"I—I don't know! I didn't do anything! I swear!!"
The cornered hero trembled, crawling backward until his back struck a wall. There was nowhere left to run. All he could do was stare up at the approaching holy knight and her grim companions, teeth clattering in terror.
"You're the spy, aren't you?" the knight said coldly.
"I—I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Then your body will tell me."
Aegis's blade gleamed white as she brought it down. Blood splattered the stones. When the headless body fell still, she pried a small star-shaped badge from the corpse's chest.
Moments later, the remains dissolved into light.
When a hero dies, their body is sealed into a coffin and follows their party like a ghost. If the whole party dies—or if the hero was a solo player to begin with—they're resurrected at the nearest church. Which means that corpse just made the pile of bodies in my church a little higher.
"Another false lead," Aegis muttered.
Despite her words, she smiled as she pinned the bloodstained star to her armor. The surface of her cuirass shimmered now with the collected stars.
"Damn it," she spat, glaring at another cowering adventurer. "What a vile species you monsters are. Hm? What are you looking at? Suspicious."
"I—I wasn't—"
It seemed Aegis had found her next target. As the group closed in on another unfortunate hero, I slipped away through the crowd, pretending not to see.
Ah, great. The mountain of corpses at the church just keeps getting taller. I really don't want to go back.
Staying inside the church to avoid running into that torturer would've been safest. But you go stir-crazy in there if you never step outside.
At least I'd finished the essentials—bought supplies, stocked up on grape juice. Maybe I'd check another shop or two. I stopped in front of a pottery shop. For some reason, heroes have this habit of smashing pots. The place was full of broken shards.
Why does everyone decorate their homes with things destined to be shattered?
"Hey, Julius! Finally found you!"
Huh? Who's calling me?
I turned. A man in priest's robes was jogging toward me. I recognized the face.
"Lutz? What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here? What are you doing out of the church? I flipped through half the corpse pile looking for you!"
He wasn't joking—his robes were stained with dried blood.
"Why the hell would I be in there? And seriously, what's going on? You could've at least sent a message."
"What's going on?" His eyes darkened. He grabbed my collar and shook me hard.
"Because of you, our workload's gone insane, that's what's going on!!"
"Uh... what?"
What the hell, is he having a breakdown?
Then again... maybe he had a point.
Lutz works at the Temple of Vocations—basically the divine job agency. Anyone who wants to become a hero gets their blessing there. Anyone who wants to quit does their paperwork there too.
He leaned in close, dark circles under his eyes.
"There are too many heroes quitting! Sure, some say it's because monsters are too strong—fine, I get that. But lately it's all infighting! Internal disputes! What the hell is happening out there?"
"I'm wondering the same thing, trust me. Been thinking 'what the hell' nonstop for weeks now."
Maybe the mass suicides with that pufferfish toxin worked as deterrent... or maybe the monsters just realized torturing intelligent prey was a waste of time. Either way, the tortures had stopped—or so we thought.
But things didn't calm down.
Instead, attacks started happening in town—sudden, surgical, leaving victims no time even to bite their poison capsules. Whoever did it gouged out the victims' eyes first. No one had seen the culprit's face, but everyone agreed: the torturer was hiding among us.
Most believed it was a monster disguised as a human.
Heroes can always be resurrected, of course. So Aegis and her "secret police"—a band of volunteers—decided to purge every suspicious hero they found. To outsiders, it looked less like justice and more like slaughter.
No wonder so many heroes fled to the Temple, begging for calmer, safer work.
"And what's with those stars anyway?" Lutz asked, lowering his voice. "Feels like they're collecting ears or something."
I sighed. Another hero lost their head—and their star—right in front of us.
"Yeah... it's come to that now. But originally, it was just a little event item."
The "Errand Quest." The church's main branch hosted it sometimes to encourage cooperation among heroes.
This time they handed out several star pins—imitations of the Gold Sword Star Medal given to the most distinguished champions. Each star had a unique serial number. The idea was to trade others' stars for prizes.
The church had hoped heroes would mingle, help each other, maybe even make friends. Instead, it turned into a trophy hunt—like some barbaric head-collecting ritual.
The top prize? Ten stars for a single High Potion. Handy, sure, but hardly worth all the bloodshed.
"Still," Aegis murmured, brushing a finger over the stars on her chest, "with this..."
Then she froze. The stars were gone. Every one of them.
"Wha—my stars! My stars are gone!"
"Heheh... your stars?" purred a voice near her ear.
Aegis spun around. Standing there, grinning, was Rielle—known to most as the pastel crazy woman. She flaunted a chest glittering with hundreds of stars.
"You—!"
"They say if you gather seven hundred stars, any wish will come true," Rielle said softly. "And my wish... is Julius. He's mine. I won't let anyone take him."
...That's news to me.
Aegis clenched her jaw hard enough to creak. "I knew this day would come. Come, then! I am the shield and sword of the priesthood—and I alone shall defend their virtue!"
Yeah, well, my virtue's not up for auction, thanks. And even if you gathered seven hundred stars, the church still only gives you a High Potion.
Events like this always kick off some nonsense rumor for no good reason. Troublesome, that.
Turning my back on the two who'd already started a heated fight, I grabbed Lutz by the arm.
"Let's move somewhere else."
This place is dangerous.
Reluctantly, I led Lutz back toward the church.
Even from outside the doors, the air felt wrong—heavy and sour. I opened the doors cautiously.
Yep. Of course.
I nearly sighed out loud. The altar was buried beneath a towering mound of corpses, folded into one another until you couldn't see the sanctum at all.
I would have closed the door and left it, but a small sob caught my eye—an infant girl pressing her face against the wall, wiping her cheeks.
