I Kidnapped the Hero Party – Chapter 22

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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The holy water created by Estia’s unique constitution brought strong happiness.

It caused the brain of the person who drank it to secrete dopamine, which was responsible for pleasure.

Estia’s divine power contained components similar to drugs.

“Ah, aah… I-I feel so goood…”

Her heart beat strongly as if on fire.

She was so happy she forgot where she was.

She could hear the sound of her rapidly beating heart.

Estia, rolling on the floor in pleasure, was swimming in a whirlpool of joy.

She had no intention of escaping the whirlpool, rather she seemed to be diving deeper into its core.

“He-Hehe… Ju-Just a little more… Let me drink…”

Since there was no cup…

Directly with her mouth.

Estia sucked on the fingers of her hand where the holy water came from.

She focused as if not to miss even a single drop.

Since there was a set amount of divine power per day, she had to cherish it.

Gulp.

As the holy water went down her throat, along with the feeling of a lifetime’s worth of happiness rushing in at once,

The objects around Estia’s eyes began to look strange.

It was a hallucination.

“The bed… is opening its mouth…? The window… is prison bars…”

It felt like she was seeing visions of the past.

There were lots of friends inside those prison bars…

Now only I’m left…?

It was a sad past, but Estia was smiling brightly.

In a situation where she had drunk holy water, even if she wanted to cry, she could only smile.

“I miss… my friends… I’m jealous…”

Since they believed in the Goddess, they must have gone to a good place, right?

If they were alive, I would have shown them this happiness.

It was such a shame.

Estia’s friends who were dragged away by the cult leader never returned.

A friend who was injected in the basement died vomiting blood.

Estia survived until the end in the midst of the terror of disappearing one by one.

However, even after experiencing such things from the order, Estia had no thoughts of running away.

Because.

“This place is heaven… It’s paradise…”

There was no reason to run away.

If I’m happy, and people are happy, that’s good enough.

“He-Hehe…”

Estia let out an irrepressible giggle.

Even if there were hard times in the past, Estia was always happy if she had the Goddess’s blessing.

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A Saintess who uses holy water like a drug.

This will be the last kidnapping of my life.

The Goddess Order’s church was located in the center of the capital.

Its size was no different from a building in South Korea.

‘To think I have to find the Saintess in a place like that…’

It wouldn’t be easy.

The invisibility spell probably wouldn’t work like when I kidnapped Saten from the Sicilia family last time.

The church was a group of religious people who followed goddesses.

Those religious people who used divine power didn’t like theoretical mages who used mana.

Therefore, they had installed a barrier that blocked magic throughout the entire church.

Which means?

“I’ll have to solve this with physical abilities…”

There must be a lot of people inside the church.

Was that even possible?

Still, since Minerva posed it as a problem, it shouldn’t be impossible.

“I’ll know if it’s possible or impossible once I try.”

I took out a white mask from my spatial pocket and put it on.

It was the same mask I wore when I kidnapped Saten last time.

In that state, I came out of the alley and boldly entered the church.

Then, a believer wearing religious robes popped out.

“Welcome, we at the Goddess Order welcome believers… Oh, a mask…?”

“…”

The believer who faced me wearing a mask stiffened his expression and blinked as if flustered.

It was understandable that he’d be surprised.

Suddenly some madman wearing a mask entered the church.

The believer regained his composure and said,

“Hahaha, masks are prohibited in our church for identity verification. I’ll keep the mask for you, so would you please take it off?”

“Why should I do that?”

“…Pardon?”

I spoke boldly.

As if there was absolutely no need to take off the mask.

The believer seemed rather surprised, and I spoke to him as if there was no problem at all.

“I, a Grimoire member, asked why I should take off my mask. Do you want to die?”

Hide your identity if you can, and if you weren’t caught, pin it on someone else.

The knights who would be chasing me for kidnapping Saten.

To confuse them, I disguised myself as Grimoire.

So that the investigation net wouldn’t close in on me.

I whispered in the ear of the frozen believer.

“To hell with the goddesses. This place is ruled by me, a Grimoire member.”

Hide yourself in the confusion.

And so, the kidnapping of the last companion of the Hero’s party, Saintess Estia, began.

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“What? An intruder from Grimoire has appeared…!?”

At those words, Holy Knight Eric sprang up from his seat.

According to the believers, he heard they were fighting in the main hall of the church.

“Grimoire. Where do you bastards think this is…!!”

Enraged Eric hurriedly headed to the main hall, determined to absolutely punish those heretics.

However, when Eric arrived at the main hall…

“Wh-What’s going on here. Two holy knights have been defeated…?”

