Chapter 305: NO. 67: If You'd Said That Sooner, It Would've Been Fine

NO. 67: If you had said that earlier, wouldn't it have been fine?

"Young man, what's your name?"

This is a canned-food knight who approached, his armor covered in holy inscriptions, and he also hung many scripture cloths, appearing extremely devout and steadfast.

Yet he greeted a hideous demon that had not yet reverted to human form, his tone extremely cheerful and warm.

This caused the black flames in the demon's eye sockets to undulate again.

"O... Aomo Lindun."

"Come to handle the curse?" Another priest poked his head over, holding a flail with many indicator lights.

After drawing the demon's attention, he instead laughed somewhat embarrassedly and hid the flail behind his back.

Before Aomo could answer, he felt a slightly painful yet extremely warm radiance envelop him; turning his head, he saw an angel whose hands were surrounded by countless glowing runes, palms aimed at him.

She gave him an apologetic smile, quickly dispelled the divine technique in her hand, and corrected the priest just now: "No, he didn't become like this because of a curse; he's a natural human-demon hybrid."

After saying that, she hesitated, then lowered her head and muttered to another angel beside her: "Is using the term 'natural' a bit imprecise?"

"Indeed, if it's normal sexual reproduction, wouldn't that count as artificial?" her colleague pondered.

"But artificial should also be ambiguous, look at those from the Information Technology Department..." The third angel also came over to join the 'ear‑biting'.

At that moment, the priest who had not rushed over earlier, instead first sizing up the horse girl beside Aomo, finally approached and patted Aomo's shoulder: "Don't mind those few; they've got problems here."

He directly pointed at his head; his frankness and boldness were enough to make the demon's eye‑socket flames visibly undulate once.

A priest bluntly said the angels' brains have a problem, which is perhaps overly rebellious.

Yet the priest holding the modern flail also nodded naturally, saying: "And they like to nitpick."

"So you're not here to purify the curse?"

The two were so natural that it made oneself seem surprisingly abnormal… Aomo had just been wondering whether he should adapt, when he heard the latter part of the swiftly shifting topic, prompting him to glance at the motionless wave‑like figure beside him, as still as a sculpture.

"Please have everyone examine her." He raised his hand to dispel the sound‑isolating spell around the wave, then Aomo raised his hand and patted her shoulder, drawing her gaze.

"Master, what's the current situation?"

The cyber horse girl, having watched the whole silent play, couldn't quite grasp the current developments; it seemed that the master, via that dark‑gold magic circle, had produced a visible sonic pressure shock, after which these people became unusually enthusiastic and friendly.

What's the principle behind this?

"The accident has been dealt with; now we proceed with inspection according to the original plan."

Only while patting her shoulder did he belatedly notice his own slender, sharp claws; Aomo hastily withdrew his demonic form and cut off the wave's curiosity.

Blasting electronic music at full volume to overwhelm everything was within his expectations, but he truly couldn't understand these people's fervent gazes.

Since even he doesn't understand, it's better not to let the cyber girl think—otherwise she'd become like "MeiPu BoPang. exe" not responding.

But to carry out this arrangement, we also need cooperation from the Purification Division's staff.

So after saying that, he turned his head to look at the two priests ahead and the tall knight beside them.

Although their first encounter was wild and confusing, they indeed wore work badges on their chests, indicating the positions of recorder, purification inspector, and observer respectively.

"Is it convenient, gentlemen?" Aomo asked, showing the appointment certificate on the light screen, "I was notified to gather here and brought her along."

Then the tall knight clapped his hands, and a pair of metal claws immediately emitted a dull thud:

"Convenient! Of course convenient! But… purifying the horse girl…" The knight seemed a bit troubled, scratched his helmet with his claw, then waved at the three angels: "Your Excellencies Observers, please come assist immediately!"

This attitude was exactly the respect crusaders ought to show angels—so normal that Aomo again glanced at those two bold priests with surprise.

Then he saw the two of them lowering their heads and tapping their respective speakers, as if they thought they could still salvage something.

... I suppose I should compensate for this?

Aomo instantly felt embarrassed, wondering whether he should stay silent or proactively admit fault.

If we start negotiations from "interfering with the normal purification process," perhaps we could each make a concession?

Moreover, there's the complaint‑negotiation tactic… Aomo also habitually thinks of such situations in the worst possible way.

But the result was that the other side simply tapped and gave up the "struggle".

He directly tossed those two seemingly heavy and expensive speakers to the side, then looked at Aomo, rubbing his hands together eagerly and asked:

"How did you pull that off just now? It doesn't seem like the effect of an ordinary amplification spell."

Um……

Aomo was momentarily speechless.

His gaze had just been following those two as they traced arcs in midair, landing near the trash can.

No matter how casually the priests tossed the junk, he found the sound of those speakers hitting the ground extremely grating.

