Ch.53Holy Maiden Commotion (4)

I was mistaken.

I made a huge mistake.

When the angels rushed toward the soldiers, it wasn’t meant for martyrdom.

“Where… did you say your name was Jeanne?”

Swooosh—

‘Ugh…!’

Jeanne stares in a daze as countless golden fireflies attach themselves to Claude’s body.

His body is completely covered in golden light, yet strangely, his face and form remain clearly visible.

Never before has anyone had so many angels attached to them—not even me.

And it’s not just the angels; the aura emanating from that person—no, that noble being—is something I’ve never seen before.

It’s completely unfamiliar, yes, an aura that doesn’t belong to this world. It even radiates a holiness that can’t be compared to the angels.

Ah… I see… That’s it.

Drip—

“…Huh?”

Yes, this person… I was meant to meet this person…

Good, from now on I’ll live for this person. It’s the will of the angels and my own will. God, thank you.

To stay by this person’s side, protect the faith, and send all non-believers and hypocrites to hell—that is my dest…iny?

‘Wait?’

While praying to God in her heart and resolving her future life, Jeanne notices something and feels confused.

She was so distracted by the aura emanating from that noble person that she didn’t immediately notice, but the room is filled with not only sacred energy but also a high concentration of revolting energy.

The sacred energy disperses into the air and immediately vanishes like smoke, and even lone angels instantly lose their golden glow.

Come to think of it, even before entering this room, I felt an unpleasant sensation throughout the castle.

‘What on earth—’

“—Mmph?!”

Gulp—

As Jeanne looks around in confusion, she is immediately seized by terrible nausea upon seeing the two women, Chloe and Ines.

Not just her body, but her soul—everything that constitutes Jeanne—goes beyond rejection to utter revulsion toward those two.

‘What… what… what… what…!’

Disgusting.

So disgusting.

She has never seen people so revolting that they make her want to vomit.

Though she has killed many demons posing as clergy, the aura emanating from those demons was never this bad. They simply emitted an unpleasant black mist.

But the aura emanating from these two women is… yes, like sticky mud. Mud made from weathered corpses soaked with rotten black blood.

‘Conscience… human transgressions…’

The more Jeanne looks at that mud, the more information she gains about the “entities” called Chloe and Ines, as if receiving a divine revelation.

These two… commit murder without remorse for personal gain, enjoy inflicting pain on others, possess a well of desire that never diminishes… and except for that one person, they don’t see anyone else as human beings.

Aaaaaaaaaah—!

“Hic… hiik…”

Countless faces form in the mud emanating from Chloe and Ines, and all those faces scream in the same desperate agony. If they had physical bodies, their throats would be torn from screaming so intensely.

Seeing this, Jeanne trembles and instinctively realizes that these faces belong to victims sacrificed by the two witches.

So… so many sacrifices… innocent lambs…

“…? Hey, the Duke is speaking—”

Thud—

“UWEEEEEEHHH!!!”

After waiting for Jeanne to respond with no answer, Chloe gets slightly annoyed and places her hand on Jeanne’s head.

At that moment, Jeanne violently expels everything in her stomach as if she’d been waiting for this. Her body is having a rejection response to the intensely evil aura.

Despite having eaten only minimal food while in captivity, the amount of regurgitated food is overwhelming.

“Hyaaack!?”

“Ugh…!”

Chloe, who witnesses this up close, lets out a short scream in a cute voice, while Ines, who is further away, grimaces and clings to Claude. Hearing this makes Jeanne feel even more disgusted.

Such wicked witches… trying to seduce him, no, the Saint, by pretending to be cute…!

“Disgusting creatures…!”

Yes, now I understand.

The reason why the angels rushed toward those soldiers.

God has… ordered me to save the Saint.

……….

“…What?”

The situation is changing so rapidly that it’s hard to understand.

Jeanne is crying, then laughing, then horrified, then disgusted, and now filled with hatred. Has she gone mad?

“…What kind of language is that, how dare a witch like you—”

“The witch is… YOUUUUU!!!”

“Ugh?!”

Chloe, who was trying to correct Jeanne’s disrespectful tone, stumbles backward in shock as Jeanne rises with a terrible scream.

Jeanne’s face is filled with nothing but hostility and disgust, and her voice is full of anger and religious fervor.

