Chapter 513

Day 108 – Nighttime, the Theocracy, The City

There’s no such thing as perfect but I still tried to cover all the bases, and yet it ended up perfectly imperfect.. I even ran a re-simulation and it showed no issues, but the aftereffects remain. The rescued sisters seem to have lost all memory of their time in captivity, though faint emotional residue lingers. It looks like they’ve developed a fear of men. They keep their distance, glancing over nervously this way… Stripped, beaten, and nearly violated in public view, of course they were traumatized. I knew the technique was imperfect, but didn’t expect it to be this useless.

「Good morning, I guess? It’s already night though? Is your head alright?」

「Good morning, but if my head wasn’t fine, then nothing would’ve been fine at all! Why does it feel like you are picking a fight first thing after I woke up? A Highschool Boy that is not right in the head would have trouble with both Affection Rating and grades? My head’s totally fine, but my approval rating and graduation prospects look doomed for some reason? Strange, huh?」

Getting dissed right away. Did an isekai MC-battle just start up on me?! I don’t think I’ve ever been asked 『is your head alright』 before, but somehow it kinda hurt! Noticeable impact on HP. Pretty sure my Affection Rating just suffered instant death.

「Oh, already made dinner?」

「Yeah, the sisters insisted. Said serving feasts every day wasn’t good for the kids.」

「In the Theocracy, constantly eating at that level isn’t sustainable after all」

「Even out on the frontier, things started this way… until it turned into a casual gourmet city.」

「Here it’s the same as the frontier used to be, spices are luxuries, and they’re running out of food itself at the moment.」

「Cooking Club Girl took command, organized everything, and even gave lessons. At this level, she was basically unstoppable.」

「I worked hard! It’s been a while since I got to cook something proper.」

The Job-based penalties do have loopholes: you can’t use magic or enchanted tools, but you can still cook. Even that only prevents disasters, but you can at least attempt. The trick is how much are you able to disable your own skill effects.

That’s why eateries multiply so fast on the frontier. It’s because many people suffer culinary catastrophes thanks to Job penalties. Turning off a skill that you were born with isn’t something you figure out easily. This world enforces specialization, so development gets pretty warped. And there’s no such thing as 『Jobless』here. Even if you do nothing, you still count as a Villager or Townsperson. Isn’t that cheating?

「We confirmed the situation, finished with the planning, and the situation is under control, so you’re free to head out tomorrow, Haruka-kun.」

「She’s right. Even if we screw up again, we aren’t gonna lose. We can fight. So trust us.」

Well, even today, victory didn’t depend on saving everyone… And with such low levels and poor equipment, they never stood a chance against Pres and the others. Maybe the hostages would’ve died, but no harm would’ve come to the Girls. Those over level 100 can’t be compared to normal humans. The mind is a different issue however. There is no way they could remain calm and rational after being shown something like that…

So I went with oshiruko(sweet red-bean soup) for dessert. And wow, the looks. If they had buckets, they’d be eating straight from them. Those are some sharp, feral eyes. I guess the wounds cut deeper than I thought? Anger and joy are colliding in their gazes!

「All that… all that suffering we went through to eradicate them(calories)!」

「I swore today would be eight-tenths full, that this time I’d stop… and then oshiruko shows up!」

「I’ll eat it, then. If you don’t want yours, I’ll take it~. I can eat plenty and still be fine, you know~.」

「「「No! We’ll eat it! All those calories just go into… damn it, fall off or something!」」」

Since there wasn’t much glutinous rice left, I mixed in regular rice flour to make shiratama dango for the oshiruko. In the Kanto region, anything with a sweet bean soup base is called oshiruko, while mochi with red bean paste on the side is called zenzai. In contrast, Kansai draws the line differently, smooth koshian with soup is oshiruko, chunky tsubuan with soup is zenzai, and bean paste without soup is called Kameyama or Kintoki. By that definition, this one, with koshian in soup form, is the perfect textbook oshiruko-san. Well, all of them are delicious?

Among the girls there were many diehard shiratama believers, but I’m firmly in the mochi camp, so just dumplings felt a little lonely. But after I got caught sampling mochi dipped in sweet soy sauce yesterday, I couldn’t oppose them… I mean, their eyes were seriously crazy! Like actually scary! Mochi is terrifying. For real.

Even stretched with rice flour, the supply was too small, so shiratama-san was quickly annihilated. All that remains is the sweet azuki broth, previously known as oshiruko-san, now in name only, already being ladled out for seconds and on the brink of total annihilation too! Yeah, will have to put in an additional order for beans.

