Chapter 283 : Noise Between Floors

Crash!

Documents poured out from the overturned table.

Next to it, priests were lined up with pale faces.

I looked at them and asked in an indifferent tone.

"Are you in charge?"

"Y-yes."

"What are you doing?"

"Pardon?"

"Put your head down."

"Yes, sir!"

Crash! Thump!

While the people in charge were busy putting their heads down, I pretended to look through the documents with various complicated terms and numbers, and then I overturned and smashed everything I saw.

It was a clear fact that these guys had done something wrong, so there was no need to look closely.

Literally, I was on a rampage.

Whether they were eaten up by my momentum, or because they admitted their fault, they couldn't say anything and just put their heads down.

Even if they had shouted and raised an objection, I could have just made up a plausible excuse and scolded them, so there was no problem.

All my actions were justified.

Was I taking out my anger now?

Or was I carrying out a just judgment that suited them?

I thought it was not something I needed to care about.

I just went on a rampage with all my heart, with the conviction that these guys deserved it.

They trembled, but I never felt sorry for them.

After all, these guys were all trash.

They had stagnated and rotted, and they were stinking bastards.

They were all in it together.

Otherwise, there was no way the underground fighting arena business could have expanded so much.

They had either actively helped, or they had just watched.

How far had this corruption progressed?

I had seen corrupt officials in Blake, but this was much more disgusting.

Because those guys were at least openly bad.

These guys were pretending to be the light until the end.

It was like throwing dirt on the face of the god they served.

They were daring to use God as a means of making money.

Since when had God been reduced to a servant of a mere greedy human?

What made me angrier than anything else was that Siri, who was so foolishly kind and innocent.

Was at the center of that hideous torrent.

That was what I couldn't stand.

BOOM!

The door I had kicked flew and rolled on the floor.

I beckoned with my finger.

"Bishop Trout."

Bishop Trout, who had aged several years in a few hours, approached, sweating profusely.

"D-did you call?"

"When can I see the archbishop and the saint?"

"They are away on important business, so it is difficult to give you a definite answer."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes. How could I dare to lie in such a place?"

It was a lie. I didn't believe it.

Should I cut off this wicked tongue that only tells lies?

I looked up.

He was definitely watching from somewhere.

But it was certain that he was not here.

Even though I had searched thoroughly, I couldn't even see his shadow.

Where was he hiding?

He had either prepared a secret base somewhere else, or he had quickly left the scene.

BOOM!

"Hic!"

When I kicked the wall, a crack appeared on the white wall.

"Is there anything more urgent than this?"

"W-well."

"Tell him I'll see him tomorrow. Or I'll act on my own. I have the autonomy granted to me by His Holiness the Pope. Tell him to do as he pleases if he doesn't want to become a heretic overnight."

At some point, a deep darkness had fallen outside the window.

"What are you doing?"

"Pardon?"

"Are you going to leave a guest here? That's enough for today, and I'll continue the audit tomorrow, so guide me to my room."

"Ah, I understand. Please follow me."

I followed Bishop Trout and fell into thought.

He must be hiding somewhere, devising a clever plan to turn the situation around.

He might be urgently contacting the guys he had bribed, or he might be checking with the papacy to see if there really was a tenth shadow paladin.

Of course, there was no such thing.

Because it was a role I had made up by combining and referring to the papacy's organizational chart and other information and rumors that Shushuruta had investigated.

How long would it take for my identity to be revealed?

It wouldn't take long.

It was a situation where an army of holy knights could come rushing from the papacy.

Of course, since they were starting from the papacy, it would take some time.

The time I had was... at most, about two days.

I had to find Siri and escape within that time.

If necessary, I could even hold the king hostage.

Naturally, the Hilden Kingdom also had a king.

The guy who was the king had come to me, scared, but he was a kid who looked to be about ten years old.

So, that guy named Archbishop Holio had put a kid who didn't know the ways of the world on the throne and was controlling the kingdom as he pleased.

I had no business with a kid who had no will of his own, so I smiled brightly and sent him back with kind words.

The Heavenly Demon snorted.

[You call that kind? He was on the verge of bursting into tears.]

I looked at Bishop Trout, who was walking a few steps ahead of me, and then called him.

"Bishop Trout."

He flinched and looked back at me.

"Did you call?"

"Let me ask you one thing."

"I will answer everything I know."

I said, observing his expression closely.

"I heard there's an underground fighting arena."

"...!"

Bishop Trout answered with his expression.

Judging by his reaction, it seemed that not everyone in the papacy knew about that business.

So, there was a faction that knew about it and was turning a blind eye, and it seemed that those factions were preventing the news from reaching higher up.

Like a breakwater, so to speak.

It was a breakwater coated in gold.

