Ⅴ
The moment they heard footsteps, all the priests of the Church of Pain looked expectant.
But when the double wooden doors swung open, everyone froze.
The arrivals were not the High Priest and the Saintess they had expected.
Instead, they were Yura, whom they had only met a handful of times, and an unfamiliar young man.
"Yura?"
Several people cried out in surprise.
The quicker thinkers narrowed their eyes.
Then those few began shifting around, trying to hide themselves behind the others.
As for running away?
Not long ago, they had been praising how safe and secure the venue for this meeting was.
Now, that very "safety and security" had left them trapped, with no hope of escape.
"That's right."
Facing the startled priests of the Church of Pain, Yura, dressed in black robes, readily acknowledged who she was. But immediately afterward, she began correcting her title-
"Please address me as High Priest Yura!"
Her eagerness made those quick-thinking fellows shrink back even farther, wishing they could find a hole to crawl into and hide.
They sensed a danger far greater than before.
And they were right.
"Yura, do you have any idea what you're saying?"
"Yura, who do you think you are?"
"You bastard! You're blaspheming against the High Priest!"
The priests in the crowd spoke up.
Some were polite, others were not.
Yura had expected all of this.
After all, she had personally selected these people for precisely this moment.
Yura swept her hand through the air.
Crack!
The unmistakable snap of a whip rang out in the empty air.
With that sharp crack, everyone who had just spoken collapsed to the floor, howling in pain.
Pain Whipping!
It was one of the Church of Pain's unique Mystic Arts.
It could strike targets within a certain range,