Everyone witnessed an unbelievable sight.
It was clearly a skeleton, an undead monster.
And yet, divine power could be felt from within the skeleton.
In fact, the skeleton’s bones were glowing faintly.
An undead monster harboring divine power.
Seeing that mysterious light up close, even Liana could not open her mouth.
“…….”
Why was a mere monster instilling faith in them?
It was absurd.
It was clearly contradictory, the sort of joke no one would believe.
And yet that absurd, contradictory sight was unfolding before her eyes.
Everything they were experiencing now was reality.
Had she ever seen any record of such a being existing?
No.
Then had she ever heard stories of one?
No, not that either.
To begin with, the idea that a being of impurity could harbor divine power had never been recorded anywhere, nor did anyone know of it.
This was surely a miracle.
If this was not a miracle, then what could be called one?
As she was now, she had no choice but to believe that.
The paladins around her were the same.
That being before their eyes was undoubtedly a messenger sent by the Goddess.
That messenger had cast them into a trial.
At the same time, he had bestowed intense faith upon them.
Yes, if not that, there was no way to explain what was happening now.
Even now, the Goddess’s messenger stood with both arms spread wide.
It was a benevolent posture, as though telling them to come into his embrace.
“Ah….”
Tears flowed from Liana’s eyes.
And she regretted.
She did not need to ponder long to understand why the Goddess’s messenger had descended to earth now.
‘He has come to punish us.’
In the messenger’s hand was a sword.
A black sword that radiated an ominous aura at a glance.
Liana could tell immediately that the sword was a demonic sword.
But why would the Goddess’s messenger be holding a demonic sword?
The meaning of that demonic sword was punishment.
Punishment for them.
And further still, punishment for the Order.
The years she had spent in the Order were not few.
That was why she knew the current Order well.
Liana had been raised by the Order since childhood.
After losing her parents early and becoming an orphan, the Order had taken her in.
As she grew up there, she received various forms of education.
Alongside faith in the Goddess, she learned basic virtues such as etiquette, morality, and conviction.
Fortunately, she also had talent in swordsmanship, so she joined the paladin order.
And thus she had reached her current position.
To Liana, the Order had been her entire life.
It certainly had been.
But at some point, the Order had changed.
Those in the upper ranks moved only for their own benefit.
Those below them, too, had been blinded by greed.
Then could the Order’s paladins be considered clean?
Not at all.
The commander himself had driven his subordinates to their deaths under the pretext of purging the ranks.
The representative example was the former vice commander, Berter.
At present, he and nineteen paladins were also missing.
Even when Liana saw such things, she turned her head and looked away.
Because she had thought that if it allowed the Order to grow, a small number of sacrifices were inevitable.
But upon seeing the Goddess’s messenger, her thoughts changed.
‘It is no different from the Goddess declaring that the direction we have taken is wrong.’
That thought reached a single conclusion.
‘The current Order must change.’
And it was obvious how she had to act from now on.
Liana carefully opened her mouth.
“Um….”
Emotion welled up inside her, and the words did not come easily.
Even so, she put strength into her voice.
“My name is Liana. What should I call you…?”
First, Liana introduced herself.
Then she asked what she should call the being who could be called the Goddess’s proxy.
She could not keep calling him “you” forever.
“Clack?”
But Liana could not understand his words.
All she heard was the sound of bones striking together.
While she hesitated for a moment.
“Lady Liana, that person is the ‘Saint.’”
Someone appeared from behind.
He was armed with armor and a sword that anyone could tell belonged to a paladin, and Liana knew him well too.
“S-Sir Erik…?”
He was one of the nineteen paladins who had clearly disappeared together with Vice Commander Berter.
Erik was one of those included among those nineteen paladins.
It was only natural that Liana, who had been the commander’s adjutant at the time, remembered him.
“Why are you here…?”
Erik, whom she had assumed was already dead, was alive.
Her eyes trembled.
In truth, Erik was being controlled by the Banshee, but Liana did not know that.
Under normal circumstances, she might have noticed, but Maru’s existence, harboring divine power, had resulted in clouding her judgment.
“Unlike the others, I was chosen by the Great One.”
Erik smiled and slowly took a step forward.
By the Great One, he meant Lee Ganghyeon.
“The Goddess chose you…?”
However, to Liana, Erik’s words sounded like something else.
Unlike the others, Erik alone had been chosen by the Goddess.
That was why he had survived in these mountains.
“And according to that person’s will, I was sent here to assist the Saint.”
He meant that Chief Administrator Celia, who followed the Great One, had sent him here.
The purpose was for him to support Maru.
“So that is what happened.”
Liana nodded.
Erik had likely been chosen by the Goddess and, at the same time, entrusted with the mission of assisting the Saint.
Listening to Erik, Liana became even more certain of her own thoughts.
“Then the reason the Saint descended to earth is also….”
