Ch.525End of the Conference

Carnius expressed his willingness to accept Lacy’s conditions. Whatever his true intentions might be, there was no better option in the current situation.

‘Once this negotiation is over, even this woman won’t be able to keep pursuing this matter. It would become clear that instead of reporting someone who collaborated with heretics, she secured her own benefits through under-the-table negotiations.’

Carnius felt relieved as he wrote down their agreed-upon conditions on the two sheets of paper Lacy had produced, affixed his seal, and took one copy.

If Lacy tried to make this public again, he could present this document and drag her down with him like a water ghost. They now shared each other’s weaknesses.

“You’re agreeing more readily than I expected. I thought you would cling more desperately to your position as Cardinal.”

“…It’s better than losing everything by clinging to a position I can’t keep anyway.”

“How wise. If only you had shown such wisdom before conceiving the foolish idea of using Valkers. That would have prevented this catastrophe.”

Lacy set down her empty teacup and delivered her mockery with contempt. Carnius inwardly vowed to pay her back someday while offering a feeble excuse.

“…How could I have known that Valkers was the leader of the heretics? Had I known in advance, I would have made a different decision.”

“I see. So you knew heretics had infiltrated, but couldn’t imagine that a dangerous figure like ‘Valkers of Discord’ might be among them. Should I pity you?”

Carnius frowned deeply, suppressing his rising anger at being mocked by a woman decades younger than himself.

“Enough! I don’t need your pity now…!”

“I wonder. Perhaps now is precisely when you need pity most.”

Lacy’s smile deepened.

A smile like a spider with venomous fangs. Her face overflowed with such murderous intent that it sent chills down one’s spine just looking at it.

Just as Carnius unconsciously flinched and tried to stand up, Lacy dropped the teacup from its saucer onto the floor below the table, shattering it.

– Crash!

The elaborately crafted porcelain teacup shattered into pieces, scattering a clear, sharp noise.

The guard knights standing at a distance all turned to look at the conference table. The sound was clear enough to be heard by everyone in the restaurant.

Yes, clear enough for everyone to hear.

—-

– Bang!

Suddenly, various sections of the restaurant floor flipped open.

From beneath emerged armored paladins. Golden armor engraved with the scale symbol—they were judges from the Church of Astraea.

“What is this…?!”

Carnius jumped to his feet and scanned his surroundings with trembling eyes. Paladins emerging from beneath what had seemed like solid stone floors.

While that alone was surprising, he wouldn’t have been this shocked if they had been paladins from the Church of Elpinel.

However, the appearance of judges from the Church of Astraea was something he could never have imagined.

Lacy looked at him and laughed. A laugh full of contempt.

“Carnius Gustav. An utterly filthy, shameless, and foolish old man. Did you really think I would negotiate with a worm like you? Your delusion knows no bounds. Elpinel is a deity who never compromises with evil. The same goes for me. Our conversation until now was merely groundwork to make you confess your crimes with your own mouth before the judges. You seemed quite pleased thinking you could survive, but I’m afraid not.”

Though evidence was abundant, they couldn’t judge a Cardinal based on evidence alone due to the possibility of fabrication.

That’s why Lacy, cooperating with Cardinal Ernliter, had hidden the judges in underground passages beneath the restaurant, steering the conversation to make Carnius admit his actions.

Now that Carnius had confessed with his own mouth, thinking the negotiation was concluded, there was no need for a trial—they could eliminate him right here.

“What…?! You swore by Elpinel…! That you would overlook this matter if I followed your conditions! Was that a lie? A saint of Elpinel making false oaths in the name of God!”

Carnius shouted hysterically. Though he himself had no intention of keeping his oath sworn in Saulite’s name, he acted as if Lacy shouldn’t break hers.

He wasn’t wrong. For a saint of Elpinel to break an oath made in Elpinel’s name would be tantamount to deceiving God.

Of course, Lacy had no intention of breaking her oath, nor had she actually broken it.

“A lie? How could that be? Your mind must be dulled with age. Think carefully. I swore that if you followed my conditions, I would overlook the matter. But… how could a corpse fulfill such conditions? Supporting me or disbanding the Holy Solar Alliance—these are things only the living can do. So there’s no need to overlook anything. Because you’ll die here.”

Lacy mocked Carnius with a smirk.

“Miss Elmaine Stardolf is right, Carnius. Your fate ends here.”

As if responding to her mockery, a familiar voice pierced Carnius’s ears.

“Ernliter… Zaiseus…!”

Carnius gritted his teeth. Ernliter, the Cardinal of Astraea who had once formed the Holy Solar Alliance with him, was now glaring at him.

—-

“How…! Was designating this place for our meeting a trap from the beginning?!”

It was an ambush Carnius could never have anticipated.

Wary of potential traps at the meeting location, he had monitored this restaurant day and night after receiving Lacy’s request for a meeting, only coming after confirming there were no suspicious movements.

‘Could there have been underground passages…?!’

Carnius was certain they hadn’t been hiding in the restaurant’s basement before his surveillance began. He would have noticed if Cardinal Ernliter had been absent for days.

