Chapter 493 – Assassination Family Raven 5 (24)

The reason why I came to Cathedral, the capital of the Holy Kingdom, is as follows.

1. Gathering information related to Celestial Religion’s Hero candidates.

I got some information about this from the Celestial Priestess who cooperated with me last time.

Currently, Seongguk is trying to bring out a hero candidate.

It is not clear whether they are doing this after a revelation came to Caderal not to accept imperialists, or whether they are sending the Hero candidate out of consideration for his power.

2. Collection of the latest information related to demons secured by Seongguk.

What method would be easiest to use to send a warrior candidate out? I believe I have captured information related to the devil.

If the hero candidates who go out actually meet the devil, fight, and win, they will be able to become real warriors rather than just candidates.

In that sense, Seongguk believes that Gwen Shrine may have more information than what he previously collected.

With those two goals in mind, I came to Cathedral, the capital of the Holy Kingdom.

If there was information that only a priest could access, I was planning to use Yui to dig up the information, but since I have the power of corruption, I was able to go a little deeper.

The current Pope is a priest from the Celestial Church, and the next person in power, the Holy King, is a priestess from the Goddess Church.

It would take a lot of heat to corrupt your head to the point where you would follow my instructions.

In order to solve the state of corruption, you have to mix with the body, so unless you want to receive disposable information and get rid of it, the only way is to aim for the castle rather than the Pope.

I decided to do that while traveling through the Holy Kingdom, and I just arrived at Caderal, but if an imperialist is in Caderal, disaster will come.

“Are the priests okay?”

Yui, a priest from the Empire, passed through the entrance without receiving any special measures.

“That’s right. What are you going to do then, Sian? You don’t plan on leaving Caderal right away, do you?”

If you move with all your might while holding Yui, you can go to another village without spending too much time.

Still, I felt it would be a shame to go back right away after entering Caderal like this.

‘If a disaster occurs, I can prevent it.’

If it happens after I leave, well… ? Didn’t the Holy Kingdom make a lot of preparations?

“Let’s stay for a day and then go. Are you going to sleep in the temple?”

“I’m planning to pray all night. I’ve been praying informally so far, but I think I should pray properly to the goddess today. I have a lot to apologize for. Hehe.”

I hugged Yui lightly, thinking that it would be nice if the goddess would forgive me with a big heart for the lewd behavior she showed while interacting with me.

After briefly listening to Yui’s pounding heart and exchanging warmth, we let her go.

“Good luck to you, Sian.”

“Okay. I’ll go see you tomorrow morning.”

Yui entered the temple again, and I turned my head towards my destination.

Just like when I searched the Magic Tower, I have to run around and check out the Vatican.

*

I couldn’t help but feel nervous walking around the Vatican.

In the past, when I was running away from the Holy Kingdom’s pursuit, I escaped the siege of the Holy Knights with great difficulty.

I remember resisting the paladin’s pursuit by risking death with my body in shambles and losing mana by drinking all the poison I brought.

Compared to back then, I have grown so much that I can’t even dream of having the skills I used to have, even though I was walking around the Vatican wearing a military uniform.

Still, it was obvious that once I was discovered, a bunch of paladins would come, so I concentrated my mind as much as I could and carefully walked around the interior of the Holy See.

The building of the Holy See had three floors, and the offices of the Pope and the Holy Kings were on the third floor.

Seeing that the rooms were almost the same size, there seemed to be no significant difference between the two Popes, and the only thing that seemed to be that external activities were discussed through the Pope’s mouth.

When I entered the targeted Holy King’s office, I could see priests doing paperwork. Seeing this reminded me of the time I helped Princess Rosette with the work of the Raven family.

Unlike the Raven Territory, which has a small population, this place was responsible for managing a single country, so there was bound to be a lot of work and a lot of people working.

When a priest brought a report to a person who seemed to have a high position, the superior said after looking through the data.

“Is the update finished?”

“Yes. The data I brought is the latest data held by Seongguk as of the current time.”

“Okay. Let’s go and report to King Seong.”

When the priest who appeared to be my superior got up and knocked on the door inside her office, I thought it was an opportunity and followed her.

“Holy King.”

“Please come in.”

In a soft voice, King Seong brought his superior and the weight behind him inside, and only then was I able to see his face.

King Seong seems to have pink hair like the priestesses of the Goddess religion, but his hair was cut short.

And it occurred to me that a lot of time had passed on his face.

The priestesses of the Temple of Gwen and other goddesses had the faces of very young women.

