episode_0053

The succubus, having finished drafting the contract, quickly vanished.

“Are we really just letting her go like that?”

“It’s fine.”

“Her horn is still here, and breaking the contract means death.”

If she doesn’t uphold her end, she dies.

If she does but we don’t return the horn, she dies.

A refreshingly simple contract.

“So once the job’s done, we give the horn back?”

“We’ll have to.”

Because if we don’t, she dies.

“And that’s it?”

“Of course not.”

Right now, she’s just a candidate for the Four Heavenly Kings,

but if left alone, she’ll get promoted and block our path.

And we’re supposed to let her live?

Nah~

That’s not happening.

If you spot them, kill them immediately—saves trouble later.

Originally, there were eight of those things.

Eight hero candidates,

and eight nations,

so naturally, there were eight boss monsters to match.

“……?”

Wait.

What happened to the boss in the ice nation ?

…The question suddenly popped into my head, so I asked.

“The boss?”

“Yeah.”

“The guidebook said there’s one there too…”

“Ah…”

“You forgot.”

“You were too busy chasing Cain.”

“With the Master suddenly running off, you didn’t have time to worry about…”

“Well…”

“Not like I’m gonna scold you, so no need to look so down.”

“?”

“The boss in the ice nation stays quiet until the mid-game anyway.”

The Succubus Queen Bestia, boss of the holy nation , is the type to start manipulating the pope from the very beginning, gnawing away bit by bit.

The faster you deal with her, the less damage she causes.

But.

Not all of them are as diligent as Bestia.

In fact, she’s the exception—

most are lazy.

They laze around until the mid-game,

only starting to move when the Demon King regains strength and begins to act.

‘The kind that only works when the boss clocks in.’

…Thinking about it that way,

leaving the boss in the ice nation alone isn’t a big deal.

“Phew…”

“Still, who knows what variables might pop up.”

“Once we’re done here, let’s take care of the ice nation’s boss too.”

Finish things in the holy nation,

warp-gate over to the ice nation, wrap it up in a day, and come back.

…With that in mind, I focused on the task at hand.

At the same time.

Succubus Queen Bestia entered the pope’s secret chamber in human form.

“Lady Mercithia von Grid.”

“Our Bestia~”

“Since when do we use such stiff titles between us? Hmm?”

A middle-aged man in his 40s was putting on a sickeningly cutesy voice.

‘Should I kill him?’

‘Just close my eyes and slaughter him?’

I genuinely wanted to,

but killing him now would render all my suffering meaningless.

It’d violate the contract, and I’d die too.

‘Just endure a little longer…’

‘Finish the job, then kill him in the cruelest way possible…’

This is the trial to become one of the Four Heavenly Kings.

To earn the Demon King’s favor,

to eventually become his wife, the ruler of the demon realm.

So.

Just endure a little longer.

Bring down , the most detestable of the human nations, and my position as a Heavenly King is guaranteed.

Patience is bitter,

but the fruit will be sweet—I’ll endure, imagining that.

…With that thought, I calmed myself and spoke.

“Lord Grid~”

“You’re as dashing as ever today~”

“I am pretty dashing, aren’t I?!”

The pig of a man jiggled his belly while striking a muscleman pose.

I really want to kill him.

‘Sigh…’

‘After seeing that handsome man, looking at this pig is just revolting…’

The man named Cain was quite attractive.

Handsome face,

a sculpted, muscular body—genuinely appealing.

‘If he were the pope, I’d have carried out the plan with a smile…’

But reality forced me to seduce this pig instead.

‘Ugh.’

‘My results-driven nature is my own sin.’

I never planned to do anything major with the holy nation.

Just disguise myself as a prostitute, siphon some vitality,

snag one decent high-ranking man to drain, then leave quietly.

But what’s this?

The pope of the most detestable holy nation waltzed into the brothel himself and offered himself up?

How could I resist?

So I seduced him,

infiltrating deep into the holy nation.

…Or so it felt, getting this far.

‘The pope was easy—too simple.’

Greedy,

but not particularly bright.

The perfect type to manipulate and squeeze dry.

‘This time, it’s this.’

Indulgences.

Magical scraps of paper that erase any crime—for a price.

