Chapter 56
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Ilaiya (4)
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- Thud. Thud.
A grotesque monster bird strode toward Erzena.
The bird's pitch-black eyes flashed, its feathers quivering and bristling threateningly.
"Explain."
Words spat out while forcibly suppressing her rage.
"What about the Evil God Cult?"
It drew close enough that a twitch of its wings could sever her throat.
"Can you prove that's the truth?"
At that sight, Intelligence Bureau agents rushed over in a panic.
"Saintess Erzena! Please step back!"
"Ilaiya, if you come any closer, we'll treat it as a threa—"
Erzena raised a hand to halt them.
"No. Let her be."
She met the gaze of the monstrous bird Ilaiya had become without flinching or averting her eyes.
'...I have to do this.'
Nathan's final words echoed in her mind.
[I'm sorry to entrust the Central Officer's duty... to you.]
His second request, laced with apology and worry.
Erzena spoke.
"I'll show you directly."
A few hours earlier.
"Wh-what do you want me to do?"
The lamia in the crystal orb stared at Erzena with a serious expression.
- You need to convince the Black Hand's master.
At those thunderbolt words, Erzena stood frozen in shock, and Melani continued.
- The core of shock therapy is smashing expectations. Someone utterly unimaginable has to show up.
"You mean me?"
- A former saintess of the Holy Church? That's a total heavyweight. The symbolism is on another level.
It was true enough.
The mere name of saintess would likely make even the Black Hand hesitate.
But that wasn't the issue.
"Sure, but... will they believe me just because I say it?"
Authority had no correlation with truth.
She couldn't expect them to rationally accept the sub-master's death.
There was no guarantee they'd swallow it whole just because she said so.
"Even if we show the body, they'll surely suspect us."
Melani gave a sly smile.
- You're not just any saintess. You're also a victim caught up in the Black Hand's kidnapping.
Her tail tip pointed to the golden aura surrounding Erzena.
- And holy power? It can never lie. Right?
"That's... true."
- That's your proof.
Holy power was the utter antithesis of the Evil God Cult's strength.
She could definitely expose their involvement with this.
Erzena murmured quietly as the realization hit.
"Of course... traces of the Evil God Cult's power should still linger in the sub-master's body..."
- One more thing.
Melani added.
- The Black Hand knows who you are. But they don't know about the Central Officer or the rest of the Immigration Control Office.
"..."
- I told the Central Officer the same, but being recognized means you're in danger.
Only then did Erzena grasp why she truly had to step forward.
If the Central Officer appeared to vouch for the truth, the Black Hand might see him—the border overseer—as a threat.
But she, a former saintess, had always been a target.
And since the Black Hand had already targeted her once, forging this connection posed no added risk.
"...To protect Nathan, I have to be the one, then."
Melani's body twitched at that.
- ...Nathan?
Erzena hurriedly corrected herself.
"F-for the Central Officer's sake, at least."
This wasn't a private chat.
- Hmmm...
Melani narrowed her eyes at the slip.
The Intelligence Chief slowly flicked her tongue before speaking.
- My darling really doesn't know how to take care of himself. That's always been my worry. I suffered so much before because of it.
Erzena's body twitched this time.
"...My darling?"
- Ah, sorry. The Central Officer.
Now Erzena narrowed her eyes.
"Hmmm..."
A brief silence.
Golden eyes met yellow snake eyes in a stare-down.
About two seconds.
"..."
"..."
No aura, no pressure—just wordless emotions crossing between them.
Erzena spoke first.
"So... we're using the sub-master's death."
Steering back to the plan's crux, Melani scowled.
- ...She was dead anyway. Plus bad blood with you. Using her is self-defense.
True.
A woman fated for execution.
But something felt off, somehow unresolved.
No pity, though.
Was this the right way?
The Intelligence Chief caught Erzena's expression and narrowed her eyes.
- Steel your heart. In ops like this, any honest emotion shown means failure. Treat it as a card to exploit fully and discard.
Melani's words carried weight.
- In a merciless world, only the merciless survive. This isn't utopia.
"I'll show you directly."
After a deep breath, Erzena turned her gaze to Ilaiya.
'Stay calm... stay ruthless...'
First, she had to dispel Ilaiya's suspicions.
Erzena's appearance had startled her briefly, but she still didn't know the truth.
To convince her, the clearest evidence was needed.
Erzena quietly clasped her hands and closed her eyes.
- Ssshh.
Bright golden energy extended softly from around her.
"Holy power..."
Ilaiya frowned and took a step back.
The holy power slowly advanced toward the changeling in the coffin.
The moment the warm energy gently enveloped the coffin,
- Crackle!
It recoiled violently, as if repelled, the instant it touched Shahal's body.
Ilaiya murmured in shock.
"What... is this?"
