#056. The Test Subjects Are Too Kind (3)

#056. The Test Subjects Are Too Kind (3)

The noblest of boys approaches a monster in its most wretched form.

Maria, having missed her chance to intervene in Ian’s mysterious charm, couldn’t bring herself to move.

If my intervention startles Pinkie, and those enormous legs crush or shove Ian, he will surely die.

Teresa, Gorgo, Nina, Shoah, everyone else, too.

Ian knew this, and yet, he did not back down.

“Stay away.”

“It’s alright.”

“Don’t come closer.”

“Don’t be afraid.”

“Don’t look at me!”

Like a wounded beast, she cried out savagely, yet Pinky retreated, backing away, unwilling to hurt Ian.

As if fleeing from the monster her body had become, with each step back Pinky took, her shadow stretched long, sketching a dizzying form.

Even that fearsome shape evoked pity in Ian, a heartbreaking spectacle. Retreating and retreating, Pinky’s back struck the wall.

Within the group cell-turned-prison, there was nowhere left to run.

“Please, please, leave me be. Don’t make me more wretched than I already am… *hic*!”

Eight legs and threatening sensory organs.

Nothing about her that wouldn’t inspire fear.

Yet, Ian never revealed a hint of revulsion.

The human did not fear the monster.

The monster feared the human.

A bizarre sight, defying reason and common sense.

All the more mystical and precious for it.

Pinky, afraid that Ian might, in turn, be frightened by her and trample her, folded her legs and trembled.

Ian, with a naturalness as if mounting the back of the centaur Nina, climbed onto those legs.

At last, the two faced each other at the same eye level.

The closer they were, the more grotesque she must seem.

This…thing…wasn’t even human anymore.

Ian embraced Pinky’s human-shaped upper body.

“You are not a monster.”

The monster-ridden interior of Pinky, her wounded heart, at last stirred.

“aaah!”

Along with tears as pure as a child’s.

The boy’s action, returning a monster to a human.

None would hesitate to call this the nobility of a saint.

* * *

Pinky, having overcome sorrow and despair, began to fuel her rage towards Ronohwe.

“He always used us for the dirty work, and then made us look like this when we lost our strength. If you’re going to take revenge on that bad man, let us help too.”

“Ronohwe’s heart is mine. I will burst that detestable heart with my own hands.”

“As you wish. In exchange, I’ll take his head. I’ll be thinking hard about what to put under that neck.”

The two women peacefully negotiated the division of one man’s heart and head.

The content was gruesome, but yesterday’s enemy became today’s ally, and they clasped hands.

“So, you’ve finally come out. You wouldn’t want to lose any more friends, would you? Surrender peacefully!”

Emerging from the underground to the surface, Ronohwe’s private soldiers, stationed nearby, appeared.

However, upon seeing Pinky’s wretched form appearing behind Teresa, they could not maintain their insolent attitude.

“Oh my god.”

“What on earth happened to her.”

“Pinky? That monster…Pinky, the melee fighter from the 2nd Company of the Hero Party?”

Pinky did not speak long.

“Get lost. You’re late, and you saw nothing. If you don’t say that, you’ll fight us now, and half of you will die right here, and the other half will get shiny new bodies for letting us slip away.”

The clattering of spider legs, scratching menacingly against the floor, seized everyone’s attention with unsettling precision.

“With a little something *extra* attached to those legs.”

“…Let us go.”

“Captain!”

“We can’t beat those women anyway. If the defense troops were wiped out from the start, it’s their fault, not ours. Anyone here want to end up with eight legs?”

“…”

Even Pinky, someone with considerable skill, ended up in such a miserable state after earning Lonoway’s displeasure. Lonoway’s soldiers didn’t imagine they’d be any safer.

Thanks to that, the test subjects who managed to hold onto their sanity could escape from the underground.

“Got anywhere to go?”

“You’d take us in? Give it up. Lonoway will try to eliminate us by any means necessary. He won’t leave witnesses around to testify against his disgrace. Sodom Village couldn’t handle that.”

“So, if you run, you’ll live in the forest like monsters, forget what it’s like to be human, and become real monsters?”

Ian’s generosity transformed even Theresa’s thoughts and feelings.

“I’m a mother above all else. I don’t abandon abandoned children who need help. Think of the people under you who trusted and followed you.”

The rabbit-morph experiments, worn out and sick from the experiments, looked at Pinky with pleading eyes.

No one wanted to gnaw on the carcasses of wild animals and sleep among cold, damp moss, dew, and insects instead of having warm food and a comfortable bed.

“Let’s say you’re good people and will take us in. Let’s say you can somehow stop Lonoway’s attacks. Can the people of Sodom Village even accept us?”

This is difficult.

Let’s concede that the female black frog-morphs could at least appeal with their frog tongues, like a cat’s tail, and earn a tongue bonus to be recognized as members of the village.

