Chapter 456

“The paladins… all chopped up.”

The clothing store was burning fiercely, collapsing. Around it, not a single living believer remained. Only the bodies of paladins split in half with their armor, priests with their heads torn off, and corpses with holes all over their bodies were scattered.

It was a scene reminiscent of a religious painting depicting a holy war. Or rather, a painting depicting the tragedy of priests defeated by demons. Though in reality, those guys were closer to demons themselves.

From the traces, it seemed there were some high-ranking paladins and high-ranking priests mixed in, but they were all completely slaughtered. With this, the Grimnir Church Order can be said to have been utterly destroyed, with no chance of revival.

“There was no other way. They suddenly attacked, burning the clothing store without any attempt at dialogue or negotiation…”

Lacey sighed, shaking her head as if she hadn’t expected things to turn out this way.

“Well, I’m not blaming you. Those guys deserved to die.”

“Is that so…?”

I sat on a broken fragment, smoking a cigarette, and surveyed the group.

Damien was calmly wiping the blood and flesh off his greatsword, Milia was walking around collecting intact arrows, and Agnes, seemingly exhausted from her first experience fighting so many people, sat down next to Lacey.

And Rana…

“Are you okay, sister? Oh my god…! What is all this…!”

“I’m fine. It looks worse than it is. I’m not seriously hurt.”

“Not seriously hurt?!”

She was casting a healing miracle next to me, her face twisted in distress. The familiar crimson light descended, enveloping my broken left arm and bruised body.

The warmth, as peaceful and comforting as the midday sun, began to heal my torn skin. The recovery speed was surprisingly fast.

She’s been training hard lately, and her progress is faster than I thought. She’s almost at Lacey’s level when it comes to healing.

“Thanks, Rana. I don’t feel any pain now.”

I patted Rana’s head to comfort her. It’s not like I came back with a limb missing, so why is she crying so much?

“Please don’t get hurt like this again…”

…Honestly, I can’t promise that. I’d like to, but… things in this world just don’t go as planned.

—

“So, what exactly happened?”

“Well, it’s a bit of a long story…”

I explained to Lacey what I had seen and experienced at the cathedral. The magic stones piled up on the third floor, the trap waiting underground, and the power of the Soul Extraction Technique that returned the souls of the poor to mana.

Lacey’s face twisted in disgust as she listened.

“Soul Extraction…! That blasphemous magic that insults the rest of the dead and defies the natural order, and it’s being used by those who claim to follow the 11 Main Deities…! They deserve to be burned a thousand times over!”

“Well… yeah?”

Sorry, Lacey. Actually, I have a mage under me who uses Soul Extraction too.

But since they haven’t crossed the line, I’ve let them be.

“To call such cursed sorcery a divine power… I always thought the title ‘God of Magic’ was suspicious, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. When we return to the Holy City, I’ll propose the removal of Grimnir’s deity status. With the church order itself fallen, there won’t be many to oppose it.”

So the 11 Main Deities will become the 10 Main Deities? That’s a historic event.

“Removal of deity status… That’s a shame. I wish Rübitz could have seen that. I never imagined he’d blow his own head off to commit suicide.”

That bastard, he didn’t even give us a single useful piece of information before he died. Why do fanatics love suicide and self-destruction so much? I at least wanted to know why they attacked us.

It could have been something we could have let slide, but seeing how they set up a trap to kill us at the cost of a thousand poor lives, there must have been some desperate reason.

Though we’ll never know now.

But unlike me, Lacey seemed to have some idea, nodding her head.

“A suicide method where the head suddenly explodes without any warning… That’s similar to how Archbishop Trier died. Though it seems like Rübitz did it voluntarily.”

“Huh… now that you mention it, yeah.”

Archbishop Trier.

A former elector from the Elpinel Church Order, who was suspected of informing Isabella about the dispatch of the Secret Martyr Apostles from someone in the Holy Kingdom.

…Come to think of it, he also died with his head exploding. I had forgotten about that story since I only heard it in passing.

“Maybe they used the same spell. That kind of suicide magic isn’t common.”

