episode_0004

004 – Unlucky Priest #4

“What the fuck!”

Nomad couldn’t sleep at all.

It was clear that if he slept, he would forget to breathe, and if he couldn’t breathe, he would fall into eternal sleep.

In this painful situation, Nomad remembered the unfamiliar man’s words.

“… curse. okay! He said he was casting a curse of awareness!”

The man in the dark called this a curse.

Fortunately, since this was a monastery in its own way, there were many ways to curse.

“I don’t know what kind of guy he is, but he cast a hex on me. He’s such a fool! As soon as you get better, I will catch you and hang you!”

Nomad hurriedly ran out of the room in search of “holy water,” which was most effective against hexes and curses.

He headed to the chapel and was startled the moment he found a bowl of holy water on the dark platform.

“What, it’s all muddy water!?”

The holy water was already contaminated with dirt and was bubbling for some reason.

Same goes for other water bottles.

No matter how much divine power Nomad, a veteran priest with 20 years of experience as a monk, used, the water did not become clear.

Is there anyone in the world who could pollute holy water to this extent?

If it exists, it is only something that bears the name of mortal sin.

“Ah… Ah!”

Nomad ended up losing his mind due to this ominous appearance and the reality that even breathing was difficult.

“It’s the devil!!! A devil appeared in the monastery!!! The devil has polluted the holy water!!! As predicted by the crescent moon witches, the devil has appeared in the world!!!”

Nomad, whose tension was at its peak, dropped the holy water on the floor and stumbled.

Kuung-.

The candlestick placed on the sermon podium fell to the floor due to the impact of colliding with Nomad.

When the candle flame touched the holy water that soaked the floor, the heat rose like a flame poured with oil.

Grumbling! Crack, crack, crack, crackle!

A chapel suddenly engulfed in flames.

“No! My monastery! My everything! no! How did I get to this point! How can I! Heo, heo, heo!”

Nomad flapped his clothes to put out the fire, but the bright red flames went beyond the chapel and engulfed everything in Emiris Monastery.

When the monks hurriedly woke up and found the chapel, the Nomad was screaming like a half-lost madman.

“It’s the devil… ! The devil… ! Puccino… There is a devil… ! As prophesied, the devil… ! Send Jeon Seo-gu to the Crescent Moon Sisters! Jeonseo-gu! The devil… Inhale and exhale… ! Huh! ”

Puccino, the monk director, was on the verge of losing his mind as he watched the crazy Nomad sending the pigeons in the cage flying in all directions.

“Bishop─No, Director! Come to your senses! What about breathing? What is inhalation and exhalation? Huh, huh, huh… !?”

Director Puccino caressed his neck and chest.

I guess it was strange.

While he was breathing heavily, people who woke up shouted.

“Fire! Boo, fire! It’s fire!”

“Everyone wake up! Turn off the lights! Turn off the lights! Contact the city!”

People were busy pouring water into wooden bowls.

# # #

“Bull?”

As I was testing my divine power with holy water in my room, I felt very puzzled when I saw the monks busily pumping well water.

The heat that quickly spread throughout the monastery was so hot that I frowned as I felt like my face would get burned.

“This is why people cannot live after committing sins. If you commit a crime, you will have to pay this price.”

In my opinion, this Monastery of Emiris was condemned. They’re deceiving people, exploiting their labor, and colluding with cultists, so it’s worth burning.

There are so many heretics who have colluded with some kind of cult near sodomy in this city.

From the beginning, it was clear that since I was practicing in a place like a den of sin, I was unable to concentrate and did not accumulate divine power.

Now that things are like this, training will have to be done somewhere else.

“… … .”

As I looked up at the sky, I saw the North Star shining particularly brightly and something seemed to flash in my mind.

“Now that you think about it, there is a place a little north that is perfect for training. If you go there, you might be able to learn the prayer on the gold plate.”

Cathedral of the city of Durgien.

The owner of the place was Archbishop Archibald, a gold-plated priest.

I started to feel better about going to see him.

I remembered that when I was forced to invade the royal capital, Archbishop Durgien fiercely fought against a group of cultists.

In particular, I remembered the fact that the vicious Sin See Ras was angry and said, “Archbishop Durgien, I really want to kill that bastard with my own hands.”.

I have never met the man in person, but judging from the fact that Lass the Madwoman hated him, the archbishop was a very good man of faith.

“I want to meet you. I need a great teacher.”

The believers, including me, are like sheep and each tries to go his own way, so we need a good shepherd.

This was the reason why I could not live my religious life alone.

In this life, which I obtained thanks to the Holy Grail, I wanted to meet the deeply religious archbishop in person, talk about faith, consult on various things, eat together, and have him as a religious teacher and colleague.

If you do well, you might stand out and become his disciple.

Becoming an archbishop’s disciple meant that one had a solid path to becoming a priest.

If we compare it to the 21st century, it would be like getting a job as a pastor at a large church where you get paid as much as an executive at a large company!

With that feeling in mind, as the day dawned, an investigation team was dispatched from the Durgien region to investigate the truth behind the fire that broke out at the monastery.

The leader of the investigation group was a Knights Templar wearing chain mail and a surcoat, and was a woman in her mid to late 20s.

If it had been five years ago, I would have been surprised to see a young woman wearing armor and doing difficult knightly work?

This is a world where the three miracles of “Auror,” “Holy Power,” and “Mana” exist.

If a woman had an aptitude for Aura, divine power, and mana, she could become strong enough to rival a UFC champion.

