Chapter 317.
Libra looked down at the masked people laying prostrate in front of him. "Huhuhuhu. It"s not bad to see these heathens who believe in the G.o.ddess prostrate themselves in front of me.”
The masked people shouted together in emotionless voices, "Everything is as he wishes." However, their shouts weren’t in perfect unison.
"Hmm, as expected, it"s not perfect, since they’re pieces to be thrown away after one use. They’re different from you, Shaman,” Libra called out to Vibrio.
Vibrio slightly bowed her head. "It"s an honor."
Libra sighed, letting her dull voice pa.s.s through one ear and out the other, thinking, Was it too much to compare a shaman who has worked hard for more than two years with those meant to be abandoned?
The masked people, who were to be used for a moment then discarded had distinct advantages and disadvantages compared to Vibrio, who had been brainwashed for a long time.
The masked people were pa.s.sive and moved unnaturally, and after they were done being used, their minds would be broken. However, it had been easy and fast to brainwash them, and surprisingly, that control didn’t seem easy to break.
On the other hand, Vibrio had been brainwashed slowly and had the advantage of being able to move naturally enough that even her family wouldn’t notice. But due to the complexity of that brainwas.h.i.+ng, it was difficult to complete, leaving plenty of room for it to be undone.
It wasn’t that the ceremony of summoning the Demon King couldn’t be started like this, but in order to achieve perfection, Vibrio’s brainwas.h.i.+ng had to be completed.
Therefore, Libra looked at Vibrio unhappily, thinking, Is the existence of the saintess preventing her brainwas.h.i.+ng from being completed? However, he couldn’t recklessly kill the saintess, as it could undo the brainwas.h.i.+ng instead.
While Libra was contemplating, Vibrio asked him, "It may be presumptuous to ask this question, but is it certain that Lupin has the Demon King summons and ‘The End of the Holy Tribe’?"
Librio inwardly clicked his tongue. Since Vibrio was able to move naturally to the point where even her family couldn’t recognize it, that meant she could naturally ask questions and act on her own like this.
In addition, when Vibrio mentioned Lupin, anger and hatred leaked through the brainwas.h.i.+ng. Libra had brainwashed her by digging into her hatred of Lupin and her sadness at losing her lover, but her strong emotions were actually destabilizing her conditioning.
"That"s right. The familiar that was watching the battle between Sagittarius and Lupin died from the aftermath, so Lupin’s ident.i.ty wasn’t discovered, but it is clear that the army Lupin led was made using necromancy written in ‘The End of the Holy Tribe’."
Unlike doppelganger magic, the use of necromancy was extremely subtle, making it hard to identify. However, it wasn’t at a point where Libra, the leader of the Demon King’s wors.h.i.+ppers, couldn’t recognize it.
While answering, Librio infused more mana into Vibrio to prevent her excessive anger from undoing the brainwas.h.i.+ng.
Once again turning emotionless, Vibrio asked flatly, "But if I really attack the duke, will I meet the magician who supposedly has the Demon King summons?"
Under Libra’s brainwas.h.i.+ng, Vibrio didn’t even say a word about Lupin. Libra was satisfied that his magic had worked well and carefully chose his words as he answered, "Yes. I didn"t realize it until recently, but the magic I felt in the past was definitely used when Aquarius attacked Duke Asteria. If you attack or capture Duke Asteria, you"ll find a clue regarding that magician."
Libra left the old building, thinking that he had to complete the brainwas.h.i.+ng quickly.
Looking at Libra’s back, the kneeling masked people shouted at once, "Everything is as he wills!"
* * *
Duke Asteria left me and the escorts behind and entered the reception room with Cardinal Fernando. At first glance, considering the cardinal"s appearance, he seemed to have dealt with my curse, but it seemed he had been weakened a lot due to its aftereffects.
"Are you two going to be standing guard in front of the reception room?" I asked.
As he went into the reception room, Duke Asteria had told us that we could move around freely.
Even if he was alone with Cardinal Fernando, I was convinced that there was no possibility of the cardinal harming the duke. After all, if Duke Asteria were endangered in the Great Temple, the Great Temple would have to take responsibility. The temple would even be more likely to protect the Duke than to threaten him.
The White Tiger Knights’ captain answered seriously, "Of course."
In contrast to the White Tiger Knights’ captain’s disciplined appearance, the Debt-Ridden Knight crossed his legs and yawned. "Haaam~. But since we"re escorts, there’s nothing we can do about it, right? Huuu~ Don"t end up in debt."
I smiled in response to the Debt-Ridden Knight’s sudden lamentations. "And yet, you"ve had several opportunities to pay off your debts."
This was a man who, even after working hard to pay it off, would accrue debt again the next day. "I can"t help it. Things keep happening that require money.” He uttered a dubious statement worthy of his nickname as the Debt-Ridden Knight.
I found it absurd and smiled, but just then, I heard nagging from behind me.
"Brother-nim, are you still suffering from debt? How pathetic."[1] There stood Ruin, the platinum plate adventurer known as the Pagan Priest.
"Ugh, I’ll pa.s.s on the preaching, Pagan Priest."
"Pagan? I"m a faithful servant of the G.o.ddess. If you call this priest such a rude t.i.tle, my righteous iron fist will destroy Brother-nim’s skull."
