You smell so good!

"No, no..."

Early the next morning, as Herbert struggled to escape his dreams, he was still mumbling words filled with sorrow and emptiness.

"Not minotaurs either! They're cows! Cows!"

"Don't, don't... hah!"

Herbert finally woke up, snapping his eyes open and clapping a hand over his mouth.

"Urrgh-"

He braced himself against the table and dry-heaved for ages, trying to vomit up those horrifying memories along with last night's dry bread.

Was it terrifying?

Yes, it was terrifying.

It took Herbert quite a while to recover and seal those forbidden images away in the deepest recesses of his memory.

This Evil God... was way too fucking twisted!

Just as Herbert was tearfully condemning the Evil God's depravity, a color that had no business being there flashed in the corner of his eye.

Hmm?

"What is this?"

Herbert looked down and saw pink lines intertwined with the Holy Mark on the back of his hand, tracing the shape of an eerie heart. A giant question mark popped up over his head.

*?*

Heh, you know what? This little thing actually looked pretty familiar!

Pretty sure I'd seen plenty of these on my hard drive...

Gulp.

"...A lewd-uh, silver mark?"

No, this wasn't right!

This thing wasn't supposed to appear on a man, was it?!

People couldn't do that. At least, they shouldn't!

Ciallo~(∠・ω<)⌒☆

Today, I'm making my adult debut as a succubus!

Ta-da!

A succubus Holy Knight!

The kind who takes all four kinds of penetration~

Please support me, everyone, and send more gifts-

"...Tch!"

After giving up on himself and mentally spiraling for a good while, Herbert finally regained his senses.

He narrowed his eyes and silently stared at the back of his hand. The pink lines had long since vanished, and no matter what he tried to provoke them, they refused to reappear.

But he knew, with absolute certainty-the sight just now had not been some groggy morning hallucination. Those things were still there!

Not on his flesh, but etched deep into his soul.

Why was Herbert so certain?

Because he had experienced this exact feeling just yesterday.

Yes.

The feeling of receiving a blessing after taking his oath!

The good news was that he had received a new blessing.

The bad news was that it hadn't come from a God of Order.

Some unknown Evil God had generously blessed him and marked his body-he would call it a demon mark for now.

Yah!

That Evil God beat me to my knees! Surely it meant to make me its sex slave!

Sadly, less than half a day after officially becoming a Holy Knight, Herbert had become an Evil God's lackey, achieving an impressive half-day record in the unwavering faith challenge.

"What is this? Forced love...?"

Herbert scratched his head, feeling a headache coming on.

Seriously, buddy, you're screwing me over!

No one heard Herbert's anguished cries-because he hadn't dared cry aloud, and had only been quietly shedding little pearls of sorrow in his heart.

A gentleman stayed vigilant even when alone. Walls had ears.

The moment he realized he might have become an Evil God's lackey, Herbert reclassified himself as a criminal suspect, adapting his caution to fit the circumstances.

Herbert sniffed hard, keeping the hot tears gathering in the corners of his eyes from falling.

As if being tormented by the Purity Blessing wasn't enough, now I had an Evil God's blessing too... what the hell?

Life was hard.

My life was so damned hard!

After lamenting his ill-fated life once more, Herbert regained his composure.

He had been unlucky his entire previous life. His mind had long since grown accustomed to all kinds of sudden ordeals.

Whatever happened, as long as he wasn't dead, life had to go on.

"That leaves only two paths."

Keep following the Holy Knight path and report myself to my superiors?

As a Holy Knight, what he ought to do now was seek help from the Monastery's higher-ups and let them deal with everything that had happened to him.

But honestly, Herbert hesitated.

Reporting himself might clear him of suspicion, but it would also place complete control over his life and death in someone else's hands.

Besides, could he really trust these Penitents?

The glaring accounts of his hardcore predecessors in the scriptures kept reminding Herbert what sort of ending that choice would bring.

These Penitents might seem indifferent to worldly affairs in their everyday lives, but they were never merciful souls when confronting evil. Every one of them subscribed to the radical principle of "Root out all evil! Better to kill ten thousand innocents than let a single evildoer escape!"

They were the sort even extremists considered too extreme.

If the Evil God's blessing on him could be removed, that would be ideal. Everyone would be happy.

But what if... it couldn't?

What awaited him then would probably be either death or endless imprisonment.

Herbert turned to look at himself in the mirror and saw the haggard face left by a night of nightmares.

He also saw the defiance buried deep in his pale gray eyes.

Death or imprisonment-neither was an outcome he wanted.

He wasn't a true Holy Knight.

At least, at this moment, he wasn't prepared to sacrifice himself for order and justice.

Now that he had sorted out his thoughts, the choice was clear.

"I'm selling out!"

Herbert picked up his pen and wrote rapidly, offering his respects to the being whose name he didn't know.

"I have wandered adrift for half my life, regretting only that I never found a worthy lord. If you will have me, I wish to take you as my adoptive father!"

The mighty Evil God gave no response.

No matter what Herbert wrote on the paper, it no longer replied.

He didn't know whether it was putting on a cold, aloof act or simply couldn't respond.

"...Can you only come online after midnight?" Herbert had his suspicions, but could only helplessly accept its unreliable disappearance.

To avoid attracting attention and keep out of everyone else's sight, Herbert burned the chat history and went nowhere else, returning straight to his post early that morning.

Though he really didn't want to go back so soon.

Sure enough, the instant he pushed open the Prison's doors, a powerful barrage of curses surged out like a roaring tidal wave, stirring a gust of air.

"***! ***! *****!"

The mad-dog lady he had kicked yesterday had been waiting for ages. She launched her attack without a single frame of startup, unleashing everything she had.

Valentina had wanted to let it go after being toyed with, but the more she thought about it, the angrier she became, until her rage meter was completely full.

She had spent all night coming up with insults, and now she let them all out in one breath.

"***!"

It was cathartic. It was a heartfelt outpouring.

Herbert, the target of her abuse, didn't trade insults with her. He simply smiled and waited silently for a good while.

Only when she finally finished did he leisurely remove the makeshift earplugs he had stuffed into his ears beforehand.

"Are you satisfied?"

Go ahead and rant. I can't hear you.

As long as I can't hear you, my family won't suffer any harm.

Valentina: ?

"You're fucking messing with me?! How dare you... hmm?"

Seething with rage, Valentina took a deep breath, ready to launch her second round. But then her nose twitched instinctively, and her vicious expression abruptly froze.

Huh?

Her eyes gradually widened, and her slit pupils dilated into circles, making her look almost adorably dazed.

Herbert blinked, unsure what had gotten into her this time, ready to put his earplugs back in at any moment.

"You, how did you..."

She stared carefully at Herbert for a long time, sniffing again and again, before finally saying in shock:

"You smell so good!"

Herbert: Huh?