Chapter 229: The New Vassal

Corr’s expression was very grave. A flash of surprise appeared on his face when he saw the empty rice cake box, but it immediately became grave again. He said, “Let me escort you.”

Corr said this with an extremely serious expression! It seemed like Minhyuk had become a felon. Alas. He was treated like a bad person, even though he did something good. Minhyuk hung his head down and thought,?‘Sob… But the rice cakes were really delicious.’

Minhyuk believed that he would be given severe punishments. What was worse was that even Corr, who was standing in front of him, was a very strong person. Minhyuk thought that there were definitely going to be punishments waiting for him in the Athenae Temple.

Meanwhile, Corr sent a pigeon over.

Flap, flap, flap.

***

Rafael, the number one in Korea’s Paladin Rankings, was on his way to Athenae Temple. He thought,?‘Today is the day that Loyna will pray in the Athenae Temple.’

This was the day when Loyna would make her public appearance. Plenty of players would flock to the temple just to see her face. The number one Paladin, Rafael, was smitten with her. It was strange for players to have a crush on NPCs, but he could not help it since she was such a beautiful woman.

Just like he had expected, there were plenty of people flocking to the Athenae Temple.

“It’s the number one in the Paladin rankings, Rafael!”

“Wow!”

However, even though Rafael had such a high position, he was still nervous whenever he entered the temple. He was also a member of the Athenae Religion, but he surmised that Loyna only saw him as an ant on the sidewalk.

‘But that’s her charm!’

Rafael had a dream. He dreamt that he would be able to brush his fingers against her palms one day.

Just like that, more than thousands of players gathered in the temple. Then, hundreds of Paladins and Athenean priests began to move. That was when Loyna appeared in front of him.

“Wow…!”

“She’s really beautiful!”

“It’s not only in Athenae! I believe she’s the most beautiful woman in the world!”

“Joy Co. Ltd. said that there would be no woman that is more beautiful than Loyna!”

The players were all in awe and admiration as they watched her move forward.

Rafael followed Loyna’s figure, only to see a carriage parked with the Paladin Commander and a sulky man, presumably a foreigner, coming down.

“What’s this? Is he a felon of the Athenae Religion?”

“Corr will not move unless he’s escorting Loyna or guarding against a great sinner in the Athenae Religion, right?”

“That’s right. He’s probably a great sinner.”

This was the thought that passed through the heads of countless players. But then, an extraordinary thing happened in front of them. All of the priests and paladins knelt down on one knee. Their actions were uniformly done without the slightest bit of error at all.

“We greet Athenae Religion’s benefactor! Brother Minhyuk!”

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

They could not believe that the followers of the Athenae Religion, who served the God of Athenae and were well known to be proud and strict, would actually kneel down like this.

Then, they saw Loyna walking towards the mysterious player. She slowly bent down on one knee, grasped the back of the hand of the man and kissed it with her soft and plump lips. She said, “I, Saintess Loyna, swear to respect and cherish the Athenae Religion’s benefactor, Minhyuk, forever.”

Then, she smiled softly as she slowly raised her head to look at him. The players felt extreme shock and jealousy when they saw her reddened cheeks.

“N…no way…!”

“M…my Loyna!!”

“That look is definitely…!”

“Who the hell is that punk!”

“I’ll kill you for sure!”

He was a thief! A thief that robbed all the people, regardless of their age, of their dream woman!

“…?”

As for Minhyuk, the great ‘sinner’, tilted his head in confusion.

‘What’s going on here?’

***

Three hours ago.

The Papal Knight Voloch looked at Minhyuk in confusion. After all, Minhyuk looked extremely angry after leaving the Papal Office. Hence, Voloch said, “Your expression doesn’t look good.”

“Yes. I feel very,?very?bad.”

“How come?”

“My goodness! Saintess Loyna should have given me the rice cake dumpling soup, but she did not even mention it to me! Ah! How could she do that?”

“…”

Voloch was left speechless.

