Chapter 150 (2/2)

Eventually, an old man standing along the wall timidly asked her a question .

“S-So, you’re saying you knew Lord Palermo wasn’t human on sight?”

“That’s right . Even if an undead wears human skin, it won’t slip past us . You people have been removing the eyes that can see through the monsters’ disguises with your own hands, all for the sake of those monsters’ doctrine . ”

Well, there was one person that hadn’t been able to see through it, but let’s keep that close to my chest instead of interrupting her .

Still, today’s “Ariane-dono” was in a bad mood because of our surroundings .

Had she been practicing her speech about the “The Hiruku Church……” ever since we dealt with Palermo?

The old man lowered his head after receiving Ariane’s criticism .

According to their doctrine, elves and beastmen were inferior races, there wasn’t a single Hiruku follower that didn’t see themselves as being above those two races, but that superiority complex had them dancing in the palms of the undeads’ hands .

However, pushing them any further on the matter would only ignite even more hostilities against elves .

She was sitting next to me and they knew she had the power to sink sections of this city beneath the earth, so no one was brave enough to challenge her now .

Still, it was for the best that we move on……

“Let’s put that on hold for now, Ariane-dono . ”

She crossed her arms and remained quiet at my request .

“There is no doubt that Cardinal Palermo was the one who orchestrated the assault on the capital . Since we’re not concerned with the inner-workings of the Hiruku Theocracy, we only have a rough idea of their goals . No, you could say that this event has clued us in on their goals . ”

King Asparuf held his breath as I changed topics and looked directly at him . Beside him, Lille clasped her hand together over her chest like a child listening to a ghost story .

“When I encountered Cardinal Charos…… he was on the verge of conquering a city through the use of undead and other monsters . Since there was a church in the city, I didn’t understand his reasoning, but it probably had something to do with the enormous number of undead that attacked this capital . ”

“That……”

Someone opened their mouth when they heard what I said but they quickly shut it afterward .

You couldn’t spontaneously create that many undead…… moreover, the armor and weapons were uniform in appearance, not something you’d find on undead scavenged from random battlefields .

Palermo had said that his power was something “the Pope had given me”, so that meant the pope could create undead himself .

The two cardinals were simply one type of monster the pope could create .

It was all about the available materials……

“Then my brethren that are taken to the Hiriku Theocracy are……”

When Chiome unexpectedly joined the conversation with that quiet question, I slowly nodded my head .

“They were probably turned into undead…… From what I heard in Rhoden’s port city Lanbaltic, the Theocracy has been purchasing a large number of criminal slaves recently . I was told that they would be put to work in the mines, but that doesn’t seem to be the case . ”

For now, I simply spoke the conclusion that I had come to based off of the information I had on hand, how they would treat the Hiruku Theocracy from now on was up to them .

Lille’s shoulders trembled and her eyes bulged when I said my piece .

“This is serious, father! The Hiruku church has to be removed at once!”

Asparuf turned to his daughter and tried to calm her passionate declaration .

“Wait, Wait, Lille! it’s not that simple!”

Of course, it wasn’t simple……

To expel the deeply ingrained Hiruku religion from a country, you’d need to convince a majority of the proud believers to turn their backs on their faith .

It wasn’t an easy feat to accomplish now that an actual angel had descended .

Rebellion was all but assured if they tried to force the matter with the royal family’s power, and depending on the scale, it could result in them being overthrown .

And would the Hiruku religion just leave Nozan alone simply because their attack on the capital had failed?

Perhaps they were already preparing a larger force to launch the second attack, or they would simply apply pressure .

Even if they revealed the truth about the church to neighboring countries, how many would actually believe them…… in this world, which lacked means of communication, it would take days before the message even reached the heads of other nations .

Frankly speaking, they were in a check .

The people around us started to understand and frantically began voicing countermeasures and tactics to avoid the worst case scenario, however, even I could tell none of their suggestions would bear fruit .

