“Shite…” I couldn’t help but murmur seeing as how we were caught already. C’mon princess, I thought you cordoned off the area? And the fella didn’t even knock. Where are the manners here? We’ve already been found and we’ve only just managed to bind our hostage. At least let us actually complete the deed in full before interrupting us!

“Wh-What’s happening?” The soul daring enough to open up a lady’s quarters without so much as a knock.

“Aha! Well, it seems my sister is refusing to leave despite the alarm blaring, so even if it is forceful, we’re doing this for her own good.” Kana says straight laced, as she pulls the gag tighter around her blood sister's mouth, “Though, if I may add, I don’t believe you belong here, yes?”

Nice save! As expected of the smartest personage in the kingdom!

“Ah! Uhm, actually, I’m…” The blonde lad pauses, seemingly hesitant to identify himself.

But that’s no matter, because we’re already wholly aware of who he is. It’s just a bit of surprise that the bait worked so quickly. I mean, at first I thought the plan was somehow crumbling apart before it began, but it seems that the plan is simply too good. We barely even had the chance to make a ransom but here he is. In the flesh. And about to be bloody flesh in a minute.

Kana gives us the signal and Savage slowly approaches… No, he just runs at the target. Have some subtlety man! Barreling toward another is just announcing your malicious intent.

Needless to say, he was alerted by the sudden actions of Savage, drawing his sword to fend against the savage attack. That bastard… As expected, he doesn’t roll over and die as projected, but instead puts up a feasible fight against Savage. Though whilst Savage is purely using his skill and sleight of hand with the dagger to fight, I can tell blondie over there is pressed if his profuse use of divine essence is any indicator.

Though, it may not be an indicator for all I know. I’ve never touched the stuff, and from what I hear, unlike other essence which you have to gather manually, with divine essence, you just need… Faith…

Yeah. You can get strong by praying.

However, I’m not so foolish as to think that it’s a black and white deal with no drawbacks. I may not know what they are, but there’s surely a reason why not everyone simply prays for power. There has to be a drawback.

So far, I can’t find any. The blazing flames of divinity make it a constant struggle to see and definitely a negative modifier to Savage’s mobility. As I found out a while ago, divine essence was a critical counter to undead and charnel essence —which Deathoaths regularly use—, though the same could be said vice versa.

Now abandoning all notions of deceit, Laffer too rushes toward the target’s blindside, preparing a deadly curse on his blade.

Even the little princess brings out a hand rifle to fire upon her hated foe. And me? Well, I’m making sure the first princess doesn’t pull anything. And unlike the others, I’m doing a great job at my task.

Whilst the blonde is still alive and kicking, I have the princess nice and quiet. And considering the many unknowns that can happen on a battlefield, I make the express decision to evacuate the premises. Can’t have something going wrong now can I?

I’ve read enough of Laffer’s recommendations over the last few days to understand the tropes and contrivances that come about. And I’m not intent on having them actuate.

I ring the edges of the room with princess in tow to eventually sneak past the hubbub, successfully exiting the room. So drunk I was on the easy success that I fail to catch the blade of sheer essence directed at me. I take the full brunt of it, leaving a deep horizontal gash to my side. I don’t feel it, but the amount of blood dying my white outfit is concerning.

I wish I had my normal robes on me… Even if it was placebo, I didn’t feel too hot. I didn’t even have my crossbow either, so I couldn’t even combat the threat.

I’d like to say, I’ve never done this before, and I’ve never had thoughts of it before, but I use the princess as a meatsheild. Not very different from the hostage situation, but before it was like an empty threat, now, I’m actually putting a royal’s life on the line.

If I recall correctly, the penalty for such an act was… death. Which is a bit underwhelming but the moral stigma behind the branding was so much more painful. Mental scars hurt more than physical ones, especially when I notice who it was that shot me.

“Lily…” the white little bird.

I didn’t even know she was in the corridor. She was always sneaky, but I never knew that I was also blind… Nah, she’s just sneaky. A sneaky little birb. I’m gonna take it that she accidentally shot me, because I’m gonna be honest, this isn’t the first time.

And though I can accept that it happened, I’m still gonna be pissed about it.

“Miss shot!”

“Nah, on point.”

“You shot me though…”

“Jeffrey? You look different.”

I’m sure I do. And noticing the amicable relationship between me and the bird, the damsel’s mood seems to have taken a turn. Good.

“You good?”

“No.”

“Jeffrey…” She seems to hesitate, “Are you here to kill that guy?” Gesturing to the chambers.

Of course. “That’s the aim of the game.”

“Do you have to?”

100%. Not just because of the obligation to the cult, but because it became personal three days ago. That rat bastard burnt me and threatened to steal Lily… Oh yeah! Lily!

“Are you alright?”

“Why would you ask?” She raises a brow at this action of mine. Which I admit, is not the most characteristic but I only ask because I’m actually concerned now. The birb would always be fine regardless of what she did, but that fella… He was real trouble.