“That is correct.”
Erik nodded.
His expression was solemn, bearing a sense of firm resolve.
“It is the will of the Great One. The Great One desires absolute loyalty from the continent.”
“Ah.”
In Liana’s mind, Erik’s words were being interpreted on their own.
The Great One must be the Goddess.
There was no doubt.
And the Goddess wished for everyone on the continent to follow her.
Absolute loyalty meant thoroughly obeying the Goddess’s words.
In other words, it was the same as telling them not to betray their personal faith through deviation and greed.
Surely that was it.
In the end, just as she had thought, the Saint had descended to earth after receiving the Goddess’s will.
To awaken the Order, steeped in greed and corruption.
She understood up to this point.
But there was still one unresolved question.
Why had they come up into these mountains in the first place?
They had come to search for their missing subordinates.
And why had the Seil Kingdom blocked entry into the mountains?
Liana asked about this.
“Clack-clack-clack—?”
(I dealt with those three, and I don’t know about access to the mountains?)
When Maru answered Liana’s question, Erik, who stood beside him, assumed a prayer posture.
“…….”
Then he was silent for a moment.
It was because he was thinking about how to answer Liana’s question from just now.
He knew very well that he absolutely could not answer exactly as Maru had said.
“Hmm….”
He briefly closed his eyes and pondered.
It was the greatest dilemma in the Banshee’s life as a monster, as it controlled Erik.
If it misspoke here, the Chief Administrator’s plan would be distorted.
On top of that, it might offend the feelings of the Great One.
After thinking for a long while, the Banshee opened its mouth through Erik.
“Do you happen to know that the kingdom’s nobles sent adventurers into the mountains?”
A completely different topic came out.
“Adventurers? But entry into the mountains was prohibited….”
“Originally, yes. However….”
When Liana asked, Erik briefly explained what had happened so far.
— That there was currently a noble faction in the Seil Kingdom trying to weaken royal authority.
— That a noble had ignored the royal family’s order and independently sent adventurers into the mountains.
— And that the princess of the royal family was already in the embrace of the Great One, and that according to that person’s will, she had controlled access to the mountains.
All of it was either something he had heard from Celia or something he had experienced himself.
And all of it was true.
Then, adding to that, he said one more thing.
“Perhaps the matter of our missing brothers was all the work of the nobles.”
Erik’s words were ambiguous.
The missing brothers.
He had not said the three paladins who had disappeared this time.
His words contained the suspicion that perhaps the priests and paladins who had disappeared before were also the doing of the nobles.
Listening to him, Liana turned her head and looked at the Saint in the form of a skeleton.
“So that was what happened.”
They said the princess of the royal family already belonged to the Great One.
That meant the royal family of the Seil Kingdom was already within the Order’s embrace.
She did not know why access to the mountains had been controlled, but if it was the will of the Goddess, there was no reason to agonize over it.
‘Then….’
Liana recalled Count Beerton, whom she had met before climbing the mountains.
He was a man who wanted to borrow the Order’s power to weaken the king’s power.
He could not hide the desire showing on his face.
What if, in this situation, all of this was Count Beerton’s conspiracy?
What if he had plotted everything from the beginning, aiming for the Order’s power?
‘We were played…!’
Liana’s face twisted.
In the end, all of this was the work of nobles attempting rebellion.
But the target of that rebellion was the royal family of the Seil Kingdom.
What mattered here was the fact that the royal family was already in the Goddess’s embrace.
That meant those insolent nobles had dared to raise their blades against the Goddess herself.
Liana’s face distorted.
Seeing Liana’s anger, Erik’s expression softened somewhat.
Then he once again assumed a prayer posture.
‘I’m sure Lady Celia wrote a note for me….’
While maintaining the prayer posture, he secretly unfolded the note Celia had prepared for him.
— Had Princess Irena make skeleton knights lie in ambush in the nobles’ mansions.
Since they were purchased from a trading company, there is no risk of being traced.
The gifts Celia had sent after forming a contract with Princess Irena.
The true identity of those gifts was skeleton knights armed in the armor of the kingdom’s knights.
And a few days ago, she had ordered Princess Irena to secretly deploy them in the mansions of the noble faction members.
The nobles who had tried to swallow the kingdom by putting the Order at their backs.
Now, conversely, they would be the first to be expelled by the power of the Order.
“Lady Liana. From now on, I will tell you something important.”
Looking at Celia’s note, Erik began to speak.
* * *
The scene I watched through the screen was extremely interesting.
— Successfully recruited the paladins of the White Order!
At the same time, an alert popped up.
“I really have never heard of an undead possessing divine power.”
As Maru transcended to 5-star, he evolved into a skeleton paladin.
Thanks to that, despite being an undead monster, Maru came to possess tremendous divine power.
I had never heard of such a monster existing, not on the continent of Eldorad, and not on Earth either.
