I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 532

As I stepped out of the hospital room, a woman in a neatly pressed, tight-fitting priestess uniform was waiting. I called out her name.

“Rosetta.”

It was Rosetta, the newly appointed commander of the First Holy Knight Order.

I had heard she had been continuously engaged in relief efforts since arriving in Crossroads, and now I was meeting her here.

“Your Highness Prince Ash,” Rosetta said, returning my greeting. She adjusted her round silver-rimmed glasses and smiled gently.

The slight wrinkles at the corners of her mouth were surprisingly charming. Just as I was thinking that, she spoke.

“He’s a heretic.”

“……”

I froze, then stammered, asking back.

“Huh? Uh, huh? Heretic? What?”

“Refusing treatment, that is. It’s a heretical act.”

Rosetta gestured with her chin towards my back… Mikhail’s hospital room.

Only then did I realize that the ‘heretic’ Rosetta was referring to was Mikhail, and a chill ran down my spine.

“And heretics…”

Rosetta muttered ominously and reached into her chest, so I instinctively waved my hands, stopping her.

“W-wait, wait a minute! Calm down, Rosetta! Mikhail is going to get treatment now! So don’t do anything scary!”

“Huh? Scary? What are you talking about?” Rosetta blinked in confusion and slowly pulled her hand out of her chest.

In her hand was… a pen and a notebook.

A dumbfounded sound escaped my lips.

“Huh?”

“Haha, scary? What on earth are you talking about? This is just…”

Rosetta opened the notebook and began writing something in elegant script. At the same time, she kindly explained.

“Just accumulating heresy points.”

“What the heck is that?”

Heresy points?! What kind of terrifying points are those just by the name alone!

But whether I was horrified or not, Rosetta calmly continued to write.

“Mikhail Vermillion… refusing treatment… heresy points, 10 points.”

“……”

“Ah, you there! You shouldn’t run in the temple corridor! It’s heresy!”

Two young mercenaries who were running down the corridor covered their ears and ran away. Rosetta clicked her tongue and wrote something more in her notebook.

“Ignoring a priest’s words… 5 more heresy points, making it 20 points.”

“……”

“Ah, you there! Those eating! You shouldn’t be picky! It’s heresy! Don’t leave any side dishes!”

In addition to that, Rosetta went around the temple, pointing out the mercenaries’ behavior and handing out heresy points like crazy.

‘What exactly is heresy to this woman…?’

And what can you exchange for when you collect a certain amount of heresy points…?

I didn’t know, but thankfully, she was only accumulating those heresy points and not actually punishing anyone with them. She was just quietly writing in her notebook.

*Thump!*

Rosetta closed her notebook and looked up at me, smirking.

“Did you think I was some crazy priestess who arbitrarily labels people as heretics and whips them to death?”

“…Well, to be honest, yes.”

“I know you’re wary of our Holy Knight Order. We’re infamous for being inflexible.”

“I guess I was mistaken?”

“Not entirely. We are indeed sticklers for rules… However, we are only strict with ourselves.”

Rosetta walked forward lightly. I quietly followed her, listening to her words.

“To the Goddess’s Order itself. Our Holy Knight Order is a flame that burns our own flesh and a whip that scars us. But we don’t force these principles on others.”

“Oh…”

“Well, I am writing in the heresy notebook, though. I can’t just stand by and watch injustice.”

No, that’s scary enough…

I hesitated for a moment and asked.

“By the way, it might be a bit late to say this, but are you uncomfortable with me speaking so casually to you?”

Looking back, I remembered that I used to address Margherita, who was the head priestess, with honorifics, calling her ‘Saintess, Saintess.’

But now, I was speaking casually to both her successor, Janice, and Rosetta, which felt a bit strange.

Rosetta raised her thin lips dangerously.

“You’re late in asking. Yes, speaking casually is also heresy.”

“Aaaah!”

I was so shocked that I had a fit, and Rosetta covered her mouth and chuckled.

“Just kidding. It’s not that easy to get heresy points.”