“Are you alright?”

“Of course! But hey… Can I ask you a favour?”

I nod. I’ll do one last thing for this dearest birb of mine.

“Please help him.”

… What? Help him? I turn my head, following her vector and I see. Ah, my poor little birdy, you’ve been bewitched… It’s a hollow feeling I have when I notice this. This birdy… Is she still the one I used to know and love?

“Please, just this once. I’ll never ask for anything again!”

“Lily. Are you sure about this? This will be the last thing I ever do for you, y’know?” I try to dissuade her. Anything to cleanse this bitter taste in my mouth.

Even if Lily’s a real rabble rouser, she’s still the rabble rouser I’ve known the longest. The only one that had my back when I escaped the Night Knights all that time ago.

“I’m sure, so…” Her voice trembles a bit, “Please…”

The inner ass inside of me is tempted to call her crocodile tears, but at the same time, they feel genuine. I don’t think Lily’s ever cried for me…

“Don’t regret this.” I acquiesce to her request as I toss the princess at the birb.

She manages to catch her, showing a surprising feat of strength. A surprise.

Despite how much I hate that rat bastard, ultimately, my grudge doesn't run so deep that I'm hellbent on killing him at all costs. I just thought I'd rest easier if I took him to the grave with me. Though Lily's request… I want to cry.

Now, how to skirt around the issue… Saving that blonde guy is not gonna be easy, but if it’s to help, then I guess I could delay his execution? Yeah, that should be possible. If I give him the option of surrender, then he might just do so.

Actually, I have a hostage with me, why didn’t I think of this earlier? Did we really just jump the block here? No, it was Savage that went ballistic at the sight of the summon. Nonetheless, it should work, and I will also be fulfilling Lily’s wish, and though the fallout may not be what she wants… I won’t be around to witness that. She'll have to make do.

Though before I get the chance to put my devious machinations in action, I’m interrupted by some strange folks. The kind that Vigilance isn’t fond of.

…

Reon was getting beat. No doubts could be said about that. Getting triple teamed often does that. Not to mention that Reon was only getting through because his divine essence was super effective against two of them. Though maybe his magic would work against the princess too… Who knows?

The situation was bad, but hey! At least he wasn’t getting quadruple teamed. Speak of, where was the last guy? Where was the first princess? Why was he even fighting these guys!?

He didn’t know, but he knew that in this world, combat maids were definitely a thing and they were busted. The knight guy was one thing, but like, the combat maid just wasn’t laying off. If Reon wasn’t a godboosted individual, he’d be dead ten times over by now.

And if that wasn’t a plot contrivance then this next bit would be.

Blasted idols… Messing around with the Realm however they wish.

To save the day comes a procession of luminous white! It’s the lackeys of the Pantheon! Wolvish and canine affiliated demi humans, specifically, those under the Goddess of Victory. Her friars and templars shine in white light, though for pure servants, they seem a bit bloodied… If we were to question why Vigilance and Auspices were acting so poorly in recent times, it could be attributed to plain and simple sabotage. Sabotage of an extreme variety, that definitely didn’t involve murder.

This poor kingdom. Even its own vassals are intent on ripping it apart.

“Hero!” They shout, “We’ve come to save you!”

Which would sound cringe if anyone else said it, but for these guys… It's not that bad, I will admit. There were a total of six of them here, all Silver, with two Steel ranked templars. An overwhelming foe that the cultists, heretics now face.

Eyes set on their three adversaries, they immediately take action, ignoring the folk outside the chamber. They only had one mission and they’d ensure victory in the name of their goddess.

But! Before they could even launch any successful reprisal for the Hero, they felt a distinct heaviness. A drain on their life force, on their strength. Their legs felt heavy, their swords even heavier. It wasn’t long before their skin started to dry and crack.

It was as if their essence sought to ravage them from the inside. What was this? Unbeknownst to them was Ori of the opaque cloth!

The Desiccators were the fewest among the heretics, but that was by virtue of their hard to attain power. If you were part of the heretics, then you were definitely a nutjob, that was simple. Working with esoteric essence like death, or plague often does that. That was especially so for desiccation.

Those worshippers didn’t even know how they died. After all, as lawful good people, they couldn’t see Ori, who was invisible to those that abide by law and more vaguely ‘justice’.

Hope was looking bleak, and to really paint it a proper monochrome, a little demon popped out to kill off the hardened templars, she used a machete too large for her frame. Yes, Lazari, as a demon, wasn't limited in magic choice like puny mortals so she could abuse Ori’s cloth to hide and strike. After all, unlike humans who couldn’t maintain conflicting essence types.

Demons had chaos essence which was something very hard to get, as stated in Chapter 43.

Now that the backup’s dead, surely nothing can happen now?

“Fellas, hear me out on this one," A bleeding maid cries out, "What if I pour this dark script meter of divine essence onto this hero guy?”

Ah, I forgot the resident dumbass.