Then.

What would happen if the waves went over the breakwater?

I decided to test the waters.

"I wonder if the Hero knows about this."

"...!!"

This time too, the bishop answered with his expression.

His already pale face lost all its color.

I don't know what it was, but it seemed the situation would change if the Hero of Light knew about this.

At least I found out that the Hero was not in on this.

"Haha, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Hurry up and guide me to my room. I'm dead tired."

"Yes, yes."

Bishop Trout guided me to my room and then left as if he were running away, with a pale face.

"W-well, please rest well."

"I get it, so you can go."

"Yes."

And a moment later.

Knock, knock—

There was a knock on the door, and when I opened it, priests were standing in front of the door with various meals.

A deep darkness had already fallen outside the window.

It was a situation where anyone could see that it was not mealtime.

"I didn't order anything."

The priest answered obsequiously, sweating.

"In case you were hungry. I prepared something simple."

"Hmm."

"I'll leave it here."

He placed it on the table and then left a word as he went out the door.

"It's the bishop's sincerity."

"...Sincerity?"

After all the priests had left.

I sat down in front of the table and stared at the feast that had been prepared.

"Is there poison in it?"

[I doubt it. Would he resort to such a shallow trick?]

In any case, my body was trained by Linda's poison.

Most poisons couldn't do anything to me.

As I was tasting them one by one, a large bowl with a lid caught my eye.

"What's this?"

When I opened the lid, there was a heavy pouch inside.

When I opened it, gold coins poured out.

Clink, clink—

"Ah."

It seemed this was the 'bishop's sincerity'.

The meal was not the main thing, this was the purpose.

A bribe.

"Keuk."

A twisted laugh escaped my lips.

It was a passage that made me guess how they had been doing things so far.

"So you're going to come out like this until the end?"

I threw off the heavy armor and helmet.

Of course, I had no intention of sleeping.

"Then I'll have to go and see him myself."

I opened the window and threw myself into the darkness beyond.

* * *

Late at night.

Archbishop Holio was looking at two crystal balls, and then...

"You son of a bitch!"

Crash!

He overturned the desk.

"Heok... heok..."

It was driving him crazy.

The underground fighting arena was being swept away by a guy in a rabbit mask, and the royal palace was being turned upside down by a guy called the Shadow Paladin.

'A hidden tenth sword of the Hero? Did such a thing really exist?'

The rabbit and the paladin were closing in on him from both sides.

—Knock, knock.

At the calm knock, Archbishop Holio tried to calm his anger.

"...Come in."

The Saint of Pure White looked inside and then hesitated.

"...Archbishop. Is something wrong?"

"Haha, it's nothing. The crystal ball wasn't working well, so I was just taking a look at it."

"Ah, yes. I see."

Archbishop Holio stood, as if to hide the state of the room, and said with his usual gentle smile.

"Where are you going, Saint?"

"I'm going to give a blessing to Sir Omar, who is participating in the tournament."

"Ah, I see. Today is the day of the finals."

"Yes."

Archbishop Holio had been greeting the Saint of Pure White in the morning and before bed without fail.

Because the greetings exchanged at the beginning and end of the day strengthened the effect of brainwashing.

This time too, the Saint of Pure White had stopped by to say good night as usual.

As he was about to say good night as usual, Archbishop Holio changed his mind.

"Saint."

"Yes?"

"I have something important to tell you, so would you please stop by for a moment after you're done?"

The Saint of Pure White looked at the archbishop's face for a moment, and then at the messy state of the room, and then nodded.

"Yes, I understand."

The saint left, pattering away.

And Archbishop Holio sat down in his chair and let out a deep breath.

"It's okay. The saint is already in my hands. She can never go against my words."

Archbishop Holio.

He was once just a low-ranking priest in the Hilden Kingdom.

But his ambition was greater than anyone else's.

He had been looking for an opportunity to spread his ambition, and then he had happened to hear the news of the Sherwood Mercenary Corps' disbandment.

He knew well that there was a saint who didn't believe in God in the Sherwood Mercenary Corps.

As soon as Holio heard the news, he headed to Maia.

He had almost died several times on the way, meeting thieves and magical beasts, but with an indomitable will, he had somehow managed to arrive in Schirnberg, Maia.

There, he met the saint who didn't believe in God.

She was sitting in front of someone's tombstone.

Holio did not approach her hastily, but observed her from a distance for a while.

She guarded the front, whether it snowed or rained.

As if her tears had all dried up, she was staring at the tombstone with an empty face.

Holio gathered information and grasped the situation.

That someone from the Sherwood Mercenary Corps had fallen off a misty cliff and died, and because of that, the mercenary corps had been disbanded, and the saint who didn't believe in God was grieving in front of his tombstone.

