Nol felt relieved to find that, after an intensely stressful day, he no longer needed to put on an act in front of the king.
The temporary knights—referred to as "devout warriors" by the Temple—represented more than one person. For this audience with the king, Eugene specifically selected six temporary knights, all of whom had decent appearances and well-proportioned figures that were pleasant to look at.
Of course, the palace was no comparison to Whitebird City, and Nol, being a commoner, couldn't catch a glimpse of the king at all. These six representatives were seated at the very end of the banquet, their view partially obstructed by the bustling servants.
Nol quietly surveyed the hall.
The palace here couldn't be said to be particularly luxurious. Its interior was mostly built of white stone. The ceiling was high, supported by thick stone columns, with the decor consisting only of lush green plants, brightly colored tapestries, and small fountain fixtures.
The windows in the royal palace were smaller than any Nol had seen before, and there were fewer of them. They had large panes of glass and could be closed with wood panels wrapped in white leather. The material of the curtains was a bit odd, and beside each windowsill stood a jar filled with water.
[That's used to seal the windows,] Teest, who was leisurely eating food from Nol's plate, explained. [When the White Night comes, the servants will close the wooden panels and dampen the curtains with water—they're made of silk from swamp spiders. When touched by water, the fabric becomes sticky and gelatinous, just like jelly.]
[You seem to know quite a bit.] Nol quickly rescued a piece of cheese.
[There was a high-ranking official from the Eternal Church in the court of New Gemino,] the Mad Monk expressed with a smile.
Well, it turned out to be experience gained from a past murder. Nol silently ate the piece of cheese—now bearing the imprint of someone's teeth.
Eternal Day City had been at a standoff with The Manor for a long time, and resources within the city were scarce. One couldn't find such good food in the taverns outside—rich goat cheese, fresh fish that hadn't been cured, exceptionally tender roasted quail and braised lamb chops, as well as fruits and vegetables that were neither shriveled nor spoiled.
The royal chefs weren't stingy with spices—their touch rather heavy, giving the stew a unique flavor.
Compared to other civilian representatives, Nol ate with relative elegance.
"I heard they recruited sixty people."
To Nol's left, a young man with dark brown skin and a cheerful face began speaking. He was still busily chewing on fish making his voice a bit muffled.
"Yes, it's a tradition of the Temple. In every city, they recruit 'temporary knights' locally. It's a favor, and also makes it convenient for the locals to understand the course of events."
The young man to Nol's right responded seriously. He was the most refined eater at the table. He wore a light-colored robe and appeared to be either a mage or a healer.
His tone was quite devout. Nol picked a ripe sweet apple and cut a half for Teest. He remained silent, pretending to be just a puff of air.
[Hypocrisy.] Teest crunched on the apple. [They recruit followers of the Goddess of Life, and they still talk bad about the Investigation Knights?]
Nol shrugged.
If it were him personally, it would be difficult to speak ill of the Temple of Life—
According to the contract, half of the temporary knights patrolled the city with the local Temple knights, while the other half joined the front lines with the Investigation Knights. If the battle dragged on too long, they would rest and rotate personnel every seven days, with compensation paid again at each rotation.
What was this concept equivalent to? It was like earning a weekly salary of twenty thousand in City A, with room and board included… The Temple of Life really spared no expense in winning people's hearts.
Thinking of this, Nol lost his appetite somewhat. Along the way, he and Teest's "little family" had no worries about expenses. But to support the large family back in Paradise, he still needed to work hard to earn money.
[What are you thinking about?] Teest immediately noticed Nol's distraction.
[It's hard to provide for a family.] Nol sipped his milk stout glumly, his toes idly flicking the shadow wolf's mouth under the tablecloth. [Just taking care of a dog is stressful enough…]
Teest: [...]
"Speaking of which, this brother here saved someone from the Blanco family last night." The man with brown skin clapped Nol on the back familiarly. "I heard about it. One person against a group of monsters, and he came back in one piece!"
"What a pity not a single monster was left behind," the young man in the long robe said indifferently.