“The devil took my breath away… Save me… I was wrong… Yo, forgive me… The devil… .”

“Why is this guy in this condition? Devil?”

The female knight frowned when she saw Abbot Nomad, who had become a half-crazy maniac.

It wasn’t just Nomad. Everyone in this monastery was complaining of pain to each other, saying, “I can’t breathe!”

The only one who is sane is me.

A female knight with brown hair neatly tied back and a healthy tanned face asked me, the only sane person in the room.

“You there!”

“Who, me?”

“Yes, you.”

Female knight.

Are you speaking informally?

But originally, all female knights were like that.

Female knights’ pride is as strong as the armor they wear, whether it’s bronze or silver.

“I am Galatea, the Bronze Knight of the Knights Templar. According to the abbot, the devil appeared, started a fire, and polluted the holy water. Is that true? They also say that the devil spread a curse on this monastery?”

“Bronze Knight Galatea.”

I knew quite a few of the knights’ names, but I had never heard of Galatea.

Still, if you are a bronze medalist, you must be a veteran with at least 10 years of experience.

Although she looked simple and pretty with freckles on her face, she was someone you couldn’t let down your guard.

A female knight with a bronze armor that I saw before single-handedly defeated 10 mercenaries with a single sword. In this world, the ‘knights’ were tactical weapons like tanks rather than humans.

I decided to give this prickly-looking human weapon as much as I knew.

“I don’t really know what happened since I joined this monastery not long ago. However, I overheard and know that the abbot was in communication with the cult members of the “Crescent Sisters.””

Female knight Galatea opened her brown eyes wide as if she was greatly surprised by my answer.

“The Crescent Sisters? With those evil and cruel witches?”

“Yes. Let’s search through the burned remains. The Sisters of the Crescent Moon and their followers leave traces by stamping their palms in blood. If it hasn’t burned, it’s probably stored somewhere.”

“Really? okay! The story about the blood plate was famous!”

Sze-.

As the driver gestured, the men who appeared to be his servants began rummaging through the burned remains of the building.

They soon found a safe that was strong enough to survive fire. It was a safe that seemed too sturdy to be in this old, secluded monastery.

Kang-!

When Knight Galatea struck the lock of the safe with her sword, the door flew open.

Chrrr-.

It was so full of rolled up letters that it was spilling out.

The story was that the “Crescent Sisters” used the monks like servants. Also, like I said, there were a lot of papers with blood stamps made with the palm of one’s hand.

“You damned bastards! Who would have thought that the reach of society would spread to such a remote place! I’ll have to take him to the church for further investigation. Before that, I want to investigate the curse that made them crazy… .”

Galatea touched the nape of the neck of the men who were having trouble breathing.

Susss-.

For a moment, I hope that my hands, which look rough for a woman, shine with white divine power.

Galatea, the brown-haired bronze knight, clicked her tongue.

“I can’t feel any traces of the magical power that should have been used in the curse and hex techniques. There is no sign of a curse. Since it is not a curse, it cannot be healed with holy water or blessings.”

That’s not a curse.

Because my “Curse of Awareness” is just a trick like a play on words.

But I decided to pretend like I didn’t know anything.

“Isn’t the cause of the fire causing damage to the respiratory system? The respiratory system is delicate and vulnerable to heat, so it seems like you can’t breathe.”

Female knight Galatea nodded, saying “there is indeed a point to my opinion”.

Then, I took a water bottle from my waist and removed the cap.

“Then why is this holy water so polluted? Holy water with boiling bubbles. I’ve been a nun for 10 years and a knight for 5 years, but I’ve never heard of it.”

“… I really don’t know what happened.”

I really don’t know either.

No matter how much divine power was poured into it, the muddy holy water was not purified and only boiled over.

“I see. It smells strange too… It smells like… Hmm… It smells… Very strange… .”

Female knight Galatea put her nose to a leather water bottle containing contaminated holy water and continued to smell it. What on earth does it smell like?

As I looked at her nervously, Galatea cleared her throat and looked away with her healthy, tanned face slightly blushing.

“Keuhm, I will take the detailed ingredients to the church and inspect them in detail myself. Anyway, capture the heretics and take them to the interrogation center!”

Soon, ropes were tied tightly around the bodies of Abbot Nomad, Puccino, and their henchmen.

They were all monks who had been exposed for having pledged their loyalty to the “Sisters of the Crescent Moon.”

I couldn’t hold back my anger at the fact that I had almost been fooled by them, so I screamed and beat them up.

“You dream of becoming a priest but collude with a cult! Hey, you bastards who will be punished!”

How dare you try to sell me as a sacrifice to a cult.

“You brood of vipers! How can a priest fall into the path of a cult! These bastards deserve to be punished! Hell will be waiting for you! Nomad, you only get two!”

“Ugh! Ugh! Well, stop it! Hey!”

I was extremely angry, but after yelling for a while, I felt a little better. But my hands hurt a lot. Hitting someone with a fist is not something everyone can do.

Knight Galatea seemed quite moved by seeing me so indignant.

“Monk Hyde! Thanks to your accusation, we were able to catch all the apostates! I just heard from your servants that you were the one who accused Nicola, the villainess of sodomy, and Bluebeard Paltman of heresy?”

“Has that already become a rumor?”

As I sheepishly scratched the back of my head, Galatea looked back and forth between the burned ashes and me with a very pitiful expression.

“So, Monk Hyde. What do you plan to do next when your place has burned down? Let me know if there is anything I can help you with. If there is heavenly punishment, shouldn’t there be good luck?”

You’re helping me?