Chapter 284: Tough Guys (6)

"It has been a while, Sir Priest."

After a smoother journey than expected, we reached the plains. The one who greeted us as we headed for the battlefield was Bellix Karin. She widened her eyes and blinked as she saw my party disembarking one after another. Elsi and Eve greeted Karin familiarly.

"It's been a while, knight."

"Yes. Nice to see you, Elsi. And Lady Peta."

"She's a wife too."

Eve said that as she pulled Elsi into a tight hug. Elsi, drawn into Eve's embrace, looked at Karin and nodded her head.

"That is right. I am also a wife."

"......Ah, yes."

Perhaps unable to understand those words, Karin nodded a beat late. As a kind and diligent person, it seemed hard for her to grasp that both a beastfolk and a mermaid were wives. AA stepped out of the carriage that followed. She was wearing a sword and carrying a large luggage bag. Karin looked back and forth between me and AA, then spoke.

"Sir Hero has arrived as well."

Elsi nodded her head, pointed at AA, and spoke.

"She is the fifth wife."

"No, I am not!"

AA shouted. Because of that, the gazes of the soldiers and knights in our surroundings all gathered on us. Among them were people who recognized our faces and whispered. Karin looked around her surroundings, then pointed a finger at the barracks and spoke.

"Would you like to come in first? I will explain the details inside the barracks."

When Karin made a gesture, the waiting soldiers began to move the luggage. A soldier who received the bag from AA let out a grunt and sank to the ground. It seemed they were moving the luggage straight to our quarters, so we were able to comfortably enter the barracks following Karin. A single map was placed in the barracks, and there was no one else present besides her.

"Is no one else here? I thought someone like Commander Albus would be present."

"Knight Commander Albus is currently on the frontline. I want to go out and fight alongside them as well, but since I originally belong to the Security Department, I cannot travel too far from the capital city......"

Karin's expression looked full of regret. AA was already checking the map. The map had three X marks drawn on it, and various family emblems were stamped on each region. It seemed to be a method of indicating the troops sent as reinforcements to this area. Karin spoke.

"Instead, I am acting as a relay point, distributing the incoming reinforcements according to their respective locations and sending them to the frontline."

"Are we going to be split up and integrated into the units here as well?"

I asked while pointing at the map. On the map, members of the same family were divided and organized. Karin shook her head at my question and spoke.

"First, I will briefly explain the current war situation. Currently, we have identified a total of three Church of Love buildings: the Temple of Love which is their headquarters, the Mermaid Capture Unit, and the Beastfolk Capture Unit buildings. Among these, the zealous Church of Love followers have taken up arms, fortified the Temple of Love, and are occupying it, so we have requested additional siege troops."

"What is the current status of the capture facilities?"

"The general expectation was that there would not be many guards or that the resistance would be weak, but when we actually broke in, um......"

She looked at Elsi and Eve, making a slightly troubled expression. I could roughly guess the reason. Since Eve had also heard about the situation in the Eastern Plains, she swept her hair back once and frowned. Only Elsi turned her head back and forth between us and asked.

"What is it? Is there something there?"

"Um, modified beastfolk? You mean they had things like that? But did they make things like that out of mermaids too?"

"It is reported that creatures presumed to be similar to them are roaming around. Because of this, the advance party, which had relatively few troops invested, was annihilated, so the war situation is currently in a lull."

Karin nodded at Eve's question. At those words, Elsi ground her teeth and trembled again. It was a face that wanted to charge in right this instant, so I had to calm her down.

"Elsi, calm down."

"I cannot calm down. I am angry. I do not understand why they would commit such an act."

"Then what happens to us now? Will we be treated as individual troops and integrated into other units?"

I deliberately didn't bring my territory troops. Our territory had a small population, so it would be a critical hit if soldiers died in an incident like this. Besides, it was much stronger for me to charge in alone than to bring a decent-sized army of soldiers. Karin shook her head.

"No. As special forces, we would like Sir Hero and Sir Priest to take on the assassination mission of the Head of the Church, Mayhem."

"An assassination. Has his location been identified?"

"According to the information obtained from the engagement with the patrol unit, the Head of the Church, Mayhem, is currently deep inside the Temple of Love, inciting the believers to continue fighting. And it is said that there is a masked woman beside him; our side suspects that this woman might be Evangeline."

"Evangeline?"

If it was really Evangeline, this was an opportunity. A chance to handle two tasks at once. In other words, it also meant we had to fight an 8,000-year-old mage. Could we win? I checked both of our stats again and weighed the possibilities. A human who had lived for 8,000 years, wouldn't they already be at a dragon's level by then? Was it right for just us to go in and fight? Reading my expression, Eve asked.

"Groom. Are you scared?"

"I'm not scared."

I resolutely shook my head and answered Eve's provocation. Eve chuckled at my answer and nodded. It was a face undeniably meant to tease me. AA patted my shoulder and spoke.

"It is fine, Sir Priest. I will protect you."

