The Novel’s Villain

29. Diabolic Swamp (3)

It was truly a wild night. The villagers, who saw Jin-woo, came to the inn wondering what was going on and were swept away by the atmosphere. Jin-woo had no choice but to watch the increasing number of people until the scale snowballed and became almost a festival. It was already too late to stop. Tables were set up around the inn, and adventurers began to join on their way to and from the inn.

The angels were strong. They had a cute appearance that people of all ages would like, and those passing by had to stop when they saw the angels’ smiles. The villagers and adventurers began to order a lot and take care of everything. Yoo-na nodded when she saw it.

“I don’t think they’re going to starve anywhere they go.”

“I guess so.”

Jin-woo also agreed. Although they were corrupted, the aura itself proved to be clean. They looked cuter because they felt friendly rather than divine. It was when Luna was staring blankly at the scene…

“Uwaa! Lady Luna?”

“Wow!”

“It’s Lady Luna!”

Ariel and the angels found Luna and flocked to her. She couldn’t even greet them happily.

“Uh-uwaaa!”

They surrounded Luna and carried her to the table in a flash of light. Luna suddenly found herself in the middle of the chaos.

“Oh, the Priest is here too!”

“Please eat!”

Beer and food began to pile up in front of Luna. Luna had a troubled expression on her face, but she couldn’t get up from her seat. It was because the villagers were looking at her.

“Drink it! Drink it!”

“Go, go!”

As the angels and the villagers began to shout, Luna had no choice but to raise her glass. The glass was quite big, and she hesitated for a moment before putting it to her mouth. Jin-woo thought that Luna would only drink a little, but she emptied the glass. Maybe drinking in one shot was a tradition of Heaven?

“Hic!”

Luna seemed to be in a good mood when the people around her applauded her. There was a lot of foam on her mouth. Luna quickly got drunk, and her face turned red. She grinned and lifted a finger.

“One more drink!”

“Ooh! Priest, you’re no joke, huh?”

“One Giant Beer, too!”

That was how Luna joined in. Seeing the scene that became noisier, the angels must have taken after Luna. It seemed that they wouldn’t care if that was the way they were corrupted.

“Don’t you think it will be over soon?”

“I think it’s going to last until the morning.”

It didn’t look like it would end easily. He thought it would be okay to come back the next morning. Jin-woo and Yoo-na left them and returned to the Sanctuary. They simply had a quick drink with everyone in the Sanctuary, feeling like a family gathering rather than a full festival.

The next day, Jin-woo headed to the inn late in the morning. Luna hadn’t returned the day before, so he thought that she probably was still there. When he went to the inn, it was so neat that he couldn’t find any traces of the previous day’s events. The only traces were the angels gripping their bellies in pain. They looked surprised when they checked each other’s changes.

“W-we’re corrupted.”

“We have fallen.”

“Ah…O, Luna…”

Despite the hangover, the fallen angels knelt all at once and began praying to Luna.

“O, Luna! Forgive us for our sins!”

“I succumbed to temptation.”

“Aaah….”

They prayed like that. Luna was lying behind the angels. She wore a blanket the innkeeper had likely given her. The blanket wriggled as the angels kept praying.

“Ah, shut up!”

Luna, whose hair was messy, jumped up and shouted like that. Her expression was hazy as if she was still not sober.

“Huh?!”

“Lady Luna?”

“L-Lady Luna?”

The angels who were offering their prayers looked surprised to see her appear. Luna rubbed her eyes and shifted her gaze to them. She looked at the angels, and then she put her thumb up before putting the blanket back over herself. She must still be drunk.

“Ah….”

“Umm…”

The angels looked confused. Just then, the innkeeper came by with hangover soup. The heads of the angels turned in unison. Ariel nodded.

“It can’t be helped since it has become like this.”

“T-That’s right. We’re already corrupted, so there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“Besides, it seems that Lady Luna also forgave us…”

The atmosphere changed abruptly. Their serious appearance a moment ago had completely disappeared. The angels started eating the soup.

“It was fun yesterday, wasn’t it?”

“It was the first time I thought something was fun.

“It’s not bad to be corrupted.”

“Hey! The soup is awesome!”

Jin-woo watched the scene for a while and then went inside. The angels, who were eating the soup, blinked when they saw Jin-woo. Their spoons fell at the same time. They felt instinctively what kind of existence Jin-woo was.

“Shall we talk?”

The angels nodded in unison with hardening expressions. Jin-woo conversed with the angels while Luna was rustling in the blanket. The innkeeper understood the atmosphere and left the room so they could talk properly.

