Coming out of the lodging with Yuri, Kail spotted the brat he had encountered earlier at the entrance. The brat who, for some reason, was glaring daggers at him.
He wondered if she might be a survivor from a tribe that had met its doom like the Kururuma or a remnant of a criminal organization Kail had once arrested. But then he remembered where he was and dismissed the thought.
This was the Holy Kingdom. Though crimes committed outside the kingdom weren’t punished here, they were far from being ignored. Criminals were outright denied entry in the first place.
‘Who the heck is this?’
While Kail tilted his head at the girl who continued to glare at him, Yuri, who had been following beside him, looked between the girl and Kail before asking,
“Do you know her?”
“No, I don’t.”
“But she’s staring at you so passionately?”
“I really don’t know… Hey, did I do something wrong?”
At Kail’s question, the girl gritted her teeth. Then, as if nothing had happened, she brushed past him and stormed back into the lodging.
Kail thought to himself that there sure were strange people who glared at others and acted all high and mighty.
But no worries about leaving behind any grudges or anything like that. This was the Holy Kingdom, after all—a crime-free zone for hundreds of years without even the slightest offense occurring.
Even if that girl had massacred hundreds and was a serial killer, she couldn’t commit any crimes here.
“Why’s she acting like that?”
“Who knows. People like that exist. Don’t worry about it, let’s go.”
* * *
The defenses of the Holy Kingdom were perfect. That statement wasn’t wrong—at least not by conventional standards.
In the minds of ordinary people, scaling the walls to infiltrate the capital was nearly impossible. A sacred barrier enveloped the entire capital, defending against incoming projectiles or magic attacks, while the towering walls themselves stood as an impregnable fortress.
A stronghold unbeatable by both magical and physical means. Moreover, it wasn’t guarded by just some petty ruler but by the Sovereign God of the heavens, which deterred any riffraff on earth from daring to lay a hand on it.
For some, however, this very fact made them want to invade it all the more.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes, everything is prepared.”
“Good. Everyone, take your positions.”
Upon hearing the Apostle of the Evil God Cult—Empress—the cultists began setting up miniature catapults they had brought. Moments later, the magically compressed catapults revealed their grand forms.
Instead of stones, the cultists now stood atop the catapults, ready to sacrifice their bodies and souls as they gazed toward the Empress.
Before sending off these brave warriors, the Empress prayed for them.
“Your sacrifice will never be forgotten. Upon your death, you will enter the world created by our God, where you will experience eternal and infinite happiness—where you shall live forevermore.”
“Aah—Apostle-sama…!”
“Thank you! Thank you for giving us such an opportunity…!”
The believers, sincerely believing the Apostle’s words, gave thanks to the Evil God and the cult for granting such an incredible chance to lowly farmers, slaves, and peasants like themselves.
And the moment all preparations were complete, the Empress activated the catapults. With that, the humans standing atop the catapults were launched as human projectiles into the capital of the Holy Kingdom.
Though the barrier blocked all magical and physical means of intrusion, strictly speaking, that wasn’t entirely accurate. The barrier only repelled non-human entities and those not aligned with humanity.
That’s why the guards at the entrance of the Holy Kingdom focused more on inspections than stopping people, and it also explained why the barrier could be maintained with minimal divine power.
An extremely mechanical god chose to be exceedingly rational in all things. Encasing the Holy Kingdom in a spherical barrier was precisely for that reason.
“Wheeeeee—!”
“I’m going! You faithless fools!”
“Long live the Evil God!”
What should have been an impenetrable barrier, invincible by all logic, was easily breached due to its fatal flaw—it allowed humans to pass through.
The towering walls, built high enough to prevent any superhuman from leaping over, became meaningless as the Evil God Cultists descended from the sky using high-powered catapults.
As the cultists landed across every corner of the Holy Kingdom, they activated the bombs in their hands upon impact with buildings, the ground, or walls.
BOOOOM— Explosions echoed everywhere, and people caught in the blasts screamed. Amidst the chaos of pain, fear, despair, and sorrow consuming the city, the Watcher’s Eye opened, detecting the crimes.
[Crime detected.]
The Watcher’s Eye rolled wildly.
Crime: Destruction of property in the Holy Kingdom.