"No, I am not scared."

"I do not think she will be that strong. Evangeline should know we are chasing her too, so if she was really that strong, she would have eliminated us first. There is no reason for her to mount a siege defense."

That had some persuasiveness to it. If there was truly a massive gap between us, there was no reason for Evangeline to avoid us. If I had dragon-level power, I would have tracked Evangeline down immediately and snapped her neck. The fact that Evangeline was choosing a siege defense right now meant there was a reason she couldn't properly utilize her skills. Perhaps the woman inside that temple was just a woman doing an Evangeline cosplay.

Who knew. Maybe that doppelganger bastard had a preference for cosplay sex and was fucking a woman in an Evangeline cosplay every night. So, I decided to toss aside any thoughts about Evangeline for now.

"Then what about our personnel? Should all four of us infiltrate?"

"I will leave that judgment to Sir Priest and Sir Hero. The current mission of our knight order is to breach the main gate of the Temple of Love to make it easier for Sir Hero's party to infiltrate. Once Sir Hero's party breaches, we plan to engage in a standoff in front of the Church of Love and minimize the sacrifices of the followers of the Church of Love."

"Minimizing sacrifices...... That's unexpected."

"Since we do not know what kind of abilities Mayhem, the Head of the Church, possesses, we believe we must handle subduing the believers with caution as well. The estimated personnel inside the temple is around 3,000, and isn't it a waste to just kill them all? Criminals also make for an excellent labor force."

"I see. For now, may we have a brief discussion regarding the infiltration method?"

"Yes. Please discuss it thoroughly."

Karin nodded her head and spoke. She stepped outside as if to give us time to hold our meeting. As soon as Karin left, Eve asked.

"Groom. Will you be okay?"

"Of course I will be. I told you I'm not scared, didn't I?"

"But cleric, you give off a slightly different feeling from usual."

To be honest, I was a little scared. I had indirectly checked that doppelganger bastard's stats previously, and he had that cosplay whore—whether she was Evangeline or not—stuck by his side. What if Cutlass had grown stronger than last time and played us for fools? What if the whore next to that bastard really was Evangeline, and we all died getting hit by a death beam the moment we walked in?

There wasn't just one or two elements of anxiety. In fact, AA, who was encouraging me with a peaceful expression unchanged from before, almost looked strange to me. Why was I feeling so anxious? A strange anxiety kept tickling my chest. I shook my head and spoke.

"No. I am not afraid, Elsi. You know that, right?"

"Understood. Cleric."

Elsi believed my words. Rather than simply believing them, the nuance was closer to humoring me. What the hell. Did I look that anxious right now? Eve sat in a chair and asked.

"Groom. Then what are you going to do? Are we all going to that Temple of Love together to find Evangeline?"

"I suppose so, right? Four against one will be much easier than two against one."

There was no reason to infiltrate separately. Eve nodded her head, but Elsi had a slightly conflicted face. I asked Elsi.

"Elsi. Do you perhaps want to go save the beastfolk?"

The Beastfolk Capture Team and Mermaid Capture Team buildings were separated from the temple. Since it was said that there were modified beastfolk in the Beastfolk Capture Team, they must be weighing on her mind. Elsi shook her head as she spoke.

"I want to go save them, but I have to protect the cleric. I am... because I am the fourth wife."

"Honestly, I kind of want to go save the other mermaids too, but it's still better for all four of us to go together and kill the ringleader quickly. That's a faster solution."

Eve said that as well. I looked at AA. She also nodded her head and spoke.

"I think that is correct. It would be best to rush in with the maximum number of combat-ready personnel and decide the contest as quickly as possible."

"Then all four of us are infiltrating the Temple of Love, right?"

Everyone nodded their heads. I poked my head out of the barracks and informed her of our plan. It took quite some time to coordinate the operation plan once more with Karin. The plan devised went like this. While the kingdom's troops, including the knight order, charged the temple and breached its doors, my party would use a side path of the temple to infiltrate the central part. After snapping the neck of Cutlass who was waiting in the central part, we would hold up that bastard's corpse and force the Church of Love bastards to surrender. Then it would be over.

"I hope it goes well."

Perhaps secretly anxious as well, Eve said such a thing. In her hand was the terrifying demonic sword that Dagon had given her. Both AA and I silently stroked our weapons once to release our tension. In just a few days, a real war was scheduled to begin.

We forced ourselves to firmly hide our tense hearts as we directed our footsteps toward our quarters. Because AA used a different room from me, we faced a crossroad. The moment she turned around, I spoke.

"Sir Hero."

"Yes?"

"Would you like to stay together tonight?"

"What?"

AA stared at me as if asking what nonsense I was saying. I sent her a sorrowful look and spoke.

"We might not be able to see each other again after this battle is over, you know."

Eve stared at me with an utterly dumbfounded face. AA looked around her surroundings with a flustered expression, pondered for a moment, and then spoke like this.

"......Only for this time, okay?"

Operation success.