Chapter 183.
"Shield of Holy Light!" Sure enough, Hillis easily blocked the priests’ attack.
Hillis was a full madosa who had already completed her domain proclamation. Just looking at her total amplified divine power, one could see that it was close to a great madosa. Therefore, there was no way a madosa would get done in by some small fry magic that wasn’t even close to the level of a great magician. [1]
"What?! Such pure and powerful divine power!"
The priests were shocked and speechless, and Hillis put her hands together as if she were praying and poured all kinds of buffs on me. "Great Mother! Give guidance to the young lost lamb, the boundless courage and strength to leave the road, and clear judgment and blessing so that he will not wander!"
With the rapid-fire incantations, I received mana amplification, stamina restoration, strengthened muscles, and clarity of mind. Dozens of buffs arrived at once. [2]
"The sword of righteousness he holds is unbreakable and unyielding; I hope the Holy Spirit will always be with him!"
Hillis then cast all kinds of buffs once more, but this time on my weapon, the goddess statue. With this amount of buffs, one could discover that she was the saintess. I tried to hide her identity as the saintess until the very end, but oh well.
"How? Impossible!" The archbishop seemed to have a vague sense of his predicament after seeing Hillis’s divine power.
"Now, let’s finish this!"
I raised the goddess statue, which shined brilliantly with Hillis’s divine power. As I rushed toward the archbishop, the moment I tried to swing the goddess statue, a brilliant golden ray of light began to leak through as a huge crack was made in the goddess statue’s plaster.
"Huh, what?! What’s happening?!"
I had strengthened it with all kinds of magic and surrounded it with sword aura, so there was no way it would break like this. However, the goddess statue contained the enormous divine power from Hillis and exuded a strange power. It was obviously divine power, but it was also too violent and temperamental to be called divine power.
Within the brilliant light emitted from the goddess statue, not only the plaster shell but also the golden goddess statue turned into powder. The goddess statue completely disappeared, and from it came a very short sword handle which was about 15 cm long. I subconsciously grasped the blade-less handle.
"Huh? Huuuh?" Then, like a starved baby, it began to suck out my mana. Surprised, I tried to release my grasp, but it stuck to my hand and wouldn’t fall off.
First, I blocked the mana going to the plain handle. If I tried to let go, it would definitely consume all of my mana and still have room left over. When the supply of mana suddenly halted, the handle stopped sucking up my mana regretfully. Then, from the hole where the blade was missing, the handle began to vomit out divine power by replacing the mana it had sucked from me.
"Argh!" The series of incidents occurred in a blink of an eye, so the archbishop could not avoid it, and his right arm, which was holding a religious decoration, flew away.
The massive sword blade of divine power that swallowed the archbishop’s right arm blew away the roof of the great temple. When the upper part of the largest building in the capital, second only to the imperial palace, disappeared, everyone froze on the spot.
"Holy... Sword."
At someone’s voice, the priests on the ground began to shout and cheer.
"It’s the Holy Sword that was lost!”
"Wow! My God!"
What? No, wait. What are these people saying? The handle in my hand is the Holy Sword?
"Wait, how is a heretic holding the Holy Sword?”
Someone pointed out that I was called a heretic. Yet, the situation flowed entirely differently from how I assumed it would turn out.
"There’s no way a heretic would be able to handle the Holy Sword!"
"It’s the legendary hero-nim!"
What? A hero? What nonsense are you saying?
"Hero-nim! Ahhh! Without knowing, this lowly one attacked you!"
The priests on the ground began to kneel one by one and pray in repentance.
"Please forgive us, Hero-nim!"
The archbishop, grabbing the shoulder where his arm was torn off, shouted at the priests who prayed for forgiveness, "Don’t be misled! It’s all the heretic’s trick!"
No one listened to the archbishop, who was crying out in a cold sweat. I thought for a moment whether I should resolve the priests’ misunderstanding.
Well, do I really need to resolve it? I’ll just take advantage of the misunderstanding.
"Listen, children of the Great Mother!"
At my cry, the priests looked up at me in unison. I raised the Holy Sword for the sake of the performance.
"Woooow!"
"Hero-nim!"
Their response was much better than I anticipated. I thought that I was looking at such fanatical religious people that they were capable of giving me goosebumps. I guessed that their gazes right now were perhaps similar to the one they always looked at Hillis with. Then, I realized that she didn’t go around hiding her role as the saintess for no reason.
Well, these are people I’ll never see again, so let’s go all out.
"Look at this!" I scattered the papers documenting the corruption committed by the archbishop into the air. There were so many that even though it was roughly scattered on the floor, it was enough for the priests on the ground to read through them.
"No!" The archbishop used magic to try and burn the documents but was interrupted by Hillis and I’s magic.
"This is all corruption found in the archbishop’s room! And this is!"
I presented the document that proved the archbishop was in league with heretics. Just in case they couldn’t see it because it was too far away, I kindly magnified it in mid-air. "This is proof that this wicked man has been in league with heretics!"
"No, no!" The archbishop became pale as he denied it. No matter how greedy you are for mithril, you shouldn’t be getting involved with the Demon King worshipers.
I lightly bound the archbishop with a magic chain. At the same time, I cut off the archbishop’s magic circuit so that he couldn’t use his divine power recklessly.
"Uahhhhhhh!” The archbishop screamed and convulsed.
