[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]

Chapter 401

Arandis Chapel.

The chapel was built differently from the rest of the village.

In other words, it was an area that monsters dared not invade.

A sanctuary free from monsters at any time of day.

Naturally, crowds of people had gathered before its gates.

It was currently one of the hours when people were free to move about, and so the place was bustling.

“Please, just a lantern!”

“We can’t live in peace with monsters everywhere!”

“Offer us prayers! We need a blessing to protect us from the monsters!”

They had long since become neurotic from the constant threat of monsters.

It wasn’t only that their freedom was suppressed by these creatures—recently, with the appearance of Blood Eternity and its invasions of their homes, their pent-up fear and grief had finally exploded.

At any moment the monsters might attack again. Even the briefest lapse could mean disaster for their families.

Jeong-hoon tried to pass through them and enter the chapel.

“Wait—you’re going into the chapel?!”

A man grabbed him, and the loud outburst turned every eye toward Jeong-hoon and the speaker.

“Yes.”

When Jeong-hoon nodded, the crowd swarmed him.

“Please! If you go inside, could you bring back some lanterns for us?!”

“We’ll reward you generously! Save our families!”

“We beg you! Please!”

Though he gave a troubled smile, Jeong-hoon still promised to help as best he could.

He couldn’t simply ignore their desperate eyes—and it didn’t seem like the request would be too difficult to fulfill.

At last managing to make his way through and stand before the chapel doors, Jeong-hoon knocked.

“Yes, come in.”

With permission from within, the firmly shut doors creaked open.

“What the… the chapel opens that easily?”

“Damn it! Why don’t they ever answer when we call?!”

Even as complaints rained down behind him, the angel guarding the chapel remained utterly unbothered.

“Ah, you must be the human who opened the gate to the Divine Realm?”

===

[NPC Information]

Nickname: Argael

Level: X

Class: Angel

===

This was the angel assigned to Arandis—Argael.

‘What the hell’s with that attitude?’

‘That’s supposed to be an angel…?’

Mukho and Anima looked at Argael with exasperation.

Jeong-hoon gave a nod and said..

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Good. Then do me a favor.”

“A favor?”

“First off, drive out those people outside. They’re so damn noisy I can’t stand it.”

“If you just granted their requests, wouldn’t they leave on their own?”

“Why would I?”

Argael shot back in an irritable tone.

As he yawned and picked at his ear, Jeong-hoon finally lost patience. He stepped forward and slammed his fist into the angel’s face.

Thud!

With a dull crack, Argael’s head snapped to the side and he toppled over.

Was it because he was an angel?

Jeong-hoon had hit him pretty hard, but the angel held up better than expected.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Argael glared at him as if he meant to kill, trying to get back up—

—but Jeong-hoon was quicker, landing another blow.

Thud!

“Ghk!”

Struck in succession, Argael groaned as his body went limp.

Even an angel couldn’t withstand Jeong-hoon’s sheer strength.

But Jeong-hoon had no intention of stopping there.

“Do you know what happens if an angel is killed?”

“D-Don’t be ridiculous… kill an angel? Are you insane?”

“I’m perfectly sane. And even if I got rid of you, nothing would happen to me. I’m the only one who can enter the Demon Realm, after all.”

At that chilling statement, Argael’s body shuddered.

“W-Wait! Let’s talk this out, okay?”

“Talk? You mean with our fists?”

“N-no, dammit…”

Thud!

The moment Argael muttered a curse, Jeong-hoon’s fist crashed into his face again.

“Keep talking like that, and I’ll just keep hitting you.”

Jeong-hoon’s fists rained down without pause.

“Aaaargh!”

Argael screamed, thrashing to break free, but it was useless.

Realizing he might actually die like this, the angel shouted in desperation:

“Might!”

Jeong-hoon froze mid-swing at the mention of a familiar NPC’s name.

“Might?”

“That man—he holds the key to the next Mediation Box!”

“Oh? Is that so?”

“And I’ll give you every Fragment of the Origin I’ve got as well!”

It was a staggering offer.

Even so, Jeong-hoon shook his head, unsatisfied.

“Not good enough. There are plenty of other places I can get Fragments of the Origin.”

“Damn it! Then what the hell do you want me to do?!”

“By doing your job properly, maybe?”

“Alright, alright! I’ll do it faithfully, so please stop hitting me!”

“Then the first thing you should do is quiet those voices outside, don’t you think?”

“That’s your—hiiik!”

Argael squeezed his eyes shut.

It was because Jeong-hoon had raised his fist again.

“I’ll ask one more time. You will silence those voices, right?”

“Fine! Fine, I’ll do it!”

Only once he got a firm answer did Jeong-hoon release him.

Regaining his freedom, Argael stepped outside, wincing from the throbbing pain.

And the shouting grew louder still.

“Everyone, please calm down! I will resolve your problems!”

Argael shouted at the top of his lungs.

“…Is that really true?!”

“Then why did you ignore us all this time?!”

Even with the bitter accusations, Argael spoke calmly.

“I have been in prayer! Not just to drive away monsters, but to resolve the root of the problem itself!”

That seemed to pacify them, if only for a moment.

Just then, a middle-aged man raised his hand and shouted.

“So—have you found a way?!”

“Yes.”

Once the people dispersed, Argael’s attitude flipped completely.

“Oh dear, please sit and rest—why are you still standing?”

He rubbed his hands together, busy trying to read Jeong-hoon’s mood.

