Chapter 136 – Holy Knight Ariel (2)
Ariel was utterly confused by the situation.
She couldn’t figure out how to accept this outcome.
‘Where did it all go wrong…? This shouldn’t have happened…’
Clearly, there were no flaws in the plan she had meticulously crafted with everyone beforehand.
It was a plan where problems shouldn’t have even been able to arise in the first place.
The Holy Knights that Ariel had brought with her were those who had come at the summons of Saintess Aris.
Not an official summons from the Irem Order, but a personal request from the Saintess.
Just like the female knights who had been carefully selected to protect Saintess Aris’s family, who were residing in a secret mansion hidden within the Order, these were individuals whom the Saintess could trust with personal matters at any time.
Even while Saintess Aris was away from the Order, having joined the Hero’s party, they had been in regular contact through secret letters, carrying out the tasks the Saintess desired in exchange for satisfactory compensation.
And most of those tasks were the kind of dirty work that would make anyone with a normal sense of morality recoil in disgust.
Of course, the orders themselves weren’t problematic.
Regardless of the circumstances, finding evidence that someone in the South was even slightly involved with demons or black magic was a serious crime that warranted any punishment without feeling wronged.
Saintess Aris’s orders were to deal with such criminals under the guise of purification, so from the perspective of the Holy Knights who followed her, they were able to eliminate those who were close to heretics and receive satisfactory compensation, which wasn’t a bad deal at all.
However, the fact that the entire group was composed of male Holy Knights was due to one condition: that the women who were defenseless during the purification process could be used as tools to satisfy the sexual desires of the male Holy Knights.
In Ariel’s case, she had never witnessed the process directly because she was busy taking care of Saintess Aris’s family, but since most of the males were so loose-lipped,
if one were to listen closely among the Holy Knights, it wasn’t difficult to hear rumors that the Holy Knights personally employed by Aris had been engaging in such vile acts.
Yet, those lustful males had never been punished.
Naturally, it was because they were the people that Saintess Aris valued and cherished.
That single reason had transformed the males’ crimes into mere minor deviations.
Having received such absurd protection, these men had been able to commit all sorts of crimes against women while maintaining their status as Holy Knights.
Recently, their compensation had become less important to them.
They had become completely addicted to the stimulating act of brutally taking and discarding a small number of females, so what mattered to them was no longer the amount of compensation they could receive, but how attractive the females were around those heretics.
Therefore, the Holy Knights who had come with her had no reason to join this mission.
They wouldn’t be able to take the women that Choi Si-hyun was keeping as his personal bitches, and it would only end with them taking one demon goddess.
They could bring the goddess down to the ground and then brutally violate her.
That content itself would have been tempting to any male, but the big problem was that the goddess was a historical figure that no Holy Knight of the Order could be unaware of.
A goddess who had once endlessly bestowed her blessing upon the entire South.
And later, she had completely turned to the side of the demons of the North, even earning the loyalty of the mighty Demon King.
It was that goddess, Elina, whom Aris had targeted as her new prey.
It wasn’t Aris herself leading the charge, but an order for the Holy Knights alone to hunt down the goddess who had descended to the earth.
It was an insane act.
This was something that Ariel and the other Holy Knights couldn’t help but agree on.
Although Frey had left a message that he would keep Bel and Seri alive for them to use as they pleased when he headed to Choi Si-hyun’s mansion,
it was too dangerous to risk their lives to hunt a goddess with those two as their targets.
No matter how much the males were completely dominated by lust, they could only hunt the next female if their heads were still attached to their bodies.
However.
‘You absolutely won’t die. You don’t have to worry about your lives being endangered by that goddess.’
With just a rather lengthy explanation, Saintess Aris had managed to make every single one of her Holy Knights head here.
At first, no one had wanted to believe it.
It was practically content that couldn’t even elicit the slightest bit of agitation.
‘Goddess Elina is nothing more than a weak bitch who can’t be killed by anyone.’
No matter how much there were no officially recorded actions in history, as long as there was not a single person alive who had ever faced Elina, Aris’s words couldn’t hold any power.
At least, that was how it was from Ariel’s perspective.
But soon after, strange things began to happen.
