Holy Night: My Husband is Definitely a Paladin - Chapter 96
“You should read the report. Most of what’s recorded comes from his account, as Sir Michael’s hasn’t submitted his yet.”
The staff continued talking.
“He was actually quite brave. It seemed like everyone else lost their will to enter the moment they saw the entrance.”
The staff pointed to the lower part of the paper they had handed to Irene.
There were strange, distorted circles drawn there.
Some were elongated ovals, while others looked like the scribbles of a child just learning to hold a pen.
Then, there were blunt-edged squares and shapes that resembled sharp, spiky stars.
“These are all representations of the entrance to this unstable dungeon. Have you ever seen anything like it?”
Irene shook her head.
In her previous life, she had read and memorized every dusty old record in the archives.
Among them, unstable dungeons had particularly piqued her curiosity. From the location of their appearances, the shapes of their entrances, to the monsters and rewards inside, nothing followed any rules.
“And according to the records, the internal structure of this one was unlike anything seen before.”
The staff pointed again to the main text of the document.
The moment Irene saw the names of the monsters that had been spotted, she nearly let out a groan.
They were some of the most terrifying monsters she knew.
Even more horrifying was the dungeon’s structure.
The dungeon itself was a massive trap right from the entrance. Just a few steps in, and a deep pit filled with enormous spikes awaited, tall enough to surpass a person’s height.
It was a dungeon filled with pure malice, as if its sole purpose was to kill whoever dared to enter.
“The victims who were caught when the dungeon formed must have died there as well. The bodies Sir Michael recovered had massive holes in them. And the cuts… There were so many. We know how brutal monsters can be, but anyone who saw those bodies might think they were murdered out of revenge—it was that gruesome.”
‘Revenge.’
That word sent a chill down Irene’s spine.
When the people at the auction had hurled insults at her, she had momentarily harbored ill feelings toward them.
And Michael had witnessed it.
Suddenly, she was curious.
When Michael learned that the victims who had gotten caught in the dungeon were the very ones who had won the bid for her Stone of Silence, how had he reacted?
* * *
Inside the fortress, there was a temple.
The temple handled the measurement of purification power, treated the general public, and served as a place for prayer.
Naturally, the temple didn’t have the best relationship with the Alliance of Kingdoms.
But Michael’s reputation and his contributions to dungeon-clearing were undeniable.
And besides that, there was a public demand for the temple, and priests were necessary to evaluate the skills of purifiers.
Because of this, despite the political struggles, the temple maintained its own space in a corner of the fortress.
In that corner of the fortress, there was an incinerator where the temple’s waste was burned.
A young priest, wiping sweat from his brow in the increasingly warm weather, carried a load of waste from the temple toward the incinerator.
Then, at the entrance to the incinerator, he spotted someone.
“Who… Oh? Sir Michael!”
The young priest greeted him excitedly, and Michael nodded silently in response.
Even among the priests, seeing Michael was a rare occurrence.
He held a special position, even within the temple.
His title as the Sword of God was well-earned, and he was considered perhaps the strongest knight in not only this era but possibly the continent’s history.
The fact that the priests were able to restore faith and spread the teachings of God was entirely thanks to Michael.
For this reason, the young priest looked up to him as if he were a living miracle.
God may be distant, but Michael was a tangible miracle right before their eyes.
“What brings you to the incinerator, Sir Michael? If you have something to burn, please allow me to handle it!”
It would be an honor for the young priest just to speak with Michael.
Michael smiled slightly and replied,
“No, it’s something filthy, and I didn’t want others to see it.”
“What is it that you…”
The priest glanced toward the flames of the incinerator and caught sight of a bloodstained shirt being consumed by the fire.
“Oh… It must have been quite dirty. But still, if you had entrusted it to us, we would’ve taken care of it for you.”
Whether it was an item or clothing, if it was Michael’s request, the priests would have lined up to handle it.
But Michael shook his head.
“No, I couldn’t possibly burden others with a task that’s mine. Besides, it was so filthy I wanted to dispose of it quickly.”
At his words, the young priest instinctively flinched and took a step back.
Michael gazed into the roaring flames, a look of deep satisfaction on his face.
It was as if he was relieved to be burning something beyond repair.