An undead, at that.
A being that possessed two opposing attributes at once.
It was no wonder the paladins recognized Maru as a special existence.
I examined Maru’s abilities.
— Grade: ★★★★★
— Race: Skeleton
[Traits]
— Flexible Movements (F+)
[Basic Information]
Vitality: A
Attack Power: S (one-rank correction due to demonic sword)
Defense: B+
Mana: B
Divine Power: A+
[Skills]
— Loyalty as a Paladin (S+): Lee Ganghyeon (Activated)
— Judgment of Light (A)
With this transcendence to 5-star, his stats had risen.
The fact that he had simply reached 5-star was not what mattered.
What mattered was that the weakness of an undead monster had been perfectly offset.
“If I use this well, it could be a jackpot, couldn’t it?”
On top of that, there was even a being beside Maru fanning the flames.
It was a paladin controlled by the monster Banshee, and thanks to him, I was able to draw in the other paladins.
Was that all?
If I used him, Maru would not even need to remain on the continent of Eldorad continuously.
That was an enormous advantage.
“If Maru’s appearance is exposed too often, his specialness might disappear instead.”
The first time was always special.
Right now, everyone revered Maru as sacred, but if they kept seeing him, they might become accustomed to that appearance.
Even if Maru was not on the continent, if necessary, I could have the Banshee convey the story.
But there was a problem here.
The opponent was, fundamentally, a holy knight affiliated with the Order.
What if the holy knight in front of me realized he was actually being controlled by a banshee?
“I should strengthen that banshee, too, while I’m at it.”
Fortunately, it was a banshee that had gained enlightenment.
Though it was only 3-star in rank, it played a fairly important role, so giving it some enhancement seemed like a good idea.
‘Should I give it divine power? Or is there a good trait somewhere?’
As I was thinking for a moment, additional alerts popped up.
- You have achieved an astonishing feat!
- The penalty has been lifted. All locked systems have been unlocked.
All the systems that had been locked while dealing with the dungeon wave were released.
- The dungeon’s fame spreads far and wide due to your wondrous achievement.
- Some have begun to grow jealous of the dungeon’s rising fame.
- The [Dungeon Social Circle] system has been unlocked.
And even a new system opened.
“Dungeon Social Circle?”
I tried to touch the system, but a new alert appeared first.
- Please select a monster to attend the [Dungeon Social Circle].
“Hmm.”
A social circle, huh….
Judging from the words alone, wasn’t it some kind of gathering where one interacted with other dungeons?
In other words, the monster attending this place would be the face representing the dungeon.
Of course, I couldn’t think innocently just because it was called interaction.
“It’s probably the kind of place where everyone sees through each other’s moves and keeps one another in check, right?”
It was a gathering where multiple dungeons would meet.
It was bound to be a terrifyingly political place.
It would be nice to send Celia to a place like this, but I couldn’t think of it so simply.
“Celia is practically the final boss of the dungeon right now.”
I couldn’t show everything my dungeon had from the very beginning.
“I need someone suitable.”
Someone with a decent amount of power, while also maintaining a decent poker face.
On top of that, it would be perfect if they could assess the opponent’s strength.
“Hmm… who would there be?”
After thinking for quite a while, I soon made my decision.
“This one should be better, right?”
- You have selected the Arch Lich (★★★★★) as the monster to attend the [Dungeon Social Circle].
I selected the Arch Lich as the monster to attend the social circle.
Currently, the Arch Lich was carrying out the position of inspector.
When I saw it in person last time, it was definitely recording things and performing the role of inspector well on its own.
If it was the Arch Lich, it would surely play its role well even at the social circle.
On top of that, its base body was a skeleton, so its emotions wouldn’t show on the outside.
It was a talent specialized for social circles.
- Please select a sub-monster to attend the [Dungeon Social Circle].
“?”
This time, was I sending two instead of one?
Well, sending two rather than one might make me feel a bit more at ease.
“Still, a sub-monster….”
Did it feel like some kind of support role?
“Then who would be good next?”
The Arch Lich had a stiff impression, in a way.
In that case, for the sub-monster, it would probably be best to choose someone with traits opposite to the Arch Lich.
And it would be even better if they had an artistic sense.
“Since it’s a social circle, someone with good sense would be best, right?”
Who among my monsters would fit that?
“Hmm.”
This time, my deliberation lasted a little longer.
“Right! There was that guy, wasn’t there?”
I immediately found the one that flashed through my mind and touched it.
“Still, the location is different. Will it work?”
The dungeon this guy managed was beautiful.
He probably had talent in decorating.
That meant his artistic sense wasn’t bad either.
“Since he’s an incubus, he should be good at creating an atmosphere, too.”
And fortunately, I was able to select him as a monster to attend.
- You have selected Azmo (★★★★) as the sub-monster to attend the [Dungeon Social Circle].