Taming the Evil Saintess

Chapter 164




All battles that me, Laila, and the mercenary members participated in when we rolled around in the North always had us outnumbered.

Naturally! The mercenaries made up of slaves hadn’t even received proper training, so they often died off like weeds, and on top of that, the monsters were breeding like it was a free buffet!

With hundreds of monsters gathering together, a mere thirty-odd mercenaries couldn’t cope with them all. So, we opted for a strategy of sequential intercepts and guerrilla warfare.

In short, it was a Viet Cong style of combat.

“Should we set a trap in this passageway, Poppy?”
“No way! This is an allied passage. Let’s leave this as is and set it up in a wider passage instead.”
“Boss, this valley is just right! If we drop logs from above, we can smash those monster skulls!”

We set traps everywhere and waited for the horde of monsters to pass by, concentrating our attacks at one point. When the attacked monsters screamed, we vanished by the time the others came to assist them.

We’ve been living on the edge like that for almost three years.

As a result, the Black Eagle Mercenaries were masters at taking care of themselves and were quite knowledgeable in guerrilla warfare.

The reason I’m suddenly telling this story is because…

“There! The hero’s vanguard is there!”
“N-no! It’s there too!”
“What?”
“W-What the hell! Here too…”

Operation Mario was a resounding success!

“Like a rat.”

Hell Duke Derabilice looked down from the terrace of the Holy See at the scenery of the Cathedral.

Below was absolute chaos.

The Cathedral was small, maybe the size of a city-state, but rebels popped out of every underground passage connected to it, making it impossible for the soldiers within the Cathedral to cope.

They were even causing chaos by wearing masks like terrorists, breaking down posts and throwing small bombs. One couldn’t help but wonder if they even considered the safety of ordinary citizens given how aggressive and violent they were.

“Should I have sent more necromancers to the catacombs?”

Derabilice sighed deeply and rubbed his chin.

As much as he wanted to destroy it outright, the catacombs were the backbone supporting the Cathedral’s underground. If he brought it down, the entire city would collapse, which would be unbecoming of him.

So he had contracted a necromancer to guard it, but he never expected a summoner of such skill would fall in less than a minute.

Derabilice clicked his tongue and looked at Pope Yudor, who was trembling behind him.

“Pope, the warriors are stirring up trouble in the Cathedral. May I release my subordinates?”
“…W-well…”

Yudor frowned.

Being the pragmatic type, he seemed to be calculating how much dishonor would fall upon him for allowing demonic entities to run rampant in the Cathedral.

The Hell Duke sighed. With a continental religious leader so weak, what was the point?

“Don’t worry. My guards don’t look as vicious as you fear.”
“So…”
“I’ll disguise them as Knights of the Saint.”

After hearing that, Yudor nodded, and Derabilice looked back down at the railing.

At that very moment, one of the posts was burning down and collapsing.

“…What’s that? Not even terrorists would do that.”

“Elliot, come on, isn’t that a bit too extreme?”
“What do you mean?”

Just as I asked, there was a thunderous explosion that shook the ground.

Looking in that direction, I saw a three-story guard post slowly collapsing. In front of the burning post stood a few masked Black Eagle mercenaries brandishing bombs, threatening the surrounding citizens.

These guys seemed to be much more vicious and vile than just a minion of the Demon King.

Of course, they weren’t real terrorists. It was actually a calculated move.

“They’re telling the citizens to hurry home and hunker down, you see?”
“…No matter how I look at it, they seem to be enjoying this.”
“Guess it’s a good way to relieve some pent-up stress while having fun.”

The deeper we delve into it, the messier it gets.

Seemingly understanding, Ophelia wrinkled her face and quickened her pace.

We were heading to the Holy See to rescue Archbishop Belwin and the knights supporting him.

Fortunately, we had changed into casual clothes just before we left the catacombs (Ophelia threatened not to follow me unless I got rid of the smell of corpses), so we didn’t draw too much attention from the crowd.

As we mixed in with the masses heading toward the Holy See,

“…There’s a smell.”

A few Knights of the Saint blocked our way.

I recognized them before they recognized me.

A strong magical presence. My nose, my instincts could not lie. One of the Knights was emitting a stench so rotten it couldn’t even be compared to the smell of corpses I’d encountered in the catacombs. I clicked my tongue and gripped the hilt of the holy sword I had hidden inside my robe.

Then, I leaned my body forward as if preparing to fall and leaped at them like a projectile.

“Stop! This is the Pope’s…”
“A demon pretending to be a Knight. The world has truly gone mad!”

I thrust the holy sword into a monster that mixed in with the Knights. Caught off guard, the knight—or rather, the demon—fell back with a deep wound to his chest.

