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Translator: Kell | Editor: Weasalopes
Holy and Evil
After exiting the Foreign Minister’s room, Hikaru activated his Stealth and left the Tower. He returned to the hotel room to find Lavia and Paula already there, reading books piled on the table. They were looking into a few things; though in Lavia’s case, it was probably more of pure pleasure in reading.
「We’re back.」
『I smell cookies!』
The starving drakon jumped from Hikaru’s neck and onto the table, gobbling down the cookies left on the platter.
「Welcome back.」Lavia greeted.「Wait, what happened?」
TOP ARTICLES1/5Mercenaries in Apocalypse Volume 1Chapter 29
「Hmm?」
「You look angry.」
Hikaru touched his face. Angry? What would I be angry about? Ah, that knight.
Conia the Blue Knight resembled Hazuki. While their hair color and manner of speaking were different, they had a similar face and voice. Deep inside, though, they were completely different.
Hazuki-senpai would’ve known what I was thinking and would be two to three steps ahead. I’m pissed because that Conia girl can’t do that. This is stupid.
Hikaru understood very well that Conia wasn’t Hazuki. The latter wouldn’t be in this world. Yet, he was mad. Perhaps somewhere within himself, he wanted her to be the Hazuki he knew.
He pushed the thoughts to a corner of his mind.
「I’m just mad at myself for thinking about stupid things. I’m fine.」
「Really…?」
「Anyway, I found something past the magic circle.」
Hikaru told them about what he found further down underground, and how he visited Foreign Minister for a signature afterwards.
「You completed the designated request very easily, Hikaru-sama.」
「Getting the signature is the easiest part. Is it really that surprising?」
「I just realized that it’s finally over…」Paula gave a strained laugh.
Hikaru had just completed the request issued by the Adventurers Guild, something not even the knights could accomplish. Gathering attention was unavoidable. It might be best to lay low for a while, Hikaru thought. He didn’t want the guild’s eyes on him. They might give him more troublesome requests. If he were promoted, he’d be recruited to war, and he wanted no part of that.
「Is that all?」Lavia asked.
She didn’t seem convinced. Hikaru didn’t want to tell her about Conia since he still had trouble sorting it out in his mind. Lavia might’ve sensed that Hikaru was hiding something.
「Actually, there is something I haven’t told you two.」
Women’s intuition sure is scary, Hikaru thought as he started talking about the knight named Conia. About how she looked like someone he knew back in his hometown.
「Just similar looks, though.」Hikaru said.「They’re completely different on the inside.」
「Did you like this Hazuki girl?」Lavia asked.
「No, not really…」Hikaru thought about it for a bit.「I didn’t dislike her. She knew things I didn’t know about.」
But what he felt he wasn’t love. That much he was sure of.
「All right. That’s everything from me.」
「Thank you. Anyway, I’m curious about that sinister door underground.」Lavia said.
「Me too. It’s quite interesting.」Paul added.
Drake didn’t see the door directly as he refused to proceed deeper. He didn’t want to get close to the black puddles. When Hikaru told Drake about the door, the drakon simply said he could sense something horrible from beyond it. That was all. He didn’t know anything more.
「Two holy mana items, a magic circle, black puddles, and a sinister door. Curious… but is there anything to gain by delving deeper?」
From a practical standpoint, there didn’t seem to be any. Digging further would be pointless. Hikaru guessed that the reason Saints gathered here was to guard that door. They wouldn’t dare open that. That’s what Hikaru thought, at least.
The Pope seemed to be interested in using the holy mana items, but they were not making progress.
「Do you want to leave Agiapole already?」Lavia asked.
「I think so.」Hikaru replied.「We can just come back once we have new information.」
「What about that Conia girl?」
「It’s fine. She’s just a stranger who looks like Hazuki-senpai.」Hikaru quickly answered.
But somewhere in his mind, he thought about her. It felt uncomfortable, like a tiny thorn pricking at his heart. He never considered that just because they looked alike, she would bother him this much.
