Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Welcoming the New Inmates (5)
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No mana could be felt from the old man at all.
Yet the aura he exuded...
was just like when he'd had a private audience with the Archbishop, radiating an overbearing pressure.
However, that was a misjudgment.
Up close, the man possessed even greater mental fortitude than the Archbishop.
If Calix Angard was the second-in-command of the faith, then the man before him was the top dog in politics.
The master of a far grander stage than religion.
"What are you two? Judging by your outfits, you're the new prisoner uniforms the warden was so eagerly preparing a few days ago."
"That's right. We're the new inmates. Sorry for the late greeting."
Nix bowed her head first in greeting.
Fred, who had been holding the gold coin, hurriedly straightened his posture at her polite demeanor.
Only then did Dark withdraw his downward gaze.
But from amid the thick cigar smoke, he continued to scrutinize the two young people.
They were showing him the tops of their heads for now...
but his politician's instincts had caught on that they were plotting something.
"I see. Sorry, but I'm not from around here either, so I don't know any shortcuts."
His mood was already sour from the tomatoes in his vegetable patch refusing to grow properly.
The old beast lightly pressed the newcomers before him.
"But for a prisoner who just arrived yesterday to already be plotting an escape route? That's awfully arrogant."
"...Are you a guard here too, by any chance?"
Nix lifted her head slightly and asked cautiously.
"No, I'm a prisoner here as well."
There truly wasn't a shred of mana to be sensed.
But that very fact plunged the sharp-sensed Nix into fear.
For an ordinary citizen to end up in the Empire's worst prison...
meant he had an extraordinarily grave past to match.
'Fred, this guy. He's definitely not a farmer.'
'I know. He's on Anje's level.'
Did he retire from being an underworld boss and settle down here?
If so, getting caught as spies from the Holy See would be dangerous.
Berryhill Prison was a state institution, after all.
Religious operatives infiltrating it was tantamount to treason.
If their presence here was exposed, the Archbishop would surely...
erase them from existence.
Just like all the other candidates who'd been expendable up to now.
'We need to brainwash him and erase his memory of meeting us.'
Nix secretly gathered mana in both hands.
'I'm activating Phantom Space. He seems to have no mana, so it should work.'
'Got it. Once it's up, I'll help subdue him.'
Nix, a Saintess candidate herself, specialized in mass brainwashing.
Just like the Princess with her Confession Magic, she invited people into a virtual space
and showed them beautiful illusions to turn them into devotees.
Even if she'd lost to Anje, she still had the outstanding talent to easily enchant noble heirs.
"Sorry. Please forget everything that happened today."
Nix extended her hand toward the ground, injecting mana into the vegetable patch.
In that instant,
the space around Dark and themselves began to transform.
Into a vast, beautiful grassland straight out of scripture.
"......"
The Grand Elder silently observed the expertly deployed magic unfolding in an instant.
He immediately realized the two weren't ordinary prisoners, but dispatched agents.
"Those restraints on you must be fakes."
"Correct. We haven't been under any restrictions since arriving here."
Nix's prisoner garb shifted into resplendent priestly robes.
Her flowing silver hair and white eyes
stirred awe, as if beholding a goddess from another realm.
Fred beside her was no different.
Most of his life had been steeped in scriptural doctrine and the illusions fed to him from above.
Within that life, the Phantom Space bloomed in breathtaking beauty.
"Since you're admitting it so readily, you must plan to erase my memory."
"You catch on quick. We have no intention of killing you, so just relax and accept it."
Nix replied with a benevolent smile.
Here, she was the goddess herself.
Phantom Space could morph in countless ways based on one's life experiences.
Especially for those who'd suffered much and yearned deeply—it could be shaped at will.
The Holy See leadership, well aware of this, had trained their candidates harshly.
Food, clothing, and shelter were doled out in the dank underground of the Holy See.
And sparingly at that, forcing the talented to hoard and dominate.
Nix was one who'd awakened her mana talent while crying herself to sleep in that bleak place.
Here, she wielded transcendent power.
To the point where ordinary folk would kneel on sight.
Fred was the same.
He was the most fanatic adherent to scripture.
Clad now in sturdy knight's plate like a guardian of the goddess,
he resembled a prophet from the holy texts.
Having stepped down from knighthood to protect the Saintess.
It was a scene worthy of a masterpiece painting.
"......"
But
Dark, facing them, showed no reaction whatsoever.
Even as the two prisoners transformed into transcendent beings before his eyes.
Even as his wilted tomato patch became a beautiful grassland.
Instead, rage filled his deep violet eyes.
"What the hell did you do to those children to implant such vain delusions?"
The Grand Elder quietly set down his cigar.
He left a bitter tribute to those who'd bloomed amid suffering.
"......"
This time, Fred and Nix fell silent.
No matter how heinous their real-world crimes, prisoners here had always shown them reverence.
Yet he gazed at them with pity.
"Looking at your transformed selves, I can feel how much effort you've put in. But I've been through this magic countless times already."
"You've encountered people from our church before us?"
Nix, in her benevolent goddess form, furrowed her brow.
Dark's words meant he'd been exposed to this brainwashing magic multiple times...
and emerged utterly unscathed each time.
"Yes. The greenhorn who's now Archbishop, the women called previous Saintesses—they all approached me trying to brainwash me."
A man even his own Calix had failed to brainwash.
The representative of the noble power every generation of church members had coveted stepped forward.
"Of course, the suffering they'd endured was nothing compared to mine."
The moment his foot touched Nix's grassland,
all the blooming wildflowers withered in an instant.
Unable to withstand the old man's life stained with schemes, betrayals, and machinations.
"......!!"
The grassland began to blacken.
A nauseating stench assaulted the nose from the dark waves.
A politician, by nature,
must wield every ugliness to maintain power.
