Ch.456Ambiguous Conjecture

“He’s… completely shattered all the Paladins.”

The clothing store was burning and collapsing. Not a single living church member remained around it.

There were only corpses—Paladins split in half through their armor, priests with their heads torn off, and bodies riddled with holes.

It looked like a scene from a religious painting depicting a holy war.

One that portrayed priests being defeated by demons, though in reality, those priests were closer to demons themselves.

From the evidence, it seemed some high-ranking Paladins and priests had been among them, but they’d all been thoroughly slaughtered.

With this, the Church of Grimnir could be considered extinct without any hope of resurrection.

“I had no choice. They suddenly attacked, burning the clothing store without any attempt at dialogue or negotiation…”

Lacy sighed and shook her head, as if she hadn’t expected things to turn out this way.

“No, I’m not blaming you. These bastards deserved to die.”

“You think so…?”

I sat on a broken fragment, smoking a cigarette while examining my companions.

Demian was calmly wiping blood and flesh from his greatsword, while Millia was walking around collecting intact arrows.

Agnes, perhaps experiencing her first battle with so many people, sat down next to Lacy with an exhausted face.

And Lena…

“Are you not in pain, unni? My goodness…! What happened to you?!”

“I’m fine. It looks worse than it is. I’m not seriously injured.”

“Not seriously injured? Look at you!”

She was working her healing miracle beside me with a tearful expression.

The familiar crimson light descended upon me, embracing my broken left arm and bruised body.

A warm, gentle heat like the midday sun. My torn skin began to mend itself.

The recovery speed was surprisingly fast.

She’s been training hard lately, and her progress is faster than I expected.

Her healing skills are now on par with Lacy’s.

“Thank you, Lena. Thanks to you, I don’t feel any pain now.”

I stroked Lena’s head to comfort her.

Why are you crying so much? It’s not like I came back with something cut off.

“Please don’t get hurt like this anymore…”

…That’s honestly something I can’t guarantee.

I’d like to avoid it too, but the world rarely goes according to plan.

—-

“So, what exactly happened?”

“It’s a long story, but…”

I explained to Lacy what I had seen and experienced at the cathedral.

The magic stones piled on the third floor. The trap waiting in the basement. Even the power of soul conversion magic that transformed the souls of the poor into mana.

Lacy’s face twisted in disgust as she listened.

“Soul conversion…! That blasphemous magic that insults the peace of the dead and defies the laws of the world—practiced by those claiming to be part of the Eleven Gods Church! Such abhorrent acts deserve to be burned a thousand times over!”

“Well… I suppose so.”

Sorry, Lacy.

Actually, I have a mage who uses soul conversion magic under my command.

Though I’ve left him alone since he hasn’t crossed any lines.

“To call such dark arts a divine power… I always thought the title ‘God of Magic’ was suspicious, but I never imagined it would be this bad. When I return to the Holy City, I’ll propose revoking Grimnir’s divine status. With the church itself collapsed, there shouldn’t be much opposition.”

So the Eleven Gods Church would become the Ten Gods Church?

That’s a historic event worthy of being recorded.

“Revoking divine status… that’s a shame. Lübitz should have witnessed that. I never imagined he would commit suicide by blowing up his head.”

That terrible bastard died without saying anything useful until the end.

Why do fanatics love suicide and self-destruction so much? I would have at least liked to know why they attacked us.

It could have been resolved peacefully, but they deliberately set a trap to kill us, even at the cost of a thousand poor people’s lives. They must have had a desperate reason.

Though we’ll never know now.

Unlike me, however, Lacy seemed to have some idea as she nodded.

“A suicide method that ruptures only the head without any warning… it resembles how the Archbishop of Trier died. Unlike him, this seems to have been voluntary.”

“Oh… now that you mention it, you’re right.”

The Archbishop of Trier.

An Elector from the Church of Elpinel who presumably received news about the dispatch of the Secret Martyrdom Apostolate from someone in the Holy State and informed Isabella.

…Come to think of it, he also died with his head exploded.

I’d forgotten since I only heard about it in passing.

“They might have used the same technique. Such suicide magic isn’t common.”

“So there might have been some connection between the two scumbags? Maybe Lübitz was the one who cursed the Archbishop of Trier. That would make the situation fit perfectly…”

If Lübitz was a cardinal connected to Isabella, it would explain why he was so desperate to kill us.

