After Becoming an Evil Dragon, I Was Entangled by the Saintess - Chapter 8

Red Maple Territory Church.

Throughout the Montan Empire on the Fei’er Continent, every city had its own parish and church.

Each church was directly administered by a High Priest appointed by the Holy See. In regions where the Church’s influence was strong, the local governor held little real power.

However, in Red Maple Territory, the High Priest’s authority was limited. This wasn’t due to secular royal power suppressing the Church, but rather because neither the Church officials nor the Lord’s words carried much weight.

The Borderlands, where humans and humanoid races coexisted, were simply too chaotic to govern effectively. Yet the common folk remained as docile as sheep.

At that moment, the High Priest had also received news of the adventurers’ defeat in Mangshui Forest. He was convinced that the Great Dragon would soon retaliate against Red Maple Territory. As a Third-Tier Priest, he knew he stood no chance against the dragon’s fury. When news arrived that Lord Count Unos had fled, the High Priest panicked further, ordering his servants to pack their belongings for immediate escape. As for the church—Lord God be praised, he could offer prayers just as well in another territory.

“Where are you rushing off to in such a hurry?” a gentle voice inquired.

The High Priest, momentarily dazed, turned to see the girl who had appeared silently. Her golden hair shone like the sun’s rays, and she seemed bathed in holy light, radiating compassion and divinity.

Though he didn’t recognize Veranse, he instinctively replied, “My lady, I am leaving the Red Maple Territory, which is under attack by the Black Dragon.”

“And where are you headed?” Veranse pressed.

The High Priest didn’t answer immediately. He struggled for a moment before his mind cleared. He looked at Veranse again, his expression involuntarily hardening. As the High Priest, he owed no deference even to the Lord. The earlier humility now struck him as humiliating. “Who are you?” he demanded loudly.

Veranse seemed not to hear his question. She smiled gently and asked, “Are you planning to return to the Royal Capital to report this?”

The High Priest stared at her, bewildered.

Veranse sighed softly. “What a pity,” she murmured. As her words faded, the air crackled with surging magic power. The High Priest’s face paled instantly. He instinctively began chanting a spell, rapidly casting a Lightning Summoning Spell. As a Priest of the God of Light, under the watchful gaze of the Lord God within the cathedral, who would dare attack him here?

But in the next moment, the High Priest’s face turned deathly white.

He saw a massive golden sword materialize above him, effortlessly cleaving through the lightning and hovering over his head. “The Sword of Holy Judgment? Who are you?” The Sword of Judgment represented the Lord God’s divine judgment. It posed no threat to the innocent, but for the guilty, there was no escape.

The High Priest couldn’t handle extraordinary beings, but he was skilled at exploiting commoners. Yet every cleric in the diocese did the same, didn’t they? Could this truly be considered a sin? The High Priest’s face twisted in terror. Had someone from the Holy Judgment Hall arrived? No, he couldn’t be judged by the Sword of Judgment! Instinctively, he reached for a teleportation scroll—a costly life-saving item he had purchased.

But his trembling hands failed to tear the scroll open. Under the Sword of Judgment’s radiant glow, his life force rapidly drained away. Was this how the Sword of Judgment was supposed to work? No, this was wrong! This was—The High Priest suddenly looked up, meeting Veranse’s eyes. “Dark, dark—”

The words “Dark Magic” never escaped his lips.

His life force rapidly drained, the High Priest quickly withered into a mummified corpse. Only the Sword of Judgment’s radiant glow concealed the unnatural state of his body. Within seconds, the desiccated remains crumbled into ash.

“May you rest in peace,” Veranse murmured, a faint smile playing on her lips. “May you confess your sins to Him in the Lord’s garden.” She casually made the sign of the cross over her chest before turning toward the door. “The Sword of Judgment has declared him guilty,” she said softly. “What do you think?”

As soon as Veranse finished speaking, a trembling young woman emerged from behind the door, curtsied to Veranse, and said in a shaky voice, “Your Excellency.” Anyone who could summon the Sword of Judgment must be a high-ranking official of the Holy See.

Veranse pressed a finger to her lips and shushed her. “Where are the priests of the church?” she whispered.

“T-they all ran away,” the girl stammered. The Great Dragon’s presence had been too overwhelming. She had wanted to flee too, but her family was here, and she didn’t have the money to take her mother and younger sister with her.

A flicker of pity crossed Veranse’s eyes. “Has the church truly become this corrupt?”

The girl remained silent.

“What’s your name?” Veranse asked.

After a moment’s hesitation, the girl replied softly, “Charlotte.”

Veranse nodded. “Very well, Charlotte. From this moment forward, you are the High Priest of the Red Leaf Province.”

