Chapter 90: After Story: Post Management ~Snowball Chapter~
The priest sweated profusely, closed the door, and crawled into the corner of the room, curling up. Trembling, he prayed, O’ Goddess, can you hear me?
There is no justice here.
There is no salvation here.
There is no sanctity or mercy here.
There is only a lunatic here.
O’ Goddess, if that is the case, what exactly should I hope for and pray for?
Look. She is coming. The once noble one, now turned evil, is coming here to plunder the grace you bestowed.
If you truly watch over and love all things, look at my trembling self in the darkness and have mercy. Please, send me a rope of salvation.
If I have sinned, it is only for serving you for a long ti…
“No.”
Creak, thud. The door was lightly split in half.
The blood-soaked Saintess walked into the luxurious room. The room was decorated with expensive jewels, and the scattered gold coins on the floor were trampled under her heels, but she didn’t give them even a glance.
After all, she was not here for money.
She was here to settle old scores.
“If you slap on ‘for the sake of God,’ the sin itself might just disappear. But hatred? That doesn’t evaporate. Watch closely. The reason you have to die is spelled out right there.”
Thud. The Saintess let the scroll drop from her hand.
The blood-stained evidence of sin unfolded. The rolled scroll revealed everything. Embezzlement of offerings. Human trafficking of orphans from the Temple Orphanage. Harassment of female priests. Hiding Black Wizards.
The weight of sins tightened around his neck, making the plump priest gasp. And then, as a sacred glow flickered from his fingertips, he cried out like a pig.
“The Goddess… the Goddess has forgiven me…! I haven’t lost my Divine Power yet, this, this is a just reward for my miserable childhood in the back alleys! The Goddess is protecting my righteousness—!”
“You seem to be spinning some fantasy. The reason you’re dying isn’t that you’re immoral or hobnobbing with Black Wizards. Those are just side effects. Read the last line again.”
His eyes darted about. At the end of the scroll, filled with a list of sins, one word was written in blood. Revenge. A simple and clear form of hatred.
An aged, hateful gaze latched onto the priest.
“I might have spared you if you had done many good deeds in the past. Or… if you’d been a little corrupt but had helped many people. I would’ve pushed my hatred down. There are other scoundrels I could kill instead of you, you know.”
But that wasn’t the case. The Saintess drew the Demonic Sword.
“The scales have tipped. Your kindness couldn’t shield you from my hatred, and your wickedness only ignited it. You… are dying here because you failed to save my parents.”
The priest’s eyes darted frantically, trying to find a way out. But all the wealth he had amassed couldn’t stem the tide of seething hatred. If only he had bought a magic scroll instead of all these shiny gold coins.
If only he had hired mercenaries for protection instead of accumulating glittering jewels!
“『Hound That Protects the Goddess』…!”
The priest summoned his Divine Power. Despite all his sins, the Goddess hadn’t taken away his power. So he believed the Goddess would watch over him this time too. He was a chosen one…!
The Saintess, looking down at the shining shield, quietly muttered.
“『Thorns of Lament』, absorb.”
Crunch, crack!
Thorny vines shattered the priest’s decaying shield and coiled around his plump body. The sharp thorns dug into the flesh that had been fattened by someone’s blood and tears. And then, the Divine Power was drained.
No, it was being siphoned away. The Saintess was stealing the Divine Power bestowed by the Goddess! The priest twisted in agony and screamed.
“NO, NO──!!”
“Now then, the Divine Power that justified your evil deeds is gone. Want to try saying it again? That the Goddess has forgiven you?”
“Goddess, merciful Goddess! Please, please give me Divine Power…!!”
“I bet it’ll be too late this time as well, you know…?”
The Saintess sneered.
A moment later, Saintess Tara sheathed the Demonic Sword and exited the scene. All that remained was a dried-up corpse, completely drained of both life and Divine Power.
Only the statue of the Goddess hanging on the wall bore witness to such judgment.
===============================================================
Slurp.
Tara sucked up lemonade through a straw and said, “And that’s what happened.”
[Can you even talk about that so lightly?]
“I killed them all. So what? The crucial thing is, I can use Divine Power! Since I stole it, I can’t recover it, though…”
Tara’s Metamorphosis trait: Absorption.