Punishment failed due to the criminal’s death.
Crime: Assault within the Holy Kingdom.
Punishment failed due to the criminal’s death.
Crime: Murder within the Holy Kingdom.
Punishment failed due to the criminal’s death.
Dozens, hundreds, thousands of judgments—and failures. As punishments and failures cascaded one after another, the Watcher’s processing capabilities began to malfunction.
[Punish, fail, punish, fail, pun, ish—failfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailŞ̷̙̗̥̲̘̻̜̰̜̣͎̞̖̋͐͜I̵̜̊̏́̍̕͝p̶̨̧̱̩͉͇̐̔̀̈́͑̃ą̵̧̺͖̥̠̺̤̪̤̫̺̲͓̐̍͑̌͒̐̔ͅi]̶̤̫̤͓̱̏͊͑̌̈́͊̕ͅ
A form of crime no one had anticipated. Naturally, the Sovereign God who created the Watcher’s Eye hadn’t considered such a scenario either.
Realizing the situation, the Sovereign God took control of the Watcher’s Eye, rolling it around. In the distance, a naked woman smiled faintly at the sight of the Holy Kingdom.
『Punish her.』
The Sovereign God’s absolute command. The entire world moved to kill the distant woman, but was immediately obstructed.
Confused by the incomprehensible situation, the Sovereign God trembled upon sensing the overwhelming malevolence emanating from near the woman. The presence of the Evil God.
A horrifying entity too dreadful to behold stood there.
『I issue a divine oracle.』
Instantly, the Sovereign God delivered an oracle to the clerics listening.
『Punish that wicked one.』
A holy war. A war breaking out in the Holy Kingdom, right in the Sovereign God’s front yard. The Sovereign God never imagined losing.
Not until that naked witch moved.
“To die for the sake of God… how envious.”
The Apostle of Envy. The Empress. Clad in chains barely covering her nipples and privates, her outfit was so scandalous and provocative it seemed designed to drive one mad. She envied the believers who had died.
The fact that they could die for their god. That they would enjoy eternal pleasure and serve the Evil God after death. She envied it all.
Thus, she was consumed with jealousy.
“Aah, aah—! Your deaths are so enviable—!”
Therefore, you cannot die.
“I will take it away.”
The power of the Evil God turned toward the fallen believers. Stripped of death by the power of envy, the believers rose again—precisely, they rose as corpses.
—Click, clack-clack?
The sound of charred skulls’ teeth clattering echoed through the explosions. Resurrected from death, the believers tilted their heads, unsure why they were alive.
But they knew where they were and what they had to do. This was the Holy Kingdom, and their duty was to send its people into the embrace of the Evil God.
It seemed they hadn’t fulfilled that duty yet, considering they were still alive and unable to die.
—Everyone, moan…
The undead believers walked through the city. The citizens of the Holy Kingdom, caught off guard by this sudden calamity, hesitated, and thus fell into the arms of the Evil God.
“No, nooo—!”
“You damn skeletons—!”
At this point, the residents of the Holy Kingdom swung fists, feet, and weapons at the charging skeletons to defend themselves.
In other words, the citizens had committed crimes.
[Crime detected.]
[Assault, death penalty]
“Huh—?”
The malfunctioning Watcher’s Eye activated. To the Watcher’s Eye, the skeletons were merely humans walking along the road, while the citizens were criminals attacking them unprovoked.
In an instant, beams of light rained down from the sky, incinerating the citizens, and just like that, hundreds more believers lost their lives.
Though the Sovereign God removed the Watcher’s Eye upon realizing the dire situation, it was already far too late. To the Watcher’s Eye, the actions of the paladins rushing out armed without proper prayer were violations of discipline.
『—.』
The Sovereign God lamented the paladin unit obliterated by the Watcher’s Eye.
All hope was lost.
* * *
“What the hell is this now?”
Kail groaned at the sudden explosion and the rising skeletons. He had a pregnant wife here—what on earth was happening?
Wasn’t this the Holy Kingdom? The land watched over by God where all crime was forbidden.
Who on earth could have pulled off a terrorist attack here?
‘There is one.’
As the question crossed his mind, a single group came to mind. The Evil God Cult. Their relentless bad blood had apparently followed him here.
