Trapped in a Game That Flopped

Chapter 81

Episode 81

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On the day the Saintess was to make her procession through the capital's outskirts, the weather was not very good.

Despite the sky sluggishly churning with dark clouds that threatened to rain at any moment, the Grand Temple did not change its mind and pushed forward with the schedule.

Fortunately, even with the grim weather, a large crowd gathered to see Liv, the Saintess beloved by the Empire's people.

Her silvery hair and eyes, almost white but glowing with a divine light.

And below them, the elegant white scarf wrapped around her neck, which was no different from her trademark.

The beautiful Saintess stood atop the flower carriage, waving her hand with a benevolent smile.

Following behind her in a line were priests draped in white robes and holy knights clad in sacred armor.

"Waaaaah! Saintess!"

"Please look over here, Saintess!"

"Saintess! Please look upon us!"

Cheers erupted from the people every time the flower carriage bearing her passed by.

The formation of the holy knights escorting the carriage broke as the crowd surged in at one moment.

"Saintess! Please help me, Saintess!"

Seizing the opening, a woman suddenly pushed through the knights and jumped in front of the carriage.

Hweheheheng!

Just before colliding with the woman, the horses pulling the carriage startled badly and barely managed to stop.

The carriage shook violently from the momentum.

The delicate Saintess, who had been standing on the carriage, also staggered as if she would fall, before collapsing into a sitting position.

The demeanor of the escorting holy knights turned decidedly sharp.

"What is the meaning of this!"

A man who appeared to be a superior officer shouted at the cowering woman with a stiff expression.

"Dashing in front of the carriage so recklessly, the Saintess was almost injured!"

"Please stop, Sir Pelten. I am alright."

But the benevolent Saintess, far from getting angry, actually stopped the knight.

Then, she slowly descended from the carriage and approached the trembling woman.

"Madam, what is the matter?"

"Saintess...! My child is badly hurt! Please help me!"

In the woman's arms was a child of about five or six years old.

The child's face was wrapped in cloth, and when the mother hurriedly unwrapped it, the people gasped one by one.

"My goodness, the child's face is..."

Three vivid wounds slashed diagonally across the small face.

Blood was still streaming from the deep, gruesome wounds, as if they had been clawed by a sharp beast.

"We live in Berun Village, just ahead. B, but a few days ago, a horde of monsters suddenly appeared and my child...!"

The woman held the child's wounds out to Liv and sobbed.

"Please help us! He's lost so much blood, he's unconscious! I don't care about the scars, please just save his life...!"

"Please calm down, Madam. I will help you. Sir Pelten."

Liv soothed the crying woman with a kind voice, then held her hand out to the holy knight standing beside her.

With a stiff face, he reluctantly took a dagger from his breast and handed it to her.

The Saintess took it and, as smoothly as flowing water, pricked the tip of her index finger.

A drop of blood welled up, but surprisingly, the Saintess's blood was not a deep red, but a transparent color with a faint blackish tint.

She let a few drops of that holy blood fall onto the child's face, then knelt in front of him and offered a prayer.

Then, astonishingly, the child's horribly torn wounds began to slowly heal.

"Ooh...!"

"My goodness, the wounds are healing!"

"Oh, Goddess!"

The people let out gasps one by one at the miracle that was unbelievable even seeing it with their own eyes.

"Saintess! Your wound, quickly...!"

The knight who had offered the dagger took it back and quickly handed her a healing potion instead.

Liv, who could not use her healing powers on herself, skillfully accepted it and poured it on her finger.

In the meantime, several people pushed through the dense crowd, popped out, and shouted.

"Saintess! My wife was also injured trying to stop the monsters!"

"My father has a long-standing illness...!"

"My husband has a hideous boil on his body...!"

At the miracle performed before their eyes, people began to clamor all at once, begging for help.

In an instant, the street became disorderly.

The holy knights, as if there was a limit to protecting her, urgently advised her.

"Saintess, we will move to the next location! Hold on tight!"

"We will go to Berun Village first!"

Just then, she, who had climbed back onto the carriage, shouted with a resolute face.

"I heard that several monsters still remain over there, refusing to leave. The damage must be immense, so I believe we must go there first as a priority!"

At her words, the people who had been rushing forward indiscriminately nodded their heads with expressions of understanding.

"As expected of the benevolent Saintess!"

"The Saintess is right! They must be having the hardest time right now..."

Thanks to this, the overheated atmosphere gradually subsided, and the gathered people began to clear a path to Berun Village.

At that, the Knight Commander dissuaded her with a dark expression.

"But Saintess, Berun Village is still too dangerous. Besides, today's schedule was to go to the Gresia Monastery to look after the patients..."

"Sir Pelten. There is nothing more important on today's schedule than this."

However, faced with the Saintess's firm attitude, he had no choice but to back down.

"...Understood."

The flower carriage carrying the Saintess turned to head toward Berun Village.

The people followed behind, one after another, chanting the Saintess's name and the Goddess's blessing.

Upon arriving at Berun Village, located not far away, as expected.

The village was revealed, devastated, with no proper cleanup having taken place.

"My goodness..."

Liv sighed with a dark expression at the wretched state of the village.

The houses and communal buildings, clustered together, were mostly half-destroyed, and the villagers were living on the streets in tents.

In a stroke of immense luck amidst the misfortune, there were not many people with severe injuries like the child of the woman who had run out earlier.

This was because the monsters had been targeting prey rather than attacking people.

"A horde of gargoyles attacked the communal pasture and took all the livestock we were raising..."