In reality, Astraea’s forces had arrived through underground passages beneath the holy city that Lacy had shown them.

“It would have been the same anywhere. Have you forgotten? This place, the holy city of Alhebron, was built by our church for Elpinel’s glory. The secret passages and strongholds unknown to you are too numerous to count.”

Lacy stepped back a couple of paces and proudly declared with arms spread wide.

Though many passages had been closed when Alhebron was designated as the capital of the Holy State and the other ten churches were accepted, areas beyond the churches’ sight were still used as secret strongholds by the Church of Elpinel.

While this was confidential information of the Church of Elpinel, sharing such secrets with the Church of Astraea posed no major problems now that they were allies. The holy city held far greater secrets.

Like the true reason why Alhebron always maintained its pristine whiteness, among other things.

“Stardolf!”

“It’s all over, Carnius. Surrender quietly. The stake awaits you. Couldn’t you face your final moments with a bit more dignity befitting a Cardinal?”

Lacy continued her mockery, protected by Demian, Bels, and Richard who had approached her.

Her holy fire yearned for kindling.

“Give up, Carnius. If you resist, the holy armies of the Churches of Astraea and Elpinel will march here.”

“Ernliter, you should be on my side! Betraying us and clinging to the Church of Elpinel…!”

Cornered, Carnius berated Ernliter, as if questioning how he could cooperate with the Church of Elpinel while belonging to the same Holy Solar Alliance. To Ernliter, it was nonsense not worth considering.

“I betrayed you? How absurd. You’re the one who betrayed us. Blinded by ambition, you gave the faithful’s taxes to heretics, yet you speak of alliance with me?”

Ernliter glared at Carnius with the stern face of a judge pronouncing a death sentence.

“Holy Solar Alliance—what a ridiculous name it was. Neither holy, nor solar as you turned your back on the sun long ago, and certainly not an alliance.”

Each word was delivered with contempt and hostility. Carnius realized there were no allies for him here. It was a perfect trap.

—-

“You think this ends here?! Perlien! Open a path! We must escape the holy city!”

Cornered, Carnius finally chose his last resort. His plan was to break through the judges’ encirclement with Perlien’s strength and escape the holy city to regroup.

All eyes turned to the red-haired man who had placed one hand on his sword hilt.

Perlien de Genes. Carnius’s final insurance and the greatest variable in this meeting, unexpected even by Lacy and Ernliter.

“Hmm…”

Perlien surveyed his surroundings with an expressionless face.

The judges without Ceylon and the two high paladins of the Church of Elpinel weren’t concerning opponents, but the blond young man with his right hand on the hilt of the greatsword on his back was emanating a rather sharp aura.

‘The wingless Demian, was it? I heard he and his wife eliminated the heretic Eljur… If so, that woman must be hiding somewhere, targeting us.’

Perlien’s right hand moved toward his sword hilt.

“Are you planning to resist?!”

“Don’t move! We’ll shoot the moment you draw your sword!”

The judges reacted sensitively. If he was a swordsman capable enough for the cornered Carnius to rely on, he must be a formidable fighter.

With Ceylon still not recovered, they weren’t confident they could restrain such an opponent by themselves.

“You’ll shoot me? You?”

Perlien smirked and drew his sword without hesitation.

A blade gleaming with blue-silver light. The cold blue light characteristic of true silver swords flickered with afterglow.

“Hauteclere…!”

Seeing the blade, Lacy murmured the name of the sword, now certain.

A golden hilt radiating brilliance, decorated with crystal, and a blade of true silver emitting a soft blue-silver light. It matched the descriptions in ancient texts.

Hauteclere.

The sword of Olivier, one of Carlos the Great’s Twelve Knights.

“So it is the Church of Elpinel. Recognizing it just by appearance saves me the explanation.”

Perlien nodded, affirming Lacy’s whisper. The Oath Sword in his hand emitted a fierce aura, as if proving that Perlien was a descendant of the Twelve Knights.

“Look, Stardolf! You’re not the only one who found a descendant of the Twelve Knights! As you have Median, I have Perlien! With your knight incapacitated, who can stop him now?!”

Carnius shouted triumphantly.

After obtaining a branch of the Wien family and an Oath Sword, he had created his masterpiece through repeated inbreeding until the sword found its master. That was Perlien.

Though his pure skill was below Ceylon’s, with the full power of Hauteclere, he might be able to stand against not just Ceylon but even Median.

Carnius’s only hope now was to escape this place through Perlien’s strength.

“The Twelve Knights…!”

“Like Haschal…?”

Richard, Bels, and Demian drew their weapons. It had been a perfect trap, but if Carnius’s boast was true, they might be in danger.

Perlien smirked, raised Hauteclere as if to show it off—

—Slash!

“…Huh?”

And with one strike, he cut down the guard knights who had accompanied Carnius.

Three heads flew through the air, and blood from the severed necks sprayed the ceiling.

Everyone gathered in the restaurant stared in shock at the floating heads of the knights.