Chapter 23

Chapter 23

My Name Is Selenia

Maybe it was because I was in such a hurry, or because my hands were trembling with some strange anticipation, but undoing the buttons wasn't easy.

My traitorous fingertips kept slipping over the smooth buttons.

All I wanted was to hurry up, take off my clothes, and serve the gentlemen over there.

‘Faster, hurry...’

Impatience burned from the tips of my toes all the way to the top of my head.

At last, I managed to undo every button. Now all that remained was to remove this cumbersome top.

As I slowly exposed my upper body, a sudden question crossed my mind.

...Wait, what does ‘serve’ mean?

Doesn't serving others mean healing the sick or helping people with physical difficulties?

That's pretty demanding work, so logically speaking, why would I need to remove clothes that protect my body?

A tiny seed of doubt sprouted in my mind.

Still, wearing clothes in front of gentlemen was shameful, so I had no choice but to take them off.

Because women are tools for men.

...

...

...?

A tool?

Me?

What kind of bizarre nonsense is that? How can a person be a tool?

That tiny sense of wrongness began growing larger.

And suddenly, one thought flashed through my mind.

I'm no damn tool. I'm Beatrice, the Silver Holy Spear.

The instant I thought that, my mind snapped awake as if someone had dumped ice water over my head.

“Uwaaah! What the fuck is this insane situation?!”

I cursed immediately and hurriedly fastened the clothes I'd already half-opened.

What the hell was I about to do?

“Urk...”

It felt as though someone had violently stirred the inside of my head, and nausea surged up, forcing me to cover my mouth.

Pink mist filled my vision, while the men from our Order slowly approached me with dead-fish eyes and their hands stretched out.

“You truly have no sense of shame, Saintess. We shall undress you ourselves.”

“Wow, what the fuck. What the hell is happening?”

Hearing the old man spout that nonsense left me dumbfounded.

If the situation had been even slightly less serious, I'd probably be cackling over the chance to tease him forever about saying something like that.

But right now, I didn't have that luxury.

I had no idea what was going on, but even old Bartolomew, a high-ranking priest, had ended up like this.

And considering I myself had almost stripped completely naked, this was no ordinary problem.

Something was twisting the minds of people blessed by the gods.

What the hell had happened?

My thoughts were a mess, but I needed to figure out what was going on as quickly as possible.

“Some kind of mind-control sorcery?”

As far as I knew, only sorcery could cause something like this.

But I couldn't sense any demonic energy at all.

That meant either the demon behind this could conceal its demonic energy so completely that even I couldn't detect it, or this wasn't being caused by sorcery.

‘Either way, that's fucking awful.’

If it was the former, then at least a high-ranking demon had infiltrated deep inside the Empire.

If it was the latter, then something other than sorcery had managed to brainwash veteran Holy Knights and even a high-ranking priest.

“Astra.”

First, if I wanted to resolve this situation, I had to free the people from our Order from this insane brainwashing.

My purification sacred arts were terrible, but if I subdued them and forced divine power into their bodies, they'd probably come to their senses somehow.

“...?”

But the heavy feel of steel that should've appeared in my hand never came.

“Astra?”

A cold shiver ran down my spine.

My divine power wouldn't move.

No, worse than that.

My body felt utterly empty, as though divine power had never existed inside it in the first place.

What the fuck? My divine power disappeared?

What the hell did they do?

For now, I'd have to put aside thinking about that shocking problem.

If I had no divine power, then I couldn't free my companions right now.

In that case, I'd need to knock them out and tie them up somewhere before they did anything strange.

I stepped straight inside the guard's clumsy spear range.

Before he could react, I grabbed the shaft of the spear in one hand.

“How dare a woman touch a weapon! Even if you're a priestess of Eris, such behavior is unforgivable!”

“Oh, really? That's some fascinating common sense I've never heard before.”

“A mere wench dares talk back to me? Insolent...! As punishment, we'll tie you up in the center of the village and put you on display for everyone to use...”

The guard glared and tried to yank the spear from my grip.

I didn't have time to listen to every piece of bullshit spilling from his mouth.

