Wasn’t This Supposed to Be an Erotic Game?

---

“`html

I stepped into the slum again, dragging a whole bunch of people behind me.

If I were to think about the most useless and trashy land in the capital, it would undoubtedly be this slum.

As soon as I entered, a massive crowd of people started trailing behind me.

“Oh, Saint! Heal us!!”

“Bestow your grace upon us, Saint!!”

Whoa, there’s way too many people following me. Am I about to get caught by the police as the leader of an illegal gathering?

Damn it.

I hurried through the slum and found the most dilapidated and useless piece of land I could wish for.

Crumbling buildings and a creepy, abandoned factory.

With the industrial waste and trash all around, it looked like no amount of money could persuade anyone to come here.

This was the kind of place where you’d expect junkies to be sniffing white powder from somewhere.

I might not know much about feng shui, but this seems like a good spot to settle down, right?

It felt like I was about to give birth to my own downfall that never even existed.

Just perfect!!

If I deal a huge blow to the Lilia Church, they’ll curse me out and run away!!

As I approached the abandoned factory with the crowd in tow, a man guarding the factory came striding towards me.

“You can’t go in any further! This land belongs to the Karma family!”

The old guard seemed too fuzzy-minded to recognize who I was.

I slowly approached him and placed my hand on his head.

[Casting Body Modification!]

Once I restored the old man’s eyesight and fixed his arthritis, he finally recognized me, and his body froze.

“Can you see now?”

“I… can see. I can see! Saint!!”

“Go fetch the owner of this land.”

“Y-yes!! I’ll do that!!”

Like a sprightly young man, the guard zipped away and quickly returned with an elderly middle-aged man.

This middle-aged man looked like… Scrooge.

The kind of grumpy, tough-looking middle-aged man who would bleed coins instead of blood if you stabbed him.

With a sly expression, he approached me along with the guard.

“I’m the owner of this factory. You wanted to see me?”

“That’s right.”

“What’s the matter? If you’re asking me to let those beggars in here, I’d rather not.”

I shook my head at that.

“Please give me this factory plot. I’ll pay you a fair price.”

The factory owner burst into laughter at my words.

“Ha! So you came here listening to the rumors, didn’t you? I set up a toy factory but it flopped. But even so, do you really think you have the capital to buy land this big?”

I shook my head.

No, I don’t.

The only money I have is what I earned from my part-time job at a restaurant.

Not even close enough to buy this factory plot.

“The Lilia Church will purchase it.”

Of course, the church should pay for it.

The Lilia Church is one of the biggest churches in the empire, no doubt.

They could surely afford to pay any outrageous amount.

I looked at the Vice President.

He looked back at me.

His expression was one of disbelief, as though to say, “You can’t be serious about building a temple on this trashy land, right?”

Yeah.

Exactly that.

What I want is to spend money on a place that has zero chance of success, causing the church to suffer losses, and not to mention live it up lavishly while they waste their money so they’ll eventually have enough of it and leave!

“Spend all the funds the church has to buy this land. This is absolutely necessary to fulfill the goddess’s word.”

I casually threw that out there.

Of course, I couldn’t care less about the goddess’s word or any of that nonsense.

I just bought this land because it seemed like the most useless piece of land in the slum.

Once I pour all sorts of money and resources into building a luxurious temple here without doing anything saintly, they will get tired of it and leave, right?

“……I understand. If that is the goddess’s will.”

The Vice President stepped forward.

Then he approached Scrooge.

“I am Vice President Yodel of the Lilia Church.”

“Jonathan Karma. I built a factory here for a cheap price, and other than this filthy land being disastrous in price, there’s nothing great about it at all. I don’t understand what you intend to do buying it, but you won’t succeed, I assure you.”

“The goddess has commanded it. We must buy it.”

Scrooge, or Jonathan Karma, looked at us with an expression that clearly said, “What a bunch of idiots…” and then waved his hand.

“Follow me. We’ll write up a contract at my house. Selling this useless land and just paying taxes works well for me too!!”

And so we headed to Jonathan’s house.

***

Having heard that he was the owner of the factory, I expected he’d live somewhere fancy, but Jonathan Karma actually lived in a shabby house near the slum.

It wasn’t like he was sleeping on the street like the beggars, but judging by the state of the house, he seemed no different from a poor person.

“Honey. You’re back?”

As soon as we entered Jonathan’s home, a sickly-looking woman who appeared to be his wife greeted him with a cough.

Jonathan saw her and yelled,

“What the hell are you doing out here, you worthless woman? Get back in bed!!”

“I was just trying to make dinner…”

“Where’s the food in this house?! Just get back in there and lie down! You’re just a burden costing a fortune in medicine!”

His rough shouting was unmistakably the behavior of an abusive husband.

Clearly, something had gone awry here.

He probably tried to start a business by setting up a factory, but it didn’t go well.

That’s why the family relationships had soured.

Jonathan’s wife coughed as she carefully retreated into the room.

Inside, a musty, moldy smell mixed with a sickening stench filled the air, suggesting poor ventilation.

It was enough to make the Vice President wrinkle his nose at the pungent smell that crept into his nostrils.

“Alright. I need at least 40,000 salreds for this. That’s my condition!”

Jonathan shouted.

The Vice President’s eyes widened at that.

“You really think you can demand 40,000 salreds for such a decrepit piece of land?”

“Yes!”

