Chapter 169

Chapter 167 – Behemoth – 4

‘The Inquisitor is already here?’

As far as I knew, Stella should still be in the Holy Kingdom. It was the Player, not the Inquisitor, who was supposed to catch the Behemoth.

If I didn’t want to hear people say the Player was just fooling around while I was capturing a demon, then of course she had to be in the Holy Kingdom.

The fact that she arrived right after the Behemoth was captured meant that, even assuming she teleported here, it indicated she had departed the Holy Kingdom at least a few hours ago.

But the Behemoth had only fully resurrected a few hours ago. The city was still running just fine when I briefly stopped by before setting out to get the rune—this was evidence enough.

The time gap was too narrow. It was as if she knew beforehand that the Behemoth would resurrect.

“……”

Stella looked just as shocked as I felt. Her face was filled with horror, gaping at me with her mouth wide open, frozen in place.

Her fingertips trembled. She alternated her gaze between me and the Behemoth, who had transformed into a massive creature, its green eyes vibrating like a swollen pig.

Her grip loosened, and the flail fell to the ground. Thud! The sound echoed, and the nearby floor sank slightly, but no one paid it any mind.

“Inquisitor, are you okay?”

The first to break the silence was me. I couldn’t just stand still facing her like this.

“Uh, um… yes, yes…”

The response was a “yes,” but both her expression and tone were far from okay. I sighed inwardly and tucked the Wingless Nightmare into my waistband.

“How did you get here? I just came here because the local lord asked me to visit for a bit. What about you, Inquisitor? Are you really just going to say you happened to come here?”

Stella still couldn’t hide her shocked expression and hesitantly began to speak in stutters in response to my question.

“Uh, I caught a trace of the Behemoth… it led here… Your Holiness said, since the monster is dead now, we can thoroughly check uncertain matters… she told me to come see…”

‘Ah.’

It took me a moment to understand her back-and-forth, scatterbrained speech, but I roughly grasped the causal relationship at play.

Since I had killed the creature abandoned by God and completely wiped out my worries, the Holy Kingdom must have begun to actively subjugate the devil worshippers. Hence, they caught the Behemoth’s traces earlier.

Not only did they catch the Behemoth’s traces earlier, but they also didn’t need to leave the Inquisitor and the Inquisitorial Judicator behind in case of the creature abandoned by God awakening again, allowing them to send out subjugation teams freely.

In the game, the Player capturing the Behemoth happened before the DLC story began, and the Inquisitor and Inquisitorial Judicator had to take turns monitoring it, so they couldn’t just go out without solid evidence.

If a demon awakened elsewhere while they were twiddling their thumbs, the response would be delayed much longer than when they departed the Holy Kingdom.

‘Wow, it works out like this, huh?’

I wondered how many times the story had gotten tangled because I had caught the creature abandoned by God when I went to visit the Holy Kingdom.

The fact that I was summoned to the Imperial Palace, the arrival of the Creature that Devours the World, and my relationship with the Popes—it all snowballed after the boss fight with the creature.

‘But it’s not like the incidents are tangled, so it should be okay.’

Stella arriving early wasn’t a bad thing at all. In fact, it would help stabilize the chaos in the territory faster, which is good news.

After all, in the game, when the Player kills the Behemoth, the Inquisitor comes with battle nuns, staying in the city under the pretext of purification for a while until a certain time has passed.

Commands coming from the Holy Kingdom’s Inquisitor and battle nuns would feel much more reassuring to ordinary people than any instructions from a local lord who had once been enchanted by a demon.

It was unfortunate for Cassandra, but she would have to overcome the subsequent events on her own.

“First, I understand, Inquisitor. Then, may I ask a favor?”

“Ah… yes, yes. What is it, Distinguished Guest?”

“I have something to do now, so could you please take care of the demon for me?”

I pointed to the corpse of the Behemoth lying behind me with my thumb. Stella nodded obediently. I patted her shoulder a couple of times to signify I was entrusting her with the task and left the room.

As soon as I did, I heard someone collapse behind me. It was obviously Stella. The shock from witnessing that light pillar must have been overwhelming.

“……”

“……”

In the hallway stood two battle nuns who had followed Stella.

Their nun outfits had slightly less exposure compared to Stella, and there was a flail and shield lying nearby. They were staring at me with blank expressions, clearly not in their right minds.

The battle nuns stood there with dazed expressions, as if they had just witnessed a miracle, and upon hearing my footsteps, they jumped, pressing themselves against the corridor wall.

Due to their body shape, they assumed a posture where their chests jutted out excessively.

I averted my gaze and surveyed the spot where Helga had been tied up. It was empty. The curtains weren’t torn; they were simply slightly wrinkled in places, as if the knots had been undone.

I wondered if anyone had seen Helga while casting my eyes over the battle nuns who were still pressed against the wall. Upon noticing my gaze, the battle nuns shivered.

At this rate, getting a proper answer was going to be impossible. I would likely have to go search for it myself.

