Volunteering for the Golden Week (3)

Guilty was fairly middle-aged.

His appearance, which resembles a famous theater actor who retired and disappeared a few years ago, is clearly visible even from a distance.

Vikir recognized him at a glance.

'Tenth or ninth time!'

The face is different, but the foul essence inside is the same.

The stench that assaulted his nose was unmistakably demonic, weaker than it had been before his regression, but still intimidating enough.

Moreover, there was one more factor that added to Vikir's confidence.

It was the four shadows walking in an escorted circle around Guilty.

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.

Walking directly behind Quilty was a large, burly man in a suit. He wore a black sack over his face.

He wears a golden nameplate with the word "Ephebo" engraved on his chest.

Walking on either side of Guilty are two lanky men, also dressed in suits, with black sacks over their faces.

The words "Pedo" and "Hebe" are emblazoned on their chest pads.

And finally, the shadows walking in front of Guilty.

The shadow in front of him was a woman.

She was lithe and athletic, with a black sack over her face.

The nameplate on her chest read 'Geronto'.

Three men and a woman.

Vikir's attention was drawn to the man walking behind Guilty.

'...epebo, that must be him.'

Vikir knew him well.

I'd been with him once before, on an assassination mission.

I'd gotten so close, only to lose it when one of the structures self-destructed.

I bent a steel beam and impaled it all the way through its torso, and it ripped it off and ran away.

'It was an undead of the Advanced Graduator class. It used the blunt techniques of the Quorvadis, so it was tricky to deal with.

Vikir held his breath and waited for Guilty to pass.

Finally, Guilty, leading the four shadows, passed the wall where Vikir was hiding.

Moment.

[....]

Ephebo's head tilted to one side for a moment.

As if sniffing something.

Vikir stiffened and stuck to the wall.

Hiding in the lonely gap between wall and wall, in the shadows cast by the cabinets.

[....]

Ephebo turned his head a little further, in the direction of Vikir's hiding place.

Just then.

"Well, well, well."

Guilty's voice from the front snapped Ephebo's head back to its original angle.

Guilty was holding the hand of the fat man who had appeared earlier with a humanized smile on his face.

The fat man smiled back at Guilty.

"You've been so busy with this, I can't even see your face."

"Oh, well, there are so many noblemen who want to meet with me these days to repent for their sins."

"Me too, hehehehe. Speaking of which...."

The fat man turned to Guilty and said in a low voice.

"I'd like to buy some 'indulgences'."

"Indulgences, how much?"

"I'd like to buy about a billion gold."

Guilty replied with a smile.

"A billion gold, that's enough price for any crime. Have you killed anyone lately?"

"Heh, heh, heh – no, that's not a big deal, I have a little girl I bought a while back, but she's a barbarian, so she's a bit rude, and after I pampered her a bit, she couldn't stand it and ran away."

"Oh, so the slave was spoiled."

"That's right. Maybe it's because there's been a crackdown on illegal slaves lately, or maybe it's because the goods are being sold without warranties. Anyway, so I took my escorts and gave her a little discipline on the way to get her, but she didn't last long on the run... and then she just snapped and died."

"Hmm, so you're buying yourself a billion gold worth of immunity for just killing a slave girl?"

"Alas, no. On my way back from killing the slave girl, I got so frustrated that I stopped and burned down an entire village of farmers people I met on a mountain pass. I think I burned about thirty of the bastards to death."

"Hahaha, if that's the case, then 500 million gold should be enough, right?"

"Hehehe, the other 500 million gold is more like a 'tip' to a grateful god for forgiving my sins."

And the two men laughed coolly together.

Guilty nodded and said.

"That's a good idea," said Guilty, "in the Rune Religion, we're tolerant of human error, and as long as you're human, you're going to make mistakes and sin and stuff, so you can pay for it with an offering."

"That's right, whatever sin you commit, you pay for it in the offering."

"That's right, even if you're forcibly insulting a saint, you can still repent by paying an offering. Your soul goes from hell to heaven the moment your earthly coin clinks into the offering plate, which is also recognized by the former Cardinal of the Old Order of the Runes, His Holiness Humbert L. Quovadis."

Guilty and the fat nobleman walk to the end of the corridor, giving and taking.

Ephebo, Fedor, Hebe, and Geronto followed Guilty out of sight.

... Meanwhile, Vikir listened to the entire conversation.

His sense of smell was paralyzed by the disgusting smell of the corpse that Guilty had left in the hallway just moments before.

"It's suffocating."

Then.

