Chapter 91
Her body felt comfortable.
It was a strange feeling she had never experienced before.
Kanya believed she had reached heaven due to the coziness she felt throughout her entire body.
A soft, fluffy sensation enveloped her whole body, and she could smell the scent of freshly washed blankets and sheets at the tip of her nose.
She was happy.
It was a sensation that made her strongly wish she could continue feeling this way forever.
But suddenly a strange thought occurred to her.
Heaven?
How on earth?
Her last memory was clearly up to the moment of being beaten in the face by the follower.
There was no need to explain in words what would have happened next. It was obvious they would have tried to cast the subjugation spell on her again.
But what is this cozy sensation?
Belphegor wouldn't allow me to feel this comfortable?
...Where am I now??
As soon as that thought occurred, Kanya hurriedly sat up.
She quickly checked her body and found she was wearing clean clothes she had never seen before.
And next, as she looked around, she saw the appearance of a small room in her eyes.
Two beds.
A small dining table.
And on one side was a wooden bathtub.
And a man sitting at the dining table preparing food quietly looked towards Kanya.
The two people's gazes met in midair, and an awkward silence settled in the room.
"Um… You're awake?"
At the man's gentle voice and awkward smile, Kanya was considerably flustered.
What on earth is this situation?
Where is this place?
Who is that man?
Having grown up only experiencing pain among Sloth's followers her whole life, she didn't know how to react being in such a comfortable environment.
But one thing was clear.
The man in front of her was not a demon follower.
If he were a demon follower, the treatment wouldn't be like this.
"W-who are you? Where is this place?"
Although she had mountains of things she wanted to ask, Kanya asked the most important thing first.
At those words, the man made a troubled expression and sat in the chair in front of the dining table.
"Someone trying to help you. That's all you need to know. You're going to the rocky mountains of Talaheim, right? I'll take you there."
At those words, Kanya's eyes widened.
Who on earth is he?
How does he know that fact?
"How do you know I was trying to go to the rocky mountains of Talaheim?"
"I can explain... but before that, aren't you hungry? Why don't we eat and talk?" the man said and pointed to the food set on the dining table.
And the moment she saw that food.
Kanya had to hear an enormous hunger sound coming from her stomach that was embarrassing even to her own ears.
But she didn't even know it was embarrassing.
Saliva flowed from her mouth without her realizing.
Red soup that seemed to be made with tomatoes and bread that looked like it was baked with butter on top.
And a wooden cup and a water jug were placed on the table.
It wasn't an extraordinary menu, but to her who felt like she would die of hunger, they were the most desperately needed foods.
Without realizing, she got up from the bed and approached the dining table as if possessed, and began eating without giving anyone a chance to say anything.
The moment the warm soup entered her mouth, Kanya felt tears flowing without her realizing.
She wanted to shove all the food in sight into her mouth and chew and swallow it like crazy, but...
Her body held her back this time too.
Her already withered arms lacked strength due to the effects of starving for too long.
She tried to use the spoon again, but it was difficult to even hold the utensil as if she had a tremor.
When she was finally about to drop the spoon, the man held the spoon for her instead.
"I'll feed you. Open your mouth."
It was an embarrassing thing, but considering her body's condition, there was no choice.
Kanya had to be fed the food by the man like a baby bird.
The bread with melted butter.
The tomato soup.
After eating and drinking everything including the water, Kanya felt a sense of fullness she had never experienced before to the point it was hard to come to her senses.
Cozy and drowsy.
It felt like she would fall asleep again like this, but she struggled to gather her wits and looked at the man.
Now that she had filled her stomach.
She needed to clearly address what needed to be addressed.
"Your name. I want to know your name."
"Jericho. Just call me Jericho."
"Okay. Jericho. I have a few questions. How did you know I was trying to go to the rocky mountains of Talaheim?"
At Kanya's serious voice, Jericho shrugged as if it were nothing.
"I found out by interrogating the man who was trying to kill you."
He must be talking about the follower.
At those words, Kanya's voice became urgent.
"Where is the man who was trying to kill me?"
"He's dead."
"Dead?"
"He committed suicide after I finished interrogating him. His corpse turned into blood in an instant and melted away into the ground."
It was certain.
It was exactly the same as when followers of Sloth sometimes made mistakes and were publicly executed, then their corpses disappeared.
The follower was dead.
There would still be many people chasing her, but one of them had disappeared.
Then the next question that arose was this.
"...Then that follower. Did you kill him?"
"Yes."
"Why? No, before that. How did you find and know about me? Who on earth are you, Jericho? What kind of person are you to..."
The man made a gesture as if to stop the endlessly pouring questions.
"God told me. Kanya. I'll just leave it at that."
God.
At those words, Kanya finally noticed that the Goddess Bellia had been excessively quiet until now.
"Lady Bellia? Lady Bellia!!"
No matter how much she called out, Bellia's voice that always answered didn't resound in her head.
"Lady Bellia…! Aaah!"
Jericho held her hand as she trembled in panic.
"Kanya. Calm down. Your goddess is close to being asleep for a while from shock. She hasn't disappeared yet. Understand? I'll protect and help you in place of your goddess now. Don't worry or be too surprised. Okay? You just think about going to the rocky mountains of Talaheim and awakening Lady Bellia."
It was a warm touch.
Her trembling body gradually calmed down.
Jericho patted Kanya's back.
"For now, sleep. Kanya. It's late at night. We'll leave early tomorrow morning, so get plenty of rest until then. Nothing will happen. I'll watch over you by your side."
At those words, Kanya felt drowsiness coming over her.
A sense of fullness she felt for the first time.
And a sense of reassurance and safety she felt for the first time.