The angels believed Jin-woo’s words surprisingly quickly. They listened to Jin-woo’s story with clear interest. It was like the expression of a child listening to a fairy tale. When they showed such a reaction, he told his tale in more detail because it was fun to watch their reactions.

“I see, so that’s what happened. Thank you for protecting Lady Luna.”

Ariel politely expressed her gratitude. The other angels bowed their heads as well. Jin-woo became a little embarrassed when he saw the angels. He was worried about what to do with them. They had fallen so that they couldn’t return to Heaven now.

“I’m sorry. You can’t even return to Heaven….”

Ariel shook her head when Jin-woo said so.

“No. Lady Luna is here too, and it’s fu… wouldn’t all these trials eventually become valuable?”

“That’s right.”

It seemed like they had a lot of fun yesterday, but there was no such thing as freedom. The innkeeper, who saw that they had finished talking, approached the angels. She handed over the bill. The angels tilted their heads when they saw the amount, but the innkeeper smiled.

“You lost the bet yesterday, so you have to pay everything. I’ll give you the hangover soup for free.”

The angels couldn’t help but leave their minds when they understood what the bill meant. Jin-woo was going to pay for them, but Ariel shook her head.

“You can’t do that. It happened because we lost.”

“Do you have any money?”

“About that… now we have none, but…”

Ariel broke out in a cold sweat. It was simple if Jin-woo gave it to them, but they wanted to pay for it with their effort. It was the last pride of the defeated angels.

‘Then…’

Jin-woo thought for a moment and then nodded. He thought he could make a place for them to stay and work for now. Jin-woo stood from his seat and approached the innkeeper.

“Why don’t you hire them? I will support you with the monthly salary.”

“These children?”

“Yes, even though they look like this, they are adults.”

“I-I see. However… our inn is too small to hire everyone.”

The inn wasn’t very spacious. There were also already employees who were working there, so they didn’t need that many hands.

“Can’t we just expand the inn? The site next door is also empty.”

“Yes? That’s true, but…”

The innkeeper looked bewildered when Jin-woo said that he would provide the money. But she liked it. He said he would expand the inn for free, so who wouldn’t agree? Jin-woo asked her to treat them well instead.

The innkeeper looked at the angels with a happy expression. She decided to use the large room as a lodging for the angels. As the innkeeper told them, the angels seemed to like the idea as well. Everything was going smoothly even though at first they didn’t know what to do. They liked this place because it was the first place they had fun.

“I will work hard!”

“Just leave it to me!”

Ariel and the angels looked very motivated. It seemed to have somehow been settled. It was safer to let them stay in the village than to wander around the Middle World.

[The Fallen Angels found a job at the Windflower Inn and became a member of the Golden Territory.]

[The energy of Sacred Ground dwells in the Fallen Angels.]

[The Fallen Angel evolves into a new form.]

[A] Golden Angel

‘We are set free!’

An angel with golden wings. The Fallen Angel belonging to the Golden Territory was completely dyed with the Golden energy. Golden Angels can use divine power and mana at the same time. When they use divine power and mana, a golden angel ring embossed with the Holy Dragon will appear above their heads.

However, their personality may change a little because their suppressed desires are liberated.

Special Technique

[B] Benefit from Tempting a Very Charming Person. The person being tempted is also healed, so there is no loss.

[C] Golden Bankbook

Surprisingly, they had luck when it came to money. The wings of the angels turned golden. It had a strong feeling of being corrupted when it was black, but when it changed to gold, it looked like they had evolved one step rather than being corrupted. Another strange race had been created in the Sanctuary.

‘Well, Luna is here, too.’

This was still within the acceptable range. The angels looked at each other and looked amazed. Their darkened hair became more colorful, and their wings had also changed under the effect of the Emperor of Gold. When the angels realized this, they stood side by side, bowed their heads to Jin-woo, and expressed gratitude.

“Uh, hmm, yeah.”

Jin-woo responded to their yield awkwardly. They were still polite and kind, but their personality changed somewhat after becoming Golden Angels.

“Big Sis, yesterday you were so pretty…”

“Is that so?”

“Cough!”

When Ariel coughed in vain, the angels looked at her.

“Big Sis, what? We’re older. You should call her Lil Sis. It must be certain who is older and who is younger!”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Will we come back again today?”

They discussed it very seriously.

“Uh, umhmm.”

Luna, who was lying in the corner, opened her eyes. She jumped up in surprise when she came to her senses and stared blankly at the angels who were chasing after the innkeeper. Then, she grabbed her head in despair as she remembered what had happened yesterday. Luna felt a stomachache forming because of the hangover.