‘Wow, that’s the textbook definition of bullying the weak and bowing to the strong.’

‘Pathetic.’

‘He doesn’t have a choice. If he acts cocky like before, a fist will come flying again.’

Just as Mukho said, Argael had felt the threat to his life.

He realized that if he kept behaving as he had before, he really might die, and so he decided to grovel.

In a way, it was the wiser choice.

“So, what did you tell them?”

“I promised to build a barrier around their dwellings so monsters cannot invade.”

“A barrier?”

“Yes. By erecting it, their territory will be shielded from monster encroachment.”

“Then go install it.”

“Uh… actually, to create that barrier… you would need to personally carry it out…”

“Are you saying you’ve got a death wish?”

“Please! This is beyond my control—I beg you, spare me!”

Argael pressed his forehead against the floor.

“So in the end, it has to be me doing the work?”

“Y-Yes… it’s because there are very few beings with the authority to enter Arandis…”

“No authority? Huh, so you’re a bit different from Roel in Atlas then?”

“It’s because Arandis’ level is far too high…”

“I see…”

He didn’t seem to be lying.

“Yes. Once the barrier is set up, we’ll be able to use Maight to uncover the whereabouts of the next Mediation Chest.”

“Then let’s head out.”

“…What?”

“It’ll be easier if you come along to explain things.”

“I—I have to guard the chapel…”

“You planning to guard it forever?”

“…Shall we leave right now?”

* * *

Jeong-hoon arrived at Maight’s house with Argael in tow.

“Hm? What brings you here?”

“Ah, this gentleman has come, saying he wants to help the village.”

“…Who?”

“Oh, just a useless freeloader who does nothing but eat the chapel’s food.”

At Jeong-hoon’s jab, Argael’s face crumpled into misery.

“Useless freeloader? I’m still an angel serving the Divine, you know…”

“So in other words, you’re like the priest here?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Then why has Father come here?”

“He’s here to prevent another incident like the Blood Eternity from ever happening again.”

“Is… is that true?!”

Maight’s face brightened with hope.

Even if Blood Eternity had been wiped out, who could say when another such monster might appear?

Because of that, the anxiety always lingering in people’s hearts had only grown worse.

“Yes. And it won’t just block them—we’ll completely seize their territory.”

“Seize… their territory?”

“That way, people will be able to move about freely without being bound by the time restrictions.”

“Unbelievable… Such a method actually exists?”

“Yes. As you can see, the priest standing right here is the one who discovered it.”

“Oooh! So that’s why Father came in person!”

Maight clasped his hands together, gazing at Argael.

“Haha, don’t worry. I’m here to solve this for you!”

Argael thumped his chest awkwardly with a strained laugh.

He looked far from reliable, but Maight was so deeply moved that even that came across as perfectly reassuring.

“…Of course, it’ll still be me who has to gather the materials.”

At that, Maight’s eyes shifted toward Jeong-hoon.

“Materials?”

“Yes, explain.”

“Ahem!”

Jeong-hoon jerked his chin toward him, and Argael cleared his throat before beginning his explanation.

Throughout Arandis, the blood of mutant-type monsters contains a substance called Nr17.

If this is extracted and mixed into a specially prepared paint, then applied onto a barrier, that point can be used as the basis for establishing territory.

Which meant that Jeong-hoon’s task was simple: hunt down as many mutant monsters as possible and collect their blood.

“Then who’s in charge of extracting it?”

“I am,” Argael raised his hand.

“You? You actually know how to do that?”

“…I may not look like it, but I am a capable angel.”

“Fine. So how many of these things do I need to kill?”

“Well, that depends on how much you plan to use.”

Roughly speaking, to establish territory for a single household, the blood of at least one hundred monsters was required.

Once Nr17 was extracted from a single monster’s blood, only a trace amount remained—far too little.

So one hundred monsters’ worth was needed to make enough paint for just one household.

“So you’re saying I’ll need to kill at least a hundred thousand of them.”

At Jeong-hoon’s words, Argael’s eyes widened in shock.

“…Just how many households are you trying to cover?”

“One thousand.”

“Haha…”

A hundred monsters for a single household.

Ten thousand monsters would cover a hundred households.

A hundred thousand monsters—one thousand households.

It wasn’t actually that many.

That was just enough to fortify the single village where Maight lived.

“One hundred thousand…”

Maight muttered blankly.

With their own strength, they could barely manage to hunt even one monster—it was that powerful.

And yet, here was talk of slaying one hundred thousand of them.

“…Instead of households, why don’t we just build the barrier around the entire village?”

If the barrier was erected around the village outskirts, then the people would be able to move freely and safely within.

Hearing Jeong-hoon’s plan, Maight excused himself and stepped out for a while.

When he returned, his expression was solemn.

“…Please, I beg of you. Protect our village.”

With those words, he handed Jeong-hoon a sealed box.

“What’s this?”

The moment Jeong-hoon saw it, he knew instinctively—it was the key to reaching the Mediation Chest.

“I was told to give this to the hero who would one day appear in our village.”

“Is that so?”

“I don’t actually know what it is myself.”

Naturally, Maight had no way of knowing about the Mediation Chest.

It was something newly imposed with the intervention of the Divine Realm.

The box was locked tightly with a padlock.

“Do you have the key?”

“Ah… that, I don’t know either.”

“You don’t know?”

“All I was given was the box itself.”

“…Understood. For now, let’s focus on hunting monsters, and we can talk more afterward.”

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]