The Golden Ticket to Glory
"Exactly!" Bullseye! Yohan suddenly slapped his knee hard and let out a cheer. "Yes, there had to be something like that. Hahaha!"
"Excuse me...?" At the sudden burst of wild laughter, Judas asked back with a bewildered look. Yohan finally stopped laughing and cleared his throat.
"No, it's nothing. Keep talking."
Judas tilted his head in confusion, but at Yohan's prompting, he had no choice but to continue his explanation.
"As I just mentioned, there is a secret passage between the Papal Palace and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It's not used under normal circumstances, and no one in the Congregation even knows it exists. Well, perhaps the Director might, but..."
"So even if they're an audit agency, it was built to crush them from the inside if they ever stepped out of line?" At Yohan's question, Judas nodded.
"T-That is likely the case. I heard that was the reason the passage was constructed in the past."
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was one of only three proper military forces within the Holy Kingdom. There was the regular army composed of ordinary people, the Holy Knights who served as the equivalent of armored divisions in Yohan's original world, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handled audits and various irregular warfare operations. The existence of a secret passage that the Congregation itself was unaware of was undoubtedly a last resort to suppress them should they ever go rogue.
"But... does this passage actually exist?" At Yohan's question, Judas nodded repeatedly.
"And how do you know such an important secret anyway? You're not pulling my leg, are you?" Honestly, even his name sounds suspicious. Yohan interrogated Judas in a highly overbearing tone.
"Absolutely not! In the first place, my uncle is Cardinal Mathias. And what on earth is wrong with my name anyway?"
Judas seemed genuinely aggrieved. He spent the next few minutes passionately venting about how ancient his family was within the Holy Kingdom and how many high-ranking clergymen they had produced.
"Whew... haaa..."
"Y-Yeah, okay. I believe you." He had seemed like a total prick based on his looks and first impression, but he was surprisingly a silver-spoon elite well-known within the Holy Kingdom. In fact, that was probably why he had looked down on Annie, who came from the streets.
"If there really is a secret passage underground like you say, rescuing the Primary God will be much easier." Though it'll be a disaster if the barrier extends beneath the earth as well. Adding that mental caveat, Yohan brushed himself off and stood up. Regardless, just knowing that a secret passage existed made him feel immensely relieved. He patted Judas lightly on the shoulder.
"Great. Shall we head out right away?"
"Wait a moment. What am I supposed to do now?"
"What do you mean, 'what'? You either come with me, or you quietly go back to the others and pretend you've gone off the deep end."
"But..."
They say a person's face is a non-verbal tool capable of expressing tens of thousands of emotions. For a split second, Yohan felt like Judas was screaming profanities at him with his eyes. Admittedly... while curing his madness was all well and good, leaving a perfectly sane guy among a bunch of lunatics and washing his hands of him was a bit harsh.
"Fine. Since things turned out this way, you're going to work with me." Of course, Judas had no right of veto.
***
It was safe to say that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was the papal institution that had suffered the most damage from this incident. From the very moment the madness first manifested, the entire organization had fallen. To make matters worse, the few Inquisitors who remained unaffected were all away on missions outside the Holy Kingdom. Even now, with the madness having swept through the entire Holy City, the Congregation was suffering from a chronic shortage of manpower, and the Holy Knights, who might have provided support, were just as busy. Consequently, the current security level inside the Congregation was barely any different from normal, and Yohan intended to exploit this.
"You're going to infiltrate the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and use the secret passage to reach the Papal Palace?"
"You catch on quick."
"Dammit, are you out of your mind? You know better than anyone what it's like out there!" Frustrated to no end, Judas pounded his chest with his fist. Since he was wearing plate armor, it made a loud, metallic clanging sound, causing Yohan to reflexively cover his ears.
"Well, if you really can't do it, I can drop you off outside the Holy Kingdom."
"R-Really?"
"Sure. Not too long ago, I took all the survivors of Easthold and escorted them to Westania." Though it is a bit concerning that there's someone in the Nameless Village who has a bad history with you.
"And all of those people converted from the Central Church to the Goddess Sect."
"The... Goddess Sect? What on earth is that?"
"It's the religion that worships the Goddess I serve." Since there was no longer any reason to hide it, Yohan explained the relationship between the Main God Justia and the Unnamed Goddess to Judas.
"So the imposter was actually that Goddess."
"Yeah. But the 'imposter' your Pope was talking about is actually the real Main God. The one who's been fast asleep in the Papal Palace's Grand Cathedral all this time."
"Then why on earth did His Holiness mistake the Main God for an imposter? Could he have already fallen victim to the madness at that point?" At Judas's question, Yohan shook his head.
"No, that's not it. The Pope declared the sleeping deity in the cathedral to be a fake while he was still perfectly sane, long before he went mad."
"..."
"This part is just speculation, but I think he made a desperate gamble to protect his own interests."
"Even so, that seems to lack any solid basis."
"It's not. The truth is, the original scriptures you know of aren't the actual original scriptures."
Thud. Yohan pulled out the original scriptures he had set aside in the corner. The true original scriptures were a Sacred Relic containing an immense amount of divinity, and Judas, who was capable of performing Miracle Arts, could easily feel it.
