Chapter 53

As the quiet night streets were illuminated by the lamps of the night watchmen, we exchanged blows while swimming in the middle of the canal.

“Today, it’s you who will sink underwater.”

Lancea growled fiercely.

With that, I tightened my grip on the dagger in my hand and completely severed its spine.

Since it had used a syringe, I had been confident that I could take the upper hand in a one-on-one situation.

There were two main ways to forcibly corrupt an opponent: the first was to break their mind and corrupt them; the second was to inject substances like spinal fluid or blood from an infiltrator into their body.

The second method had a fundamentally low success rate, but it worked well enough on the royal family, who were all siblings.

…It was a method primarily used by weak infiltrators who couldn’t shatter their opponent’s psyche.

“You haven’t been hiding your strength very well, have you?”

I whispered this in its ear, and for a moment, its body stiffened.

Seizing the opportunity, I grabbed it tightly with my left hand and slowly swam away from the grating.

While it would be enjoyable to sink it underwater, the place I wanted to conclude today’s business was not the canal.

“No matter how well you can conceal your strengths by serving the old ones, it must have been difficult to hide your status as an infiltrator within the imperial palace. Your organs were probably as much about cunning as they were about strength.”

“Valencius!”

A voice filled with rage caused ripples on the surface.

“But didn’t you say you had already lost everything? That was a lie. You want revenge, yet you are afraid of truly losing everything?”

Since earlier, it had only been transforming its arms.

Despite possessing the same monster-like form inside, its torso completely maintained a human shape.

That’s why there was still a spine I could sever.

I hoped it would transform more quickly.

“If I think about what happens after seeking vengeance, then I won’t be able to seek it.”

It gritted its teeth.

I withdrew the dagger that was embedded in its spine and aimed to stab between its ribs again.

It was swimming with its left arm and blocking me with its right.

“Does the poison the emperor gives you taste that sweet?!”

It struggled.

Even though I was pouring in my mana without holding back, all it could do was endure.

But it would feel as if, despite the infiltrator struggling with all its might, it wouldn’t be able to lift a finger.

“Yeah. It has tasted so sweet that it can defy humanity, heavenly order, and time itself.”

I plunged the dagger into its side.

In an instant, its eyes blazed with a violet glow.

The sharp dagger failed to pierce the tough flesh and slithered out instead.

“Ah.”

Splash!

In the next moment, I was lifted into the air by its transformed tentacle.

Looking at the distance to the surface, I estimated it was about 5 meters high.

“You bastard…!”

Splash! Splash! Splash!

It slammed me against the surface repeatedly.

I focused on avoiding swallowing water as I sensed my body heading southward toward the river.

I had to cross over to that side.

There was a place I needed to go.

After executing the reckless plan of purging all the royal family that had high nobles in their maternal lineage, there was a way to swiftly quell the backlash.

Evil!

In an instant, I wrapped my dagger with a mana blade and sliced through the tentacle.

With a thud, my body rose and fell onto the railing on the southern edge of the canal.

The railing broke with a loud crash, but fortunately, it seemed like none of my bones were broken.

I staggered to my feet, rubbing my legs sore from the impact.

“Right. When thinking about what comes next, one cannot seek revenge.”

Lancea approached me.

Though its face retained a humanoid shape, it had grown as large as an ogre.

It had several thin and long tentacles protruding from its nape and back, and the one that threw me was likely one of them.

“Are you satisfied now, Valencius? If I had let you escape, you wouldn’t have faced death here.”

“A cunning bastard like you? I’d rather die here than let you escape.”

I replied while turning my body and starting to run toward the central dock.

“E-escape? After making me look like this, are you going to run away?!”

I turned my head sharply to gaze at its eyes, which were devoid of reason.

“Congratulations on becoming so grotesque. Now you finally have an appearance that fits your soul. In the end, you were a failure. That power is something a lackey like you cannot handle.”

Provocation was a necessary quality of a bandit.

Of course, for someone like me who hadn’t reached a certain level before the return, calling someone a failure wasn’t particularly pleasant.

However, my words about Lancea’s soul being so distorted were sincere.

“You have no limits on your insults! I’ll cut out your tongue!”

It howled with a bizarre, rage-filled scream and followed me.

* * *

“Valen is coming this way again? He’s running along the road by the southern canal, huh? An infiltrator?”

“Rudi. Don’t look. If you see that clearly, you might end up like that.”

Frowning, Sererassie pulled out a hand mirror and handed it to Rudi. After casting a spell on the rebellious royal, she glanced at Valencius, who was fleeing from the infiltrator.

“He must have lured out the corrupting power with that wicked tongue again. What a remarkable bandit. To create a monster and then try to kill it at ease.”

Tenitia sighed expressively.

“Tenitia. Shouldn’t we cross over? We would need at least four knights to handle a monster of that caliber.”

Tenitia narrowed her eyes and nodded.

“I think I should go, but not to protect His Highness Valen, but to apologize.”

“What do you… ah.”

Sererassie lifted her head, also expressing her disquiet.

Right in front of the central dock was a cathedral.

Inside, there were priests, holy knights, cardinals, and a pope, as well as a new saint who had yet to reveal himself to the world.

“Valencius. You can’t do this. How do you plan to take responsibility for this?”

Sererassie bit her lip and cast another spell.

Though the relationship between mages and the clergy was not pleasant, she too held an unconscious faith in the light.

“Oh my. It’s clear that Valen has gone insane.”

Rudi murmured in a dazed voice as he aimed the hand mirror at the transformed Lancea.

To her, a devoted believer, what Valencius was trying to do was utterly unacceptable.

“Get on the boat and go to that riverbank right now! Is it even reasonable that you can’t move 60 meters?!”

