episode_0091

“Hehe… . With this, neutralization of demon energy is completed.”

“Okay.”

Olivia’s laboratory.

While examining Aslen, who had been kidnapped, it was discovered that he had been exposed to a significant amount of demonic energy, and he was treated using a neutralizer that Olivia had made.

“It’s fascinating. Unless you have been to the Southern Continent, it would be impossible to be exposed to this level of demonic energy… .”

“That woman could have come from the southern continent.”

“But if an ordinary human sets foot on the Southern Continent, let alone going crazy due to demonic energy, he or she will lose his or her life.”

The southern continent, which was destroyed by Rusk, is now full of demon energy.

Olivia had explained to me about this magic, but I roughly understood it to be something radioactive.

Unlike radiation, magic is different in that it causes mental damage rather than physical damage.

Anyway, as Olivia said, the Southern Continent is full of demonic energy, as if a nuclear power plant has exploded, making it a dangerous place where ordinary people and even superhumans can lose their lives.

Therefore, the possibility of Aslen coming back alive after setting foot on the southern continent was close to zero.

“The Magi of the Southern Continent… . It has become much lighter.”

Aslen joined the conversation with a strained voice.

It was a neat and calm voice that could not be heard when consumed by demonic energy.

“How are you feeling?”

“Thanks to you, my mind became clearer. Thank you.”

Aslen lowered his head and answered my question with difficulty.

It seems like he has no strength due to the aftereffects of demonic energy.

“Ugh… . What does it mean that the demon energy has become lighter?”

Olivia asked in a surprised voice, wondering if she was more interested in the topic of conversation than Aslen’s physical condition.

It was after the war in the central continent that Rusk destroyed the southern continent.

I can’t be sure because I don’t have detailed records, but I do know that after the war in the central continent, the demon lord’s group suddenly became stronger and the southern continent’s defense line collapsed.

After the fall, the southern continent would have been constantly pickled in Maggi.

Until 6 years ago, when Lufia defeated Rusk.

Immediately after the subjugation, the empire’s investigators measured the level of demonic energy in the southern continent, and found that it was filled with demonic energy at a level that was life-threatening.

And it was expected that it would take hundreds of years at the earliest for this demon energy to disappear naturally.

In other words, if the demonic energy has faded as Aslen said, it means that there was some artificial intervention.

‘Is it the Virgin Mary Church? Purifying demonic energy is the work of the Virgin Mary… . However, St. Mary’s Church had no answer from the southern continent, so they were giving up. Plus, Maria is neglecting her duties, so it won’t work properly.’

I thought about it briefly, but I couldn’t think of any way to lighten the southern continent’s demonic energy.

“Devil Sword… . That demonic sword can absorb demonic energy. When I arrived in the Southern Continent… . That demon sword had already absorbed a significant amount of demon energy.”

It is a demonic sword that absorbs demonic energy.

Now that I think about it, you said that you absorbed strange energy during the ritual, and that you gathered magical energy when you kidnapped Aslen.

“Ugh..? Well, wouldn’t it be dangerous to leave it like that?”

“It’s not dangerous as long as you don’t touch it.”

Olivia felt anxious as she looked at the magic sword.

Even though Aslen said he was in no danger, it didn’t seem to comfort him at all.

“Then tell me now. About the Lord of Death, the Demon Sword, and ritual.”

“……”

“Don’t you want to tell me?”

“…No. Let me tell you. However, since it is a complicated story, it needs to be organized a bit.”

Aslen still opens his eyes hesitantly, lowers his head and struggles.

I decided to give her a few minutes.

A route that will be abandoned anyway.

Because time is running out.

“Do you know about the legend of Arthur?”

Aslen opened his mouth only after gathering his thoughts for a while, and suddenly started by asking if he knew the legend in the game.

“I know. Who doesn’t know the story?”

The legend of Arthur the adventurer. This is the most famous and familiar story among the many legends handed down in the Central Continent.

