Ch.523Episode 19 – HELLDIVERS

Trials come to everyone at some point.

Whether it’s oversleeping and missing an exam you prepared for all year because you stayed up all night, or approaching a group project deadline with teammates who are nowhere to be found.

Some trials may be entirely your own responsibility, while others might be caused by external factors like other people or simple bad luck.

However, one thing must always be remembered.

Regardless of whether the cause of your trial is external or internal.

The person who bears the responsibility is none other than yourself.

“……”

I grab my foggy head as I get up and look around.

A bedsheet crumpled and pushed to one side, a stale taste in my mouth. The bedroom scene that had remained in the dim dawn light had changed quite significantly.

“…Ahem.”

Lucia sits awkwardly on the edge, deliberately avoiding eye contact.

“Uh, um….”

Unlike her usual self, Veronica is unable to utter a word.

And then.

“…You’re awake?”

Francesca stands with her arms crossed, looking out the window.

Though I’ve just woken up, it doesn’t take long to grasp the situation.

Which is why I can accept reality with detachment and.

Begin speaking in a calm tone.

“Have mercy on me.”

Episode 19 – HELLDIVERS

The morning that greeted the four people was nothing short of a vividly hellish experience.

A woman wakes up to find two strange figures lying beside her. Viewed simply, this might be a scene from a crime thriller or horror film, but what if the woman had been intimate with a man until dawn the previous day, and the two strangers were other women who were close to her?

This would surely not be a horror movie with a killer in a cheap plastic mask stabbing victims with a knife, but rather a bizarre comedy that would make one’s head spin just from hearing the brief plot.

And that’s exactly what it was.

“…?”

Francesca, upon waking, couldn’t gather her thoughts for a while as she saw the two women lying beside her. Understandably so—she had fallen asleep after having a good time, only to find two naked women in her bed.

It was like being struck hard on the head with a hammer. That’s why she could only sit there, covering herself with the blanket while looking around in confusion.

But this was just the beginning.

Barely a minute after Francesca woke up, the two holy maidens opened their eyes.

“…Huh?”

Veronica, who had been in deep sleep oblivious to the world, felt dizzy the moment she woke up.

She was certain she had returned to her own bedroom, yet somehow she found herself facing her adoptive sister.

For reference, she was a person (criminal) who had committed both breaking and entering and fornication. The same applied to Lucia.

The two criminals who woke up together became frozen in place, unable to think of excuses, escape, or even cover themselves.

“Sister and Holy Maiden… Why are you in my bedroom…?”

Veronica and Lucia stared blankly at Francesca, who had awakened first. Likewise, Francesca stared back at them with a dazed expression.

It was an awkward triangle of discomfort and bewilderment.

How much time had passed? Just as Veronica, finally coming to her senses, was trying to break the awkwardness with something like “S-sister?”,

Francesca’s spinning mind presented her with a plausible hypothesis: “infidelity.”

Of course, the truth always exceeded her expectations.

High ideals, gutter reality.

“So you’re telling me that my sister was caught spying on my bedroom by the Officer, and not only that, but she slept with him right next to me? And even dragged in Holy Maiden Lucia?”

“…Yes.”

With each layer of truth peeled away like an onion skin, the blood grew colder. Frederick nodded, rubbing his cold palms against his pants.

After asking the question, Francesca immediately turned her gaze to Veronica and Lucia. Her eyes seemed to ask if this was true, though she looked slightly dazed.

The two couldn’t meet her eyes.

Watching this, Francesca’s expression was hard to describe—whether it was pale with shock or simply aghast.

In any case, she appeared dizzy and disoriented.

Of course, the one who was truly dizzy and disoriented was Frederick.

“But why did you, Officer, with my sister…?”

All sins were about to be exposed in detail (his own fault). For Frederick, this was worse than a “joint meeting with three daughters-in-law” (which it wasn’t).

“…Just when exactly did the three of you become… like this?”

Faced with the question from the descendant of the great mage, the spy fell into deep contemplation. How could he overcome this predicament?

Though his tone feigned composure as usual, it felt like failing to answer quickly would bring great trouble.

And naturally, he needed to choose his answer carefully. It was like climbing one mountain only to find another, an endless series of challenges.

He pondered and pondered. But no good answer came to mind.

So Frederick had no choice but to open his reluctant mouth and let out a sigh like a deep worry.

“Before and after meeting you.”

“…?”

Hearing his answer, Francesca blinked with an expression that suggested she didn’t understand, or more precisely, that her brain couldn’t process the language.

As her brilliant mind stuttered like it was buffering, an explanation added a beat later completely dispelled her confusion.

“I met Lucia before meeting you… and Veronica after meeting you.”

The moment those words ended, the atmosphere in the room became like…

A vacuum.

*

Whether heaven helped or abandoned them, fortunately, the bloody tragedy everyone feared did not occur.

No Frederick with his head cut off floating on a small boat,

No one slicing open someone else’s belly with a knife,

No one throwing gauntlets at each other’s faces before engaging in a battle royale to determine a single winner, and so on.

In other words, the time of karmic retribution that everyone except Frederick had been waiting for never came.

The reason was simple.

Francesca, being a noble, did not love such uncivilized and base pleasure-seeking actions (professionally termed “private sanctions”).

“Please leave.”

Even after Frederick confessed his infidelity with “Yes, yes. I committed adultery. So what are you going to do about it?” (he never actually said this), she merely issued a polite eviction order.

In that she didn’t make a decision swayed by emotion, Francesca’s eviction order was truly befitting of nobility.

Or perhaps she had been so battered by the obscene scene and shocking truth that she was unable to make a normal judgment.

To be bluntly honest, Francesca’s decision had little to do with noble dignity or anything of the sort. She was simply in such a dazed state that she couldn’t do anything else.

(If Francesca, upon waking to find her adoptive sisters and colleague naked beside her, and immediately learning that she had been the other woman for months, had without a moment’s hesitation stabbed the man in the stomach, the Magic Tower’s prosecutors and court would have seriously recommended psychiatric counseling for her)

Anyway.

Whatever her feelings, it was clear that she was experiencing great confusion.

To this end, psychological counseling expert and adultery suspect Holy Veronica suggested “Sister? Shall we talk for a moment…?” But sadly, the descendant of the great mage firmly rejected the offer.

Not stopping there, she even expelled the two holy maidens.

That’s why the three human degenerates obsessed with infidelity were driven out of the bedroom in a row.

“……”

“……”

“……”

The sight of the three humans pushed out the door in succession was truly ridiculous.

A comedy from afar, and an even funnier comedy up close.

“What should we do now…?”

Veronica, standing there blankly, suddenly asked. Her gaze fixed on Frederick.

Lucia beside her also began to direct her gaze at him. While outwardly it might seem enviable to receive the attention of two holy maidens, if the world knew their true nature, people might have thrown stones at the three of them, shouting, “Wooo- you garbage people!”

Under the weight of their stares, Frederick had to move his lips.

Of course, merely fidgeting with his lips wouldn’t transform his lame excuse into something sophisticated. He began with a sigh like a deep worry.

“…I suppose I should look for a lawyer first.”

“Are you worried about being sued?”

“No.”

As two pairs of eyes colored with puzzlement, Frederick briefly added.

“I need to get my will notarized in advance.”