Ch.466To Kill or to Spare

“I think you’re misunderstanding something. Lacy never planned anything like this. Do you really think she would have wanted the people of the Holy State to be killed for resisting the Church?”

I deflected for now.

Though the agitator had modified the manifesto, it couldn’t be revealed that Lacy was the one who wrote the original.

Why did Cardinal Kranus have no choice but to commit suicide?

Wasn’t it because he was secretly orchestrating a civil war within the Holy State?

If that fact came to light, everyone in the Holy State would target the Church of Kranus, so he had no choice but to take the blame and kill himself before it was revealed.

What Lacy had tried to do wasn’t much different when you got down to it.

Rather than plotting a war between churches, she had tried to intensify the conflict between citizens and the churches to incite a large-scale uprising.

Of course, this was only meant to be a last resort, and she never intended to start something on such an ambiguous scale as now.

What Lacy wanted was for tens of thousands of citizens to rise up simultaneously, making the churches too intimidated to even attempt suppression.

That bastard agitator just twisted the plan by exploiting it.

Anyway, if it were discovered that Lacy was the one who spread the original manifesto, all the other churches would unanimously condemn and attack the Church of Elpinel.

The very thing Cardinal Erich feared would happen, but with the Church of Elpinel as the target instead of the Church of Kranus.

If things went that way, the Church of Elpinel would not escape destruction.

Unless Lacy, like Cardinal Erich, took all the responsibility and committed suicide or was executed as a criminal.

…Either option was unacceptable.

—-

“Hmm. I see. Very well. Let’s leave it at that.”

Radenis nodded as if accepting my explanation, but he clearly didn’t believe me. He was just willing to let it slide.

Well, that makes sense. From the moment I arrived in this city, he must have been convinced that Lacy was involved in this affair, so why would he believe such an excuse? I wouldn’t believe it either.

I glanced at Radenis’s nape while contemplating how to resolve this issue smoothly.

Someone who held Lacy’s weakness in his hands. He might be willing to let it go now, but… would that continue in the future? It was impossible to know.

Should I silence him?

Dead men tell no tales. Killing a madman who wanted war wouldn’t particularly weigh on my conscience.

The aftermath would be a bit… no, extremely troublesome, but still a hundred or thousand times better than having Lacy’s scheme exposed.

If I just thrust my left hand now, all the truth would be quietly buried. So…

…No, wait. Something’s odd.

A sudden doubt stopped my left hand from targeting Radenis’s throat.

Thinking about it, this was strange.

Why would he reveal that he had discovered Lacy’s weakness during a private meeting with me? There was no reason to do so.

It’s an extremely dangerous thing to do. What if I tried to silence him? Like right now.

…Does he have some kind of confidence that I wouldn’t do that?

“So, is that the end of your questions? Then let’s hear about the ‘orders’ you mentioned earlier.”

Radenis’s words interrupted my thoughts.

Right. Let’s put this on hold for now. At the very least, I should understand the source of this man’s confidence.

Whether he truly has something to rely on… or if it’s just baseless bravado. Silencing him can wait until after I figure that out.

—-

The first order.

“I want you to lead the protesters out of Arad. They could relocate to Nasiriya or… Holon would be fine too.”

That was the best solution I could think of.

The simplest way to resolve a conflict is to completely remove one side.

If Arad’s protesters were sent to another city, the Church of Astraea would have no justification to attack them.

Whatever those who left for another city did would be the problem of the church managing that city, not under the jurisdiction of the Church of Astraea.

It was the most peaceful solution.

The only issue was that the protesters, having already seen bloodshed, wouldn’t likely let go of their resentment toward the Church of Astraea… but I thought time and distance might somehow resolve that.

You know what they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder.

If even love can be affected by distance, hatred shouldn’t be much different.

“Relocation… an interesting order.”

“Interesting?”

“Didn’t you declare that all the city’s residents are your property? Yet you’re trying to expel them. It’s like throwing your assets out onto the street.”

“I like uninhabited cities. They have a certain tranquil charm, don’t they?”

I shrugged lightly while blowing cigarette smoke with my joke.

What a pretender. As if he didn’t know exactly why I made such a declaration.

“Is that so? However, I’m afraid it would be difficult to follow that order. The citizens wouldn’t agree to being exiled, and even if they did, leading a large group to another city in this weather would be extremely difficult. Ordinary people can’t traverse snowy fields like Lord Median.”

Unfortunately, Radenis shook his head and expressed his refusal.

And he did so with impeccable logic.

Hmm… certainly, taking thousands of civilians on a long-distance migration in the middle of winter… does seem a bit insane.

Even with priests looking after them, there would be limits.

“…Alright, I understand.”

No choice. I’ll have to abandon the best solution.

Time to move on to the next best option.

“Here’s my next order. If they can’t leave Arad, at least control the citizens thoroughly to prevent any clashes with the Church of Astraea. That much should be possible, right?”

