Ch.197197. The Secret Order (1)

In the Dawn Empire, numerous enemies exist.

Outside the Dawn Empire, there are heathens who envy and belittle their prosperity, and evil malevolent gods who enslave these heathens while plotting the empire’s downfall.

Monsters ranging from harmful pests to those causing natural disaster-level damage, varying greatly in both power level and type.

And internal enemies such as apostates who have abandoned their faith or hideous heretics who try to misuse divine authority.

Against these evil enemies who constantly covet the Dawn Empire’s tangible and intangible assets—the Dawn Empire possesses the strength to defend itself.

The Dawn Empire’s legions easily repel heathen invasions at the level of local conflicts, and Bjorn Wolfson serves as a deterrent against direct interference from malevolent gods.

The Avenger Corps defends against attacks from various hideous monsters, while the empire’s elites regularly control the monster population in surrounding areas.

And Inquisitors who deal with apostasy—the forbidden practice of following other religions within the Dawn Empire—and those who display “heretical” behavior.

Through the dedication of those who have pledged their lives to the Dawn Empire and the Cult of Vengeance, the Dawn Empire has established itself as a ray of hope in this Age of Darkness.

However… among these enemies, there are those who use more cunning and devious methods.

They recruit malcontents in the back alleys of the Dawn Empire to form organizations, or gather people under the pretext of prayer meetings to change their object of worship.

Going further, they misuse the name of God to commit evil acts, or deceive and betray those who wish to escape to the Dawn Empire.

Of course, most enemies who emerge in this manner are discovered by Inquisitors and either become Blood Eagles in terrible agony or receive life sentences in the gulag.

Especially recently, with the gulag’s location changed to the Soviet Holy Republic in the north, most heretics taken there become excellent imperial workers—golems—within a year.

But these transcendent achievements of the Inquisitors are possible because of their matching authority; outside where such authority cannot be fully exercised, such activities are impossible.

Therefore, to deal with enemies of the empire showing heretical behavior outside the Dawn Empire, there were faithful followers of the God of Vengeance formed specifically for this purpose…

They are known as the Cult of Assassins.

Originally converts from criminal organizations of the old false empire who joined the Cult of Vengeance, they are officially a secret intelligence organization that doesn’t even exist in the Dawn Empire.

Forming a completely independent structure like the Inquisition, they are a confidential organization known to fewer than 10 outsiders, all of whom are among the highest echelons of the Dawn Empire.

Their secrecy is so meticulous and thorough that even “Conspiracy” barely knows of their existence, let alone their true nature.

A cell organization that transmits orders through divine oracles—possible only in a fantasy world where gods exist.

With only an assassin named Renovel sitting as the nominal head of the Cult of Assassins. A crazy organization where the actual role of leader is performed by the god himself.

Because of this, most members never return to headquarters but repeat their missions, receiving supplies from their collaborator, Inquisition Director Eric Bjornson.

The headquarters located beneath the island has long been converted into a facility for agent training, while the real headquarters exists in a virtual dimension built in the dream world.

Thus, in the dream headquarters of the Cult of Assassins, established solely to eliminate enemies of the empire without being detected—an unusually large gathering of five agents was taking place.

Though estimated to number only about 100, with no one knowing the exact count, these agents—who rarely gather even in pairs—had assembled five strong in one place.

As they must always conceal their identities unless absolutely necessary, these suspicious figures in robes and masks were awkwardly looking at each other—when suddenly.

“…Everyone has gathered, I see. Welcome, agents.”

Appearing in an instant that none could perceive, a red-clothed wolf beastman woman known as the Messenger of Ma-Duk materialized among the assassins.

The agents could sense something alien and unpleasant about her—devoid of any emotion, like something inhuman pretending to be human.

“Now, I will brief you on your mission.”

But as soon as she began speaking about the mission, they instantly concealed such impressions and began to listen attentively.

“In the southern Dawn Empire, in the Kingdom of Algerica, a heretic claiming to be the chosen one of Him has appeared. Claiming to have been chosen by the Great One—”

The wolf messenger continued explaining the mission target at length, which could be summarized as follows:

To the south of the Dawn Empire lies a sea similar to Earth’s Mediterranean, and beyond it are human territories.

Of course, the population isn’t entirely human; various types of beastmen live together with humans, forming nations.

Among these nations, the Kingdom of Algerica, where the mission target is located, has a particularly high proportion of desert fox beastmen.

With a population of 350,000, it’s one of many common small nations of this era, but…

In the back alleys of this nation’s capital, a Ma-Duk Cult has been spreading recently.

Considering that the word “cult” is not positively received when referring to religion, this Ma-Duk Cult is, naturally, a heretical sect with no connection whatsoever to the Cult of Vengeance.

The self-proclaimed “Chosen One of God” disguised his divine magic as blessings and deceived those ignorant about magic into creating a religion that worships him.

Up to this point, it might seem like a common pseudo-religion not worth interfering with, but as mentioned earlier and now again, this cult’s leader specifically invoked the God of Vengeance.

Realizing that the God of Vengeance is quite popular among the lower classes, he proclaimed himself the chosen one and subtly transformed his organization into one that worships him.

Naturally, this fellow doesn’t even know what the Cult of Vengeance actually is, and merely appropriated the false name because it was easy to exploit.

Despite this, the cult he created has no interest in worshiping the God of Vengeance, but rather makes people worship him more—a common pseudo-religion.

The cult exploits its followers to establish businesses and form organizations, then attempts to interfere in Algerica’s politics or openly infiltrate the government.

Moreover, the cult leader himself lives in daily debauchery, enjoying a life of abundance like the Kim royal family of the north.

At this point, one might wonder how such a person can use divine magic…

In fact, divine magic is essentially just magic based on faith, not structurally different from other types of magic.

Only some elements of the magic are connected to gods. Through research, one can use divine magic without worshiping any god.

Anyway, this pseudo-religious leader who commits all sorts of atrocities has sold the name of God without hesitation, insulting the Cult of Vengeance and, by extension, the great God of Vengeance worshiped by the Cult of Assassins.

So the messenger ordered three things:

First, neutralize and kidnap the cult leader.

Second, eliminate all the cult’s leadership and replace them with Inquisitors.

And finally, minimize innocent casualties.

Naturally, each task was headache-inducing just to hear, and anyone could tell the difficulty would be far from easy.

They would need to subdue thousands of believers without harming them, and pacify hundreds of fanatics who would try to kill them, while keeping them alive if possible.

Particularly, according to intelligence, the cult leader is at least an upper-intermediate (Rank 4) powerhouse, heavily armed with various magical artifacts, making him a formidable opponent.

But none of the agents present said anything.

For the agents of the Cult of Assassins, a mission is something to be accomplished.

A holy war for the atonement of madmen who couldn’t overcome their guilt as descendants of sinners.

Especially for this mission, a total of five agents would participate, which might seem too few and somewhat concerning on the surface…

No, not at all.

That’s truly a misconception; it’s not “only” five—it’s “as many as” five participating in this mission.

Therefore, they nodded without hesitation, and as the messenger smiled faintly—they instantly awoke from the dream.