Instead of praying to the Goddess for Divine Power, she extracted and stored it from corrupt priests. That’s why she could keep up the act as the Saintess.
Tara extended her hand and unleashed Divine Power directed at Bennett’s face. Buzzzzz. Because it was merely the emission of energy, without constructing Divine Magic, it only had a slight healing effect and caused temporary blindness.
Bennett squinted from the bright light.
“Stop wasting Divine Power.”
“Why notttt? If I run out, I can just munch on another corrupt priest.”
[That expression might be a bit lewd…]
“What are you talking about, Niolle! You little—!”
While Tara pounced on Niolle like a tiger and tugged at her cheeks, Bennett sipped his coffee and pondered. The Goddess and Divine Power… seemed to operate on an entirely different paradigm compared to what was generally known.
At least, they lacked the function to take power away. Or they might not intend to.
Otherwise, how would Tara, who was siphoning Divine Power from a corrupt priest, still be standing there intact? And how could a priest, riddled with sins, use Divine Power so casually? It simply didn’t make sense, did it?
“…Is there some secret? In the Church of the Goddess?”
“Well, I don’t care about that. And I don’t even want to know. Not knowing doesn’t hinder my ability to exploit the Church of the Goddess at all~”
[Please let go of my cheeks.]
“So, the Second Prince’s faction actually… decided to join us? Bennett.”
Bennett nodded. The details of his conversation with the Crazy Wizard were fully shared with the group. Interestingly, as Bennett predicted, Tara had cried. Thanks to her sobbing antics, Tara ended up getting Abraham’s necklace.
Tara thought for a moment, then quickly devised a plan with the cards she held.
“There are decent priests inside the Church of the Goddess who are wary of corruption. They were gathering people by… ‘excommunicating’ corrupt priests, so I think it’s about time to set the stage.”
“Are you planning to create a new faction within the Church of the Goddess using the Second Prince’s political position?”
[Please let go of my cheeks.]
“Yeah. Let’s give it a fitting title… something like the 『Reformation Faction』.”
Preparations were rolling out astonishingly well. They even felt capable of putting up a fight against the long-stagnated high-ranking officials of the Church of the Goddess.
The power to label someone as ‘abandoned by the Goddess’ simply by siphoning their Divine Power.
The force temporarily formed by gathering the decent priests.
The political backing provided by the Second Prince.
“…And to announce the formation of the 『Reformation Faction』, I’m thinking about using your name, Bennett. We’re lacking any achievements to draw people in, you see.”
“In what way?”
[Cheeks.]
“Like that professor said. You’ll be a double agent, secretly dispatched by the Saintess. So all your achievements… will essentially become mine, too!”
“I think the few tidbits of information I brought aren’t enough for that.”
“If stopping the evil plan targeting the Academy is considered sufficient merit, then that should be enough… wait?!”
Bennett’s trained reflexes kicked in quickly. While Niolle was teased with cheek-pulling, she delivered a killer counter. She slipped her hands into the side holes of Tara’s Saintess attire.
At that moment, Bennett had already closed his eyes. He could foresee the visual explosion that was about to detonate.
“W-W-W-Where the heck are you groping…?!”
[You were too enamored by Bennett, so you didn’t listen to me.]
“Do you think I don’t have hands, too?!”
[⋯⋯⋯⋯!!]
Bennett briefly pondered before manipulating mana to form a thin barrier over his ears. He relinquished his hearing too. He indulged in a brief tea time amid the serene darkness.
And he pondered.
The Crazy Wizard seemed to be sympathetic to their cause. Was it because saving another world held some significance? However, the Second Prince was different.
Second Prince Irid had mixed reviews. Some viewed him as suspicious and sly, while others claimed he cared for his subjects and was capable. The latter was probably just propaganda leaked intentionally to present a benevolent image for the Second Prince, so…
If he’d established a cooperative relationship with a dubious royal, it was wiser to show sincerity to ensure things flowed smoothly.
Poke. Someone poked Bennett’s cheek. Bennett removed his mana earplugs and reopened his eyes. He then shifted his gaze between the two to identify the cheek-poking culprit.
