Information

Information

… I never thought the day would come when I’d be petting a person’s chin.

‘And not of my own volition, but at someone else’s request.’

I sighed as I watched Rumi behaving no differently from a dog, except for the lack of a tail.

For some reason, I felt like she would demand even more outrageous things later.

‘Surely not…’

Even as I denied it, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it would happen.

Rumi seemed satisfied, slowly pulling her face back and smiling.

“Hehe.”

Seeing her so happy just from having her chin stroked once, I felt a mix of emotions.

I silently watched her for a moment, still feeling the softness on my fingertips.

Then I slowly turned around, said ‘Rest,’ and returned to my research lab.

* * * * *

While I was continuing my research on magic penetration and doll magic, a letter arrived from Espin.

Curious about its contents, I examined it to find a report stating that the Heaven God Cult was making large-scale movements.

‘Even while the central government is keeping an eye on them. Large-scale movements… I don’t understand why they’re doing such noticeable things.’

Considering how they’ve managed to turn the central government, major officials, and all sorts of families to their side, there must be someone quite clever among them…

Despite having such a person, I couldn’t understand why they would take such a high-risk action.

I sent a reply to the letter simply saying ‘Keep watching,’ then sat in my chair.

‘What did the Heaven God Cult do in the original novel?’

Although things had already diverged significantly from the original novel, making it risky to judge based on that alone.

So far, events similar to those in the novel had continued to occur, so I decided it would be better to keep referring to it.

‘As long as I don’t blindly believe in it.’

As I was pondering this…

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.

‘Come to think of it, the Heaven God Cult didn’t even have a relic site, so why are they making such a fuss?’

In the original novel, one of the reasons the Heaven God Cult committed all sorts of evil acts was to ‘sell stories to relic sites’.

It was just puzzling that the Heaven God Cult was causing such a big commotion, similar to the original novel, even though they didn’t have a relic site.

‘… That means there must be something else.’

I tried to think about what it could be, but no matter how much I pondered, I couldn’t come to a conclusion.

Having no choice, I decided to gather additional information.

‘I’ll let Espin gather information in his own way for now.’

I decided to collect information in my own way and stepped out of the mansion.

*

‘The information guild is tightly controlled by the Heaven God Cult, so it’s meaningless.’

Other miscellaneous sources have such weak information-gathering capabilities that it’s pointless to ask them.

‘So rather than requesting information from somewhere, it’s better to go out and investigate directly.’

The problem is that my face is too widely known.

While I like the title of being the youngest son of the Lercier Family, at times like this, I think it’s not so great as I put on a cloak and move forward.

In the distance, I noticed a group of people wearing robes with the Heaven God Cult’s emblem.

Seeing this, I chuckled and quickly came to a conclusion.

‘It’s obviously a trap.’

Just thinking about the people I’ve seen so far, it was easy to notice that those guys were suspicious.

After all, every single member of the Heaven God Cult I’ve encountered so far has tried to ‘hide the fact that they belong to the Heaven God Cult’.

‘I’m not sure if it’s because they know their actions are close to evil, or if it’s more beneficial to operate in secret.’

Normal members of the Heaven God Cult usually try not to reveal their affiliation while operating.

Yet those guys were wearing robes that practically screamed ‘I am from the Heaven God Cult,’ which was suspicious.

As this thought crossed my mind, I decided it would be better to follow them and carefully trailed behind.

*

After about 30 minutes of following, we arrived at a rather large mansion.

Just as I was wondering about the design, which was quite different from the usual Heaven God Cult style I had seen before.

A mocking voice was heard from beside me.

“Lost lamb, what brings you to this place?”

Hearing the strangely peculiar way of speaking, I turned to the side with some interest.

Wondering who would use such a manner of speech, I looked to confirm.

I saw a woman wearing an expensive-looking pure white robe, smiling brightly as she addressed me.

‘… That face looks familiar.’

I felt a strange sense of déjà vu, as if I had seen a similar face recently.

