The Villain Carries the Holy Sword – Chapter 144

Chapter 144: Whiteout (2)

「White snow falls on the white snowfield.

It is impossible to tell where the ground ends and the sky begins.

Crunch—

Looking back on the path he had taken, all he could see was white.

Whiteout, a situation where nothing is visible in a snowstorm, not even footprints.

A man with a magic sword on his back was walking through it.

Lord East Cain Ethelred.

He was pushing through the whiteout that even the other brave warriors of the Great Wall shook their heads at.

Where is he going?

How is he getting there?

He walked silently, not answering any of those questions.

Like he always had.

Always.

As always.

Alone.」

🔹🔹🔹

The small cafe became noisy in an instant.

“It seems like a decent solution.”

Starting from Count Bradley.

“It’s fine as long as a civil war doesn’t break out.”

Even Archbishop Barbetta.

No matter how you looked at it, Cain’s solution wasn’t bad. Just as public opinion was leaning towards that, Olivia raised her hand and asked a question.

“Can we bring in outside forces?”

Oleciren frowned.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

But then Cain immediately said,

“We can.”

Oleciren whipped her head around and glared.

“Do you think it makes sense to bring in an outside warrior to decide the future of Airian?”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“……?”

“But I think what Olivia is talking about is a Paladin, right?”

At Cain’s words, she nodded and carefully reached out to the Saintess.

“Of course, if you’ll allow it, Saintess.”

Saintess Caterina lowered her head for a moment and looked at the shimmering liquor in front of her.

Many things had already changed.

And many things needed to be changed in the future.

Under the ever-increasing pressure from the Empire, the Holy See had to change, and it wouldn’t be so bad for Airian to be the start of it.

“I cannot give you a definite answer, but I will convene a temporary Consistorium in my home country to obtain permission.”

“Consistorium?”

“It is a meeting attended by the eight Cardinals, the Saintess, and the Pope.”

Oleciren rested her chin on her hand and lifted her glass with the other, scoffing.

“The Holy See’s oath not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries will fall at the hands of a saintess for the first time in 30 years.”

Caterina raised her head.

Her blue eyes met Oleciren’s pitch-black eyes.

“Thanks to you.”

“Excuses.”

“How long are you going to think of yourself as a fledgling witch?”

At Caterina’s sudden question, Oleciren tilted her head.

Archbishop Barbetta, who was between their sharp conversation, opened his mouth.

“The only reason we are able to overlook this is because Princess Oleciren has not awakened as a witch.”

Marquis McLoud, sitting opposite them, tilted his head. He hadn’t seen many witches, but there was something he found strange after living here for a while.

“Can a witch who hasn’t awakened be this strong?”

Barbetta smiled bitterly and shook his head.

“Usually, no. To be precise, this is a first since the records of witches began. A witch who uses power close to a ‘miracle’ without awakening their ‘origin’.”

“…….”

“And if she were to truly awaken as a witch now, we wouldn’t be able to stand by and watch.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

Oleciren asked calmly.

Following Archbishop Barbetta’s words, Saintess Caterina answered.

“We will have to judge.”

“Because she’s a witch?”

“Because she’s a witch.”

“Huh, it’s nice to be a witch I never wanted to be.”

“……?”

“Otherwise, how could I dare be so rude to the Saintess of the Holy See? No, wait a minute.”

Oleciren gulped down her drink.

Then, with her black eyes shining with anger and faint madness, she scanned the people in the room.

“To the Saintess of those who terrorized my father and mother, of course, I would have been like this even without witch’s power.”

“……Again, we have nothing to do with that incident.”

“Yes, I know that’s the script.”

The parallel lines of the Saintess and Oleciren did not narrow even a little.

It was only natural since the incident had already happened, but the rift between the two was a bigger source of anxiety than expected.

“Then let’s talk about my champion. Isoel, Wayne Siker, Duke Cain Walker.”

Oleciren revealed her best cards.

At that moment, Olivia frowned.

“Are you trying to get at least one win no matter what?”

“Of course. Cain is the best card I can play.”

“I’m not going.”

Whizz—

At that moment, everyone’s heads turned.

Pitter-patter—

The sound of rain could be heard through the silence.

Cain continued speaking calmly.

“Abel will go in my place.”

“Abel is strong, but…… why?”

Oleciren asked back.

Cain shrugged and pointed at the two princesses in turn.

“Because you’re both forgetting something.”

“Forgetting something?”

“We have to catch the real culprit behind the Hybolt-Everwyn terror.”

“That’s for the Holy See to—”

“Oleciren.”

Cain cut her off.

And in a cold voice, he said,

“If Airian is guilty, it could be you, or it could be Olivia. The same goes for the Holy See. Not all of them are guilty, the culprit will be separate.”

“Then it must be the Saintess here.”

Oleciren asserted.

The Saintess looked like she was debating whether to smash her glass in frustration.

Cain shook his head again.

“It’s not the Saintess.”

“Are you defending that woman in front of me right now?”

Cain smiled inwardly.

━I can’t trust all my colleagues anymore, but I want to believe in Caterina. We spent time traveling together.

He remembers the hero Abel saying those words.

Abel, who tried to believe in Saintess Caterina no matter what, saying that he had gained something silver along with the blessing of the Holy See.

‘Even at the end……’

He remembers the Saintess’s reaction when he killed the hero.