Blushing Faces all around! They were both bright red, with their clothes rumpled and disheveled. Niolle was clutching a whiteboard to cover her chest, while Tara was vigorously fanning herself.
Bennett shut his eyes again.
“…Wasn’t it better to just pat my shoulder?”
“Guess who did it. If you get it wrong, you’ll face punishment, Bennett.”
“It was you.”
[Wrong, Bennett. It was me. Now you have to take the punishment…]
“Let us, finish our, discussion here.”
Bang, bang, bang. Bennett pounded on the table. If he left an opening, another attack would surely follow. He needed to strike while the iron was hot. He quickly laid out his agenda.
“How about bolstering the Crazy Wizard as a way to indirectly give a gift to the Second Prince’s faction?”
“Bolster him?”
“By widely announcing that we achieved Metamorphosis through his lectures, we can bolster his reputation as a professor, which will naturally empower him.”
[That will also benefit Tara’s faction, wouldn’t it? It would serve as good publicity since it would highlight two individuals at the Metamorphosis level, after all…]
It was time to reveal their claws instead of hiding them. The discussion came to a close, and Bennett quickly slipped away before they could apprehend him.
Later…
Saintess Tara revealed that her earlier feeble demeanor had been an act and announced that she had thwarted the Black Wizards’ plan to invade the Academy. Simultaneously, she declared the formation of the 『Reformation Faction』 within the Church of the Goddess, urging for reform and gathering like-minded allies.
During the same period, rumors started circulating that the Crazy Wizard’s eccentric lecture – famed for its indiscernible illusion magic or perhaps dungeon implementation – had already caused two students to awaken to Metamorphosis.
Tara actively spread this information, but it was too hard to believe at face value, so it remained as mere gossip. Yet, it was unmistakable; public opinion began to sway. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, as they say.
Bennett received a message from the Black Wizards. It was a death threat for his supposed betrayal, but he answered with the following excuse.
‘The Black Wizards had already been apprehended en masse by the Crazy Wizard, and the core of the plan had collapsed. I deemed it more beneficial to feign defection and infiltrate. I am still aligned with the Black Wizards. Please do not harm my little sister.’
Subsequently, the Black Wizards applied immense pressure on Bennett. One day, a box containing a severed finger was delivered to him.
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
It could have been his sister’s finger.
He was already mentally prepared for this. He reasoned that some chaos was necessary to find a gap in the Black Wizards’ defenses. Given that his sister’s body is that of the 『Corpse Flower that Consumes Fear』, he believed they wouldn’t dare harm her.
However, did the Black Wizards regard the situation as more threatening than he anticipated? Nevertheless, it was fine. He was sure he could rescue his sister. He could always reattach a finger later.
Bennett tenderly wrapped the finger, whose identity remained a mystery, in a clean cloth and kept it safe.
Bennett waited for the right opportunity. He didn’t intend to continue deceiving them indefinitely. Now that the Academy invasion plan was thwarted, the Black Wizards would surely adopt a new course of action… And when that time came, he would seize that one chance to use the ticket.
That moment would come sooner than expected.
Very, very soon.
===============================================================
The Church of the Goddess was naturally the most chaotic setting amid these upheavals. The sacred meeting hall, where noble and high-ranking priests flaunted their gold rings, had devolved into absolute pandemonium, akin to a bustling flea market.
Shouts erupted among the priests, veins bulging in their necks.
“What were the ones managing the Saintess doing?!”
“Didn’t you say she was just a rebellious kid? Not a single soul caught wind of her shady scheming?!”
“Excommunicate her immediately! It’s simple to rope her past conduct into it!”
Amid the chaos, the old Cardinals at the core of power spoke discreetly. No matter how much the others squawked and complained, nothing would change. Ultimately, everything associated with the Church of the Goddess revolved around the secret dialogues of the Cardinals.
“Tara, that child took the Academy’s class and achieved Metamorphosis. In just two weeks… Can you believe it?”
“The…’Crazy Wizard’ is known to be aligned with the Second Prince’s faction. I suspect it’s a political move to bolster the Second Prince. Metamorphosis isn’t something that just happens overnight.”
