Ch.407The Current State of the Holy Nation

Human: Twenty-five corpses had appeared, yet the city remained peaceful as if nothing had happened.

Was it because everyone didn’t care about some thugs from the slums dying? I thought they would at least investigate.

Since Millia had brought so much food, we didn’t need to go down to the dining hall. We went back to our lodgings and shared what she had brought.

Bread stuffed with meat and deep-fried, skewered meat of unknown origin, soup filled with mushrooms, and fresh fruit. It was a more substantial feast than I expected.

“This bread is shaped just like a human face?”

“Ah, those are heretic fritters. They’re a specialty of the Holy State.”

“…What kind of fritters?”

For a moment I was horrified, thinking they might be made with heretic flesh, but fortunately that wasn’t the case.

It wasn’t made with human meat, but rather created to commemorate a large-scale heretic purge from over a decade ago.

Apparently, it was modeled after the face of the heretics’ leader at the time.

In other words, it was similar to Isabella fritters. The tastes of the people here are truly baffling.

—-

After finishing dinner together, we returned to our respective rooms to rest.

Nigel challenged Leonore to another card game, determined to redeem himself, and was once again paying the price for his reckless challenge.

Bells and Lilies were discussing future plans with Lacy, while Millia and Demian were chatting about various things with Lena.

After washing up in the bathroom attached to our lodgings, I sat by the window and enjoyed the night view of the city.

In my mind, I was contemplating what to do next and how to become stronger.

I had built up my swordsmanship and martial arts skills as much as possible, and there was no other way to increase my Karma power and physical abilities except through steady training, so my concerns were ultimately focused on strengthening my Tale of Heros.

Defying Fate, the technique that compresses time to increase attack speed.

Currently, I could only swing my sword once, but if I could increase the activation time and effective range… I might be able to move as if the entire world except me had slowed down for a brief moment.

Unless I was facing someone several times faster than me, this would give me an overwhelming first-strike advantage against any opponent.

Not just for attacking first, but also for counterattacks and evasions.

The problem was… I had no idea how to apply this ability to my entire body.

Even Hersella had said she couldn’t advise me about Defying Fate.

So for now, I was trying to use Defying Fate with my bare hands to understand how to apply the ability to my body instead of my sword.

Just as I focused my consciousness on my sword, I was trying to activate Defying Fate by concentrating on a single finger and moving it.

I hadn’t quite gotten the feel for it yet, but out of about five hundred attempts, I’d managed to succeed once by luck.

Whether a 0.2% success rate could be called success is debatable. I still have a long way to go.

—-

And then night fell.

Lena had fallen asleep on the bed, unable to fight off drowsiness, and Millia and Demian had also returned to their rooms.

Leonore returned the money she had won to Nigel, who was looking at his empty wallet with a tearful expression, then sat back on the sofa and sipped wine she had obtained from somewhere.

Bells and Lilies also returned to their room to sleep.

As long as I was awake, security wasn’t a major concern, and considering we would be leaving the city tomorrow morning, they needed to get some rest.

It was around midnight when the special crusader we had been waiting for finally came to see us.

Through the window.

“Greetings, Lady Lacy, Lord Median.”

The agent who climbed through the window and entered the room immediately prostrated himself and greeted us.

A man with his entire body covered in a black robe and mask. Only his eyes were visible.

I pushed Durandal back into its sheath, having half-drawn it when he entered and knelt with his head bowed.

…I almost mistook him for an assassin and cut him down.

Honestly, it was a situation bound to be misunderstood.

He’s not a ninja, but when someone wrapped in black cloth breaks in through a window, what else would you think but “assassin”?

“It’s been a while. Have you been well?”

Lacy welcomed him with a bright smile.

“Yes. All crusaders are safe.”

The man responded in a calm tone, seemingly unaware that he had nearly lost his head.

You almost became casualty number one, man. By friendly fire, no less.

“I’m glad to hear that. Now then, let’s hear your report. Explain what has happened here since I left for the Empire.”

“Yes. Until last year, nothing unusual occurred. But this year…”

At Lacy’s instruction, the man began a long explanation while keeping his head bowed.