No, you were just handing them out like crazy a moment ago…

“Whether you speak casually or formally to me, whether you see me as a pebble on the road or as a messenger of the Goddess, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m just carrying out the mission given to me.”

“…Anyway, I’ll just speak casually then.”

It was too late to change now, so I decided to just speak casually.

There were many injured and disabled soldiers throughout the temple. Every time Rosetta encountered them, she generously spread her divine power.

The soldiers, whose conditions improved, bowed to Rosetta repeatedly. Rosetta didn’t even properly acknowledge their greetings and just strode forward.

I was inwardly impressed.

“I thought Inquisitors were only good at punching, but your healing skills are also extraordinary?”

“It seems you have some misunderstanding. All the priests of our order have excellent healing abilities.”

Rosetta shook the silver rosary tied to her wrist.

“How can we learn to destroy if we cannot heal? It’s the same for Inquisitors.”

Indeed, in games, whether they were Paladins or Inquisitors, they all had a common passive skill like ‘Light of Healing’.

“I also hold the position of Saintess, so I have quite a bit of experience as a healing priestess.”

“You’re also a Saintess?”

Like the previous Margherita?

Surprised, I asked, and Rosetta answered indifferently.

“In our order, Saintess or Saint is just a title. To be precise, it’s an honorary title given to female priests who can produce a certain level of divine power and have made a certain level of contribution to the order. I also have the qualifications.”

“Then should I call you Saintess from now on?”

“Haha.”

Rosetta let out a cynical, dry laugh and stopped walking.

“It’s a title that doesn’t suit the thorny path laid out for me. I’ve never used it before.”

“……”

“There’s someone else who suits the title of Saintess… Margherita was dispatched here before, wasn’t she?”

Rosetta stopped in front of the head priest’s office.

She gently brushed the old door with her fingertips.

“She probably worked in this room.”

“Are you acquainted with Margherita?”

“Of course. The title of Saintess isn’t that common after all. We, as fellow Saintesses, at least greeted each other.”

Rosetta closed her eyes. Was she reminiscing about her memories with Margherita?

“God always takes the good and virtuous first. Don’t you think so?”

“……”

“He takes the lives of good people first, so that they can be used greatly in heaven.”

I thought of Margherita.

Even while trembling, even while complaining, she was always at the forefront, healing people.

The Saintess of this temple, whom I always missed.

“But I couldn’t die a martyr on the battlefield and survived this ugly and hideous life on earth. I must continue to walk the thorny path given to me.”

Rosetta opened her eyes wide.

Then, she spun around, her long priestess skirt fluttering, and stretched out her leg to deliver a picture-perfect kick,

*Bang!*

She kicked the head priest’s office door open.

The locks that were heavily on the inside of the door – and clearly hastily put on – were shattered with a single kick.

As I stared at this scene with my mouth agape, Rosetta took out her notebook again and scribbled something.

“Rosetta, damaging temple property, 30 heresy points. And…”

Immediately after, she raised her sharp gaze and glared inside the head priest’s office.

“…I’m transferring these 30 points to Priest Janice, who caused this heretical act.”

*Thump! Thud! Crash!*

The sound of someone scrambling urgently could be heard from inside the head priest’s office. Rosetta stepped lightly inside with a gentle gait.

“Janice, I know you’re hiding in here. Come out now.”

“Hee, hee hee!”

Inside the head priest’s office, Janice stood in front of the office desk with a flustered face.

The inside of the head priest’s office was messy. Cigarette packs and liquor bottles were scattered everywhere, and laundry that hadn’t been washed in time was strewn about.

“Ugh, it smells like an old man…”

I unconsciously covered my nose. What is this stale smell! Am I going to become like this soon?!?

Rosetta also frowned.

“To defile the pure space that Saintess Margherita once used like this, you truly have no shame, Janice.”

No… to be honest, Margherita also lived with alcohol and cigarettes due to work stress… the state of the room wasn’t that different…

There was no time to say such things.

As soon as Janice saw Rosetta, she let out an uncharacteristic scream and immediately threw open the window at the back of the head priest’s office.

