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Three days had passed since the negotiation with the Bardi emperor. The city had returned to calm and quiet after the small storm of Slimes from earlier. From what I saw, however, this seemed to only be the calm before an even bigger storm.

“Mills Milan was the most pious of Bardi princes. Ever diligent and conscientious, Mills was earnest, assiduous and bled for his country. He was deeply treasured by our Orloss the Thirteenth, but today he was assassinated by underhanded assassins. Those evil villains even disguised themselves as our Mage Country allies in an attempt to sow dissent between us. But, in front of our wise majesty Orloss, how can such puny tactics succeed? There’s only one truth—the murderer was... the Holy Church!”

Although this was ridiculous, it was the “truth” we wanted to see.

The issue of Mills’ assassination had been settled. He was murdered by the Holy Church’s assassins. As for the so-called Dark Elf assassins, that was nothing more than a tactic used to blame Bardi’s “best friend,” the Mage Country.

When the citizens saw this announcement posted on the walls and in advertisements, their expressions were pretty much a perfect example of “The world changes so quickly that I don’t know what’s going on.”

Of course, rumors were flying everywhere.

Rumors would sometimes be useful, such as when you were trying to shake the foundations of a country. Other times, they could only become gossip that not even tiny newspapers would dare to publish, such as now.

The burial took place the very next day. It seemed rushed in order to make this incident go away.

From a certain standpoint, burying Mills with so many accolades was an honor he didn’t deserve. When the Bardi royal knights cleaned out Mills’s home the next day, they discovered—to their surprise—evidence that he had been working with the undead. With the information they discovered, they executed another two princes.

The reason for these princes to ally with the undead? Actually, it was simple. What the princes wanted more than anything right now was to have powerful forces at their command, and the undead were naturally powerful. Plus, with the previous friendly relationship the undead had with the nobles, it would be easy to ally themselves with them.

These princes not only protected and hid the undead, but they even provided bloodthirsty human sacrifices. From the innocent citizens and the torture room discovered in Mills’s basement, the fact that Mills had been judged by Yawen’s Anti-Crime Slash as “incredibly evil” was no mistake.

Those rescued said he had long fallen into such evil ways. He secretly worshipped the Evil God of Pain, which helped him speedily increase in power by personally “using” countless human sacrifices.

“...He used to be a true military man. He once fought a bloody battle at the brink for the sake of his allies for two days and two nights. He once swore to me that he would change the Bardi military’s rotten and inefficient system where only nobles had command. But now... I was the one who did him wrong by adopting him as a prince.”

The old emperor sat still for an entire morning in his garden after hearing his servant’s report. In the end, that was all he could say.

Perhaps a hero like Mills—who had returned alive from a hellish battlefield—had an adamant will that could resist against even the most despairing of situations. But after tasting wealth and authority for ten years, he unknowingly became the type of man he had hated the most.

“...Give him the best burial possible.”

Perhaps this was the final act of sympathy and kindness the old emperor could give to this potential successor of his, one of Orloss’s top candidates.

But the burial on the next day ended up being for three princes instead of one. Of course, it was proclaimed that the Holy Church’s assassins had killed all three heroic princes in an attempt to sew discord and even start a war.

And so the Holy Church once again took the blame for something they didn’t do... wait a moment—it could be said that it was their fault still.

Humans were a type of creature that instinctively preferred the light. The God of Light, God of Holy Light and others would naturally receive advantages from this when spreading their teachings. Perhaps this was an instinct connected to the sun, but when the Holy Church, which represented Light and Justice, ruled over more than half of humanity’s mentality and religion, this in a way meant that the Holy Church had absolute authority.

Why’s that? All the Holy Church had to do was mention that a certain way of thinking or a certain event was right and just. Anyone else’s protests would become meaningless. There was also the fact that those who disagreed would typically disagree with each other, so the Holy Church simply had to control at least one-third of all humans’ way of thinking. And in the world of Eich, people’s belief in the Holy Light far surpassed one-third of humanity.

Absolute authority represented absolute control, and what did absolute divine authority mean?

“...You Holy Light Cardinals seem so proper on the surface and claim all your actions are authorized by the God of Holy Light? Then, if your reasoning and morality are guaranteed by the God of Holy Light, then who guarantees the God of Holy Light’s logic and justice? All I can see are those pretending to be good on the surface while secretly acting no better than beasts; thieves and scoundrels who pretend to have divine authority. With your logic, since all you hypocritical villains haven’t yet received divine punishment, doesn’t that mean your so-called venerated True God has lost his sense of reason? Is he dead? Or did he go insane as well?”

This was a quote from a certain “maniacal blasphemer” whose name was purged from the Holy Church’s annals. Even without him knowing it, his words had spread after his death. This “desecrator” was a former pious Cardinal, and had laughed maniacally while he had been burned at the stake. His crime was that he had killed several of his fellow Cardinals who liked to do unspeakable acts with young boys. He even killed his own teacher for this crime.

But I felt that this unlucky Cardinal’s biggest crime was that he told the truth: that the God of Holy Light had gone insane.

Perhaps it was human instinct to worship the light. However, another human instinct was to break free from restraints and seek freedom. Plus, there would forever be inevitable conflict between royal and divine authority. The most important part was that the Holy Church, which had absolute divine authority, had begun rotting on the inside. In this current revolutionary generation, the Holy Church was still clung on to its outdated ways; of course there would be an endless amount of resistance.

No ordinary plant would be able to survive in a desert with no water and earth. Yet stubborn seeds could always be seen sprouting from cliffside cracks.

“...The Pure Holy Light requires no belief in a False God. The Church of Holy Light worships nothing more than a False God borrowing the name of Holy Light. Prince Mills, Prince Masi and Prince Catlan were all holy believers of the Pure Holy Light. Their deaths were caused by the Evil Gods who feared true belief!”

In front of Bardi’s major nobles and merchants, Head Priest Amoya of the Southern Sect angrily ranted against the Holy Church’s hypocrisy and shamelessness. At the same time, he displayed the fact that he still possessed the power of Holy Light.

“Only the Light is eternal! In the name of our first pope, I declare that these three princes have valiantly sacrificed themselves for our cause. We shall take revenge for their sake, fight for the cause of justice, and battle for the Pure Holy Light!”

A coincidence could easily create history, and since there was an opportunity, the Church of Pure Holy Light entered the stage of history. Head Priest Amoya became Pope Amoya the First, and these three evil villainous princes became holy believers.

The backdrop to all this was Emperor Orloss, who was crying many tears for losing three of his adopted princes, and Archduke Halent, who was leading the ceremony and following ancient Bardi tradition by carving a tiny scar on his face with a knife. As he did this, he swore to take revenge, angrily shouting in response to the citizens’ wishes.

“...We have lived here for countless generations, but those hypocritical villains dared to declare us as heretics, invade our country and kill our citizens? Fine then! Since they want war, we’ll give them war! Bardi shall have eternal victory!”

Once Halent’s speech reached its end, this burial ceremony transformed into a morale-raising event for stirring up war sentiments. Once the citizens began chanting “Bardi, eternal victory!” war was unavoidable.

Meanwhile, I was in the crowd, concealed under a cape. I was covering my mouth, doing my best not to laugh out loud while commenting to Glina beside me.

“The honest and direct Halent? The sincerely grieving Orloss? The holy Mills? The relationship between holy justice and evil is so confusing. This is the family of that sly old fox, who’s famously known as a scorpion. This is why I feel human nature is so hard to understand and why humans are so interesting.”