Stella’s face, which always bore a fresh, vibrant smile, revealed a different expression for the first time. Confusion devoured her smile, and shock swallowed her calm.
“This can’t be… This can’t be happening…! Why…?”
It seemed as though she couldn’t even imagine the possibility of me not being a heretic; her face was filled with immense bewilderment as she continuously repeated that this couldn’t be.
She looked like she was about to lose her mind at any moment. Her pupils rolled around incessantly. Her fingertips trembled, her legs wobbled, and her whole body expressed the shock she’d experienced.
The battle nuns surrounding us were equally stunned.
The battle nun who had been performing a solo strip show in front of me, known as Iris, stood rooted in place, exposing her bare chest and femininity with a puzzled expression of “Huh…?”
The grip on her shoulders felt loose enough to break away at any moment. The two behind me probably had expressions no different from Iris’s.
Not wanting to openly stare at someone else’s intimate parts like this, I quickly averted my gaze. From what I remembered, the heretic detection method wasn’t supposed to involve such public exposure.
“You! How can you be… how can you not be a heretic?!”
I chuckled inwardly as I noticed that Stella had shifted from calling me “you” or “heretic” to addressing me as “you.”
If she still thought of me as a heretic, with her personality, she wouldn’t have used a familiar term like “you.”
“I’ve told you countless times that I have nothing to do with devil worship! Lize, Erica, and Claudia are the same. You just got it wrong.”
“No way… There’s definitely a smell of demons…”
“Didn’t Erica tell you? I have been involved with demons, but I’ve never committed any acts that could qualify me as a heretic! We’ve emphasized time and time again that we are the victims. Did you ever listen to what I said?”
“Then let’s just handle it until you’re judged as a heretic! Everyone come out! Verify this man’s purity!”
Stella shouted while trembling, and the battle nuns holding me suddenly released me and walked toward Stella.
With their support gone, someone roughly caught my swaying body before I fell forward.
It was Stella. Somehow, she had come up behind me and firmly secured my face between the handle of her flail and her arm.
The battle nuns lined up in a row. Each held their underwear in their right hands, with their left hands placed over their chests. I quickly realized what they intended to do.
They were clearly planning to mimic what Iris had just done.
“Are you serious? You all plan to strip right here? Don’t you feel embarrassed at all?”
“Shut up! This is not just about removing sacred robes; we are verifying your purity!”
“I already got verified, didn’t I?”
What Iris had done moments ago was absurd. Was this some kind of exposure fetish show?
“Don’t listen to that heretic’s words! Start now, immediately!”
Stella’s voice rang out. It was impossible to reason with her. I glanced sideways at Lize and Erica, wondering if they could help.
Lize and Erica were watching us, both seemingly unable to understand the situation, their mouths half-opened in shock. Expecting any help from them seemed futile.
The battle nun at the front stepped up and thrust her lower abdomen toward my face. Then, just like Iris, she began to lift her chest cover and lower garments, exposing her bare skin.
Naturally, the clothing slid up effortlessly without any obstruction.
After that, it became a cycle of each nun looking down at me, shocked by her exposed body, and then collapsing to the ground.
I was left with no choice but to watch as beautiful women, flaunting their overwhelming beauty and voluptuous bodies one after another, performed strip shows right in front of me.
Though I didn’t entirely dislike it. If there was a man who genuinely hated this situation, he was probably either a gay man, a homosexual, or someone who just didn’t like women.
However, I was too confused to openly enjoy it.
‘Can you really determine if I’m a heretic with this? What does this even mean?’
How could undressing and exposing their bodies serve as a means to judge whether I was a devil worshiper or not?
Regardless of my confusion, their so-called ‘purity verification’ finished quickly.
Being confined, the nuns approached me only to gasp in shock and retreat repeatedly; it didn’t take much time.
All the battle nuns wore expressions like the sky had fallen, and Stella wasn’t much different. They all bore faces that suggested their faith had been undermined.
No, they were right; their faith had indeed been compromised. It was either God or the Pope of the Sun who had labeled me a heretic, and both were objects of devotion for them.
“Wh-what… how…”
Stella, on her knees with her legs spread apart, stared blankly at me with a dazed expression. Was this a posture only women could take?