I hooked his foot while using the force of his pull against him, smoothly rotating the spear.

“Ugh!?”

The spear slipped cleanly from his hands.

At the same time, the guard spun once through the air and crashed face-first to the ground.

I stepped on his face hard enough to knock him unconscious, then rotated the spear and smashed the shaft into the other guard's waist, sending him flying straight into the wall.

“Even if you're Sis, how dare a woman lay her hands on a man! How insolent!”

Seeing that, Leonid shouted roughly with glazed eyes and drew his sword.

“Hey, you sure you can handle the consequences?”

I sounded calm, but honestly, I was tense.

Without divine power, I was just a woman who happened to be pretty good at fighting.

Village guards were easy enough to subdue, but Holy Knights were another matter.

Without divine power, the physical difference between men and women wasn't something I could simply ignore.

I tightened my grip on the spear nervously.

But the moment Leonid charged at me, I sighed in relief.

Compared to his usual self, his movements were pathetic.

Apparently people afflicted by this brainwashing curse couldn't display their normal ability.

‘Well, no shit. With their brains scrambled that badly, there's no way they could fight properly...!’

I angled the spear shaft and redirected Leonid's slash, then drove the base beneath the spearhead hard into his solar plexus.

“Guhk...!”

While Leonid choked for breath, I kicked the back of his knee and forced him down.

Then I caught Cassian's wrist as he rushed me from the side.

“How the fuck did you manage to get even worse from there?”

After giving Cassian's truly pathetic swordsmanship a brief review, I twisted smoothly and slammed him into the ground.

Then I drove my knee into the temple of the kneeling Leonid, knocking him unconscious, before bringing the spear shaft down on Cassian.

Both of them collapsed, foaming at the mouth.

“Come on. I'll make sure the rest of you get to lie down together too.”

Eric, Hans, Judas, and Griffith charged one after another.

Subduing them after they'd lost their reason wasn't particularly difficult.

“How can a woman display such vulgar movements, Saintess?! Have I not taught you repeatedly that a woman's duty is to obey men?!”

“Um... old man? Hearing you say something like that is certainly new, but it's kind of hurting me inside, so why don't you get some sleep?”

Before the old man could create any more memories he'd regret for life, I struck the back of his neck hard with the edge of my hand and knocked him unconscious.

After beating everyone down, I fetched rope from the guard post, tied them securely to a tree, then dusted off my hands.

Even if they woke up, they shouldn't be able to move like this.

Normally restraints this flimsy wouldn't hold any of them for long, but these idiots were completely out of it right now, so they probably wouldn't manage to escape.

The immediate crisis was handled.

For now, I'd go into the village alone and figure out what the hell was going on.

“Guess I'll head toward wherever that divine presence is coming from.”

Like I said earlier, I could definitely feel divine power somewhere inside the village.

Was it a trap?

But no matter what demons did, they couldn't imitate divinity itself.

Maybe demons had taken priests hostage and were threatening them.

Or maybe that place was some kind of final sanctuary.

Either way, there was a good chance I'd find a clue there.

Even if it was dangerous, I had to investigate.

I pulled the hood I'd been using against the rain low over my head and entered the village.

“...Oh, fuck. Good God.”

The scene inside was truly something else.

Women walking around completely naked were one thing, but some even wore collars and crawled around on the ground like dogs.

I quickly turned my head away before looking any longer drove me insane too.

Should I sneak around?

Judging by what I'd seen, every man in the village would probably charge at me the instant they noticed me.

I didn't have the stamina to beat down every single one of them.

That brief fight had already left me drenched in sweat and breathing hard.

Even if it took longer, avoiding everyone would be the smarter choice.

Having decided that, I stayed out of sight and headed toward the place where I could sense divine power.

Perhaps because they were ordinary civilians, none of them noticed my presence even when I passed directly behind them.

“In the morning so sweetly~ we read what each other wrote all night~ then together we fall asleep again~”

While moving stealthily, I nearly dropped the spear at the sound of people singing.

“When night arrives so hotly~ we invent our own new words~ your consonants and~ my vowels~ mixing them all together~”

Have they completely lost their fucking minds?

What kind of song is that?

