Ch.156156. Helena Valerinus (3)

Normally, when Helena turned her head to look behind her, she would have seen the wings that she had become somewhat accustomed to after carrying them for several days.

They were ideally angelic wings, composed entirely of flawless white feathers and perfectly formed in shape.

Between the feathers, one could subtly feel the sacred energy unique to God’s blessing, with an effect that subtly drew positive attention from people.

No matter how much Helena tried to view them with a twisted perspective, she couldn’t help but be secretly fond of these wings—they had that kind of charm.

They allowed her to glide quickly through the sky or fly freely, and the sacred power inherent in the wings could manipulate their size at will.

Because of this, the wings that Helena had been secretly thinking “if only they weren’t the Evil God’s blessing~” were now───.

‘───?!!!’

Even for someone who had clawed her way up to this position after seeing all manner of horrors, what she saw was so horrific and hideous that she couldn’t even speak.

The wings were made of pink flesh like internal organs, and among the feathers that formed these wings, intact ones were extremely rare.

Ivory-like horns, spines, pink tentacles, blades, scales, and various other things were densely attached, and what feathers remained were tattered and stained with grotesque colors.

And between these things that one hesitated to even call feathers, symbols of living organisms were growing.

There were eyeballs constantly rolling about. There were mouths with sharp teeth growing densely.

Countless sensory organs of all kinds were distorted in a nauseating, bizarre way.

This bizarre appearance was specialized in drawing out unpleasant emotions in humans, and the subtle flow of divinity that contrasted with its appearance amplified this atmosphere even more.

Moreover, these wings with all these attachments were pulsating like a living organism, and as Helena turned her head, the eyeballs rotated to stare at her.

“……..!!”

Helena shuddered from the sudden chill that ran through her entire body, and toward her—the King in Red spoke again with mocking words.

《Look at the roots, the connection.》

Naturally, Helena Valerinus did not want to follow those instructions.

But human psychology being what it is, when you hear such words, curiosity inevitably draws your gaze despite yourself.

So when Helena turned her gaze toward the base of her wings, she couldn’t help but see it.

“W-what is this…?!!”

The wings were attached like a parasite, with tentacle roots that wriggled into her wing bones, just as tree roots would penetrate the soil.

“You! What have you done?!”

The moment she saw it, Helena suddenly felt an intense itching inside her wing bones.

Her breathing became rapid, her body trembled, and rational judgment became impossible.

《What else but a blessing. A blessing. Just like the one you received from that green-haired goddess, the one whose lower half was public property. It’s not much different.》

“What are you……..how dare you speak such blasphemy about the noble goddess!! Compared to the likes of you—”

《—It’s garbage, that’s what.》

When she shouted at the wolf who was looking at her mockingly, ‘Vengeance’ spoke with a gaze that no longer even attempted to hide its derision.

《Don’t tell me you don’t know!! My, how impressive!! To have risen to that position and still not know!》

Obviously, she shouldn’t respond or ask questions about this statement.

The response would inevitably be more sarcastic mockery, thoroughly tainted with deceptive and ugly lies, lies… but were they really lies?

Suddenly, Helena had such a thought.

It was an idea based on intuition rather than logical reasoning.

And she actively trusted her intuition, even if she doubted everything else.

“…What do you mean by that?”

So she asked the question, prepared to hear unpleasant and offensive mockery, but—

《It’s not time yet. It’s too early for you to take the red pill.》

—Contrary to her expectations, the response was serious and calm.

“…Red pill?”

《You don’t need to know yet. Well—that’s all for today.》

With those final words from the King in Red, Helena’s consciousness began to fade.

For someone who still had many questions to ask and things to inquire about, this situation was frustrating, but… what could she possibly do about it?

In her increasingly fading consciousness, Helena’s memory completely cut—

—When Helena Valerinus awoke from a deep sleep and opened her eyes, she suddenly noticed that the inside of the tent was quite bright.

‘The light… I told them to turn it off…’

Having been in a deep sleep due to mental fatigue until just a moment ago, she was still half-asleep as she muttered quietly.

This green tent, made from the skin of heretics (orcs), had special magic applied to it that completely blocked sunlight.

Without internal lighting, the inside would always be as dark as night.

‘Mmm…’

So Helena, feeling the full weight of her fatigue, reached to turn off the light—the eco-friendly lamp that used magical power as fuel…

‘…Huh?’

Suddenly, she became fully awake when she realized that the lamp, the only light source inside this tent designed for confinement, was already turned off.

Why, why was the interior brightly lit even though the lamp was off?

She felt a strong sense of déjà vu in this unidentified situation, and her intuition sent inexplicable warnings.

So Helena, trembling with tension, simultaneously picked up the mirror placed on the table with a shaking heart…

“…Ah?”

In the mirror, Helena was surrounded by a golden halo.

It looked like a ring of light while simultaneously giving off a sacred feeling—a white color infused with gold, the distinctive color of divine power.

There are quite a few divine magic spells that create such halos, but Helena instinctively felt that this halo was different from those created by such magic.

“Are the wings… normal?”

Seeing the angelic wings in the mirror, Helena was secretly relieved and turned her head toward the wings without much thought…

Creeeeak…!

“……..”

That relief proved to be a great misconception,

as was revealed the moment Helena’s eyes fell upon her wings.

Mouths with saliva-coated tongues wriggled, tentacles squirmed, and bulging eyeballs rolled around and pulsated.

Helena desperately hoped for a moment that this was a nightmare, but of course, it was not a nightmare—it was reality.

※ ※ ※

Afterward, the fact that Helena had developed a halo was once again spread in the form of rumors by someone of unknown identity.

Thanks to this, public opinion, which was already bad, completely fell apart, and even the leadership could not just stand by and watch.

Normally, they would have just sacrificed Helena Valerinus, but this time, even the leadership couldn’t do that.

Because of some committee, public opinion toward Helena was far too favorable, and also because of those wings and the halo, it was impossible.

The wings, which appeared angelic to everyone except Helena, had an effect that subtly guided attention and drew interest.

The halo above her head, which couldn’t even be turned off, somehow felt different from a normal halo when one looked at it.

And when combined with Helena’s—or rather, the vague aura that made one feel she was of a different caliber, characteristic of those who had reached the higher realm.

It had reached the point where a new cult worshipping Helena was emerging, so the method the leadership seriously employed to address this issue was—

“She is a heretic!! How could a mortal being have angel wings?!!”

Not just making her a scapegoat, but applying an extreme measure.

They brought in priests to make her a heretic from a doctrinal perspective, then had them encounter Helena while under buffs that increased mental resistance.

“Those wings have the power to bewitch people!”

And to top it all off, with such a declaration, most people would naturally no longer trust Helena, but…

There are fanatics everywhere.

“What nonsense is that!! We strongly condemn this!”

These fanatics, thoroughly armed with illogic, irrationality, and fanaticism, even started an internal rebellion.

However…

With just a few thousand out of 500,000, most of them being low-ranking at that.

The rebellion was quickly suppressed, and Helena suddenly found herself a criminal and imprisoned.

Of course, the leadership, knowing the truth, set aside political games for a while and treated her quite well, at least isolating her from the outside.

However… the problem was that the mind of Helena, who was receiving this consideration, was completely devastated.

The wings were invading her, pressure was coming from all directions, and the social position she had desperately built up had all but disappeared in an instant.

And around the time when Helena Valerinus had become so devastated.

《Choose.》

The King in Red approached her once again.