“Mm... Muen, I want more...”

That lewd little voice echoed through the carriage. Liya writhed in Muen’s arms like a water snake, her soft, full body rubbing back and forth against him. Especially where those two mischievous white rabbits collided with his firm chest, it was all too easy for a person to lose themselves in the soul-leaving pleasure of it.

“Hold on.”

But after fully savoring the jelly-soft touch and sweetness of those lips, Muen still hardened his heart and pushed Liya away.

“This is not the time to be playing this kind of game.”

“No... I want to...”

Liya refused to listen. Tugging at the Saintess gown that had already slipped half open, she moved in closer again. Left with no choice, Muen could only put on a stern face and deliver a hard smack to the pert backside of this little temptress, whose hands had already begun restlessly groping toward a very important part of him.

“Behave yourself.”

“Mnnh... meanie...”

Beneath her dress, the flesh rippled beautifully, a sight surely more stirring than the ripples on the loveliest lake in the world. Sadly, there was no one present to admire it.

Pouting from the sting, Liya glared fiercely at the unromantic villain before her with eyes full of moisture, clearly still unsatisfied with what had just been interrupted.

“What are you looking at? Your little head is full of nothing but naughty thoughts all day long. And you call yourself the pure Saintess? Go sit down.”

Muen smacked her again.

That exquisite feel nearly made him surrender for real and let this little enchantress steal his soul away. Fortunately, as a hundred-percent purebred macho man whose life mission was to be the one on top, his willpower was strong enough that he had not fallen for the trap of this shamelessly seductive Saintess.

“Hmph... I’m not lewd at all!”

Liya grumbled as she straightened her disheveled collar. With an offended little swish of her hips, she went and sat across from Muen.

The inside of the carriage was very cramped. Sitting there meant she was bound to brush against the other girl—a beautiful maid who had been forced to watch several solid minutes of kissing and whose anger had long since nearly burned her composed face into that of a demon. But Liya showed not the slightest fear. If anything, after glancing at An beside her, she only grew even unhappier.

She had not had enough of committing the outrage “right in front of the wife.” If it did not go all the way to the last step, then how could she experience the true thrill? And how could it count as complete revenge against this maid who loved putting on airs?

What a pity, what a shame, what a hateful... damn it!

Still, Liya was only annoyed for a moment. She knew perfectly well this was obviously not the time for that kind of thing. What she had just done had merely been deliberate acting spoiled in front of Muen.

“All right, stop thinking about weird things and hurry up and treat An.”

Muen stole a glance toward An. That look of humiliation staining her normally poised face shook his heart hard as well.

To be honest, this was the first time he had ever seen An in such a bedraggled state.

The little maid who usually squeezed everyone dry had actually crashed and burned one day, and on someone who looked as harmless as Liya, no less. All he could say was that the world truly was full of strange wonders.

Rather like how Ariel, who in the original story had been the heroine chosen by destiny and had even built herself a proper harem, currently had combat skills so weak it was almost tragic.

“I refuse to treat her.” The pure Saintess who looked harmless to all proudly lifted her chin.

“Is that so...”

Expressionless, Muen raised his authentic yellow-haired invisible shameless-groping hand.

“Do you want to end up looking like her too?”

“I...”

Liya’s voice faltered, and that proud neck of hers slowly drew back in again.

As a stable participant in every chaotic melee, she knew very well how terrifying the destructive power of Muen’s shameless wandering hand could be under certain circumstances.

If it were an ordinary time, that would be one thing—she would welcome it gladly. But An was right here beside them right now, and Liya had no intention of embarrassing herself like a certain shameless little slut from before.

“Hmph. Lucky you.”

Her cheeks puffed out adorably. Though unwilling in every possible way, Liya still cast the highest-tier Holy Light spell and treated An.

The Holy Light was warm as fire. It not only filled the emptiness in An’s body, but also greatly relieved her mental exhaustion. Her spiritual power could not be restored, but at the very least, An was no longer in the state of being unable to tie up a chicken.

And as her strength began to return, An’s expression turned cold. Icy steel immediately began gathering in her hand—

“An.”

Muen had expected this. His voice dropped.

“You sit properly too.”

“Young Master...”

“This isn’t the time for infighting. Whatever grudge you’ve got, settle it later.”

Muen sighed.

“When the time comes, you can change locations and play however you want. I can even play with you, if you like. But right now, there are more important matters. Understood?”

“...”

An fell silent.

The curtain of the carriage fluttered lightly in the wind. Although all outside presence had already been fully shut out, An could still sense that a tremendous spell had begun to operate.

Yet such a vast spell was not being used to destroy something, nor even, in a way, to save something. It was merely being used to clean up the aftermath of the great crisis that had taken place not long ago.

But even calling it “cleanup,” An knew, despite having sat in the carriage the entire time, that that great crisis was no more than a few ripples stirred up by something truly tremendous that was happening right now.

Of course, none of that was important.

What was important was that this was Young Master’s order.

“All right. I’ll spare this thing for now.”

Looking at Liya’s smug face, An took several deep breaths and kept repeating to herself for Young Master, for Young Master, for Young Master until at last she fully suppressed the urge to strike.

She quietly recorded this humiliation in her heart. Then she straightened her clothes, neatly pinned her loose hair back up behind her head, restored herself to her usual elegant and dignified appearance, and sat upright.

“Next time, I’ll pay back this humiliation tenfold.”

“Hmph. Next time, I’ll continue what I didn’t get to finish—also tenfold!”

“You’ll regret it.”

“Bleh. Who’s scared of you?”

“All right, all right.”

Muen covered his face helplessly.