“Hmm… we can’t control them for very long. And some extremists won’t follow the control anyway.”

So it is possible. That’s enough.

“If there are people who refuse, detain them in my name. If you just tie them up without killing them, others won’t strongly object. They should understand by now that they’ll be annihilated without your help, and they can probably guess that if they defy my words, they won’t even leave corpses behind.”

“Very well.”

Radenis nodded.

Good, this should buy us some time. Time to crush the Arad branch of the Church of Astraea.

If we can’t send the protesters away, we’ll have to drive out the Church of Astraea instead.

…It won’t be easy, though.

—-

The last order was nothing special.

“I’d like you to officially transfer governance rights of Arad to me. It’s already a half-baked authority that’s become nominal by now. You won’t lose anything by handing it over to me.”

I was telling him to draw up a certificate transferring the city to me.

It might be a meaningless authority right now, but it could become necessary after resolving everything smoothly.

“That’s beyond my authority. The governance rights of Arad belong to the Cardinal, not me. I’m merely delegated with that authority. So it would be difficult for me to provide such a certificate.”

Is that so?

In other words, handing over such a document to me would put him in a difficult position.

So what? Is that my problem?

Do I need to care about your inconvenience?

“I don’t understand.”

I leaned forward slightly and stubbed out my cigarette in the ashtray on the table.

While glaring at Radenis with raised eyes.

“I believe I said ‘order,’ not request. I might let the first order slide, but why are you acting as if you have the right to refuse this one too? Have I been too polite with you?”

– Crack!

The ashtray split in half, unable to withstand the applied force.

“Or do you have about five lives to spare?”

It was an explicit threat.

Not to force compliance with the current order, but to discover why he could be so defiant.

In front of a human butcher threatening to kill him if he didn’t comply, what words would he use to defuse the situation?

I glared at him murderously to find out.

“…Threatening me like that won’t change anything. I’ve simply told you what is possible for me and what isn’t. Even if you kill me, the impossible won’t become possible.”

Radenis remained calm. As if daring me to kill him.

Rather than dignified, he seemed somehow detached.

As if he didn’t care whether he lived or died, despite his life being at stake.

…This is why I hate fanatics.

It’s too difficult to figure out what they’re thinking.

Should I kill this bastard or let him live…

Like a gambler looking at an opponent who’s gone all-in, I stared at Radenis and finally made my decision.

“…Fine. I’ll let it go. But you must absolutely keep the second order.”

I’ll let him live a few more days.

No matter how I looked at it, his demeanor didn’t seem like simple bluffing.

If I killed him here, something unpleasant would happen. I had such an intuition.

…Though it might just be my imagination.

—-

After finishing my conversation with Radenis, I left the cathedral of the Church of Kranus and headed toward the city center.

The central plaza located between the two churches. I planned to spend the night there.

The Archbishop of the Church of Astraea would need some time to formulate a strategy against me. I could visit tomorrow morning.

Besides, there was someone I wanted to meet at night.

The special crusader dispatched to this city. If he was still alive, he would definitely come to meet me.

If not, I’d have to assume he’d been discovered and killed.

Fortunately, if he was still alive and came to meet me, I planned to hear the detailed situation here and then order him to keep an eye on the Archbishop of Kranus.

So that the moment I was certain there would be no problem if he died, I could go and kill him immediately.

“Haaah…”

I half-reclined on a bench in the plaza, chain-smoking while waiting for the sun to set.

Snow was falling from the sky, but thanks to Rurik, my body remained warm.

======[ Radenis ]======

‘Not easy…’

After Haschal left, Radenis remained in the reception room, quietly drinking the half-cold tea and letting out a regretful sigh.

‘Different from what I heard. More cautious than I expected. No, should I say he has good instincts?’

Haschal didn’t know, but from the moment she arrived, Radenis had intended to provoke her into killing him.

For Cardinal Erich’s revenge.

That’s why he openly mentioned knowing that Lacy was the author of the manifesto in front of her.

He had hoped she would try to silence him and attack.

In truth, revealing that the manifesto was Stardolf’s doing had no meaning.

The only evidence was that Haschal had come to Arad.

Stardolf could simply deny it as groundless slander.

That’s why Radenis provoked Haschal.

Haschal’s arrival in Arad alone wasn’t enough to convincingly expose the author of the manifesto.

The connection was too weak.

Stardolf’s side could simply explain it away as Haschal acting independently.

However, if Radenis himself was killed by Haschal after making this revelation?

Anyone could guess. Radenis’s exposure was all true, and the reason Haschal killed him was to prevent that fact from being revealed.

Radenis himself would become a martyr who tried to reveal the truth, while Haschal, Stardolf, and the Church of Elpinel would fall into disgrace.

Not a bad plan for an improvised scheme.

…Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

‘I was certain she would kill me…’

Even though he continued to provoke her anger, saying “kill me if you dare,” Haschal didn’t swing her terrible arm but just smoked a cigarette and left.

For Radenis, it was truly regrettable.