Day 108 – Nighttime, The Theocracy, Cathedral, the Pope’s Chamber

Crammed full of excessively gaudy ornaments to the point of vulgarity, the Pope’s Chamber was as fine a self-introduction to depravity as could be imagined. Of all things, austere poverty was what this place was furthest from. Its master, swollen with fat from a life without labor, twisted his repulsive face as he bellowed in a filthy voice.

「If there are no defeated survivors, then it couldn’t have been an annihilation. In the first place, to what could’ve they possibly lost? So moronic, they’ve deserted, obviously. Publicly execute their families as an example.」

「We cannot, Your Holiness. Such actions would stain Your name. Should desertions spread, it would disrupt Your reign. Now is the time to let Your divine authority be gently impressed upon the people. It is vital to grant them the chance to come to understand the weight of Your glory.」

The latest fad of a theatre play『The Kingdom’s Foolish King and the Dark-Haired Jester』 came to mind. This was no laughing matter. It wasn’t merely that a worst-possible king was about to emerge, it was that one had already come into being in all but name. If Princess Ariiel were captured and forced into marriage, the crown would pass to a tyrant, and this nation would fall under the rule of the worst imaginable king.

「Then leave no stone unturned and find them. If they dare defy the command of God’s own proxy, let torture teach them the meaning of that sin.」

「At once.」

But he had no intention of ruling, nor the capacity to do so. The Foolish King of that play was crushed by the very weight of power he’d wielded, blindly committing blunder after blunder. And here, too, a mad king was about to be born, one who cared nothing for lives or the future of the realm, but only for twisting power into a toy for his own desires.

Even with his own handpicked Church Knights, who were no different from his own private army, vanishing without a trace, he showed not the faintest concern for their wellbeing. Knowing only betrayal and conspiracy, he trusted no one, with execution and example seemingly being his two favourite words. And because of that, he could not take a step outside the sanctum, making him pathetic beyond words.

I could slay him, if I could get within striking distance. Even though that gilded robe is stuffed with enchanted artifacts, I could trade my life for his, but what would that change… A nest of madmen squabbling to snatch at power, clawing and butchering one another, could I kill them all? All of these degenerates who never leave the safety of the cathedral, who heal instantly through holy relics they keep only for their own protection, these wretched old swine drunk on power and death?

The madmen are cloistered in the cathedral, ignorant of what is going on outside, of the real world, just shrieking obscenely, clinging to power and yet destroying the country and the church like some children that got bored of their toy. If Princess Ariiel were ever captured, there has to be someone ready to free her. A pointless death is not permissible, yet the urge is unbearable. Ah, I want to cut, I want to cut, I want to cut, I want to cut, I want to cut, I want to cut, damn it, I want to cut them down!

Stepping out of the repulsive Pope’s Chamber, there were knights waiting outside the door.

「Captain, it seems Princess Ariiel has indeed returned to the city. They have yet to realize it, but the Church’s army appears to have been annihilated. Most likely, Reitesia is too…」

「A pity. Were it not for such circumstances, one day I would have entrusted the Knights of Precept to her. She was still young and foolish, but she had good eyes… To have her orphanage held hostage and be driven to hunt down the princess she owed so much, only to perish, what a cruel end to a life. All because of my incompetence as captain who couldn’t even protect the life of a youth… How tragic.」

Day 108 – Nighttime, The Theocracy, the City

It has become almost a customary thing, kind of like the rite of passage. Knight of Preceptor Reitesia had placed herself under Arianna-san’s banner for the sake of reclaiming the orphanage, and Arianna-san, in turn, had offered herself to us, begging for aid. The first time she came to us to ask for it, and ended up dragging us into it too. And so she became a comrade. That was why it came to this rite of passage… But the sisters, well, they really had no immunity built-up. Damn, they really came… Spectacularly. How cruel?

「Kyahhh! Ahhh, nooo, ahhhhnnn… ahh! Aaahh, hyahhh! Ahhh, ah, ah, ahhh…」

「Uwahhh, kkuh! Kuaaahhh, ahh, ahhh, ahhhh, ahhhhhh! Hiiiihh, hyahhh! Ahhh, ahhhhhh…」

Haruka-kun’s fully serious armor crafting, the gear one can fully entrust their life to. Gear so obsessively and overprotectively made that you can’t help but think『If I die even in this, then it can’t be helped』. Every micron of every detail, hammered into a full custom armor with zero compromise, absolute peak performance. And in exchange, even the most iron-willed and pure-hearted maiden would fall into frenzy. Over and over again, down they would go, dragged into delirium by this rite of passage, this maiden-slaying initiation: the crafting of full custom-made undergarments and inners! Yes, in exchange for that overwhelming, transcendent performance, came the equal price, maddening convulsive ecstasy, the kind of measuring that was… well, as a maiden, let’s just say it was a lot, in quite a few ways.

