Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Prime Suspect (1)
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Fred and Nix had just experienced the vast gap in their realms of power.
For the first time in their lives, their faith wavered.
Having grown up underground under only the archbishop's teachings,
they had naturally learned that the pope was the heavens and the archbishop the earth.
They had heard that the Empire and kingdoms were mere creations born from the land they had cultivated.
So who the hell were the people standing before them now?
They couldn't comprehend how mere creations could overwhelm the grace of the Creator.
All they could do was return to the dining hall, their doubts about the faith gnawing at them.
"This place is too weird, Fred... "
Especially for Nix, the sense of loss was beyond words.
The archbishop had told her she was the most blessed priest after Anje.
Yet she had been utterly overwhelmed by an ordinary old man, making the archbishop's praise ring hollow.
And not only that—the warden, whom she'd underestimated, possessed far greater mental fortitude than she did.
If a vegetable farmer and a backwater warden were this strong, just how powerful were the royals?
With his common sense shattered, Nix's eyes darted around wildly.
'And why does the food here taste so damn good...'
Soon, a few freshly grilled steaks were added to her plate.
I sat down across from them as they ate their lunch with gusto.
"Good?"
"...Yes."
Unlike their first impression, they now flinched at the mere sight of my eyes.
I looked at them pitifully and piled on more side dishes.
"Didn't the archbishop even feed you properly?"
"...Yes."
Her innocent face diligently chewing the meat was endearing.
She finally spoke after swallowing her second piece.
"Our rations are fixed. Usually, the top candidates hog it all."
"From what I saw earlier, your skills are on par with Anje's. You're not the type to go hungry."
As I sipped my coffee and asked, Nix muttered softly.
"...If I ate it all, my peers would starve."
"Nix never ate more than one potato a day. She always shared with the ones lagging behind."
Fred added bitterly, pausing from his eager eating.
"The Holy See's elite forces raised in such squalor?"
"We were taught that growth comes through hardship and trials. My own talent awakened only after two weeks of starvation."
Before she knew it, Nix was spilling their training process like it was nothing.
She realized too late that she'd been ensnared by the serpent, but the words were already out.
"What a ridiculous cult of fanatics. You'd hype up talents awakened that way as divine power."
It was simply the body awakening to endure extreme pain.
Mental magic could be properly learned and awakened at the academy without such extremes.
Of course, it would take time, but it was far better than growing through agony.
It might speed up entry-level mastery, but overall growth would lag.
True mental fortitude blooms from proper character anyway.
"...Warden, can I ask one thing?"
"Shoot."
Nix slammed down her emptied tray.
With her hunger sated, her voice steadied.
"You know we're spies—why let us keep hanging around?"
"To awaken that exact feeling you're having right now."
The silver-haired woman flinched at my pointed remark.
Her faith was crumbling, and this serpent of a man had seen right through it.
It felt like biting the fruit of knowledge and awakening to shame.
She desperately avoided my sly gaze and deflected.
"W-what are you talking about?"
"Wipe the sauce off your mouth first."
Unlike her usual cool demeanor, Nix's youthful clumsiness at barely twenty kept slipping out.
Her ears flushed red.
Annoyed by her own vulnerability, she hastily covered them with her tousled silver locks.
"Suspicious, right? The Holy See's ace couldn't take down one old man."
I wasn't mocking or blaming her, though.
Just evaluating her state from a neutral third-party view.
"They probably told you this: With divine power, no creation can match you."
Having clashed with the Holy See multiple times in the past,
I knew their followers were all young and clueless like her back then.
"As proof, they only pitted you against easy noble brats. They're still young, no immunity to mental magic."
Indeed, she'd only brainwashed young nobles until now.
She bit her lip and nodded curtly.
"Keep succeeding with magic, and your faith deepens naturally. Like a frog in a well."
"It wasn't always like that. I faced plenty of older people too..."
"So that's why you got crushed by a mana-less old geezer?"
"... "
I took another casual sip of coffee.
"The adults you faced were handpicked easy marks by the archbishop. It never works on upright nobles who haven't fallen."
Having experienced it firsthand, she couldn't deny it anymore.
"Get it together. Your magic isn't divine power—it's your innate talent."
Talent dependent on others can't fully bloom.
In this harsh dark fantasy world, the only thing you can trust is your original self.
"If you'd gone to the academy from a normal noble house instead of the Holy See, you'd be way stronger now."
With proper tutoring,
quality meals and fine elixirs—far better.
Praying desperately in a dim basement on a single potato? What does that achieve?
Nix and Fred were simply gifted kids from the start.
"Religion is stunting your growth. Even carp grow different sizes in ponds versus lakes."
"Does that mean Anje got stronger after leaving the Holy See?"
Hearing that, I glanced sideways.
Anje Renault, munching an apple and staring holes through me.
Her mad gaze boring into Nix made me close my eyes wearily.
'She's no carp—she's a whale. Still, let's put it nicely.'
"Yeah. So broaden your worldview while you're out of the Holy See like this."
"If that's your point, will you tell us how to get as strong as Anje?"
The silver girl poking her head out from the Holy See's fence.