“You’re still charging that much after seeing the countless piles of trash and waste scattered across the land?”

“If you don’t like it, shove it! 40,000 salreds! That’s my condition!!”

A thug-like price for a trashy piece of land.

But I didn’t care.

They were going to pay anyway.

My goal was to buy this garbage land at an unnecessarily inflated price and waste the church’s money.

The Vice President seemed to be contemplating.

But after glancing at me, his expression turned full of trust as he nodded.

“I’ll contact the temples of the Lilia Church across the nation. Since the amount is considerable, we’ll need approval from several local temples, so please wait a moment.”

“Tomorrow! Bring all of it by tomorrow!! If not, I won’t make the deal!”

At that, the Vice President’s expression twisted even further.

“Tomorrow is difficult, even for us. Please grant us a little more time; with such a price, we need some time to arrange it…”

“If you can’t, then there’s no deal! Get out of here!!”

Even I found his tone infuriating.

If I were him, I would’ve cursed him out or just left.

But maybe because he thought I was a saint, the Vice President didn’t seem to wrinkle his expression that much.

“Allow me to discuss this briefly.”

The Vice President took me outside the house for a moment.

“Saint, this is utterly unreasonable. The land price is exceedingly high, and we would end up having to deal with all the waste and rubbish. Furthermore, the seller demands payment by tomorrow. It would be better not to proceed with this transaction.”

“We still have to do it.”

I was set on causing damage to your church. I mean, that’s the only way they’ll keep treating me like some fool and eventually leave.

“…….If that’s the case, then I will follow you, but according to our church’s rules, any amount over 10,000 salreds requires approval from the local temples. Even so, we cannot produce the money by tomorrow; we’ll need a bit more time, Saint.”

The Vice President Yodel looked apologetic.

Hearing that, even someone as selfish as I am felt a twinge of remorse.

They’re just innocent people being naive enough to think that they’ll suddenly start treating me like a saint.

Now I wanted to inflict losses on those poor people, and on top of that, I had to consider Scrooge’s whims.

“I’ll handle it.”

Even for someone with no conscience like me, I still had the wits to know that since I was the one who pushed this, it made sense for me to deal with it.

“I apologize for disappointing you with my incompetence.”

Seeing the Vice President Yodel bow to me, apologizing for the trouble he caused by wanting to help that scammer bastard avoid divine punishment, I couldn’t shake the overwhelming guilt.

I couldn’t look him in the eye any longer and quickly returned inside the house.

I said I’d handle it, but of course, I had no idea how to convince Scrooge to give us some more time to gather the funds.

Should I just cast Absolute Hypnosis on him? Just like that?

No.

If out of nowhere Scrooge starts being nice to me without any buildup, it won’t seem saintly, but downright suspicious.

That would not only tarnish the goddess’s name but could also get me treated as a heretic by the Lilia Church, possibly ending in a burning at the stake.

How…….

How do I get Scrooge to give us a little more time to gather the funds?

As I pondered, heading back upstairs to Jonathan Karma’s house, suddenly, I heard a scream mixed with thrashing sounds.

“Aaaaah!!!”

The horrified scream urged me to hurry toward the source of the sound.

As I entered, I saw shocked faces staring at the middle of the room.

“Rophus! The sun! It’s a rot disease!!”

“Did you have a patient with a contagious disease here in the capital? This is illegal!! Jonathan Karma!!”

I could hear the knights of the Sun Church and the police shouting in shock.

Pushing past them into the room, I saw Jonathan Karma and his wife standing there, looking flustered amidst the overwhelming stench of decay and mold.

“Stay back! Don’t come near my daughter!!”

“Our daughter can be saved! I swear! She’s been taking medicine to suppress the contagion! There’s nothing wrong with her being here! Please!”

Scrooge’s expression was completely shattered compared to moments ago.

With wild gestures, he tried to shield his daughter, while his wife wept and held their daughter close, looking utterly desperate.

And it was justified.

Their daughter, whom they tried to protect, looked horrifically decayed all over.

Is this what leprosy feels like?

Her skin, rotting away, ooze streaks of black pus cascading down.

It was a miserable state that made it incredible she was still alive.

The girl writhed in pain, crying out.

“It hurts! It hurts! Please kill me!! Kill me!!”

As she thrashed about, the police couldn’t hold back any longer and drew their guns.

“Jonathan Karma!! We are arresting you for hiding a patient with a contagious disease in the capital! Step away from your daughter… Saint! Saint! No!!”

I slowly approached Jonathan Karma and his wife, raising my hand to lower the police’s guns.

“Step aside.”

Initially, I had planned to leech as much money from the Lilia Church. But…

Considering how things had escalated, the conversation took a different turn.

Look at that poor girl suffering like this.

Although I am a selfish jerk, I can’t just let someone suffer when I have the power to help.

And if I could cure her, perhaps they’d grant us more time to gather the funds, too.

Despite having a bleeding nose from the punch earlier, my expression remained unchanged.

Seeing my calm demeanor, the couple trembled and instinctively stepped back.

I approached the thrashing girl.

“It hurts!! It hurts!! Please kill me!! Aaaaaah!”

I placed my hand on the head of the crying girl, tears streaming down her face.

Whether it’s the young girls selling matches in the alley or this girl…

Regardless of my situation, it’s just too sad.

“It’s okay.”

I cast my skill.

“You won’t feel pain anymore.”

With a cracking sound, her body began to transform.

“`

 

---