At that moment, a light bulb went on in Holio's head.

'This is it!'

Holio approached her carefully with a benevolent smile on his lips.

"Hello. I am Holio, a humble servant of the midday sun god, Hope."

The saint's empty eyes looked at his face for a moment, and then returned to the tombstone.

Holio sat next to her for a moment and looked at the tombstone.

'Ashuban Sherwood. Is that the name of the one who fell off the cliff?'

After maintaining a silence while looking at the tombstone for a moment, he opened his mouth.

"I can save him."

Flinch.

The saint looked at Holio.

"In the holy scripture where the doctrine of the midday sun god, Hope, is written, there is a divine magic called Resurrection. It is the ultimate divine magic that resurrects the dead."

The saint's eyes widened.

"Is that... really true?"

Holio smiled.

"Of course, it's difficult, but it's not impossible. If you just follow my words well..."

And so, Holio succeeded in bringing the saint with his silver tongue.

He sold lies and death and bought her faith and hope.

Holio brought the saint who didn't believe in God and made her accept the midday sun god, Hope, and awakened her as the Saint of Pure White.

For that merit, Holio was promoted to the archbishop of the Hilden Kingdom, and he slowly began to extend his influence in the Hilden Kingdom.

Thanks to the saint's divine power, which was far superior to what he had expected, his plan was smooth sailing, as if it had caught a favorable wind.

In that process, what Holio paid the most attention to was the Saint of Pure White.

He thoroughly brainwashed the Saint of Pure White.

He held the resurrection of her dead colleague hostage and instilled his ideology in her.

That if she just followed his words well, she would one day be able to use Resurrection, and that he was the only one who could guide her on the path to Resurrection.

He covered the saint's eyes.

He minimized her contact with others to isolate her, and he made sure she didn't know what was happening.

He made her see the world through him.

Naturally, his interpretation had to be included.

He explained that the underground fighting arena was just a healthy competition to test one's skills, and that it was one of the paths to Resurrection.

The saint just nodded foolishly if it was for the sake of Resurrection.

She would jump off a cliff without hesitation if he told her to.

'First, I must not let her meet anyone, no matter what. I'll just buy a little more time until the answer comes...'

Ting-a-ling!

Just then, a sound came from the crystal ball that was rolling on the floor.

"Finally!"

Holio knelt and listened to the news that the cracked crystal ball was delivering.

It was the news that, as a result of directly inquiring with the Hero of Light, there was no such thing as a tenth paladin.

"...I knew it! Where is there a tenth paladin!"

Holio laughed like a madman.

"Hahaha! Hahahaha!"

Then, he stopped.

"Wait a minute. Then he was impersonating a paladin?"

What kind of madman would pretend to be a paladin?

It would be revealed soon anyway, and after that, a burning cross would be waiting.

This was not something that could be overlooked.

It was a grave sin that deserved to be publicly burned at the stake.

When he asked about the papacy's future response, an answer came back immediately.

Holio's eyes widened.

"...What? The Hero of Light is coming himself?"

He had thought that the Radiant Knights would be dispatched, or at worst, another paladin would come.

For the Hero to come in person?

This was unexpected news for him too.

'Wait. The Hero can't come.'

Given her personality, if she found out about the existence of the underground fighting arena, it was obvious that she would destroy it without leaving a single trace.

Because she was the light and justice itself.

Holio grabbed the crystal ball and shouted.

"Why is the Hero coming here! Tell her not to come, I'll take care of it!"

—That... it's already out of our hands. In the process of asking about the existence of the tenth paladin, she asked us various things in return...

"You son of a bitch!"

Crash!

The crystal ball that Holio had thrown hit the wall and shattered into pieces.

"This is not the time to be worrying about some fake paladin! I have to clean up right now and leave this place..."

—Knock, knock.

At the knock that came just then, Holio said.

"Come in!"

The door opened, and the Saint of Pure White peeked her head in.

"Archbishop. Is something wrong?"

Holio grabbed her shoulders with a serious face.

"Saint. You must listen to me carefully from now on."

Holio had no intention of ending it here.

'How did I get this far!'

At that moment.

Thump! Thump!

He heard the sound of noise between floors from above.

Archbishop Holio frowned and glared at the ceiling.

'Who is it at this important moment?'

KWAAAAAAAANG!!

The ceiling was smashed, and debris poured down.

"W-what!"

The startled Archbishop Holio looked at the place where the stone powder had poured down.

Hazy dust rose.

Soon, a blood-red gaze flashed from within.

And a man slowly walked out.

"Our archbishop. You were hiding in a place like this? I've been looking for you for so long."

A fierce smile hung on his lips.

As if he were about to bite.

(End of Chapter)