Chapter 14
The Retired Saintess Raises House Prices Episode 14
Episode 14
What a clown.
Now he respects me after I've become an upper-rank saintess? Does passing the purification prayer audition mean I'm suddenly a real saintess?
Saintess Shuana, you can go on the next purification prayer with us Holy Knights...! The winner of the evil spirit battle is Saintess Shuana!
Something like that?
If it's a Street Ghost Fighter format, they should've told me in advance.
Shuana grumbled inwardly and stood straight facing the direction of the cool breeze.
Whether this place was Super Saintess Star, Great Necromancer, or Street Ghost Fighter didn't matter—she needed an ally to escape safely.
But where to find one?
And she'd have to explain the reason for fleeing to that ally too.
If she said the empire would fall, not a single person would believe her.
'No plausible excuse?'
As Shuana racked her brain for excuses, someone came running.
"Help! Please help!"
The young woman tried rushing to Shuana while sobbing, but Mikhail blocked her.
True to his captain rank, Mikhail nodded to the other knights, who promptly pulled the woman off his jacket sleeve and asked,
"Please calm down. What kind of help do you need?"
Even to the other Holy Knight's question, the woman only stared at Shuana.
"I need the saintess's prayer!"
She must have spotted Shuana from afar in her upper-rank saintess robes and come running.
Mikhail, still not stepping aside in front of Shuana, scanned the surroundings.
Malevolent energy lurked in the nearby forest path, but it wasn't as strong as in Floriana.
Nothing seemed urgent enough to require a saintess's prayer.
Normally, one should report to the Temple and wait for a saintess to come.
But the woman's expression was beyond desperate—it was full of resentment.
"Please, I beg you! My child went out to play in the forest and hasn't come back. Please, please find my child! A witch in this forest might have taken them! Saintess, please!"
The woman lunged forward.
Mikhail blocked her path before she could grab Shuana's robes.
"I understand the situation, but please calm down. This isn't someone who moves on personal whims. You need to explain at the Temple and wait your turn."
"But my child, my child...! My child isn't coming back!"
The grieving mother's anguished voice echoed as if tearing the forest apart.
Her swollen cheeks were streaked with red lines, as if blood vessels had burst.
Her eyes were so puffy from endless sleepless crying that it hurt to look.
In the end, moved, Mikhail turned slightly to ask Shuana's opinion.
"...What do you think, Saintess?"
"About what?"
"Can we stop briefly? We can't delay too long, so just half a day."
Then Shuana tilted her head and cut him off.
"Resting is fine, but why?"
"This woman is asking to find her child, so I'm asking if you'd like to spare some time."
"Who? There's no one there."
Silence fell between them for a moment.
Mikhail slowly turned toward the woman who had been clinging to his sleeve.
No one was there.
A fishy chill engulfed his entire body, incomparable to before.
Mikhail's expression turned icy. An evil spirit with such high ghostly energy it pierced his holy power and deceived him.
A chill crawled up his spine, raising goosebumps.
He hadn't felt such overwhelming terror since his training.
Mikhail swallowed dryly and gripped Shuana's right wrist firmly.
Even his voice seemed blocked by something.
"...S-Saintess. You need to get away. We might not return safely."
No sooner had he spoken than Mikhail's waist bent backward like paper.
"Gahk!"
Before he could grab hold, something seized his nape like a dead animal and dragged him away.
It wasn't an illusion—his throat was truly constricted.
Pale hands wrapped tightly around Mikhail's neck with both arms, pulling him back relentlessly.
"Guhk...! Ack! C-Can't... breathe...!"
The strangling force was immense; he couldn't shake it off.
Startled by the sudden event, Saintess Shuana widened her eyes and shouted at the receding Mikhail.
"Mikhail!"
For the first time, she looked genuinely frightened.
"Why are you choking yourself?! Mikhail, snap out of it!"
'I'm choking myself?'
Impossible.
Mikhail barely lowered his head to see the hands throttling his neck with bone-crushing force.
They were clearly the rotten, pallid hands of a corpse.
A piercing shriek tore at his eardrums right by his ear.
【I said my child is gone!! Why won't you come to me! Why have you forgotten us!!】
"Guh, grhk, ack! St-Stop...!"
Looking around, the other knights were already unconscious.
Only Shuana stood firmly on her feet.
Her round blue eyes wide in confusion.
Mikhail's body began floating into the air. He stood on tiptoes to resist, but the ground contact dwindled.
Now only his big toes touched.
As Mikhail flailed wildly, the sword at his waist dropped downward.
"Sw-Sword... S-Saintess... Sw-Sword...!"
Shuana approached and picked up the sword.
But Mikhail couldn't grasp it. His own hands throttled his neck even harder. Blood vessels burst in his eyes, red veins spiderwebbing across his face, which flushed purple.
Mikhail's body rose higher.
"Kkh, kkuh... Ugh."
His eyes rolled back from lack of air.
This is it.
Then a low, heavy voice pierced his ear.
"Saintess. If you've picked up the sword, draw it."
A blinding radiance suddenly spread.
He faintly heard the 'shing—' of a sword leaving its sheath. Mikhail squeezed his eyes shut and lost consciousness.
The sword cry he heard just before blacking out wasn't Mikhail's holy sword that Shuana held, fallen from his waist.
It was the sound of Lavel Winters—who appeared from nowhere—drawing his blade.
Stepping over the sprawled, corpse-like Holy Knights, Lavel approached without hesitation, drew his sword from his waist, and slashed through empty air.
His blade traced a circular arc over Mikhail's head, who dangled airborne like a hanged prisoner.
Then Mikhail dropped like a puppet with cut strings.
Only then did Mikhail's hands release his neck from their vise-like grip.
