Chapter 223: Humiliation of Mytilene (4)
Cain harbored countless suspicions about the Seven Wise Men and the Free City Alliance behind them.
At first, everyone was doubtful of Cain’s claim that there was a culprit behind the unconnected incidents occurring all over the continent.
However, it didn’t take long for the tables to turn as the Empire and the Holy See began to wage a war of public opinion.
“We had this evidence just in case, but we didn’t know it would be used like this.”
Cardinal Aurelia.
She spoke as she walked beside Cain, holding Lesbos’s small hand.
Cain brushed his hair back lightly and said,
“How is the Holy See? The Empire is in the midst of weeding out the new nobles.”
“……My personal opinion, the opinion of the Holy See, and the opinion of His Holiness are all divided.”
Cain shrugged.
And he pointed his finger ahead.
In the distance, he could see the Mytilene Auction House, where the Summer Solstice Auction was held.
They were walking in the middle of Bloom Street, the most crowded street in the area.
“Hero.”
“Hero, hero.”
Cain’s appearance had already been revealed through the uproar known as the ‘Humiliation of Mytilene.’
Since the auction was being broadcasted live at the time, it was natural that those outside would also know Cain.
Bloom Street was usually packed with people during the day, but no one could approach Cain and his party.
Like a salmon swimming upstream.
Cain and his party walked leisurely through the crowd.
[‘Summer’ says that you are receiving the same cheers that Abel received at the Holy See’s Henerali-fe.]
[‘Winter’ asks Cain how he feels.]
Cain smiled bitterly to himself.
Back then, he was quietly watching the hero from the corner of a crowd like this, waiting to kill Abel. Now, he had become the target of that very same cheer.
‘It’s just that.’
He didn’t think it was a good thing.
However, from the perspective of an outsider, he had guessed that the bitter smile Abel was making at the time would have been quite burdensome.
The Demon King hadn’t been defeated yet.
He hadn’t traveled the continent for nearly a decade and built up his reputation like Abel had at the time, but standing in a similar situation, Cain stopped for a moment and looked up at the sky.
Whooooosh━.
The blue horizon and the clear sky seen between the buildings of Bloom Street. White clouds floating above.
A summer seascape.
And the salty breeze blowing from afar.
‘It’s just a little…… awkward.’
It felt like clothes that didn’t fit his body.
In his previous life, Cain had wanted to become a hero when he was young.
But now he knew.
That there wasn’t just one hero in the world.
There may only be one hero who wields a holy sword and faces the Demon King, but everyone here, paving their own way in life, is a hero.
That’s why Cain felt a strange sense of embarrassment at these cheers.
[‘Winter’ smiles quietly.]
[‘Summer’ nods his head with a satisfied smile. He says he may have been mistaken about heroes as well.]
In the sweet, warm sunlight, Cain turned his head to the side.
[Calculating World Line Fixation…….]
[The quest window will not appear until the calculation is complete.]
[However, the path you have to walk will not change.]
After a brief moment of sentimentality, it was time to start walking again.
Aurelia nodded briefly as she met Cain’s purple eyes.
She hesitated for a moment, feeling awkward about the situation. She wondered if it was appropriate to talk about this here.
But then she thought that it was precisely because it was a place like this that she could speak.
“First of all, the Cardinals of the Holy See are split in half.”
“In half?”
“It’s not about making a statement about the Commons, but about whether we should respect the hero and leave him be, or if it’s time to bring him in.”
Cain stroked his chin.
On the surface, it seemed like a debate about the direction of the Holy See’s actions, following their previous stance.
But what lay beneath was their attitude towards the ‘Commons’ that Cain had brought to light.
“If I go to the Holy See, they’ll lock me up, saying they’re educating me, right?”
She nodded with a bitter smile.
“It wouldn’t be imprisonment, but you wouldn’t be able to be as active as you are now.”
“And in the meantime, the Commons will spring back up like weeds.”
“That’s why…… the other Cardinals are arguing that the hero is already walking the path of a true hero, and the Holy See shouldn’t be holding him back, but helping him.”
