The woman Hersh and I rescued—no, kidnapped—was in her mid-twenties. Like the other residents, she was completely naked, with traces of passion scattered across her body, making it a pitiful sight. The thought that we could have ended up like that sent a shiver down my spine.
I pulled a blanket from my bag to cover her nakedness, while Lacey, with a look of pity, cast Elpinel Church Order’s Mental Protection Miracle, “White Night,” to break the brainwashing on the woman. The longer one stayed in the city, the stronger the brainwashing seemed to become, making the process take longer than it did for us.
“It’s horrifying… It’s almost completely overwritten her personality. She’ll be fine as long as the blessing of White Night lasts, but once it fades, she’ll revert to her previous state,” Lacey explained.
“So, there’s no way to fix it?” I asked.
That was the worst news. Even if we broke the brainwashing spell, it was hard to imagine these people returning to a normal life. They would live in a hellish existence, haunted by their memories. Some might even give up on life altogether. Perhaps, for them, staying brainwashed might be the happier ending—at least they wouldn’t suffer from psychological pain.
But that was a meaningless assumption. Not undoing the brainwashing meant keeping the city as a den of debauchery, something the Holy Kingdom would never allow. They would likely choose to “purify” the city to prevent further corruption. Even if they didn’t burn everyone alive, they’d probably isolate them in sealed wards for the rest of their lives.
“It’s not impossible to cure, but it will take a very long time. The only way to treat such deeply rooted brainwashing is to recreate the original personality as clearly as possible and then overlay it back onto the brainwashed one, essentially re-brainwashing them,” Lacey explained.
Overlaying the original personality on top of the brainwashed one? It was a bizarre method, typical of the Holy Kingdom, but at least it was a way to cure them.
—
“Ah… Ah… AAAAAAH!”
The woman, regaining consciousness, began to claw at her body and scream, as if all the memories of what she had endured came flooding back at once. Her eyes were bloodshot, tears streamed down her face, and her body convulsed as blood dripped from her wounds. It was a heart-wrenching, horrifying seizure, as if her very soul was being twisted and shattered.
Leonor grabbed her arms to stop her from harming herself, while Lacey and Agnes poured divine light over her and tried to comfort her, doing their best to calm her down. It took thirty minutes for the woman, who had been wailing like a vengeful spirit, to finally calm down. She sat there, devoid of any vitality, sobbing.
It felt wrong to interrogate her about Arvil’s situation, but it was necessary. Eventually, Lacey took the lead, gently embracing the woman and coaxing her to share what she knew.
Thanks to the repeated warm comfort and the divine light surrounding her, the woman, though trembling and crying, slowly began to explain what had happened.
“It… it started about half a month ago…”
I lit a cigarette and listened intently to her story.
—
Until half a month ago, the residents of Arvil had been living peaceful, ordinary lives. Of course, the back alleys were filled with prostitutes, and many men sneaked in and out, avoiding prying eyes. But for those who weren’t interested in such things, it was just a familiar sight. The red-light district had been around for nearly two years, so the residents were used to it.
It was a literal den of depravity and corruption, but since the two church orders ruling Arvil turned a blind eye, the residents had no choice but to keep quiet. It wasn’t uncommon to see priests in plain clothes wandering the red-light district. Hearing this, Lacey and Agnes sighed in disgust.
But then, half a month ago, a terrible incident occurred.
“At dusk… strange tattoos appeared on people’s foreheads… Not everyone, just those who frequented ‘that place.’ And then…”
The residents, confused by the sudden tattoos, stopped what they were doing and scattered throughout the city the moment the tattoos began to glow. They ignored calls and pushed away hands trying to stop them.
About twenty minutes later, the residents stationed throughout the city knelt, cut open their chests with knives, and raised their hands to the sky.
In the next moment, everything changed.
A massive magic circle appeared above the city, and a waterfall of black light poured down, covering the city. What followed was a scene that could only be described as hell.
—
Common sense was turned upside down in an instant. Women stripped off their clothes and waited for men to choose them, while men also stripped and took the women they liked to secluded places. Regardless of age or status, all the city’s residents acted according to this new “common sense.”
A paladin of Imera, who had been patting a young boy’s head, stripped off his armor and knelt before the boy. A nun caring for a sick patient stripped naked and climbed on top of the patient. A terrible lust swept through the entire city.
After finishing with the closest available person, the residents took to the streets and began their insane daily lives. They wandered the city naked, living normally until a man chose them, and then they would serve him wherever they found a suitable spot.
Families were broken, status lost, and only primal desires and pleasure remained. That was Arvil now.
—
So, the young couple and their daughter I had thought were a family were actually strangers. A man who had chosen both a young woman and a little girl was just wandering the streets before his “business.” It was enough to make me nauseous.
The woman, recounting the city’s situation, began to cry again as the shame and pain of her experiences resurfaced, but she continued her story.
“…Most people walked around naked, but some men kept their clothes on. We thought of them as special… as ‘special masters.’ They took over Shaulite’s and Imera’s cathedrals and occasionally wandered the streets, taking women they liked back to the cathedrals… What happened to those taken… I don’t know…”
That was all the woman knew.