Finally free, I stood boldly and made eye contact with Stella.
“See?”
I had no reason to shrink back anymore. The heretics hunted down anyone they deemed a threat, but on the other side, the Inquisitors of the Holy Kingdom were endlessly kind to the innocent.
With the purity verification wrapped up, it was as if the divine being they worshiped confirmed that I had no ties to demons. So, it would be impossible for them to harm me.
If they did, it would be an act of betraying their own deity.
“……”
Stella hung her head. The battle nuns seemed similar. They looked clearly shocked. Just as I was about to help Lize and Erica stand up, I heard.
“I can’t accept this.”
“Hmm?”
As Stella raised her head again, her green eyes met mine. There was a burning emotion in those eyes. She gripped the handle of the blood-stained sword tightly, slightly tense.
Was she really about to charge at me recklessly?
“I’ll have to verify this myself.”
Fortunately, she didn’t seem like she was going to attack me without reason, which relieved me internally, but I didn’t let my guard down. What kind of verification was she planning to conduct?
“I can’t accept it. Someone who has broken the seal of a demon and stole it, how can they possibly not be a heretic?”
Stella strode up to me and grabbed my right wrist. It was a surprisingly strong grip that made me furrow my brow. Compared to the battle nuns’ hold on me, this was child’s play.
Stella pulled my arm toward her chest and unveiled her breast cover with her other hand, slipping my hand beneath it. I could feel intense heat radiating from her concealed hand.
“Grip it.”
“What?”
“Are you pretending not to understand or actually not understanding? I said grip it tightly.”
Grip what? I almost asked, but the target was all too clear. The soft sensations I felt on my palm just confirmed it.
“Wait, are you seriously asking me to touch your chest after all this public exposure?”
“It’s the final step in verifying your purity. Are you, afraid of being labeled a heretic?”
“……”
I attempted to pull my arm away, but it was utterly futile. It felt like my wrist and palm were glued together.
My wrist was pulled even closer. My palm sank deeper into Stella’s chest, the flesh molding around my fingers.
As if that wasn’t enough, Stella pressed my hand down with her other hand, driving it deeper. Squish. I reflexively squeezed my palm.
“…Ugh!”
At that, a soft moan escaped Stella’s lips. Hearing that caused my faltering sanity to cling on for dear life. If I made any wrong move now, I’d end up in chaos.
“What… is this?”
While I struggled internally to keep my composure, Stella fixated her gaze on me with an even more shocked voice. Her bright green eyes trembled.
The grip on my wrist tightened. Naturally, my hand sunk even deeper into her chest while she spoke without any concern.
“Why… why do you emanate divine power when you have no faith in God…?”
With Stella’s shocking statement, even the battle nuns, who had been dazedly gazing into space, seemed to snap back to reality and stared at me. They looked more shocked than Lize and Erica just moments ago.
‘Ah, so that’s it. This sudden shift made me wonder what was happening.’
Despite Stella’s and the battle nuns’ reactions, I remained calm. When she suddenly lowered her voice and spoke urgently, I was tense thinking there was something to worry about, but it was nothing impressive.
What Stella had just said reminded me of a tiny event players experienced when first encountering an Inquisitor in Brightest Darkness 4.
Players can raise their stats however they like, so it’s also possible to focus on divine power without increasing faith like I did. However, the people in the Brightest Darkness 4 world couldn’t do that.
Generally, they believed that as one’s faith deepened, divine power would naturally follow. Hence, it would be utterly perplexing to find someone who possessed divine power without having faith.
Like witnessing a smartphone functioning perfectly without a battery for us.
Just for reference, if one has higher faith than divine power, they say that’s not enough strength based on one’s belief, so they should train harder, and if divine power is higher than faith, they laugh and say that clearly means they are favored by the deity.
There are all sorts of variations such as having no faith or divine power, both at 99, one of them at 99, etc., providing fun viewing experiences.
“If that’s the case, you might be…”
Stella muttered something incomprehensible, gazing blankly. As her lips quivered and prepared to say something again, someone abruptly grabbed her hand.
“What are you doing right now?”
It was Lize.
