Epilogue

“…It was a very complex trick. I won’t be able to explain it easily, I’m sorry to say,” I said flippantly to the worried-looking Archpriest.

Once more, members of the Royal Police swarmed the place; they cordoned off (again) the crime scene and started taking care of the cadaver. Well, cadavers.

—After killing the Midnight cultist, the strange, dark world around us crumbled.

In the process, it also hurled out everything it had eaten before.

Yes, I killed the man.

As a member of the Royal Police, I had no reason to hesitate. He was clearly the bad guy, and my job was to administer justice—besides, it was likely the only way out.

It was a bet, but a successful one. I vanquished the culprit and the beast and got out.

Cleanup… was going to be difficult. As were the explanations I was supposed to present to my superiors.

Since this was a clearly supernatural phenomenon, there was no need to tell normal civilians. Not at this stage, anyway. Precept No. 1, and all that. Luckily, since everything happened while I was completely alone in the room, no one witnessed anything. Especially not the sudden appearance of all that gore.

Man, Simona was going to love this. Hopefully she’d help me with things here, too.

“Ah… my beautiful Church…” mumbled the poor Dawnist, holding his head.

“Hey, don’t worry. It’s just the Sunset Room, eh? Isn’t that the place where all sins get purified anyway?”

“But the Lightless Orb is broken…” Unfortunately true; I had no idea whether it was related to the curse or not, but I found it shattered upon my return to proper reality. “What am I to do? Sunlight, guide me!”

Feeling awkward, I left the man alone and supervised the other work, already feeling the start of a major headache. One that was doubtlessly going to keep on swelling in the following hours, days and weeks.

“Good luck to me, I guess,” I grumbled, pulled out another piece of gum from my pocket and tore off its edge like a dark beast.