19. The Dirty Py Transaction (Requesting Tickets at the Beginning of the Month~)

The church that believes in the great goddess is a “special” group that barely maintains peace among the nations of this continent, situated in a corner without any proper military might, yet possessing a level of influence and deterrence comparable to several major empires, entirely due to the church’s vast “foundation of faith.”

And the source of this “foundation of faith” was derived from the so-called saint—Ikusis—who had existed within the church long before the archbishop painstakingly obtained the position of “archbishop” through various means.

Hmph, gaining popularity through prophecy made the archbishop uncomfortable, but there was nothing to be done! Fortunately, this saint was just a fool, unaware of being used. The archbishop thought that on the day he must eliminate this trouble, before he could fully control things, he would first profit from Ikusis’s abilities. After all, anything can intimidate others if it has the guise of prophecy, especially when that prophecy was personally uttered by Her Holiness.

For instance, this time, directly having the saint lie and use the prophecy to suppress those troublesome women, keeping the bounty on Euclid in place. After all, as long as that Euclid, who knew what he had done to the saint, was alive , the archbishop felt he could not rest easy! Everything was planned out, and he could also make those kingdoms supporting the withdrawal of the bounty suffer a bit, who would have known…

The first round of the summit was directly disrupted by a troublesome brat, and then… the Saintess ran away!

At this moment, the Archbishop, feeling more panic than anger, was searching one high-ranking official after another from the Great Yng Empire, asking if they had any news about the “lost nun”! However, the answers he received were all the same.

“I’m very sorry, sir, but during the summit, all our personnel are assigned to maintain public order. Even though you are an invited guest, we have no one available to assist you in your search. I suggest you turn left to the Great Yng Empire Broadcasting Station to initiate a nationwide broadcast~”

[We apologize, but due to the summit, all staff at the Great Yng Empire Broadcasting Station are temporarily on leave. Please come back after the holiday~]

Isn’t this just passing the buck!?

“Are the people of the Great Yng Empire just sitting around doing nothing!?”

In his anger, the Archbishop couldn’t help but vent his frustrations in the palace, but aside from attracting disdainful glances from passing maids, there was nothing else he could do.

It had already been several days since the Saintess had sneakily slipped away, and during these days, aside from sleeping, the Archbishop had been anxiously searching the capital of the Great Yng Empire, looking for the whereabouts of the Saintess in a roundabout way, even Neglecting the necessary “diplomacy” with some small nations for the success of the summit.

That foolish Saintess had previously used her “prophecy” to sneak out, but each time she would return in disgrace due to hunger or lack of money. To put it simply: she was just a fool going out to play! However, this time, it had been several days, and the penniless Saintess still had not returned!

The Archbishop didn’t care about the Saintess’s well-being; rather, he thought it would be quite nice if she had a reason to die! Because then the church would be entirely his! But if she were to die, it had to be later; now that the Saintess had suddenly gone missing, how could he handle the proposals at the second round of the summit!?

Finally, a trusted aide beside him spoke up, providing the Archbishop with a way out.

“Your Excellency, if we keep this up, we won’t find her. We can only seek help from those people; otherwise, we won’t make it to the second round of the summit.”

“Sigh… Yes, you’re right.”

The Archbishop sighed. He had a way to quietly find out where the Saintess was being foolish, but the cost would be that the news of her disappearance would have to be shared with the other party. However, this was better than not being able to find the Saintess and failing miserably at the summit. He absolutely could not let that Euclid, who knew his secret, live! If he couldn’t find him, he would have to kill him with a wanted notice!

“Let’s go to ‘them.’ Remember to be discreet; don’t let anyone see you!”

The leader of the “organization” in the Unreachable Land—Claudilous, who had been secretly selling various information in the Unreachable Land, had had a few contacts with the Archbishop. He never expected that this time, this woman would actually have the guts to attend the summit!

But it was just right; if he wanted to quickly find the Saintess, these dangerous individuals from the Unreachable Land, who were dirty inside and out, had quite a few underhanded methods.

After discreetly inquiring, he found out where Claudilous was staying. Upon meeting her in person, the Archbishop secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Since it was a meeting between “shopkeeper and customer,” discussing “business” directly saved the trouble of any introduction letters. The Archbishop directly asked this beautiful yet dangerous woman about her “specialties.”

“Good evening, Archbishop. Are you surprised to see me in such a setting? Our ‘exchange’ between us shouldn’t be whispered about, okay~”

Under normal circumstances, the Archbishop might have felt a bit of “lust” and said a few flirtatious words in front of this woman, but now that the Saintess was missing, he was too anxious to have such thoughts!

“You… how did you come here!?”

“Under my master’s orders, I came to ‘take a look,’ that’s all. Of course, it’s only natural that the noble church looks down on us~”

“Master? But you aren’t…”

The man was about to ask further, but Claudilous, yawning by the window, interrupted him and delivered a cutting remark that left the Archbishop speechless.

“You don’t need to worry about my matters. All I can tell you is that I’m in a good mood right now, and I might even give you a half-price discount on the information. After all, you look like someone who is desperately searching for something. What’s the matter, Archbishop? Did you lose the very ‘useful’ Saintess?”

“!”

The man’s words got stuck in his throat. Looking at the purple-haired woman before him, a smirk played at the corners of her mouth, and the amusement in her gaze seemed to see right through everything he was thinking!

A witch, she was simply a heretical witch! But now he had to find the useful Saintess; even if it cost a lot to gather information, it was a necessity.

“Do you know where that fool is!? Hurry up and tell me! I’ll pay any price!”

The church had the tax revenue from the people’s faith, so they were not short on money, which gave the Archbishop a sense of confidence.

However, this time, Claudius in front of me did not come with her usual “lion’s mouth” routine. Instead, she took a keen interest in looking me over a few times, only averting her gaze when the Archbishop could hardly contain himself any longer .

“Archbishop, as an old client, let me give you a piece of advice: do you truly think the ‘Saint’ is useful?”

“You… what do you mean!?”

“Everyone knows why you’re here at the summit. I think you don’t need to rely on that somewhat dimwitted Saintess to speak for you. Not only did you spend a large sum to have us find someone in the No Man’s Land, but who knows if the Saintess might slip up during the summit afterward~”

Claudius lifted her leg, stood up, beautiful and charming yet extraordinarily dangerous, as if her words and actions were like poison, making the Archbishop gradually feel that she was not wrong.

“I have a way for you to shake off this troublesome burden, elevate yourself, and win the ensuing summit debate~ It’s relatively cheap compared to what you might expect, almost a free service~ We’ll handle the dirty work; you just need to wait for some ‘good news’ to arrive at the second round of the summit, then take that topic and shine, making those troublesome women who oppose you cry~”

The Archbishop was no fool; he knew what this woman was suggesting and confirmed that there were indeed people in the No Man’s Land who specialized in such things.

This idea had crossed his mind before, but he thought he could still utilize the Saintess. However, now…

Perhaps it was the perfect opportunity to use that foolish Saintess one last time to pave the way for his rightful rule over the Church!

As for the secret, ha, who would believe a group of thieves and robbers from the No Man’s Land and suspect the holy and upright leader of the Church?

“So, Archbishop, are you not considering it?”

“……”

Hmph, you think you’re on the third floor, but I’m on the fifth!

“Deal!”

The man extended his hand, reaching an agreement with the woman before him. As for why this woman wanted to “help for free,” who cares? It’s a good deal to make her the scapegoat; why not take advantage of it!