300 – The Approaching Stage -2-

Inside the room after putting the lady to sleep.

– Knock. Knock.

I heard a knock at my ear while sitting in the chair. Naturally, it wasn’t at the door, but at the window.

– Is the tenant there?

“Just a moment.”

I couldn’t understand why he was knocking on the window instead of using the perfectly good door, but since the tenant said he preferred the window, I nodded without question.

“Come in.”

With a creak, Hans entered through the window, looking as if he didn’t know where to sit, and stared at me.

“Please sit on the bed.”

“…I cannot dare to sit on the saint’s bed. I would rather kneel…!”

“…Oh dear.”

I shook my head, offered him the chair, and sat on the bed. He really looked like he might kneel.

I sat in the chair and asked Hans, who was smiling brightly, if he had finally decided on a title.

“So, have you settled on ‘Saint’ as the title?”

“Yes!”

“Why ‘Saint’? There are many options like ‘Landlord’, ‘Landlord’, or ‘Ricardo’.”

“They felt too cliché, so I tried to choose something meaningful in my own way.”

I sighed at Hans’s serious nonsense. I had given up on understanding it by now.

A brief silence fell.

I threw a question at Hans. What was the story he was about to tell earlier?

“So, what happened during the vacation?”

Hans slowly opened his previously tightly shut mouth.

“Yung is committing blasphemy.”

“…?”

“Yung…”

“Ah… I get that part, but what do you mean by blasphemy?”

“It’s literally what it means.”

I stared blankly at Hans, who was speaking with a rather serious expression. I understood what the Archbishop of Oblivion was trying to do, but I hadn’t expected the word blasphemy to come up.

“Um… who is the ‘God’ in this blasphemy?”

“It is the Saint.”

“And what about ‘blasphemy’?”

“It is an act of hostility against the Saint.”

“Ah-ha!”

It’s a person who is both understandable and incomprehensible.

I let out a hollow laugh and decided not to dispute Hans’s words. After all, any further discussion would only give me a headache.

But, ‘Yung’…

It’s an unwelcome name.

Since the first time I met Mikhail, who bears the name Misara, I quietly wiped the smile off my face at the mention of ‘Yung.’

Back then, he wasn’t wearing a mask. I had been waiting for him to show up someday, but to hear it from Hans’s lips was unexpected.

I nodded slightly, focusing on the now heavier conversation.

“Anyway, why are we suddenly talking about the Archbishop of Oblivion?”

“Actually, it’s about my vacation….”

Hans began to recount the events that had transpired in a low voice.

“I recently sensed something strange and started to investigate the Archbishop of Oblivion.”

“…”

“I heard that people in the capital are suddenly losing all their memories overnight…. I thought he might be up to something.”

“So that’s why you left your post?”

“That’s right.”

“Since it’s a rare vacation, why not take a break?”

“What do I have to rest from, haha…! I’m just here to wipe the Saint’s feet….”

“Oh dear…”

Hans continued with a bright smile.

“My position among the heathens is practically at rock bottom now.”

“That’s to be expected. You haven’t been active.”

– Nodding.

“After failing the operation to kidnap Yuria, I didn’t attend the formal meetings or the Archbishop’s council, so they probably think I’m dead.”

“Certainly… Um, just a sudden thought, but why did you want to kidnap Yuria back then? I’ve been meaning to ask, and it just came to mind.”

Hans nodded slightly, his expression awkward.

“It’s a past mistake, so it’s a bit uncomfortable to talk about, but since the Saint is asking, I’ll muster the courage to share.”

“It’s alright. You’re my person now. Besides, it ended up being a failure anyway.”

I smiled faintly at Hans.

“Honestly, even if I hadn’t interfered, it would have failed anyway… wouldn’t it?”

“Ha ha… It seems the saint cannot be deceived.”

Hans, in the early part of the novel, was such a soft-hearted person. I knew he would give up quickly.

He had simply changed as he became entangled with the heretics.

Hans nodded his head in acknowledgment of my faith and slowly began to answer the questions I posed. He spoke of an unexpected reason.

“…The truth is.”

“The apostle has been gravely injured.”

“What?”

“I don’t know the details, but I heard he sustained a fatal wound while confronting a foreign empress.”

“Empress….”

The empress. She was a character that appeared in the latter part of the novel. A woman with blue hair wielding a long spear. There hadn’t been much detail provided, so I hadn’t paid it much mind, but to think such a thing had happened.

I nodded slightly, storing the new information in my mind.

“I don’t really know why they fought. It was all very secretive….”

“It seems they were discovered.”

“Excuse me?”

“The empress is quite suspicious, you see. Ah… I mean, please don’t mind me and continue. It’s not particularly important.”

—Nod.

“Ahem…! Anyway, what I heard is that the apostle was gravely injured. As you know, the heretics have no healers, making them vulnerable to injuries.”

“…”

“Moreover, if one gets involved with a dark sorcerer, they become a body where divine power does not work, right?”

“Oh, so that’s why….”

“Yes, so dark sorcerers substitute healing by absorbing life, and I hear this is no ordinary injury.”

“Um…”

A question arose in Hans’s mind. Then the thought of ‘Isn’t Yuria the same?’ came to me.

Yuria also healed people with divine power, so I couldn’t understand why they would specifically want to kidnap her.

As if he sensed my confusion, Hans quickly continued.

“Yuria was different.”