Nol put down his knife and fork and spoke the truth. "I wanted to pursue them, but they seemed to vanish into thin air. Do you think The Manor might have some sort of teleportation magic item?"
"Impossible." The young man in the robe snorted. "Reusable teleportation magic items are very rare. The monster manor wouldn't have such treasures. According to the records we have, only the Temple of Life and the Eternalists have such items."
Nol shifted uncomfortably, adjusting his posture to prevent Kando from bulging out in his arms.
"Maybe The Manor found it washed up from the sea!" The brown-skinned man guessed cheerfully. "When the Dragonblood Hero set out with his fleet to defeat the Demon King, they never returned. They prepared so many magical items. Maybe one or two washed up on shore…"
The young man in the robe rebuked, "I don't think they would be stupid enough to sink their ship midway. It's more likely they were all killed by the Demon King."
After speaking, he paused. "Drake's failure was inevitable. His faith in the Goddess was never devout. He couldn't even be considered a nominal believer."
Ah, my fists are itching.
Nol was about to interrupt when he saw the Mad Monk scoop up some pepper and blow it towards the nose of the young man in the robe. The latter's face stiffened rapidly, and he hurriedly covered his face with his sleeve, sneezing incessantly.
Nol stretched out comfortably with a smile and gently touched Teest's arm, who curved his eye at him.
"I heard your name is also Drake."
The brown-skinned man, obviously the type who would die if he didn't talk, turned to Nol with enthusiasm. "Do you have a girlfriend? My sister is especially beautiful, and she likes your type of look the most…"
"I'm married," Nol said, pulling a bit of his wedding ring out from his chest.
"Oh, oh, sorry, I didn't see you wearing it." The brown-skinned man hurriedly raised his hands. "Is your wife also in Eternal Day City?"
The more one spoke, the more mistakes one made. Nol pondered for a moment. "My lover will always be by my side."
The brown-skinned man looked at the still sneezing young man in the robe and shook his head first, then his expression became sad as he looked at Nol.
"Condolences. It's my fault. I shouldn't have brought this up… May the Goddess bless her. She must always be watching over you."
Teest: [...Such a heartless husband!]
Nol: [I'm telling the truth.]
[You're too bad.]
[Likewise.]
The young man in the robe finally finished sneezing. Perhaps feeling it was undignified, he rubbed his red nose and changed the subject. "You two seem like nominal believers. Are there other reasons for joining?"
"Hey, I want to make more money. Business has been bad recently. I need to support my family," the brown-skinned young man said with a grin.
"A person I know was taken by The Manor," Nol said succinctly. "What about you—purely out of devotion?"
"..." The young man in the robe had a wooden expression. "I used to be a healer for the Kesh family."
The brown-skinned young man's expression shifted slightly. "Ah…"
"My entire family were servants of the Kesh household. Recently, when the Grimm house was attacked, Mr. Kesh had me go and treat the wounded mercenaries." The young man in the robe looked more haggard. "Now it seems the Goddess blessed only me."
Nol's heart sank. He remembered that the Kesh house was attacked at the same time as the Blanco house, and not a single survivor was left.
[So, it turns out to be an avenger,] Teest murmured.
"So, I will apply to be in the first group to go to the front lines," the young man in the robe said.
"Me too." Nol picked up his knife and fork again.
"I plan to do the same! I heard there's an extra reward for going to the front line." The brown-skinned man said, "Then we'll be comrades-in-arms. I'm Damori. I know you're called Drake… What's your name, healer?"
"Sean," the young man in the robe said.
The brown-skinned man—Damori—smiled and picked up his glass as if to toast with them. Just at that moment, a loud bell rang out from the palace.
The sound was deep and resonant, numbing the viscera of anyone who heard it. The floor trembled non-stop as if an earthquake were occurring. The attendants immediately quickened their pace, rushing towards the windows.
They saw wooden boards falling and water bottles overturning. The window curtains, like spider webs, sprawled across the window frames, with every window sealed tight.
"A White Night?" Damori's smile vanished. "It just happened a few days ago, and now again?!"
