Chapter 430

The Bølberg Church Order and the Grimnir Church Order, having left the Holy City of Alhebron, moved to their respective core cities.

Wolfgang, accused of being the mastermind behind the cardinal’s assassination, marched to Barseba, which he co-ruled with the Vimos Church Order, and completely occupied the city. The Vimos Church Order declared that they didn’t care what he did as long as he didn’t harm their believers, and Wolfgang accepted this, allowing him to enter the city without bloodshed.

Walter Rübitz of the Grimnir Church Order headed to Nasiriya. Sherner, the Archbishop of the Keres Church Order, who had co-ruled Nasiriya, wanted to refuse Walter’s entry, but he couldn’t stop the entire Grimnir Church Order from flooding in. After all, the city was already filled with Grimnir Church members.

“Archbishop Sherner! Lay down your weapons and surrender! If you do not resist, the safety of your believers will be guaranteed!”

After a long deliberation, Sherner, who had heard Walter’s declaration from atop the city walls, surrendered. He knew he couldn’t win, and frankly, he didn’t even feel like fighting.

Sherner knew why they had come here. Or rather, he had a good guess. They had come to Nasiriya because the cardinals in the Holy City had framed them.

Sherner opened the gates without resistance, and Walter, respecting his cooperative attitude, didn’t harm a single hair on Sherner or the Keres believers. He simply urged them to leave, as they couldn’t stay in the city.

The remaining Keres Church members left with Sherner for the Holy City of Alhebron, and Nasiriya fell into the hands of the Grimnir Church Order.

Of course, Walter Rübitz wasn’t being merciful out of the goodness of his heart. If he slaughtered them all, there would be no way to refute the accusations against them.

Barseba and Nasiriya. The Free Forces Legion, having taken control of both cities, vehemently condemned the church orders that had framed them for the assassination and began fortifying the cities.

The other church orders criticized the Free Forces Legion but didn’t take any further action.

The fortified cities were now occupied by the warrior and magician church orders. Attacking them would be no easy task, and no church order wanted to be labeled as the one who sparked the Second Religious War.

Even the Menes Church Order didn’t attack the Free Forces Legion, though for slightly different reasons.

They never believed the cardinals’ announcement in the first place, so instead of condemning and attacking Wolfgang, they began their own investigation into the true culprit.

Around that time, the manifesto written by Lacey and Bels was posted throughout the Holy Kingdom.

—

The manifesto vehemently criticized the current state of the Holy Kingdom, pointing to the cardinals and blind believers as the root of all evil.

For the people, it was a shocking revelation. They finally realized the source of the inexplicable frustration that had been weighing on their hearts.

That emotion was distrust.

A religious skepticism towards the church orders, something they had never felt before. The behavior of the church orders, so different from what they had been taught and believed, shook the faith that had been instilled in them since birth.

Voices criticizing the church orders began to spread, just as Staldorf had hoped.

—

And it wasn’t just the believers of the Holy Kingdom who found the manifesto impressive.

In a basement somewhere in the Holy Kingdom, the flickering light of a candle illuminated a man half-lying on a sofa.

The man had sharp, narrow eyes, a short beard, and a tall frame. His forehead and under his eyes were marked with strange tattoos.

The man chuckled as he blew smoke from a magic herb towards the ceiling. Beside him, a woman with voluminous lavender hair leaned against the armrest of the sofa, reading a piece of paper he had handed her.

“What do you think, Eljur?”

Her appearance matched the description given by Hersh. Eljur, the leader of the Dream Paradise Society, who had been annihilated by Hashelle and the Menes Church Order, was here.

“This manifesto? It criticizes the cardinals, but… it’s hard to see them as allies. The purpose of the writing itself is different from ours. This is a call for reform, not annihilation. But still…”

“-We can use it, right?”

The man cut off Eljur’s words and turned his head to look at her.

“Huhu… Judging by your expression, you’ve come up with something devious. What are you planning now, Velkus?”

Eljur smirked and burned the manifesto she had been reading. The ashes scattered like dust through the white smoke.

“We need to sow discord. That is my true purpose.”

Velkus placed the magic herb he had been smoking into an ashtray and grinned widely.

—

The assassination of Paulus was “officially” concluded, and after ten days of standstill, the Holy City finally returned to normal.

Contrary to expectations of a bloody conflict, the resolution was surprisingly peaceful. The two church orders accused of the crime had occupied two cities and remained inactive, while the church orders in the Holy City decided to leave them be for the time being.

If the deceased Paulus had seen this outcome, he might have been more dumbfounded than outraged.

[What a lackluster ending. It’s downright pathetic.]

Hersela mocked the church orders for vehemently condemning each other without shedding a single drop of blood. While it was fortunate that a civil war didn’t break out, even I found the outcome somewhat ridiculous, so Hersela must have been even more exasperated.

In any case, with the Holy City returning to normal, Lacey’s hearing was set to resume. Though it was a mess with the collaborators dead and two church orders gone.

“This might actually work in my favor. The Bølberg Church Order, which harbored resentment towards Sir Median’s past, has left, and the other church orders have shown far greater disgrace than my own faults… It will be difficult to harshly interrogate me in this situation. Plus, the manifesto we spread seems to be having an effect.”

Lacey smiled as she spoke.

According to reports from the Special Operations Unit, the spread of the manifesto had led to the formation of small groups criticizing the corruption of the church orders. To prevent these groups from acting recklessly, the Special Operations Unit had infiltrated the larger gatherings to control them.

Of course, the Special Operations Unit was also diligently carrying out its original mission of infiltrating criminal organizations to investigate their backgrounds.

The disappearance case in Nasiriya. The violent organizations in the back alleys of Barseba. The illegal brothels in Arvil.

The Dream Paradise Society, a criminal organization in Holon, had been dealt with by my hand, but other cities still had their share of dark forces.

A few operatives had died during the investigations, but overall, things were progressing smoothly. Though the infiltration methods reported were quite astonishing.

In Nishiriya, they were trying to find the kidnappers by kidnapping people from the back alleys themselves. The logic was that if there were no targets left to kidnap, the kidnappers would reveal themselves.

…At this point, isn’t that just insane?

Nishiriya wasn’t the only place with absurd methods.

In Barseba, the Special Operations Unit had disguised themselves as a new violent organization, taken down another group, and absorbed the thugs to compete for control of the back alleys. They were on the verge of becoming the strongest organization in the back alleys when the Bølberg Church Order occupied the city, so everyone went silent.

Disguising as a violent organization was one thing, but how did it escalate to a power struggle? That part wasn’t detailed in the report.

Arvil was the worst. An operative, not a priest, had taken on the role of a prostitute to infiltrate the red-light district.

It’s good that they’re loyal to Lacey, but this level of loyalty is… a bit much, don’t you think?

Did Lacey brainwash her subordinates or something?

“…Their hatred for evil and other races is that immense. They are willing to sacrifice their own bodies for the greater cause.”

According to Lacey’s explanation, their fundamental motivation was not faith but resentment and hatred. Or perhaps loyalty to Lacey herself.

Most of the members had suffered terrible pain at the hands of other races or evil individuals.

Some had watched their families be eaten by beastmen. Others had their lovers taken by fairies, with all contact cut off. There were even victims rescued from the dens of evil.

It was an organization composed of individuals who valued revenge more than their own lives.

“Still… this is a bit… extreme. I didn’t expect it to go this far…”

Even Lacey hadn’t anticipated that they would go as far as disguising themselves as prostitutes to infiltrate.