The Priest of Complete Dispel ~ Every Time I Save a Cursed Beautiful Girl with My Status Abnormal Cure Skill, For Some Reason Her Dependence on Me Maxes Out ~ - Chapter 58: Handsome vs. Pig Face

Chapter 58: Handsome vs. Pig Face

“What’s this, Bulldog?”

“Nngh… Do-Dorotheia…!”

The red-haired man who spotted me and looked shocked lit up the moment he noticed Dorotheia right nearby.

This guy was Archbishop Bulldog. He was the handsome guy the monks at the clinic had described.

And right now, he clearly looked like he was loading up luggage to flee the city and climb into the carriage.

“Stuffing all that baggage in there, where do you think you’re headed?”

“Well… it’s just… there are all sorts of reasons… and I have to leave the city for a bit…”

“Hmm… well, do whatever you want.”

Bulldog flashed a fawning smile at Dorotheia while sweating.

From his attitude, Medina’s story about their partnership for providing life force seemed spot on.

“You must be Bulldog.”

“Wha… who are you?”

If an unknown human popped up out of nowhere, anyone would assume it was a pursuer.

“I know all about the evil deeds you’ve been up to. That’s why I got the temple knights moving to catch you, but…”

“Ah, ah… so it was you…! The one who ruined the business I’d built up over so many years…!”

Bulldog muttered his grudge and reached for the driver’s seat.

He apparently hadn’t hired a driver. He planned to escape alone.

“You think I’ll just let you run off like that?”

“You don’t get the situation… Dorotheia, deal with this guy.”

“Hmph, I don’t take orders from a coward like you… but either way, this one’s my prey.”

“Th-that’s a relief…”

Bulldog let out a relieved breath.

But he was too easy.

—<Perfect Clear Reversal>

“!?! Wha-what… the ring…!”

One of the rings Bulldog wore shattered like it had repelled light.

Status ailments don’t work on him…?

So instead, it destroyed the magic item?

“Don’t look away—!!”

“Guah!”

Dorotheia closed the distance in a flash.

I blocked her black claws with my long sword and pushed back.

By the way, I’d already tried granting her a status ailment once.

But it hadn’t worked on her either.

Granting status ailments is pretty handy.

But there were monsters back in Iasis that it didn’t work on.

So, only one thing to do. Beat her down head-on.

“—<Air Slash>!”

I fired a wind blade. But Dorotheia dodged it by a hair.

No matter how many I launched, she kept dodging.

Behind her, the carriage pulled away, and Bulldog tried to escape.

Unable to chase, I could only grit my teeth.

That was when it happened.

Bulldog’s carriage came to a sudden stop.

The momentum flung Bulldog himself from the driver’s seat, and he tumbled onto the ground.

Standing in front of Bulldog, who groaned and twisted in pain as he got up, was—

That pig-faced man I knew.

But his outfit now was nothing like his usual sloppiness.

◇◇◇

“Heh… ha ha ha! What a shame about this city, but oh well. I wonder how much it’ll have rebuilt by the time I come back…”

Bulldog drove the carriage forward without even glancing back at the presence of Dorotheia and the mysterious figure starting their fight behind him. The horse’s hooves clattered lightly on the paved road.

“That man… he destroyed the ring I wore, the one that could take multiple status ailments in my place… I don’t know what he did, but I won’t have to deal with him anymore.”

Bulldog smirked thinly and gripped the reins tight—that was the moment.

“——Huh?”

It was really by the skin of his teeth.

A human figure stood right in the carriage’s path.

There shouldn’t have been time to stop. But the horse suddenly neighed sharply, slammed to a halt, and reared up on its front legs just before the figure.

“Wha-what the hell—!?”

The force hurled Bulldog forward from the driver’s seat, and he rolled across the ground.

“…Guh, what… happened…”

Bulldog pushed himself up and brushed the dirt from his clothes, then looked straight ahead at the figure standing there.

“—Archbishop Undir Bulldog.”

He knew that voice well, full of dignity.

“Ah, aaaaah… it’s you…!”

The round nose and plump cheeks that filled his vision.

A face like a pig’s—no mistaking it.

“Alaster Landrace… the Cardinal…!”

In the Misia Church’s hierarchy, Bulldog ranked high as an archbishop.

But the cardinals ranked even higher. Only four existed in the church, wielding great authority.

Unlike Bulldog in his white vestments, Alaster wore red and white robes with a red zucchetto on his head.

“It’s been a while since I put on these vestments… but they’re still so stiff to move in. Bulldog, you wear this every day, don’t you? How diligent.”

“I… I swore loyalty to the church… it’s just my duty—”

“But you betrayed that loyalty.”

Those words choked Bulldog’s throat.

