Wasn’t This a Night Game

Construction All Gone To Hell

The kid’s body was brutally, utterly wrecked.

Her bones were rotting through, giving off a nauseating, filthy stench, and her skin was festering and ulcerated, endlessly weeping pus and discharge.

A disgustingly vile stink that made me wrinkle my nose, but I didn’t run.

Healing this kid was way, way more important than my own revulsion.

“aaargh!! aaargh!!!!! Aah……..”

At first, the girl’s scream, choked with pain, began to fade, little by little.

The sound of bone and flesh, skin and veins, being rearranged by my skill, twisting as they pleased, filled the room.

Rotten bone regenerated, putrid muscle and veins turned clean again.

Skin that spat out pus and festering liquid became white and pristine, and hair that was dry and brittle, like a rat had gnawed at it from being pulled out in pain, grew back neatly.

A face exposing its cheekbones was restored, and lastly, flesh and muscle, just enough to look pleasing, attached to a mummified body, thin from not eating or sleeping because of the pain, and my reconstruction was complete.

I lifted her, reborn and clean, from the spot.

“M-momma… Papa…”

She touched her body here and there with trembling hands.

Because of the pus and festering liquid, she wasn’t wearing a single thread of clothing.

So everyone in the room could witness her body, cleanly healed.

“I… I don’t hurt anymore. I…”

“Cecilia!!! Oh! Oh, my daughter!!! My daughter!!!”

The mother rushed to her daughter and embraced her.

The daughter embraced her mother, too.

The mother began to spew out tears, and the daughter cried as well.

But it wasn’t over yet.

“It isn’t finished yet.”

I pulled Mrs. Scrooge and Scrooge toward me, taking one of each of their hands.

“What, what are you trying to… Ugh!!”

Along with the sound of bones resetting, a body being reassembled, the Scrooges’ bodies also began to be remade.

Just as I thought.

Exactly as I’d imagined.

Thank the heavens, the contagious rot hadn’t spread, but both of them, after footing the bill for their daughter’s treatment, were in a truly wretched state, both psychologically and physically worn thin.

And to top it off, Mrs. Scrooge had caught pneumonia, her lungs a right mess, truly.

I erased all of that in one fell swoop.

Scrooge’s skin and hair, beaten down by reality and aged into ugliness, returned to a clean and lustrous state.

Mrs. Scrooge, likewise.

No coughs from her anymore.

Instead, she transformed into a dignified woman of middle age.

After healing the couple completely and quietly stepping back, a thunderous roar erupted behind me.

“Lilia of Grace! A goddess!!”

“A saint!! Truly, truly a saint!!”

The priests and paladins of the Lilia Order, witnessing my *ero-game* skill for the first time, collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down their faces.

The High Priest’s expression was that of someone whose soul had utterly abandoned its post.

“I believe! Punish me for doubting, even for a moment! Ah! Goddess!! Goddess!!”

The police officers removed their hats, staring at me with faces full of awe, while the paladins of the Sun Order, so emotionally charged, were on the verge of tears.

Everyone was sniffling and sobbing like that.

“Hmph!! Con artist! You think I’ll believe it?”

Scrooge’s sharp voice cut through the air, piercing my ears.

I turned my head to look at Jonathan Karma.

He regarded his daughter, his wife, and even his own body with a face riddled with doubt.

“Think I haven’t seen fakes like you before, some two-bit saint wanna-be?”

The sharp, scolding voice was enough to instantly transform the scene of supposed grace into an inquisition.

“That blasphemer! Dare he speak to the Saint like that!”

“Defiling the Graceful Goddess!”

The paladins of the Lily Order looked ready to draw their swords at once, while the police and the paladins of the Sun Order openly displayed their disgust.

But Scrooge, he gave absolutely zero fucks.

“Shut it! You think I’ll fall for it just because you all come swarming and shouting like that! I’ve been tricked countless times before! You think I’m gonna fall for it again?! Am I a fool?!”

Scrooge darted quickly to a corner of the room, returning with an armful of something.