The priest gave a brutal warning to the Debt-Ridden Knight before turning to me and smiling brightly. "Ahahaha! Long time no see! How have you been well, Brother-nim Den?"
The Pagan Priest’s muscles were still swollen to the point of almost bursting out of his priest"s robes, and his bald head shone like his great divine power.
"It"s been a while. How was your trip?" I asked.
The Pagan Priest sometimes stayed in the Adventurers’ Guild whenever he visited the capital. Every time, he joked with me quite unlike a priest, and he was a pretty fun person.
"The trip this time wasn’t much different. It"s just that I led a hydra, the ruler of the Sehil Forest, to the Great Mother,” the Pagan Priest said.
He was a weirdo who fought with bare hands exclusively, without armor and weapons. In other words, he had hunted the hydra and overcome its poison with his bare hands. It was particularly admirable, considering that a hydra was one of the most difficult demons to fight due to its excellent regeneration.
"Compared to this priest, Brother-nim is greater. Aren’t you called a hero who ended the war early with tactics handed down by G.o.d?" he added.
"Hahaha, it was just a fluke. It"s a result obtained through expedient methods, so it’s not that impressive. You’re making me embarra.s.sed,” I replied.
The Pagan Priest shook his head. "It doesn"t matter whether it"s due to an expedient or a fluke. It’s only important that you saved many lives as a result of ending the war early.”
Then, he began to preach with a benevolent expression. After listening to a sermon mixed with jokes for dozens of minutes, I pointed to the reception room. "But didn"t you come here because you had something to do?”
The Pagan Priest was here as an intermediary between Duke Asteria and Cardinal Fernando. Usually, the conversation would begin when the mediator arrived, but the two had called in the Pagan Priest later than the appointed time, as if they were planning to have a conversation secretly. That was why I was holding onto him while talking like this.
"Oh! That"s right. I almost forgot about my work because I was happy to see Brother Den after a long time. Thank you. Let"s postpone the details for later." The Pagan Priest knocked, slowly opening the door and entering the reception room.
"Then I"ll just go and look around the Great Temple,” I said. I waved to the Debt-Ridden Knight and the White Tiger Knights’ captain, telling them to work hard, and then began to go around the Great Temple to find Hillis and Arwen.
On a normal day, I would have sensed their mana and gone over right away, but that was too much right now because of the lack of mana.
Well, it"ll take a long time anyway, so should I slowly look for them? I thought. There was quite a lot of time.
* * *
Hillis took Arwen to see the holy relics stored in places that were inaccessible except to officials.
"What do you think? Can you feel the divine power from this?" Hillis pointed to a colorful statue of a left arm with rubies, opals, sapphires, ambers, jades, and diamonds embedded in it.
Arwen looked closely at the statue and was surprised.
-It’s still alive?!
"That"s right. You recognized it at a glance. This statue was overlaid with bra.s.s to preserve the left arm of Teresa Aumada, a saint who lived about 400 years ago. As you can see, the left arm hasn’t rotten at all and is emitting divine power."
-How come it doesn"t rot?
Hillis shrugged. "I don"t know. Maybe it"s because she used a ‘miracle’?” Even she didn’t know what had happened 400 years ago. In truth, she didn’t really want to know. She added,"Now, let"s go see the next strange object, no, the holy relic." Hillis and Arwen eagerly went around looking at the bizarre holy relics.
After a while of looking around, Hillis checked her watch and said, "Oh, my. Time flies so fast." Her watch indicated it was around evening.
"Maybe Den has already returned to the boarding house,” Hillis said.
In response, Arwen pulled on Hillis" sleeve.
-Let’s hurry up and go back!
Hillis stroked Arwen"s head, saying, "Hahaha, I was just saying that. But wouldn"t it be impossible for him to have arrived today?” Arwen seemed disappointed, so Hillis added, "Well, if he were coming alone, he could fly and get here faster. But since he"d be riding a carriage with some people, he’s probably slowly catching a train at the border. Then he’ll probably arrive tomorrow evening…?”
Arwen accepted her calm explanation and headed toward the entrance instead.
"But it was helpful to observe the holy relics, right?” Hillis asked. Arwen nodded in the affirmative. The ways divine power was contained in numerous holy relics could be said to be very good training material.
"Since it’s already late, shall we have dinner together first then go?” Hillis suggested. Arwen pondered and shook her head.
-It’s better to eat all together.
"I guess that"s true. Then we should hurry up and go back.”
Arwen nodded and opened the door, trying to exit to the center of the first floor, but the sound of an explosion suddenly rang out.
"What? What"s going on?" Hillis wrapped her arms around Arwen after the sudden explosion. Then, she took out the magic wand and ceremonial robe from her pocket s.p.a.ce, infused mana into them, and put up her guard.
Bang!
At that time, the door that Arwen had been trying to open was completely smashed. A man in a white half-mask forced himself through the doorway.
Getting up from the debris of the smashed door, the half-masked man shook off the dirt on his clothes. "Kknng! Aigo, my body. I didn"t know it"d be this hard without mana,” he lamented as he smiled at Hillis and Arwen.
1. ‘Brother’ here isn’t the same friendly t.i.tle people call each other (hyung), but rather the term religious people use when they call each other Brother or Sister.