Tenitia shouted at a rower, pushing the small boat into the water.

Crackle!

The lightning bolt that Sererassie cast froze the transformed Lancea’s ankle.

Bang!

Rudi’s arrow shot through Lancea’s side.

“Your Highness!”

Tenitia was almost at the southern dock of the canal.

“Kiieeeeee!”

Lancea screamed, thrashing its tentacles.

The mental wave radiated outwards, and Valencius staggered as if struck by a hammer and finally knelt.

The rowers in Tenitia’s boat lost their senses, chanting prayers to the ancient ones, while Rudi wept with a pale face, and the citizens around them awoke, trembling or slipping into terrible nightmares.

Some of them would never wake again, while others would rise with different faiths.

Then the main doors of the cathedral burst open.

“No!”

“Saint!”

“Let me go! There’s a great evil that has come from that abyss; how can I just sit here in silence?!”

Valencius looked up at him, breathing heavily.

“Saint.”

His features were masculine, yet deep and rich, with jet-black hair that looked like a mass of slightly curly locks, and his eyes seemed to devour light.

He possessed the frame of a master craftsman’s decades-long work, with muscles visible between the folds of his clothing like shattered grapes.

The Black Saint Matheos, the future epitome of execution.

“Duke Valencius?”

“You can no longer call me ‘Your Highness.’”

Valencius faced Matheos with equal respect, just below Jeilliris.

Where “Your Grace” denoted the pope and “Your Majesty” meant the emperor, a saint was even higher in status within the church.

“I understand. No, I see.”

“Although it is a sudden and unreasonable request, could you assist this humble servant in defeating that infiltrator?”

“I was granted the power to vanquish the infiltrator. How could I retract?”

“You…”

Lancea, merely witnessing the saint’s appearance, was already gritting its teeth and staggering.

The roar that had just shook the area now felt like a lie.

Seeing Matheos’s gaze filled with the spark of enmity, the seed of the executioner rose rapidly.

Valencius laughed as he observed it grow.

“I am a jealous god; I will not allow you to serve another god.”

“You! Child of Light!”

A voice that was not Lancea’s escaped through its mouth.

It sounded like thousands were speaking simultaneously.

Both Valencius and Tenitia had covered their ears, grimacing in agony.

However, Matheos did not even flinch.

“I will strike you with a whip to guide you back to the right path, and I will strike those who serve other gods so that they do not corrupt my children.”

A dark halo rose behind the Black Saint.

It was like looking at the sun during a solar eclipse.

As surrounding sounds suddenly distorted and vanished.

A powerful wind seemed to sweep through.

“I will strike you with a whip to guide you back to the right path, and I will strike those who serve other gods so that they do not corrupt my children.”

Only the saint’s words resonated repetitively, and it was as if the words became a whip, causing Lancea to stagger greatly.

At some point, smoke began to rise from its body, which was intertwined with blue and violet hues.

Each time the dark halo glowed and hummed with a gentle light, white flames burned and shrank the infiltrator’s body.

Lancea rolled on the ground, wailing.

“Valencius! I will curse you! We will undoubtedly meet again. When that time comes, I will bring your siblings to their knees and tear your souls apart with my tentacles.”

As Valencius staggered to his feet, he replied.

“Our siblings have given generously; they will surely go to heaven.”

Upon hearing that, both the Black Saint Matheos and Lancea showed expressions of shock.

Soon after, as Lancea returned to human size, it collapsed limply, the dark saint’s halo vanished, and sound returned to the surroundings.

“Your Highness! What on earth are you doing? You’re bringing the infiltrator to the cathedral!”

Having dealt with the two transformed rowers, Tenitia rushed over after docking the boat.

From within the cathedral walls, holy knights clad in white armor and red cloaks swarmed in, surrounding Valencius.

“Let him go.”

The holy knights remained unmoving, even in response to Matheos’s words.

“I will directly speak with His Majesty, no, the Emperor, regarding today’s events. So, please release the Duke.”

At last, the holy knights tossed Valencius to Tenitia as though flinging him.

Tenitia supported him and crossed back over the canal toward the northern dock.

“Are you mad?”

Amidst the dead nobles being carted away and the surviving ones departing for the imperial palace, Sererassie shook Valencius’s shoulders vehemently.

“What if you get excommunicated? Do you think Matheos is like that seminarian you saved? Don’t you know how uncomfortable the relationship between the imperial family and the church is now? What if the church uses your rudeness as an excuse to side with the local lords? I don’t know. Do what you want, even if it means death.”

Rudi intervened, supporting Valencius.

“Please don’t. Your Highness also had no choice but to go that way while fleeing.”

“Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t be smiling so brightly, right? Rudi, you saw it too, didn’t you? It’s good to be loyal, but don’t lie.”

Hearing that, Valencius smiled faintly.

“Your Highness, are you smiling right now? Did you hear me when I said to be just? A lord and a knight have a responsibility to protect the church! If I had known it would turn out like this, I would never have let you go alone. Please, don’t ever think of fighting without me again!”

Even as Tenitia was scolding him, he smiled.

Seeing that, Rudi narrowed his green eyes.

“Your Highness. Did you perhaps intentionally go to the church?”

“!”

In an instant, Tenitia and Sererassie’s mouths dropped open as Valencius ceased to smile.

He looked around, confirming that there was nowhere particularly helpful, and, along with the three, stepped onto the main road from the dock.

“I had to let you know.”

“What did you want to communicate?”

“That the infiltrator issue is no longer a matter for us alone. The church and imperial family’s cooperation is crucial. The church, which had been estranged for the past year, now has a reason to approach the imperial family.”