Chapter 526

Perrien, who had just cut down three paladins with a single strike, looked around at the bewildered faces of everyone in the dining hall, stunned by the sudden betrayal. But Perrien, as if the confusion of the crowd meant nothing to him, calmly sheathed Oathclere and turned his head toward Lacey.

“Archbishop Elmain. I heard that if a descendant of the Twelve Knights joins the Elpinel Church Order, they are guaranteed at least the status of an archbishop. Is that true?”

“Uh… uh? Ah, yes. That’s correct…?”

Even Lacey couldn’t hide her confusion at the sudden question.

“I see.”

Perrien nodded, then knelt on one knee and bowed his head to Lacey.

“Descendant of the Twelve Knights’ Olivier, Perrien de Genes, wishes to join the Elpinel Church Order. Will you accept me?”

The sudden shift in stance left everyone speechless. Even Karnius was at a loss for words.

“Perrien! What have you done? Betraying me! How could you—”

“Betrayal? I find it questionable whether there was ever enough trust between us to call this a betrayal. All you ever gave me was brainwashing since childhood and the treatment of a high-quality test subject. That hardly seems like a reason to risk my life in loyalty to someone so misguided.”

Perrien sneered at Karnius. The brainwashing that Karnius had implanted in his test subjects had never truly taken hold in Perrien. From the moment his self-awareness formed, Perrien had trusted no one. His inherently skeptical nature, combined with an almost unnaturally keen sense of observation and judgment, had made him see the irrationality of his environment.

That was precisely why he had been chosen as the wielder of Oathclere, the Oathsworn Sword.

‘Destroy evil.’

‘Always question and reflect on what is the right path.’

These were the oaths engraved by Olivier, one of the Twelve Knights, when he sealed the power of Oathclere. Karnius, unaware of this, had doomed his test subjects from the start. Those who had lost their ability to doubt due to his brainwashing could never be chosen as the sword’s wielder. And those who were chosen as the sword’s wielder had no reason to remain loyal to him.

At this point, it was almost as if the heavens themselves had conspired to bring Karnius down.

In any case, Perrien, who had always been resistant to the brainwashing, had long since completely freed himself from Karnius’ control. He had only been pretending to obey, knowing that if Karnius ever realized the truth, he would stop at nothing to regain control.

‘I don’t hold any particular grudge against him… but there’s no reason to stay on a sinking ship.’

If Karnius had achieved his ambition of becoming the most powerful figure in the Holy Kingdom, Perrien might not have betrayed him. It wouldn’t have been a bad choice to continue as a paladin of the Sun Church, hiding the fact that he had broken free from the brainwashing. After all, Karnius couldn’t afford to discard Perrien, the wielder of Oathclere, and he hadn’t ordered any atrocities that would risk losing the divine light’s favor.

But now, with Karnius’ downfall all but certain, the situation was different.

Perrien could break through this place if he went all out. If he was willing to risk serious injury, he could even escape the Holy City. But why would he? Even if he managed to escape with Karnius, he would just become a fugitive of the Holy Kingdom, stuck with a boss he had no affection for.

The chances of Karnius making a comeback were slim, and if Karnius, with his limited lifespan, were to die, Perrien would be left holding the bag.

There was no reason not to betray him.

—

Lacey, suppressing her confusion with a cough, accepted Perrien’s oath of conversion. She didn’t trust him, but there was no reason to refuse the opportunity to bring a descendant of the Twelve Knights and a hero-level powerhouse into the fold with the title of honorary archbishop.

“Perrieeeeen!”

Karnius screamed Perrien’s name with a face full of despair and rage, but Perrien ignored him as if he were a barking dog and stepped back. Instead, Lacey approached Karnius, holding the blue flames of Elpinel’s holy fire in her palm.

“This can’t be happening. That I would fall like this, over a single mistake…!”

Karnius was drenched in cold sweat, his legs trembling. With his last stronghold gone, there was no way for him to escape this situation.

“Karnius. The price of the sins you’ve accumulated has finally caught up to you. Are you ready to depart for the side of the sun?”

Lacey smiled as she held the holy fire to him.

Despite the searing heat of the flames, Karnius shivered as if he were buried in an icy cave.

—

Karnius’ interrogation and execution were carried out secretly and summarily.

It was Ernliter’s suggestion. If it became known that the mastermind behind the Arvil incident was a cardinal of the Shaulite Church Order, the shock and chaos would shake the entire order. Ernliter didn’t want any more turmoil added to the already unstable Holy Kingdom.

The chaos so far had already brought the nation to the brink of collapse.

“Let’s do it that way. I, too, don’t wish to see the Shaulite Church Order fall.”

Lacey agreed with Ernliter’s proposal. The situation was different from the Grimnir Church Order incident. Unlike the magic order, which had been of no help to the people of the Holy Kingdom, the healing priests of the Sun Church, with their exceptional abilities, were a valuable asset not worth losing over this.