"Look at this heretic suffering from the power of the Holy Sword!"
Actually, he was in agony due to the explosion of mana after his mana circuit was cut off, but the truth didn’t really matter.
I threw the archbishop among the shocked priests and said, "I’ll leave it to you all to dispose of him."
In this case, it seemed that the original purpose of saving the Angel’s House was achieved, so I ran away before more priests with fanatic gazes came to cling to me.
"Please wait! Hero-nim!” The priests reached their hands out to me from behind and shouted, but I simply ignored them.
When I landed in a moderately deserted place with Hillis coming along, she looked at me with a complicated face. "You, you are a hero?”
I sighed at Hillis’s serious expression. "There’s no way that can be true, right? Why are you acting like that as well?”
When I gave a fed-up look, Hillis hesitated and looked at the Holy Sword. "But I heard that the Holy Sword is only usable to the hero chosen by the Goddess."
"What happened just before was only a reaction to your divine power. Look, it’s just a sword handle now."
The Holy Sword, which had been emitting divine power, was quiet. Hillis tilted her head at my reply. "Hmm, no? It definitely felt very different from my divine power."
This different feeling occurred because the Holy Sword replaced my mana with divine power.
"Ayy, what’s different? It’s just your divine power."
"Really? Then what about how the Holy Sword was in the goddess statue passed down through your house?"
Oh, yeah. I told such a lie.
"It was just empty talk when I said it was passed down through my house. It’s only a goddess statue I bought from somewhere. It’s a coincidence."
Actually, considering that it was the golden goddess statue stolen from the great temple, the Holy Sword was not lost but just hidden. It was so well hidden that it was mistaken for being lost.
"Here, take it. I don’t need something like this."
When I handed the Holy Sword to Hillis, Hillis was flustered. "This is the Holy Sword, and you’re just gonna give it to me? Even though it’s one of the four god swords?”
"Where is a civil servant supposed to use this? It’s a divine object, so you should just take it."
Hillis burst into laughter when I tried to dump the blatantly bothersome item onto her. "Puhut! Normally in these scenarios, aren’t you supposed to say you’re the hero or something?”
"A hero? I’ll absolutely deny such a nuisance. I’d rather run away than be a hero. Oh, if you’re going to give me money, I won’t refuse." I needed money because I didn’t have enough cash.
"Hahaha! Snobby, much?" Hillis smiled and took the Holy Sword from me.
"Hmm?"
"Huh?"
To be specific, she tried to take it. The Holy Sword in my hand wouldn’t come off.
"You didn’t attach it with magic, did you?"
"No way." I shook my head at Hillis’s question.
Hillis said with a serious look, "In the end, I think the Holy Sword... Has chosen you to be its master."
"Haha, no way.”
I wish you wouldn’t make such terrible jokes. If I keep carrying this thing around, that means I’ll have to receive the creepy eyes of the fanatics again.
"...Really?"
Hillis nodded at my question. "Really."
This was the moment when I, who had no faith, became the master of the Holy Sword.
Damn it.
* * *
Late in the morning, I had a cup of tea with Mrs. Arscilla, absolutely carefree. I ended up going to sleep late last night since I robbed the great temple with Hillis and Lisbon, but I woke up early in the morning to work Lisbon hard. Thanks to this, Lisbon became more dead than alive and was struggling on the sofa.
"Oh my, this is a decoration I haven’t seen before?” Mrs. Arscilla looked at the Holy Sword dangling on my waistband and asked.
It was shaped like a sword handle, but it was short at just 15cm, so it did kind of look like a decoration.
"Oh, I just picked it up on the street."
If it had been a normal item, I would have stuck it in my pocket space, never to take it out again. However, perhaps the reason the goddess statue didn’t enter my pocket space was because of this sword, as the Holy Sword did not enter the pocket space in the same manner. Even if I wanted to throw it away, it came back like a boomerang if it was parted from me for longer than a certain period.
"Hohoho, it looks luxurious for something you just picked up."
"Hahaha, is that so?"
Mrs. Arscilla and I enjoyed the refreshments while chatting.
"Then, are you back to work from now on?”
I nodded. "Yes, I’m off to work in the afternoon, so I still have time."
Alice and Yuria left the boarding house early in the morning to meet Milpia and someone named Aria. Now that school was just around the corner, they seemed to be preparing for something.
Mrs. Arscilla clapped her hands and smiled. "That’s a relief. It was decided all of a sudden, but we’re going to have a new boarder today. It would have been lonely without one of our boarders to welcome, right?”
"A boarder?"
When I returned the question with some uneasiness, Mrs. Arscilla nodded. "Yes, it’s about time for her to arrive soon....”
As soon as she spoke, I heard the doorbell.
"Oh! She must be here."
Mrs. Arscilla got out of her seat and stepped out to the front door. When Mrs. Arscilla opened the front door, a familiar face waved from outside.
"Hi, nice to see you again, Den." It was Hillis who was standing outside the door.
"Oh my, do you two know each other?”
When Mrs. Arscilla asked, surprised, Hillis nodded. "Yes, we do. Missus, we’re very close. Is Brother Lisbon-nim inside?"
"Do you know Lisbon, too, Miss Hillis?”
"Yes, I do, Missus."
Hillis smiled kindly and shook my hand. "I look forward to working with you, Hero-nim."
I could only smile at Hillis’s whisper. Dang it.
1. magician
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