Chapter 181
Chapter 181
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 181
Chapter Title: Chapter 33: Small World (6)
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I approached Isola after briefly stepping away and returning.
It was a thoroughly calculated move, and I had all my lines prepared in advance.
- Garonic's name came up again during the preliminary investigation.
- But there's no way he would have done something like that.
- It seems... there are people in the church trying to slander Priest Garonic.
I had been invited to the gathering as one of the lead investigators.
That made it easy to pretend to leak internal info and coax Isola.
- It bothered me to see such an upstanding man falsely accused.
- So, I came up with a method...
- This is a relic granted to us outsiders. It's infused with the divinity of the Seven Great Gods, granting it special powers.
With a bit more acting, Isola lit up and rolled up her sleeves, leading to this.
“You idiot princess has made things such a hassle.”
“U-Uncle...?”
Isola rushed to Garonic and thrust the rabbit doll into his arms without warning.
And there stood Garonic, facing her, holding the rabbit doll.
Both looked utterly flustered.
But even in that moment, Garonic's mouth didn't stop moving.
“I can't sell off the untouchables for a while now, which is a real problem. It was a pretty big money line, and now look at this mess because of that damn princess.”
Watching their comedy from a slight distance, I glanced at the doll in Garonic's hand to confirm.
The number one contributor that made this farce possible.
A relic obtained through Kirishi, with whom I'd built connections in the Palao Church.
[Angela's Rabbit Doll, Which Knows All Her Secret Thoughts]
• Type: Relic
• Acquisition Difficulty: Unique
• Rank: ★★★★
• Description: Angela, who lived in the same village and harbored a crush on a boy, would whisper her secrets to this rabbit doll every night. It was observed by the gaze of one of the Seven Great Gods, who took pity on her longing to know the boy's true feelings, imbuing it with special powers. In line with Angela's wish, for 30 minutes, you can hear the honest inner thoughts of anyone whose name is written on the doll's ear while holding it.
• Uses Remaining: 0/1
I'd written Garonic Hogg's name on the rabbit doll's ear.
As long as he held that doll, for the next 30 minutes, every thought crossing his mind had to come out of his mouth.
Of course, he couldn't let go of the doll until the timer ran out.
‘Whew, building all those connections everywhere is paying off.’
I'd carved out time from my busy schedule to share info and tips, forming a network—and now it was bearing fruit.
Today's success was the ultimate result of that network's members growing bit by bit and expanding their reach.
If I'd tried to do it alone, I never would have taken down Garonic.
That relic had changed so much. For the better, for me.
I nearly burst out laughing but held it back with all I had.
One wrong move, and getting on the emperor's bad side over using Isola could backfire.
‘If they catch me grinning, it'll get annoying.’
So I hid my glee, feigned shock like everyone else, and deliberately dropped the glass I was holding.
“What the hell is this?! Things falling apart so pathetically—no, this can't happen! Do you know what I've gone through to cater to that halfwit princess's moods?! I still have great deeds left unfinished! I have to become emperor in Mother's place! I have to feed the emperor and his spawn to the monsters! I can't let it end like this!”
While I concealed my own thoughts, Garonic spilled even more of his.
Isola, stunned by the flashy confession, went pale and staggered.
She even toppled backward.
In the end, the after-party turned into total chaos.
Maids rushed to support the fainted Isola, while Garonic was dragged away.
Around then, I felt a persistent gaze and turned to find myself eye-to-eye with Jose Volfrian.
He watched me intently with an inscrutable look before giving a slight nod.
Was it thanks for handling the headache he couldn't resolve himself?
‘Whatever, even if it's something else, it doesn't matter.’
Garonic was nothing but an obstacle to my plans—zero chance of him being helpful.
No matter how I turned it over, he was better off gone.
Removing trash like that was a win for me.
I had zero interest in how Jose Volfrian viewed this.
So I pretended not to notice his nod and quietly turned away.
As I watched Garonic's retreating figure, being hauled off, I sensed someone approaching.
“Things got pretty lively, huh.”
“Yeah.”
It was Ethan. He'd been invited for the same reason as me.
He was the only one from the Association selected.
“What about the relic? Shouldn't we recover it?”
“No rush.”
For the 30 minutes the relic was active, it couldn't be pried from Garonic's hands anyway.
‘Letting him blurt out every thought that pops into his head for a while sounds entertaining.’
No matter what he said, it wouldn't top exposing his crimes.
I savored the situation leisurely.
But Ethan seemed uneasy, asking in a low voice.
“By the way, can we trust the imperial family?”
The princess might be airheaded enough to be innocent, but the emperor? Maybe not.
“It's a bit worrying.”
Ethan was fretting over possible collusion between the royals and the traitors.
“The odds of the emperor being tied to the traitors are low.”
The plot between Leytan and Garonic to subtly egg on the emperor proved it.
“It means the emperor wouldn't step in voluntarily to cover this up.”
In fact, the moment Isola started whining, he'd moved to handle it.
Even if the investigation progressed, it wouldn't harm him personally.
