Chapter 434

Heinrich, who had been stubbornly silent, became the most polite person in the world after about 10 minutes, and after another 10 minutes, he turned into a sage who knew everything.

It was much faster than expected.

It was a time when I truly understood how ruthless those Ka`har guys are, the kind who only start talking after you open a butcher shop and pull out their nerves.

—

Later, Lacey came up to the first floor, wiping the blood splattered on her face and the sweat dripping down with a handkerchief, a joyful smile spreading across her face.

It was a refreshing laugh, like an athlete who had finally stretched their body after a long time.

“Heinrich confessed everything. Just as you expected, he said it was all orchestrated under Cardinal Erich’s orders to stage the assassination. Truly a heinous act.”

“Lucky us. If we had caught the wrong person, it would’ve been a disaster.”

Just as not everything shiny is gold, no matter how suspicious someone is, you can’t blindly assume they’re the culprit.

There was always the possibility that Heinrich was just a diligent priest treating the Archbishop who had fallen critically ill, and it was all a misunderstanding on our part.

In that case, what Lacey and I did would have been a horrific act of kidnapping and assaulting an innocent priest to extract a false confession.

“I was worried about that at first too… but it seems it was his first time being interrogated. He couldn’t control his expressions. That’s how I became certain. Even when I changed the order of questions and asked repeatedly, his answers remained consistent. The possibility of him giving a false confession under pressure is slim.”

Fortunately, Heinrich didn’t disappoint our expectations.

He knew every detail of the plan, the accomplices, and even the motive, and he revealed everything without holding back.

Though it was hard to believe.

—

The motive Heinrich revealed for Erich’s crime was beyond our imagination.

What Lacey and I had expected was that Erich simply wanted to pit the Holy Solar Alliance against the Free Forces Legion to reap the benefits.

With Archbishop Paulus, a key figure in the Saintly Struggle Society, gone, the only way to avoid being pushed out in the faction wars was to weaken the other two factions even more than themselves.

Of course, there was also the possibility that he was a pawn of the witches or an apostle of an ancient god.

In that case, this staged incident would have been an attempt to weaken the Holy Kingdom by causing internal strife.

But it was strange that paladins and priests would go along with it.

No matter how close they were, who in their right mind would follow someone who’s trying to destroy their own country?

So we thought it was a politically motivated act…

“He said he wanted to return the Holy Kingdom to its pure form through civil war? What kind of insane nonsense is that?”

It turns out it wasn’t the scheming of a politician, but the ideology of a fanatical zealot.

Cardinal Erich, contrary to our expectations of a corrupt power figure, was actually a devout cardinal.

The problem was that his devotion was severely twisted.

He interpreted the domains of fire and civilization, governed by their god Kranuus, in an extremely violent way.

He believed that war was the catalyst for civilizational progress and that Kranuus’s fire symbolized the flames of war.

…In short, he was a war enthusiast.

Heinrich insisted it was a theory of holy war, but to me, it sounded no different.

Anyway, Erich believed that the recent chaos in the Holy Kingdom was due to the corruption of the church orders.

He thought that impure clergy, who pursued power over faith, had brought this chaos.

Up to that point, Lacey and I agreed… but the problem was the solution he proposed.

“If everyone in the Holy Kingdom wages war against each other, in the end, only the pure clergy will remain. The gods would never care for the corrupted.”

It was a war enthusiast’s idea, and also a religious leader’s idea.

Blind and insane.

The problem was that within his own church order, there were plenty of people who understood and sympathized with his devotion.

If it were me, I would’ve opposed such madness… but since religion is an organization of like-minded individuals, it was somewhat inevitable.

Anyway, this staged incident was also meant to incite conflict within the Holy Kingdom and trigger a civil war among the church orders.

He thought the Bølberg Church Order would be falsely accused and clash with others, but instead of clashing, they just talked big, which deeply disappointed him.

Madmen.

Disappointed because there was no war? What’s the difference between them and those Ka`har brats?

—

“So… what now? If we reveal this, an entire church order will collapse.”

If it had been the greed of a single cardinal, it would’ve been enough to just expel him…

But digging deeper, the motive was pure religious belief, and most of the followers were directly or indirectly complicit.

If we reveal the whole truth, the 11-god religion might become a 10-god religion.

“What can we do? If we leave it like this, a civil war will break out as Cardinal Erich intended. We have to stop that.”

Lacey showed no other options.

She said it was better for the Kranuus Church Order to be devastated than for all the church orders to be dragged into a civil war.

“Well…”

Neither outcome was satisfying to me.

So instead of nodding, I leaned back, deep in thought, hoping my smoke-filled brain would come up with a viable alternative.