Jericho hugged Kanya and laid her down on the bed again.
As Jericho covered her with the blanket up to her neck, Kanya asked with a drowsy expression and tone, "Why are you... doing this for me?"
"I had business at the rocky mountains of Talaheim too. That's all. Go to sleep, Kanya. I'll stay by your side."
At the faintly forming smile, Kanya felt reassured without realizing.
Her body that had been injured and tired for a long time needed rest.
She soon fell asleep again at the warm touch of the blanket.
And she fell into a deep, sound sleep without even dreaming.
***
[Poor thing.]
Corn made a comment as Kanya's breathing begins to sound steady.
Corn's voice that always flew around vulgarly was rarely heavy.
It was probably because of Kanya's life story that I just explained in an abridged version for nearly 10 minutes.
[You're going to help her, right? That girl? From the smell I caught, she's an exceptionally pure girl for her age. She's never dated a man, has no sexual knowledge, and her body is of course pure. Although our species are different, is it not the duty of a male to give such a woman happiness. Amael.]
At Corn's words, I felt even more pity for Kanya.
Why would she be so lacking in knowledge and pure?
Wasn't it because she never had a chance to live a normal life?
"I have to help her. We need to go to the rocky mountains of Talaheim. We need to go there and liberate the goddess inside Kanya's body. All the various black magic engraved on Kanya's body are spells cast on the premise that the goddess is inside her body. If the goddess disappears, Kanya will naturally be liberated too."
[You're really amazing how you did it. How did you extract information so thoroughly in that short time while I was asleep?]
"It's a long story."
I stood up.
I opened the window of the inn we were staying at and looked outside to see the ominous night view of the city with a crescent moon in my eyes.
And somewhere out there, the Demon Kings' followers must be targeting us.
In the memories I saw of the follower, for some reason, the three Demon Kings were conducting a joint search operation saying Kanya must never go to the rocky mountains of Talaheim.
They'd probably want to tear me apart for trying to help Kanya head to the rocky mountains of Talaheim.
So I planned to keep helping Kanya.
I'd keep provoking the Demon Kings to make all three of them rush at me in the end, and I'd fight to protect Kanya until the end and die gloriously.
And hopefully, based on my sacrifice, the goddess in Kanya's body would be liberated and she would be saved too.
"Corn."
And as we proceed with this plan, fighting with followers would be inevitable.
"Last time you talked about how to use my time stop ability to fight, right? Using stopped time as armor or making it into weapons."
[I did. Why?]
"Let's seriously develop that together."
It was time to graduate from swinging belts.
It was time to consider how to properly use these abilities in actual combat.
***
[So what are you going to do, Belphegor? Are you going to let those guys go to the rocky mountains of Talaheim like this?]
At Satan's words, Belphegor shook her head.
[If we leave them be, we're ruined. It's not a fragile divinity that could shatter at any time, but a divinity that can ascend to the Pantheon immediately becoming Asmodeus' ally. Then our chances of winning become even slimmer.]
At Belphegor's words, Leviathan added a word.
[Moreover, Bellia is a Pantheon divinity, right? If she fully awakens and tells the saint bastard what the identity of the being in his soul is...]
[We have to stop that. If the saint learns Asmodeus' identity, he might completely turn to the Pantheon's side. Corruption is out of the question. Think about why Lucifer is still using all his strength to block the Pantheon.]
Satan burst out in anger at those words.
[Just tell me to call my followers and tear them apart. Muttering and making plans doesn't suit my taste.]
[Stay still, you idiot!! If Amael is in danger, Asmodeus will mercilessly devour Bellia's divinity! Then we have no chance of winning! Did you forget?]
While Leviathan and Satan were exchanging words.
Suddenly Belphegor raises her hand.
[Maybe... Satan might be right.]
[What nonsense is that now? Belphegor?]
[We're clearly at a disadvantage fighting in the spiritual realm. That Asmodeus. As we saw, she's become too powerful. But... what about fighting in the human realm? Lust. She can't have as many followers as us, right?]
At those words, Leviathan glared at Belphegor as if dumbfounded.
[Don't you know how Mammon's followers were dealt with in Scrap Yard? Even if there are many in number, it's over if divine power is poured out.]
[Leviathan. Think about it. Compared to Asmodeus' power, the amount of divine power poured out in Scrap Yard was rather excessively small. Don't you know what this means? There's only one channel through which she can interfere in the human realm. That Lust. On the other hand, we have an enormous number of those channels.]
The number of followers.
In other words, that was directly related to how much divinity could be poured into the human realm.
Asmodeus was very strong in the spiritual realm.
But in the human realm, she only had one channel to pour out her power.
On the other hand, the three Demon Kings' power itself was smaller than Asmodeus, but they had many channels to pour it out.
[It means we have a chance of winning if we fight in the human realm, even if we don't go about fighting in the spiritual realm.]
At Belphegor's words, Satan and Leviathan's eyes turned quickly.
And in an instant.
Roles were assigned.
Satan opened his mouth first.
[My followers will be in charge of attacking the saint.]
Next was Leviathan.
[My followers will be in charge of interfering with the divine power the saint will emit and Lust's powers like Time Stop. It matches well with the characteristics of my power.]
Last was Belphegor.
[While you two do that, in the meantime. I'll work on separating Bellia from the saint. Once I make Bellia mine again... we'll have a chance of winning in the spiritual realm too.]
The three Demon Kings swallowed dry saliva as they recalled Asmodeus' enormous power.
She was a monster.
They couldn't let her grow any bigger than this.
[Call all the followers. Right now. It's an all-out war from now on. No matter what happens. We must not let those two reach the rocky mountains of Talaheim.]