Chapter 115

Peter tried his best to resist, but it was no use.

Whatever trick the young bastard in front of him had used, he couldn’t summon his Divinity.

“How does it feel to be beaten in front of your subordinates?”

Smack-!

Before he knew it, his head had been snapped to the side.

How did it feel?

The absolute worst, of course.

For a leader of a group, nothing was more important than authority.

That authority was vanishing in an instant.

Smack!

A few of his teeth clattered out.

But he knew that at times like this, he had to maintain his composure.

Peter smirked as if it were nothing and shouted to the Holy Knights.

“He is surely a Devil. Everyone, assume the Demon King War formation!”

When he gave the command, his right-hand man was supposed to repeat it, and then the Holy Knights were supposed to charge.

That’s how it had always been.

But his surroundings were silent.

Peter’s gaze shifted.

And he realized.

“······?”

None of his subordinates were stepping forward for him.

The elite Holy Warriors, handpicked from Sector 1, were avoiding his eyes.

Even his right-hand man was frozen in place, simply watching him get hit.

Peter’s face flushed red.

The man who had been beating him so thoroughly let out a smirk.

“What are you on about.”

When the bastard’s palm rose once more.

Peter flinched unconsciously and turned his head.

He hadn’t meant to, but his body had reacted on its own.

Ah.

Sighs escaped from here and there. Faint, mocking snickers were mixed in as well.

Peter’s cheeks, flushed red, whether from shame or from the man’s blows.

Choi Gi-woong scoffed and stood up.

“Come back here tomorrow. For every minute you’re late, you get an extra slap.”

“So, where is he from? What’s his name?”

At the very top of the lord’s castle.

Peter fumed, his face swollen.

His right-hand man bowed his head.

“···I apologize.”

“Hey, this isn’t the time for you to be apologizing. You should have at least found out his affiliation, even if you don’t know his name. Did you contact Sector 1?”

“Yes. I connected via the communication sphere and described his appearance as best as I could, but…”

“They don’t know?”

“No. In case he used Polymorph, we even analyzed the Mana pattern left at the scene, but no similar person came up.”

“Did you contact the Archbishop?”

“Yes. He advised us to be careful and then be careful again, since we don’t know who our opponent is.”

“What a completely useless piece of advice. If this goes wrong, we could be abandoned just like that.”

The unidentified bastard was highly likely to be a member of a secret death squad raised by the Saintess.

She must have been observing him all this time and was now punishing him.

And by following the trail, she might be planning to use this opportunity to eliminate all of her political enemies.

As he finished his thought, his right-hand man’s head was bowed low.

“I’m sorry. About earlier…”

“Why are you apologizing?”

He cut his right-hand man off.

“Why apologize when you couldn’t save me because that bastard cast a Binding spell? If anything, I should be the one saying sorry.”

“······”

“Right?”

“Thank you, Priest.”

Peter patted his right-hand man’s shoulder.

Half of it was a desire to trust the man who had been with him for decades, and the other half was because of his right-hand man’s usefulness.

There was much to do upon returning to the church.

Things he couldn’t do alone.

Although an unpleasant incident had occurred, he couldn’t just cut off his right-hand man because of it.

“When I move up, this position is yours. You know that, right?”

“I will give you my utmost loyalty.”

“Your loyalty should be to the great Lu. And permit the Knights Order to have some wine for today. A lot has happened, hasn’t it?”

“Thank you.”

“By the way, that bastard from earlier, can we kill him?”

“I was just caught off guard earlier. If we attack together, we can definitely take him down.”

“Good. Lure him over here. I’ll be thoroughly prepared.”

The next day came.

The doors to the lord’s castle burst open.

Choi Gi-woong stepped forward with a bored expression.

“I told you to come to the plaza.”

The moment he finished speaking, the Holy Knights stepped forward.

It was the Demon Subjugation and Restoration Society’s pride, the Demon King War formation.

Watching the Holy Knights charge from sixteen directions, Choi Gi-woong casually waved his hand.