"The Demon King is about to awaken. Disaster is imminent," Sean murmured. "The Manor must be an outpost for these demons… Tomorrow, there will be a lot of work in the city. It won't be any easier than being on the front line."
[The army and the Temple knights will execute creatures corrupted by the Demon King. Otherwise, they will turn into deformed monsters. Honey, you've seen those Thousand-Hands Nightmares.]
Teest explained thoughtfully. [It's kind of giving them a quick end, but it's always their relatives who will try their best to obstruct, and that's the difficult part.]
The tip of Nol's fork touched the silver plate, and he completely lost his appetite.
[…Eternal Day City is very experienced in handling these matters. In my opinion, it's mostly homeless people and stray animals that end up dead,] Teest added after a light cough.
After that, even the talkative Damori said no more. At the far end of the room, Eugene finished communicating with the king, and the group silently returned to the Evergreen Church.
The White Night was over. The buildings on the street themselves had no color to fade, seemingly unchanged as always.
In the hazy moonlight, Nol spotted someone… No, that wasn't a "person".
That thing still vaguely maintained the shape of a person, with blue-black skin, an extra pair of arms extending from its chest and waist, and a foot protruding from its face as if someone had forcibly mashed several different people into one body.
It made a sound between a groan and a cry, struggling on the ground like a wild beast. Sensing the approach of the Investigation Knights, the creature let out a shrill scream and hurried over.
Tears and hope filled its skewed eyes, but what it met was a burst of holy fire.
Within the white flames, it twisted silently, turning to dust in an instant. A series of purifying spells then blasted through the area, scattering the dim black miasma in the air.
From the moment Nol saw it to the complete disappearance of the Demon King's corruption, the whole process took no more than ten seconds.
Sean lowered his head and made a gesture of prayer.
"Do you think, if God really is omnipotent, why doesn't He just destroy the Demon King?" Damori whispered to Nol. "…Or is this the trial that God has given to humanity?"
"This isn't a trial." Nol looked at the place where the person had vanished. "I guess, maybe God is not all-powerful."
For some reason, this scene reminded Nol of the novice village.
That gigantic headless girl, who had also destroyed every living being in the novice village in the same way. It was an event from just a few months ago, yet it felt as distant as if it had happened generations past.
"Forget it. Let's not talk about God. People like us won't see the Demon King in our lifetime," Damori sighed. "Better to just live our own lives."
"Yeah," Nol said.
...
"So this is your way of 'living a good life'," Teest said through a yawn in the dark of the night. "Do you really like to work late into the night? My evening prayers…"
"I want to see the different states of the Demon King's corruption. After all, I have only encountered the Nightmares," Nol said.
They were going to leave the city with Eugene tomorrow, and Nol didn't want to miss this opportunity.
"Oh," Teest responded listlessly. "Here, White Nights aren't so rare. You really didn't have to rush… Ah!"
Nol moved closer to Teest and planted a kiss on his forehead.
"Helping you complete your evening prayers," Nol said.
Teest instantly perked up. "That's the form for morning prayers. Evening prayers need to be more formal." After saying this, he quickly kissed Nol's cheek while Nol was still close. "That's more like it."
"Where do you come up with all these rules?"
Teest declared with righteous indignation, "I'm your only believer, which means I'm your pope, and I have the right to interpret all forms of prayer."
"..." Nol was speechless.
He sped up in the darkness and soon found his target—a dying old woman.
The old lady huddled in a ruined, abandoned house, trying to wrap herself with cloth and leather but still failing miserably. A faceless torso protruded from her chest, like a deformed conjoined twin.
She sat silently against the wall, occasionally twitching, her chest heaving faster than a heartbeat, the half-body trembling incessantly.
"Ah… Ah…"
Although Nol had activated the effect of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", she seemed to see him, stretching out her hand straight towards him, her eyes pure black.
Nol quickly stepped forward to inspect her condition of corruption. The power of the Demon King was even more sinister than he had imagined—if it existed alone, it could be destroyed by a purification spell. But attached to a living being, its effect was like unknown radiation, continuously rewriting the original life form of the creature, which would then mutate and perish due to this unreasonable rewriting.