「Anyway, did you find anything?」Hikaru asked.「There’s a lot of books here.」
「Oh, right. Nothing about old history or scriptures, but we did find something interesting.」
Lavia pointed at a book— a catalog—of all the Saints and people who served the Church. It contained a table of contents, names, and more.
「Whoa. It even lists their job classes.」
Most of them were five-character classes, with a few four-character ones. What caught Hikaru’s eyes was the four legendary Saints who achieved great feats during their time. They had job classes with three characters.
「Two Healing Magic God, one Holy Faith God, and a Support Magic God.」
Hikaru pondered it over. You’d probably get the Healing Magic God and Support Magic God job classes once you’re an expert in healing and support magic, respectively. Case in point: Paula. I’m sure these two types of magic helped greatly in spreading the Church’s teachings, exterminating monsters, and helping people.
As for the Holy Faith God, it might be related to the “Holy” stat under “Faith” on the Soul Board. Is there a benefit to increasing the Holy stat? Gravy had a ridiculous eight points on it. Does he have the job class, then?
「Paula, do you have any job class related to faith?」Hikaru asked.
「None at all. It’s my first time finding out about it.」
「The account on this person with the Holy Faith God class is actually interesting.」Lavia said, and read it out loud.
The person in particular was devoted in walking the path of God. But he shared something in common with the other three Saints. They seemed inhuman, seeing through everything and never getting angry at trivial matters. The people around them had this impression that they had transcended humanity.
Hikaru recalled something. The description on his Soul Board.
【Heaven Shot】A Skill that reaches the domain of God, a being who controls divine providence. Lose a part of what makes one human. Max: 5.
Losing one’s humanity. Hikaru guessed Heaven Sword to have a similar description. Lawrence D. Falcon, who had one point on it, did seem superhuman.
It was likely that the Saints on the catalog had stats related to Heaven. Hikaru still left his at zero.
With all this new information, Hikaru could now look at the【Heaven Searching God: Sinner】job class differently. Since he had both this class and the Skill on his Soul Board, he could assume that the Saints had Heaven Searching God on their cards as well. This raised a problem. How would someone react if they were shown a job class that read “Sinner”? A religious person would surely try to hide it.
Hikaru shared what he thought to the girls.
「I see… It definitely isn’t something you show to others.」
「How many job classes do you have, Hikaru-sama?」
Hikaru didn’t know the world average, but he felt he had more than normal. Is it because I can modify Soul Boards?
「Anyway, since you have a Healing Magic God job class, that means you’re in the same league as the Saints.」Hikaru told Paula.
「Wh-What?! I-I can’t be…」
「The Church would surely desperately try to recruit you if they found out.」
「I don’t want to.」
She looked troubled, but Hikaru just laughed.
「It’s safer to just keep it under the wraps. Anyway, if you get this kind of class when you have a Holy-related Skill, what would those with points on “Evil”? Do they get a Accursed Magic God class or something?」
「Sounds like a disturbing god.」
『You shouldn’t use accursed magic. Or else, you’ll succumb to evil.』Drake interjected. He was done eating.
「What do you mean “succumb to evil”?」
『Your soul gets tainted with pure evil. Even drakons are warned not to succumb to temptations.』
Says the drakon who’s fallen to the temptation of food and devours just about anything, Hikaru thought.
「So there’s like evil drakons or something?」
『Yup. Drakons that eat that black gooey thing turn into one.』
「You eat that thing? You’ve gotta be kidding.」
『We can’t allow that black thing to contaminate hallowed places. So drakons clean up by eating it. I don’t really know much about it either, but apparently there was a drakon that turned pure black because of it.』
「What happened to the drakon?」
『It couldn’t stay in the realm of drakons and left.』
「So after cleaning up all that mess, he got kicked out? That’s just horrible.」
『Just eating that thing won’t get you kicked out. But afterwards, they’d crave for more to eat. Eventually, they’ll become well-versed in accursed magic and eat drakons. You can’t yield to that temptation.』
「What? Eating your brethren?」
So consuming that black mass taints the mind, huh? A chill ran down Hikaru’s spine.