“You two aren’t children. Do you really have to be this petty? Be quiet, both of you. We’re talking about serious business.”

“...”

At last, both of them fell quiet.

Although from time to ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) time there were still little clashes going on in secret—one jabbing the other, the other poking back, even sneaking in a clash or two between tiny Holy Light weapons and steel sickles behind his back—Muen chose to pretend he saw none of it.

“First, Liya’s side of things.”

Muen pulled the carriage curtain aside just a crack and peered outside.

The golden curtain still obscured everything. No mere naked eye could see through such a grand Holy Light barrier, but Muen still seemed to glimpse the bloody scene beyond it.

Before the Church—that massive machine of violence—the hundreds of thousands of Kingdom troops who had already been classified as “beasts” were no more than livestock in a slaughterhouse.

The only real question was how long that hellish bloodbath would take.

After all, that was several hundred thousand people. Without using outrageous power on the scale of, say, the Withering Divine Favor Muen had once detonated directly in the Lost Land, even if they were several hundred thousand pigs, it would still take a very long time to kill them all.

“What does the Church plan to do next?” Muen asked directly.

“Mmm... probably split into two groups.”

Liya answered just as straightforwardly. Though this was internal Church intelligence, she showed not the slightest intention of hiding it.

After all, Muen was an Honorary Holy Knight personally appointed by His Holiness the Pope. Rounded off, that made him practically one of the Church’s own people, so of course this did not count as violating any rules.

“Split into two groups?”

“Mhm. One group will be led personally by my teacher, together with several violence organs directly under the Holy Halls, to deal with those several hundred thousand poor souls.”

Now that the conversation had turned serious, even the secret skirmishing between the two women finally died down. Resting her chin in one hand, Liya looked out toward that enormous golden curtain as well.

Originally, as the current Saintess, the one who should have been standing there right now, guiding that “cleanup,” ought to have been her. Yet in the end, her teacher had still stepped in and borne that responsibility for her.

The reason her teacher had given was that Liya was better suited for handling the matters here. But Liya understood very clearly in her heart that her teacher still thought she was too kind, too softhearted, and not yet capable of facing directly the filth and ugliness that every Saintess in history was required to confront. That was why she had personally taken action.

“That really is a very heavy responsibility. But I’m sure Miss Latina doesn’t think you’re incapable. She’s just worried about you.”

Muen rubbed Liya’s little head.

“Mhm, I know. Which is exactly why I have to do even better.”

Feeling the warmth in Muen’s palm, Liya nuzzled back against it with attachment.

“And yet you were still fooling around?”

Muen’s big hand suddenly turned and pinched Liya’s soft, smooth cheek, pretending to be fierce.

“What kind of Saintess behaves like this?”

“Ow... ow, ow, ow!”

Although Muen had not actually used much force, Liya still cooperatively let out a pained little cry, while her beautiful eyes glared hard at the bad man bullying her.

“Who was fooling around? I was just making reasonable use of my time, that’s all. It wouldn’t have delayed serious business anyway! Besides, my reputation as Saintess is really good right now!”

“...”

Muen recalled the two fangirl little nuns standing guard outside, and the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

Fair enough. With Liya’s gentleness, kindness, intelligence, and yet absolute lack of weakness, plus the very real strength in her heart, she really was, in a certain sense, quite suited to being the Saintess.

So long as she never exposed her true nature of loving this kind of naughty business. If that ever got out, the dreams of billions of believers would shatter all over the floor.

“And what about the second group?” Muen let go of her cheek and returned to the main point.

“The second group will leave once the suggestion work here is finished. I’ll take the Church’s forces to the Kingdom capital, join up with the Archbishop in charge of Kingdom affairs, and then deal with the Salvation Society situation.”

Liya rubbed her reddened cheek.

“Go straight to the Kingdom capital?”

Muen frowned.

“Isn’t that too dangerous? The Salvation Society has obviously already joined hands with the Kingdom.”

“Of course there’s danger, but don’t worry. It definitely won’t be as dangerous as Muen is imagining.”

Liya proudly lifted her chin again.

“Don’t forget what my status is, or what I represent.”

On the surface, it was an extremely simple question.

But only when Muen answered it silently in his own heart could he suddenly understand the true meaning behind it.

That was right. Liya did not represent some nameless organization, nor some weak faction. She represented the united body of the greatest faith on the continent, the symbol of the highest authority, and the possessor of the most terrifying violence of all—

the Church of Life.

Not long ago, that raging army of several hundred thousand had been the sort of force that would have given any nation a headache. If handled even slightly badly, it would have led to widespread death and ruin and terrible losses.

But the Church of Life could snuff it out with ease, even sweep the entire incident into the scraps at the bottom of history, as casually as stamping out a spark that had not yet managed to catch.

“But it’s still too dangerous. This is the Kingdom, not the Holy City...”

“That’s why I’m going to join up with the Archbishop in charge of Kingdom affairs first.”

Seeing the worried look on Muen’s face, Liya giggled and comforted him.

“Don’t worry. Until I figure out what exactly happened, I won’t lightly enter the Kingdom capital for real. The Church wouldn’t allow me to risk myself like that either.”

“I see...” Muen let out a breath of relief.

“However...”

“However?”

“However, when it comes to meeting up with the Archbishop, we’ve run into just a tiny little problem for the moment.”

Bringing her thumb and index finger close together, Liya gave him a playful wink.

“A tiny little problem?”

A bad feeling suddenly rose in Muen’s chest.

“How tiny a problem are we talking about?”

“Oh, not that much.”

Liya gave two dry coughs.

“It’s just that starting yesterday, we completely lost contact with the grand cathedral in the Kingdom capital... that’s all.”

“...”