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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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The sun shone through the intricate golden stained glass.
All the places touched by the brilliant sunlight were dyed in the same color.
It was the sacred color of the divine.
Inside the room tinted with a golden hue, a woman with radiant blonde hair and green eyes, as bright as the shining sun, stood at the top of the stairs, gazing down with a faint smile.
At the end of her gaze stood another woman with bright blonde hair and green eyes.
As their eyes met, a beaming smile spread out on their faces.
The two women’s hair and eye colors were completely identical.
However, their appearances were not entirely the same.
The woman looking down from the top of the stairs had golden hair so luxuriously grown that it seemed to envelop her entire body, while the woman looking up from below had a short bob that reached her collarbone.
The woman looking down from the top of the stairs had an appearance akin to a symbol of maternal love, while the woman looking up from below had a very docile but mischievous look.
The only identical features were the color of their hair and eyes.
“What did you summon me for, Your Holiness?”
The woman atop the stairs was the Pope, and the woman below was the Inquisitor.
The Inquisitor looked up at the top of the stairs with her usual beaming smile.
“The time for purification has come, Inquisitor.”
“Oh my. Has that time already arrived? I thought I received a report recently saying they seemed to have found traces of demons and would investigate further.”
The Inquisitor widened her eyes.
It was an expression of genuine surprise.
The Pope slowly nodded, affirming it.
The meaning behind the words “the time for purification” was predetermined.
It meant that traces of demons had been discovered.
Therefore, no matter what methods were employed or what sacrifices were made, beings associated with demons had to be dealt with.
In other words, it was the beginning of a holy war.
“Understood. How many battle nuns should I mobilize?”
“Do as you see fit, Inquisitor.”
“Then I’ll take them all. That’s fine, right?”
“Yes. You may do so.”
With the Pope’s permission granted, the Inquisitor hummed a tune and lightly bowed her head in respect before picking up the weapon she had set aside.
It was a flail with a weight much larger than her own head.
The weight of the flail had very menacing spikes protruding from it.
It was a weapon that sent chills down one’s spine just by looking at it.
The Inquisitor lightly picked up the flail, which was nearly twice as big as her head, and slung it over one shoulder as if carrying a bag.
“There is one more thing I must entrust to you, Inquisitor.”
“Yes? What is it this time?”
The woman, who was about to leave with the flail on her right shoulder, stopped in her tracks.
“A revelation has been received that the man you mentioned before can also be found during this expedition.”
“Wow! Really?”
Her grassy green eyes sparkled and shone.
They were filled with the same curiosity as a child who had discovered a toy they liked.
“Yes. That is correct.”
As if responding to that, another pair of green eyes smiled.
“Where can he be found? Is it in the village we’re setting out to now?”
“That I do not know. However…”
The Pope brought her two hands together in front of her chest.
“The divine will guide us.”
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A small village on the outskirts of the Empire was living its own peaceful daily life.
The occasional monsters that stumbled in were at a level that could be repelled by the villagers joining forces without any casualties, and although outsiders visited from time to time, they simply resolved their lodging and food before promptly leaving.
As long as they paid their taxes to the Empire diligently, their ordinary and peaceful daily life would continue without any problems.
The villagers thought that such a life would go on forever.
That is, until a horde of monsters, too numerous to count, suddenly invaded.
“Aaah! Save me!”
“Come with me!”
The once peaceful village turned into a chaotic scene in an instant.
Flames erupted throughout the village, though it was unclear who had sparked the initial fire, and screams of people being eaten alive by monsters were abundant.
The pungent smell of blood pierced the air.
James, who had been reduced to the state of hastily fleeing with only his life intact, without even having time to gather his possessions, was also one of the ordinary villagers who had been living peacefully in this village.
“Aaaaaah!”
James ran and ran.
Even when he heard pleas for help around him, even when he heard cries of anguish at the disaster that had befallen the village, he ignored them all and hurriedly fled to save his own skin.
In a situation where it was challenging to preserve even his own life, there was no time to worry about others.
The entire village was engulfed in a pit of fire and swarming with monsters.
James spotted a monster tearing into a human on the main road ahead and hurriedly looked around before abruptly jumping into the alley right next to him.
As soon as he did, he froze, unable to even scream.
Inside the alley, there was a man having his guts eaten out by a monster that looked just like a wolf, flailing its arms and legs.
It seemed he was still clinging to life, but it was a futile effort.
The alley was drenched in red blood, indicating there had been several other victims besides that man.
Realizing this fact, James was grateful to himself for not screaming.
Thanks to that, the monster hadn’t noticed him.
If he just turned around and slipped away now, it would be fine.
James slowly took a few steps back, praying desperately that the monster wouldn’t raise its head.
His pace was extremely slow due to his trembling legs.
Just a little more.
Just a few more stepsㅡ
ㅡCrack.
As soon as James stepped on a charred wooden plank and broke it, he froze in place, sensing that things had gone wrong.
The monster, which had been burying its snout in the man’s corpse and devouring his guts, raised its head.
A growling sound came from its muzzle.
Thud, his legs gave out.
His entire body trembled like a leaf.
He was just a few steps away.
If he had gone a little further, he could have escaped from here.
Perhaps judging that a fresh human was better than a corpse, or simply to hunt a living human, the monster began slowly walking towards James, trampling over the corpse.