At this moment, being asked made things even more delicate.

"I'm more curious about what you few were just doing."

"Playing music," the priest declared confidently.

"Right," the other priest chimed in with a +1.

"Preparing for the competition," the knight who was pushing the equipment also called out from afar.

He was moving the edge‑placed equipment together with the three angels, his posture light despite the weight, his actions quite swift.

That said, it was rather surprising to Aomo.

Playing music during a competition isn't odd, but what kind of competition lets everyone play their own?

Moreover, doing this while customers walk in—should we say it's racing against time or just slacking off at work?

Aomo raised his eyebrows, but didn't intend to press further, for his "trouble radar" had already gone off.

But even if he didn't ask, choosing to honestly wait alongside the wave, watching the knight and the three angels reset the equipment.

Those two priests would also take the initiative to say: "Mr. Lindun, would you be willing to lend a hand?"

Aomo replied expressionlessly: "Personally, I prefer to avoid trouble."

He had already noticed that when those two spoke, the knight was still hesitant, while the three angel ladies shifted their gazes slightly toward this side.

They were solemnly concerned.

Also, just now these six were there clashing sound waves, each doing their own thing, noisier than the toys of Heisei and Reiwa sentai, knights, and Ultraman transforming together.

"No trouble, no trouble, just have you go play a song, spin a disc."

"……"

Originally you really are a disco, huh?

"I think you've misunderstood something," seeing Aomo's eyes full of astonishment and oddity, the priest holding a flail hurriedly explained, "It's like this, we have a program in preparation that requires Behemoth's participation."

"By the way, have you heard of Behemoth?" another priest asked.

"One of the giant beasts God created from clay on the sixth day of Genesis, the original form of Bahamut." Aomo said indifferently.

The priest then continued, "That's right, although later legends gave it a demon label and even once made it one of the demon kings, but we here have a Behemoth that stays close to the original scripture."

"Oh!" Aomo was somewhat surprised.

The original-scripture Behemoth, isn't that just a hippopotamus?

Although the description says, "Its tail is straight like cypress, its muscles solid like stone, its bones hard like bronze and iron," but…

Living in water, eating grass, and having a big mouth—these traits are enough for many artists to depict it as a hippopotamus, even as an elephant.

Of course, the point is its huge size.

It is also a giant beast; placed on a special-effects set, it genuinely belongs to the mythological monster category, like the demon beasts in some Records of the Peaceful Lands.

This also made Aomo a little curious.

And amidst this curiosity… what program needs Behemoth's participation?

"It seems you're interested, then I'll now get to the point: this Behemoth has been constantly drowsy lately."

"So you want to wake her up?"

"Wake up!" an angel operating the screen loudly corrected, "She is the Lord's creation; we dare not be disrespectful!"

Having said that, she turned toward Bopang, smiled, and said, "Miss, please come this way."

"First sit on this device; we'll use standard divine art source energy to measure your soul's stability."

】

"After all, some divine arts can shake the soul; we'll consider different measurement combinations based on your stability."

Bopang, upon hearing this, turned to look at Aomo: "I'll go over then, master."

"Go."

Aomo nodded, watched her walk to that oddly shaped chair connected to countless halos, then turned back to continue looking at the two idle priests.

The latter also patiently waited until the horse girl that Aomo brought sat on the seat; seeing him look over, he simply shrugged.

"A Behemoth woken by noise is rather violent; we don't want to waste effort suppressing it, so for smooth approval we must use a gentle method."

"Is this gentleness from Behemoth's perspective?"

Recalling the earlier clamor, Aomo didn't think that was gentle at all, and frankly, that Behemoth could be woken by such a sound is rather mysterious.

It feels like a celebrity I read about in childhood classics, who actually spends all day scrolling through big-illness videos.

"Of course, compared to just slapping her, an alarm clock is more appropriate."

"But that's still waking her up, isn't it?"

"As long as she doesn't get morning grumpiness, so if she likes the music!"

The priest waved his hand: "It needs to be loud enough to match its aura of swallowing mountains, and passionate enough to match its surging tides upon awakening."

"I think a bank-robbing song wouldn't be suitable."

"That's just because we're stuck at the first step—the sound isn't loud enough," another priest said gloomily.

Aomo glanced sideways at Bopang's side, where the knight in heavy armor was chanting a prayer, his gauntlets making a faint sound as he moved.

"I think your organization shouldn't lack means to produce a huge sound."

"Noise and music are two different things; we've also hired a few consultants studying this, the song selection isn't set yet, but the part developing the large music player is stuck."

"This sounds like it's going to be troublesome."

"Going by the records, you're a mercenary, right? Booked through the agency's channel—can we ask for help in the form of a commission? We can discuss compensation."

"Then let's get into it."