Chloe feels a physiological rejection and wonders why she’s receiving such treatment from Jeanne, whose emotions are rapidly changing.

Clank—!!

“Urgh…!?”

Although her blindfold and gag have been removed, the restraints binding Jeanne’s limbs remain in place.

Jeanne’s momentum is halted by the shackles binding her arms and legs.

Crack-crack-crack—

“How dare… HOW DAAAARE!!”

“W-what… what’s wrong with her…”

But Jeanne twists her body forcefully and slowly moves forward. Even though she knows very well that she cannot reach Chloe unless the shackles are removed.

The skin and flesh in contact with the shackles are completely scraped away, and her joints are stretched to their limits.

Chloe feels a strange unease as she watches Jeanne charging at her with bloodshot eyes. Her previous confidence has completely vanished.

“Heheh, Chloe. Getting scared of something like—”

“You too… you too…!”

“—Huh?”

Jeanne’s gaze now turns toward Ines, who swallows slightly in surprise as she receives the hate-filled stare.

Although Ines has received many hateful glares from her playthings throughout her life, Jeanne’s is fundamentally different from those of her toys.

It’s not the feeling of being cursed after death, but literally a murderous intent filled with hatred that feels like she would kill her right here and now.

Despite knowing very well that Jeanne cannot move due to her restraints, having handled many such devices before, Ines instinctively flinches.

“Enough!!”

Claude, unable to stand it anymore, shouts loudly.

Chloe’s frightened voice, Ines’s fearful voice, and Jeanne’s hate-filled voice are all instantly drowned out by Claude’s shout.

A few seconds after the shout, the same quietness as before returns to the room.

“…Jeanne.”

“Yes, yes… Saint…”

“…Saint? Never mind.”

Claude momentarily wonders why Jeanne suddenly calls him a saint, but that wonder quickly dissipates like fog.

It’s only natural. Crazy people draw conclusions without any basis. Trying to converse with a crazy person only leads to one’s own disadvantage.

“Chloe, come here.”

“Y-yes… brother.”

Claude calls Chloe, who is still standing dumbfounded near Jeanne.

Having never seen her brother so angry before, Chloe snaps back to reality and returns to Claude with quick steps.

“No, don’t…!”

Seeing this, Jeanne lets out an even more desperate scream.

A witch like that clinging to the Saint is something that should never happen. The Saint’s holiness will be contaminated by that filthy mud.

“Tsk… I need to get her out of here first.”

Claude clicks his tongue and shakes his head as he sees Jeanne’s constricted pupils.

His intuition was wrong.

He had arranged this meeting because he felt they needed to meet… but she turned out to be just a complete lunatic.

I should call another servant to take her away—

“Another world!!”

“…What?”

Seeing Claude’s hand move toward the bell on the table, Jeanne realizes that she’ll be separated from the Saint if things continue like this, so she squeezes out her last words, causing Claude to flinch and stop.

“What did you say?”

Another world… did she say?

Something feels off about dismissing this as just the ravings of a mad woman. Especially when Jeanne’s eyes, filled with madness, are staring directly at me as she mentions another world.

‘Good… good… keep going… keep going like this…’

Having confirmed that she stopped Claude’s action, Jeanne inwardly rejoices that her choice was correct and continues speaking.

“S-Saint… you are… a Saint from… another world…”

“…”

Claude looks at Jeanne with suspicious eyes.

He’s wondering whether she’s just spouting random nonsense or if she has truly seen through his identity.

“Saint… Saint should kill those two— ugh…!”

Jeanne, who was about to advise the Saint to kill the two witches, suddenly swallows her words.

She finally notices the red threads that bind the three of them together—threads that only appear between married couples. The brilliant aura and the disgusting aura had obscured these threads until now.

“…Those two what?”

“N-nothing… I just… wanted to say that one should only marry one person…”

“…”

Instinctively realizing that if she recklessly insisted on killing the witches, she would be the one in trouble, Jeanne changed her words, and hearing this, Claude sharply inhales.

I could understand if it were Ines, but how did this woman so naturally perceive my relationship with Chloe?

Servants and attendants might notice, but an outsider like Jeanne shouldn’t be able to tell…

‘I need to talk with her a bit more.’