Of course, even that could have been an act. But Cain decided to believe in the Saintess’s innocence a little more, in line with Abel’s wishes.

‘The fact that she’s here right now is also proof of her innocence.’

Maybe she really was a part of ‘Commons.’

But seeing how ‘Autumn’ rushed to Airian, the backwater of the continent, as soon as he saw himself in the previous world line, he could guess how she felt about Abel.

Cain shrugged and replied to Oleciren’s sarcastic remark.

“That Saintess would have killed you with her bare hands before committing such a terrorist act.”

“…….”

Everyone was speechless for a moment at Cain’s overly blunt expression.

Then Archbishop Barbetta slammed his glass down and said,

“He’s absolutely right.”

Saintess Caterina glared at him sharply, as if she were going to kill him with her eyes.

He, who had turned the situation around in an instant, was not fazed by her gaze and calmly poured himself another drink.

Cain, seeing the situation settling down, spoke up.

“The terror this time was that the trap scroll Everwyn had set up in the past, which was originally low-grade enough to only engulf one person, was replaced with a top-grade one that could blow up the entire space.”

“That’s right.”

The Saintess, who had been dealing with the stubborn Oleciren, felt a sense of relief at Cain’s words.

Seeing him calmly and accurately pinpoint the facts, she seemed to understand how he had risen to the position of controlling the entire kingdom.

“Oleciren, you must have read the past. What was it like?”

She had read the past of the burned-down White Palace to find the real culprit.

“……There was nothing.”

But she couldn’t see anything.

It was as if the timeline had been cut out, there was nothing visible about the magic scroll.

Cain smiled.

“There was, in that case.”

“……Commons.”

Oleciren replied with a trembling voice.

She didn’t know if there were any other cases, but as Cain said, there was one time.

It was also in the Ethelred territory.

When he was chasing after Arian, the maid, to find out the identity of his biological mother, Chloe.

“The reason you kicked out all the servants in the castle was because you were thinking the same thing, wasn’t it?”

“…….”

She turned her head away.

On the outside, she was expressing anger, but inwardly, she also suspected Commons.

But how could she narrow it down?

As they said, Commons were everywhere and nowhere, she couldn’t suspect all of them.

“They probably replaced the scroll recently.”

“My mother was incredibly thorough in hiding it. How did they know?”

Even if all the maids in the royal palace were Commons, it was impossible.

Even if they cleaned and examined her bedroom every day, the device Everwyn had installed was not something that could be easily identified.

At least they had to see it once……

“Don’t tell me?”

Oleciren’s eyes widened as she turned her head.

Cain nodded.

“It’s possible. Seeing the past, just like you.”

“Someone with the witch’s power to see the past came in, saw it, and replaced the scroll? Why?”

“We don’t know why right now, but if I had to pick one reason……”

Cain pointed upwards.

Not at this blocked ceiling, but at the sky beyond.

“Because they didn’t expect someone they had already killed to come back to life like this.”

“They killed them to silence them, but they came back to life and are bothering them?”

“That’s what I think.”

“Then why bring a clergyman from the Holy See of all people?”

“Because they want you to fight with the Holy See, just like now.”

“……”

Silence fell over the room.

Of course, there were those like Count Bradley who didn’t quite understand what was going on, but the atmosphere was too heavy to ask, so they just rolled their eyes.

“How do you plan to catch the culprit?”

There were also those like Saintess Caterina who actively asked questions.

Cain drew a circle with his hand.

“The fact that it’s someone from the Holy See is a clue.”

“……?”

“We can’t track people who come and go from Lindbloom. We should track those who entered the royal palace, but there’s no way someone capable of wiping a timeline would get caught by that.”

“Yes.”

“But the fortunate thing is that Airian is an island.”

“The ship! Since the culprit was in the Holy See until recently, they must have crossed the sea within a few days!”

The Saintess fell deep in thought, and Olivia jumped to her feet in excitement.

She thought of it as a chance to clear the grievances against herself and the Saintess.

However……

“I’ve already checked everything. I checked if any ships from the continent had entered the three main ports recently, since we don’t have much trade with the continent anyway.”

Oleciren shook her head with a cold smile.

“The result is zero. No ships from the continent have arrived at any port.”

“Wouldn’t smuggling be possible?”

Marquis McLoud shook his head at Olivia’s question.

“It’s possible, but impossible. There’s not enough time.”

Smuggling inevitably involved using small boats.

The problem was that the sea between Airian and the continent was not so easy to navigate.

In other words, for someone who was in the Holy See a few days ago to arrive in Airian, they would need a proper ship, so smuggling was impossible.

“What about crossing the sea using magic?”

Count Bradley raised his hand as if he had a good idea.

“A wizard of that caliber would be ruling the world, wouldn’t they?”

Of course, Count Wareham’s words immediately shut him down.

Just as the conversation was about to hit another dead end……

The Saintess cautiously spoke up.

“It’s……possible.”

“Coming on a proper ship without arriving at a port?”

“Because that’s how I came here.”

“……!”

“If you come to the white cliffs of Ethelred, it’s the shortest distance, so it’s fast.”

The Saintess recalled ‘Autumn’s’ inexplicable reaction at the time.

Perhaps it was a warning about the future that was now.

And Cain smiled.

“It seems we have a clue to chase the real culprit.”

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