from the police sent several times before.
A special forces unit wearing steam-powered reinforced suits, armed with rifles and electric shock batons, was mercilessly beating people and rounding them up.
At that sight, I hurriedly got up from my spot.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
At my words, one policeman who appeared to be the leader glanced at me and grinned.
"We are rounding up subversive elements suspected of being Labor Theorists. Is there a problem?"
Handcuffs were being placed on Peter's and Anna's, Jim's and Amy's wrists.
I shouted in fury.
"How is opening a free soup kitchen to feed the hungry and healing the sick a crime?!"
"Are you not putting into practice exactly what the Labor Theorists advocate? They are shameless villains who call for free welfare. They talk nonsense about feeding and supporting useless trash with the city's taxes."
"Not a single penny of tax money was used!! It was all done with my personal wealth! So how can that be subject to punishment?!"
"Even if it was done with personal wealth, their actions empower the Labor Theorists and cause social chaos. They deserve to be punished."
"Release Peter and Anna's family! Right now!!!"
As I loosened my belt and held it, the policemen who had been beaten by me before flinched and stepped back.
The special forces leader also waved his hand at my action and slowly stepped back.
"You're acting rashly. It seems law and rules mean nothing to you, Saint. But do you know this? For those who are not you, Saint, law and rules do apply."
The leader snickered.
And then he shouted as if intending for everyone to hear.
"From now on, anyone receiving treatment from the Saint will be regarded as a subversive element and will be fired!! They will also be suspected of being Labor Theorists, so know that you will be interrogated and, in emergencies, imprisoned in detention camps!!"
At the word 'fired,' the faces of all the workers froze.
"The Saint will not be able to save all of you. The police will be deployed all over the city. And we will arrest you, put you before a judge, and throw you into detention camps. The Saint might save some, but he won't be able to save everyone. Do you want to be fired? Do you want to be locked up in a detention camp?"
At his words, the workers and the patients' families ground their teeth.
But even so, they couldn't step forward, their eyes filled with unease.
Fired.
They seemed more afraid of being fired than of being locked up in a detention camp.
Wow.......
They were really playing dirty and despicable.
If it were just me, I could manage somehow with Time Stop or Hypnosis, but if they declared they would target all of them, I naturally couldn't protect everyone.
As if confirming that my eyes were wavering, the leader sidled up to me.
"Saint. Do you really want to see all of them suffer because of your actions?"
"......Why are you going this far?"
"I should be the one asking you. Aren't they just poor, dirty, uneducated workers? Why on earth do you go this far for them?"
"........"
"I admit it. We can't do anything to you. But we can do as we please with them. Don't make them suffer any more than this. Just leave now. If you are still performing healing acts here tomorrow, it won't be you, but them, who will suffer."
The police released Peter and Anna, and Jim and Amy.
"We've remembered your faces. If any of you act suspiciously like subversive elements again, you will go straight to a detention camp."
After the menacing warning,
the police retreated.
The smashed free soup kitchen.
Several workers who seemed to have already been beaten while I was asleep.
But more than anything else,
the biggest problem was that the people were starting to despair with bitter expressions.
"Right. I knew this would happen."
"Even if we get treated, we'll just get hurt again anyway....... What's the point of getting treatment."
I clenched my fist tightly.
It was impossible to take all of them to the Karma Company in the capital.
Creating jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers was impossible, even for the Karma Company with elixir gushing out of it.
Then would things be better if they went somewhere else?
No.
The other factories in the empire.
Most other jobs were mostly the same as here.
Even if they ran away, there was no paradise.
Just here.
The only ending was being treated like this, exploited like livestock, and dying.
"Saint."
Peter limped toward me.
He smiled sorrowfully.
"Please leave now. You've already done enough. There is nothing more you can do for us."
"......."
"Thank you for everything."
After Peter forced a smile, he began to return to the lodging with his family.
The other workers were the same.
After bowing their heads politely to me, they began to leave.
My fist clenched as if it might shatter.
Was this right?
Was this just?
All I had done was heal people. Was there a need to persecute me this much?
What sin had those people committed?
Why were you going this far!!
Why were you being this dirty and despicable, you bastards!!
"Stop!!!!"
I shouted at the workers who were trying to leave me.
The shabby people in their worn-out clothes looked back at me with hopeless eyes.
Under the gaze of all of them, I slowly
climbed onto the wreckage of the smashed and collapsed free soup kitchen.
Everyone looked at me.
In this moment,
the path to Hell,
the wrath of the goddess,
the authority of Asmodeus inside my body,
all of it was completely forgotten.
I felt only one thing.
Wrath.
It was nothing but wrath.
Fine.
I would admit it.
My eroge skills couldn't resolve the current situation.
But you factory owners,
there was one thing you didn't know.
I didn't just have eroge skills; I was also a reincarnator.
I applied Body Modification to my body to increase my vocal volume.
And I shouted with all my might, pouring out my pent-up fury.
"A specter is haunting the empire!!!!"