Got a Gallery in the Wild

Calm down.

Asella patted her chest a few times after witnessing the abyss hidden beneath the surface.

She wanted to draw the Holy Sword immediately and cut down those despicable wretches.

But she couldn’t.

Just as Reis had advised her, if she acted on her emotions, she would only make things worse.

Not only would she fail to rescue Hans the fruit seller, but above all, she would be doing the Holy See a favor.

‘I’m already carrying the false accusation of being a traitor.’

In the Holy Kingdom, being branded a traitor carried tremendous weight.

The people close to Asella didn’t believe such nonsense, but the citizens were different.

The Hero of this generation will destroy Eldorado.

It was a prophecy spoken by the Goddess herself.

‘For now, all I can do is record everything.’

She would think later about uploading it to the Gallery.

First, she needed to obtain the recording.

Barely suppressing the rage and sense of betrayal consuming her, Asella began to move.

It pained her to witness Hans’s interrogation with her own eyes, but she had no choice.

She needed irrefutable evidence so the Holy See couldn’t escape responsibility.

“Is it really that difficult to admit it? Right now you’re cursed, and you were receiving orders from the Immortal King in your dreams. You just have to say that.”

“I… I can’t do that. Why would I?”

“What a stubborn man. You shouldn’t be asking why, but how.”

Fortunately, they never imagined that someone might have infiltrated the place.

Security was only tight at the entrance.

The rest was surprisingly unguarded.

Asella silently approached the window and hung from its ledge.

Although it was quite high, her extraordinary physical abilities made it effortless.

“If you cooperate and confess, it’ll be better for both you and us.”

“The Goddess Aris… will never forgive you.”

“But we can forgive you. It’s very simple, don’t you think?”

“You dare to even speak the Goddess Aris’s name…?!”

“The will of the Holy See is the will of Aris.”

Hans’s condition after undergoing that “interrogation” was pitiful.

To prevent him from using the Gallery, they had tightly blindfolded him, and both of his hands were bound.

Moreover, in barely a single day, he had endured so much torture that his entire body was covered in wounds.

Beside him sat a bucket full of water.

Just imagining what they had used it for made her heart ache even more.

‘Uncle Hans…’

Asella’s eyes hardened.

Being forced to witness those atrocities was torture in itself.

Why wasn’t the Goddess Aris punishing those people?

Why did kind Uncle Hans have to end up like this?

And why had the Holy See become a Demon King just to preserve its power?

“What a shame. It doesn’t seem to be working. Start again.”

“Never…!”

When another “interrogation” began, Asella nearly looked away.

But she couldn’t.

She had to record everything with her own eyes.

Even if dirt were thrown into her eyes, she couldn’t close them.

“Ghhh…”

“Well now. He’s passed out again.”

After the brutal interrogation session, Hans collapsed completely.

He had lost consciousness from sheer exhaustion.

The inquisitor clicked his tongue as he looked at him hanging limply like a dead fish and gave a slight nod.

The Holy Knights standing firmly behind him stepped forward and began dragging Hans away.

Creeeak.

The interrogation room door opened, and the Holy Knights dragged him out.

Just as Asella was about to follow them, she overheard a conversation she couldn’t ignore.

“What if he really ends up dying?”

It was the worried voice of one of the inquisitors.

It wasn’t clear whether he was worried about Hans or about the consequences that would follow.

Asella had a feeling it was the latter and kept listening.

“So what? It doesn’t matter to us. We’ll just announce that he really was a servant of the Immortal King.”

“Will the citizens believe that?”

“We’ll say several Holy Knights were seriously injured while subduing him. Though one of them will have to put up with us scratching a few claw marks across his face.”

That conversation went beyond shamelessness.

It was revolting.

Asella felt her head spin.

They didn’t show the slightest concern for a human life.

Were those people really priests?

“And what will we do with his family?”

“Hey, idiot. Don’t you know how the undead work? An undead is only complete once it dies. We’ll say we had to cremate him to stop the curse from spreading.”

“…”

“The citizens of Eldorado blindly worship Aris. If we mention her name, they’ll accept anything. We’ll have plenty more work after this too.”

“More work?”

“Yes. We may have to arrest more people and claim they were also cursed by the Immortal King. That’s the only way the citizens will eventually believe it. By the way, do you have a cigarette?”

They didn’t just want to put collars around people’s necks.

They intended to decide who lived and who died.

They had no intention of treating people as human beings.

Asella felt her blood boil upon hearing such a twisted way of thinking.

‘How can they treat people like this…?!’

She wanted to draw the Holy Sword and behead them that very instant.

But she couldn’t.

With superhuman willpower, she suppressed the fury burning inside her.

She had already obtained all the evidence and testimony she needed.