Scrolls. Magic potions. A strange-looking wand he’d never seen before. A mirror etched with peculiar magical circles, and so on.

All sorts of odds and ends.

“Just you wait until you’re revealed to be a fake! You scam artist! I’ll report you immediately! You’ll die by my hand!”

So saying, Scrooge pulled out a potion, sprinkling it on his daughter, his wife, and himself.

Then he waited, a smug look on his face.

Five minutes passed.

A crack appeared in Scrooge’s expression for the first time.

“No reaction. Using a pretty good scam tactic, I guess?”

He flashed me a sneering smile before preparing the next thing.

“Tearing this scroll will be different! I bought this dispel scroll with a lot of money, you see!”

The scroll was torn.

But still, the three remained unchanged.

Scrooge’s face crumbled further.

“This, this!! This mirror will expose all your deceit!! Using this!!”

He scanned his daughter and wife with the mirror etched with magical sigils.

His breath grew ragged.

“Using this… using this… your fraudulent scheme will be laid bare… laid bare…”

Scrooge tried this and that, tested everything, but still, there was no change.

His daughter remained impeccably clean, as did his wife.

“A real miracle… there couldn’t be a real saint. Those b*stards just took all my money… No. There couldn’t be…”

Scrooge was weeping now.

Finally, after waving a strangely shaped wand in the air and getting no reaction, Jonathan Karma collapsed to the floor, sobbing like a child.

The paladins and priests who had been raging fell silent. Only then did the police lower their heads with solemn expressions.

I approached Jonathan, wailing.

And quietly embraced him.

He clung to me fiercely.

“Why!… Why do you come only now!! Why!!… Why didn’t you come sooner… sooner!!…”

“I’m sorry.”

There were no more words.

“Papa!”

“Darling!!”

My wife and daughter leap in.

The four of us tangle together, Jonathan Karma’s family, it was like they were expelling all the sorrow they’d been holding in, weeping for a good long while.

I held those three family members tight.

Just hearing about what hardships they endured, it was clear as day.

They suffered so much, shouldn’t a little happiness be alright?

After nearly thirty minutes of frantic crying, Jonathan seemed to regain his composure.

Good.

Now we can move forward with discussing buying the factory land…

“Saint! I will simply offer up my factory land! Receive it!”

Wait a second.

This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.

I’m supposed to be in a position where the Lilia Order *spends* money!

“The Graceful Goddess has granted me my greatest wish, so I will give my most precious possession! Just accept it! I donate it! I offer my factory land as an offering!”

“No. Mr. Jonathan Karma. You can’t just…”

“It is a miracle!”

“The Grace has deigned to look upon us!”

The shouts of the Lilia Order’s priests drowned out my words.

Before I could even do anything, a contract already existed, stating that Jonathan Karma would simply donate the factory land and everything on it, signed by both Jonathan Karma and High Priest Yodel.

In an instant.

The Lilia Order didn’t suffer a loss, quite the opposite.

Even for a slum, it had managed to claim the entire massive factory grounds right in the heart of the capital as its own.

*

Once more, I led my countless followers towards the factory grounds I’d just received under the Lilia Order’s name.

A wretched, filthy place slathered in industrial waste and garbage.

Damn it all.

I was planning on making the Order bleed money, but it just had to come free like this.

Doesn’t matter, though.

There are plenty of things to make them bleed cash for.

“Clear the garbage, demolish the factory, and dig into the earth.”

“Dig into the earth, you say?”

“Deeply. Dig as deeply as you can. And then, build a towering, skyscraper-like temple.”

After coming to the capital, it seems the world has this reinforced concrete technology; you can easily spot buildings that are five or six stories tall.

The cost of demolishing the factory. The cost of clearing the trash. The cost of hiring workers to dig.

Add it all up and, time aside, the money’s going to gush out like tears.

Of course, there’s going to be absolutely damn-all in this factory grounds.

If he realizes he bought land that’ll only bring losses instead of profit, I bet the High Priest Yodel will slap me across the face and take off, won’t he?