James tried to struggle and retreat, but with his legs giving out and his arms barely moving due to being paralyzed with fear, there was no way he could create distance.
“Eek! Eeeeek!”
The monster prepared to pounce on the human who was screaming strangely.
Seeing the monster open its maw wide and leap, James tightly closed his eyes.
ㅡClang!
“…?”
Clang?
It was a sound that shouldn’t have been heard under normal circumstances.
James cautiously opened his eyes.
There was a large object right in front of him.
He turned his gaze a little more, dumbfounded.
Only then could he confirm the identity of the large thing that had blocked his path.
It was a shield.
And an enormous one at that, large enough to cover an adult male’s entire body and still have room to spare.
Someone pushed James aside and stepped forward.
It was a woman holding a flail in one hand and a shield larger than her own body in the other.
She had blonde hair that reached down to her waist and green eyes.
Her attire looked very sacred.
There were more exposed areas than covered ones, with garter belts on her thighs and her crotch covered by a long, wide cloth that nearly touched the ground.
The cloth covering her crotch was embroidered with strange golden letters.
It was a script he had never seen before.
Her sides and thighs were completely exposed, barely connected below her armpits, and even her chest seemed to have no intention of being properly covered.
The only things covering her chest were two triangular pieces of cloth hanging down from her shoulders.
Even those looked like they would easily reveal her breasts if the wind blew or if she moved her body vigorously.
That sacred attire exuding a divine blessing.
James had heard about women dressed like that.
The battle nuns of the Holy Kingdom of Raphaella.
Moreover, they were battle nuns directly under the Inquisitor.
Even though he had been on the brink of death just moments ago, James bowed his head unconsciously as soon as he saw the nun.
The clothes before his eyes overflowed with such a sacred aura.
Of course, there was also the reason that the notoriety of the Inquisitor and her direct battle nuns was well-known in various aspects.
The battle nun didn’t even spare a glance at James and taunted the monster by tapping her flail against the shield.
The monster charged at the nun with a fierce roar.
ㅡSplat!
The one-sided death sentence, too embarrassing to even call a battle, was carried out in a very short moment.
The monster’s muzzle, which had been pouncing as if to devour everything it touched, didn’t even reach the nun’s neck.
Before that, its head was crushed by the flail.
The battle nun, who had casually shattered the monster’s head, emotionlessly raised her arm and struck down two more times.
The corpse quickly turned into a pulp.
Blood dripped from the flail that had finished its task.
James, who had witnessed that horrific scene, felt his pants become damp.
A hiccup escaped his lips.
The battle nun, who had neatly finished off the monster with a couple of extra blows, straightened her waist.
Her green eyes turned towards James, who was sprawled on the ground.
As that gaze fell upon him, it felt as if his mind had suddenly cleared.
“Thank you for helping meㅡ Urk?!”
Before James could even finish expressing his gratitude, the battle nun grabbed the back of his neck with an expressionless face, slung the flail on her waist, and dragged him out of the alley.
It was a merciless movement, as if handling a beast, devoid of any compassion.
However, James didn’t have the slightest thought of resisting or complaining, and without making a sound, he surrendered his body to that rough grip.
Resistance? Complaint?
How could he even consider such things?
How far had he been dragged in that state?
James let out a miserable scream as he was thrown to the ground.
Spitting out the dirt that had entered his mouth, he looked around.
There were familiar faces around him.
They were the villagers who had survived amidst this chaos.
They all had puzzled expressions.
It was clearly evident that they had no idea why they were gathered here or what they were trying to do.
“Is that person the last one?”
A clear voice echoed.
The people, who had been looking at each other with confused expressions, simultaneously turned their heads towards the source of the voice.
It was a voice so clear and beautiful that it resonated to that extent.
“Yes, Inquisitor Stella.”
“Good. Prepare for it.”
But somehow, the atmosphere felt strange.
The battle nuns were surrounding the survivors in a circle, encircling them.
Not just one or two, but all of them gathered here.
As the airtight encirclement was completed, the woman called Inquisitor Stella stepped forward.
She had blonde hair and green eyes, just like all the other battle nuns present.
“Now, everyone. You are the lucky ones who survived the monster attack. The rest have either died or been devoured, one of the two. Although you’ve lost all your possessions, isn’t it enough that you’re alive?”
Clap, Stella clapped her hands.
Her breasts swayed from side to side in sync with the clap.
Her attire was even more revealing than the battle nuns’.
The level of exposure was tremendous.
It was an outfit sacred enough to be worthy of being worn by the Inquisitor, the epitome of holiness itself.
It seemed as if demons would be purified and vanish just by seeing those clothes.
Perhaps because of her attire, her impression was also very gentle and kind-looking.
Her way of speaking was also soft, and a beaming smile was on her lips.
She was completely different from the battle nuns who seemed emotionless like golems.
“I’d like to return as is if it were up to me, but before that, you all need to have your purity verified. The purity of whether or not your eyes have been tainted by those things. Ah, don’t worry too much. It will be over quickly.”
Purity?
The survivors tilted their heads.
James was the same.
Purity, what exactly did they have to prove?
“Iris.”
“Yes, Inquisitor.”
The battle nun called Iris, who had dragged James here, stood demurely beside Stella.
“Proceed.”
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Oh. It’s this kind of inquisition