Slightly irritated, I headed into the mansion.

Stella had witnessed it.

She had seen the giant light beam descend from the radiant ‘Sun’ hanging in the sky to the mansion before her eyes.

She witnessed the sacred light spreading from the beam, creating a scene akin to a majestic mural.

Even in broad daylight, the shape of the moon was drawn beside the sun.

Stella saw it all with her own eyes.

No, it wasn’t just Stella. All the battle nuns present must have witnessed it too. And the Inquisitorial Judicator still outside the city likely saw it clearly as well.

In the short time that Stella stood firm on her two feet, she must have contemplated hundreds of times whether it was an irreverence not to kneel.

Her subordinates, the battle nuns, had already been kneeling on the ground, hands clasped, bowing in praise of the divine light that descended.

It was confusing. She came here after hearing the news that the Behemoth had resurrected, yet instead of the horrible, filthy aura of a demon, this brilliant and divine light erupted.

Stella, gathering her trembling body and mind, threw open the doors of the mansion. She needed to uncover the identity of that light mass quickly.

As she entered the mansion, it was filled with traces of demons everywhere. Concealed so subtly that an ordinary person would never notice, yet the Inquisitor’s eyes missed nothing.

However, despite being filled with evidence of demons, the uniquely disgusting odor of demons didn’t waft through at all. I guessed that light mass must have purified all the wickedness.

Clenching her trembling heart, she went up for a while longer and opened the only remaining door at the top floor of the mansion.

“Ahhh…”

Stella witnessed it.

Standing in the radiant light descending from the sun and moon, holding a weapon filled with divinity, she gazed indifferently upon the lifeless body of a demon. And the light mass surrounding the man.

It could be a blasphemous thought. It might even be an utterly irreverent thought.

For a brief moment, Stella felt that the man before her was much closer to the sun and moon than the Popes.

Once one’s values are shaken, it only takes a moment to plunge into confusion. Stella couldn’t even remember clearly what happened afterward due to the overwhelming chaos.

Though the Distinguished Guest kept asking her questions, she couldn’t recall what she answered. Or even if she had answered anything at all. She mumbled something, but whether it was an actual response remained a mystery.

In the end, perhaps the Distinguished Guest gave up; he entrusted the demon’s handling to Stella, patted her shoulder a few times, and went outside. A tingling pleasure surged through the shoulder he had touched.

Her body felt throbbing. It was a different kind of ache, an unfamiliar thrum.

“Oh God…”

Thus, once the figure of the Distinguished Guest disappeared before Stella, it was only natural for her to collapse in that spot.

For such a presence that exuded more divinity than a Pope was something that simply shouldn’t exist.

‘Of all times to arrive…’

Although we parted without many words, I couldn’t shake the discomfort at Stella’s dazed expression. She 100% saw it.

No, she couldn’t have missed it. A light beam of that size would have been visible anywhere in the city.

It was a massive light beam that came directly from the sky and was large enough to shatter the mansion’s ceiling; if she hadn’t seen it, she either lacked sight or could not observe it physically, or it was one or the other.

The fact that Stella came here meant we could stabilize the chaos faster, which was welcome news, but seeing the light beam was certainly not something to celebrate.

‘The battle nuns probably gathered all of them together.’

In the game, the Inquisitor mentions that she brought all her battle priests with her.

It would be one thing if they came late after hearing that the Behemoth was subdued, but if they had come specifically to subjugate the Behemoth, how many troops must they have mobilized?

This implied that it was highly likely that the battle nuns Stella brought with her to subjugate the Behemoth had witnessed the beam of light that plunged down from the sky.

And they would have likely reacted similarly.

‘Guess there’s no helping it.’

I accepted that. It was already spilled water, and there was no point in dwelling on it.

In any case, such an odd occurrence wouldn’t alter my status within the Holy Kingdom. At the moment I had been given a brooch as the esteemed guest of popes; my actual status was essentially right beneath the popes.

Those popes were close enough to ask me to use informal speech with them when no one else was around. So, perhaps I could be equal to or even more than the popes.

Not to mention that the Inquisitor and Inquisitorial Judicator were definitely on my side.

Stella and Selene both knew I caught the monster in the Holy Kingdom’s underground, and they were also aware of the fact that I had been involved with the Popes. Stella personally owed me a debt for Lucia.

With the Sun Pope, Moon Pope, Inquisitor, and Inquisitorial Judicator—the very core of the Holy Kingdom—on my side, the power I wielded was practically omnipotent.

Thus, even if another anomaly occurred, it wouldn’t lead to any dramatic changes.

‘Now, where should I find Helga… huh?’

I was pondering where to find Helga when I stopped in my tracks at the sound of footsteps approaching from the other end of the hallway. It was reminiscent of when the enchanted Helga had come searching for me.

But this time was different. The hair barely visible in the shadows was silver, and it was long enough to wrap around completely.

“Selene?”