“So there’s some connection between those two pieces of trash? Like maybe Rübitz was the one who cursed Archbishop Trier. That would fit the situation…”

If Rübitz was a cardinal connected to Isabella, it makes sense why he was so desperate to kill us. The Empire’s Greatest Sword and a Saint Candidate coming to the city to hunt him down.

A mage who uses cursed sorcery and a witch who’s lived for over a century… they seem like a match made in hell. Both are evil magic users.

“I think so too. It’s just speculation without evidence, but… it’s worth investigating.”

Lacey turned her head, glaring at the Grimnir Cathedral with a look of disgust and contempt. She looked like she wanted to tear it down to the ground right then and there.

—

After that, Lacey decided to leave me and Rana behind and head to the cathedral. She said she wanted to thoroughly investigate what little remained of the church’s forces.

Of course, Hersh was also included in the group heading to the cathedral.

She looked like she was about to faint when told to move with Lacey, but given how unexpectedly competent she had been in investigations and infiltration, it was a natural conclusion. Anyone could see that Hersh alone would find more clues than a hundred Damiens.

“Sir Median, you should rest. Your injuries have been treated, but your strength hasn’t fully returned yet, right? Greta will guide you to a suitable resting place.”

“Alright. I did take out most of the priests, but be careful just in case. Oh, and like I said before, Hersh was a big help in this mission. She practically saved my life. So don’t be too hard on her.”

I waved to Lacey as she prepared to leave for the cathedral, subtly defending Hersh. If I didn’t, she might come back as a corpse with a crushed head.

“Is that so…? If Sir Median says so, I’ll go easy on her.”

Lacey still looked displeased, but she nodded in agreement after I spoke up. At least Hersh won’t come back as a crushed corpse.

I smiled at the sulking Hersh and headed to the resting place Greta had guided us to with Rana. It wasn’t some secret hideout of the Special Operations Unit, just a regular inn.

“Ah, welcome…!”

The innkeeper bowed deeply, his face pale, as he welcomed us.

He was being overly submissive, but… I could understand his reaction. Just a while ago, the city center was filled with the sounds of war and terrible screams, and now, guests who arrived so calmly at his inn probably didn’t seem like ordinary travelers.

He probably thought I was some armed serial killer.

—

I fell asleep as soon as I lay down on the bed and slept for about ten hours. When I woke up, all the investigations were over.

Lacey had thoroughly searched the Grimnir Cathedral’s tower and found evidence that they had been conducting all sorts of unethical magic experiments using the poor. She also discovered several forbidden magic books.

Just making this public would be enough to get the Grimnir Church Order expelled from the 11 Main Deities.

“That half-elf… she’s really competent.”

Lacey seemed deeply impressed by Hersh’s abilities.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any evidence of collaboration with the witch… but thanks to her, we were able to secure evidence that the Grimnir Church Order was rotten to the core.”

She found secret doors, hidden spaces, and even magically concealed confidential documents just based on her intuition. If she weren’t a half-breed from the Dream Paradise Society, Lacey might have even considered recruiting her into the Special Operations Unit.

“Even though the church order is already as good as dead, this will ensure they can never rise again. I never expected things to turn out this way just yesterday… but this is also Elpinel’s guidance. At least we’ve removed one of the Holy Kingdom’s tumors.”

“Yeah. That’s a good thing.”

I can’t say everything is over, but at least the disappearance case in Nasiriya has been resolved. Along with the downfall of a church order.

…Somehow, it seems like every cardinal Lacey goes after ends up in a tragic state. I wonder if people see her as some kind of cardinal serial killer.

“It’s a bit disappointing that we couldn’t figure out why Rübitz did all this.”

It would have been nice to find some decisive evidence. Like letters related to Isabella or divine artifacts connected to the evil god.

We have strong suspicions, but without concrete evidence, it’s frustrating.

“True. We did find Cardinal Rübitz’s journal and read it, but… it was just filled with praises for dark magic and personal research notes. There was no solid evidence. The only thing we learned from the journal was that he had an almost insane passion for exploring the knowledge of dark magic. To the point where he didn’t care about the means or methods.”

Well, he was a priest serving the God of Magic. He probably believed that the deeper he delved into magic, the closer he would get to the god.