“Special masters,” huh? They must be the cultists behind this. They had taken over the two cathedrals and were defiling the church members while indulging in their depravity.
Bastards who deserved to be torn apart.
I exchanged a glance with Lacey and nodded. There was nothing more to learn, and with our destination set, all that was left was to move in.
“Thank you for sharing such painful memories. Close your eyes… and rest. When you wake up, everything will be back to normal.”
Lacey gently comforted the trembling woman and, with Agnes’s help, led her into a deep sleep from which she wouldn’t wake until everything was over.
—
After wrapping the sleeping woman in a blanket and laying her down, we discussed our final plan of attack. How we would enter, how to divide our forces, and so on.
“Splitting up inside the city is too dangerous. Even dividing into two teams would leave only one person capable of resisting the brainwashing in each group.”
If we split the group in half, one side would have Lacey, and the other would have Agnes. While I or Seilon might hold out, the others wouldn’t be able to resist the brainwashing without them.
In other words, if the enemy focused on taking out Lacey or Agnes, that team would be wiped out instantly.
“Moreover… the closer we get to the enemy, the stronger the brainwashing might become. The more despicable they are, the more they’ll defend their surroundings.”
It was a plausible assumption.
The fact that they had set up camp in the cathedrals meant they had either defeated or brainwashed all the priests and paladins there, which meant even an archbishop-level priest couldn’t resist the mental protection and had been defeated. In other words, the brainwashing spell around the cathedrals was likely far stronger than at the city’s edges.
It didn’t seem like Lacey or Agnes would fail to block it, but just in case, it was better to keep them together so they could cover each other.
“Indeed… that’s likely the case. We’ll need to be careful.”
There were no objections. The others, who couldn’t even resist the brainwashing, were even more anxious than I was.
“Alright, here’s the plan. First, Milia and Damien—”
I explained the plan that had just come to mind. It wasn’t anything particularly clever, just the best solution I could think of.
It was a simple plan. Earlier, while crossing the city walls with Hersh, I noticed that the top of the walls was outside the range of the brainwashing spell.
Since the spell was powered by human sacrifice from the controlled residents, it made sense. The brainwashed residents couldn’t climb the walls, so the spell’s range was limited to inside the walls.
I ordered Milia to climb the walls and snipe any visible enemies, with Damien accompanying her to protect her from any potential ambushes. I warned them not to go inside the walls and to drink holy water if they sensed anything suspicious, then retreat outside the walls.
Hersh was also left as a reserve. She wasn’t much help in a full-frontal assault, and being half-black, half-fairy, Lacey’s miracles didn’t work well on her. But at least she could serve as a radar next to Milia, detecting approaching threats.
I had originally planned to leave Rana behind, but Lacey and Agnes convinced me to bring her along since she was the only one who could heal the group while they focused on mental defense. It wasn’t like I could keep Rana out of fights forever, and she wasn’t wrong.
I gave Rana my chainmail shirt, which I usually found too cumbersome to wear, and a dagger, which wouldn’t be much help but was better than nothing.
“Nigel, don’t leave Rana’s side if a fight breaks out. If I were the enemy, I’d target the healer who can’t defend herself first.”
“I’ll keep that in mind!”
I trusted Nigel, my most reliable knight, to protect her. Unless the enemy rode out on dragons, Rana would be safe.
“Alright… shall we go?”
I climbed into the driver’s seat with Seilon, lit a cigarette, and looked over the group, ready for battle. Lacey and Agnes began their prayers, holding their holy symbols, while Nigel stood dutifully by Rana’s side.
Leonor chuckled, teasing that this was a crazy plan, even for me.
What do you mean, “even for me”? Lacey’s done similar things before!
I nodded to Seilon, who was sitting beside me, ready to unleash his miracles, and then I snapped the reins.
The startled horses let out a long whinny and charged toward the breached city walls. And so, we entered Arvil once more.
—
Thud!
A heavy impact. The golden barrier vibrated softly, dispersing the force in all directions.
“Ugh!”
“AAAAH!”
Naked men and women, wrapped in divine light, spun like tops, performing a surreal modern dance. Their ear-piercing screams echoed as they collided with the street stalls, shattering them into splinters.
“Help! Someone help!”
“Run! It’s a murder carriage! A murder carriage is coming!”
The brainwashed people screamed and threw themselves out of the carriage’s path.
The golden carriage, smashing everything in its path, didn’t stop. Those who couldn’t dodge in time collided with the barrier of divine light Seilon had manifested and were sent flying like bowling pins.
Seilon had cast a protective miracle on them, so none of the residents who hit the ground died. Some had broken limbs, but as long as their necks weren’t broken, they’d be fine. Limbs heal.
I gripped the reins tightly, smiling as I felt the plan working. The carriage charge using the barrier of divine light—a tactic Lacey and I had used during the assault on Exra-shapel Cathedral—was unfolding once again.
Good. If we keep this up and crash the carriage into the cathedral…!
[…What? Am I still dreaming?]
A sudden voice made me almost drop the reins.
