Ch.493The Road Is Quite Wide.

I and Hush kidnapped… no, rescued a woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties.

Like the other residents, she was completely naked without a thread of clothing, and the traces of carnal acts all over her body were pitiful to see.

It sent a chill down my spine thinking that we could have ended up like this too if we weren’t careful.

I took a blanket from my bag and covered the woman’s naked body, while Lacy, with a face full of sympathy, cast the Church of Elpinel’s mental protection miracle, “White Night,” to break the brainwashing that had been placed on the woman.

Perhaps the longer one stayed in the city, the stronger the brainwashing effect became. Unlike with us, it took quite some time to work.

“It’s terrible… They’ve almost completely overlaid her entire personality. She’ll be fine while the blessing of White Night continues, but once the blessing wears off, she’ll immediately revert to her original state.”

“You mean there’s no way to fix it?”

That would be truly the worst news.

In truth, even if we broke the brainwashing spell, I didn’t think these people could return to normal lives.

They would live hellish lives, carrying these terrible memories.

Those who couldn’t endure might give up on life altogether.

Perhaps, then, living in a brainwashed state might be a happier ending for them.

At least they wouldn’t have to suffer from mental anguish.

However, this was a meaningless assumption.

Not removing the brainwashing would mean maintaining an entire city as an orgy venue, and others in the Holy State would never allow that.

The Holy State would likely choose to “purify” them to prevent them from being stained by further sin.

…Even if they didn’t burn them all to death, they would probably isolate them in sealed wards for the rest of their lives.

“It’s not impossible to treat. However, complete recovery would require a very long time. The only way to treat such deeply rooted brainwashing is to recreate the original personality as clearly as possible and then implant it over the brainwashed one, essentially covering it up in reverse.”

So covering the original personality over the overlaid one?

It was a bizarre method, typical of the Holy State, but perhaps I should be grateful that there was any treatment at all.

—-

“Ah… Aaah… AAAAAAHHHHH!”

The woman who regained consciousness screamed while frantically scratching her body, as if suddenly remembering everything she had experienced.

Bloodshot eyes. Tears flowing like waterfalls and a face contorted in agony. A body convulsing and bleeding.

It was a bitter and terrible seizure, as if her very soul was being twisted, broken, and shattered.

Leonore grabbed the woman’s arms to prevent her self-harming behavior, while Lacy and Agnes poured holy light and offered words of comfort, trying their best to calm her down.

It took thirty minutes before the woman, who had been wailing like a vengeful ghost rather than a human, finally calmed down.

I felt a sense of guilt trying to question her about Arvil while she was sobbing with all vitality drained from her, but it was something we had to do.

In the end, Lacy took the lead, gently embracing her and carefully coaxing information out of her while comforting her.

Perhaps thanks to the repeated warm consolation, or the holy light that settled around her head.

The woman, who had only been shedding tears, trembled at the corners of her eyes as if revisiting a nightmare, but slowly explained to us what she had experienced.

“…It happened about two weeks ago.”

I took out a new cigarette and listened carefully to the story she told.

—-

Until two weeks ago, she said, the residents of Arvil had been living perfectly peaceful daily lives.

Of course, the back alleys were full of prostitutes, and many men frequented them away from prying eyes, but for those not interested in ‘such things,’ it was nothing to worry about.

The pleasure district had been established in Arvil’s back alleys for almost two years, so the city’s residents were already accustomed to it.

It was literally a hotbed of lust and corruption, but since the two churches governing Arvil knowingly allowed it to continue, the residents had no choice but to keep quiet about it.

From the beginning, it wasn’t uncommon to encounter priests in plain clothes while wandering through the pleasure district.

Hearing this, Lacy and Agnes sighed with contempt, as if they found it unbelievable.

Anyway, two weeks ago, a terrible change came to the residents living like that.

“Around sunset… strange tattoos appeared on people’s foreheads… Not everyone had them, only those who had been frequenting ‘that place.’ And then…”

The residents, confused by the suddenly appearing tattoos, stopped what they were doing and scattered throughout the city in silence when the tattoos began to emit a strange light.

Ignoring voices calling them, pushing away hands trying to hold them back.

About twenty minutes later.

Residents positioned throughout the city knelt down, cut open their chests with knives, raised their hands to the sky—

And in the next moment, everything changed.

A massive magic circle appeared in the sky above the city, black light poured down like a waterfall covering the city, and what followed could only be described as a scene from hell.

—-

Common sense changed in an instant.

Women, without exception, had to strip naked and wait for men to choose them, and men also had to be naked and select women they liked to take to secluded places to use.

Regardless of age or status, all city residents acted according to this new common sense.

An Imela paladin who had been patting a boy’s head removed his armor and knelt before the boy, while a nun caring for a bedridden patient exposed herself and mounted the patient. Terrible lust swept through the entire city.

After finishing their first use with the nearest person of the opposite sex, residents went out into the streets and began their crazed daily lives.

Walking around the city naked, living normally, and when chosen by a man, accompanying him and serving him at a suitable location.

Families were dissolved, status lost meaning, and all that remained was primal desire and pleasure.

That was Arvil now.

—-

…So the young couple with a little daughter I saw weren’t a family at all, but complete strangers.

It meant a man who had chosen both a young woman and a little girl was just walking around the streets before carrying out his deed. It made me sick to my stomach.

The woman telling us about the city’s situation began to cry again, perhaps reminded of the shame and pain she had experienced, but she didn’t stop her story.

“…Regular people all went around naked, but… some men kept their clothes on. We thought of them as special… as ‘Special Masters.’ They took over the cathedrals of Saulite and Imela, and occasionally walked the streets taking women they liked back to the cathedrals… What happened to those who were taken… I don’t know that far…”

That was all the woman knew.

