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[Translator - Pot ]
[Proofreader - Kawaii ]
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Chapter 27: Could It Be Such a Timeline?
The evangelists disguise themselves as ordinary believers and form communities with other followers.
They identify hobbies, income sources, living situations, and relationships through various methods, then drive wedges between believers and priests or isolate them from other followers.
The problem is that these thoroughly trained pagans aren't easily exposed.
By the time their true identity is revealed, they've already completed the indoctrination of the believers.
But Ray has special eyes that others don't.
Eyes that see karma.
These eyes, which distinguish between good and evil karma attached to human souls, unfailingly spotted the wicked people mixed among them.
Huh? Not all cult fanatics are bad people?
There are good cult members too?
Why are cults called cults?
They're cults because they don't guide followers to spirituality and gospel but exploit them, take their money, and use them as slaves.
There's one rule that every religious group classified as a cult follows without exception: everyone who falls into a cult becomes unhappy.
The core pillars drawing people into these cults are the pagans.
Of course, they can't possibly be decent human beings.
"Sir? Please come with me for a moment."
"Ah, yes... What's the matt-?!"
Ray kept a close eye on people with such 'evil karma' and when they showed suspicious behavior, dragged them to the backyard and beat them up.
"Whew~ With over ten thousand people, finding and beating them up is quite a job."
"They really sent them deliberately. Really deliberately..."
Aaron glared at the cult missionary with exasperation.
He'd only heard about it before, but there really were heretics trying to proselytize in the church.
"Come on, let's take him away."
"Tsk."
Ray and Aaron grabbed the bloodied cult missionary.
They wrapped him in a bundle and moved him to the healing facility inside the grand church.
In this era, the concept of hospitals was vague, and it was fortunate if there was a clinic in the neighborhood.
Therefore, healing facilities were typically run by religious institutions, and the Solar Theocracy was one of the representative shelters in Campbell.
"We have a guest here... no, a patient added!"
"Brother, you can put him down here!"
Henry received the patient and placed him down.
After watching this, Ray and Aaron clapped their hands and turned around.
"We'll bring another one!"
In the place they left.
A red-haired girl walking with clicking steps toward the dazed missionary.
"What, they're gone already? I really don't know how they pinpoint and catch these guys."
"That just shows how amazing Brother is!"
Since hearing the news that Ray had summoned the Holy Spirit and exorcised demons, Henry seemed to accept whatever happened as normal.
Well, that guy has a strange instinct that's different from others.
Ray's bizarre ability to detect evil people has no basis, but it's perfectly accurate.
Jenny smiled at the new patient.
"Oh my~ A new sucker... I mean, patient? Let me examine you. I have the power of healing, you know? Hmm, about eight weeks of recovery?"
"Aren't you being too casual, Sister Jenny?"
"Bruises heal with some spit. With spit."
"That's right~ He beat him up quite skillfully."
Jenny grinned and, with Henry's help, tightly bound the missionary's limbs to the bed.
"Wh-what are you doing...?"
"What do you think? We can't let you escape before treatment~"
After firmly tying up the missionary with Henry, Jenny took out a notepad and asked him.
"Name and home address. Tell me where you've stashed your money~"
"Wh-what?"
"Ah, you need to make offerings... right? Don't you know it's the rule to make offerings when getting treated at a shelter?"
"...?"
What nonsense are these people talking about?
They drag him here, beat him up, and say he needs to make an offering to be treated?
Even robbers aren't this brazen!
"Silence, dogs of the Solar Theocracy! You servants of your false prophet...!"
Thwack!
Henry's fist squarely pounded the missionary's face.
"Ugh, my mouff! My mouffff!"
"Henry, how can you beat up a patient? Hit his stomach instead of his mouth so he can still talk."
"Ah, sorry, Sister Jenny. The heretic was speaking disrespectfully."
Although people in this world have moved beyond medieval prejudices as Ray thinks, the threshold for violence is extremely low.
Especially if the other person is a heretic or pagan.
"Two teeth knocked out. If you want new ones to grow, it'll be quite expensive... Don't you have any land deeds or something?"
Jenny smiled broadly, not hiding her glistening greed.
Momentarily pale with terror at that creepy gaze, the missionary noticed familiar faces on adjacent beds.
"Mmph! Mmmmph!"
"Mmmf! Mmmmf!"
Familiar faces.
All colleagues from his cult.