‘Of course, that's not solid proof on its own.’
He could always cut off a tail and save his own skin.
But despite that possibility, I was certain the emperor wasn't involved with traitors or human traffickers.
“Why?”
“Because the monsters' goal is the extermination of the demi-humans.”
Ethan let out a short gasp, like he'd just realized something.
A singular purpose with no room for compromise.
That explained why, despite countless negotiation attempts during past wars with the enemy, they always fell through.
‘The monsters have no intention of letting demi-humans live.’
Their aim was annihilation and destruction alone.
Traitors allying with monsters and the emperor shaking hands? Impossible.
The moment they colluded, the imperial family's future vanished.
‘To protect his power, the emperor has no choice but to oppose the traitors.’
In a world with gods, the current emperor had wielded resources as a weapon to place imperial authority above church power.
That meant he was obsessed with his throne—and wouldn't throw it away.
“He might try to maintain the status quo and power structure, but...”
Letting the demi-humans he ruled be wiped out made no sense.
“At best, he turned a blind eye knowing full well. It'd be ridiculous to claim he was clueless.”
His eyes and ears were everywhere.
Unless he'd deliberately ignored it, the chance he'd truly been ignorant was slim.
“He knew and just watched? Why the hell would he do that?”
“More non-combatants mean more food consumption.”
“What does that have to—?”
I picked up a bite-sized finger food from a nearby table and continued.
“More population means more mouths to feed, and in Bihar's current state, that kind of shift risks severe food shortages.”
“Ah...”
Bihar's annual resource production was limited.
‘The territory where demi-humans can operate is restricted, after all.’
Then, a decade ago, the war suddenly halted.
Fewer deaths.
‘Volunteers for the army have been declining for years too.’
Meaning the ordinary population, useless in war, was growing.
So if the emperor decided to cull the excess to maintain the status quo...
It explained letting everything slide.
‘Even if that's true, it wouldn't shock me.’
From the investigations before today's inauguration, signs had already been there.
‘There was definitely a food-related riot.’
Small-scale, quickly quelled by relief grain from the church.
‘Bihar's already crumbling.’
I chewed and swallowed a tasty finger food, swallowing my final words too.
But Ethan looked pretty shaken just from what I'd said earlier.
I offered him some bitter comfort.
“Ethan, this isn't some game filled with dreams and hope—a new world in a tutorial.”
It was just a dimension on the brink of defeat and ruin.
“If you're expecting a happy ending where everyone smiles at the credits, give it up now.”
The more I saw and heard in Bihar, the more my inner conviction solidified.
No matter how many selected Players there were, Bihar couldn't return to its peaceful past.
Rebuilding the fallen civilization would be a stretch too.
‘It'll just hold out a little longer.’
Earth needed to grab everything it could here and prep for the next war.
Maybe that's why Rashaar, who'd started looking at me with hopeful eyes, felt off.
Unlike her expectations of charity and salvation, I had no intention of saving this world.
‘To begin with, that's beyond what I can do.’
I comforted myself with that and swallowed a sigh.
I'd just wrapped up my heavy chat with Ethan when.
“Quick, fetch a priest of Kalos!”
Isola was carried out on a stretcher.
I side-eyed her pale, unconscious form.
Rumors said she'd nagged the emperor repeatedly for today's event.
‘She must have believed in Garonic's innocence that much.’
That's why I'd used her hand to deploy the relic.
She could act rudely toward Garonic without rebuke and would move as I wished to prove his innocence.
‘She never imagined she'd expose the true nature of the kin she trusted with her own hands.’
I knew my method of revelation might feel violent to Isola.
But I didn't regret it.
She hadn't questioned me despite my explanation of the church council.
It wasn't her fault for being deceived by Garonic.
‘But I have no desire to coddle her either.’
The emperor would soothe her with honeyed words—no need for me to pamper her like a greenhouse flower.
‘Better to secure my lifeline than worry about her.’
To avoid the emperor's ire over this, I needed minimal cleanup.
Through contacts from the last banquet, I'd shape opinion not as "I used Isola," but "I exposed the bastard who deceived and used Isola."
‘Then he can't openly rebuke me.’
I'd be the savior who freed the duped Isola.
‘The princess can't look like a fool.’
Garonic had to be the scum who tricked her; she, the thorough victim deserving sympathy.
That way, I could defuse any imperial wrath aimed my way.
That should suffice for cleaning up here.
Once urgent matters were settled...
‘I negotiate with the System.’
I'd tackle the biggest obstacle to the investigation first.
If the System accepted my issues and solutions, uprooting Chinese Players would be smoother.
Plenty more problems loomed like mountains.
‘Can't ignore the drug mess in South America either.’
With legitimate investigative authority, sniffing out other shady spots wasn't a bad idea.
‘From his reaction earlier, Jose Volfrian sees this as an opportunity too...’
Then the church headquarters wouldn't block me.
I fixed my gaze on one of the maids carrying Isola, covering my mouth with my hand and flashing my eyes meaningfully.
Damn System