“Different… you say?”

“Yes. She….”

Hans spoke with a rather heavy expression.

“Because she possesses the divine insight.”

Divine insight.

A divine gift that allows one to grasp the essence of illness.

Hans’s voice, speaking of Yuria, who has the ability to perceive and penetrate everything about the body, was heavy.

“It seems they were trying to conduct some sort of experiment.”

“…”

“I think they believed that if she changed the god she believes in, she could heal the apostle. Moreover, if she is a user of divine insight, she would at least be able to identify the source of the illness.”

“Brainwashing…”

“Honestly, it’s difficult for me to understand their true intentions as well. The existence of the apostle has not even been revealed to the archbishop. I was simply tasked with abducting Yuria, who possesses divine insight. I couldn’t extract any information.”

One more question arose from Hans’s words. The injury of the apostle is a significant issue. I was suspicious as to why they were keeping it under wraps.

“Then is that mission still ongoing?”

“No. It has been discarded.”

“Yes…?”

“Well…”

Hans glanced at me and then tightly shut his eyes before speaking.

“There is the Saint, after all.”

“…”

“I’m not certain, but the heretics are somewhat aware of the Saint’s existence. Even if they don’t know the exact identity of the Saint, they have concluded that Yuria, who uses divine insight, has an ally.”

“Still, it’s an apostle…”

“Despite appearances, the heretics are cautious about small changes.”

“…”

“For the greater good, they must conceal their strength, and if they provoke meaningless incidents that cause the emperor and nobles to unite, they would quickly crumble.”

“If Deathmunt and Histania unite, it would indeed be frightening.”

“That’s not all. If the Blue King, the Mercenary King, and the Empress join forces to capture the heretics, it would be quite burdensome for them to face their combined might head-on. Moreover, if they carelessly provoke someone under the Saint’s protection, the group that would have to bear the backlash would naturally be the heretics, so I believe they would want to avoid unnecessary damage.”

Hans shook his head, muttering, “This is just my opinion,” as he concluded this part of the conversation.

Now it was time to gradually move on to the main topic.

Having somewhat understood the situation regarding Yuria, I needed to address the matter that was looming right in front of me.

I nodded and shifted the subject to the main point.

“So, what happened with Yung?”

“I’m sorry. I went on a bit too long with unnecessary words.”

“Not at all. I asked the question, so I should be the one apologizing.”

“Then…”

Hans rolled up his sleeve to reveal a wound on his arm. A gash that looked as if it had been pierced by a blade. At first glance, it seemed to be quite a severe injury.

“That’s a penetrating wound. Judging by the size of the injury, it looks like it was caused by a dagger.”

“That’s correct.”

“The one who inflicted the wound must be Jung.”

“That’s right.”

Hans slowly began to recount the events he had experienced.

A dark night.

He had gone to Jung’s hideout to dig for information and overheard his mutterings. And he learned what Jung was after. The story of how he intended to cut off the roots from there.

“Um…”

The strongest among the archbishops was none other than Jung. It was an undeniable fact that, for now, Jung remained the most powerful being among the archbishops.

He had been around the longest as well.

He had been a notorious criminal even before becoming an archbishop.

Yet, to think he would injure Hans…

“It seems you let your guard down.”

—Nod.

“At your current level, you could easily defeat the Archbishop of Oblivion.”

Hans lowered his head, as if feeling ashamed, and spat out an apology.

“I’m sorry. I was overconfident and didn’t notice the ambush.”

“That can happen. Still… it’s a bit disappointing that you left an opening against an opponent with one arm missing.”

“…I have no excuse.”

I gazed gently at Hans’s arm and then asked about the outcome. It was more important to understand Hans’s experience of realizing his mistake than to chastise him for the injury. Moreover, I was grateful just to know that Jung harbored ill thoughts about me.

“So, what happened with ‘Jung’?”

“He’s still alive.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I pierced his abdomen with a shaping spell. He’s probably hiding somewhere now, bandaging himself.”

“Um… so he hasn’t died.”

“Correct.”

“That’s troubling.”

Considering Yung’s personality, he was not someone who would let things slide easily. He was the type who felt a sense of justice only when he repaid what was done to him.

Then.

“Are you saying that his target is our lady…?”

Hans shook his head vigorously.

“The princess cannot be touched by anyone.”

“Excuse me?”

“As the saint has seen, the princess’s…”

Hans looked around to confirm that no one was nearby and whispered in a small voice.

“The princess’s dark magic is something even an apostle cannot easily meddle with.”

“Is it that powerful?”

“It’s a monster. A monster beyond imagination.”

“…”

Hans added reassuring words as if to calm me.

“The mansion’s barrier has also been reinforced to the point where an apostle cannot enter recklessly. Even if the barrier were to be breached, the Archbishop of Oblivion would vanish with just a flick of the princess’s finger.”

“…I didn’t expect the power of chocolate to be that significant.”

Hans nodded with sincere eyes and then exhaled the breath he had been holding.

“That concludes the report I have for you.”

“Understood. I will keep that in mind for now.”

I asked one more thing as I looked at Hans, who was about to jump out the window.

“By the way, Hans.”

“Yes?”

“What are you building in the basement of the mansion? It seems quite large in scale.”

“Ah.”

Hans smiled slightly as he spoke.

“It’s a secret.”

“Pardon?”

“I’ll show you later.”

He was truly a person one could never fully understand.