Yeah.

I'm certain now.

A demon was absolutely responsible for this insane scene.

Most likely a demon of Lust.

Ignoring the deranged lyrics, I continued toward the divine presence.

An old building stood there.

I carefully pushed open the door.

The inside wasn't large.

There were only a few long benches made to seat several people and a statue so badly broken I couldn't even tell what it had once depicted.

And in front of that ruined statue, a woman in a nun's habit was kneeling in prayer.

“My, what a distinguished guest we have.”

The nun praying before the altar slowly turned around.

She had neatly braided ash-gray hair.

Her nun's habit was old and worn, yet there was a strange elegance to her bearing.

“What brings you all the way to this fallen village?”

I could clearly feel divine power from her, but I didn't lower my guard.

You'd have to be insane to blindly trust someone you met in a situation like this.

“So you know this village has fallen? You're a priestess, right? If the village is in this state, what have you been doing alone in here?”

Despite my sharp voice and guarded stare, the ash-haired nun didn't even blink.

“My own inadequacy is to blame. I could not stop the strange pink mist when it suddenly descended upon the village. All I can do now is continue praying so that anyone who enters this place may at least preserve their sanity.”

“...”

I narrowed my eyes at her.

The nun rested a hand on her chest and wore a sorrowful expression.

I could definitely sense divinity from her, but it was faint.

Faint enough that, just as she'd said, protecting only this building might be the most she could manage.

“What god does this place worship?”

“This is an Order devoted to Lord Lithil. Sadly, almost no believers remain in this land anymore.”

...Lithil?

I made a point of memorizing the names of most gods, but I'd never heard that one before.

Was this the temple of some fallen god?

“Still, Sister, you did remarkably well to resist the curse and make your way here. It should have been even harsher on women.”

“It was close. I nearly stripped off everything I was wearing. And I almost joined some bizarre ritual about serving people and being used or whatever the hell that was.”

“I see. I'm truly glad you weren't defiled, Sister.”

“Glad? Everyone from my Order has completely lost their minds.”

I needed to break this curse quickly and save everyone from my Order.

I couldn't fully trust this nun.

Still, the correct move was probably to cooperate for now and somehow find a solution.

“But as long as you're all right, isn't that enough?”

I was about to demand an explanation, but the ash-haired nun spoke first.

What came out of her mouth was so absurd I couldn't believe it.

“Hey, the whole village is like this, and that's what a priestess says?”

I'd been trying to remain as civil as possible.

But after hearing that, my words naturally came out sharp.

“Well, if you'd fallen to the curse and rolled around with the village men, I suppose I'd simply think that was all you amounted to as a woman.”

“Hey, what the fuck are you talking about?”

Even if her god had fallen into obscurity, those weren't words anyone serving a god should say.

My grip tightened around the spear as I glared at her.

“Ah, although it would be rather wasteful to hand a woman like you over to filthy mountain villagers. I probably would've rescued you right before anything happened.”

“You crazy bitch...”

I leveled the spear at the nun.

Her smile only deepened.

“My, how frightening. Did I misspeak? Then I apologize.”

“Say something like that again and I don't care if you're a nun or not. I'll punch a hole straight through your throat.”

“Hehe, understood. You seem rather sensitive after everything you've experienced today, Sister. You should rest for a little while.”

“Bullshit. There's no time to rest right now. First we need to—”

Before I could finish, energy flowed from the nun's hand and seeped into my body before I could react.

The world spun, and an overwhelming wave of drowsiness crashed into me.

“Ugh...!?”

All strength vanished from my body in an instant.

The spear slipped from my hand with a metallic clatter.

As I toppled forward, the nun gently caught me.

“A sacred art...?”

This wasn't a curse.

It was a sacred art.

And the divine power she had used carried the power of Goddess Eris.

Didn't you say you worshiped some god named Lithil?

Then how the hell are you using Goddess Eris's power...?

“You... what the fuck are you...?”

“Hehe, my name is Selenia. Why don't you rest for a while, my adorable junior?”

Selenia.

...I've definitely heard that name before.

But the drowsiness flooding my mind made it impossible to think.

My vision went dark.