—-

According to the man, the previously peaceful Holy State began to change after the Great Island Fire.

The influence of the Church of Menes, which had produced a candidate for sainthood, had strengthened somewhat, but it wasn’t a major issue since Lacy was also building her reputation in the Empire at the time.

Internal conflicts within the Holy State began to surface after that.

The theory of Were Eater extermination that Lacy had spoken about at the funeral.

Ironically, that speech became the catalyst for divisions between the churches to rise to the surface.

The Church of Elpinel and the Church of Menes agreed with it, but several other churches criticized it as excessively dogmatic and militant.

Of course, the other churches were not unaware that Lacy held such views.

It was one of the reasons why a woman who could manifest holy fire remained a candidate for sainthood rather than becoming a saint.

However, before the speech, these concerns had been implicit, whereas afterward, full-fledged criticism and debate began.

The Church of Menes argued that exterminating Werebeasts was only natural.

The Church of Astraea questioned whether it was truly just to eradicate even the young ones.

The Church of Saulite criticized that starting a war would sacrifice many lives, while the Church of Volberg mocked them as cowards afraid of glory.

Only the Church of Vimos expressed no opinion.

Given that the Eleven Deities Religion was forcibly created by merging different doctrines, doctrinal conflicts were actually inevitable.

Until now, these conflicts had been minimized through mutual understanding and compromise… but once the symbolic representative of the most powerful church advocated uncompromising extremism, conflict was inevitable.

“Even then, the voices of those pathetic Werebeast sympathizers weren’t that loud. However… the losses at the Ainfeld battlefield became an issue.”

Ainfeld.

The battle where Leopold led the Empire’s 3rd Corps to defeat thousands of undead monsters.

Lacy had also incited the holy corps to participate in the battle to exterminate the undead.

At that time, the churches were reluctant to actively participate, claiming it was related to power struggles within the Empire, so most of the holy corps consisted of forces from the Church of Elpinel.

They somehow managed to win the battle, and as a result, Lacy and Leopold’s positions within the Empire rose further…

But the Church of Elpinel, having lost many of its forces in that battle, inevitably found it difficult to maintain its former prestige.

The moment the foremost church of the Holy State weakened, other churches that had been eyeing that position rushed in like wolves spotting an opportunity.

Even the Church of Menes, which had shared the same views regarding Werebeast extermination, began to distance itself from the Church of Elpinel.

After all, if the Church of Elpinel’s position weakened, their own saint candidate would have a higher chance of becoming a saint.

“And then… the judgment of Archbishop Trier and the establishment of the archdiocese drove in the final wedge.”

Raiding and burning Archbishop Trier at the stake had been the right thing to do.

The other churches agreed on this point. Collaborating with a witch as a corrupt priest was a serious crime that would warrant excommunication in any church.

The problem was that Archbishop Trier belonged to the Church of Elpinel.

The only church with an officially discovered corrupt priest who had collaborated with a witch. This inevitably damaged their standing.

The deaths of the secretly dispatched Secret Martyrdom Apostles also fueled suspicions about the Church of Elpinel.

If Archbishop Trier had not been discovered, all cardinals would have been under suspicion, but… once discovered, suspicion inevitably focused on the Church of Elpinel.

By that point, the Church of Elpinel had already lost so much authority that it was being overshadowed by churches like the Church of Saulite.

The final blow was Lacy’s establishment of the archdiocese.

From the perspective of the increasingly authoritarian church leadership, this was almost an act of treason.

Especially damaging was the fact that the person behind such a blasphemous act was the saint candidate from the already controversial Church of Elpinel.

When the cardinal of the Church of Elpinel heard the news, he nearly collapsed.

When the Church of Elpinel, which had forcefully mediated and controlled disputes between all churches as the Holy State’s number one power, lost its strength and authority, what followed was naturally the eruption of all the suppressed desires of each church.

The churches began forming factions and causing overt conflicts.

The Holy State was in danger of splitting into several pieces, but the Church of Elpinel, having lost its power and authority, could not stop it.

That was the current situation in the Holy State.