「Judging by those crazy screams, sounds like the measurements are going on? I guess it’s about the time Magic Hands have fully gotten into touching, Tentacle-san the squirming, and Magic Threads into rustling?」

「Yeah, since she is screaming like that she is doing fine yet… But soon adjustment and sewing will begin, which leave you barely able to gasp for air, every inch of your skin goes haywire. Sensory overload, straight to the brain?」

「To think such madness and delight existed, the kind that robs you of the very ability to faint… I never could have imagined it. That messes with your mind. I only hope she doesn’t break?」

By now he must be struggling desperately against the blindfold attendants, trying to keep his eyes shut, his face bright red while trying to keep a calm expression…

The blindfold attendants said they found it cute, but the person being measured has no time to care for such antics, both physically and mentally!

「D-d-d-don’t! Ahhh, ahhhnn! N-no, stopppp, kkuuhh… ahh, ahhh, ahhh!」

「Stoooppp! H-hyaaahhh! Uuuhhh, ahhh! Ukkhh, hyahhh! Ahhh, ahh, uhhhnn! …Ahhh!」

Her sobbing voice began to shake, sweet, heartrending cries of ecstasy mixed in, and by now her body must have lost all strength, unable to stand, she must now be hanging suspended by Nephertiri-san.

「Mmm, judging by that sound, seems like they’re doing a re-adjustment before the correction. Taking quite some time, huh?」

「First fitting, not much data to go on, right? That means the measuring gets extra thorough, and that makes it all the wilder, so she can’t help struggling.」

「Yeah, the way that voice sounds, they seem to be having trouble with adjustments her convulsing while tangled up by tentacles?」

「She’s holding up surprisingly well. Still able to make noise… Unexpectedly tough? Actually? Well, not like she can faint anyway.」

「Ah, but nuns do the stuff like singing hymns and giving sermons and such, right? Still, that only makes her more innocent? Despite the age?」

Born into royalty, raised as a princess, and then becoming a nun, Arianna-san is twenty-eight, yet astonishingly pure. Sheltered to the point of being utterly defenseless, collapsing even during a simple girls’ gathering, the very definition of a cloistered sister. And yet Arianna-san faced this trial with dignity… Even a Dungeon Emperor-san can’t bear that, so no matter how hard she tried, it’s simply impossible?

And then there was Reitesia-san, who had lived only for the sword and her faith, also at the same level of innocence as Arianna-san. Well, if being prepared or having prior knowledge makes no difference, better to get it over with quickly. So Haruka-kun earnestly explained the importance of equipment, and the risks to the two of them, while we all pressed close,asking in full miniskirt maid uniforms, pleading with him to do it. They even got the friend discounts.

「…ahh… hhkk… uuuhh…! …!! …!? …! !! !? !!!!…」

Looks like they’d reached the final adjustments. Whatever state they were in as maidens, it must be something incredible, time to prepare the rescue. Breathless cries, half sobs, half moans, their voices dripping with sensuality. It felt terribly sinful, but the scripture doesn’t forbid clothing, nor does it say measuring by tentacles is prohibited, so apparently there’s no doctrinal problem. There was never a true ascetic principle here anyway. While it warned against excess lust it had nothing against excessive tentacles or snakes.

「「「Good work, is it done?」」」

「Armor, the nun’s habit, the dress, finished. Underwear and inners, too. But the people in charge of blindfolding! Hey, you are going to tear off my eyelids! Agh, my eyes, my eyes! They’re supposed to keep them closed, so why are the people obsessed with prying them open are assigned to the job permanently!? Well, done, or more like over, or kinda, expired? Like, they aren’t moving a bit?」

The way the cloth clung to every contour of their bodies showed off the softness of the fabric, while its tight restraint transformed the pure nun’s habit into something dangerously sensual. Like a swimsuit, it highlighted the beauty of their forms, shadows playing over curves to make the outfit glow with depraved, carnal allure… Piety gone, purity nonexistent, modesty, what’s that? Are the thought that flashed across one’s mind when presented with that. But that skin-clinging embrace was no doubt the crystallization of low-MP consumption, high-efficiency defense. No gap in protection at all, and so perfect a fit it looked like body paint for a moment.

And so we bring back the two clergywomen, gasping faintly, their faces twisted into expressions a servant of God must never wear. Closing the door behind us, the screams of Dungeon Emperor-sans began to ring out… Even though they know that he’ll retaliate if they tease him too much they still…? Will their MP be all right tomorrow? He’s probably assaulting them in full gear right now, the cries show no sign of stopping. Yeah, he is dead serious!