Ch.549I Had Forgotten About It.

The fact that there was not a single piece of information about the Holy Grail paradoxically provided me with a clue that narrowed down the culprit’s identity considerably.

How could the Church of Elpinel not leave any records about something they guarded so carefully that they even placed soul fragments in the mausoleum of the Great’s Twelve Knights?

It wasn’t that they didn’t leave records—someone had destroyed the existing ones.

This suggested that whoever stole the Holy Grail was close enough to the Church to be able to destroy confidential documents. Almost as close as Lacy, the Saint of Elpinel.

Only past cardinals, saints, or holy men of the Church of Elpinel could have done such a thing.

And conveniently, among the enemies I knew, there was exactly one person who held such a position.

Feirus the Soul Manipulator.

The first apostle serving the ancient god Alfodhr and, according to Lacy, the 3rd Holy Man of the Holy State who fell from grace and caused a great massacre as a heretic.

All circumstances pointed to him being the Holy Grail thief. Someone with the position of Holy Man would have had access to confidential documents about the Grail or the Grail itself, and it would have been easy for him to destroy related records after stealing it.

It made sense that a former Holy Man would suddenly turn to worship an ancient god if, like Valenstein, he had learned about Heaven’s Wall and become enraged.

As Rotholandus said, Heaven’s Wall was a plan for all humans, but from the perspective of the extremely few powerful individuals, it was a plan that forced unilateral sacrifice without their knowledge.

—-

“…That makes sense. The Feirus of that time could certainly have done such a thing. And his motive is clear. It’s natural for someone who fell to the temptation of an ancient god to try to break the protection of Lady Elpinel.”

Lacy nodded as if my explanation was plausible. I didn’t tell her about Feirus’s abilities that I knew of, or the fact that he was still alive.

If she asked how I knew these things, I wouldn’t have an answer.

I couldn’t say I received divine revelation, nor could I say I heard it from Rotholandus, who predated Feirus.

So when sharing information that would seem strange for me to know, I had to speak in a tone closer to speculation than certainty.

“About this Feirus… what if he’s still alive?”

Like this.

“What?”

“Think about it. If the culprit who stole the Holy Grail is Feirus, then the theft happened four hundred years ago, right? But the Heaven’s Wall only started breaking down recently. People who surpassed the Master level, including myself, only started appearing last year.”

Before that, even villains and non-humans couldn’t surpass the Master level, just like humans. Otherwise, the Empire and the Holy State wouldn’t have remained intact until now.

“That means Feirus, who was defeated by the Holy State and went missing four hundred years ago, must have been hiding all this time and recently resumed his activities, don’t you think?”

From my perspective, knowing Feirus was alive, this was a speculation very close to the truth, but Lacy looked quite dubious.

“…Well. Rather than the possibility that Feirus himself is still alive, wouldn’t it be more reasonable to think it’s the work of his descendants or followers?”

Uh… is that how it works?

Certainly, Lacy’s argument was the more sensible inference. Anyone would think that way. An ordinary human couldn’t possibly live for over four hundred years.

But he is alive. Is it because he’s a soul manipulator?

“That’s reasonable… but in my experience, the ways of the world are far from reasonable.”

This was a fact I had experienced while slaughtering all kinds of bastards—none of the villains in this world were sensible beings.

Whether they appeared in the original story or not.

The common sense of this world had already collapsed the moment I saved Leopold and antagonized Isabella, advancing the original story by several years.

The expansion of the level limit… that is, the collapse of Heaven’s Wall was progressing faster than in the original story, allowing both enemies and allies to begin reaching the Hero level.

While enemies at the Master level might be understandable, those who reached beyond were all beings that defied common sense.

“Whatever you do, relying on sensible judgment always leads to getting screwed.”

I felt this keenly with Isabella.

‘Logically, such a thing couldn’t be possible.’

‘Logically, no one would commit such an act.’

All meaningless nonsense.

It was a mistake to judge that crazy witch, who committed all manner of atrocities, by common sense.

The common sense of this world was ultimately the common sense of the Master era. It wasn’t suitable as a criterion for judgment in the Hero era.