How could they instantly be on the same side as enemies who are ugly to look at and still harbored resentment?

“Leave it to me.”

“Ian?”

“They are people I brought into this. I have to take responsibility.”

Ian couldn’t abandon people.

It was as if he saw his own past, growing up alone with a neglectful mother in a family abandoned by their father, reflected in everyone.

Theresa had ten mouths and still had no excuses.

“…Do as you wish.”

Eventually, Theresa made arrangements.

In the end, it was a good choice.

“Did you think we’d hate you and chase you out?”

“The fact that the apothecary switched sides means Lonoway was behind that b*stard Gomorrah.”

“Lonoway, the Hero Party’s second-string mage. As of today, that b*stard is Sodom Village’s main enemy!”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

“Now that I’m living here, I think I know what our ancestors saw in other possible species. If we look hard enough, I’m sure we can find possibilities in them too, right?”

The experimental female rabbit chimera-morphs shuddered, terrified by the gazes of the men filled with subtle expectations.

The appearance of timid and frail experimental women in a village full of assertive and tough women was a fresh stimulus for the men.

There are people who are captivated by the cat-morph’s tail wrapped around their thigh or the frog-morph’s tongue around their wrist, while others are captivated by the shyness of pitiful and withdrawn women.

“The good women were all already taken by the village men anyway, so this works out.”

“Well, if they’re from the Hero Party, they’re probably in good shape and have the strength to start a family.”

They blended in so quickly that Ian, who was prepared to brainwash them if necessary to protect them, came down from the podium with an awkward expression.

“What do you think?”

“I feel apologetic.”

“What for? Everything worked out well.”

“I thought people were being more wary and hateful of each other.”

“These kids are special. People usually hate each other anyway.”

“…Then Sodom Village needs to get bigger, I suppose.”

To create a society where humankind doesn’t distrust and hate one another.

Teresa, mulling over the meaning embedded in Ian’s last words, extended her senses, checking for listening ears.

Maria, caught in her sensory net, emerged from behind a tree and signaled that no one else was around.

“The Order could become the enemy. What will you do then?”

“I abandoned Sodom Village’s alleys and became an Inquisitor. But the darkness in this village couldn’t be driven out that way.”

“Is that so.”

“Perhaps all I can do is ferret out and kill the dissenters. Where an exploiter vanishes, a new one simply appears.”

It was Ian who transformed people’s perceptions of each other and built social trust.

“If I stop being an Inquisitor, will your Teresa Clan accept my party?”

“Of course.”

A smile bloomed on Maria’s face.

* * *

Maria seemed inclined to dismiss the incident as a chance to unite and work together against the trials to come, but her superior, Ivetta, saw it differently.

“Maria, you mustn’t take this matter lightly. I’ve already filed a report to the Order with my own hand.”

“Am I going to be excommunicated?”

“Why would you be? You deserve a reward, if anything.”

“A reward…?”

“Before the Hero party’s failings damage the Order through their collusion, the Order’s rookie Inquisitor rescued innocent victims, and if she doesn’t receive a reward who will?”

Even if the Order had rotted, not all its members were rotten.

The Order couldn’t decisively cut ties with the incident, if only to be mindful of the vast number of devout believers within its ranks.

Maria, who directly witnessed the atrocities and even possessed witnesses, was there, and as long as she brought benefits to the Order, even the rotten ones wouldn’t necessarily become enemies.

“You have only one task. Answer the Order’s summons, bring the witnesses with you to the capital, and testify truthfully about everything you saw at the imperial court.”

If the Hero party’s Ronove and the nobles only played filthy tricks, Sodom Village would confront them with proper argument, justice, and common sense.

Wasn’t it the boy Maria had fallen for, Saint Ian, who taught her how powerful those things were?

‘I feel bad for Ian, but I can’t keep it a secret anymore.’

Of course, Ivetta didn’t tell everything honestly either.

As a veteran Inquisitor, she was now a seasoned adult.

That Ian was already a proper Saint.

Even if he didn’t want it, she would inform the Order now.

Otherwise, the scales wouldn’t tip enough toward Sodom Village for the Order to decide to draw a line with the nobles and protect it.

“Let me give you a piece of advice. Before you go up to the capital, seduce Ian and solidify your relationship.”

“W-What are you talking about!”

“Just because you’re considerate and protect him doesn’t mean other women will.”

The orthodox way for the Order to protect a Saint.

This is marriage, then.

The hidden ace, a beauty trap, prepared by each branch of the Order, and by heretics, all vying to possess even a *candidate* for Sainthood.

If Ian’s value is recognized, the trap will be sprung, captivating his body and soul to manipulate him as the Order wishes – the ultimate pinnacle of the ‘Church Sister.’

A ‘Saintess’ will be deployed.