A gathering of numerous clergy and paladins in the assembly.
And…
At the highest spot there stood a blonde-haired, green-eyed woman, her face radiating both beauty and cunning…
Archbishop Maxim Cafeo looked sternly at the young paladin before her.
With red-tinted blonde hair and slightly brownish skin, the man with dark eyes intensely gazed at the archbishop’s face, his cold glare unwavering.
“I will ask one last time! Will the sinner acknowledge his sins and kneel before the Lord?”
“Seriously… what sin am I supposed to have committed for you to keep at this?”
-Bang!-
The young paladin replied incredulously, his voice filled with disbelief.
In response, the archbishop unleashed her fury, slamming her fist down hard on the podium.
“Did you not covet material wealth in the body of a paladin serving God? Those walking the path of clergy must devote themselves solely to carrying out the will of the Lord! How could you commit such evil deeds!”
“No… is making money a sin? Furthermore, I didn’t acquire wealth like you lot through indulgences; this was merely the result of a legitimate contract!”
“T-This man… how dare he utter such blasphemous words! To claim ‘acquired wealth’! Is he daring to insult the sacred indulgences drafted by His Holiness the Pope to save the people from their sins with the body of a paladin!”
“Salvation my foot… what can a mere scrap of paper do to save anyone…”
The young paladin hit them right where it hurt with his words.
At this, not only the clergy present but also other paladins began to express their deep anger.
“TH-That man… until the very end!”
“How dare a heretic utter such nonsense!”
“What are you doing! Immediately pass judgment on him, Archbishop!”
“A fallen servant who has blasphemed the Lord!”
“A follower of Iscariot blinded by greed! Such a person cannot remain a paladin any longer!”
Voices of condemnation echoed from all around.
However, the young paladin stood his ground without a hint of wavering.
And seeing his unwavering stance, the archbishop, with a voice icy with burning rage, asked,
“I will give you one last chance. Repent of your sins now! Swear that you will not commit such acts again and declare that you will willingly offer your belongings as a sign of repentance to the Lord! If you refuse until the very end, I shall strip you of your sacred rights to serve the Lord as a paladin!”
The archbishop spoke with a warning that held the weight of finality.
Archbishop.
The deep rage reflected in her green eyes had subdued countless people before, and she was confident it would happen again this time as well.
However, the young paladin spoke to her in a light tone.
“Honestly, I don’t want to be a paladin anymore. Just keep doing what you were doing.”
“…You brat…”
The paladin continued speaking without even batting an eye at her outburst.
Seeing him like this, the archbishop finally felt her last shred of patience snap, and she began to shout in an intense voice.
“Fine! If you’re going to act like that until the end, then so be it! I was willing to give you a chance to serve the Lord because of your noble lineage! But now, there’s no helping it!”
With those words, the archbishop took out the prepared declaration.
She then roughly stamped her seal on the declaration and shouted with a voice full of fury.
“Defendant Santana Andreas has indulged in wealth with the title of paladin and even denied the holy Pope’s indulgence! This is a grave sin that tarnishes the dignity of the Paladin Order, which should be above all others! Therefore, I, Archbishop Maxim Cafeo, hereby pronounce an excommunication on defendant Santana Andreas!”
“The archbishop’s excommunication has been declared!”
“Bring the sinner out at once! Confiscate all the paladin’s armor and insignia and throw him out!”
With the excommunication declared, the young paladin was pulled out.
Santana Andreas.
He had lived his life as a paladin and had earned some renown within this city, but at this moment, he was stripped of all his rights as a paladin.
Various charges had been thrown at him, but the decisive accusation was that, as a member of the clergy, he had amassed significant wealth through bizarre methods—what one might call “demonic machinations”—and during the investigation, he had insulted the sacred Pope’s indulgence.
This was a serious crime that could lead to the death penalty, but because of his bloodline from fallen aristocracy, the maximum punishment that could be given was excommunication, thus concluding this trial.
However, even if he wasn’t sentenced to death, this was far from a favorable outcome.
In this country where the church wielded immense power, excommunication was more or less a sentence of being treated as an inhuman.
The basic rights of personhood would be obliterated, and as a result, he would be completely stripped of legal protection, leading to the seizing of all his properties, including land and homes.
In other words, it meant living in a state that was scarcely living at all.
Because of this, those who faced excommunication usually ended up being expelled from the lands dominated by the church to the territories of heretics in the east or the regions of cultists in the north.
However…
At the moment this cruel judgment was pronounced.
As paladin insignia was stripped away and his armor was removed, the paladin Santana was—
No, to be exact, the individual known as Santana was now possessed by an individual from South Korea, a small-time investor who had spent more time staring at charts than at faces just a few months ago.
Just a few months ago, whenever I got up from my seat, I spent way more time looking at charts than at people’s faces.