Two holy knights were already lying on the floor.

Despite having received harsh training since childhood, the holy knights were helpless before the kidnapper.

“…Damn it. Where did that heretic bastard go?”

“He went that way!”

Eric ran with heavy steps, his armor clanking, in the direction of the voice.

‘Today is the day of collecting offerings, this is bad.’

The day of collecting offerings.

It was the day when they collected offerings from citizens and distributed holy water according to their ranking.

Some citizens gave their entire month’s salary, while others even borrowed money to make offerings.

It was an important day as it was a crucial source of income for the order.

Meanwhile, Jun-woo, unaware of this fact, was hiding in the auditorium.

‘There are many ordinary people gathered here too, is it the afternoon service?’

He should be able to hide here to shake off the pursuit team.

Jun-woo quickly changed his mask and clothes.

Then, he sat down in a chair in the auditorium like an ordinary citizen.

“Wh-Where did that bastard go..?! Find him immediately!!”

“Yes, sir!!”

The holy knights seemed busy shouting something, but it was of no concern to Jun-woo.

At that moment, a figure who appeared to be the ‘cult leader’ appeared on the stage in the distance.

He seemed quite overweight and had a greedy face.

He shouted towards the citizens in the auditorium.

“Now- Everyone who has attended today’s afternoon service- Welcome-”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Mechanical, regular applause echoed in the auditorium.

Jun-woo didn’t understand this grotesqueness, but he had no choice but to clap along.

‘It’s too stiff for a service, and the expressions of the people are strange too.’

They wore expressionless faces that seemed empty of thought, and all of their gazes were fixed not on the cult leader, but on the box behind him.

The identity of that box was probably ‘holy water’.

It must certainly be that.

‘Are they selling holy water to ordinary citizens and addicting them to it like a drug?’

The future me I saw must have been addicted to holy water and guarded the Saintess too.

I’ll guard you if you give me holy water.

It must have been something like that.

Jun-woo confirmed that the holy knights around had disappeared.

He no longer had any reason to stay in the auditorium.

‘My goal is the Saintess. Saving these people isn’t particularly helpful.’

In the first place, there was no way to save them, and even if he did, they would want holy water again.

Structurally, to save them, he would need to stop the production and supply of holy water.

Therefore, kidnapping the Saintess, who was the producer, was the only way to stop this terrible situation.

‘I’ve somehow gained a justification.’

A justification for rationalization.

This was a very good situation.

Jun-woo looked around and stood up from the auditorium chair.

He didn’t know the Saintess’s location, but that wasn’t important.

It was because Minerva would tell him the Saintess’s location anyway.

After checking answer sheet 2, the Saintess was on the top floor.

And one more thing he found out was,

‘This crazy church…’

The fact that inhumane experiments were being conducted in the basement of the Goddess Order.

In the basement of the church, they were imprisoning children without parents and conducting experiments under the pretext of salvation.

The content of those experiments was…

Something only those who had given up on being human could do.

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“St-Stop that bastard-!! Don’t let him get near Lady Estia-!!”

“…”

Somehow breaking through the security of the holy knights, I finally arrived at the top floor of the church.

The holy knights were charging at me with divine power wrapped around their swords, but they were no match for me.

“You guys have less talent with the sword than the Hero.”

“Wh-What…!”

There was a movement aiming to slash my left arm.

To me, who had been active in the frontline adventurer party, the holy knight’s movements were slow.

In the city bordering the demon realm, there were many guys who showed such movements, and with such movements, they would 100% lose their lives.

“The capital is too relaxed since the Demon Lord’s don’t attack. You can’t protect the church with such skills.”

“Argh…!!”

Thud-

I didn’t take his life, but the holy knight fell to the floor clutching his arm.

He seemed to have lost his will to fight, as he didn’t charge at me anymore.

“If you’re not going to fight, step aside.”

“Y-Yes sir…!”

Scurry-

The holy knight quickly disappeared, behind him, I saw a small room door.

Probably, as I expected, the Saintess would be in there.

Hearing someone approaching from behind, I quickly opened the Saintess’s room door.

And what I saw was…

“What is this.”

“He-Hehe… A ma-mask…? The mask is talking…!”

Estia pointed at me and shouted.

Drooling and wearing a happy expression was Saintess Estia.

Was this really the same woman I saw this morning?

Where did that benevolent appearance go?

I was not sure if I should say this, but she was wearing quite a vulgar expression.

‘…Well, let’s close the door for now.’

Since I sensed a strong presence approaching from far away, to buy a little time, I closed the door.

Bang-

And I asked the Saintess who seemed to have lost her mind.

“Do you make the holy water yourself and consume it yourself?”

