Interlude
The seven members of the Cardinal Authority ran through an underground tunnel, each carrying a leather sack in both their arms. It was an escape route they had prepared in case something happened, and it connected to a subterranean aqueduct.
“Is it this way!?”
“It’s to the right... No, left, go left!”
“Keep it together, fool! If you make a mistake, who knows where we may end up!”
“What did you say!?”
“Stop that, now’s no time for us to bicker!”
The men glared daggers at each other, filled with irritation.
“Who even was that suspicious Sorcerer?” one of them cursed under his breath. “Claiming to be the Demon Lord... Such balderdash...”
“Gentlemen, there’s no need to be so irritated.” The head of the Cardinal Council, Vishos, attempted to pacify them. “We each have decades’ worth of riches stocked up. We could spend our whole lives in luxury and not have to worry about it running out, and a return to the capital later on isn’t impossible. So for now, let’s focus on getting away safely.”
“O-Oooh, you’re right!” The other members of the Cardinal Authority nodded.
Making it past the cramped tunnel, they found themselves in a place filled with the sound of running water. It was an underground aqueduct, and a small boat was docked before them.
The men sighed with relief. “This should take us out of the twelfth district...”
But it was then that someone stepped out from the shadows, blocking the Authority’s way to the boat, stepping noisily on the gravel as they moved.
—An ambush!?
“Who’s there?” Vishos hung out his lantern, trying to illuminate the place.
“Why, it’s just little ol’ me ?”
The light reflected off a suit of blue armor; it was the Paladin Gewalt.
A stir came across the members of the Cardinal Authority.
“Gewalt!” One of them stepped forward. “What are you doing here!? You Paladins are supposed to be protecting the Inner Sanctum!”
The others also shouted angrily at him.
“And yet you stand brazenly before us! If you had only killed Lumachina like we told you, we wouldn’t be going through this debacle, Gewalt!”
“Ohohoh... I am ever so sorry, gentlemen.” Gewalt shrugged. “That girl was more troublesome than I had ever imagined.”
Vishos stepped forward, soothing the other members’ anger. “Leave the man alone. Now’s no time for pointing fingers in accusation, friends. More importantly, a Paladin’s assistance would be rather dependable in escaping the capital, would it not?”
The other members nodded in agreement.
“Oh my, am I being depended on again for another job here?” Gewalt placed a hand on his cheek in a coquettish gesture.
“You’ve failed your last job. That much is fact. But I am offering you a chance to make up for that failure.”
“How much are we talking then? How much are your lives worth to you?”
The other members of the Cardinal Authority were about to flare up again, but Vishos silenced them by holding up his hand.
“We don’t have much time. We’ll pay whatever you ask for...but only upon completion of the job.”
“A generous offer! I do love clients who don’t skimp out on their prices.”
“Good.”
But then Gewalt snickered, a wry smile on his face. “But see, there’s a teensy problem... I’ve recently decided to resign from being a Paladin~ Sorry about that, boys.”
The Cardinal Authority all winced at his words.
“What do you mean?” Vishos furrowed his brows.
“What I mean, is that you old coots are finished. You really dug your graves when you brought that gentleman’s ire.”
What gentleman? The members of the Cardinal Authority cocked their heads in confusion.
“Not yet... I won’t, not yet...” Vishos said through clenched teeth.
“Things have been going so well for you until now, no? You could take advantage of your position to live in luxury for as long as you wish. Yes... You really could do whatever you wished. A dreadful story if there ever was one.”
“I paid a small fortune!”
“You know too much.”
Vishos gasped nervously, then grabbed one of the other members standing beside him.
“Huh?”
Vishos shoved the man who had exclaimed in shock at Gewalt, then took off, running back to the tunnel they had all just come from.
He ran off.
The others members of the Cardinal Authority finally realized he had sacrificed them to get away. Countless years of luxury and sloth had dimmed their wits, it seemed.
“You should know, I’m not one to forgive men with nasty breath like you,” Gewalt hurled insult in Vishos’s direction.
The walls of the underground tunnel crumbled, and a giant, thin worm burst out of them. A sickening sound, like that of rubber being stretched to the point of tearing, filled the place. Then, fountains of blood gushed forth as the members of the Cardinal Authority crumpled to their knees, their heads missing. Four decapitated corpses littered the ground, and, from deeper in the tunnel, a scream could be heard.
“Aaaaaagh!?” Vishos grappled with a worm biting into his shoulder.
“Well, color me impressed. I never imagined you would survive a hit from my ?Snipe Worm?,” Gewalt said, seemingly surprised.
“I-I’m begging you! Help me! M-Money! I can give you money! As much as you ask! I’ll pay three times what he gives you!”
“Ohoh, are you being honest now?”
Gewalt snapped his fingers, and the Snipe Worm turned back into a crystal. Vishos laughed dryly, bleeding profusely from his shoulder.