There was no way to get an answer when the Eight Cardinals were divided and fighting amongst themselves.
If the Cardinals were divided like this, the next in line to speak would be the Pope and the Saintess.
Aurelia calmly shared their opinions as well.
“His Holiness remains silent.”
Sometimes, even silence is an opinion.
The existing system of the Holy See versus the newly emerged and different hero.
The fact that he didn’t oppose the idea of changing the existing system was the greatest possible expression of support from the absolute ruler of the Holy See.
It would be unreasonable to suddenly declare that the methods they had been using for the past hundreds of years were wrong.
“The Saintess, well…….”
Aurelia struggled to find the right words.
It seemed that the foul-mouthed Saintess had something to say.
As Cain stared intently at her, Aurelia sighed and said,
“She said that you are a man who lives as he pleases, and that if the Holy See tries to do anything, you would destroy the Holy See, so we should leave you alone.”
“Pfft.”
Lesbos burst into laughter involuntarily.
Wiseman and Lourens, who were walking right behind them, did the same.
They couldn’t help but laugh at the accurate assessment of Cain.
“And she said that she would become the wedge that keeps the Demon King of the West in check.”
Pure White Demon King Oleciren.
The absolute ruler of the western island, Airian.
A woman who was born a princess, became a witch, and awakened as a Demon King.
And someone whose name alone could shake Cain’s heart.
Cain closed his eyes for a moment.
“Please thank her for me.”
Originally, Saintess Caterina, not Aurelia, should have been here.
Just as a needle needs thread, a Saintess should always be by the hero’s side.
But that wasn’t possible anymore.
The Demon King had already appeared.
But unless the hero was fighting the Demon King directly, someone had to watch over and control the Demon King.
The balancing weight.
Abel and Caterina.
‘I wonder if those two are okay.’
Cain thought of the foolish duo from Ethelred.
Oleciren wouldn’t act recklessly, but just in case, the hero and the Saintess from his previous life were there.
That’s why Cain was able to travel the continent.
If it were anyone else.
If it were Abel, with his absolute talent, and the Saintess, who had already reached the pinnacle of holy spells, they would be able to bind Oleciren.
“Do you have any information about my father?”
“Yes. Count Edmund left only a letter and went south.”
“……?”
Cain tilted his head.
It was strange to hear that the man he thought would be supporting Abel from behind had gone somewhere.
“We haven’t been able to track him since then. According to his letter, he left for the south, saying that there was an opponent worthy of his sword…….”
“Don’t tell me.”
The Harbinger of Crimson and Autumn.
The Demon King who existed beyond the southern limit of humanity, whom the hero Abel had defeated in his previous life.
He could only think of that Demon King when he heard the word ‘opponent’…… Cain shook his head.
Edmund had no holy sword, nor any of the 〈Sacred Treasures of the Four Seasons〉.
How could an ordinary human face a Demon King?
If it was just about strength, the Master Paladin of the Holy See or the Knight Duke of the Empire would have gone running.
However, the reason why they raised a weak hero to fight the Demon King was that in order to match the Demon King’s caliber, the opponent also had to possess a similar caliber.
[‘Winter’ says that’s not always the case. She says that with the caliber Cain currently possesses, he would be able to face them even without them.]
‘Even so, for Father to…….’
Cain himself had crossed world lines and experienced all sorts of things, and he had the direct symbol of World Line Fixation.
But Edmund…….
Cain shook his head again.
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t find an answer. Concluding that it was just a baseless assumption, Cain let it go.
“Then, what is your opinion, Cardinal?”
Aurelia hesitated for a moment at Cain’s question. She then turned her head to look at ‘Summer’ once before looking up at Cain.
She squeezed Lesbos’s small hand tightly and said,
“I’ve already told you.”
The conversations she had with him when they went to rescue Lesbos.
Cain thought he knew which side of the divided Cardinals she belonged to.
Thud.
Walking and walking down Bloom Street, they arrived at an empty lot next to the Mytilene Auction House.
To be precise, it was a place where carriages could be parked, and now.
Flash!
All sorts of magical lights were sparkling.