Erzena demonstrated again.
- Crackle!
In that brief instant, Ilaiya saw it.
A foul, dark crimson aura faintly cloaking Shahal.
A thorny-vine aura brutally shoving back the approaching holy power.
She knew what it was.
The power of the Evil God Cult.
Erzena's words were true.
She slowly turned her head and asked the saintess in a far calmer voice.
"...What exactly happened?"
Erzena swallowed hard inwardly.
'This is where it really starts.'
Hostility had ebbed; a chance to talk had opened.
"The changeling received a mission from Haten Silla to kidnap me."
Partial truth only.
Per the Intelligence Chief's plan, expose only the perpetrators ruthlessly.
"Then, mid-interrogation, when she was about to speak of Haten Silla, the curse activated."
She pointed to the magic circle etched into the prison floor.
"We didn't kill your sister."
Delay the true goal to the very end; secure legitimacy first.
'No blame on us—direct the rage to the Evil God Cult.'
No need to mention the scheduled execution.
Avoid ruffling feathers; guide every nerve toward the cult.
That was the op.
Erzena spoke as calmly as possible.
"I wanted to show you that we're not the ones you should be angry at."
"Not the ones... I should be angry at?"
But Ilaiya grasped her intent immediately.
"...Ha."
A laugh tinged with contempt.
"Right... that's it."
The ominous eyes narrowed.
"You're saying you'll use us as pawns in the end."
"Yes?"
"The Evil God Cult did this to Shahal, so don't take it out on you—turn your blade on the cult instead. You think I wouldn't see that?"
Dead on.
"Don't make me laugh. You share the blame too."
The ominous bird bared its claws threateningly.
Her voice grew rough again.
"You've always been like this. Despising us, treating us like trash, but groveling when you need us."
"W-wait! That's not wha—"
"And now you're even trying to exploit my sister's death."
Revolting.
The Evil God Cult. This saintess right in front of her.
All any of them wanted was to use them.
Even before Black Hand was born.
Selfish. Irrational. Utterly loathsome.
She spread her wings roughly.
"Do you know why we ended up like this? How Black Hand was formed?"
"Do you know a life of constant oppression, treated as cursed beasts, wandering the streets?"
"Have you ever tried to understand—or help with—the contempt we faced!?"
She vented her pent-up fury.
"You didn't even know we existed, and now you tell us not to fight back and die for your enemies!?"
But something began welling up deep in Erzena's heart too.
Ilaiya was wailing her pain and despair.
Not just grief over the sub-master—but a lifetime as a raven harpy.
Without a thought for the horrific impact she'd inflicted on others.
Skipping over how, as assassin guild head, she'd senselessly stolen countless lives.
'Why is your life the only tragedy?'
Erzena clenched her fists until her knuckles whitened.
'Why act like you're the only one suffering?'
- Boom!
Ilaiya smashed the wall right beside her with a wing and screamed.
"How dare the world's noblest being prattle on about life at the bottom!"
Her true feelings laid bare at last.
Victim complex, persecution delusions, the oppressed's cry—Erzena snapped.
"I don't know!"
A sharp cry burst from the saintess.
"I don't know! How the hell should I know! Why should I understand the ones who tried to kill me?!"
She was furious.
So furious she wanted to stomp her feet, grab that monster bird by the scruff.
This woman, acting like she'd shouldered every tragedy in the world.
Then spreading those tragedies to others—it infuriated her.
"You cause chaos at the border, kidnap people—expected to be spared? And now you talk about avenging your sister!?"
Her bottled emotions erupted.
"What makes you so pitiful? So tragic?"
Her voice cracked; her hands trembled.
"Don't play hypocrite! Compared to the innocents you killed, this is worth less than a drop of blood!"
No one lacked a backstory.
That was Erzena's conclusion after hearing countless confessions and atonements as saintess.
'No matter how unfair or unjust the world, there's always been people choosing a better path.'
You didn't choose it—you dragged others into sorrow too.
You formed the assassin guild. You walked the path of murder.
Monsters drowned in self-pity.
"The reason you're a raven harpy? You made yourself that way!"
Stabbing the rawest wound.
Ilaiya's eyes flew wide.
"You...!!!!"
She spread her wings menacingly; feathers quivered, ready to shred the woman before her.
"Yeah, I know! Raven harpy. Changelings. Both treated like monsters."
But Erzena stepped closer to the harpy.
"But with power like that, you should've thought of changing the world—instead of hating it."
She pointed to the coffin.
The harpy's tear stains from her screams had dried on the stone floor right before them.
"If you grieve your sister's death that much, you should've at least once considered how the people you killed felt!"
How thick was the innocent blood staining you.
How many widows and orphans wept because of you.
What right did you have to resent us.
She gazed at the shriveled, twisted purple eyes in the coffin.