Jin-woo sighed a little and took out a drink from the subspace. It was effective in relieving a hangover.

“T-Thank you.”

Luna chugged it while Jin-woo watched with a smile.

“Why don’t you get corrupted?”

“Because I am a Goddess.”

It wasn’t convincing at all. Anyway, with that, things seemed to be resolved.

* * *

The inn was quickly enlarged. The area around the inn was an empty lot aside from a small vegetable garden, so there was no problem expanding it. Furthermore, the villagers readily helped as it was known that Jin-woo provided the funds.

“W-We-We are b-building e-e-engineers from the E-Empire.”

“W-We will help you f-for free.”

Suddenly, architects from the Holy Empire appeared. According to them, they were all great architects. Someone must have brought them in. Jin-woo paid them generously, so they joined the construction with tears in their eyes. The villagers were so strong that the process proceeded very quickly.

The angels also wore helmets and helped with the construction. The angels were popular. The adventurers who were going and coming even hugged them since they looked so innocent in their eyes. However, Jin-woo could see the truth.

“Hehehe…”

They wore insidious smiles. It was something beyond depravity. It seemed that the energy of the Sacred Ground was a little too much, and now even Luna had already halfway given up.

‘More than I thought…’

It was built bigger and fancier. The old building was demolished and rebuilt, and a wonderful inn was born to the extent that Jin-woo was impressed. It could even be called a hotel rather than an inn. Alonso blessed the inn, and a party was held to commemorate the completion.

The angels hurrahed.

“A drink after work…! Wow! This is life!”

“Yes! Sir! There is no other heaven!”

The angels said things that didn’t match their appearance at all. The Maze sneaked in along with Luna, but after a few conversations, the angels followed the Maze more than Luna.

“V-visual novel?! It’s a name that feels so holy!”

“Such a mysterious play….”

“Lady Maze, please give me a chance…!”

The Maze seemed to be the leader of the fallen angels now. When the Maze pulled out a portable game console from its arms with a happy expression, the angels looked at it as if they regarded it as a holy relic. Luna also seemed to enjoy talking about games with them.

‘Well, if they’re happy, then it will just do.’

It was full of chaos, but it was enough since it was fun and happy. As the party began, an elder from the village approached with a cart. He was pulling the cart with one hand, and a huge log rested on his shoulder.

“Hahah, how are you? Saint.”

The village elderly politely greeted Jin-woo. He put down the log next to him and swung the ax a few times, cutting it neatly into firewood in a matter of seconds for the party. Looking at the cart, people were groaning inside.

“They were lying at the village entrance. I think they came from the swamp.”

Those in the cart were angels. They were covered in thick mud as the innkeeper and villagers approached. They skillfully picked them up and went to wash them.

‘Uum…’

Jin-woo could guess how the other angels came to the inn. After that, the same thing as last time was repeated. When Ariel and others tempted the awkward angels, they eventually turned the same. The same thing happened the next morning. The innkeeper looked troubled, but Jin-woo nodded and opened his mouth.

“We need to build more inns.”

“I-I guess so.”

As it gradually increased, the largest hotel in the Altamia estate was created. The name was changed from Windflower Inn to the Golden Angel Hotel. It became a landmark of the Saint’s Village.

As such incidents occurred one after another, Jin-woo headed to the swamp. He was a bit shocked to see Fishmen with wings flying over the swamp. The overall rank of the Fishmen increased, and the swamp felt full of divine power. Jin-woo installed a sign near the main road.

‘Danger! No access to the swamp!’

It was such a sign. After installing several such warnings, he turned his head as he felt divine power manifesting. Several angels appeared through an opening portal. There were street vendors because it was the road leading to the Ehorce estate, but after looking at them, the angels avoided the main road and went to the swamp. Then they fell into the swamp like it was fate.

“Umm…”

The angels tried to escape by emitting their tremendous divine power. However, the swamp absorbed the divine power. As it belonged to the Sacred Ground, it couldn’t be destroyed with divine power. Rather, it made the swamp stronger. The angels eventually fainted.

[Great divine power has strengthened the swamp.]

[The swamp evolves into a new form.]

[B] Diabolic Swamp

‘Fall to me!’

A mysterious swamp that looks like melted gold. It was originally an ordinary swamp where fishmen lived, but as angels fell often, it evolved into a swamp with special abilities. If you approach the swamp, you will want to step in it, so be careful. It has the property of absorbing divine power and mana.

*[B] Angel Trap!

*[C] Step On Me and Go!

It had become a diabolic swamp. The fishmen started heading towards the village with the fainted angels.

“…”