Slice-

Just like that, the heads of the sixteen Holy Knights were severed.

The battle ended with anticlimactic ease.

Strolling forward, Choi Gi-woong grabbed Peter by the collar and dragged him out to the city plaza.

The same scene as yesterday repeated itself.

Smack- Smack-

He suffered an unbearable humiliation in front of everyone.

Resistance was futile.

Only then did Peter realize.

The bastard’s power wasn’t just a level or two above his own.

The bastard was at least SS-Rank. But an emotion even greater than his sense of powerlessness was betrayal.

Today, too, his right-hand man did not rush in to save him.

It was when the brutal assault had ended.

Choi Gi-woong spoke.

“Come back here tomorrow. You know what happens if you’re late, right?”

“···Who, who are you.”

“A Grim Reaper.”

“···Why don’t you kill me?”

“Because it’s not time yet.”

At those words, Peter let out a smirk.

It was with a sense of certainty.

“It’s not that, it’s that you can’t kill me.”

“?”

“You were sent by the Saintess, weren’t you?”

Choi Gi-woong didn’t answer.

He wore a slight smile, as if he would listen to what Peter had to say.

“It’s obvious. You’re planning to take me to Sector 1 to round up the bishops and archbishops in a line above me, right?”

“······.”

“Let’s say you get that far. But what’s next? If I die, who comes here?”

As if gaining momentum, Peter shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ve been traveling between the sectors for 20 years. How many people do you think know the shortcuts and passages that are free of Monsters?”

“······.”

“You’ll send someone other than me? How many sectors will disappear in that time? Will these country bumpkins in Sector 18 be able to last that long? Can the Saintess handle that guilt?”

Choi Gi-woong was silent.

Peter felt his plan was falling perfectly into place.

“Ah, there’s no need to feel guilty. The sacrifice of the few for the sake of the many is unavoidable, after all. At the very least, all those watching me with satisfaction will die. Good. I’ll have plenty of company on my way to the afterlife.”

He said, as if issuing a threat.

“I’m warning you. From now on, if you lay a single finger on me, this city will no longer be supplied with Buff Stones, Potions, or Items. I swear this on the name of my lord, Lu.”

After saying that, Peter looked around.

The residents of Sector 18, who had been watching with schadenfreude just a moment ago, now had their eyes wide open.

Things were already precarious, and it was a self-evident fact that this place would collapse without support from Sector 1.

Having confirmed that, Peter looked back at Choi Gi-woong.

He was probably lost in thought.

It was just as he expected.

Choi Gi-woong was tilting his head.

But the words that came out of Choi Gi-woong’s mouth next were unexpected.

“Who is the Saintess?”

“···What?”

“I looked through the books, but the name of the next Saintess wasn’t written down. I thought it was strange.”

He couldn’t understand what on earth he was talking about.

“Is Casilla perhaps still alive?”

Choi Gi-woong asked, looking into his eyes.

Even though he didn’t answer, the bastard nodded his head.

“I see. So she’s still alive.”

As if his questions were answered, the bastard raised his hand high.

Smack-!

The next moment, Peter’s head snapped to the side.

Choi Gi-woong said indifferently.

“If you’re late, the time you get hit will only increase. Don’t be late tomorrow.”

Silence descended upon the city’s only inn.

The atmosphere was different from yesterday when the Holy Knight’s head had rolled on the ground.

If yesterday was an atmosphere of victory, today was a funeral.

Everyone was just furtively glancing at Choi Gi-woong, who was sipping beer in a corner of the inn.

In the heavy air, only Azwell was screaming with his eyes, See? I was right. I told you he was definitely from an upper sector!

Bucks, who had been watching cautiously, stood up from his seat.

He approached Choi Gi-woong.

“Isaac… sir.”

Even his tone had changed.

There was no room for doubt. The man sitting here was an absolute master sent from Sector 1.

It was probably no coincidence that they had met on the mountain path.

He had to be careful with every single one of his actions.

