◈ 533. [Side Story] The Red Priests
When I came out of the hospital room, a neatly dressed woman in tight priest clothes was waiting for me. I called the other person’s name.
“Rosetta.”
It was Rosetta, the leader of the newly joined 1st Knights Templar.
As soon as he arrived at Crossroads, he said he had continued to do relief work, so we met here.
“Your Highness Prince Ash.”
Calling my name, Rosetta straightened her round silver-rimmed glasses and smiled.
As soon as she thought that the wrinkles around her mouth were surprisingly attractive, she said.
“This is heresy.”
“… .”
After standing still, I stuttered again.
“huh? uh huh? Heresy? what?”
“To refuse treatment. It is a heretical act.”
Rosetta’s chin was right behind me… … Mikhail’s hospital room.
Only then did I realize that the ‘heresy’ pointed out by Rosetta was Mikhail, and goose bumps ran down my spine.
“And heresy… .”
Rosetta muttered insinably and put her hand in her bosom, so I involuntarily waved my hands to stop her.
“Wait a minute! Calm down Rosetta! Mikhail says he’s getting treatment now! So don’t do anything scary!”
“yes? Are you afraid?”
Rosetta blinked in bewilderment and slowly removed her hand from her bosom.
What was in his hand… … It was a pen and notebook.
A loud sound came out of my mouth.
“Eh?”
“Haha, that’s scary. What are you talking about? It’s just… … .”
Rosetta opened the notebook and wrote something in elegant handwriting. At the same time kindly explained.
“It’s just a double point accumulation.”
“No, what is that?!”
Heresy point?! What is the scary point even just hearing the name!
However, whether or not I was frightened, Rosetta calmly continued writing the contents.
“Mikhail Vermillion… refusal of treatment… … 10 heresy points.”
“… .”
“Oh there! Don’t run in the hallways of the temple! Heresy!”
When the two young mercenaries were running down the hallway, when they heard that, they covered their ears and ran away. Rosetta clicked her tongue and wrote more in her notebook.
“Ignoring the priest’s words… 20 points by adding 5 heretical points.”
“… .”
“Oh there! People eating! Don’t be picky! Heresy! Don’t leave side dishes!”
In addition to that, Rosetta pointed out the behavior of the mercenaries throughout the temple and spread heretical points.
‘What is heresy to this woman… … ?’
And what can I exchange for heresy points if I collect more than a certain amount… … ?
I didn’t know, but the fortunate thing was that I only accumulated those heresy points, but I didn’t punish them with it. I just quietly write it down in my notebook.
widely!
Rosetta, who covered the notebook, looked up at me and smiled.
“Did you think I was such a crazy priest who arbitrarily branded opponents as heretics and tore them to pieces with a whip?”
“… uh that’s it.”
To be honest, it was a bit… … .
“I know that you are wary of us Templars. We’re notorious for being a bit inflexible.”
“I must have misunderstood you?”
“Not necessarily. In reality, we are the ones who hang our necks on principles… … But strict is only with ourselves.”
Rosetta walked lightly forward. I quietly followed her and listened to her words.
“To the Goddess Church itself. We, the Knights Templar, are the fire that consumes my flesh and the scourge that carves scars. However, we do not impose these principles on others outside.”
“Hoo… .”
“Well, I’m writing heresy notes. Because I can’t stand still while watching injustice.”
No, that’s scary enough… … .
I hesitated a bit before asking.
“By the way, I think it’s a bit late, but aren’t you uncomfortable with me treating you like this?”
Looking back, I remember that I treated Marherita, who was the priest at first, as a saint and a saint.
However, as he was talking to Janice Rosetta, who was dispatched as his successor, the car looked a bit strange.
Rosetta raised her thin lips dangerously.
“You are too late to ask. That’s right. It is also heresy.”
“Aaaagh!”
I freaked out and started a match, and Rosetta covered her mouth and laughed.
“It’s a joke. It’s not that easy to get heresy points.”
No, it was issued very easily a while ago… … .
