Heroes and Machine Girls Looking at Profiles

56 – The Worthless Saint

“Eggaaa?!”

“aaah!?”

The mercenaries hired by Vernon ran away screaming.

Me, Ortrinde, and Rossweisse just watched without moving from their original positions.

Lucie looked a little anxious, but she seemed to be okay now.

“Ahahahahaha!! It’s light!! My body is light!!”

Laughing happily, Zeke Rune swung the halberd in her hand.

Every time that halberd flashes, it is powerful enough to knock someone out.

Kaang!!

Of course, the power and speed are amazing, but the orbit is simple, so it can be blocked if you have the strength and reaction speed.

The hand that blocked it looked numb, but there was one guard who somehow managed to block it.

“Ugh…!! Let’s attack together!!”

After blocking the halberd with his sword, the bearded giant gave orders to the other guards behind him.

His subordinate escorts, who had maintained their composure despite being pushed back, jumped in the moment Zikrune’s attack was blocked and bounced away.

A man holding a spear and a woman holding a rapier.

The moment the two guards rushed in and tried to stab their weapons.

Whoop!!

With the sound of the wind, Zikrune’s figure disappeared from the place where the two people stabbed.

The two surprised guards, as well as the giant guard who had blocked the halberd, looked around, but Zikrune was nowhere to be seen.

A bright voice was heard in the ears of the guards who were puzzled by the enemy who suddenly disappeared from sight.

“This is good!! It’s been a long time since I felt this!!”

The place where voices are heard is above your head.

Their heads immediately went up, and in that place was the figure of Zikrune, who had been in front of them just a moment ago.

It appears to be floating in the air with its brightly shining wings spread around its waist.

The shining wings made of magic power and ether gave off a somewhat mysterious atmosphere.

In fact, they too were astonished with their mouths wide open at the sight.

No matter how experienced a veteran he is, it would be difficult to keep his composure when a person is flying through the air with wings.

And, that brief gap immediately cost them their lives.

“Ugh?!”

Zikrune swooped down from the air and ripped off their heads with his halberd.

When even the last remaining guards who were fighting against Zikrune turned into corpses and rolled on the floor, Vernon Lessington’s expression became noticeably pale.

“H…Huh?!”

Vernon’s confident expression turns pale and he steps back.

…It happens often.

Believing in numbers, overconfident in your own strength, and being counterattacked.

I also experienced this often in this world when I was an inexperienced warrior.

Furthermore, the giant who blocked Zikrune’s attack and took advantage of the gap was also quite skilled.

He was probably overconfident in his skills.

“Master, can I kill this guy too?”

“Yes, kill him.”

At my words, Zikrune, who swung his halberd and shook off the blood of the guards, approached Vernon.

…They said that was a kind of Zikrune habit.

They strictly distinguish between ‘warriors’ and ‘others’, and have a habit of opening their weapons during battle so that the blood on them does not get mixed up.

For Zikrune, the three guards who faced him head on belong to the ‘warriors’ category, while Vernon belongs to the ‘others’ category.

As Zikrune raised his halberd high, Vernon shouted.

“Now…Wait a minute!! I am the son of Lessington’s boss!!”

“So?”

“I’ll give you money!! If you let me live, I’ll do this regardless and give you money…”

You’re sitting there pretending to be strong.

This bastard embezzled money from the company and broke the bank, so he must be sitting there struggling to make up for it.

“No need.”

“I…If I die, my father won’t leave you alone!!”

“…Vernon Lessington, I see you don’t have much experience exploring ancient dungeons…”

The days of a warrior.

Well, I don’t know how much I explored the dungeon, guided by those three women, who said I needed something like an ancient spell book rather than an ancient secret.

And I don’t know how many traps, guardians guarding the dungeon, or other threats there were in those places.

…If I think about it, even when I was running the dungeon, those three years were behind me and I was the only one who took the lead and went through all the trouble.

When I think about it again, I get angry again.

“It is common for people to enter an ancient dungeon without knowing how to do it and then lose their lives.”

“Dungeon…? But this place…”

“Dungeons and ruins, that’s it. Goodbye.”

“Now…Wait!!”

Vernon Lessington tried to say something, but even faster than he could, Zikrune’s halberd chopped off his head.

A great church that can be said to be the headquarters of the Goddess Church, located in a city far from the imperial capital.

Of course, the Great Church was now in considerable confusion.

No other than the empire, the largest country on the continent, and to be exact, the crown prince of that empire began to reject the goddess religion.

The priests of the Goddess Church that was ruling the Imperial Capital were beaten and kicked out, and the Church located in the Imperial Capital fell into the hands of the Fanatic Church.

Even a situation occurred where the statue of the goddess installed in the church was damaged by the hands of fanatics.