***
The infiltrators Ray filtered out using his spiritual eyes boasted almost a 90% accuracy rate.
The remaining 10%?
Bad guys who had accumulated evil karma separate from the cult members.
Ray didn't regret beating those innocent?
Villains.
'Real bastards, all of them.'
While not extremely wicked, they were criminals who would have lost a limb or two under most laws of the continent.
The crimes they blabbered about to prove they weren't cult infiltrators were quite explicit.
"What are you planning to do with these heretics?"
"What else? Keep them for a few weeks, then let them go."
If the cult fanatics' evil karma had been red or dark red dots, Ray wouldn't have let them live.
But their karma was mostly scarlet.
At most, a soft crimson.
Even if not related to demons, it hadn't reached the red that would classify them as the worst kind of human.
They deserved a beating and some education, but not death.
"That's unexpected. Following your pattern, I thought you might extort their property and kill them all."
"What do you think I am?"
At Ray's question, Aaron recalled the things Ray had done.
Like breaking the neck of a death row inmate during a reformation test.
Suddenly sprinkling holy water on those claiming to be the Margrave's territory troops.
Trying to burn a seemingly innocent witch alive...
"A Heretic Pleasure Killer?"
"...Let's drop the 'pleasure' part."
"An uneducated sexist."
"..."
Ray didn't question further.
The slander from these uncivilized medieval people was getting out of hand.
"Let's just finish the job. I think there were a few more."
"My fists are starting to hurt."
"For Sol Invictus!"
"... For Sol Invictus."
The two entered the sanctuary as mass was ending.
Bishop Yuna was singing hymns, and the believers followed along in chorus.
Now that the system was in place even without Ray, the revival meetings should be fine.
'Here to take one more.'
'Hehe, carry on.'
After exchanging glances with Bishop Yuna, Ray looked around at the people.
Most had bluish souls.
Occasionally there was a scarlet or soft crimson mixed in, but no serious criminals.
'If they seem a bit intense, I can catch them, beat them up, and chase them away.'
As he was examining the believers' karma, at that moment, Ray found a strange soul.
Soft crimson turning red.
This much was common with cult fanatics.
The problem was...
"What the fuck?"
"Shh! A priest shouldn't curse."
Ray couldn't stop the curse that escaped his lips.
For good reason—the scarlet soul he found had... hundreds of black dots visible on it.
***
"Ugh!"
The battered cult missionary collapsed on the shelter bed.
"Oh my~ You beat him up again. Making it tiring for the person who has to treat him."
"Sister, just apply some spit and it's done, right?"
"My spit is a reward, isn't it?"
"???"
While Henry was confused and Jenny was triumphant, Ray was intently staring at the man.
"Brother Ray? Is it over now?"
"No, there are a few more but..."
Ray was feeling confused about the cult missionary he had beaten and dragged here.
A soft crimson soul with reddish energy.
He confessed to being a heretic missionary after being beaten, so it's certain he's associated with the Sun-Moon Cult.
But what about these scattered black souls inside the man's stomach?
"Kids, can men get pregnant?"
"????"
The expressions of all three twisted as if asking what nonsense he was talking about.
"Brother... did you not only miss gender equality education but health education too?"
Jenny tilted her head, puzzled.
"I thought you were uneducated, but... did you grow up in such a deprived environment...?"
Seeing Aaron showing not just contempt but sympathy, Ray guessed his assumption was wrong.
"Well... I heard there are worlds where men can get pregnant, so I was just asking."
Not this timeline.
Thankfully, not such a horrifying timeline.
'Then, what the hell is this guy?'
Ray looked at the black dots swarming in the cult missionary's stomach.
It's not like his spiritual sight suddenly started seeing something other than souls.
If so, all those black dots must be souls...
That's why Ray had hypothesized that the man might be pregnant.
But this world isn't one where men can get pregnant.
'I beat him up, but I don't seem to have figured anything out.'
What should he do? He can't just cut open the belly to check.
"Sigh! No choice then."
Ray pulled out several beakers from his pocket.
"Now, sir? Your eyes may be swollen shut, but you need to look at this carefully."
"Ugh, ughh..."
Ray showed the beakers to the cult missionary and asked.
"Which of these three would you like?"
"What? What what?"
"These are all holy water? Or something similar. But I mixed in something to prevent decay. You're going to drink one of these."
Holy water is holy water, but what does ‘something similar’ mean? And if it's holy water, why is it red?