“It doesn’t matter to me whether you treat me with kindness or respect, whether you treat me as a stone by the roadside or as a messenger of the goddess. I am only carrying out the mission assigned to me.”
“… Anyway, I’ll just treat you.”
I didn’t want to change it now, so I decided to just treat it badly.
The temple was full of injured and disabled soldiers. Rosetta sprinkled divine power sparingly whenever she encountered them.
The soldiers, whose condition improved, bowed to Rosetta. Rosetta didn’t even receive that greeting properly and just moved forward in a hurry.
I was in awe of myself.
“Because he is a Heretic Questioner, I thought he would only be good at punching, but isn’t his healing skill also average?”
“There seems to be a misunderstanding, but all the priests in our church have excellent healing abilities.”
Rosetta waved the silver rosary tied around her wrist.
“If you can’t heal someone, how can you learn to destroy? Even if you are the Heretic Questioner, it is no different.”
Certainly, even in the game, both the Crusader and the Heretic Questioner came out with a passive skill, a recovery skill like ‘Healing Light’.
“For now, I also hold the status of a saintess. He has quite a bit of experience as a healer.”
“Are you a saint too?”
Like old Marherita?
When asked in surprise, Rosetta answered calmly.
“In our church, a saint or a saint is just one title. To be precise, among the female priests who can produce a certain amount of divine power output, the honorary position bestowed on those who have a certain amount of church contribution is the saintess. I am also qualified.”
“Then should I call you a saint from now on?”
“haha.”
Rosetta stopped walking with a cynical dry laugh.
“It’s a title that doesn’t suit the thorny path that has been arranged for me. I have never used one.”
“… .”
“There is a friend who is worthy of the title of saintess… … Marherita was sent here before, right?”
Rosetta stopped in front of the priest’s office.
She swept the old door with her fingertips.
“Probably worked in this room.”
“Do you know Marherita?”
“Everyone knows. Isn’t the title of saintess common anyway? The saints of the same age were at least saying hello to each other.”
Rosetta lowered her eyes. Does it even remind me of memories with Marherita?
“God always takes the good and benevolent person first. Isn’t it?”
“… .”
“He often takes the lives of good people first in order to use them in the heavens.”
I thought of Marherita.
While trembling and complaining with his mouth, he always healed people in front of the front.
I always miss the saintess of this temple.
“But I couldn’t be martyred on the battlefield and survived ugly and ugly like this on the ground. I will have to walk the thorny path given to me.”
Rosetta opened her eyes.
Then she spun around and fluttered her long priestly skirt, then stretched her legs out to deliver a picturesque kick,
bang!
Suddenly, he kicked the door of the head priest’s office.
The locks that were hung on the inner door of the priest’s office – and it was obvious that they had been fastened – were shattered with a single kick.
As I watched this scene with my mouth wide open, Rosetta took out her notebook again and wrote it down.
“Rosetta Temple property damage heresy 30 points. and… .”
Right after that, I raised my sharp gaze and glared at the inside of the head priest’s room.
“… These 30 points are transferred to Zenith, the priest who provided the cause of the heretical act.”
thud! Courage! clattering!
The sound of urgent rolling was heard from inside the priest’s office. Rosetta stepped inside lightly with light steps.
“I know Janice is hiding here. Come out right now.”
“Hee hee hee hee!”
Inside the head priest’s room- In front of the desk in the office, Zenith was standing with a puzzled face.
The interior of the head priest’s office was a mess. Cigarette packs and alcohol bottles were rolling everywhere, and laundry that had not been washed in time was strewn about.
“Ugh, uncle’s smell… … .”
Unknowingly, I blocked my nose. What kind of shit is this! Am I going to be like this soon?!
Rosetta also frowned.
“You really don’t feel ashamed to pollute such a clean space that Saint Marherita once used. Janice.”
no… To be honest, Marherita also lived with alcohol and cigarettes due to work stress… … I don’t think it’s much different in the room… … .
There was no time to say such things.
As soon as Janice checked the rosetta on this side, she let out an incongruous scream of “kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh”, and immediately opened the window behind the priest’s office.