There were no effective measures, but for those that lived under the Hiruku religion for so long, maybe it was impossible to think of any solution .

Still, there was no reason for us to proceed at our own discretion, so we might consult Dylan abo…… no, in this situation, we needed to speak with someone higher up .

“That’s it! Why not seek reinforcements from Rhoden?”

I heard one of the ministers suggest an interesting idea, but how realistic would it be to expect Rhoden to send reinforcements across the gulf?

In my heart, it wasn’t all that likely to occur .

“That…… should do, right?

Lille’s eyes had become teary-eyed after hearing her father yell at her, causing me to switch towards cleaning up this discussion before asking for our demands to be met .

“Since your country is incapable of purging the Hiruku church right now, wouldn’t the next best thing be to announce the mastermind behind the crisis to the populace and start detaining clergymen for questioning? The fact that any of them could be an undead in human skin can be used as a valid excuse . ”

The King began stroking his chin as he considered my suggestion, while Lille watched him with a frustrated expression .

Instead of replying, Aspauf gave me a stout nod to indicate he’d accepted my suggestion, despite the brevity of our acquaintanceship .

I honestly expected the King to criticize my proposal when he stared at me with a hard look on his face .

“When the questioning begins…… I suppose you’d like to be there to watch?”

Since it had been my suggestion, it was a reasonable question to ask .

Currently, the ability to detect the undead was limited to elves and beastmen, but I doubt there were any more hidden undead within the capital .

If you were an undead capable of mixing in with humans, they must have some will of their own . It’s unlikely that any of those guys would’ve stuck around after Palermo’s defeat .

Well, there was no reason to refuse selling this country a few more favors .

……Still,

“You don’t mind if I leave Ariane-dono and Chiome-done in my stead, do you?”

My gaze shifted between the two as I spoke, Chiome nodded her head in approval, while suspicion began to cloud Ariane’s eyes .

“Hold on, what are you going do after pushing this hassle on us?”

Although they were humans, calling a request from a country’s king a “hassle”, had me worry that they’ll carry a grudge over it .

“I’ll be clearing out the remaining undead in the city . ”

I rose from my seat, grabbed the 『Holy Shield of Teutates』 with my left hand and rested the 『Holy Thunder Sword』 over my right shoulder .

It wasn’t like I was capable of distinguishing the hidden undead from humans anyway .

A more productive use of my time would be to help the soldiers clear way the undead that had breached the outer wall .

Since the majority of the credit for the annihilation the undead army went to the angel I summoned, I figured I could compensate for that with a good showing now .

An elf activity taking part in the defense of the capital should dispel some of the negative assumptions the people had of elves, even though my elven nature was hidden while I still had my helmet on .

The King’s face turned pale when he caught on to what I was suggesting .

“Arc-dono, I am grateful for the offer, but we’d like to have a city left standing……”

The ministers who had been talking about future countermeasures along the wall stopped talking and simultaneously looked in my direction .

They were afraid I’d call down another angel to clear out the city, even though doing so would cause the reputation of elves to plummet .

“Do not worry, that isn’t something that I can recklessly call down . I’ll just be swinging this sword around . ”

I gave the worried people in the room a brief explanation, asked Ariane and Chiome to meet me later, and left the room .

Ponta had been relaxing in Chiome’s arms up till that point, but she came flying after me with her wind magic, gracefully landing on her favorite spot .

“Kyun!”

“You wanna come too, Ponta?”

Ponta vigorously wagged her tail in response to my question .

There were a lot of soldiers stationed around the building once I stepped outside, the citizens that the knights kept at bay began pointing and chatting amongst themselves when they saw an unfamiliar knight leaving the building .

Well, the inner wall’s gate was still shut tight and the soldiers should be capable of handling the regular undead themselves . Therefore, for the sake efficiency, it would be best to focus on the remaining spider chimera .

I’ll probably be finished in the evening……

With that thought in mind, I began making my way towards the gate .