And among them, the longest survivor was Grand Elder Dark.
"Nix, danger!"
Fred in his holy knight armor grabbed Nix and yanked her back.
The black waves were already surging right up to her nose.
"This level of bitterness... I've never felt anything like it. How can a human..."
It was their own space, without a doubt.
Yet it was being overtaken by his overwhelming mental strength and inner darkness.
"Seeing you two, I get how much the Holy See tortures its followers. You've developed such obsession and madness at such young ages."
The Grand Elder showed no change even in the Phantom Space.
He elegantly rolled up his shirtsleeve and spoke.
"But I've endured far worse over sixty years."
Nix and Fred needed angelic and holy knight forms to sway devotees.
Dark Angard could command all nobles with his mere presence.
He had no need to become a transcendent being.
"There was never even room in my life for faith to be injected."
Nix's eyes twitched beneath.
She desperately regretted deploying Phantom Space before this old man.
'Mistake. I thought our lives were far more brutal.'
Brainwashing magic worked best when the caster's mental strength surpassed the target's.
If the caster was far weaker instead...
their own mind could collapse, turning them into a vegetable.
"Nix, dispel the magic first. We'll all take massive damage at this rate."
"I want to, but it's not that simple. I need time to cast the dispel."
The Princess's Confession Magic had indeed taken minutes to undo.
Nix needed the same here.
But the old man's black waves, overwhelming their minds, advanced at terrifying speed.
As if he'd truly faced Holy See mages before.
He had no intention of giving them a chance to escape.
"You two should be the ones forgetting what happened here today."
His son and the warden he had his eye on were present.
The warden might laugh it off, but he couldn't risk exposing his pure-hearted son.
So he planned to eliminate them preemptively.
"The kid might be fine, but Damas would eat this illusion up grinning like an idiot."
The Grand Elder sighed deeply, eyes narrowing.
The pain and betrayal from his life were about to engulf the two youths.
But in that moment,
"......!!"
The grudges of a political titan who'd lived sixty years vanished in an instant.
As if someone who'd endured far worse had appeared.
"Elder. I think that's enough."
A being who'd tasted continental rifts four times.
The world's most pitiful me slipped into the Phantom Space effortlessly.
"Derek Minster? How did you get in here?"
"I saw the new inmates heading to the back of the prison, so I figured you'd meet."
The black waves blanketing the grassland cleared to crystal purity.
Like shallow water spread over a desert.
In that refreshing space, I supported the collapsed Nix.
She looked up at me blankly and asked,
"How did you... get in here?"
"Worried I couldn't see through a spell like this even with Anje along?"
Of course, it was only possible now that I'd regained considerable strength.
I helped her up, leaned her on Fred, and approached Dark.
Sure enough, his brutal past and grudges, invisible in the Phantom Space, were palpable.
"You plan to let them live, Derek? I didn't think you'd be this indecisive."
Though I'd overwhelmed him, Dark had taken the initiative.
Arms behind his back, he coldly eyed me for allowing this mess.
"Step aside. Holy See mages are dangerous. If we don't eliminate them now, they'll try another ambush."
"No, they won't be trying that anymore."
I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him, hands behind my back as well.
Like two old grandpas standing together.
"Just now, by glimpsing your inner world, they've lost their faith."
"What do you mean?"
"Even the Archbishop couldn't break you with mental force. For a mere human to overwhelm the faith's highest priest means the faith itself is wrong."
"......"
The Elder said nothing for a moment.
I gazed at our reflections in the beautiful water and continued.
"Nix and Fred are prized talents in the Holy See. Imagine what happens when they return and spread word that the faith is flawed."
"You're planning to use this to topple the church."
Dark nodded, finding it plausible.
But he nailed one thing exactly.
"However, using me and my son for it leaves a bad taste."
The Grand Elder glanced at his cigar on the ground.
He picked up the untouched smoke amid the water I'd summoned and bit it indifferently.
"Is an alliance with you just a convenient chess piece?"
The old man was sulking.
I grinned and struck a match.
"Of course not. To me, you're far more than a mere ally."
I politely lit his cigar and said,
"Seeing how you treat your son convinced me. You're no one who takes relationships lightly."
Dark silently puffed his cigar, as if giving me room to continue.
I gave my honest assessment of the Grand Elder.
"You were caught in collective punishment because your foolish son committed an unforgivable crime. You lost everything you'd built over sixty years."
The Phantom Space was fading.
As Nix finally rose and dispelled the magic, I gazed steadily at Dark and said,
"Yet you didn't rage. Instead, you calmly judged whether your son truly committed the crime."
I looked at him with eyes of respect.
Even if in my past life he'd been the harbinger of ruin, it stemmed from losing his family.
The Grand Elder still retained warm humanity.
"They say a father's role is to embrace even his worthless son. If I had a father, I'd want one like you."
"......"
The Grand Elder took the cigar from his mouth at my words.
Those were, in fact...
words he'd longed to hear from Damas.
"Playing that snake tongue again?"
His gaze remained cold.
But it wasn't unwelcome—he stubbed out the cigar.
"Follow me once the magic ends."
"Do you have a suggestion?"
Dark turned to me coolly.
Then he spoke like a gruff father.
"The soil must be bad. The tomatoes keep dying. No idea what's wrong."
A man who'd handled empire-shaking crises his whole life.
Here, he was just an amateur farmer.
"I'll help. I've tended a few patches myself."
I smirked slyly and walked with him.
"......"
Nix, having dispelled the magic, stared blankly at the scene for a while.
The old man who'd overwhelmed even her revered Archbishop, chatting amiably with that snake-like man.
She'd thought the Holy See, where she'd grown up, was the world's center.
From today, the faith that had defined her began to waver.
To the point she wanted to rush back and confront the Archbishop right then.