The moment Aris’s holy magic touched the surrounding Holy Knights, they all expressed their intention to follow Aris’s will.
Their faces were as if they were possessed by something.
But Ariel couldn’t doubt the Saintess at all.
She had been there with them, and like the other Holy Knights, she had experienced her mind becoming clear through Aris’s holy magic.
She had to think that it was just that the desire to violate the goddess had surged through her clear mind.
‘Ariel. Are you still doubting me?’
‘I’m sorry, Saintess. I can’t agree with the idea that we can subdue that goddess with just us.’
‘Hmm. Then I would like you to consider why the others have agreed with my idea.’
‘That’s…’
‘I think you probably know that these men didn’t gather here with pure intentions to fulfill my request. That they have committed countless acts that they shouldn’t have as Holy Knights of the Order… And that even after this task is completed, their misguided desires will be directed solely at Goddess Elina… You know all of that, right?’
‘…Yes.’
‘Yet, you still follow me. What is the reason for that?’
‘It’s because you trust me, Saintess. Because you have made it so that no Holy Knight can dare to covet my position.’
‘Yes. That’s enough. Please, make a wise decision. Ariel.’
Since all the males who were swept up in such desires had expressed their intention to participate in the goddess hunt according to the Saintess’s will, Ariel had to be there as their representative.
Ariel didn’t want to step down from her position, which had become so solid within the Order.
Therefore, if she wanted to protect her power, she absolutely couldn’t refuse Saintess Aris’s request.
That was how Ariel had joined this mission.
And since she was convinced that there was no reason for Aris to send those who had been her capable tools to their deaths, even while deceiving them,
she had firmly believed Aris’s words until right after they had successfully surrounded Elina.
That was definitely how it had been.
“Ugh…!”
“Stay still. If you keep wiggling, I’ll cut off your limbs first.”
How had she ended up in this situation, being threatened by Elina?
Ariel trembled with a sense of shame she had never felt before.
Her wrists were tied, her arms raised above her head.
Both of her ankles were also connected to chains that came out of the wall, raising her feet above her head.
She was practically half-naked, wearing only torn stockings and panties.
Ariel was much more ashamed of being restrained in such a vulgar position with her legs wide open than of having her breasts exposed in this outdoor setting.
So.
Squeeze.
“Hnn…!”
She had to tremble as she heard the moan that escaped her lips the moment Elina grabbed one of her breasts.
‘My body… why is it like this…? It’s just my breast being touched… but it feels strange…’
“Ugh… Hnn…”
Elina slowly caressed Ariel’s breast and said,
“It’s amazing. It must not have been easy to keep your virginity while being mixed in with those males…”
Ariel gritted her teeth.
She didn’t want to let out such lewd moans anymore.
“Or were you too stupid to know anything about lust?”
“……”
“And yet, you dared to think of insulting a goddess…”
Elina squeezed her hand tightly.
“Heuek…!”
“Honestly, a stupid bitch like you who doesn’t know anything about the Saintess isn’t even worth keeping alive… But since I found suspicious demonic energy in your body, I’m letting you live like this. You should be grateful to the goddess for the rest of your life.”
“……”
“You should answer, right?”
“Ugh…! Th-thank… youuu…!”
Elina chuckled.
“When I searched the surrounding demonic energy as you said, I was able to find traces of our sisters right away. I also confirmed that they escaped through a dimensional gate, and that the elf Frey was subdued by Yuliana.”
“Aah…! Hnn…!”
“Now, all that’s left is to find out who this demonic energy belongs to. You’ll do it yourself.”
Ariel closed her eyes tightly and then opened them.
She didn’t even know that such a thing as demonic energy was inside her body.
And now she had to find out about it…
Because of that daunting task, cold sweat was soaking her entire body.
But the biggest problem was something else.
“Haaah…! E, E, Elina… Niiit…! Just a, a little bit, gently… Ah! Haaah…!”
“If you want me to stop, then use your head and find the answer. Ariel.”
It felt so good to be touched by Elina’s hands.
So, it seemed like she was about to end up revealing the information about the Saintess that she had desperately hidden.
‘If you make the goddess feel good, I’ll do something even better for you.’
Those words she had heard a little while ago were so alluring.
Ariel felt her lower body getting wet and continued to tremble.