Rosetta muttered coldly to Janice, who jumped outside and tried to escape.
“How much longer do you think you’ll be able to get away with by jumping from there?”
“… !”
“Think carefully, Janice. Would it be better to be punished neatly now, or would he face an even more terrible end after committing more crimes against the goddess and the church while running away? Think carefully.”
Janice flinched as if hesitating, but eventually gave up escaping as Rosetta savagely clenched her fists.
“… Surrender, sister.”
The priest, the old man with drooping shoulders, sniffled his nose and quietly knelt in front of Rosetta.
Anger raged in the intelligent eyes of Rosetta’s glasses.
“The mischievous Janice, the eternal lost lamb of our Goddess Church… . I ran away well, but this is the end.”
“… punishment.”
“okay. It was meant to be anyway.”
Charreuk-
Rosetta released the iron whip from her waist and held it in her hand. Whether he was really going to hit him with that murder whip, his life came out viciously.
Frightened, I hurriedly intervened between them.
“Wait wait wait wait! All of a sudden, you’re going to do an iron whip show here?!”
“That’s right. I will impose a bias. Until your life ends.”
“Until the end of life?!”
No, the ‘trying to kill’ that Janice said yesterday didn’t mean bluffing, but the real meaning of trying to kill?!
Rosetta wrapped the whip around the floor without batting an eye.
“The man named Janice hiding behind Your Highness is an uncommon prostitute who not only ruined the honor of our Templar Knights and the Heretic Questioner, but also disgraced the name of the Goddess Church.”
“that… Dick! I know a bit of the story too!”
Back in the day, when Janice first came here, she did a background investigation on the Serenade side.
“Did you say that he impregnated the princess of that country while he was dispatched to a foreign country for missionary work about 10 years ago… ?”
“… Exactly, that happened 14 years ago. It was reported to the superiors a long time after the actual incident. As the head of the true church… … It’s a shame to even say it.”
It was really embarrassing, but Rosetta’s pale face flushed with anger.
Janice, who was kneeling behind me, quietly closed her eyes and said nothing.
‘Certainly, just hearing this story makes me want to be a crazy person!’
In any case, Zenith, who was assigned to the Crossroads, worked diligently as the head of the priesthood.
That’s why I didn’t pay much attention to the past and moved on.
I tried desperately to defend Janice.
“Hasn’t the punishment already been handed down? He received a punishment equivalent to excommunication, so he is a servant of the Baek Ui-jong for the rest of his life… … You said you were working as a regular priest? Then you’re done!”
“The punishment was just arbitrarily imposed by the religious leaders at the time. It was a political maneuver to keep the secrets of our Templars alive and weaken their power within the Order.”
No, why is the political battle so fierce within a religious group?! Do it in moderation!
“Anyway, the verdict has already been made! Why are you trying to reverse that and punish it again?! Once the verdict is confirmed, it cannot be overturned! Don’t you know the principle of double jeopardy?”
“The doctrine is different from the criminal law, Your Highness.”
Rosetta didn’t say a word.
“Now that we, the Knights Templar, and I have become the leaders of the Order and have been teaching, we can renew the punishment of the Order that was imposed earlier. I am just trying to use the rights given to me.”
“but!”
“Your Highness, didn’t I tell you? We, the Knights Templar, are the flame and whip that purifies the inside of our church.”
“… .”
“This is an issue within our church, Your Highness. This is a presumptuous statement, but Your Highness has no right to interfere. Even the emperor cannot interfere in this matter.”
Rosetta was calm, but her tongue was sharp as a blade.
“I will cooperate with everything outside the church. We kill monsters and treat patients. Our church will remain as your good neighbor, just as it has been.”
“… .”
“So do not interfere with cleansing ourselves of the stain within our church.”
Chop-!
As Rosetta stretched out her right arm, the iron whip moved like a living snake, grinding the furniture around her at once.
“Please get out of the way, Your Highness.”
With an intelligent face, Rosetta showed a soft smile.
“This is your final warning.”
A fishy smile that smells like blood.