As Janice tried to jump out and escape, Rosetta muttered coldly.

“How much longer do you think you can run away by jumping out of there?”

“……!”

“Think carefully, Janice. Is it better to receive punishment cleanly now, or to commit more sins against the Goddess and the Order while running away, and then face a more terrible end? Think carefully.”

Janice hesitated and twitched, but when Rosetta cracked her knuckles menacingly, she eventually gave up on escaping.

“…I surrender, Sister.”

The old priest, with his shoulders slumped, sniffled and knelt quietly before Rosetta.

Anger swirled in Rosetta’s intellectual eyes behind her glasses.

“Our Goddess’s Order’s eternal lost sheep, troublemaker Janice… You’ve been running away well, but this is the end.”

“…Punishment.”

“Yes. I was going to do that anyway.”

*Clink-*

Rosetta loosened the iron whip from her waist and held it in her hand. She was truly going to lash out with that murderous whip, and a murderous aura emanated from her.

Horrified, I quickly intervened.

“Wait, wait a minute! Are you suddenly going to start a whip show here?!”

“That’s right. I’m going to administer corporal punishment. Until his life is extinguished.”

“Until his life is extinguished?!”

No, what Janice said yesterday about ‘trying to kill him’ wasn’t just a bluff, it literally meant trying to kill him?!?

Rosetta didn’t even blink and wrapped the whip around the floor.

“That Janice, who is hiding behind Your Highness, has not only dragged the honor of our Holy Knight Order and the Inquisitors to the ground, but has also tarnished the name of the Goddess’s Order. He is a notorious scoundrel.”

“I… I know the story roughly!”

I had done a background check on Janice through Serenade when he first came here.

“About 10 years ago, when he was dispatched overseas for proselytizing, he impregnated the princess of that country, wasn’t it…?”

“…To be precise, it happened 14 years ago. It was reported to the higher-ups long after the actual incident. Truly, as the head of the Order… it’s a shameful thing to even mention.”

Rosetta’s pale face flushed with anger, as if she was truly ashamed.

Janice, who was kneeling behind me, quietly closed his eyes and said nothing.

‘Certainly, just hearing this story makes him seem like some kind of madman!’

In any case, Janice, who was appointed to Crossroads, worked hard as the head priest without any shortcomings.

That’s why I was ignoring this past and moving on.

I desperately tried to defend Janice.

“Wasn’t he already punished? He received a punishment equivalent to excommunication, and he was made to serve as a common soldier for the rest of his life… So it’s over, right?”

“That punishment was just arbitrarily given by the Order’s leadership at the time. It was a political move to weaken the power of our Holy Knight Order within the Order by keeping our disgrace alive.”

What kind of political infighting is going on inside a religious organization?! Enough is enough!

“Anyway, the judgment has already been made! Why are you trying to overturn it and punish him again?! Once a judgment is finalized, it cannot be overturned! Don’t you know the principle of double jeopardy?”

“The Canon Law is different from criminal law, Your Highness.”

Rosetta didn’t give an inch.

“Now that our Holy Knight Order, and I, have become the leaders of the Order and taken the reins, we can also revise the Order’s previous punishments. I am simply using the authority given to me.”

“But!”

“Your Highness, didn’t I tell you? Our Holy Knight Order is a flame and a whip that purifies the inside of our Order.”

“……”

“This is an internal matter of our Order, Your Highness. With all due respect, Your Highness has no right to interfere. Even the Emperor cannot interfere in this matter.”

Rosetta spoke calmly, but her words were as sharp as a blade.

“We will cooperate with everything outside the Order. We will kill monsters and heal patients. Our Order will remain your good neighbors, as we have always been.”

“……”

“So, please do not interfere with our efforts to cleanse the blemishes within our Order.”

*Whack-!*

As Rosetta stretched out her arm to the right, the iron whip moved like a snake and instantly tore apart the furniture around her.

“Please step aside, Your Highness.”

With an intellectual face, Rosetta gave a gentle smile.

“This is my last warning.”

A blood-smelling, bitter smile.