I grinned like a cunning devil.
"Nah. Why would I?"
"...?"
After warmly persuading them, I shut it down cold.
Nix and Fred stared at me, dumbfounded.
"Why should I help the group that threatened my prisoners? What if I train you and you plot something?"
I rose from the table.
Sipping coffee, I added indifferently.
"I let you roam free out of pity, not to mentor you."
Anje, sitting far off, stuck out her red tongue teasingly at her former peer.
"Besides, you're prisoners, and I'm the warden. Find a tutor after you're out in society."
"Then why take Anje in?"
This time Fred piped up.
But I didn't answer.
I couldn't say Anje would become the red calamity devouring the Empire years from now.
"Figure that out yourselves."
I brushed it off and headed back to the warden's office.
With their spirits broken, they'd behave from here on.
This wall I'd built would keep them from causing more trouble.
"... "
Only the two candidates and Anje remained in the dining hall.
The white-haired saintess looked at the two failures with pity.
"Idiots. Don't get what he meant?"
Anje rested her elbows on the table, interlocking her fingers.
She tilted her head, pressing her soft cheek to the back of her hand.
"That's why you're still being used by the Holy See."
"What're you talking about?"
The saintess pointed toward the door where the warden had vanished.
"Think hard. What's the difference between me and you?"
"... "
The two frowned in thought for a moment.
But if anything, they figured they were more ruthless than Anje—no real difference.
"What do you think I did to join the guy the Holy See trusted most?"
The saintess placed a hand on her bountiful curves.
At her suggestive gesture, quick-witted Nix's lips parted.
"No way... You killed those Holy Knights recently to get the warden's approval?"
"Even weakened, you've got sharp instincts."
Only then did they grasp the saintess's betrayal.
Why she'd provoked the Holy See by attacking the knights.
"Think about it. Does Derek seem like an ordinary guy from what you've seen?"
Anje tossed them a hint—the best the Holy See's star talents would get.
She lightly shook her finished apple core.
"... "
Nix clutched her forehead, pondering deeply.
Forgetting even her hastily devoured meal.
Anje had been the Holy See's arrogant one, believing only she was the saintess.
Yet she'd slit her allies' throats and offered them to Derek.
And the result? Anje now seemed far more stable than in her madness.
Happier, even, than Nix herself.
"What the hell happened to make you trust the warden that much?"
"Hmm, wanna know the truth?"
Anje rose and approached them.
Whispering like a flower serpent wafting fresh apple scent.
"What's the magic famed as the pinnacle of mental arts?"
"Why bring that up...?"
"Answer me. Quick."
"His Holiness the Pope's magic and the Imperial Confession Magic, right?"
At the mention of Confession Magic, the fake saintess's lips curled up.
She boasted to them proudly.
"When I killed the Holy Knights, the Princess came and tried to cast Confession Magic on me. The warden took it for me instead."
"...?"
Those hit by Confession Magic usually ended up as vegetables.
Knowing that, he'd taken it in her place.
"Derek never abandons his people. If he sees you as precious, he shields you himself. Like..."
Anje whispered to them, souls steeped in deep faith like hers.
"A prophet."
"...!!"
They too had awaited a prophet, just like her.
"You think he's the one?"
"Can't say for sure yet. But you saw his power in the illusion space, right?"
The saintess waved lightly and left them.
Like she'd boarded the ark, gazing leisurely at her former peers below.
"... "
Finally, only the two remained in the dining hall.
Nix and Fred glanced at each other.
"See Anje's face just now?"
"Yeah, never seen that leisure in ten years at the Holy See."
If even that mad saintess was swayed...
They fell silent in the solemn air.
"Can we join too?"
Fred cautiously voiced his inner thoughts.
His will already shattered in the illusion space.
"But the warden has zero intention of taking us."
"Anje just dropped a hint."
At the leader's meaningful words, Nix's eyes widened.
"No way..."
"Yeah. We prove ourselves like Anje did. Show we can turn on the Holy See."
The two swallowed hard in unison.
With resolved expressions, they rose from their chairs together.
A few days later,
I received word that Nix and Fred had vanished from their cells.
But I wasn't surprised.
Having failed to seize the prison, they'd slunk back bitterly.
'Yeah, no need for me to dirty my hands with them.'
By planting seeds of doubt about their faith and sending them back, internal strife would brew on its own.
The eyes watching our prison would ease off too.
My role was to quietly tend these harbingers of disaster.
Seemed like we'd passed this hurdle smoothly.
"Time to head to work leisurely again today."
I plopped into the warden's custom chair.
The moment I pulled toward the desk,
I felt something squirming underfoot.
"What now? Another gift from the local nobles?"
I'd warned them to stop sending gifts.
Tsking, I picked up the gift box.
Probably some fancy watch or fountain pen—pointless junk again.
I opened it with a bored expression.
But the moment I saw the contents,
my jaded eyes went wide.
Inside were...
pendants from the Northern Holy See bishops.
"What the hell is this."
Fresh blood soaked them.
All were ones the archbishop had ordered to monitor the prison.
In days, all his arms and legs had been severed.