Now all that remained was to bring everything to light.

She decided to leave that nauseating place as quickly as possible.

‘Uncle Hans… please hold on just a little longer. Goddess Aris, grant him the strength to endure this suffering.’

Hans was an ordinary citizen.

The amount of time he could withstand such torture was extremely limited.

And even if he survived, he would most likely carry permanent scars for the rest of his life.

So she prayed with all her heart.

It was the only thing she could do.

‘But will simply uploading this to the Gallery be enough?’

The thought suddenly crossed her mind.

Would everything really be resolved just by posting it on the Gallery?

Eldorado was rotten.

Just as Ludwig had cut away the rotten part, Eldorado also needed to be amputated.

The problem was that the rotten part was its head.

And when you cut off the head, any living creature dies.

Replacing the head meant, in practice, becoming an entirely different entity.

‘Even so, that’s still better.’

If it meant saving millions of citizens, she would gladly cut off that head.

Just as Asella reaffirmed that resolve.

Flash!

“?!”

The Holy Sword suddenly began to emit a brilliant glow.

Asella froze.

She still hadn’t left the interrogation area.

Even such a faint light could easily attract attention.

She hurriedly tried to cover it with her robe, but the Holy Sword’s radiance pierced through the fabric without difficulty.

‘I-I have to get out of here as fast as possible…!’

Clack—

“Hm?”

Panicked by the unexpected situation, she made a grave mistake.

The noise caused one of the Holy Knights serving as an inquisitor to look up.

With the Holy Sword glowing and that sound echoing at the same time.

The chances of going unnoticed were practically nonexistent.

“……”

“……”

Asella’s eyes met the inquisitor’s directly.

A heavy silence fell between them.

He was the very same inquisitor who had been speaking with his superior inside the interrogation room just moments ago.

Just as Asella slowly began reaching for the Holy Sword.

“Hey! Why are you taking so long?”

“Ah, I’m coming right away.”

To Asella’s surprise, the inquisitor pretended not to have seen her and hurried over to where his superior was calling him.

— What the hell was keeping you so busy?

— There was a rat.

— A rat? Well, this place is pretty old, so that’s not surprising. Did you get rid of it?

— Yes.

Their conversation reached her ears clearly.

Apparently, the inquisitor had no intention of exposing her.

Asella let out a sigh of relief and smiled faintly.

‘He still has some conscience left.’

The last spark of humanity that had managed to bloom in a place as filthy and repulsive as a garbage dump.

Perhaps it was because of people like him that the world was still worth saving.

And that was precisely why she couldn’t give up.

After confirming that the Holy Sword had stopped glowing, Asella hurriedly left the area.

Fortunately, nothing dangerous happened during her escape.

‘Next…’

She had to post the evidence of Hans’s interrogation and imprisonment on the Gallery.

However, as she had already realized earlier, uploading that evidence alone wouldn’t solve everything.

She needed a next step.

Asella stood motionless beside the wall of a building as she thought.

How could she uproot a Holy See that had become completely corrupt?

The Hero existed to protect the citizens, not the Pope.

‘Ideally, I’d cut off their arms and legs… but there’s no time.’

The Holy See, experts in filthy and underhanded politics, would undoubtedly sacrifice a few people to save the rest.

Moreover, there was a high chance they would discover that she was in Eldorado’s capital.

And, being the Holy See, they would almost certainly demand that she appear publicly.

‘That would be a problem. They’ll keep taking advantage of the fact that they call me a traitor until the very end.’

For the sake of the citizens, she was even willing to expose a named Gallery user.

After all, the fact that someone used the Gallery wouldn’t make the citizens hesitate.

Everyone would understand.

But the Holy See wouldn’t point at Asella, the Gallery’s head administrator.

They would point at Asella, the Hero.

The woman branded with the stigma of treason, someone even the citizens had avoided.

It would be like pouring a bucket of cold water over everything.

For now, she had to step back and observe.

‘I have to leave them with no way out. But…’

Would it really be that easy?

They would start by sacrificing their subordinates and buy time with every excuse imaginable.

In the worst-case scenario, all it would take was for the Pope himself to publicly apologize, and everything would end there.

Some might wonder why that would be the worst-case scenario.

After all, the Pope would be bowing his head.

‘The Holy See has to disappear.’

It had already rotted beyond salvation.

The corrupt part had to be cut away.

Even if that meant it would be reborn under another name.

As Asella thought about how to bring down the Holy See, she slowly raised her head.

‘There’s only one way.’

And that very afternoon.

The worst revelation in all of Eldorado’s history appeared on the Gallery.

***

The Pope of Eldorado, Louis II.

He had begun as nothing more than an ordinary priest before climbing to the highest position.