A cold voice came from under Vikir's chin.

" ...Who doesn't want to be suffocated?"

Only then did Vikir retreat, thinking it was a mistake.

Dolores stared back at him, her face hard and icy.

Dolores, who had just stepped out of the gap in the wall, looked very displeased and accused Vikir.

"What did you just do?"

Vikir was at a loss for words.

He couldn't tell the truth about the existence of demons.

...?

Seeing that Vikir remained silent, Dolores seemed to misunderstand.

"Do you think I'm going to thank you for this futile consideration?"

"...?"

What was this again? Vikir looked up, puzzled.

Then Dolores snapped.

"You think I'm going to be uncomfortable with the author, Guilty! But no! I am not afraid to face him! How dare you treat me like a coward!?"

Vikir suddenly realized what Dolores had misunderstood.

She was misinterpreting Vikir's reason for hugging her and hiding between the walls.

She thought Vikir was trying to keep Dolores away from Guilty, or something like that.

So why was Dolores so uncomfortable about running into Guilty?

The answer can be found in a newspaper article I read not long ago.

[The Night Hound, the villain who terrorized the Imperial City, who is he?]

-March 0, last night at dawn. A mysterious creature appeared and ravaged the 00 nursery school...

[The Faithful House in Danger, is it okay as it is!?]

-Meanwhile, within the Quovadis family, the Old and New Order factions are currently at odds...

Some have criticized the family for being slow to respond to the terrorist crisis due to internal strife...

[Old Order vs New Order, Quovadis squabbling over terrorists!?]

-The battle between the Old Order and the New Order is as old as time, and the two factions have been at odds over whether or not the sale of "immunity charms" and "indulgence charms" by the denomination is justified...

[Is the "Night Hound" a real villain?]

-Whether this is a travesty created by the Old and New Orders, or the manifestation of a truly rare evil, remains to be seen...

There are two factions within the Quovadis of the Faithful.

The Old Order faction, led by Cardinal Humbert, and the New Order faction, led by Cardinal Martin Luther.

The Old Order and New Order factions differed in many ways, but one of the biggest differences was the acceptance or rejection of indulgences.

An indulgence was a certificate that excused a person from a sin, a sort of talisman.

The idea was that you had to pay a ransom equal to the weight of your sin to offset it.

The Old Order Rune Religion sold indulgences and collected vast sums of money to build a powerful organization.

They were mostly older, high-ranking priests.

The New Order, on the other hand, criticized the Old Order system and sought to reform it.

The younger, lower-ranking clerics were the members of the New Order faction.

St. Dolores was a prominent figure of the New Order, known as the 'awakened young blood.'

She was on a very different path from her father, Cardinal Humbert, the godfather of the Old Order, and the father-daughter relationship was known to be somewhat rocky.

Meanwhile, Guilty, who had just passed through the hallway, was a typical Old Order figure.

His family, the Indulgentia, was also one of the strongest pillars of the Old Order.

It's easy to imagine, then, that St. Dolores and Guilty, the orphanage's director, don't get along very well.

In fact, just a few moments ago, Guilty had said some very ugly things to Dolores.

'You know, even if you're forced to insult a saint, you can still repent by paying an offering.'

In hindsight, Guilty might have thought Dolores was hiding between the walls.

No, he must have known.

Is that why?

Dolores is so angry that tears are forming in her eyes.

Her normally gentle and calm voice shook precariously with emotion.

"This kindness is only an inconvenience, and my family's affairs are my own! How dare you say you know what...!"

What's more, Dolores didn't like Vikir in the first place because of all the trouble at school.

To her, Vikir was a lazy, negligent tardy student with a lazy attitude towards life, and a rude brat who didn't know much about the Night Hounds.

Dolores exploded with all of her stress and frustration at once: the shame of having her family's inner affairs exposed to an outsider, the self-loathing for wanting to hide in fear at the sight of Guilty, even if only for a moment, the subtle feelings she harbored for the Night Hounds who antagonized her family, and everything else.

"You're the worst!"

She was holding it together, but she was still young and immature.

With that, Dolores turned her back on Vikir and disappeared down the hall.

"...."

With her gone, Vikir was left alone.

'What the hell.'

It didn't matter that the saintess was angry right now.

In fact, thanks to Dolores' distraction, Guilty and Ephebo walked past Vikir without a second glance.

In many ways, this is lucky.

Vikir immediately began to follow Guilty.

It was daylight, so he was unmasked, but his eyes were already glowing an eerie blood red.

The night hound bared his teeth.