Even though she wasn’t really young like Yui, most of her looked like she was in her late teens or early 20s, but King Seong looked like a beautiful woman in her mid to late 40s.

So what is your actual age? Although the Pope was known to the outside world as the powerful person in the Holy Kingdom, it was difficult to easily access information about the Holy Kings below him.

King Seong read the report handed over by his superior, stamped it a few times, and upon receiving the report, King Seong bowed his head and left the room.

In the room where the two of us, King Seong and I, were left, King Seong was the first to speak.

“It’s daytime. Raven. Cyan Raven.”

At the sound of the Holy King’s voice, which did not feel any hostility but rather a feeling of embarrassment, I took the shadow that had been wrapped around my body inside me.

“I guess it was a bit excessive.”

I spoke as I approached the Holy King, who seemed to have calmed down a little more after I fully revealed myself.

“If it were the night, which could be called your time, I would not have found the assassin who came in hiding. However, seeing as he did not immediately use force even when things went wrong like this, it seems that he did not come here to assassinate me. For some reason, he was the second person in power in the Holy Kingdom. Did you come to my office to do it?”

King Seong, who was looking at me with eyes full of strong will, suddenly burst into laughter.

If you see that the Holy King’s eyes are turned downward, it must be because of the priest’s uniform I am wearing.

“I think it suits you a bit?”

In a completely relaxed situation, I also smiled and said.

“It may be a Celestial Church, but it is rare in a Goddess Church. Yes, it suits you. So, what is your purpose?”

“I came to get information about the hero candidate, information about the devil, and the two types of information the Holy Kingdom possesses, but I have one more question. If you accept the imperial people, a disaster will happen to Cardenal. Is that oracle not a lie? Please give me the answer. I wish I could hear it.”

After hearing what I said, King Seong closed his eyes as if thinking for a moment and then spoke to me.

“The oracle is true. The people of the empire will cause disaster in Cardenal. In response to that oracle, the Celestial Church sent out a Hero candidate. Although it included people from various kingdoms, it was a person from the Yurisian Empire, the loser of the continent. Of course, more hero candidates could also be a problem, so I think it will be good news if the hero candidates improve their performance since we sent them to areas suspected of having demons.”

While listening to King Seong’s words, he nodded slightly.

Thinking that I had used a very effective method in getting the warrior candidate out for a while, I mentioned the remaining one of the three things I had asked for.

“Was the information used at that time regarding the place where the devil is suspected to have appeared gathered from the temple?”

“Some were received from trusts, some were collected from the Holy Kingdom.”

I frowned slightly at the word oracle that came up again.

“Does that oracle thing come up that often? I think very occasionally, when danger comes to the world, the voice of God should be heard?”

King Seong heard my words and smiled.

“When the Empire dominates the continent using warp gates along with the Magic Tower, other countries are also strengthening their power in different ways.”

King Seong said something very meaningful.

‘Do you mean that Seongguk created a system where you can receive trust money when you want it?’

So can it be called a proper trust? When I had that question, a blue window appeared in front of me.

『Quest』

〈Destroy the artificial oracle device Godsworth.〉

-Upon completion: ?

It seems that the device that allows you to receive the oracle that the Holy King just mentioned is called a Godsword.

It seemed like the quest to destroy it was trying to completely separate me from the Holy Kingdom.

‘I don’t think it will help the Raven family if we get too far away from the temple.’

“Then, I also want to get information related to the demon that was given to the Hero candidate. Is that okay?”

“The Raven family received the devil’s information? Can I ask why?”

“I’ve killed four demons so far, so I’m closer to being a hero than anyone else, right?”

After hearing what I said, King Seong blinked his eyes wide and asked me.

“Four…? Four?”

“I killed Sparda, Edburnil, and the other two before the demon could affect the outside world, so I don’t mind telling you their locations.”

“I guess I’ll have to check…”

King Seong seemed to be planning to use the artificial oracle device Godsward to check if it was true.

“You can come here at night, right? Once the truth is confirmed, I will deliver the information you want.”

I spoke to the Holy King while hiding my presence and appearance with a shadow.

“I can’t stay here forever, so I’d like you to naturally open the door.”

“I’ll do that for you.”

When King Seong got up from his seat, opened the door, and went outside, I followed him outside.

And I moved to search for Godsworth without leaving the Vatican.

Even if the relationship between the Raven family and the Holy Kingdom takes a turn for the worst, I decided to prioritize my own growth.