Chapter 182
Chapter 182
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 182
Chapter Title: Chapter 34: Fishing (1)
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A conference room furnished with antique furniture.
Those gathered there were members of the most extreme radicals even within Agnothia.
“I heard the priest Somir in Gemal was arrested. Is that true?”
“Yes, the charge is bribery.”
“You can’t possibly believe that, can you? They say he ran into that outsider and a Belego priest at the banquet. He must have been caught then.”
“I heard Pinelpenia pushed hard for his arrest and investigation…”
“Don’t even get me started. They took over an entire investigation team and now they’re strutting around like they own the place.”
“Ha, what in the world is going on?”
They all failed to hide their anxiety.
It stemmed from an unexpected incident during the purge of those colluding with human traffickers.
Completely unrelated crimes had been uncovered among them.
Embezzlement, bribery, illegal personnel recommendations and appointments, and even affairs with nobles.
The moment the investigation team discovered these crimes, the central headquarters’ inspectorate stepped in, and a significant number had already been arrested.
With things like this, even those uninvolved in human trafficking were starting to watch their step.
The same went for those gathered in this parlor.
They were all tangled up in the same crime.
‘Attempted kidnapping of an outsider.’
And not just once, but multiple times.
The attempts had always fallen through or failed, but their participation was undeniable fact.
Everyone was frantically destroying evidence and silencing witnesses, but it was far too early to relax.
They had tried too many times.
If even one came to light, they might have to fear for their lives right away.
The church headquarters had negotiated with the group representing the outsiders, using the human trafficking incident as leverage.
「The person and possessions of any sinner whose clear evidence of harm—or intent to harm—against the opposing side’s members shall be transferred to the harmed party.」
「This condition applies to all incidents following the gate’s connection, and the perpetrator’s person must be handed over within ten days of the harm being revealed.」
It was unprecedented and radical.
A declaration that they would offer no protection whatsoever if problems arose.
If their deeds were exposed, they would be at the mercy of the outsiders’ judgment.
Of course, the outsiders weren’t in a different position.
Dozens of outsiders who had led the human trafficking were already handed over to the church headquarters.
With the other side setting the precedent, those eager to purge the radicals had no intention of letting the opportunity slip.
It was only natural for the priests to tremble in fear.
“It’s all because that idiot bungled it.”
“Who went to see him? Priest Hamona? Was it you?”
“How was I supposed to know that moron would hand the job off to the mercenary guild? I naturally assumed he’d handle it quietly!”
“How short-sighted do you have to be to drag mercenaries into it?”
“Exactly. If it weren’t for that guy, Priest Somir wouldn’t have been caught…”
“They say he got nabbed because the binding spell was discovered, and now he can’t wriggle out.”
“Why put a binding spell on him in the first place? Without that, he could’ve claimed it was a false accusation!”
“Shouldn’t we take care of Priest Somir before he mentions our names?”
“The security is tighter than expected. We can’t touch the investigation targets right now.”
“Sigh, seriously… How do you plan to take responsibility for this mess?”
“You’re saying it’s all my fault?! The count is the one who recommended him in the first place!”
Anxiety over the issue led to mutual recriminations, finger-pointing, and outright blame.
As the others’ voices grew louder, the one who had remained silent since arriving in the parlor finally spoke.
“Enough with the pointless arguments.”
He tried to gently intervene in the dispute.
But it wasn’t the best approach against those steeped in anxiety and excitement.
“Does stopping now solve anything?”
“You must have some clever plan since you called us here, right?”
“Yeah, you’re the one who started this whole thing, Reitan. Hurry up and fix it!”
Those who had been tearing into each other turned their ire on the new scapegoat, Reitan Protlam.
Instead of reacting emotionally, Reitan responded calmly.
“For now, we need to wrap up the operation that was in preparation.”
It was the natural course, given the risks of continuing to target that outsider.
“But without that outsider, we can’t offer the divine fragment to Lady Agnothia…”
“We agreed not to speak of that so carelessly.”
As someone opened their mouth to object, Reitan immediately cut them off.
His gaze was quite sharp.
The speaker cleared their throat awkwardly and averted their eyes.
Having blocked the careless remark, Reitan tapped the armrest of the sofa.
There were rumors that he was strengthening ties with the Senoa Church and planning to switch his patronage.
But House Protlam was still sponsoring the Church of Purity, Agnothia.
The reason for hiding it was to plant a puppet in Senoa’s leadership who would move according to Agnothia’s will.
‘Galonic’s ridiculous collapse half-ruined it.’
A long-prepared plan had been derailed by an unexpected artifact.
‘That relic has more interfering power than I thought.’
With more variables to worry about, Reitan inwardly clicked his tongue and closed his eyes briefly.
‘For now, I must get that outsider no matter what.’
The reason was simple.
To absorb Palao’s divine fragment, Agnothia needed a vessel.
Yes, the goddess of purity, Agnothia, possessed the divine fragment of Palao, whose whereabouts had become obscure.
She wanted to absorb it immediately to bolster her divinity.
‘But absorbing a divinity carrying another god’s records directly would taint Lady Agnothia’s divinity.’
Hence, it required purification, and the easiest method was to bind it to a material world being.
A divinity bound to the material world loses the records it had accumulated.
Making it easier for Agnothia to absorb.
