When Duanmu Huai walked into the Adventurers' Guild, he unsurprisingly drew everyone's attention.
This was perfectly normal. Although Duanmu Huai was not wearing his usual power armor as a disguise, his current attire was still more than eye-catching enough—he wore a black top hat, long trousers, iron boots, and a vest over a shirt. Over that, he had on a black high-collared coat, the tall collar raised to cover the lower half of his face. Together with the brim of his hat pulled low, Duanmu Huai appeared to reveal nothing but a pair of eyes. On his chest, he wore the Inquisitor-exclusive skull-and-warhammer rosette, and on his back was strapped a massive, heavy power sword. Altogether, he looked like someone not to be trifled with.
"H-hello...… th-this...… sir...…."
Watching Duanmu Huai stride over, the man sitting behind the desk hurriedly shoved away the secretary who had been sitting on his lap, then stood up trembling. The secretary who was pushed to the ground didn't dare make a sound, quietly turning around and slipping away.
"M-may I ask...… what business you have?"
"I'm an adventurer, here to take on a commission."
Duanmu Huai stared at the man and spoke calmly. Hearing his reply, the man finally let out a breath of relief.
"Ah, you're an adventurer...… r-right, right, of course, one look and I can tell you're a powerful adventurer, um...… but...…"
As he spoke, the man carefully glanced at Duanmu Huai.
"This seems to be your first time in the royal capital. I'm sorry, but according to the Adventurers' Guild regulations, you must first undergo an assessment...…"
"Say it."
"Y-yes, yes, yes..."
Seeing that Duanmu Huai didn't seem displeased, the man hurriedly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, then pulled out a sheet of paper from the files beside him and respectfully handed it over.
"This is your assessment mission...… This young lady, Miss Palputinks Frandas, was captured by a bandit group. Her father has commissioned our Adventurers' Guild to send someone to rescue her, but at the moment we are short-handed..."
Duanmu Huai took the document and glanced at the photograph. The picture showed a blue-haired girl who looked pretty and cute—well, not surprising. In this world, the proportion of beautiful girls was terrifyingly high; ugly women were actually harder to find.
For Duanmu Huai, this kind of mission was not difficult at all. All he had to do was find the location, then charge in and rescue the person.
Like this.
"Uwaa!!"
Along with wails of agony, two bandits were sent flying straight into the wall. Before they even hit the ground, Duanmu Huai flashed forward and threw a punch, directly blasting through their chests. Amid the spray of blood, the bandits turned into shattered corpses the next instant.
"Hmph."
Duanmu Huai pulled back his arm, glanced at the ruined bodies, and strode into the cave.
"Uwa...…"
Kentō Kanami, who had been following behind, walked over as well. Seeing the miserable state of the bandits' corpses, she sucked in a sharp breath. To be honest, although this wasn't the first time she had witnessed Duanmu Huai in battle, scenes this brutal were still hard to stomach.
"I'll draw the bandits' attention. You go find the kidnapped girl."
Duanmu Huai didn't care in the slightest—this was basically his standard approach. After hearing his order, Kentō Kanami didn't hesitate, nodded, and her figure flashed as she disappeared into the shadows. At the same time, the sounds of bandits shouting echoed from the passage ahead.
"Good."
Looking at the bandits charging toward him with murderous intent, Duanmu Huai clenched his fists.
"Prepare to die!"
To Duanmu Huai, these bandits were utterly insignificant. Although he wasn't wearing power armor right now, the force field shield triggered by the Inquisitor's rosary was more than enough to block these attacks, which posed virtually no threat at all. In fact, when the bandits ferociously swung their weapons at Duanmu Huai, their attacks were intercepted by the force field, after which they were met head-on by his iron fists.
After all, the main purpose of this trip was to deal with Devilmen. Based on Duanmu Huai's experience—judging from his previous battle with Satra—the Devilmen of this world were roughly on par with the Chaos Champions the Imperium had once encountered. So to be on the safe side, even without his power armor, he still wore the rosary's protective force field.
Of course, using this thing against bandits was massive overkill.
In just a short moment, the bandits surrounding Duanmu Huai were all beaten to the ground. The last remaining man, a burly brute, glanced at his companions who were lying around in mangled states, then gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and charged straight at Duanmu Huai!
"Oooooh!!"
"Hah!!"
Facing the brute's attack, Duanmu Huai roared and stepped forward. Hearing that roar, the bandit who had been lunging forward froze in place, his entire body shuddering. Before he could react, Duanmu Huai's iron fist had already smashed solidly into his face. The bandit's facial bones were instantly crushed, and his body was sent flying like a piece of discarded trash.
When he hit the ground, the bandit's once-ferocious face was twisted and deformed like shattered porcelain, completely mangled and no longer human in appearance.
"Uwa...…"
At this moment, Kentō Kanami reappeared. Seeing the scene before her, she couldn't help but sigh.
"Even though it's not the first time I've seen it, Your Excellency, you really are ruthless when you strike..."
"It's fine. Where's the person?"
Duanmu Huai withdrew his fist and looked at Kentō Kanami. She shook her head.
"She's locked in the bandit leader's room. It seems she's being assaulted, but the door is too sturdy to open."