Saintess Loyna’s beauty was enough to make plenty of people feel full just by looking at her. However, the foreigner Minhyuk was angry that such a beautiful woman did not give him the rice cake dumpling soup.

‘I…I think he’s really angry?’

Voloch could tell by Minhyuk’s labored breathing that he was trying to hold in his anger. He watched as the huffing Minhyuk called the carriage over.

“Do you really not want us to see you off?”

“To be honest, I want to be alone with these rice cakes, more than having your company.”

“…”

‘He’s so strange. But, he’s still the man that pulled out the Saint's Sword.’

Voloch watched the carriage disappear in the distance as he proceeded with his work as usual. Two hours later, Voloch, who was in the middle of his work, suddenly stopped.

‘Rice cake dumpling soup…?’

That was the only reason why he suddenly stopped. His brows furrowed in thought.

‘But, I don’t think it’s just rice cake dumpling soup?’

To be exact, the Papal Office would usually make rice cake dumpling soup with ‘joraengi rice cake’. However, the word joraengi was missing from the words that he had heard earlier.

His brows furrowed further as he thought about the things that happened recently. In fact, something strange also happened a few days ago. Pope Carunu had described God Athenae as ‘God’s Will’ but Voloch had never heard the Pope use such an expression before. He would usually say ‘It’s His will’, not ‘God’s will’.

‘Something’s not right.’

Voloch also realized that the Pope never went out of the prayer room these days. He faintly realized that something was very, very wrong. He moved quickly towards the prayer room and did something that he normally would never do. He peeped through a small gap in the door.

That was when he saw black demonic energy escaping from Carunu’s body. The demonic energy created a demonic figure that talked sinisterly in the prayer room.

Clatter!

“You bastard!!!” Voloch shouted as he pulled his sword out.

Voloch was named the Pope’s Guardian, a powerhouse who had strength that was beyond that of a Level 610 character.

When he opened the door and entered the room, he saw the Pope collapsing in a heap. There was also the black demonic energy that formed into the shape of a skeleton with horns. This was none other than Verus.

“A disaster will descend upon you… and… you will be unable to stop it… you already… chased the disaster away.?Keuhahaha!”

“…!”

Voloch’s eyes widened in horror as the black demonic energy scattered through the air and disappeared.

‘Disaster? Chased away?’

“The… the rice cake, rice cake…!!”

Carunu had played a part in making the rice cake that would be gifted to the Athenae believers. However, Carunu was someone that did not even know the ‘C’ in cooking, so it was quite strange for him to even try to touch the food in the kitchen.

“We…we have to stop Minhyuk!!!”

Unfortunately, it was already two hours since Minhyuk left the Papal Office, so he would have already reached the Athenae Temple by now. It was likely that they would have already eaten the food by now.

Voloch’s legs softened as he sank down to the ground.

‘G…Goddamnit…!’

He was not aware of it, but at that time, Minhyuk was actually happily eating the delicious rice cakes.

***

Loyna smiled softly as she looked at Minhyuk’s puzzled expression. They had received a letter sent by Knight Commander Voloch through a pigeon.

[Minhyuk noticed the strange smell and taste of the rice cakes beforehand and ate all of the rice cakes to save our Athenae Religion. He saved us from a crisis, just like the legend of the Saint's Sword that came down to save us and bring us to salvation.]

Loyna was surprised. She realized that he was a decent man.

‘He ate the rice cakes because he wanted to?’

She believed that such a thought was too much to accuse of someone like him.

‘Then?’

Loyna firmly believed that Minhyuk had noticed it faster than them, so he ate all of the rice cakes before it could even wreak havoc in the temple. He even deliberately avoided the warp and chose the carriage, instead of coming directly to Athenae Temple from the Papal Office.

Loyna said, “We heard from Sir Voloch, the Pope’s Guardian. You purposely took the rice cakes and used a carriage instead of warping here.”

“…?”