‘The problem was finding a sturdy enough material world being to withstand that divinity.’
That issue had plagued them for a year.
Then, out of nowhere, a solution dropped from the heavens.
‘Whether they knew or not, it doesn’t matter.’
Senoa had granted a certain individual the qualification to endure various divinities.
It was unclear why Senoa—second only to Kalos in rarely interfering with dimensions—suddenly stepped in.
But Agnothia had no desire to let the chance slip.
Solving a nearly year-long impasse? Passing it up would be the strange choice.
Thus began the operation to seize the human granted Senoa’s qualification: the outsider K.
They had swayed the fanatically devout radicals for multiple approaches.
But suddenly, the kidnappers suffered mass food poisoning.
On the way to kidnap, they got doused in garbage.
The target got into a brawl with other outsiders, drawing a crowd.
One mishap after another derailed things.
As if the heavens themselves were protecting that outsider.
‘Impossible.’
If there were signs of that, Agnothia would have intervened.
With no separate word, it meant the gods hadn’t interfered.
Yet the failures persisted.
That’s why they commissioned Belego, outside the church, for the kidnapping.
In case of emergency, perfect for killing and silencing—use once and discard.
‘I don’t know why it keeps going wrong.’
Reitan fiddled with the pocket watch in his pocket.
A divine relic from Agnothia.
As he toyed with the watch, lost in thought.
Reitan spoke in a soft, composed tone.
“The most urgent matter is stopping them from digging into us further.”
The priests in the conference room swallowed dryly at his renewed words.
“How exactly? Tell us a concrete plan!”
Rather than delaying, Reitan gave a direct answer.
The first priority was neutralizing Agnothia Church’s High Vicar.
He strongly opposed the radicals who preached sacrificing followers to serve the goddess.
He was on close terms with the High Vicar of Temoria Church, leader of the moderates.
‘And recently, intel came in that he met privately with that outsider, K.’
He was surely joining forces with K’s investigation team to strike those leading the kidnappings.
They had to force him to back off first.
As he prepared to explain the method, an impatient someone spoke up.
“How about asking Senoa for help? They’d be in trouble without us too, so maybe just this once…”
But mocking jeers followed immediately.
“Do they even have the leeway for that?”
True enough. K was digging hardest into Senoa.
They were even more desperate than Agnothia.
Circumstances tying them to apostates were pouring out, leading to near mass executions.
“In this situation, there’s only one sure way to resolve it.”
Instead of the dismissed option, Reitan proposed a more reliable solution.
“We need to make them bury this first.”
As his following words concluded, the faces of the priests in the conference room brightened.
* * *
Suddenly, a faint light pierced the consciousness that had darkened instantly.
Tuning into the murmuring noise, the muffled sensations of a waterlogged body began to awaken bit by bit.
Among them, one sound pierced the ears particularly clearly.
Drip. Drip.
The sound of water droplets falling.
Perhaps it stood out because it wasn’t water making the sound.
‘No point dwelling on it now.’
Having passed out and regained consciousness, Rawian realized he was lying on a cold stone floor.
He had awareness, but couldn’t move his body.
The best he could manage was forcing his heavy eyelids open.
The first thing he saw was the silver-badge player who had collapsed spewing blood from the neck at the moment he blacked out.
Beyond the corpse sat a man on a wooden chair, legs crossed.
Seeing the spear leaning casually on his shoulder sent chills racing across Rawian’s skin reflexively.
A spear that claimed three or four lives with every swing.
Just looking at it evoked the terror of death.
Rawian involuntarily lowered his gaze.
Then he noticed military boots with blood trickling down them.
Despite the holy knights lined up behind the man—not a small number.
The man’s presence with the spear was so overwhelming that they didn’t register.
“I-I swear! I don’t know anything!”
By then, the murmurs had formed complete words.
“Is that so?”
“Y-Yes…”
It had been a month since the Player Association and the Seven Churches’ headquarters drew their blades in earnest against the human traffickers.
The joint investigation agency they formed located the traffickers’ hideouts with uncanny accuracy and speed.
As if they’d received locations from internal whistleblowers.
‘We had a brief fallout over that.’
But they hadn’t found the spy.
‘With so many caught, they must have squealed.’
It only stirred distrust among their own ranks.
Tensions ran high like walking on thin ice day after day, until the full retreat order came.
At least on Earth, they’d have Chinese government protection.
But the order came far too late.
‘Holy knights swarmed the gate.’
Curiously, right after the official announcement of the investigation starting, the game updated.
Reducing the gates from three to one, where church holy knights conducted inspections.
Fewer gates already raised capture risks.
The new update displayed players’ nationalities in their status windows.
Without showing nationality, you couldn’t pass the holy knights at the gate.
‘If it showed as Chinese, instant arrest.’
He’d heard South American players were also taken sometimes.
But no official reason given.
Given time, resentment might build against such controls, but not yet.
News of mass human and organ trafficking had spread via community to all players.
Those aware of the severity were cooperating with investigations without major backlash.
Thus, most Chinese players were isolated in Bihar, unable to use gates.
That’s how Rawian ended up confronting over fifty holy knights in the hideout, unable to return to Earth.
“Strange…”
And leading those holy knights who stormed the hideout was a man.
The guy from Palao with his spear leaning on one shoulder.
Goddamn System