‘…The Arvil incident still weighs on my mind.’

The residents of Arvil, whom they had been forced to abandon, were also a concern. The mentally and physically exhausted residents, now being cared for by the Shaulite Church Order, would react unpredictably if they learned that the head of the order was the mastermind behind the tragedy that had befallen them.

‘If only this man hadn’t existed…!’

Thinking of the residents of Arvil, Lacey’s anger flared anew. She glared down at Karnius, who lay at her feet.

“Dispose of him.”

At Ernliter’s command, the judges of Astraea rushed at Karnius, and what followed was a one-sided storm of violence.

“Gyaaaaah! Stop, pleeease—!”

Karnius, who had lost the divine light of Shaulite, couldn’t even put up a proper resistance and was cut down like fish at a market.

Lacey and the judges spent the entire night alternating between healing and interrogation, extracting every bit of information from Karnius as he screamed and begged, invoking the name of the Shaulite he had betrayed.

After the interrogation, Lacey impaled Karnius, who was drooling and babbling like a dementia patient, on a stake and slowly burned him until the sun rose again on the horizon.

It was a dawn with two suns—one crimson and one blue.

—

Lacey, upon hearing that I had awakened, immediately dropped her duties and came to see me, making a fuss. She had believed in my victory, she said, and praised the final sword strike I had delivered.

The embarrassing compliments went on for nearly ten minutes, and after a while, Lacey finally calmed down enough to sip her tea and tell me about what had happened while I was asleep.

“—Cardinal Karnius’ cause of death was officially announced as illness. It seems the shock of the Arvil tragedy was too much for his aged body to bear. His remains were cremated, as per his wish, to bring him closer to the sun. In reality, we burned him to death and dumped his ashes in the sewer.”

“Must have been quite the spectacle. Too bad I missed it.”

A lot had happened in the month I was out. The Shaulite Church Order’s cardinal had been executed by Lacey, and those connected to him had been quietly arrested and divided between the Elpinel and Astraea Church Orders.

They were still “alive,” apparently. Long-term residents of the underground interrogation rooms.

“What about that guy, Perrien?”

The descendant of the Twelve Knights, wielder of the Oathsworn Sword. Honestly, it was the first I’d heard of a descendant of the Twelve Knights being in the Shaulite Church Order.

From the way he had obediently followed Karnius until the very end before betraying him, he didn’t seem like someone to be trusted. But his skills, said to be at the hero level, were intriguing. If I weren’t in such a weakened state, I might have gone to see him.

“Sir Perrien has been sent to the western front. While there’s no doubt he’s a descendant of the Twelve Knights, I couldn’t trust him as a close aide. But I couldn’t just leave such a powerful individual idle, so I asked him to guard the western front and keep an eye on the fairies’ movements.”

“Is that so? What a shame. I was hoping to at least see his face.”

Maybe he was someone I knew, and if not, it would have been a good opportunity to get acquainted.

“You’ll have your chance someday.”

“Well… I suppose so.”

If I ever have to fight the fairies, I’ll have to head west myself.

“So, what happened after that?”

“After removing the cancer that was Karnius, the Shaulite Church Order has been quickly returning to normal. The Holy Sun Alliance has also been dissolved. Cardinal Rosof protested, but it seems Jaisus managed to persuade him somehow.”

“That’s surprising. He didn’t seem like the type to listen to anyone else.”

Cardinal Audius Rosof of the Keres Church Order.

A sinister-looking old man with a bald head and a hooked nose, he had openly opposed Lacey.

With Karnius gone, he was the only cardinal left in the Holy City who was hostile to Lacey.

“He would have, under normal circumstances… but the Keres Church Order is in no position to worry about ‘trivial’ matters like the dissolution of the Holy Sun Alliance right now.”

“Trivial, you say?”

Lacey nodded.

“Yes. The Keres Church Order’s Holy Legion, which had headed to Barseva, won the battle but suffered near-crippling losses. With their core forces wiped out, Cardinal Rosof is probably at his wit’s end just dealing with the aftermath.”

“…The Bølberg Church Order must have been stronger than expected.”

This was surprising news. Given that Cardinal Rosof had confidently waged war, he must have been sure of victory, having committed a significant force… but to suffer losses so severe that they were almost annihilated? Did they use someone like Amin as their commander?

“Perhaps. It’s more that the variable they summoned was that powerful.”

“A variable?”

“…A Valkyrie. It’s said that an angel of Bølberg, who protects warriors who reach the Heavenly Palace, descended. It’s hard to believe, but the testimonies of the Holy Legion members who returned to the Holy City suggest it’s true. The Keres Church Order’s high-ranking paladins managed to repel it, but at great cost.”

…It was indeed hard to believe, but not impossible. In the game, priests could summon angels around the mid-to-late stages.

Unlike the Arm of the Evil God I had faced, it wasn’t an overwhelmingly powerful entity, with combat strength roughly equivalent to a hero-level knight.