‘Normally, selling these would bring divine punishment…’

But the Demon King has cut off the heavens.

No divine retribution, no voice of God, no matter what you do.

So.

No god will interfere, even if we sell indulgences.

…That was the plan, but then—

what’s this?

The man named Cain ordered me to sell indulgences too.

Even more evil ones.

‘Wow…’

‘I never even thought of this…’

[Indulgence Random Draw]

A scroll sold to randomly grant indulgences absolving crimes like murder, arson, robbery, assault, and kidnapping.

‘This is truly vile.’

A murderer needs an indulgence that erases murder.

Everything else is a dud.

Same for arsonists, robbers, assailants, kidnappers.

Only one is a hit—

the rest are all misses, with odds so cruel it’s practically a scam.

‘So I prepared something else.’

The Indulgence Exchange.

Directly trading indulgences is illegal,

but paying a fee to trade through the exchange is legally permitted.

The rules are simple:

Sell unneeded indulgences,

buy needed ones—a straightforward shop,

with one key difference.

‘To buy from the exchange, you need money and indulgence tickets.’

Every random indulgence bought grants one ticket,

usable at the exchange.

To buy an S-grade murder indulgence, you need the indulgence’s price plus 100 tickets.

In other words.

To use the exchange, you must buy at least 100 indulgences first.

And pay the money on top.

…Just that much is already evil,

but this guy was a real demon.

‘What?’

‘S-grade indulgences don’t even drop in the random draw?!’

The S-grade indulgence, with a 0.1% drop rate,

erases all sins

and sells for the highest price at the exchange.

An indulgence so coveted that everyone buys random ones hoping to land it—

but the actual rate is 0%?

The publicized rate is 0.1%,

but the real rate is 0%?

‘Wow…’

‘This bastard is truly demonic…’

And yet, it was meticulous.

If S-grades never dropped, people would suspect.

So, anonymously sell them through the exchange.

That way, rumors spread that someone got one,

dispelling doubts about the 0% rate.

Bonus: selling S-grades through the exchange nets massive profits.

‘That’s why he made the exchange.’

He claims it’s for people with too many unneeded indulgences

or those who need specific ones—

but in reality,

it’s to hide the 0% S-grade rate

and profit from selling them—another business scheme.

‘If this gets out, all hell will break loose…’

But it’s fine.

I won’t be in the holy nation forever.

By the time people suspect the rates, I’ll be long gone.

‘Honestly, let them suspect.’

Rake in the money,

then watch as riots over the rates destroy the holy nation.

The perfect scenario.

“…That’s what she’s thinking, right?”

I explained the plan to everyone.

What the letter I gave the succubus contained.

How we’d execute it.

Everything.

Then Sophia spoke up.

“My lord?”

“Yeah?”

“If we do that, the holy nation —a sacred land and home to clergy—won’t survive.”

“Probably not.”

Indulgences aren’t just for the holy nation’s people.

Others will buy them too.

Commoners, sure,

but nobles with heavy sins will go wild buying them.

And then?

When they realize the S-grade’s actual rate is 0%?

What kind of riots will erupt?

‘In Korea, it was truck protests.’

‘What’ll it be here?’

Military protests?

Mobs of soldiers demanding the pope’s head?

‘Sounds fun.’

If this were a game, I’d grab popcorn and watch.

But.

This is the world I’ll live in.

Wrecking a nation that badly isn’t ideal.

So.

I’ll cut it off first.

“Cut it off?”

“Yeah.”

“A 0.1% rate seems low, but it’s not impossible to prove.”

Korean game companies’ 0.000015% rates are beyond proof,

but 0.1% is doable.

“Just buy 10,000 and open them—that’ll prove it.”

0.1%—

1 in 1,000 odds.

Probability means

you might not get one even after 1,000 tries.

But.

At 100,000, you’d get roughly 100.

That’s the law of large numbers.

A 50% chance succeeding once is luck.

But.

A 50% chance over 10,000 attempts yielding ~5,000 successes is destiny.

Without rigging,

4,500–5,500 is normal.

…Thanks to this law, players mathematically exposed rigged game rates.

So.

I’ll do it too.

Prove it mathematically,

expose how corrupt the pope really is.