Normally, becoming Pope required extraordinary political skill and a great deal of luck.

He possessed both.

The first was that, during the Immortal King crisis, nearly all of the high-ranking officials had died, creating a massive shortage of personnel.

The second was his exceptional political talent.

When fortune presented him with the opportunity, he seized it without wasting a single moment and climbed all the way to the papacy.

But they say power changes people.

And he, who had been consumed by ambition from the very beginning, was easily corrupted by his thirst for power.

He ruthlessly eliminated anyone who threatened his authority.

And he went even further, getting rid of anyone who might one day become a problem.

Hero Asella and Ludwig were the most prominent examples.

After all, the prophecy was genuine.

Because of it, Asella fled in terror, and Ludwig’s reputation was utterly destroyed.

Even though the revelations ultimately surfaced from an unexpected place.

The Forest of Four Seasons.

That didn’t matter.

‘After all, they can’t do anything from there.’

The fact that Ludwig had survived until the end was an unforeseen variable.

But only that.

As long as he remained trapped in the Forest of Four Seasons, he would never be able to interfere in Eldorado.

For now, all he had to do was calm the enraged citizens.

And then suppress them by force.

He believed it would be easy.

“What… what did you say?!”

“A new revelation has been posted on the Gallery! The citizens are rising up en masse!”

Until just before Hans’s current condition was posted on the Gallery.

— Waaaaaaah!!!

— Give us back Uncle Hans!

— The Pope must resign! The Pope must resign!

— Get out of here, Demon King!

The furious cries of the citizens reached Louis II’s ears directly.

Only a single day had passed since Hans had been detained.

And yet everything that had happened inside the Holy See had already been exposed.

Louis II was startled, but quickly regained his composure.

‘There’s still time. It’s not as though I didn’t anticipate something like this.’

It didn’t matter whether it had been an infiltrator or an informant within their ranks.

The first step would be to claim complete ignorance of the incident and punish the inquisitors.

After that, he only needed to remind everyone of the Gallery’s poor credibility, calm the populace, and offer an apology.

He would also promise reforms and assure everyone that such a thing would never happen again.

‘Whoever leaked it is still in Eldorado. I just have to pin all the blame on them.’

It would be easy to present it as a scheme by the Immortal King to divide Eldorado.

While considering every possible course of action, Louis II questioned the priest who had brought him the report.

“Who posted the revelation? An anonymous user? Or someone with a name?”

“I-it was… a named user… but…”

The priest hesitated before answering.

“WildGrills.”

“What?”

“WildGrills. The user who supposedly lives in the Forest of Four Seasons.”

“……”

The moment he heard that name, Louis II’s mind stopped working.

If it had been an anonymous user or any other known user.

But WildGrills.

That completely threw him off balance.

Nevertheless, his mind quickly began working again as he analyzed the situation.

‘It’s impossible for someone from the Forest of Four Seasons to have come here. Someone must have passed him the information.’

That much was reasonable.

But then what?

Could he pressure WildGrills into revealing the informant’s identity?

No.

After all, the post was already on the Gallery, and WildGrills was still in the Forest of Four Seasons.

Could he claim that everything WildGrills had posted was false and nothing but propaganda?

No.

He could try.

But if he was wrong, he would only end up contradicting himself and inflaming public outrage even further.

Because if he claimed it was all a lie.

Everyone would ask why Hans still hadn’t been returned.

Even if everything was true, the final destination remained the same.

The Forest of Four Seasons.

Could he ask the citizens to trust the Holy See instead of WildGrills?

No.

Because of Ludwig.

Ludwig was still alive, and the responses would be inevitable.

[Then you go into the Forest of Four Seasons too.]

[If you think it’s unfair, prove it there.]

[If Ludwig could do it, why can’t you?]

Who in their right mind would willingly enter the Forest of Four Seasons?

It was practically suicide.

Of course, he still had many ways to wriggle out of the situation.

Even more so because it was WildGrills.

The problem was that every one of those escape routes ultimately led to the same destination.

The Forest of Four Seasons.

Louis II’s specialty had always been manipulation and lies.

But before the Forest of Four Seasons, all of those skills became completely worthless.

If he truly considered himself innocent, he could publicly declare that he would go there to prove it.

But he didn’t have the courage to do so.

‘This… this…’

Louis II understood it instantly.

‘Again…! Again…! Again, that damned…!’

A single variable had once again ruined all of his plans.

***

“Huff… what a nightmare.”

Meanwhile, WildGrills, the author of the post that had shaken the Gallery.

“If that isn’t the Forest of Four Seasons, then what would be?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing. Want another roasted sweet potato?”

“Mm.”

He remained as carefree as ever.