“Don’t you think? Even Isabella was a monster far from common sense. If there was a witch with eight thousand lives, it wouldn’t be strange if there was a monster who lived for eight thousand years.”

“Hmm… certainly, that’s one way to look at it. No, that’s how we should look at it. All assumptions should always keep the worst-case scenario in mind.”

Lacy expressed her agreement. She too knew well the danger of judging enemies within the bounds of common sense.

—-

“Though Feirus’s survival is uncertain, if he and the ancient god’s cult are the culprits… we must find Paulus.”

As Lacy said, if the identity of the mastermind who stole the Holy Grail to break Heaven’s Wall was Feirus, there was only one way to catch his tail.

To find and capture the one presumed to be a follower of the same ancient god and the second apostle, Paulus Eisen Hindenburg.

He would likely know about Feirus and information about the Holy Grail.

…Wait a minute.

Speaking of Paulus, come to think of it…

“…Hey Lacy. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but… when Agnes confessed to killing Paulus, didn’t she mention something about a ‘Holy Grail plan’…?”

“Ah.”

Lacy too seemed to have forgotten this fact, as she let out a dull moan instead of answering.

That’s right.

At that time, I didn’t know what the Holy Grail was, and Agnes’s confession was so shocking that I didn’t even hear the other things she said…

But Paulus definitely mentioned a Holy Grail plan and muttered something about bringing down heaven!

“Wait, we didn’t even need to worry about this. These bastards were the culprits all along.”

“Such an oversight… I completely forgot because so much has happened…”

We sighed in frustration and blushed with embarrassment.

[Close to food, one becomes black, and it seems foolishness works the same way. Thanks to you, I’ve broadened my horizons.]

…Is this mocking me for being a fool?

Certainly, forgetting such important content was undoubtedly foolish…

‘You forgot it too.’

Do you even know what “pot calling the kettle black” means?

[W-why would I? I was just watching because you looked ridiculous.]

What a liar. If you had remembered, you would have mocked me about it long ago.

The fact that you’re only mocking me now clearly shows that you, Hersella, had also forgotten Agnes’s words. You only remembered because I just mentioned it.

—-

It became clear that the thieves of the Holy Grail were the “Cult of Forgotten Gods.” However, knowing the culprits didn’t solve all the problems.

If, as I suspected, the collapse of Heaven’s Wall was related to Baltyr’s descent, then they were the cause of the world’s destruction.

If we find and eliminate them as soon as possible… maybe we could prevent Baltyr’s descent itself. Like removing the trigger for the final boss’s appearance to prevent the final boss from appearing at all.

The problem was that this world wasn’t a game, so even if the final boss disappeared, there wouldn’t be a “and they all lived happily ever after” ending.

If the apostles of the ancient gods and Baltyr disappeared, would the elves suddenly become kind?

Would all the werebeasts starve to death?

Would Orhan’s Ka’har say there’s no place like home and live peacefully cultivating the great plains?

Would the sleeping dragons continue their eternal slumber?

Of course not. All of those were enemies that had to be dealt with separately from the Cult of Forgotten Gods.

In the original story, dragons and monsters weren’t left alone just because they were different species, so after the world became a complete mess, they too had no time to focus their forces on humans… but I wasn’t sure how it would be here.

Therefore, while the extermination of the apostles including Feirus was a top priority, I couldn’t focus exclusively on that one task.

Even I had to return to the Empire soon instead of tracking Paulus.

If the eastern part of the Empire was destroyed by Orhan’s attack while I was lingering in the Holy State trying to catch Paulus, it would be impossible to deal with the aftermath.

Once the Ka’har forces broke through the wall and began to ravage Imperial territory with their mobility, there would be no way to counter them.

“Haah…”

As always, thinking about the future made me sigh.

There’s a limit to how overwhelming things can be. They say if you chase two rabbits, you’ll catch neither, but it felt like I had to chase about ten rabbits.

And if I lost even one, it would be a catastrophe.

If humanity had about fifty fighters of my caliber, it would have been so much easier, but unfortunately, there weren’t even ten people who had reached the Hero level, let alone my equal.

Damn these Imperials. Why are they so weak?