Minhyuk was confused. He thought to himself,?‘But, I told Voloch that I wanted to savor the warmth of the rice cakes, that's why I rode the carriage?’

Loyna continued to say, “You knew the moment you received it! You knew that it would bring forth a disaster, so you rode in a carriage and drove further away from the Athenae Temple. You did this to save us, the Athenae Religion!”

Loyna’s eyes reddened.

‘Th…that’s not it… I just want to feel the warmth of the rice cakes.’

“In addition! You must have tried to find ways to get rid of the disaster, but you couldn’t... That’s why you…”

In the end, tears fell down from Loyna’s eyes. She said, “You sacrificed yourself! You ate all of the rice cakes and got rid of their existence. We know that foreigners are living the life of the immortals, since you’re blessed by God Athenae,?but it wouldn’t erase the pain that you will experience in the process of dying! Oh, how painful it must have been!”

Loyna squeezed her hands together to stop them from shaking and trembling.

Looking at the scene, Minhyuk thought that he should not mention the fact that he ate the rice cakes, just because he wanted to eat them. Thinking quickly, he just said, “I succeeded in eradicating the rice cakes. It was really a hard and painful process. I really had no choice but to eat them all! It was inevitable!”

“Aaaaaaaaaah!”

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

Loyna, the priests and the paladins all lamented for him and the sufferings that he experienced. Meanwhile, the thought that flashed through Minhyuk’s head was…

‘Nice! I killed two birds with one stone! I ate all the rice cakes and the Athenae Temple fell in love with me!’

The deeply moved Loyna continued to shed tears.

.

***

Demon worshippers existed all over the world and they believed in different existences. The demons had a system that divided the Demon Monarchs into three.

The first Demon Monarch was Verus.

The second Demon Monarch was Gorac.

The third Demon Monarch was Gremory.

Demon Worshipper Carn was one of Verus’ worshippers. To be precise, he was once the fourth among the Pinnacle Strong Men in the world. Then, he was called on by Verus and he became one of his worshippers.

Verus originally gave Carn his demonic energy so that he could temporarily convert his demonic energy into holy power. Using that power, he would move the Saint's Sword, meet with Verus and deliver the rice cakes that were filled with curses and disasters to the Athenae Temple. All of a sudden, everything went awry and had gone wrong, just because of a foreigner.

Just when he was trying to figure out a way to deal with him, he heard the voice of Demon Verus.

[I will pretend to be caught by the Athenae Religion. If I cannot use the rice cakes and wine to curse and bring down the Athenae Religion to hell, then I will temporarily lend you my strength. Perhaps, I can drive the Athenae Priests towards the Papal Office all by myself. At that time, you should go and kill Loyna.]

Along with his words, a parchment and a bottle filled with black liquid appeared in front of Carn. Then, he checked it right away.

[Verus’ Space Distortion Parchment.]

The space distortion parchment could create a boundary and block everyone from entering the space within a ten-meter radius from the parchment user. The duration of the parchment was one hour.

After Carn checked the information about the bottle filled with black liquid, he was surprised.

‘If I drink this liquid…’

All of his stats would be affected by demonic energy and would be temporarily increased by more than 30%. In other words, the previous fourth Pinnacle Strong Man would become even stronger, with just this bottle of liquid.

In the end, their plan to make the Athenae Religion fall into hell with the rice cakes had failed.

Right now, Carn turned his head. He could see the priests, paladins, and even Loyna acting polite towards the foreigner chef.

Loyna finally started her journey as she climbed the carriage together with the foreigner. The fancy carriage was pulled by pure white horses.

Carn could see that even the commander of the paladins, who firmly supported Loyna, was within the ten-meter range. To be honest, if the commander of the paladins, Corr, was removed from the picture, he would be able to kill Loyna easily. After all, except for the name Saintess and her buffing ability, Loyna was extremely weak.

‘Now’s the time.’

Poof!

He quickly opened the cap of the bottle. And…

Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp—

…he gulped the contents of the bottle.

1. cocoon-shaped