After all, the Empire’s First Sword and a Saint candidate had come to the city looking for him.

A witch who’s lived with dark magic users for over a century—they seem like a perfect match in terms of preferences.

Both evil magic users.

“I think so too. It’s just speculation without evidence… but worth investigating.”

Lacy turned her head and glared at the Grimnir Cathedral with furrowed brows.

Her eyes were filled with hatred and contempt. She looked like she wanted to demolish it completely and turn it into a flat ground.

—-

Afterward, Lacy expressed her intention to visit the cathedral, leaving me and Lena behind.

With barely any forces remaining in the cathedral, she wanted to thoroughly investigate this opportunity.

Of course, Hush was also included among those heading to the cathedral.

She nearly fainted when told to move with Lacy, but having shown unexpected competence in investigation and infiltration, this was the natural outcome.

Anyone could see that Hush alone would find more clues than a hundred Demians.

“Lord Median, please rest. Your injuries may be healed, but your strength hasn’t fully returned. Greta will guide you to a suitable resting place.”

“Right. I did eliminate most of the priests, but be careful just in case. And as I mentioned earlier, Hush was quite helpful in this matter. She practically saved my life. So don’t be too harsh on her.”

As Lacy was preparing to leave for the cathedral, I waved my hand and casually advocated for Hush.

If I let her go without saying anything, Lacy might return with only a corpse, saying “Hush… unfortunately slipped on the stairs and…”

“Is that so…? If Lord Median says so, I’ll be lenient.”

Lacy looked rather displeased but nodded in acceptance since I had gone this far.

This should be enough to ensure Hush doesn’t return as a corpse with her head smashed.

I smiled at the dejected Hush, then headed with Lena to the resting place Greta had arranged.

It wasn’t some secret hideout of the Special Crusader Order, just an ordinary inn.

“W-welcome, welcome!”

The innkeeper welcomed us with a pale face, bowing deeply.

His excessive subservience was understandable.

Just moments ago, war-like explosions and terrible screams had echoed through the center of the city. In such a situation, a guest calmly visiting his inn wouldn’t appear to be an ordinary traveler.

He probably mistook me for some armed serial killer.

—-

I fell into a deep sleep for about ten hours as soon as I lay on the bed, and by the time I woke up, all investigations had been completed.

Lacy had thoroughly searched the Grimnir Cathedral towers and found evidence that they had been conducting all sorts of unethical magical experiments using the poor. She also discovered several forbidden magic books.

She said that just making this public would certainly get the Church of Grimnir expelled from the Eleven Gods Church.

“That half-elf… she’s certainly capable.”

Lacy seemed greatly impressed by Hush’s abilities.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t find evidence of collaboration with the witch… but thanks to that woman, we were able to secure proof that the Church of Grimnir was rotten to the core.”

Not only did she find secret doors and hidden spaces, but she also discovered magically concealed confidential documents based solely on her intuition that something was suspicious.

If she hadn’t been a mixed-race from the Council of Dream Utopia, Lacy might have tried to recruit her for the Special Crusader Order.

“The church was already effectively destroyed, but now they won’t even be able to recover. Until yesterday, I never expected things would turn out this way… but this too is Elpinel’s guidance. At least one tumor in the Holy State has been thoroughly removed.”

“Yes, that’s a good thing.”

While we can’t say everything is over, the case of Nasiriya’s disappearance has been resolved.

Along with the destruction of an entire church.

…It seems like every cardinal Lacy visits meets a terrible fate.

I wonder if others see her as some kind of cardinal serial killer.

“It’s a bit disappointing that we couldn’t uncover why Lübitz did all this.”

It would have been nice to find some decisive evidence.

Like letters related to Isabella, or artifacts connected to evil gods.

The circumstantial evidence is strong, but without physical evidence, it’s frustrating.

“Indeed. I found and read Cardinal Lübitz’s journal… but it contained only praise for dark magic and personal research notes, nothing that could serve as evidence. All I could learn from the journal was that he had an almost insane passion for exploring knowledge of dark magic. To the point where he would use any means necessary.”

Well, that’s to be expected from a priest who worships the God of Magic.

He probably believed that the deeper his magical attainment, the closer he would get to his god.