"Oh... Alan-san, is Alan-kun fine? Then Alan-kun, the Holy Misery Church was split off from the Holy Cruel Church of Meigrant. The doctrine doesn't really change that much, but, well..."
"Don't be angry, just listen. The Holy Cruel doctrine despises Loser Skills to an extreme degree, and it was actually them who first started calling Loser Skills humans abandoned by God. They're actively persecuting them."
End of recollection of what Saint Therese taught me.
By the way, I've been able to talk normally with the Saint for a while now.
The mess in the Raging Kingdom is also behind me now.
◇◇◇
The city of Forthru was massive — on par with the royal capital of the Meigrant Kingdom.
It was the headquarters of the Holy Cruel Church, so naturally the Church's power ran deep.
Well, what I do doesn't really change though.
I headed to the adventurer's guild and browsed the request board.
Compared to other cities, monster subjugation requests were scarce.
Because the Church was so large, undead disposal went without saying, but there were also plenty of priests specialized in defeating non-undead monsters, so it seemed they handled dungeon exploration and the like entirely on their own.
And the Pope was apparently one of the Three Great Electors as well.
Secular and religious authority fused into what looked like the strongest force around.
Oh — that also meant their assassination unit was probably well-equipped too.
While mulling over such thoughts and scanning the bulletin board, a request caught my eye: "Seeking Curse-Breaking Expert. Reward is whatever you want!"
This was the headquarters of the Holy Cruel Church, right?
There should be priests who could break curses scattered all over the place, right?
Was it a curse even they couldn't break?
I'll go ahead and take it for now.
I inform the receptionist that I'd like to accept the request.
"Um, you might want to reconsider… I don't think you should just throw away your life."
"But the other ones don't look very promising either."
"I really shouldn't say this too loudly, but people who take this request tend to… well, you stop seeing them around."
"Then why is it even posted?"
"That's… grown-up business, I suppose. I haven't been told the details myself."
"I'll take it. Process the paperwork, please."
◇◇◇
I was blindfolded and carted around in a carriage for quite some time.
They must have been desperate to keep the details under wraps — first they covered my eyes with a black cloth, and then they layered the Dark Magic spell "Blind" on top of that so I couldn't see a thing.
Status abnormality magic doesn't work on me anyway, and with my Divine Eye, I could see normally even with my eyes shut if I really wanted to — so it was all pointless. But it would be a hassle, so I just pretended I couldn't see.
In the end, we arrived at a detached building sitting next to a large noble estate.
There, a young blonde boy — smaller than me — was lying face-down on a bed.
◇◇◇◇◇◇
I've made some additions to the ending of Episode 161, covering Eric's fate.
The overall story hasn't changed.
Skills: [Reverse][Divine Eye][Sword God][Fist God][Spear God][Blazing Magic][Freezing Ice Magic][Clear Storm Magic][Rock Iron Magic][Holy Magic][Dark Magic][Space-Time Magic][Thunder God Sword][Phantom Thief Gentleman][Ninja Master][Seeker of Truth][Supernatural Strength][Pain Dulling][Complete Status Abnormality Resistance][Dark Spirit's Protection][Super Intuition][Heaven's Gate][Abyss Contractee][Magic Hand][Treasure Search][Seduction][Eloquence][Strong Luck][Tenfold Growth Speed]
Rank: Orichalcum
Thank you for reading!