The game difficulty
has gone crazy
Chapter 25
The Holy City, Estirenne, had different atmospheres in each district, befitting its vast size.
Most of the streets gave off a clean, pure white impression.
However, if you went just a little deeper into the alleys, an entertainment district would appear.
Go even further in, and a slum would spread out.
Because the Papal State was a theocratic nation where religion and politics were unified, it gave off a relatively clean and orderly image, but slums still existed.
There were many reasons why people ended up living there, but the most common was that they did not believe in Minis, the main god of the Order.
Because of that, aside from a few volunteers dispatched from the Grand Cathedral, no one liked to go near the slums.
And to put it another way, there was no better place than this for important people to hide something.
The mansion that Saintess Luceria lent to nobles as lodging whenever a secret meeting was held was exactly such a place.
This mansion, known as a “house beneath the lamp,” was hidden among several villas built to efficiently house large numbers of slum residents.
From the outside, it looked no different from the villas of the poor, blending naturally into the slums.
Everything necessary was provided.
And since the mansion was built in a square shape with a courtyard in the middle, it was suitable to be used as a simple training ground.
Chaeeeng—!
Thanks to that, they could spar comfortably without worrying about others’ eyes.
If Glen had met the Pope first, he would have been assigned lodging inside the Grand Cathedral and stayed there.
In that case, sparring in the training grounds inside the cathedral would have drawn unnecessary attention.
“Ghk…!”
Tasha, pushed back by Glen’s counterattack, steadied her stance and kicked off the ground.
At the same time, Hawkney joined in, and the two knights’ swords pressed in on Glen.
“Tasha! If you stop, you lose!”
“Yes…!”
Clang! Kaaang—!
Six-star and four-star.
Facing the attacks of two people who had each reached a respectable realm, Glen calmly blocked and countered.
Hawkney was using five holy rings and was outstanding even aside from the rings, and Tasha had joined him, but the flow of battle was still in Glen’s favor.
Clang! Chaejaeng—
In the end, the difference showed in the power of their sword strikes.
By repeatedly blasting Hawkney away with heavy attacks and then dealing with the relatively weaker Tasha, it was manageable.
Of course, this was only a spar.
If he used the gray ring and activated all eight rings, it wouldn’t even take three seconds to defeat the two of them.
Bwaak—!
“…Huk!”
While Hawkney was being pushed back, Tasha finally exposed an opening.
She staggered and tried to get back up, but having taken a solid blow to the solar plexus, she wouldn’t be standing again.
The two-on-one spar turned into a one-on-one between Glen and Hawkney, and not long after, the match was decided.
“Huff, huff… th-thank you… for the match.”
“Yes. Thank you as well, Sir Hawkney.”
Hawkney collapsed to the ground, catching his breath. Glen lightly bowed his head and walked over to the fallen Tasha.
“You okay?”
“…Yes….”
“Doesn’t look like it.”
“I’m really… fine.”
As she said that, Tasha abruptly got up, biting down hard on her lower lip. The pain was obvious.
“I should’ve gone a bit easier. Uh… don’t force yourself to stand. Sit.”
“Understood.”
“Sorry. But you know I didn’t have the leeway to take it easy, right?”
“…From my point of view, it still looked like you had room to spare, Young Master.”
“Then take it that way.”
The spar had started to test their strength ahead of a major event.
At first, Glen had taken it lightly, but after seeing Hawkney and Tasha’s coordination, he quickly changed his mind.
‘At least they pass.’
A faint smile crossed Glen’s eyes.
Both Hawkney and Tasha had improved far beyond when he first chose them at the Wordsworth estate.
Hawkney, who had gone through the Honello Village event and advanced from the edge of five-star to six-star, needed no further comment.
Tasha, whom he had expected to be around three-star, had now reached the upper edge of four-star and was looking toward the fifth realm.
And beyond simple strength, their tenacity and mindset shown in the spar were excellent.
‘With this, I could entrust them with something even more important than planned.’
As Glen was thinking, Hawkney, having caught his breath, approached.
“Phew, thank you. That was a sparring match I learned a lot from, Young Master.”
“I’m the one who should apologize for suddenly calling you out to the courtyard. I really wanted to check both of your capabilities.”
“If you went this far just to gauge our strength, it must be something quite important.”
“Yes. You could say that.”
“But you said you would be attending the secret meeting hosted by the Saintess tomorrow. How is that related to this?”
Of course, he couldn’t tell them that a faction planning to kill the Saintess would summon a demon during the meeting.
So he vaguely brushed it off as a matter of safety.
“When has a secret meeting ever truly been secret? It’s just insurance in case something happens.”
“Well… historically, assassins have been sent to secret meeting sites. Being cautious can’t hurt.”
Hawkney nodded repeatedly.
Tasha, still catching her breath, couldn’t answer, but she blinked as if she understood.
“So, I’m thinking of heading to Rublyn, where the meeting will be held, a day early.”
“A day early? Is there really a need to go that far?”
Hawkney asked with curious eyes, but Glen simply smiled and walked out of the courtyard.
“For now, wash up and get ready to head out. I’ll explain the overall situation and plan once we’re at the meeting location.”
One day remained until the secret meeting hosted by the Saintess in the village of Rublyn near the capital.
There was still some time.
However, Glen planned to be in Rublyn about a day earlier than the meeting scheduled for tomorrow evening.
‘The more important the event, the more care you need to put into it.’
Based on the original story, the two biggest scenarios in the early to mid-game were:
The Demon King Army’s assault in the early part of the story, and the Black Cult’s full-scale activities in the mid-game.
Countless incidents branched out like roots from these two major events.
To resolve the Demon King Army’s assault, overwhelming military power and as many strong allies as possible were needed.
To stop the Black Cult’s full-scale activities and uproot them, as Glen had predicted, required a force that could move on a large scale and command authority.
And the one who greatly influenced both conditions was Saintess Luceria.
The moment the number of rings exceeded eight stars, that alone was considered a tactical weapon on the battlefield.
Just looking at Dystopia, the large-scale fear magic Penelope used in Avenue, proved that.
Now, what if the Saintess—essentially a nuclear weapon with nine holy rings—maintained her full power?
‘Even if all seven legion commanders and a Lunatic joined forces, we’d still have enough power to face them.’
The same went for the Black Cult.
If the Saintess succeeded in creating a third faction through this opportunity, she could use her position to launch a massive purge operation, resolving the mid-game scenario as well.
Much faster than waiting for Glen himself to be recognized as a third saint by the Papal State.
‘If it succeeds, I gain an ally with nine-star-level power and the status of a Saintess.’
But if it failed, Glen would have to watch everything he had planned crumble.
And if his luck was worse, he might even lose his life.
That was why Glen planned to prepare for Luceria’s event more thoroughly than ever.
‘The good thing is, our side’s strength is more than sufficient.’
The enemy was an eight- to nine-star-level demon.
Add to that two traitors and one Black Cult Farseer dispatched on-site—three seven-star opponents.