“That clever little one must have been sharpening her knife in the shadows. Dressing ridiculously to appear foolish… And hiding the fact that she had awakened Metamorphosis. That must be how it unfolded.”
“I thought the Second Prince was a fool… when did he start scheming with the Saintess? Given the situation, it seems the real mastermind is not Tara but the Second Prince, doesn’t it?”
“The Second Prince… that young man has a frighteningly calculating mind.”
Whispering, whispering.
The Cardinals reached a conclusion. Considering that the faction of the Second Prince was gaining power daily, they needed a cunning plan to oust Saintess Tara. For now, they had to bide their time.
They crawled towards the young Pope on their knees, whispering softly.
“Your Holiness, let’s hold off on the matter of Saintess Tara for the time being. The Goddess urges us to uphold caution.”
“Your Holiness, while permitting the 『Reformation Faction』 of Saintess Tara, let’s send someone to monitor if they are truly on the righteous path. We are concerned whether their intentions will be used rightly.”
“Your Holiness…”
Then, the six-year-old Saint Betio, who had ascended to the papacy at such a tender age, parroted the old Cardinals’ words.
“Permit the 『Reformation Faction』, but I’ll send someone to monitor if they are genuinely walking the righteous path. And…”
Mutter, mutter. Thus, it was decreed.
===============================================================
Second Prince Irid couldn’t help but ask once more. This was his third time hearing it, and he hadn’t forgotten what he heard before. But still, he felt the need to hear it again.
“Say that to me again. What did you say?”
“Codename Crazy Wizard has captured a large number of Black Wizards. Additionally, he thwarted a Named Black Wizard’s plan to target the Academy.”
“And?”
“He awakened two students to Metamorphosis. He turned one Black Wizard to our side, acquired intel, and facilitated the forming of a new faction in close cooperation with the Saintess. This faction is at odds with the existing forces in the Church of the Goddess.”
“Anything else?”
“As a result, the Church is targeting us. They believe Your Highness the Second Prince is the mastermind. That is all.”
Irid pondered deeply, then inhaled deeply, placing his nose close to the rosemary in the vase. Please, grant me strength, Centra.
“Very well, I had aimed to cleanse the corrupt clergy anyway. I planned to brandish my sword after ascending the throne, but if they provoke us first, I shall not shy away from a fight. Prepare.”
“Understood, Your Highness.”
“And…”
Irid massaged his temples with his thumb and forefinger. Thanks to the Crazy Wizard, he gained achievements without lifting a finger, but, simultaneously, he also accrued enemies without doing anything. He felt deeply unsettled.
The clergy had entrenched power hard over many years. Even after seizing the throne, he anticipated a long-term struggle, yet already he was embroiled in conflict with them.
Although clearing out the Black Wizards from the Academy was undeniably a monumental accomplishment… he felt more vexed than proud of the wizard. Irid spoke, burning with indignation.
“Tell the Crazy Wizard… that I want to meet him one of these days.”
“Does this mean you wish to reward him?”
“Oh, absolutely. Of course, we do. Prepare some gold bars. Big and hefty ones.”
However, you’re going to have to take it with your face, Crazy Wizard…
===============================================================
At the same time, in the Crazy Wizard’s laboratory.
The Wizard, after pacing for a while, finally confided in the Tower Master. It was because his long-dormant conscience had finally awakened due to recent events.
“You know, I’ve been thinking… it feels like I might’ve wronged the Second Prince.”
“…Eung?”
“I heard he still can’t get over Centra. If he ends up single for life because he’s infatuated with a nonexistent fictional beauty… I’d essentially be the one who’s blocking a perfectly decent bachelor’s chance at marriage.”
“Uh, uh-uh, e-eung?”
The sin of twisting Irid’s fate, who could’ve married a fitting bride and lived happily ever after. How should he go about resolving this? Since he caused the ailment, shouldn’t he be the one to provide the remedy as well?
Irid requires treatment. That was what the Crazy Wizard believed.
“So… I’m considering introducing him to a real woman. One who truly exists, so he can find a new love.”
⋯⋯⋯⋯!!!
The Tower Master silently shrieked at this unexpected announcement foreshadowing the demise of the Irid-Centra pure love story.
I must stop this…!!
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