I rushed over.
"Rubibel. What are you doing here? You shouldn't look—this will break your mind."
"Priest-san... my big brother won't move."
"Gram...?"
I looked toward the pile. Gram had to have died just moments ago—his body lay near the top of the heap.
"Sorry, Lutz. Wait here a moment."
I said that to Lutz, then set about reviving Gram, having already collected the resurrection fee from him previously.
Honestly—don't die when you've got a kid.
Still, this was—
"What a gruesome corpse. You shouldn't look, really."
Lutz covered Rubibel's eyes. The wounds on Gram's body were not the kind meant to kill quickly; they were carved to hurt, to humiliate. This wasn't the work of the volunteer spy-hunt—this was sadism. Any ordinary child would scream and bolt at the sight.
But Rubibel slipped away from Lutz's hand and stayed by Gram until he woke.
"My big brother! Thank goodness, thank goodness!"
"Oh, Rubibel... don't worry. I'm fine."
Gram rubbed his eyes and sat up; Rubibel threw herself into his chest. The reunion made me pinch at the corner of my eye despite myself.
Still, duty comes first. I leaned close and whispered to Gram.
"Well, of course you're fine. I fixed you. But what about the resurrection fee? You've got to pay up."
"I—I don't have any on me. Put it on my tab."
"Eh?"
I'm a good Priest who expects fair compensation for work. Yet Gram refused to meet my gaze.
Saints forbid shirking a resurrection bill. Now, how to handle this—
"Priest, I'm sorry. Here—take this," Rubibel said, offering a little star badge with all the sweetness she could muster.
Cute as hell. Warmed my heart a bit, I bent toward Gram and whispered again.
"You planning to shack up with that little girl or what?"
A stream of curses rose in me that you definitely shouldn't say in front of children. Before I could voice them, Lutz shook my shoulder.
"Well, he's a precious hero now. You've got to be gentle. But bringing non-heroes into battle? Terrible idea. Too dangerous."
"No—those wounds aren't from the torturer. Right, Gram? They're not the kind meant to kill."
Gram nodded slowly.
"No, it was Aegis's group. They suspected me of spying and questioned me. Those bastards went way overboard. Keep a tight leash on them, yeah?"
"Oh?"
Near the stacked corpses, Rubibel hopped about like she hadn't a care.
"I want to be a hero too!"
"Wonderful ambition. Want big brother to make you one?"
"Can you do it!?"
Maybe encouraged by the sparkle in that child's eyes, Lutz preened.
"Sure I can. I am a Priest at the Temple of Vocations, after all."
"Cut the nonsense and go back to work. The Temple's drowning in paperwork, right?"
Lutz stamped his foot on the blood-splattered carpet like a child.
"No! I don't want to work! And you should be the one resurrecting them!"
"I don't want to work either!"
Two grown men stamping like toddlers on the altar carpet—what a grotesque scene. But this world is nothing if not hellish.
Lutz kicked his legs as if tormented by hot iron and shouted—
"I'm going to live here playing with little girls! Right, Rubibel-chan, want some grape juice?"
"Yay!"
"Hey, don't—okay, okay. One person, twenty-five milliliters max."
"You're stingy."
They drank the grape juice I'd bought and ran around the church. Idiots.
Fine. At least this gave me time to speak with Gram.
"You need to decide what you'll do next. About her, and... are you wrapped up in something dangerous?"
"What are you talking about? I'm not—"
"Stop playing house; it's not good for the kid."
Gram's face hardened as he dodged the joke.
"What would you know? I am... I am—"
"Hey Julius, look! Rubibel-chan is amazing!"
Our talk dissolved into their childish ruckus. And, I admit, I was impressed.
Rubibel had climbed up and was perched on the head of the large Goddess statue. She balanced like a tiny acrobat, then leaped, flipping once midair, and landed lightly on Lutz's shoulder.
"Incredible! Like a circus performer, Rubibel-chan!"
"Yup!"
She wrapped her legs around Lutz's neck, smiling. It looked like a piggyback ride, but Lutz's face drained of color.
"Beastfolk are nimble, huh. Ha ha."
Lutz laughed while rolling his eyes back. Rubibel probably thought it was play, but mix a child's agility with a priest's lousy stamina and you get a terrifying spectacle.
Yet Lutz wouldn't put her down. Is he a lolicon? Or was his brain oxygen-starved? I couldn't tell. Watching him—white-eyed—he turned his face to me.
"Oh, right. I've got something to tell you."
"What, your last words?"
"There's going to be an inspection."
"Huh?"
"From the cult's main office—what do they call them... someone important is coming."
"What? Why? What does that mean?"
"Look, with everything going on... this is unprecedented."
Lutz sagged to his knees as if the news had wrung him dry. I hurried to hold Rubibel steady as she squealed and clapped.
"Rubibel, stop. Don't drop Lutz! Now tell me more—please!"
Notes:
• Aegis - a female red-haired holy knight in silver armor, harsh to others and herself but shows weakness to Julius, to whom she swore loyalty, leads the Secret Police Squad.
• Julius - The Main Character.
• Lutz - a male friend of Julius from cleric school, moved around a lot between Hello Work Temple, Fegefeuer, and Church Headquarters, works hard with the desire to not work.
• Rielle - A female hero dressed in garish pastel colors, hopelessly in love with Julius and persistently pestering him, known for her necromantic abilities and erratic behavior..
• Rubibel - a female beastkin girl and former slave, full of wild energy, plays until the heroes are distressed, part of Gram's party.
• Gram - a male thug-like hero who frequently forgets to pay resurrection fees, occasionally snaps and tries to kill Julius, yet kind to children.