Ch.494What the hell is this?

[What is this…? A dream? No, it doesn’t seem like a dream…? Then is this some sorcery showing me hallucinations?]

Hersella, who had suddenly awakened, muttered in a dumbfounded voice.

Yes, it’s understandable to be shocked. I would have doubted my own eyes too.

After falling asleep from exhaustion in front of the storm summoned by Cardinal Lübitz, she finally woke up… only to see naked people bathed in golden light performing aerial spins.

Thinking back on it now, it was truly an outrageous situation.

For a brief moment, he had taken control of my body, and he had completely hidden the fact that he’d reached Hero rank, only to reveal it in the most unexpected way.

I was genuinely shocked at that time.

What’s worse, I suffered quite a bit because he used up all the power of the Karma of Murder and then fell asleep without a care.

‘You seem to have slept quite soundly. You still look half-asleep. Unfortunately, this isn’t a hallucination but reality. Very vivid reality.’

[You call this reality…? No, if so, what on earth are you doing? And where is this place?]

‘Well, perhaps hell?’

I blew cigarette smoke into the air and pulled the reins to the side, sharply turning the carriage.

“Kuaaaargh!”

“Ugeeeeek!”

People who were hit by the side of the carriage flew like a joke and crashed into the walls of buildings.

[Hell? What nonsense… Wait, don’t tell me you were pathetically defeated by a mere sorcerer? …No, that’s still strange. Even if you were defeated, there’s no way you would fall into hell.]

I got an unexpected response to what was meant to be a light joke.

Hmm. Does she think it’s natural for her to go to hell, but not me?

‘…It was a joke. Lübitz’s head exploded long ago, and this is an entirely different city. A lot has happened while you were sound asleep.’

Yes… truly a lot of things.

Like Arad’s demonstration, the Stigmata, Ceylon…

…When will I have time to explain all this?

[Among those many things, did drug use happen to be included…?]

Perhaps shocked by the sight of the carriage running over five people at once without stopping, Hersella’s voice trembled like parents who had discovered a forearm-sized fake phallus in their daughter’s room.

She seems unable to believe that the scene before her eyes is real…

Well, I’ll just have to explain it roughly.

‘How could that be? To explain simply, this is enemy territory, and those flying people are residents brainwashed by the enemy. We’re currently charging toward the enemy’s stronghold, knocking away those who block our path. Does that make sense?’

It was a perfect summary.

Even I was impressed with myself.

[You call that an explanation? More importantly, what kind of people strip others naked in the middle of winter? Truly disgusting.]

That’s right. Come to think of it, it is winter now.

Do brainwashed people not feel the cold?

‘Why are you acting surprised? Isn’t this a familiar sight to you?’

Naked men and women—she must have seen plenty when leading warriors to pillage villages.

[Even if it’s familiar, it doesn’t make it any less disgusting. I might understand battle and slaughter, but did you think I would approve of such violation?]

I wonder. Didn’t you used to say that the weak being violated was only natural?

Well… even though she considered women closer to beasts than humans, they were still women, so perhaps she didn’t particularly enjoy such sights.

‘Oh, really? If you say so, then I guess that’s how it is.’

I didn’t feel like pressing the issue.

In fact, this wasn’t the time for it.

“Enemy attack! That golden holy light! It’s a paladin of Astraea!”

“Aim for the ground! Overturn the carriage!”

As things had reached this point, the enemies seemed to notice us and began emerging from alleys here and there.

Cultists.

They wore stolen paladin armor that didn’t suit them at all, but their hideously distorted faces were so ugly that one might wonder if their mothers had failed at abortion.

There were five of them in total. Three seemed to have learned some magic and were chanting unintelligible spells, while the remaining two drew longswords.

Are they insane? How do they plan to stop a charging carriage with just a sword? They’re not even Masters.

“Well, well, look who we have here, you sons of bitches!”

I nodded to Ceylon and pulled out a dagger from my pocket, throwing it at the cultist furthest back.

– Thwack!

The dagger shot like lightning and penetrated between the legs of the cultist who was gathering mana.

There was no way the black iron dagger I threw could be blocked by mere steel armor. The iron plate covering his groin was completely crushed and torn away, shredding everything between his legs.

“Gweeeeeek!”

With a bizarre scream, the cultist began birthing his intestines through the gaping hole below.

They still had two mages left, but not for long.

– Swaaaack!

Two arrows flew from the top of the wall.

With a sound like cannon fire, shredded flesh scattered in all directions.

Millia’s greatbow arrows cleanly blew away the lower bodies of the cultists who were chanting spells.