Perhaps inspired by the legend of King Arthur, it is an obvious story about an adventurer named Arthur performing all sorts of heroic feats after obtaining the holy sword Excalibur.

“It might be hard to believe, but… . The legends of Arthur are all true stories.”

“I know.”

“…You knew?”

“Yes.”

The person named Arthur existed, and the holy sword called Excalibur also existed.

Of course, the achievements in the legend are quite exaggerated, but it is still a story based on a true story.

However, it happened hundreds of years ago, and for unknown reasons, all records were lost, and since it was passed down orally, it is just treated as a fictional story.

“Then the story will go faster. The witch who sows death in Arthurian legend… . The identity of that witch is the Lord of Death.”

“There was no mention of it being sealed in the story… .”

“It was intentionally hidden. To reassure people, and for the safety of the seal that sealed the Lord of Death.”

Hiding information from the public is common, so it makes sense.

Especially considering Daisy’s power, revealing it would only cause more confusion.

“Then, how does they know that?”

What’s unique about this game’s worldview is that it was hundreds of years ago, a time when all kinds of legends were created and many fantasy events occurred. All records from that time have disappeared.

Since there are no records, there is of course no way to know.

Stories passed down orally, like the Arthurian legend, have been adapted to the level of fairy tales or novels.

So it is natural for the public to believe that past events are fiction.

Right now, if it weren’t for Azuta and Ryuka, I would have thought that dragons and all were nonsense.

So how does Aslen know all this?

Why is Daisy correctly called the ‘Lord of Death’ and not the Witch of Death?

“Everything I know is thanks to a ‘small number’ of historians who had one goal.”

Azta began a long story.

“I have been interested in archeology since I was young. This may be because I was influenced by my father, who was the only archaeologist in the village.”

“When I started to come to my senses, I followed my father and investigated various ruins, and as my knowledge deepened, a big question arose.”

“Why have records of the past disappeared so cleanly? It was too cleanly ‘erased’ to be said to have been lost in war or an accident.”

It’s erased.

“It sounds like someone deleted it on purpose.”

“That’s right. It was erased intentionally.”

Erasing records spread across the continent.

Does that make sense?

There are probably only a few organizations that can do things on that scale.

Even if there is, I should know.

“I asked my father that very question. Then my father took me to a secret group, saying he would tell me the truth.”

“Is that secret group the ones erasing records?”

“No, it’s the opposite. They call themselves ‘recorders’ and have been playing the role of protecting records from being lost over a long period of time.”

“So, your father was part of that ‘recorder’ group.”

“…Yes. Thanks to you, I was able to learn about things from the past that had disappeared.”

One who records.

This is my first time knowing that such an organization exists.

“Then who are the people who erase the records?”

“……”

Aslen paused for a moment and spoke carefully.

“St. Mary’s Church. For a very long time, the Holy Mother Church has erased and distorted its records. For just one purpose.”

The Virgin Mary.

A very old organization with influence throughout the empire.

St. Mary’s Church is perfect.

“What is the purpose? Increase believer?”

That’s the only reason I can think of, but if that’s the case, wouldn’t it be more effective to piece it together and turn it into a myth of the Virgin Mary rather than completely blowing the record?

Of course, if it was done sloppily, it could be criticized for contradictions or errors, but if the goal was to brainwash the people of the empire, I thought that distortion would be more effective than incineration.

“No.”

But Aslen firmly denied it.

“The purpose of the Virgin Mary is to protect the earth. Deleting records is also to protect the earth.”

You spoke earlier as if you were the source of all evil, and now you speak as if you are the guardian of the earth.

“I don’t understand.”

“…The Virgin Mary was originally an organization created to fight against ‘monarchs’. He believed that in order to protect this earth from monarchs, ‘chaos’, the source of the monarchs’ power, must be suppressed.”

To have a headache.

What kind of story is this again?

“St. Mary’s Church has called for ‘order’ on earth and has worked to prevent people from being encroached upon by chaos. But it wasn’t enough to control all humans. Order is meaningful for everyone to follow, but just one traitor is enough to create chaos.”