"And he still doesn't come out after all this?"
"He seems too absorbed to have heard anything..."
"...…"
Hearing Kentō Kanami's reply, Duanmu Huai was speechless. He had originally thought that after he charged in like this, the leader would at least come out to see what was going on. Who would have thought that this guy truly loved beauty more than his own life—people had already stormed his lair, and he still refused to come out!
If you won't come out, then I'll go in!
"Take me there!"
Soon, guided by Kentō Kanami, Duanmu Huai arrived at the boss room deep within the underground cave. Just as Kentō Kanami had said, the iron door before them was tightly locked. They could faintly hear a girl's sobbing and screams coming from inside.
"This is really enough."
Hearing this, Duanmu Huai's expression darkened. This world had an extremely high proportion of beautiful girls, but conversely, their treatment in this world was not very good. In fact, along the way, Duanmu Huai and Kentō Kanami had encountered many similar situations—victims forced by multiple soldiers, or beautiful girls kidnapped by bandits were far too common. To be honest, this world was, in some sense, realistic and yet unrealistic at the same time.
Unrealistic because no normal world could possibly have such a high proportion of beauties.
Realistic because no matter how high the proportion of beauties, they still couldn't escape being preyed upon.
Of course, for Duanmu Huai, no matter what world it was, seeing innocent beautiful girls treated like this was absolutely unacceptable.
Hmm? As for whether this would cause one to fall into the abyss of the Sin of Excessive Desire?
Hahahaha, no, no, no. With the aesthetics of the God of Desire, it was on a completely different scale from normal humans. Liking beautiful women didn't mean you'd fall to an evil god—twisted aesthetics were the real sign of corruption.
It was like painting. If you drew a normal nude woman, the Inquisition wouldn't think you were colluding with evil gods.
But if you painted a mess of seizure-like, chaotic colors mixed together, looking like a child's random scribbles, and then stood there praising it as "true beauty," that was the moment the Inquisition would come knocking on your door.
"The truth of the world," right?
"Pure beauty," right?
Heresy. Burn it.
Simply put, extremism of any kind was what led to falling into the abyss of Chaos.
As for the Sin of Excessive Desire specifically... "Appearance is justice," "Anything can be sacrificed for beauty," "Desire and pleasure are the supreme truths of this world"—that was the biggest difference between normal people and heretical devotees.
Judging everything by looks, believing that nothing else mattered and everything could be forgiven.
Slaughtering others without hesitation just to create what one believed to be the most beautiful thing.
Believing that as long as one could enjoy desire and pleasure, it didn't matter if the entire world was destroyed.
Yeah, if you encountered someone like that, you could basically burn them alive on the spot.
Even if they weren't a follower of the Sin of Excessive Desire now, they definitely would be in the future.
Just like the guy here, who disregarded everything else just to indulge in beautiful women—he was a potential follower of an evil god!
Die.
Duanmu Huai's shoulder sank as he suddenly charged forward. In the next instant, the tightly locked steel door was smashed open by Duanmu Huai, flying off with a loud boom and crashing into the wall. He then strode into the room and looked around. The entire room was in utter disarray. On a chair to the side, a young girl lay on her back, her hands and feet bound to the armrests, her eyes covered with a black cloth. Beneath her, a bizarre cylindrical device was buzzing, swaying left and right...
"...…"
This world even has this kind of thing now? What the hell did this civilization's tech tree get invested into?
Duanmu Huai silently turned his head and gestured to Kentō Kanami.
"Handle it."
"Ah, okay."
Hearing Duanmu Huai's order, Kentō Kanami nodded and hurried over to the girl, undoing her restraints.
As for the bandit boss—well, when Duanmu Huai smashed the door open, he seemed to have been taken out in one go along with it. At present, he had already become a miserable smear on the wall, like something flattened by a fly swatter.
Fortunately, although the girl had been kidnapped for several days, she had not yet been violated by the bandits.
This wasn't because the bandits were gentlemen, but because their leader apparently loved to torment girls in this way, taking pleasure in watching their anguish—well, as expected, definitely a potential heretical devotee of excessive desire.
In any case, afterward, Duanmu Huai sent the girl back to the Adventurers' Guild, successfully completing the commission.
Of course, the real business came next.
"Since you've already passed the test, you may now accept official commissions. In fact..."
At this point, the man from the Adventurers' Guild showed a bitter expression.
"I wonder if you've heard that recently many young girls have gone missing in the royal capital...… among them are quite a few daughters of nobles. As such, many people have commissioned searches for these missing noble girls..."
"Mm, go on."
Duanmu Huai had already heard about this from Kentō Kanami, so he simply nodded.
"In fact, quite a few adventurers accepted these commissions before, but afterward, they all went missing. Some people say..."
As he spoke, the man quietly glanced toward the distant castle.
"...there may be some unspeakable secrets involved."
"I understand."
Duanmu Huai didn't waste words, simply extending his hand.
"So, may I take the mission?"
"Of course. Here is also a pass. As long as you hold this pass, you can enter the inner city..."
"Very good."
Taking the pass from the man's hand, Duanmu Huai nodded silently.
"Leave it to me."
(End of Chapter)