The cultists who lost their lower bodies spun around while spilling their contents, and the one castrated by my dagger collapsed forward.

“Jack-! Hans!”

“Fucking hell…!”

When the three mages were neutralized in an instant, the men with longswords turned around in shock—

– Splaaaash!

They collided with the approaching carriage and burst like water balloons.

I had cast protection miracles for ordinary residents just before collision, but there was no reason to bestow such grace on these bastards.

Blood and chunks of flesh overflowed on the barrier of holy light.

[Who are these idiots? It’s embarrassing to even call them enemies.]

Hersella, who had been bewildered by her inability to understand the situation just moments ago, seemed to have calmed down at the sight of corpses and blood, her voice now composed.

‘That’s how these vermin are.’

These guys are mere cannon fodder. Losers used to fill numbers. Even if we brought Hush here, he could chop them all to pieces in twenty seconds and still have time to spare.

The real forces must be stationed inside the cathedral.

—-

“It’s a high paladin! Definitely a high paladin! Inform them!”

“How did they withstand the Trance Formation?!”

As we got closer to the cathedral, the frequency of enemies appearing increased. Like cockroaches crawling out of damp holes, cultists revealed themselves one by one.

I handed the reins completely to Ceylon and took out my bow to castrate all the armored bastards.

Occasionally, some would use city residents as human shields, but Millia’s arrows, shot at clever angles, accurately pierced and exploded only the enemies’ heads.

“The wall! There’s an archer hiding on the wall! We need to eliminate him first!”

Some cultists broke away from the group and ran toward the wall while hiding behind cover.

It was a stupid choice. Even if they reached there with such poor skills, they would just become meat chunks in Demian’s hands.

“Lord Haschal! How much further to the cathedral!”

“We’re almost there! Prepare for battle! Lacy and Agnes, cast mental defense!”

I answered Nigel’s question loudly and put down the empty quiver in the corner of the driver’s seat.

My head was starting to throb, and it seemed the brainwashing power definitely grew stronger as we approached the cathedral.

Or perhaps it was because some time had passed since we entered the city.

[…What is this unpleasant feeling? Similar to when fighting that insect witch… And strangely, the left side of my chest feels hot.]

‘It’s the brainwashing power they’ve deployed. Earlier, I was completely caught in it and almost ended up spending my life bearing their children.’

That would certainly have happened without the Stigmata.

My mana resistance wasn’t enough to withstand their power.

[What did you just say…? Brainwashing? Children?]

“O Elpinel, your servant beseeches you—”

“O Menes, like the light of the full moon rising in the night sky, grant us your clear blessing—”

Just as Hersella was about to argue, Lacy and Agnes cast the miracle of mental protection once more.

Two streams of holy light illuminated the inside of the carriage and spread outward. My confused mind instantly cleared, and the warning pain from the heated Stigmata gradually subsided.

[What on earth have you been doing while I was asleep? If I fall asleep twice more, I might wake up with a husband and children!]

‘……’

…I might not have a husband, but I did get something like a lover.

It’s only a nominal lover, actually more like an obedient dog of a subordinate.

[And what was that pain just now? It felt like a burn… how should I put it, like being branded with a hot iron.]

‘Oh, that? It’s the Stigmata. Look.’

I slightly pulled at the bandage on my chest and glanced down at the golden scale Stigmata. Hersella must have seen it clearly too, since she shares my vision.

I wanted her to be as shocked as I was.

[……Huh?]

As I hoped, Hersella was so shocked at the sight of the Stigmata that she seemed to lose her soul.

[Wh-what is this? Stigmata? No. Like that white-haired woman? On my body? Why?]

Just from her dumbfounded voice, I could tell how surprised she was.

It was a tone that had lost all composure, as much as when her childhood claims of being the incarnation of the Sky Wolf or the Heavenly Horse were exposed.

‘The Goddess of Justice in heaven has favored me and bestowed this Stigmata. I’ve become the goddess’s representative, in a sense. Isn’t that amazing?’

[Justice? Goddess? Representative…?]

Hersella repeated my words like a parrot.

Despite the blood storm raging all around us, her reaction was so amusing that I couldn’t help but smile.

If she had a body, she would probably be gaping like a goldfish and tilting her head in confusion.

[…I see. So it was a dream after all. This ruffian becoming a saint—such a reality couldn’t exist unless the whole world had gone mad. What an absurd dream.]

In the end, Hersella chose to deny reality and close her eyes.

But once awakened, her consciousness wouldn’t fall back asleep.