Charlotte’s eyes widened in shock, her face filled with disbelief. High Priests were appointed by the Holy See, not chosen on a whim. She was just a low-ranking priest who earned a meager wage at the church, with no ambition to become a High Priest.

Veranse had no intention of explaining anything to Charlotte. She immediately cast the forbidden Dark Magic spell, “Mind Domination.”

This wasn’t about turning Charlotte into a puppet, merely ensuring her unwavering belief that Veranse would become the High Priest.

Some matters didn’t need to be reported back to the Royal Capital or the Holy See.

If the Royal Capital or the Holy See tried to interfere, how could she enjoy the spectacle?

Veranse smiled as she exited the church.

Just before leaving, she glanced back. In the dimly lit sanctuary, the statue of Divine Mistress Iveta stood dim and lusterless.

Staring at it for too long, she seemed to see the statue shattering into pieces, endless darkness engulfing the temple, and an eerie aura permeating the air.

Veranse’s gaze suddenly turned dark and icy, but she quickly regained her composure, transforming back into the Holy Maiden of Light.

She lifted her eyes to look ahead.

She had already silenced the gossipy tongues within the church. The Lord’s Manor would also be unable to draw power from the church—not that it mattered; the church staff had planned to flee anyway.

Her visit to the church had been largely unnecessary.

Black Dragon Yulshi… what would she do? And how much new amusement could she provide?

At the Lord’s Manor estate, poor Ilti returned only to receive devastating news.

Her father, Lord of Red Leaf Province and Earl Unos of the Montan Empire, had secretly fled with his guards the day before.

As for her brothers, they had treated the dragon-slaying mission as a bargaining chip in their succession struggle. Each had ventured into Mangshui Forest with their trusted retainers. So far, only some of their retainers had returned, while her brothers remained missing.

“Actually, it’s not all bad,” Flah said optimistically. “The Gods heard our prayers and took away your brothers’ worthless lives.”

“But this is a city about to face the Black Dragon’s wrath,” Ilti replied weakly. “A Lord can’t just flee based on a baseless rumor, can he? The Black Dragon’s existence is undeniable now; the tavern rumors must be true. Perhaps what lurked in Mangshui Forest wasn’t a juvenile dragon at all, but a fully grown or even ancient Black Dragon. Such a formidable creature is practically a walking calamity.”

As if to confirm Ilti’s ominous premonition, at dusk, two massive, thirty-foot-long monsters circled above the city. An ominous aura permeated the air, and the commoners cried out, “Dragons! Dragons!” before scrambling back to their homes.

Ilti, a mage, recognized the Black Dragon.

The creatures circling above the city were distant relatives of the Great Dragons—wyverns. These massive, two-legged flying lizards were notoriously volatile and easily provoked.

Wyverns had never appeared in the Red Maple Territory before. Their presence confirmed the existence of Great Dragons.

Wyverns typically favored reckless attacks, but this time they merely circled the city, indicating that some entity had issued them orders.

Who else could command them but a Great Dragon?

A heavy object plummeted from the sky, crashing onto the hard stone pavement and splattering bl00d.

After dropping its cargo, the wyvern shrieked and flew away.

Ilti didn’t approach the scene herself, instead sending her butler to identify the remains.

The news was grim, though ultimately insignificant:

The mangled corpses were those of her damned brothers.

Under normal circumstances, Ilti might have had to relive her miserable past to suppress the urge to laugh.

But now, she simply mourned her wretched fate.

The laughter wouldn’t come.

“Miss,” the butler stammered, his legs trembling, nearly paralyzed by the gruesome sight.

Ilti waved her hand. “Let my poor brothers be laid to rest.”

“Let’s escape?” Flah asked, startled by the revolting sight of the piles of filth.

Veranse’s voice suddenly cut through the air: “I’m afraid this city has already been targeted by the Black Dragon.”

Ilti turned to look at her.

The Lord’s Manor had descended into chaos, abandoning all pretense of hospitality.

Veranse made the sign of the cross and said softly, “Why don’t we go to the Gold and Silver Tavern and ask our dear friend Yulxi for help? Hmm, perhaps we could even find some adventurers who hate dragons.”

Ilti nodded, forcing herself to remain calm. “The Great Dragon hates the Lord most of all. It will attack Klein City, where the Lord’s Manor is located, first. The city has Magic Towers and Magic Barriers that can be activated with Magic Crystals. If we can hold off the Evil Dragon and recruit enough warriors, we might have a chance to defeat the Black Dragon.”

But the butler’s faint words shattered Ilti’s hopes.

“Lord Count Unos has already fled with most of the Magic Crystals.”

Ilti: “……”

She restrained herself again and again, but finally snapped. “Unos, that potato-brained fool! He’s nothing but a slime-turned-dogshit!”