That is correct.

Almost all humans do not commit crimes.

But since there are a small number of criminals, police are needed.

Additionally, there are those who do not commit crimes because they are afraid of public power.

“Despite the efforts of the Holy Mother Church, people continued to degenerate. Not only crime and selfishness, but also groups that followed the monarchs began to appear.”

“…Like Paradise Bridge?”

Aslen pursed his lips and nodded.

“The greater the chaos, the stronger the monarchs become. That’s why the followers tried to color the world into chaos. Their actions were more lethal than those of criminals who acted for their own gain.”

Was the use of banshees to carry out bombings throughout the empire to create chaos?

Thanks to that, the Lord of Death and the Lord of War, Rusk, became stronger.

‘The reason the Southern Continent was destroyed after the war in the Central Continent was because Rusk became stronger…? ‘That makes sense.’

“In the end, the method chosen by the Holy Mother Church was to erase the existence of the monarch so that there would be no followers, and to brainwash people with distorted history to make them follow the order.”

“Did it work?”

“You can’t say it wasn’t effective. Because it is true that followers actually disappeared. but… . We thought that the methods of St. Mary’s Church were wrong.”

By us, we’re talking about those who record.

“We thought that what we needed to fight against monarchs was knowledge. Since they were also real beings, I believed that there must be a way to get rid of them. And I believed that in order to know that, we had to leave a record. but… .”

Aslen already looked weak, but gave off an even more depressed look.

“I realized how dangerous it can be when someone who knows goes astray. They say it’s because of Maggi, but… . In the end, it was purely out of my own will that I set foot in the southern continent.”

I roughly understood the situation.

Aslen may have set foot in the southern continent to learn more about the monarchs.

The Southern Continent, which was not under the control of the Virgin Mary, would have been the treasure trove of records they desired.

However, this was extremely reckless.

Even though the demon energy has faded, it was enough to drive Aslen crazy.

Aslen, who was consumed by demonic energy, created the Church of Paradise and prepared a ritual to awaken the Lord of Death.

“I… . Now I don’t know what’s right… .”

Aslen despairs with a voice filled with guilt.

He seems to have been greatly shocked by the fact that his efforts to protect the world almost led to its destruction.

‘hmm… . ‘This is unexpected.’

I honestly thought Aslen was just a crazy bitch.

I thought he was just a fanatic who was obsessed with the Lord of Death… .

She was more normal than I thought.

Of course, it is a bit abnormal that she went to the southern continent full of demonic energy because of her thirst for knowledge, but compared to other heroines, this is a good thing.

He is normal, knowledgeable, and a member of a secret society with a lot of information about the past.

‘Could it be useful?’

In particular, the fact that those who recorded were able to survive for a long time, avoiding the surveillance of the Virgin Mary, clearly means that there is something that can counter the Virgin Mary’s ‘clairvoyance’.

decided.

Let’s seduce Aslen.

It’s about getting into contact with those who seduce and record things.

Then, you will get information and a way to counter clairvoyance.

It’s a bonanza. It’s a bonanza.

I took off the mask I was wearing.

It is difficult to seduce rational people like Aslen based on their looks alone, but a handsome face is an attractive factor in itself, beyond seducing them.

“There is no need to worry about what is right.”

He spoke firmly in a very low voice.

“…Yes? What is that.”

Aslen raised his head with a natural question and made eye contact with me.

“Ah… .”

She froze with a brief exclamation as if time had stopped for a moment.

Anyway, I continued to say what I had to say.

“The sealed lord of death, the weakened lord of war, and the lord whose name I don’t know, but who froze the northern continent. These three are being managed in isolation.”

“The one remaining monarch will also be resolved by us soon. So there is no need for you to worry about what is right. You can just leave it all to us.”

I even put on a confident smile to look as professional as possible.

“Ugh… . Um, Director?”

“Why?”

“That… . The other person… . It looks like he fainted while sitting down.”

“Huh?”

As Olivia said, Aslen’s eyes were unfocused.