‘Special Masters,’ huh. Those must be the cultists behind all this.

It seemed they had taken over the two cathedrals and were desecrating the church members inside, living in debauchery.

Bastards who deserve to be torn apart.

I exchanged glances with Lacy and nodded.

There seemed nothing more to learn, and now that our destination was set, all that remained was to move in.

“Thank you for sharing such painful memories with us. Close your eyes… and rest now. When you wake up, everything will be back to normal.”

Lacy gently comforted the trembling woman, then with Agnes’s help, led her into a dream.

Into a deep sleep from which she wouldn’t wake until everything was over.

—-

After wrapping the sleeping woman in a blanket and laying her down comfortably, we discussed our final assault plan.

How to attack, how to divide our forces. Things like that.

“It’s dangerous to split up inside the city. Even if we divide into just two teams, each would have only one person who can counter the brainwashing.”

If we split the party in half, we’d need to assign Lacy to one team and Agnes to the other.

Ceylon and I might somehow resist, but the others couldn’t withstand the brainwashing spell without those two.

In other words, if the enemy focused on taking down Lacy or Agnes, that team could be wiped out immediately.

“Besides… the closer we get to the enemy, the stronger the spell might become. The shadier the bastards, the more thoroughly they tend to defend their surroundings, right?”

A likely assumption.

The fact that they had set up in the cathedrals meant they had defeated or brainwashed all the priests and paladins there, which suggested that even archbishop-level priests couldn’t resist with mental protection.

In other words, the power of the brainwashing spell around the cathedrals was likely on a completely different level compared to the city’s edge.

I didn’t think Lacy or Agnes would fail to block it, but… just in case, it would be better to keep them together so they could cover for each other if something unexpected happened.

“Indeed… that’s highly likely. We should be careful.”

There were no objections.

The others, who couldn’t properly resist the brainwashing except for Lacy and Agnes, felt even more anxious than I did.

“Right, so let’s do this. First, Millia and Demian—”

I explained the plan I had just come up with to the group.

It wasn’t particularly strategic, just what I thought was the best option.

It was a simple plan.

From what I felt earlier when crossing the walls with Hush, the top of the city walls was outside the influence of the brainwashing spell.

Since the power was manifested through human sacrifice of the controlled residents, this made sense.

The mentally compromised residents couldn’t climb up the walls.

They probably collapsed right in front of the walls, cutting open their chests.

So the spell’s range must be limited to inside the walls.

I ordered Millia to climb the wall and snipe any visible enemies, and I also ordered Demian to move with her to protect her from possible ambushes.

I advised them never to go down inside the walls and to drink holy water and escape outside if they sensed anything suspicious.

Hush also remained in the reserve group.

He wasn’t much help in direct combat, and being half-black and half-demon, Lacy’s miracles didn’t work well on him.

At best, keeping him next to Millia would make him useful as a radar to detect approaching threats.

I originally planned to leave Lena behind too, but she convinced me that she was the only one who could heal the party while Lacy and Agnes focused on mental defense, so I had no choice but to take her along.

I couldn’t keep Lena away from battles forever, and honestly, she wasn’t wrong.

I put my scale armor, which I usually took off because it was uncomfortable, on Lena and gave her a dagger that wouldn’t be much help but was better than nothing.

“Nigel, don’t leave Lena’s side when combat breaks out. If I were the enemy, I’d target a healer priest who can’t defend herself first.”

“I’ll keep that in mind!”

Having entrusted her protection to the knight I trusted most, Lena wouldn’t be in danger unless the enemies came riding dragons or something.

“Well then… shall we go?”

I climbed onto the driver’s seat with Ceylon, took out a cigarette while looking back at the party members who had completed their battle preparations.

Lacy and Agnes began to pray holding their holy symbols, and Nigel stuck close to Lena with a face full of determination.

Leonore smirked and teased that it was a crazy plan, just like the lady.

A crazy plan just like me? What an impertinent remark.

Lacy has done similar things too, you know?

I nodded to Ceylon sitting beside me, preparing to unleash miracles, and then cracked the reins.

The startled horses neighed loudly and charged toward the breached city wall.

And so, we entered Arvil once again.

—-

– BOOM!

A heavy collision sound. The golden barrier gently vibrates, dispersing the impact in all directions.

“GAAACK!”

“AAAAAAHHH!”

Naked men and women enveloped in holy light spin like tops, performing surreal modern dance.

Their screams fade like echoes as they collide with street stalls, shattering them and scattering wooden fragments.

“KYAAAH! HELP MEEE!”

“RUN AWAAAY! It’s a murder carriage! A murder carriage is coming!”

The brainwashed people screamed and threw themselves sideways to avoid the carriage’s path.

The golden carriage that knocked away everything in sight, continuing its charge without stopping.

Those who couldn’t dodge in time collided with Ceylon’s holy light barrier and bounced away like bowling pins hit by a ball thrown with inhuman strength.

Since Ceylon was casting protection miracles on them, none of the residents who crashed to the ground lost their lives.

Occasionally some suffered broken limbs, but… people are generally fine as long as their necks don’t break. Arms and legs will heal later.

I gripped the reins tightly and smiled with satisfaction, feeling that the plan was working perfectly.

A carriage charge using a holy light barrier. The same tactic I had tried with Lacy when we stormed the Extrashafel Cathedral was unfolding once again.

Good. If we keep going without stopping and crash the carriage into the cathedral…!

[ …What’s this? Am I still dreaming? ]

…At the sudden voice, I almost lost my grip on the reins.