At that sight, Knights came rushing at me from all around.

These were the real Knights.

And as befits a Knight who has sworn loyalty to the Celestial Deity, they had to know who the most famous Cleric on this continent was.

“Hey, you guys.”

Ophelia Meredein.

As the continent’s Saintess stepped forward, the Knights hesitated.

“Are you going to use that against me? Can you handle the backlash?”
“….”
“You pull that out, and you’ll be roasted. If you want to become skewered, feel free.”

At Ophelia’s words, the Knights exchanged meaningful glances.

Even if the Saintess had turned against the Cathedral and kicked the Pope in the shins, as long as she served the same God, the Saintess was still a noble figure that must not be met with the sword.

However…

“What are you all doing!? Do something with those traitors!”

A booming voice echoed.

On the platform in the square, a clergyman dressed in red was shouting at the top of his lungs.

A cardinal. I can’t remember his name, but he was also in the Pope’s audience during the continent conference.

“What stands before you is not just a hero and a Saintess, but a betrayer of the Celestial Deity and a false shepherd!”

“Shut up! You’re one to talk, you demon-loving scum!”

As Ophelia mocked him, the cardinal flinched, but he soon clenched his fists and shouted.

“Silence! I won’t listen to a word from an apostate! Knights, cover your ears and follow the Will of God! Then all shall be bathed in light!”

He proclaimed that we were, in fact, minions of the Evil God, masquerading as heroes and a Saintess.

It was nonsense, but the Knights had their own walls to climb. Whether it was true or not didn’t matter; if the higher-ups gave an order, they had to follow.

“Ugh! May the Celestial Deity watch over us!”

The leading knight drew his sword, and at that sign, the others around us also drew their weapons.

“It seems we have no choice but to fight.”

Albrecht shook his head.

There was no other way.

“Let’s not kill them. What do the lowly ones have to do with this?”

Above all, it would be troublesome to clean up afterward.
What we needed to eliminate here were a few of the demons pretending to be human. Their magical presence was off the charts.

The demon I had just struck with my sword was getting back up, looking at me like it wanted to kill me.

Even after I infused my sword energy into it, it seemed the armor had only crumpled, and there was hardly any visible damage to the body.
In the game, the Hell Duke’s actual power was notably high, but so was the average level of his demonic forces, which was significantly above the high-ranking demons Vermina had commanded.

“Be careful. The ones with red eyes are high-ranking demons.”
“Got it. So, it’s okay to kill them?”
“We have to kill them.”
“Haha.”

Albrecht let out a dry laugh as he changed his sword to a thicker greatsword and stepped forward. Azar followed him. Erwin and Emily planned to take position in the highest nearby building—probably the aerial garden—to support us, so I didn’t have to worry about them.

Meanwhile, Ophelia looked at me with her fists clenched. Her eyes were sparkling.

“What do you want to do? Should we fight too?”
“…Ophelia, why do you look so excited?”
“Me? I’m not excited or anything…”

I poked Ophelia’s soft cheek.

“First, get that smile under control.”

“…Umm.”

After she seemed to realize, I sighed watching her caress her own mouth.
It was obvious why she looked so excited.

“It’s because you’re thinking of beating up the Knights who bullied you back when you were a kid.”
“….”
“Isn’t it?”
“N-no! I’m just thinking for the greater good…”

Could there be anything more ridiculous than Ophelia saying she was doing it for the greater good? Even an alligator’s tears couldn’t be this shallow.

“Be honest with me. I won’t tease you.”
“I want to line those bastards up and make them suffer. I want to slap their cheeks. I want to make them go buy me bread.”
“….”

A total nerd’s fantasy. That stereotype just took form right in front of me.
Even so, wasn’t that a bit too honest?
Ophelia seemed to be aware of it too, as her cheeks flushed bright red.

Well, considering all she had bottled up, it was understandable. I wrapped my arms around Ophelia’s shoulders to persuade her. The moment I touched her, she flinched.

“First, let’s head to the Holy See. Belwin is captured. Besides, we’re probably the only ones who can have a proper conversation with them. There will be plenty of opportunities to put Knights in their place. We can save it for later. When the time comes, we can line them up and make them suffer, or tell them to be our errand boys.”
“…Okay.”

With a reluctant nod, Ophelia replied.

“We should kick that Pope in the shins again this time.”

So I threw in a line, and upon hearing it, Ophelia smirked and elbowed my chest.

“What do you mean kick? I’m going to tear him apart!”

“Cough.”
“Hmm?”

Hell Duke Derabilice turned around.

Pope Yudor had a rather uneasy look on his face.


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