Cain, who had left all the high-ranking officials of the Empire behind, looked into the eyes of the reporters who were trying to film him with their magic crystals, and then stepped forward.
Of course, Nicholas and the others from the auction house were also present.
There was nothing they could do but watch and hope that nothing major would happen.
Cain opened his mouth.
“I have raised many suspicions about the Seven Wise Men. They are being revealed one by one, but there is one thing I can show you directly here. That is why I have gathered everyone here.”
The Summer Solstice Auction was the hottest festival on the continent.
Naturally, countless reporters had flocked to the event, and as soon as Cain announced that he was going to do something, they gathered like a swarm of clouds.
That wasn’t all.
Aurelia stepped aside and stood with the Paladins dispatched from the Holy See.
Shing.
Cain drew his holy sword and held it high.
The golden blade, sparkling brilliantly in the sunlight, possessed a sacredness that took one’s breath away just by looking at it.
Swoosh.
Once the reporters had filmed him to a certain extent, Cain lowered his arm wide and thrust the holy sword towards the ground.
Thud.
Pointing the tip of the holy sword at the ground, he raised his head, looked back at Lourens, who was hiding his identity and following him.
Nod.
He signaled that the direction was correct.
“One of the sins of these people I spoke of is that they capture witches, dissect them at will, experiment on them, and store them.”
Witches are heretics and must be killed.
There was no one who didn’t know the Holy See’s policy.
And there was no one who didn’t know that witch hunters roamed the land.
But what happened after that?
The Holy See may have captured and killed them, but where did the witches taken by the witch hunters go?
No, what happened to the dead witches?
“Don’t tell me…….”
Nicholas unconsciously tried to bite his nails but quickly lowered his arm and shook his head.
The direction was about right.
The hero had set his sights on their secret hidden deep underground.
But Nicholas was confident.
He was sure that they could get rid of the evidence before the hero could dig a hole all the way down to the ground.
He was proud of his own judgment in moving quickly, just in case, as soon as he heard that the hero was coming.
However, a hero was a being who always performed miracles that seemed impossible.
[‘Winter’ has identified the destination. She says there are three physical barriers made of steel and magic alloy, and twelve layers of grand magic barriers.]
[‘Summer’ adjusts the output.]
[‘Winter’ waits for Cain.]
[‘Summer’ laughs, saying it reminds him of the old days.]
Thump.
Realizing that all preparations were complete at the words of the Seasons, Cain stomped his left foot on the ground.
The tip of the holy sword was pointing towards the underground.
Its destination was the place where the fragments of the witches were floating.
“Impossible…….”
Knowing how tightly it was defended, Nicholas stared at Cain with disbelief in his eyes.
Dark Sky.
Three Stacks.
Gloria Deo Excelsis.
Whooooosh━.
Pure White Thunderbolt ran through the holy sword and seeped into the ground.
Winter of Night Winter of Night.
‘Winter’s’ active skill, deployed to the bare minimum, instantly froze the ground all the way to the destination with the chill of the universe.
Cain-style Ardvark.
Lu Rabada.
Clang━!
It was just one stab.
Ethelred’s sword, lightly piercing the ground.
Crackle, shatter━.
The grand magic barriers and the physical barriers, all frozen solid, were penetrated.
The basement of the auction house.
A deep hole was created all the way to the door where Pureum was being raised and the witches were being stored.
Cain, who had effortlessly dug a hole nearly a hundred meters deep, looked around at everyone with their mouths agape and smiled.
“Let’s go in.”
Translator’s Blog
Blog
- The Great Balls-Scratching Debate: A Smell-tastic Journey
- Guts Needs a Therapist: The Berserk of Mental Health
- Trucks, Isekai, and the Struggle for a Good Image: When Anime Hurts the Real World
- My Gacha Gaming Habit is Bleeding My Bank Account Dry: How to Stop Before You Go Broke
- The “I’m So Deep in This Light Novel I’m Living It” Blues: When Your Waifu Gets NTR’d and You’re Not Even Mad (But Kind of Are)
Leave a Reply