If Erich’s staged incident were revealed, the Kranuus Church Order would surely be destroyed.

Since it wasn’t personal greed but doctrine-driven, the entire order would be on the chopping block, not just Erich.

That part was really troublesome…

If Erich had just been a greedy bastard, it would’ve been easier.

Then we could’ve executed Erich and the main instigators and shifted the blame to the cardinal’s personal ambition, not the Kranuus Church Order’s doctrine.

…Wait a minute.

Wouldn’t that work?

A lightning bolt of realization struck me.

It wasn’t a morally sound method, but it was the one that would result in the least bloodshed.

“Lacey, what if we do this? So…”

I explained my plan to Lacey.

She called it a blasphemous method but agreed it would result in the least sacrifice.

Hersela, who was listening, also thought it was a decent plan.

[That’s so like you. Your brain only works exceptionally well in these kinds of situations.]

Whether it was praise or sarcasm, I couldn’t tell.

Probably both.

—

The next day, I left Durandal in my room and headed to the Kranuus Church Order’s cathedral.

Under the pretext of visiting the recovering Cardinal Erich on behalf of the busy Lacey.

The priests of the Kranuus Church Order looked uncomfortable but couldn’t refuse a paladin of archbishop rank who came bearing high-grade holy water and recovery potions, so they allowed me to see him.

Cardinal Erich Rudolf was an old man who looked like a bulldog with perpetually dissatisfied eyes and sagging cheeks.

I mentioned Priest Heinrich’s name and requested a private audience, and we had a long conversation alone.

Though voices were raised at times, after a lengthy discussion, Cardinal Erich accepted my proposal.

Even he couldn’t deny that this was the best solution.

“…I will do as you say. I am grateful for your mercy.”

“It’s hard to call it mercy, but if you think so, it eases my mind.”

I stood up, looking down at the bowing Cardinal Erich.

Now that I had his agreement, there was no need to stay.

All that was left was to wait for him to act according to my plan.

I told him to finish it by today… so by evening, the results should be clear.

“Then, I’ll take my leave. We won’t meet again. Rest well.”

I gave him my final farewell and returned to St. Eluniel Cathedral.

—

Four hours later, Cardinal Erich convened a meeting of the cardinals and confessed his crimes before them.

He admitted that he had planned to pit the Holy Solar Alliance against the Free Forces Legion, then seize power once they were weakened.

Of course, the cardinals found it hard to believe.

Not only was it an unexpected scheme, but it was also strange that he would confess after it had already succeeded.

But Erich presented evidence of the staged incident one by one, and eventually, the cardinals had no choice but to believe him.

Though they never understood why he confessed after everything had already been accomplished.

After finishing his story, Erich used his holy power to blow his own head off, committing suicide.

Even a cardinal-level priest couldn’t resurrect a body with its head completely gone.

The cardinals tried to investigate the key figures to understand the full story, but they had already committed suicide around the same time as Erich.

The ordinary priests, who knew little of the truth, were in shock that their cardinal had confessed to such evil deeds and killed himself.

Some found out that Erich had a private audience with me hours before his suicide, but no one dared to question me.

When the Empire’s greatest sword insists, “I just went to visit him out of duty,” who would dare to drag him in for interrogation like a criminal?

It’s rare to find a mouse brave enough to bell a tiger.

—

And so, the second assassination incident that had shaken the Holy City came to a vague end with the confession and suicide of the mastermind.

Just as I had hoped.

All the involved parties had committed suicide, and Erich Rudolf’s reputation was buried in the mud.

He was stripped of his clerical status, and his body was treated as that of a criminal, not a cardinal. For someone who acted on religious belief, it was a truly miserable end.

But in exchange, the Kranuus Church Order survived.

Since the motive was revealed to be the corruption of the cardinal himself, the ordinary followers were seen as blind lambs who had been deceived by a vile hypocrite.

The church’s influence would be greatly weakened, but it was a far better outcome than the entire order being branded as enemies of the Holy Kingdom and destroyed.

Erich knew this too, which is why he readily accepted my proposal.

I threatened him: take all the blame and disgrace and commit suicide, and we’ll let it go. Otherwise, I’d use Heinrich as a witness to expose the church’s crimes.

And as expected, he chose the survival of the church over his own honor.

To me, Cardinal Erich was just an incomprehensible madman… but at that moment, he seemed like a devout religious man.

Not that I planned to spare him.

If we hadn’t caught onto his scheme, a religious war would’ve broken out, and blood would’ve flowed like rivers.

So he had to die.

Well… since he acted on religious belief and committed suicide to protect his church, maybe Kranuus will take care of him. Probably.