"Misdirecting rage at the wrong targets... that's how you ended up like this."
"..."
"Living in tragedy, you should've at least not created more."
She murmured softly.
"I won't pity you. Never."
Never pity you.
Not until far in the future, when you beg the Lord's forgiveness and atone for those you killed.
Until then, no understanding either.
"But that rage mustn't target innocents."
And this was separate from her laments.
She lifted her head and spoke again.
"Choose."
She extended her hand.
"Take your sister's body intact and exact revenge on the true culprits—or slaughter us all here and remain a blood-maddened harpy forever."
The final ultimatum.
Not a proposal of info and deception—but her honest heart and brutal truth, laid bare without filter.
Shaking the soul to its core.
"The choice is yours."
Erzena's golden eyes glared resolutely at the crow.
"..."
Ilaiya's gaze shifted to the coffin.
Only then did she realize Shahal's state.
The body, crushed and twisted by some unknown force, had been painstakingly restored to something human-like.
'Just someone slated for execution who got killed for another reason.'
To them, it was probably just less cleanup.
Yet they'd placed her in a coffin—not desecrated, but with minimal respect—and waited for her arrival.
Ilaiya asked in a low voice.
"...Why go this far?"
Her head knew.
Why they were doing this.
'Use the grudge to offload the Evil God Cult without dirtying their hands.'
Sacrifice them, eliminate the headache in one go.
A convenient card to use and toss.
Scum perfect for dirty jobs.
That was Black Hand.
But looking at this woman... something else stirred.
Something in Erzena's eyes.
Not cheap pity.
Not the usual contempt.
The gaze of one resolved.
"...The world is merciless."
Honest words.
She admitted it.
Melani was right.
Even without the Evil God Cult, irrationality, misfortune, distrust infested everywhere.
Nathan had nearly broken under it; it'd blinded Erzena once; it still lingered around them.
"That's why people must be different. Even in anger and hate, the target mustn't be wrong."
But people could be different.
Erzena had seen it.
Mohaim, who'd never defied the Church, questioning for the first time, seeking answers.
The old knight who'd swung his sword in rage at heretics, walking the asura's path—he'd found direction again.
'If the Church's blade can change, so can you.'
She expected no atonement.
Just set your course once.
'Don't turn that fury into tragedy for the innocent.'
That was her sole wish for them.
So she said to the harpy one last time.
"Decide, Ilaiya."
"..."
The raven harpy stared silently down at the former saintess for a long while.
A long silence.
No answer.
No hand taken.
Instead, she turned and approached Shahal.
"I'd sooner slit my own throat than become the state's dog."
"..."
"But... thank you for recovering my sister's body."
With her wingtip, she gently closed Shahal's staring eyes.
- Thud.
Then covered the coffin.
"...Black Hand has an iron rule."
Her calm voice echoed through the cell.
"Iron rule?"
"Grudges repaid threefold. No matter who."
Grudges repaid threefold.
She would have revenge.
"Revenge ends only when I rip out the hearts of their three leaders."
Erzena nodded, realizing the harpy had accepted.
"That's enough."
- Crunch.
Ilaiya's talons gripped the coffin.
She slowly headed out of the cell.
Just before exiting, she turned.
"Someday... I'll come find you again, Saintess."
Erzena frowned.
"Can you promise it's not for kidnapping, murder, robbery, assault, threats, fraud, or theft?"
She rattled off foreseeable crimes in one breath.
"..."
"..."
Silence.
In three seconds, a storm of emotions flickered across the harpy's face.
Then, she nodded curtly.
"...Fine. I promise."
"Good."
That was it.
The harpy, returned to human form, dragged the coffin out of the underground prison.
- Step, step.
Fading footsteps.
Erzena glared motionless at the cell door until the sounds vanished completely, then finally exhaled.
"Hoo, huu..."
Her legs buckled.
"Saintess Erzena!"
The agents behind her rushed over in alarm.
"I-I'm fine. Just... let me sit a bit."
Her heart pounded; her hands shook.
Even with holy power and the Lord's watch, facing a raging two-meter monster bird head-on took serious courage.
Leaning against the wall, she murmured softly.
"D-did I... do good...?"
She'd gone completely against the plan.
Should've been subtle, deceptive—but anger made her blurt everything.
But the agent replied with admiration.
"It was perfect."
"...If the Chief hears this, she'll definitely try to recruit you."
Whatever the path, the result was as planned: Black Hand was now blood enemies with the Evil God Cult.
Remembering that, Erzena managed a faint smile.
"Ha, haha... couldn't do it twice..."
Suddenly, Nathan waiting at the Immigration Control Office came to mind.
'How many times has he done things like this.'
Her heart trembled; one time alone nearly made her faint.
She gazed beyond the cell.
Right now,
she missed Nathan terribly.