Chapter 398

Leopold’s exclusive international news report didn’t end there.

As expected of the Emperor of the Empire, sitting in one place, he effortlessly spilled global information, which was incredibly beneficial.

“The Dragon Kingdom is currently experiencing intensified ideological conflicts. The existing faction believes in controlling violence through mental discipline to reach true dragonhood, while the emerging faction argues that the essence of a dragon lies in destruction, and that suppressing one’s violent nature is counterproductive—instead, they advocate for unleashing it even more strongly to achieve true dragonhood. These factions are clashing everywhere, and they call it the ‘Holy War.'”

The Holy War.

It’s an episode in the Dragon Kingdom where orthodox dragonkin, resembling Buddhists or Taoists, and heretical dragonkin, no different from criminal cartels, ignore national security and engage in slaughter.

Young players loved the fresh development, while older players vented their frustration, saying this wasn’t martial arts but something else.

Like all other episodes, it seemed the Holy War would progress faster than expected.

Whether to intervene was something to think about.

To recruit Calix, a special student from the Dragon Kingdom, as a party member, we had to participate in the war…

But honestly, we don’t have the time to care about the Dragon Kingdom’s internal division right now.

If the heretical faction wins, the Dragon Kingdom might become more aggressive, but they wouldn’t attack the Empire. Instead, they’d just invade Alfheim, saying they’d kill the elves.

Leopold also plans to watch the situation unfold without intervening.

—-

In summary, the international situation Leopold shared was a complete mess.

In the east, they’re busy hunting down hidden shamans, and Dane seems to be mass-producing magicians, as if they’ve built a magic school.

Meanwhile, Panam is about to play the game of thrones, Himmell and Alfheim are filming “Don’t Underestimate Science, Fantasy!”, and the Dragon Kingdom is on the brink of the Holy War.

Even the Holy Kingdom seems to be pondering a 30-year war with dementia-ridden elders and minion minions.

The real upheaval hasn’t even arrived yet, but the world is already in chaos. Except for the north.

As for Baraykruz in the north, Oleg is busy consolidating power after the defeat of the Great Invasion and preparing to ascend as king, so nothing major will happen there for a while.

‘Where should I even start…?’

[Why are you worrying? There’s no reason to intervene. Other nations’ conflicts are a boon for the Empire. At least, it’s far better than them using that strength to attack the Empire.]

…That’s true.

It’s not wrong. It’s not wrong, but…

If their national defense capabilities are wiped out, they might collapse like dominoes later.

…But there’s nothing we can do about it.

They won’t stop fighting just because I tell them to. They’ll only feel the sense of crisis when the monster threat is right at their doorstep.

—-

After entrusting the rescued Panamites to Leopold, I headed to the cathedral where Lacey was waiting.

I told Lacey about the Holy Kingdom’s scheming with the triangular alliance, and as expected, she was furious.

“How dare they commit such sacrilege! Inciting conflict among people from behind the scenes—can they even call themselves priests serving God…!”

Lacey slammed the table in the reception room, her expression a mix of shock and anger.

She knew the Holy Kingdom had its dark sides, but she never expected them to instigate large-scale conflicts, not just assassinations.

Honestly, I felt a bit guilty too.

Leopold assured me that casualties would be minimized, but I did help assassinate King Danon to stir up conflict in Panam.

“Indeed, the current Holy Kingdom has some issues—”

“The power of humanity should be used to exterminate monsters, heretics, and other races!”

So that’s why she’s angry.

That’s such a Lacey-like statement.

She’s probably secretly pleased about the war between elves and demi-humans or the civil war among dragonkin, thinking the enemies are reducing their numbers by fighting each other.

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, we really need to go to the Holy Kingdom now… but as you can see, if we just waltz in like it’s a picnic, we’ll only suffer and come back empty-handed, right?”

I crossed my legs and lit a cigarette while sitting across from Lacey.

Going to the Holy Kingdom is fine, but we can’t just go without a plan.

If we step into the Holy Kingdom’s territory without a plan and end up fighting dozens or hundreds of their secret assassination units, it’ll just be a waste of time.

“……”

Lacey glanced at the cigarette in my mouth but sipped her tea without complaint.

Her calm reaction probably means she doesn’t care whether I smoke or not.

“…So, we need to come up with some kind of plan before we move. We can’t just charge in recklessly like we did when capturing Archbishop Trier. Right?”

Back then, storming the cathedral and capturing him was straightforward, but doing that now might mean facing the entire Holy Kingdom.

That’s insane.

“That’s true. At that time, we had solid evidence and only one enemy, so we could act radically… but this time, we haven’t even found a shadow of the enemy yet.”

“Did you get anything from Archbishop Trier?”

Surely they didn’t just burn him without extracting any information.

If he was connected to the Holy Kingdom’s shadow and Isabella, we should have gotten some clues from him.

But, unfortunately, Lacey shook her head.

“Oh, you didn’t know? Interrogating Archbishop Trier failed. After roasting him thoroughly, we took him down from the cross to interrogate him, but—”

Wait, did she just say “roasting” a person…?

I mean, sure, that guy wasn’t exactly human, but still, that’s a bit too brutal, don’t you think?

“—the moment we tried to start a proper interrogation, his head exploded. It turned into mush, leaving no trace, so even healing miracles couldn’t restore him.”

“Seems like they took measures to prevent information leaks.”

Probably some curse that makes your head explode the moment you think of the mastermind’s name. Or something like that.

It’s a common idea, even outside this world, to implant a remote self-destruct device in important figures.

“We were too careless. Thinking about it, they must have prepared countermeasures, knowing the Holy Kingdom’s interrogation methods well.”

“Yeah. Careless of us.”

Lacey sipped her holy water and stared at me.

What? You’re the one who said it was careless. Why are you looking at me like I’m the one at fault?

“…Anyway, because of that, we couldn’t identify who in the Holy Kingdom collaborated with the witch. We searched all his belongings for clues, but there was nothing. They must have destroyed everything in advance. Meticulous, I suppose…”

Lacey sighed deeply, realizing how daunting the task ahead was.

So, we have to start from scratch.

I feel like sighing too.

“So, there’s no choice. We’ll have to stay in the Holy Kingdom for a while, mobilize the Special Operations Unit, and gather information by any means necessary. We need to find out who’s involved, which of the eleven Cardinals is the despicable traitor, and get solid evidence. It’s going to be a long and dangerous task.”

“Seems trickier than I thought…”

I exhaled cigarette smoke into the air, trying to organize my tangled thoughts.

So, we have to figure out which top-ranking official betrayed us in a country filled with danger, where assassins could appear at any moment, and with no clues to start with.

And with only a handful of people.

This seems impossible.

—-

From what I remember, one of the Cardinals was definitely the second apostle of the ‘Forgotten Order.’

He never revealed his face, so his identity is unknown… but at least he was an average-sized man, so maybe we can narrow down the suspects based on that.

We can exclude women, obese individuals, and the like.

Of course, if he’s the shadow collaborating with Isabella, that would be great, but if not, things will get even more complicated.

It would mean we have to find not only the second apostle but also a separate worshipper of the evil god.

“By the way, I need to ask this. What are the Cardinals like? I know they’re quite old, but are there any female Cardinals?”

“Female…? No, there aren’t. They’re all men.”

Lacey shook her head, looking at me like I’d said something absurd.

Damn it.

If even half of them were women, we could have narrowed down the suspects by half.

Why doesn’t the Holy Kingdom practice gender equality in hiring?