"If you look here, there's a passage about a prophecy..." Yohan immediately pointed out the prophetic verses that the high-ranking officials of the Central Church had intentionally deleted. Judas could only blink in sheer shock. No matter how elite his family was in the Holy Kingdom, it seemed he had been completely in the dark about such secrets. At the very least, it meant the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had done an excellent job of keeping its lips sealed.
"And think about it carefully." Yohan looked at Judas with a gentle smile. "In the midst of this absolute disaster, you rescue the Main God who was endangered by the Pope's betrayal, and sweep away the demonic madness rooted in the Holy City—no, the entire Holy Kingdom?"
"..."
"If you succeed, you'll become the savior of the nation and live out the rest of your days in comfort." Judas flinched, his eyes squeezing shut at Yohan's whisper.
"And is that all? Your name will definitely be recorded in the history books of the Holy Kingdom. The hero who saved the Church in its darkest hour."
"A... hero..."
"Yes, just like Teodoro IV." Yohan himself didn't feel much of anything, but the Holy Knights of the Holy Kingdom practically worshipped Pope Teodoro IV. It was likely due to his legendary rise from a mere Holy Knight to the seat of the Pope. Since Judas was also a member of the Holy Knights, invoking Teodoro IV's name was bound to be highly effective.
A brief silence fell over the room. Yohan waited quietly for Judas's response.
"Ssshh, haaa..." Eventually, Judas shook his head and let out a long sigh. "Fine. Let's do it. What do I have to lose?"
He took the bait! Yohan cheered inwardly, but kept his expression perfectly composed on the outside.
***
The sun set. In the meantime, Judas stripped off his gleaming plate armor and changed into ordinary clothes—a natural precaution since they were about to infiltrate the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
"Whew, my body feels so much lighter without that armor." Judas offered his honest thoughts as he adjusted the sleeves of his shirt and coat.
"..." Even without the armor, this guy still radiates nobility. He's just born with the face of a young lord. Yohan thought to himself, scanning Judas from head to toe.
"Is there a problem?"
"Forget it. If you're ready, let's head out. That Primary God of yours must be stomping her feet waiting for us."
"Understood. However, please be careful about one thing."
"What is it?" It seemed Judas had his own opinion to offer. Yohan nodded and listened.
"Even if you serve a deity of equal standing, referring to the Main God as 'that guy' or 'her' in front of a believer of the Central Church is far too irreverent. Please be more mindful of your word choice."
"Why, you..." I thought he was going to say something important, and he comes out with this? Yohan felt a sudden urge to give those smooth eyelids of his a pair of nice, dark bruises.
―Verily, those are wise words. I, too, have been called this and that by thee so often that I was on the verge of forgetting my own divine status. The problem was that the Unnamed Goddess chimed in, agreeing with Judas. Yohan let out a soft sigh and stood before the door of the single-room.
"Got it? I already have a rough idea of the Congregation's layout, so let's just find the secret passage and get to the Papal Palace as fast as we can."
"Yes." The two of them immediately opened the door and stepped out into the real world. The Holy City in the dead of night was as peaceful as ever. Of course, beneath that facade lay the horrific truth that the entire city had been consumed by demonic energy.
Honestly, the simplest way to enter the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was to teleport using the Goddess's power. However, with dense demonic energy blanketing the entire city, recklessly unleashing divine power risked instantly drawing the enemies' attention. While opening a dimensional portal was relatively safe, teleportation released a massive burst of sacred energy all at once. If the former was like flicking a lighter under the moonlight, the latter was akin to lighting a roaring bonfire. Therefore, it was best to save teleportation for when it was absolutely necessary.
"Whew." Fortunately, the two of them reached the Congregation building without any major issues. The Congregation's organization was completely devastated, meaning that unlike the Papal Palace with its ironclad security, there were plenty of blind spots to exploit. Besides, Yohan could easily disable any security devices installed inside. Drawing upon his old skills from his days of raiding graves and ruins, Yohan pried open a window of the Congregation building and slipped inside.
"Well, well." Surprisingly, the internal security system had been significantly upgraded. It seemed they had reinforced it after Yohan and Annie stole the original scriptures and fled. Of course, even so, it posed no real challenge. Whenever Yohan spotted a Congregation staff member on night patrol, he knocked them out cold, while simultaneously disabling the security devices in each hallway using only a minuscule amount of divine power.
Before long, the two of them arrived at the stairs leading down to the basement. It was a different set of stairs from the one leading to the Secret Archive—or rather, the vault—they had visited last time, but this basement level also seemed to be used as a storage area. Perhaps because this section of the basement was less important than the one connected to the secret vault, there were no patrols in sight, and the number of security devices was far fewer. Thus, the two of them slipped into a dusty storage room.
"According to my uncle, the entrance to the secret passage is..." Judas scanned the interior of the storage room for a moment, then pointed to a chair sitting alone in a corner. "This is it."
"Hey, wait a minute. This is..." It was a chair with restraints on the armrests, looking exactly like a torture device. Of course, its actual purpose was to measure a person's affinity for Miracle Arts... but its sinister appearance made it stand out vividly in Yohan's memory.
"No, not the chair itself. Look right beneath it." "Ah." But Judas wasn't pointing at the chair. Right under where the chair was positioned, a wooden trapdoor was faintly visible. Yohan clicked his tongue, feeling a bit embarrassed.