Most of the injured were people who had gotten hurt trying to stop them.

The Saintess's party, after hearing the village chief's explanation, began to care for the patients with all their heart.

A few days ago, around the time the Imperial Palace was turned upside down by the return of the 'Lord of Nightmares'.

A couple of villages on the capital's outskirts were struck by a gargoyle horde, like a bolt from the blue.

Despite the disturbance occurring quite close to the Imperial Palace, the Palace failed to properly manage the aftermath.

It was only natural, as a bloody wind was likely blowing over there as well, due to the reinstated Crown Prince.

In the meantime, the touring Saintess would handle not only the barren public sentiment but also the remaining monsters, so it was self-evident that the prestige of the Grand Temple and the church would soar.

"Now, let's go to the place where the monsters remain."

The Saintess, having healed all the patients, finally proposed they go to the fields where the monsters had not yet left.

"Saintess! It is too dangerous!"

"It is better not to go until the Imperial Palace sends a subjugation force...!"

"I can handle it. Please trust me! I am the Goddess's one and only representative; wicked things can never harm me, in whom holiness resides."

The holy knights and priests who followed tried to stop her, but they could not bend her strong conviction.

In the end, the Saintess's procession, leading the large crowd, advanced to the place where the monsters remained.

The vast plains of the capital, approaching harvest season, would usually be dyed a brilliant gold by the bowing reeds and rice ears.

However, the fields they actually arrived at were a horrifying sight, due to the monsters that had taken up residence and were lurking there after attacking the village.

The dug-up corpses of livestock and pools of blood were scattered everywhere.

"Keeaaaaargh!"

"Kkruk! Kkuk kukkukkuk!"

Flap, flap!

Was it because of the sudden influx of people?

Several enormous masses, which had been clustered on a gaunt tree, flapped their wings, letting out ominous cries.

Seen from a distance, they looked like just a flock of oversized crows.

Just as the Saintess took a step into the field, one of them swooped up into the air.

It approached the gathered crowd at high speed.

"H, hwaaak! It, it's a gargoyle!"

The thing that had looked like a crow was a horrific bat-human with sharp fangs protruding.

"A, a monster!"

"Kyaaaaaak!"

At the monster flying in, the people began to scatter in all directions, screaming.

But at that moment.

"Compose yourselves and look at that!"

At the priests' thunderous roar, the fleeing people paused and looked in the direction they were pointing.

"Keeaaaaargh!"

The monster that flew in, far from attacking the people, was slowly landing in the empty space the crowd had vacated.

Finally, the gargoyle that had completely landed prostrated itself flat before the Saintess, as if bowing.

That wasn't all. Following that, other gargoyles also flew up, one by one, and landed near the Saintess's party.

"Kkruk! Kkuk kukkukkuk!"

In an instant, they were surrounded by a horde of black, grotesque monsters, but not one of them tried to attack the humans.

Likewise, the Saintess also, without panicking, calmly looked around at the monsters.

"Th, the monsters... are bowing their heads to the Saintess."

Someone muttered as if to themselves at the abnormal and wondrous scene.

Gargoyles were quite high-level monsters, famous for their strong aggression toward humans and for devastating villages in swarms.

But the monsters before their eyes, far from attacking humans, were clearly in a state of prostration before the Saintess.

"The Saintess has tamed the monsters!"

"N, no way! How...!"

The people were astonished by the new miracle the Saintess had performed.

Even for a holy Saintess, to tame and handle monsters, of all things.

Wasn't it just like a witch from a fairytale?

It was just as distrust and fear began to fill the people's eyes.

"Everyone! You may not believe it, but the Goddess has granted me not only the power to heal, but also the power to tame these children."

As if seeing right through the people's hearts, the Saintess spoke to the crowd in a clear voice.

"Although they have lost their reason and have a tendency to attack humans, monsters are also fellow living beings bestowed by the Goddess. The Grand Temple is already capturing, rehabilitating, and training monsters to tame them!"

"Keeaaaaargh!"

Flap, flap!

Just then, a gargoyle flapped its wings and landed near her.

She reached out without hesitation and carefully stroked its head.

The cold, slimy texture of the monster on her hand was horrific.

Liv desperately composed her expression, which was about to distort, and did not lose her smile.

"A world without unnecessary slaughter and sacrifice will soon come. We have all shed too many tears and blood in the war against the monsters."

There was no one who did not sympathize with those words.

It had been far too long since battling monsters had become no different from daily life in the Empire.

"It is the Goddess's will to create a new world where everyone coexists, a peaceful land with no more blood and death."

"..."

"I, too, will strive my utmost for that cause, so I ask all of you, please do not lose your faith and always pray!"

When the Saintess's short speech ended, a thunderous roar erupted, as if celebrating a victory in war.

The repulsion at the wicked monsters following the Saintess lasted only a moment.

Hope that they would no longer have to fight monsters began to take root in the hearts of the Empire's people.

"To think we don't have to fight monsters anymore... This is a miracle!"

"Oh, Goddess!"

"Finally, a blessing upon us...!"

Liv, still with a deep smile playing on her lips, gazed at the people who were overcome with joy.

However, unlike her smile, her eyes, as she looked at the people, held no emotion whatsoever.

These foolish and idiotic humans, completely falling for a pre-arranged show, were laughable.

If she weren't standing in this spot right now, she, too, would probably be in that crowd of dirty, shabby people, cheering.

All without knowing that it was none other than the Pope and the Grand Temple who had sent the monster horde to attack the village.