Chapter 5: Humans are so abominable.

“Alive? What are you talking about? Hee hee hee…”

Suna tilted her head, her unrestrained laughter growing fragmented, distorted, and eerie.

The thug leader watched as her body twisted toward something inhuman.

Cracks appeared on her beautiful face, splitting open to reveal scarlet eyes.

Her jaw, now split into segments, bared rows of sharp teeth, while writhing tendrils extended from its sides.

“Ah, ah, monster!”

Realizing Suna was a monster, the thug leader froze for a second before stumbling back, reaching into his coat for his magic pistol.

Before he could aim, the pistol—and his right hand gripping it—fell to the ground.

Blood oozed from the twisted, melting wound on his arm, but before he could scream or clutch it, Suna’s left hand, morphed into a bone-whip blade, struck again.

A barbed, pale bone spike shot from its tip, piercing his lung and pinning him to the wall.

“Guh!”

Suna’s bone-whip sliced through his left hand and both legs, then slashed his throat as it retracted.

The wounds weren’t mere cuts; they caused nearby tissue to melt, bleeding unnaturally.

“Aaah… y-yaah…”

The thug leader, trying to cover his wounds with his mangled hands, could only make garbled sounds through his severed vocal cords.

Suna, reverting to her human form, approached and pressed a finger to her lips.

“Shh… deep breaths. Don’t get so worked up.”

Her gentle, almost comforting tone turned cruel and cold.

“From your lackeys’ memories, I know you’ve tortured nearly a hundred poor souls, letting them die in agony. But now that it’s your turn, you can’t stay calm?”

“Guh… ahh…”

The thug leader’s eyes, filled with fear, pain, despair, and pleading, locked onto Suna.

With blood draining rapidly and death looming, the once-arrogant silver-rank thug was a shadow of his former self.

“Begging for mercy? Don’t want to die, huh? You’re steeped in evil but still want a way out. Well, fine, I’ll give you a chance.”

Suna paused, then clenched her fist in the air.

A crimson aura stopped his bleeding wounds, and damaged tissue began to slowly regenerate.

She clasped her hands at her chest, bowing her head in a prayer-like gesture.

“Just and merciful Golden Bough Goddess, I forgive this man’s sins, but my forgiveness is only mine to give.”

The thug leader’s hopeful eyes met Suna’s malicious smile as she spoke with devout sincerity.

“I cannot forgive you on behalf of your other victims. May you spend your remaining life repenting your sins.”

With that, Suna locked the door from the inside, dragged a wardrobe to block it, and sealed all but one window, drawing every curtain.

She waved at the struggling, wall-pinned thug leader.

“Goodbye, then.”

“Ugh… y-ah…”

His faint, garbled cries followed as Suna leaped out the last window, locking it from outside with a delicate tendril.

After settling the matter, Suna muttered in exasperation.

“Ugh, I meddled too much again. But he clearly intended to kill Skoll. If Skoll died now, that damn fate backlash would probably hit me. All I wanted was to break Skoll mentally to complete Lord Demon King’s mission, but these lowlifes keep escalating things. Humans are worse than the Demon King’s army!”

As Suna grumbled, the next two weeks in Korez Town saw those with grudges against Saintess Suna relentlessly targeting Skoll, Ace, and Frosti.

There were even more enemies than Suna anticipated.

While she ignored minor malicious acts that didn’t threaten the trio, too many were after their lives.

Skoll and the twins lived miserably, constantly harassed, while Suna busied herself from dawn to dusk eliminating scum and villains.

Over two weeks, Korez Town’s atmosphere grew noticeably kinder.

Though the town never lacked villains, Suna single-handedly dismantled a third of its underworld.

Daily headlines reported bizarre murders of villains, entire thug groups driven mad, or underground organizations seemingly sacrificed to ancient cults.

During this time, Skoll, without support, took odd jobs to survive, often cheated or beaten, but he endured, caring for Ace and Frosti.

The once-bright, cheerful boy was gone.

He no longer smiled, his eyes holding only suppressed pain, sorrow, and growing disgust and rage toward the empire’s corruption.

With the town’s underworld lying low, Suna had a quiet week.

Her recent observation confirmed Skoll’s mental state wouldn’t recover soon.

Believing her mission accomplished, Suna, eager for her vacation, bonus, and hazard pay, began wrapping up her plan.

After retrieving a pyramid-shaped magic device in Korez Town that interfered with divination magic, an unexpected visitor arrived in town.