As I was pondering where I might have seen her before.

She spoke to me with a kind smile.

“I’m not sure why you’ve come here, but I assume you have business with the Heaven God Cult.”

“……”

At those words, I inwardly laughed.

It was amusing because she was pretending not to know that everyone who came here, including myself, had ‘followed the believers,’ while asking why we had come.

As I was trying to suppress my laughter at this fact and pulling my robe to hide my face, the person in front of me gestured and said.

“… Then let’s talk inside at our leisure. We can’t keep our guest standing out here forever.”

With those words, numerous Heaven God Cult believers emerged from the bushes.

If I were an ordinary informant, I would probably have felt tremendous despair.

‘Perhaps it’s because I have the ability to kill them all at any moment.’

Thinking that I didn’t feel much of a sense of crisis, I nodded leisurely.

At my response, she seemed puzzled, as if it wasn’t the reaction she had expected.

Still, she seemed to like that I readily agreed to go, and gestured for me to follow her into the mansion.

*

While I was looking around the mansion, which was so dilapidated that it would be more appropriate to call it ruins.

The female priestess who had invited me earlier pointed to a chair that was placed there, smiling as if she were being kind, and said.

“Please, have a seat here.”

I nodded and sat down in a somewhat arrogant posture, and she silently looked down at me.

Then, once again putting on an act, she spoke to me.

“Normally, I would have engaged in some small talk. But it seems you already know a lot, so let’s get straight to the point.”

At the mention of getting to the point, I nodded with interest.

She took out a magic book designed to imitate a bible from her bosom and said.

“In exchange for sparing your life and the lives of your family, we would like to receive your loyalty and devotion to the Heaven God. What do you think?”

Threats right from the start.

Judging by how she made threats without batting an eye, it seems this isn’t her first time doing such things.

I chuckled, thinking I understood why they had deliberately set this trap.

‘It seems they set a trap to catch other people’s informants and, in turn, gather information.’

Using their wealth, information network, and furthermore, their cruelty.

They seemed to know well that no matter how good an informant might be, they would have no choice but to succumb to their threats or offers.

I inwardly mocked the guy who kept reciting information that might shake me up.

‘He’s trying hard.’

At first, he started with threats to kill me, then ended with threats to kill my family, lover, and friends.

When I remained indifferent, he began earnestly tempting me with offers of vast sums of money or power.

‘Indeed, informants would be tempted by such threats and persuasions.’

While investigating them, they would have learned how powerful and cruel the Heaven God Cult is.

They would know better than anyone that what they said could ‘actually’ happen.

As I was listening to this, thinking it must be conflicting for them.

I felt a strong wave of mana spreading nearby.

‘No, is it closer to evil energy rather than mana?’

Recognizing the sticky and murky feeling as evil energy spreading, I analyzed it.

I could tell that the identity of the evil energy was a ‘hypnosis’ spell.

‘So that’s what it was.’

Due to the characteristics of hypnosis magic, its effect is amplified only when directly targeted.

When used by someone beyond the wall, its effect tends to be greatly reduced.

‘That’s why it’s usually used together in the same room, but.’

If they did that, perceptive informants would notice that hypnosis magic was being used.

It seems they deliberately chose a dilapidated mansion, using areas where the walls were corroded.

They were directly sending hypnosis magic through the gaps in the wood.

As I figured this out, I started drawing up my mana.

Suddenly, I realized that the face of the woman chattering in front of me resembled someone.

“… Ariel?”

One of the villains who tried to inflict a fatal wound on Rumi on the rooftop.

I called out the name, wondering if the person in front of me looked too much like Ariel.

I noticed that she suddenly stopped all movement and was glaring at me with an icy gaze.

Then, in a considerably subdued voice, she asked me a question.

“… How do you know that name?”

After pondering for a moment at such a question, I decided it wouldn’t be good to lie and answered honestly.

“Of course I know, since I’m the one who personally threw Ariel into the torture chamber.”