I, Kang Tae-hwan, was currently feeling a surge of anger for entirely different reasons, not despair.
“Alright… So this is how you want to play it, huh? Then it’s game over for you lot! You miserable Archbishop with your coffee mix, and you damn paladins and church folks! Let’s see how well you do without me!”
Back in my original world, I was all about the stock market, Bitcoin, and futures trading.
However, after a recent traffic accident, I somehow ended up possessing the character Santana, a random extra paladin from the dark fantasy novel I somewhat enjoyed.
Literally a background character with no substantial ties to the protagonist, who just pops up once at the beginning and then doesn’t show his face until the end.
The only reason I even remembered his name was because it came up early in the story and shared a name with a character from a famous manga I liked.
But just because I possessed such an extra didn’t mean I could quietly play the part of a paladin like in the original work.
Regardless of the original character’s significance, the backdrop here is a grim dark fantasy world for the paladins…
With epidemics and famines on the horizon, and wars spiraling out of control.
In that chaos, paladins and the church’s clergy will literally be crawling through the depths of hell, and by the end of the story, most of the clergy, including the paladin protagonist and his companions, will meet a miserable death or face ruin.
Given this background and development, it’s highly likely that Santana goes out in a pitiful way too, without even a mention.
In light of all this, having possessed Santana, I decided to leverage the future knowledge I had as a reader of the original work—along with knowledge from my previous world—to use some so-called “money-making methods” that people in this world don’t know about to help save the church’s influence and the Paladin Order while lending a hand to the protagonist’s party.
But…
Suddenly, my actions were branded as treason, an act against the paladin’s code, and I was cleanly excommunicated from the church.
What started as an effort to help turned into a mess, with the church folks trying to snag my hard-earned wealth while nitpicking every little thing I did like the pathetic opportunists they were.
With these rotten moves, I couldn’t help but feel all sympathy drain away from me.
“Seriously… There’s a reason for every downfall, isn’t there? I mean, I’m here offering to help by making money, and they’re trolling me like this? Fine, go ahead! Let’s see how it all plays out when you cut your own lifeline!”
So, after getting kicked out of the assembly, I returned to the paladins’ quarters, feeling pretty disgruntled.
I needed to gather my stuff before leaving, as there were still some matters I needed to handle first.
However… the moment I reached the entrance, I was confronted by two female paladins, swords drawn, blocking my way.
The two female paladins stood blocking my way with their swords drawn.
“…What the hell?”
“You filthy heretic! How dare you set foot in the sacred dwelling of paladins!”
“You money-grubbing apostate! Get out of here right now!”
The two female paladins spoke in cold voices.
Nune Spolia.
Tine Glasate.
Both were typical blonde-haired, blue-eyed, relatively pretty Western women, but at this moment, they were threatening me with their swords.
Just a few days ago, these two were fawning over me, and now this sudden change in attitude.
I shouted back, filled with incredulity bordering on rage.
“What the… Hey! This is my building that I bought with my hard-earned money! Even if I’ve been excommunicated, it takes at least a week for that to be officially processed! Until then, I still have the right to live here legally!”
“Ha! A disgraced wretch being excommunicated dares to babble in front of the Archbishop!”
“If you don’t step back now, I will take your head in the name of the Lord!”
I was the one who helped move their shabby residence to this place with the money I earned here.
As a result, even though this was technically the paladins’ dwelling, it was still legally under my name.
Back then, the two of them seemed eager to bow down to me, expressing their joy and fawning over me just to be on my good side.
But now… those bitches were standing in my way, brandishing their swords, forgetting even the kindness I had shown them.
“Wait, just hear me out! The formal excommunication process hasn’t even been completed yet, and all my belongings are still inside! Even if I have to leave, I deserve some consideration for that… ugh!”
In the next moment, a sharp pain sliced through one of my shoulders.
Caught off guard by the unexpected attack, I fell to the ground, blood dripping from my shoulder. Seeing this, Paladin Nune spoke coldly, holding her bloodied sword.
“Next, I will take your head!”
“Get out of here at once! There will be no more mercy!”
“You… you filthy bastards…”
And so…
After being stabbed in the shoulder, I found myself in a ridiculous and infuriating situation where I couldn’t even enter the home I bought with my own money. I steeled my resolve once again.
I had tried to help them out of pity, but that bastard Archbishop and the paladin bitches took it as an opportunity to treat me like a criminal and excommunicate me.
It was like trying to save someone drowning only for them to break my limbs and treat me like a thief. I had firmly decided.
“Right… if you’re going to treat me like this, then so be it. Blinded by the cash in front of you, you’re nothing but scummy trash cutting your own lifeline! I’ll live my life however I please, without caring if you sink or swim!”