“Huh…? I-I don’t know that…! Hehe!”

“I’m asking if you consumed the holy water of your own will.”

“Ah, this…? Of course I drink it myself…!”

Saintess Estia, who couldn’t even pronounce properly, created white holy water in her hand and reached out to me.

“Does the mask… want some too…?”

“I’ll pass. I don’t need to drink that.”

How could I drink that after seeing that scene in the future.

I absolutely couldn’t drink it.

More than that, it was an urgent situation now.

There was no more time to talk with the Saintess.

‘Holy Knight Eric. That guy will be a bit troublesome to deal with.’

Eric, seemed to be the leader of the holy knights.

He looked like a seasoned veteran, and it would take too much time to defeat him, so avoiding him now was the best strategy.

If more time was wasted here, the knighthood that received the report would find this place too.

Especially the Black Raven Knighthood, their swordsmanship was annoying to deal with.

“Estia. Stay still. No, you probably can’t move anyway?”

“Uh, uh…? What are you doing…? You…? Why are you tying me up…?”

Estia tilted her head and looked at me with hazy golden eyes.

Then, she suddenly brought her nose to my clothes and shouted in surprise.

“You, ma-mask…! You’re that big brother from before…? I wanted to have you, you came at a good time! Hehe!”

“…You wanted to have me?”

“Uh-huh, you looked strong, and since you’re an apostle of the goddess you seemed really powerful… If I soaked you in holy water for 10 days, you could have been reborn… It was a shame…”

“…”

That wasn’t information I particularly wanted to know, talking any more with Estia seemed meaningless at this point.

I tied her up tightly with rope and bound her to my back, so that she absolutely wouldn’t fall off.

As I completely pressed her against me, with a bang, Holy Knight Eric appeared.

“You masked bastard…!! Where do you heretics think you’re coming…!!”

“Is there a law that Grimoire can’t pray?”

“You trash. Creating word plays.”

Eric was furious.

His gaze was fixed only on Estia, and he seemed to be worried about her.

They were eyes that worried about Estia, who was in charge of the church’s money, and eyes that seemed to have an abnormal, ugly desire.

He seemed to have both at the same time.

“A holy knight with such an ugly look. Is the basement your taste too?”

“You saw that too. Then, I can’t let you leave alive. And, Lady Estia and I are the Goddess’s revelation. For our happiness. She will bestow her blessings. I’m just waiting for the right time.”

Bullshit.

It must be for his own happiness.

For a holy knight who had to maintain purity to keep his divine power by swearing to the goddess, Eric was already as dirty as he could be.

Such an ugly holy knight Eric shouted, extending his sword forward.

“That’s enough, stop interfering between us and get lost. We will nurture our feelings for each other.”

“The age difference looks to be over 30 years? Are you serious?”

“There is no such thing as age difference in my love.”

“You’re insane.”

That crazy criminal bastard.

His feelings for the still young Estia were disgusting and ugly.

The disgusting Eric began to approach me, wrapping divine power around himself.

“There’s nowhere to run. Heretic. Give up now.”

“You think I can’t escape?”

“Of course. This is a dead end. Even if you defeat me in battle, reinforcements will arrive, so you can’t escape alive. You’re just a rat trapped in a rat hole.”

“Hmm, is that so? But you’re wrong about one thing. This isn’t a dead end.”

“What?”

“There’s an escape route right here.”

Right behind me?

The height of the church was considerable.

If you fell, it would lead to instant death, and your body would be shattered by gravity.

However, I chose to use that window as the escape route.

“Ueue…? Hehe, trash Eric…? He-Hello~”

“Wh-What are you doing…!! Do-Don’t go, Estia-!!”

With Estia tied to my back, I ran at full speed towards the window.

Crash!!

“Waaah~ We’re flying in the sky~”

“…Be quiet. I can’t concentrate.”

Glass shards pierced my flesh and pain arose, but it didn’t matter.

Falling to that floor would be more painful, I had to endure the pain and use magic.

Because although I couldn’t use it inside the church, I could use it here in midair.

I shouted towards the empty air while raising my mana.

“Teleport me and Estia. Location is Jun-woo’s house. Coordinates are…”

I drew a map in my head and calculated the coordinates.

I concentrated as much as I could while falling, so there wouldn’t be even a hair’s breadth of error.

And at that moment, our bodies were enveloped in mana and disappeared.

The Saintess, the last companion of the Hero’s party.

I had finally succeeded in kidnapping her, and all four members of the Hero’s party were now gathered at our house.

‘More than that, what worries me most…’

It was probably Hare who would have a fit when she saw Estia.

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