Naturally, the bishops and cardinals of the great church exploded with anger. Currently, there was a situation where ‘strong regret’ and ‘protest’ were expressed against the crown prince’s actions.

And one more thing.

Although Pope Francesca was unable to make a decision because she was away, there was also a movement to have her saint, Ciel La Frost, ‘stripped of her status as a saint.’

The reason was that when the bishop of the Imperial Church was subjected to unjust violence and expulsion, she stood by and watched it happen.

Well, the truth is that there is no Pope Francesca, but her deprivation of sainthood was almost certain.

After Ciella Frost married the crown prince of the empire, it was so famous that everyone knew that Pope Francis and Saint Ciella had a bad relationship.

However, because Saint Ciella Frost had the feat of defeating the Demon King, there were still many people within the Goddess Church who supported Saint Ciella.

But with this incident, the situation took a sharp turn.

A situation where Prince Freud is rejecting the goddess religion and accepting fanaticism.

And the saintess, Siella Frost, who became the crown prince’s wife and stood by.

Because of this, within her goddess cult, there were many people who branded her as ‘her traitor’ and turned their backs on her.

Most of those who supported the saint converted to the cardinal faction.

The feat of defeating the devil?

The Demon King has been resurrected and is attacking the empire, so what does his exploits have to do with it now?

Moreover, another thing happened that caused her to incur the wrath of her goddess, Gyo.

It was about the Holy Sword Reinforce.

I heard that the Gwangshin Church summoned a new hero.

The problem was that in order for the new hero to be able to use the holy sword, there was a rumor that Siela Frost, a saint of the Goddess Church, had performed a ceremony to ‘transfer’ the blessing of the holy sword to the cult.

Of course, perhaps it was just a rumor, but no one had ever seen a fanatic warrior use the light of the holy sword.

If such a thing was actually done and not just a rumor, then this would be a grave act of betrayal against the Goddess Church.

At that time, it was possible that not only would she be stripped of her status as a saint, but a large-scale trial would take place.

In that way, support for Saint Ciella within the Goddess Church was gradually decreasing.

However, contrary to the thoughts of her goddess Gyo, Saint Siela has not been making any public appearances these days.

The Goddess Church itself may have withdrawn from the imperial capital, but other than that, no one claimed to have seen Saint Siella.

“Cough…Cough…”

It was natural.

Saint Ciella Frost, because she was currently imprisoned.

“Ugh…Ugh…”

Ciella coughed and opened her eyes in the stale air of the dungeon.

She realized that she was still in prison, and hugged her knees.

“Why…Why…”

Siela Frost bursts into tears.

It was only recently that she was imprisoned.

This is the ceremony of transferring the Holy Sword that the Goddess Church is suspicious of.

That ceremony was not a rumor, it actually happened.

A ritual to transfer the blessing of the Holy Sword from the Goddess Church to the Zealot Church in order to enable the warrior Kenji to fully use the power of the Holy Sword Reinforce.

Prince Freud ordered Saint Ciella to perform the ceremony.

At first, Ciella Frost refused.

Not only was she unable to perform such an important ritual on her own, but it was a ritual she could never perform as she still had faith in the goddess.

However, her will immediately collapsed.

“One o’clock is an urgent situation! Can’t you do it right away?”

“Ahh!!”

Primitive violence.

That alone was enough to break her will.

After being beaten by Prince Freud, Ciella nodded her head.

Sadness, fear, and regret boiling deep in her heart.

Surrounded by it all, Saint Ciella mobilized all of her knowledge and performed a ceremony to transfer the blessings of the holy sword.

…But, it was no use.

Even after the ritual was over, it was impossible for the hero Kenji to increase his power from the Holy Sword Reinforce.

The Holy Sword Reinforce was a similarly made fake, so it was only natural.

The blessing of the Holy Sword still belonged to Goddess Erdiya.

However, the crown prince, who did not know this fact, and the leaders of the fanatic religion pushed Saint Siella aside.

Even in times of crisis for her empire, she did not perform her rituals properly and did not hand over her blessings.

Of course, Siella protested that she had done the right thing, but her prince, who had turned her back, locked her in her dungeon.

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!!”

Although Ciella had begged her beloved Crown Prince for help, Prince Freud only looked at her coldly.

She has no intention of borrowing the power of the Goddess Church anymore anyway.

Siela Frost’s stunning beauty was worthless to the crown prince, who could no longer hug a woman.

Now, Ciella Frost was no longer needed by the crown prince.

“I don’t like it anymore…I want to go home…”

When I was young, I went to a small church where I lived while holding the hand of a member of the Goddess Church.

At that place, it was just a time of training and worshiping the goddess Erdiya.

Now I just miss those times.

Today again, Ciella cried, her body trembling beneath her cold dungeon.