"Wh-what did you mix in?"
"Vinegar. Honey. Hydrochloric acid."
"..."
Just now.
He seemed to have heard something that really shouldn't exist.
"Well, if you don't drink..."
"Shall I choose the hydrochloric acid for you?"
Under Ray's intimidating gaze, the cult missionary reluctantly chose one beaker.
"Huh? Really? You're really choosing this one?"
"Uh... uhhh..."
"Just kidding. You chose well. Anything but the hydrochloric acid is fine."
Saying that, Ray opened the beaker.
Before the cult missionary could say anything, the contents were poured into his mouth.
"Ugh, glug! Glug?"
A fishy taste rose sharply.
But soon a sweet taste filled his mouth.
"Correct! It was honey!"
"Phew, pheww..."
There was a slightly fishy taste and iron smell, but it was indeed honey.
Almost disappointing that there wasn't more.
But that didn't last long.
"Mmph!?"
The cult missionary started heaving as if nauseous.
The man who had been hiccupping suddenly began to struggle as if in agony.
"Wh-what's happening?"
"Why is he suddenly like this?!"
"I don't know either!"
The man thrashed about while tied to the bed.
"What on earth is going on!"
Unable to watch anymore, Jenny tried to heal him with her healing power, but that only ignited the fuse.
Then his stomach began to bubble like boiling water in a pot.
Pop!
Something that burst through the man's stomach leaped toward Jenny.
"Huh?"
Just as it was about to pounce on Jenny, someone snatched it from the air.
Thud! It was Aaron, stomping it down.
"Be careful."
"Ah, yeah... thank you, young master..."
"Even at a time like this..."
Everyone's gaze turned to the man's burst stomach.
There, a half-melted, terribly formed organism was screaming in pain.
"Holy shit..."
For a while, the four of them were speechless.
It was the reaction to facing such a shocking scene.
After hesitating for a long time, Ray was the first to speak.
"Sister Jenny, try using your healing power."
"What? But he's already dead?"
"Not on the person, on the monsters."
"Oh, understood."
Jenny poured her healing power onto the melting bug-like things.
Then...
SCREEEEECH!
The monsters screamed in agony.
The already melting monsters let out their final death throes and then went limp.
"B-brother... wh-what is this?"
"I don't know either... but."
They died from healing power, of all things.
That means they're demonic monsters from the demon realm... demonic creatures.
"This isn't something we can handle alone."
They needed backup.
***
In the Violet territory in the northern part of the Albion Kingdom.
After the historic event of the annihilation of the Archdemon Capricorn, the Solar Theocracy dispatched elites from the Eclipse inquisition.
This was because warlocks and witches could discover the truth about the great event of demon annihilation and threaten Ray Anderson.
Those deployed to protect the new saint candidate who had achieved the feat of demon annihilation were Saintess of Radiance Iris and the heresy inquisitors.
"P-please spare me! I..."
The man couldn't finish.
The sword that pierced his mouth and pinned him to the ground.
"Heretics... need to be disinfected."
Cruel hands without a moment's hesitation.
A masked heresy inquisitor approached Iris, who had massacred the warlock and his disciples who had tried to infiltrate the Margrave's castle.
"Lady Iris, a messenger bird has arrived from the Solar Theocracy."
On the inquisitor's wrist was a giant bird of prey staring at Iris with sharp eyes.
It was one of the monsters bred by the Solar Theocracy, a high-grade messenger bird used only for urgent communication between church districts.
"Hmm."
Iris read the letter and nodded.
"East. Something strange has happened in Campbell."
"Campbell... that city of pagans."
"A support request from the Campbell parish. And quite urgent too."
Why did it come all the way to Iris in the north?
It was a matter of procedure.
She was equivalent to the head of the Eclipse, the heresy inquisition organization.
According to the 'Grade 1 Heresy Inquisition' request, the messenger bird was programmed to be delivered to her as well.
Of course, she, working in the north, didn't need to get involved with Campbell. This was a matter for Archbishop Dunwell or the Holy Knight Orders of the surrounding parishes to judge.
"It's where Ray happens to be."
The requestor was Bishop Yuna of the Campbell parish, but Ray Anderson's name was mentioned in the contents.
That caught Iris's attention.
And someone else's attention too.
"Ray? Are you talking about Ray Anderson?"
A woman in purple responded to Ray's name.
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[Translator - Pot ]
[Proofreader - Kawaii ]
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