“Start immediately…”

“The Saint commands we dig deep and build a tall temple!! Let’s clear the garbage!! It is the Goddess’s will!!”

My ambitious plan started to unravel as High Priest Yodel started bellowing.

The moment Yodel yelled, a monstrous number of slum dwellers came swarming in.

Looking closer, they were all those poor folk I’d treated.

“Let us repay the Saint for the grace received!!”

A massive crowd swarmed, offering to help clear the factory in an instant.

Naturally, not a soul could be found who expected payment.

“Alright, alright! Form a line!! Take turns going in to clear and coming out!! Understood?”

Holy Knights from the Sun Order and the police controlled the crowd, keeping accidents at bay.

“Go buy food! Now!! We need to provide food for those working!!”

High Priest Yodel, along with Holy Knights and priests from the Lilia Order, went to purchase food.

Me?

“Saint!! Bestow your grace!! My child is sick!!”

“My mother is spitting blood! Saint!!”

Now, having done this a few times, I’d gotten used to it, and a long line formed naturally before me.

This isn’t it.

Shit.

Still, it’s alright.

Demolishing the building will cost a pretty penny.

Look at that huge factory.

It’ll take months, at the very least, to demolish all that.

Cleaning that up will break Lilia Order’s bank.

It definitely will.

Because keeping the Goddess un-pissed was crucial, I kept diligently healing the poor folks, rocking that Saint of Lilia title.

That’s when I felt a fear, like my breath was stuck in my throat, grab hold of my whole damn body.

A Witch!!

A four-armed, goddamn nuke, Dawan the Witch!!

No!! I gave her two arms back then!!

Why are there four again!!

Why’s she here!!

“Saint-nim!”

The witch spotted me and charged over, looking way too happy.

And before I could even *think* about doing something, she had me wrapped in a hug.

The witch smelled like… well, like a woman. It was a goddamn shock to a virgin loser like me.

“I wanted to see you!”

The witch stared at me, looking sickeningly happy, and shouted it out.

I was frozen, barely able to get a word out.

“Why did you come here?”

Yeah!! Why ARE you here!! I don’t wanna see you again!! I don’t make a habit of living next to bombs, y’know!!

“I became a witch affiliated with the Magic Tower! I wanted to share the happy news… that’s why I came. Is there anything I can do to help?”

That’s just *peachy*.

So, now that you’re a Magic Tower witch, why don’t you go hang out with some friends you made there instead of coming to *me*?

While I was internally begging her to just vanish already, Dawan the Witch’s eyes flicked towards the factory.

“Hurry and clean this up, demolish the factory!! There’ll be plenty more work ahead, so gotta move, gotta move!!”

Whether she heard High Priest Yodel yelling at the laborers in the slums, the witch flashed me a grin.

“That factory. You’re having it demolished?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll do it for you!”

She vanished before my eyes like she’d just blinked through space. A true, dyed-in-the-wool witch, unlike me, who’s panting and gasping just from a little time stop spell.

And then, a short while later.

The witch suddenly reappeared before me, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Holding a rather large permit in her hand, she announced:

“Magic Use Permit and Demolition Permit! You need permission to use large-scale magic in the capital, you know! Just wait, I’ll get rid of that factory right away!!”

No.

Wait a minute.

My plan to make the Lilia Order foot the bill for the demolition?

My plan to make those b*stards lose money sinking cash into cleaning up their garbage?

Not this way, you witch!!

Stop!!

But before I could even stop her, the witch was already flying towards the factory grounds.

She showed the permit to the police directing the crowds, said something, and the police, in a flash, evacuated everyone who was cleaning up, and as soon as the evacuation was complete…

“Good heavens!!”

“Holy shit!! No way!!”

The witch yanked out her wand and waved it, and with that, the entire colossal factory was ripped whole from the ground, hoisted straight up into the air.

And the factory building, raised like that, vanished in a *poof* to somewhere else in the next instant.

Just like that, in a single day.

The abandoned factory, overflowing with waste and trash, had been transformed into a neatly cleared empty lot.

Fuck.

This isn’t how it was supposed to go!!