“Will you, by any chance, be killing Peter?”

“I’ll have to.”

Choi Gi-woong nodded his head nonchalantly.

Bucks swallowed a groan.

“Th-then what will happen to future supplies…”

“Well. I’m not affiliated with the church, so I wouldn’t know.”

Ah.

Sighs escaped from here and there.

He was clearly drawing a line. It was probably a sign not to associate him with the affairs of the church.

Despair filled their faces.

Just the other day they were celebrating Peter’s impending death, but now they were all doomed to die as well.

If only things had stayed as they were.

Although they would have been trampled and suffered all sorts of humiliation from Peter, at least they could have lived.

Even if they had to crawl like cockroaches, at least they wouldn’t have died.

It was all because of this man.

The next moment, his eyes met Choi Gi-woong’s.

Choi Gi-woong was staring intently at him.

As if he were looking right through him.

In that instant, shame rose to the top of Bucks’s head.

Deep in his heart, he knew.

It wasn’t this man’s fault.

But right now, he needed something to blame.

“It must be nice for you. Born in an upper sector, raised with all kinds of support. That’s how you reached such a level at such a young age, isn’t it?”

“Hey, Bucks. Are you crazy?”

“Let go of me!”

Shaking off his companion, Bucks glared at Choi Gi-woong.

He was going to die anyway, so he might as well go for broke.

“We must look pathetic to you. Like insects surviving wretchedly. But we lived each day to the fullest.”

“You have to survive, even if it’s like that. You have so many mouths to feed.”

“What did you say?”

The words that came out of Choi Gi-woong’s mouth were unexpected.

“The people here would have died many times over if they were alone, wouldn’t they? That sense of responsibility, a guy like me can’t understand it. It’s truly amazing.”

“Are you mocking me right now?”

“The opposite. I’m admiring you. Because I know I couldn’t have done it. And I’m reflecting on my actions. I should have come sooner.”

If he had said he was going to kill them, they would have at least resisted.

But he was praising them.

Bucks’s shoulders slumped.

His head, which had been hot with excitement, cooled down.

From the beginning, they were the ones in the wrong.

He resented himself for not being able to say a single word to Peter, even if it meant death.

I should have resisted fiercely from the start!

If he were given another chance, he would.

It was then.

“?”

Choi Gi-woong took out a sack.

The man who had been trying to stop Bucks peeked inside it.

“B-Buff Stones. All of them are the highest grade. There are Potions too…”

Bucks’s head whipped around.

It was real.

There was a huge pile of Buff Stones and Potions, enough to last at least a year.

“Wh-what is all this…”

“It seems I was too late. From now on, don’t worry.”

The next day came.

“As long as that bastard is human, he must be deliberating. As a human, would he have the nerve to be responsible for tens of thousands of lives?”

His right-hand man said insinuatingly.

Peter didn’t answer. The wounds on his face had been healed with magic, but the sense of betrayal in his heart had not.

But he agreed with his right-hand man’s words.

Today, that bastard would kneel before him.

It was when he had gone to the plaza, full of confidence.

The expressions on people’s faces were strange.

They were staring straight at him.

Have these people lost their minds?

These things who couldn’t even meet his eyes were now acting stiffly in front of him just because he had shown a few days of weakness.

“What are you looking at?”

“We’re looking at you.”

“···What?”

What they said was even more absurd.

It was when he was feeling that the world must be turning upside down.

Thud, thud.

From a distance, that bastard was walking over.

Peter’s body flinched, trembling reflexively.

“You, you. If you lay a single finger on me…”

Smack-!

Before he could even finish his sentence, the bastard slapped him without warning.

This bastard was insane.

There was no other explanation for this.

As he was thinking.

The bastard wrapped an arm around Peter’s neck.

It was the moment Choi Gi-woong’s indifferent expression turned murderous.

“Let’s get going. To Sector 1.”

To Peter, it sounded as if he was saying.

I will bring Divine Punishment upon all you bastards who have been messing around until now.*