Nol tried to remove the corruption, but it seemed to have become a part of her, utterly inseparable. He also tried to heal the old woman, but to no avail.
The mutation had destroyed her heart and lung functions. Her death was just a matter of time.
"Ah…" she reached out to Nol in despair.
They had encountered the Thousand-Hands Nightmares before. Touching shouldn't be an issue. Nol reached out a hand and touched the old woman's wrinkled, darkened skin.
The moment they touched, the old lady grabbed Nol's wrist tightly, and Teest grabbed the "Betrayer".
"Don't move!" Nol called out to stop him.
He was shocked to find that the skill [Lost Last Wish] had become usable at the moment of their touch.
…Right, [Lost Last Wish] was born from the Demon King's corruption, and its description didn't include "not usable"!
Nol immediately activated the skill.
The old woman's body shuddered strangely, and a sign of life appeared on her blue-black skin. She trembled, barely able to articulate her words.
"I… am afraid…"
"Save… me…"
Nol shook his head at Teest. He moved forward and embraced the old woman—despite the deformed humanoid on her chest, which made the action particularly difficult.
He held the old woman tightly and cast a pain-relieving spell on her. Her body relaxed, light and dry, like a cracked pine branch.
"I… am afraid…"
She stuttered as if her tongue wasn't under her control. "I don't want… to die like this…"
"My family… my family…"
"I'm sorry," Nol said gently, patting her back.
"Save me…"
"I'm sorry…"
She murmured these words over and over until, gradually, she became silent and still. The old woman leaned on Nol's shoulder, slowly closing her eyes.
She gradually grew cold.
Finally, Nol released the old woman. She collapsed on the ground, lifeless, her contamination stilled alongside her.
No miracles occurred.
Even as a Creator, he was unable to remove the Demon King's corruption, nor could he understand exactly what effect [Lost Last Wish] had.
…It had been a long time since Nol felt such a sense of powerlessness. He slowly stood up.
"Although I'd really like to ask what you just did, I suppose you're not in the mood to explain," Teest whispered. "You go and be alone. I'll take care of the body."
"Thank you, Teest."
"God is not all-powerful. That's what you said, and you should remember it well," Teest said from behind him as Nol turned away.
"I'm fine." Nol's tone was unexpectedly calm.
"If I were all-powerful, I wouldn't be acting together with you… Shall we make up for evening prayers later?"
"Let me guess, a hug?"
"Yes, the lady's body temperature was too low. I'm a bit cold."
"My pleasure."
For the next while, Nol seriously took several samples of the corrupted flesh and hid them in Teest's belt pouch. Afterwards, they decided to sneak back to the church unnoticed and fall asleep in each other's arms.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly as they had hoped.
As soon as Nol returned to the large communal room, he saw Sean sitting by his own bed.
"Drake, where did you go?"
"Couldn't sleep. Just took a walk," Nol said, with Teest standing beside him, wrinkling his nose at Sean.
"Lies," Sean said hoarsely. "You have the smell of a dead person on you."
"Couldn't sleep, just took a walk and incidentally killed some monsters." Nol didn't need to act sullen. It was genuinely how he felt. "Do I need to report my actions to you?"
"Private outings at night are forbidden." Sean said, "Since you've joined the knights' group, you should follow the rules."
"That's the Temple's rule, not God's." Nol sat back on his bed. "Rather than lying around doing nothing, I'd prefer the corruption to disappear sooner."
"You…"
"Well said." A pair of boots stopped not far from Nol. He turned his head and saw Eugene's eyes brimming with smiles.
"The will of the Goddess is above mundane rules. If indeed you acted for the will of God, then it is justified."
He said warmly, "Just to be safe, please hand over the location of the kill so we can verify the status of the corruption clean-up. How about that?"
Sean's expression stiffened. "No objections, Sir."
"I don't mind either," Nol said.
"Very good." Eugene smiled. "Drake, I have something to discuss with you—please come with me."
The author has something to say:
Q: How to play a cold character.
Nol: Just naturally act after working crazy overtime as a modern worker.