“Heh, haha... Not a bad offer, yes? If you let me go, I’ll reward you with enough money to spend the rest of your days comfortably.”
“That’s all you ever think about. You’re boring me.”
“Huh? But...”
“Besides, you’re beyond saving now. Why don’t you take a closer look at yourself?”
“Buah!?” Vishos lowered his gaze, finding a worm poking out from his abdomen. The worm’s maw gaped open, revealing a mouth full of his internal organs.
“Guh, give them baaaaaaaaack!”
Such were the final screams of the man who stole so much from the believers—the Head of the Cardinal Council, Vishos.
The dry sound of unenthusiastic applause filled the tunnel.
Another man rose up from the boat moored in the aqueduct.
“An impressive skill. Just what I’d expect of a Paladin.”
The man was so muscular and tall you might be forgiven for not recognizing him as a Human. His face, by contrast, left a more intellectual impression. His ebony hair was parted at the side, and he wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses.
“You mean ‘ex-Paladin,’ no?” Gewalt said, his lips curling unpleasantly. “Guys who care too much about the past don’t have luck with the ladies, you know?”
“I see. Well, I beg your pardon then. As such, I welcome you once again to our Order of Palace Knights!”
That man’s name was Maximum Abrams.
“The captain himself is welcoming me. Oooh, the joy~”
“I’ll introduce you to your new colleagues soon... But, before that, you should probably change out of that armor. It may attract attention.”
“True, true... Hmm? Wait just a moment...”
Gewalt noticed the sound of footsteps coming from the tunnel.
A Pantherian girl was running in their direction. She had a small build and uncharacteristically black hair.
She was one of Diablo’s group.
—Her name is Rem, if I recall?
“Wha... They’re all dead!” Her eyes widened in shock upon discovering the corpses of the Cardinal Authority.
“Ohohoh, good job coming this far. This tunnel can be quite a maze.”
“...The stench of the blood is so thick here, but... You’re Gewalt, the Paladin. What happened here?”
She cautiously kept her distance. She knew he used Worm summons, so she stood away from the walls and kept her knees low, ready to jump away the moment the ground rumbled. Just the level of caution you’d expect from a high-level Adventurer.
Gewalt didn’t have any intention of closing the gap between them either. Judging from her equipment, Rem wasn’t as weak as she was last time they had fought.
“Ohohoh, sorry to disappoint, but I’m not a Paladin anymore.”
“...You betrayed them.”
“Oh, you. Why do you always have to make things sound so nasty?”
“...Why did you kill them? After we last spoke, I didn’t think you had much of a grudge against the Cardinal Authority. Which means whoever your new employer is...ordered you to silence them.”
“For how clever you are, you’re quite dumb. Are you just trying to get yourself killed?”
“Ngh!?” Rem braced herself, clutching crystals in both her hands.
Things were about to spiral into battle—but Abrams called out from behind Gewalt’s back.
“Don’t mind her. She’s a demi and an Adventurer; no one will take her words to heart.”
“Oh really?”
“And besides, I’d rather not square off against the Sorcerer who single-handedly toppled the Church.”
“Are you being honest with me now?”
“As frank as I could be. Best to keep one’s foes to a minimum and one’s friends at a maximum.”
“I see... Well, I’d prefer to keep things that way as well, personally. I do have a debt to repay to this girl...or rather, to the High Priest.”
Gewalt took a small iron key out of an accessory case dangling from his belt. The number “714” was etched on it. He showed it to Rem, then placed it at her feet.
“You can have this.”
“...Is that a key to a confessional?”
“You catch on quick. It’s a little present from me to Lumachina. With a little luck, she should still be alive.”
“...Huh?”
“Does a Paladin called Tria...ring any bells?”
Tria was a female Paladin who had helped Lumachina escape the Church. She was marked as a traitor to the Church for opposing the Cardinal Authority, and was imprisoned. She could be considered the only remaining “real” Paladin by now. It was thanks to Tria’s pious heart and her courage of going against the Cardinal Authority that let Lumachina escape and meet Diablo.
“Is she still alive!?” Rem’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Should be ? Well, I’ll be going then. You’re not going to try and stop me now, are you?”
“...I don’t think I have the power to do so.”
“Ohohoh... You should be a little less strict on yourself, darling. Toodles~”
Gewalt stepped on board the small boat floating in the aqueduct. The large man already sitting in the boat removed the mooring rope and began rowing an oar.
“Let’s head back then! Between a job well done and gaining a trusty new ally on my side, I’d say today gets a perfect score indeed!”
“Mmm, this is like a date on a boat! Absolutely ro-man-tic!”
“Hmm... Perhaps I should rethink my decision...”
With Gewalt wiggling oddly and the large man looking at him dubiously on its deck, the small boat sailed along the aqueduct.
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