“I got rejected?”

Muen looked in slight surprise at his faintly trembling hand.

In his grasp, the tiny statue of the Goddess was exquisitely crafted, filled with the same holy aura as the barrier before him, flowing from the same source. In fact, in terms of pure quality and rank, that aura even seemed to faintly surpass the Holy Light making up the barrier itself.

That was only natural. After all, the Holy Light in the little statue came from the Church’s pure Saintess, and it was not the kind of Holy Light granted casually. It was a smooth “back door” Liya had opened for Muen almost to the greatest extent she was permitted to.

Short of certain truly confidential places, Muen could carry it through most of the Church without obstruction. So in a regional cathedral like this, the number of people qualified to reject Liya’s Holy Light authority had to be vanishingly small.

“So... could this barrier have been set personally by that Archbishop?”

Feeling the hot sting where he had just touched the Holy Light, Muen made what seemed a fairly reasonable guess, but very quickly found something off about it.

“That would make sense, but for a Holy Light barrier laid down by an Archbishop... this is way too weak.”

Setting aside how much an Archbishop’s Holy Light might differ from a Saintess’s in rank, from that instant of contact alone, Muen had already gotten a rough feel for what this Holy Light barrier was made of.

It had some strength, but not that much.

That was Muen’s most direct impression.

In terms of sheer solidity, the barrier could absolutely stop him for the time being. But if the one who cast it really was an Archbishop, then that became a major problem.

A Holy Light barrier personally set by an Archbishop, on their home field no less—beneath the cathedral itself—and it was only strong enough to temporarily hold back a mere fifth-rank martial fighter like him?

Even if that Archbishop had only thrown it together casually, after seeing the Witch of Repentance nearly crush him from an absurd distance away, that level of performance was still hard to believe.

And besides...

Muen lifted his eyelids slightly, and his figure flashed aside.

Almost at the same moment, a spear of Holy Light pierced through his afterimage and nailed itself into the ground behind him.

“A Crowned-level Archbishop, personally setting a Holy Light barrier on their own turf with every buff this place can give them... and it still needs people specifically assigned to guard it? When the cathedral’s main gate didn’t get that treatment?”

Muen looked toward the newcomers.

They were several members of the clergy, all dressed in Church robes. But unlike what Muen usually saw, these robes had been specially altered. The cut was tighter to the body, elegant armor covered the vital points, and Holy Light and magic flowed across the surfaces. They were clearly made for combat.

So not ordinary priests or nuns, but dedicated combat personnel?

“That’s not quite right either...”

Muen narrowed his eyes. Though the people in front of him looked well-equipped and most of them were fairly strong—strong enough that the first few even gave him a sense of danger—their response to an “intruder” was obviously not very professional. They did not look like they had much actual combat experience.

They had not immediately moved to flank the “intruder” from the sides. Instead, they had just walked straight out in the open. And those younger nuns in the back...

Were they trembling?

Just because an “intruder” had suddenly appeared?

One strange thing after another.

“Looks like everyone’s pretty nervous, but I’m not really an intruder.”

He had a pile of questions, but Muen decided it would be better to clear up the misunderstanding first. The last thing he wanted was to start fighting the cathedral’s people before he had even figured out the truth.

“This is a misunderstanding.”

Seeing that they were still closing in, Muen quickly raised both hands and explained at once.

“I’m not a bad guy, and I’m not an intruder. Look, I have the Church’s divine knight insignia on me. It’s a symbol of status personally granted by His Holiness the Pope. I’m—”

“Muen Campbell!”

Unexpectedly, the priest in front cut him off and said his name outright.

“Huh?”

Muen instinctively touched his face, thinking for a moment that his disguise might have been damaged in the fight with the Witch of Repentance just now...

But no.

That refined Slavic face was still perfectly fitted over his own.

“You actually recognized me?”

Muen was honestly surprised. The Witch of Repentance was one thing, but had his disguise really become so easy to see through now?

“Forget it. If they recognized me, they recognized me. It’s not strange for the Church to have some item or ability that can see through disguises. Saves me the trouble of explaining.”

He did not dwell on it for long. Instead, he directly put on a friendly expression and smiled.

“Since you know who I am, can you let me through now? I’ve got a lot of questions I want to ask—”

Before he could finish—

Whoosh—

A shrill tearing sound suddenly cut through the air and interrupted him.

His pupils contracted. His figure swayed again, and only barely did he evade the Holy Light spear shooting at him once more.

The spear grazed his shoulder, and the sharp, burning pain made Muen’s expression sink.

“Why?”

Muen glanced at the mark the Holy Light had scorched into his shoulder, wiped it away with one hand, and asked in confusion, “You’re Church people, aren’t you? So why are you still attacking me when you know perfectly well who I am? Unless you...”

“Sinner.”

The priest in front answered with brutal simplicity.

“We will never let you pass.”

“Huh?”

Muen’s head filled with question marks.

Sinner?

What sinner?

What sin had he committed?

Could it be...

Had everything with Liya finally been exposed?

Muen’s whole body jolted. The moment he imagined being hunted across the continent by a billion followers of the Goddess, that hopeless future almost made him—

“Wait. No, that’s not it!”

Muen snapped back to himself. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Setting aside how unlikely it was for that to be exposed, if it really had been, these clergy would not be reacting like this.

If their Saintess had really been toyed with this way and that by that damned yellow-haired bastard—everything that could be done already done to her, like a cabbage in a field already rooted up and ravaged—wouldn’t they have rushed him on sight to fight to the death?

But the way they looked at him now, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) beyond anger, what they showed more was disgust and...

Fear?

“What exactly do you mean by sinner? I don’t remember committing any sin.”

Muen calmed himself and asked in a low voice.

“Don’t play dumb!”

The priest in front was visibly emotional now, and barked in fury, “The whole royal capital knows your crimes! You’re a sinner through and through! A villain whose death would be too good for him, the source of all evil!”

“...?”

Muen’s head was still full of question marks.

Crimes?

The whole royal capital knows?

The source of all evil?

Wait...

Why did that sound so familiar?

As a flash of insight struck him, Muen suddenly jolted.

The newspaper!

Right—the damned royal-capital newspaper!

That was exactly how it had described him. With all its slanderous wording piled together, forget calling him a sinner—they had practically blackened his name to the point where global warming was probably being blamed on him for taking two extra breaths.