(He knows… he knows everything…!)

“Got any excuses?”

“I… I haven’t done anything.”

“Lying during an inquisition only digs your sin deeper.”

“I-I’m sorry, but I’m not the type to face an inquisition—”

Alaster slowly drew a book from inside his vestments.

“Th-that’s…!”

“Hmm. As expected of you, Bulldog. You know what this is.”

“Wha… ah…!”

“So you understand.”

A thick bible. Its binding wasn’t for ceremonies.

Bulldog’s face went pale.

“…It draws out the user’s magic power and boosts the strength of light magic… a custom-made bible…”

“A gift from His Holiness the Pope. Its use is limited to—combat.”

The moment he saw it, Bulldog made his call.

If he couldn’t escape—he had to strike first.

“N-uoohhh—!! —<Divine Lance>—!!”

Cross-shaped swords of light manifested in the sky, raining down on Alaster like arrows.

The ground gouged out, sand and dust billowed up.

But—

“…H-how’s that? My light magic… is still going strong… Even you, Lord Alaster, can’t come out unscathed—na, wha…?”

When the dust cleared.

Alaster stood there unharmed.

In front of him was a translucent wall of light—.

“Bulldog. You’ve been too wrapped up in business to keep up your training.”

“Kuh…”

“The moment you turned your blade on me—you admitted your guilt. There’s no escape now.”

The light wall didn’t have a single crack.

“I’m still an archbishop, after all… I can handle one or two advanced light spells—<Judgment Ray>—!”

“—<Judgment Ray>”

“Wha…!?”

The advanced light spell <Judgment Ray> fired purifying beams in a barrage from scattered motes of light in the sky.

But Alaster deployed the same spell as if he’d read it in advance, canceling out every one of Bulldog’s beams.

“<Divine Lance>”

“Nuwahhhh—!!”

In the next instant, a cross-shaped sword of light pierced Bulldog’s left leg without mercy.

He screamed in agony from the sharp pain and tumbled to the ground.

“Not bad that you can use advanced light magic. …But that’s all. Even the same spell varies wildly in speed and power depending on who’s casting it. Well, I do have this bible, though.”

“Hah… ha, ah…!”

“…You’re still lacking in training, as I thought. —It’s over, Bulldog.”

Alaster approached.

His bleeding leg wouldn’t obey him, and Bulldog realized he couldn’t flee.

(Damn… damn it… my plan isn’t over yet…! I can’t end here…!)

The face he’d so carefully refined twisted into a mess of hatred and desperation.

It looked just like a bulldog’s.

(…No choice but to use it. It might keep me sane, or it might not… but better than getting caught by Alaster—)

“Heh… ha ha ha ha ha!”

Suddenly, a mad cackle rose, and Alaster narrowed his eyes.

“You should save your trump card for the very end… Lord Alaster.”

In Bulldog’s hand was a small black orb.

And without hesitation—he swallowed it down his throat.

“Gu… nngh… nuwaaaaaah—!!”

“Bulldog!”

In that instant, a grotesque change swept over Bulldog’s body.

His vestments tore, rings and ornaments burst off, flesh swelled, muscles bulged—

Before he knew it, a giant over five meters tall.

No trace of the handsome man remained—just the roar of a beast.

“…What have you done to yourself?”

“Gugigigi…! —<Judgment Ray>”

“Wha—!?”

The beams rained down on Alaster at a speed and density incomparable to before.

“Gu, uh… his magic power… it’s spiked several times over… at this rate…”

The barrier shattered, Alaster’s vestments tore, and blood dripped.

“It’s over—”

A massive arm swung down.

No time to dodge anywhere.

“Seira…”

His daughter’s name floated up last.

She was still swinging her sword at the west gate to defend the city.

He wanted to see—her growth beyond that.

Alaster closed his eyes.

“Gu… gah…!”

In that instant—the massive arm stopped.

Bulldog’s body shook, convulsed, and collapsed.

“…What…?”

Alaster raised his face.

There stood his daughter’s benefactor, hand extended toward them.

He couldn’t hear the voice.

But he felt the words reach him for sure.

‘—Don’t die yet, for Seira’s sake. Pig old man.’

Alaster’s knees trembled as he slowly stood.

“Bulldog… this really is the end. But I’m not letting you die yet.”

Alaster cast recovery magic on himself, then raised his hand toward the fallen Bulldog.

“—<Sanctify>”

Dazzling pure light purified the flesh corrupted by magic.

It gradually shrank, returned to its original form—and Bulldog lay there convulsing, eyes rolled back white, motionless.

“Shu… you really are…”

Alaster looked up.

But that Shu had taken Dorotheia’s vicious claws straight to his unguarded back.