Chapter 84

Good morning.

Today's weather is also clear.

I have been called to the church this morning, so I will head out after breakfast.

The first church I visited was huge.

It had many pointed towers, like the church I saw on TV in my previous life that took 100 years to complete.

It's a good thing this country doesn't have earthquakes.

There doesn't seem to be any stained glass yet, so the inside is monochrome.

However, the people working there and the people who come to pray are colorful, so it doesn't give a dull impression.

Also, the priests, who are all muscular, break the dull atmosphere.

I don't think it's appropriate to be half-naked in winter just because they are working.

Held in Arshain's arms, we entered the church, and a slender priest greeted us and led us to the back.

Remembering the story I heard before, that the priests in the church become stronger the thinner they get, I started to feel a bit scared of the priest in front of me.

We were taken to the Pope's office.

It's as functional as a king's office, but it's filled with expensive furnishings.

I won't touch anything! I could probably pay for it, but I won't touch anything!

"Prince Arshain, Mr. Keta, welcome. I apologize, but due to our limited abilities, we have not yet been able to lift the curses from several people. Please lend us your power."

The Pope bowed his head to us.

"Your Holiness, please raise your head. If there is anything we can do to help, we will gladly assist."

As Arshain stroked my head, the Pope looked relieved and said,

"Then, let's go to the patients immediately."

The Pope led us himself.

The room we arrived at was clean and well-maintained, despite being made of wood and stone, and several white beds were lined up with about five people lying on them.

"The people in this room seem to have been cursed particularly strongly, and we are unable to handle it."

Looking closer at the beds, there were people with their eyes wide open, unable to move except for breathing, people whose skin had turned green, people groaning in their sleep, and two people who were tied to the bed, about to start thrashing.

Their symptoms were different, but all of them had been cursed strongly, and slimy things were oozing from their bodies.

"Kyoukousama, nyoryoino shitoi gyai, zeninshoto dachite (Your Holiness, please have everyone except the cursed people leave the room)."

"Huh?"

It seems the Pope didn't understand my words.

"Your Holiness, Mr. Keta is asking you to have everyone except the patients in this room leave."

Shel translated immediately.

"Oh, I see."

The Pope understood and had everyone leave the room.

Then, let's start the curse removal!

I put up a barrier around the room and filled it with holy magic.

This is the strongest curse I've ever seen, so I need to use strong holy magic!

The slimy curses gradually melted away.

It usually takes 2-3 minutes, but it took nearly 10 minutes to finally succeed in removing the curses.

I also removed the poison they had been affected by.

"Shuryo."

As soon as I called out, the person who had been unable to move except for breathing suddenly sat up and raised both arms,

"U, u, u, u, ugogeru!!"

and let out a roar.

Following that, two others sat up, hugging themselves in shock at the absence of abnormalities, or rubbing their bodies vigorously.

The remaining two, who were tied to the bed, moved only their heads to look around or cried.

"Mr. Keta, as expected. It was a wonderful curse removal. Thanks to you, everyone has been saved."

The Pope bowed his head to me again.

I was flustered, so please stop that.

Then, for some reason, I was carried by the Pope to visit the other victims.

The Pope looks like an elf of unknown age, but he seems used to carrying people, like Yugram.

While being carried, I learned that the church staff is ranked as follows: the Pope at the top, followed by cardinals, archbishops, high priests, low priests, and novices.

There is only one Pope, thirty cardinals worldwide, two hundred archbishops, and many more.

The cardinals live in the castle.

However, among the female priests, there are those with special roles, such as midwives and those specialized in healing, who are also called priests.

When I asked if it's true that they become stronger the higher they go, he laughed and didn't answer.

It seems I'm being carried by the strongest person.

After visiting, it turned out that only a few people still had some poison left, but otherwise, there were no problems.

However, many people, or rather most of them, were psychologically unstable due to being confined for a long time.

They all huddled together and wouldn't separate.

It seems they hadn't been given proper meals, so they were all very thin.

From their perspective, the muscular priests seemed to be a source of fear, and the ones taking care of them were young novices who hadn't yet become muscular, or veteran high priests who had become thin, and female priests.

Since there wasn't much else to do, I drank the tea the Pope made and went back.

A simple question, but since Yugram will eventually become a priest, and he's not good at physical techniques, will he be able to join the group of muscular priests?

When I asked Arshain, he said that while Yugram says he's not good at it, he can perform at an S-class level, so there's no problem with his physical techniques.

I kept the image of Yugram swinging an iron pipe in his muscular form to myself.

When we returned to the castle, the knights were still bustling about.

The interrogations were going smoothly, and the lower-ranking members were easily talking to lighten their sentences.

Based on their statements, they investigated and started with the cases where they had enough evidence.

Arrests were also being made among the relatives of the perpetrators.

There was no place to run.

It will take some time to reach the main culprit, Duke Rugaria, but the confiscation of all his assets alone has already amounted to a considerable sum.

Just by listening to the knights and nobles, more crimes were being discovered.

It seems they were very confident in the cursed magical devices they had developed and were caught off guard when the search was conducted.

The former adoptive father of the two-timing woman, Baron Ab, was also arrested.

He was caught by Ingrid while trying to flee the country.

It was revealed that Baron Ab, acting as Duke Rugaria's right hand, had been secretly smuggling in poisons, monster materials, and illegal drugs that couldn't be obtained domestically.

Although he claimed he couldn't disobey orders, the wealth he had accumulated in his mansion suggested he was a co-conspirator rather than just a subordinate.

Moreover, Baron Ab had been using a special magical device from a foreign country to record all his negotiations with Duke Rugaria to avoid being discarded.

Within a few days, the evidence was quickly gathered, and now it's just a matter of sentencing, publicizing, and executing the sentences.

This is expected to be completed in a few more days.

All the assets of the Rugaria family, their co-conspirators, and the noble families under their command, which have been arrested and dissolved, will be used for compensation to the victims and donations to the church's orphanages.

Three days later, the main nobles gathered in the castle's grand hall, and the prime minister announced the crimes of the Rugaria family.

The crimes of the noble families under their command and their co-conspirators were also announced, and many noble families were dissolved.

The grand hall, silent as a tomb, echoed only with the prime minister's voice.

No one dared to raise objections, as it would only make them suspected of being co-conspirators.

There is no death penalty in this country.

The maximum punishment is lifelong slavery.

In the presence of many nobles, slave collars were placed on the former Duke Rugaria and the former nobles who were co-conspirators and subordinates.

Some tried to resist, but they were restrained by the knights and had the collars placed on them, which drew laughter from the onlookers.

They will be put up for auction and, after being bought by a new master, will be forced into harsh labor.

As long as they wear the slave collars, they cannot use magic and must obey their master's orders.

The slave collars on the victims were quickly nullified using the evidence left by Baron Ab, and all the collars were successfully removed.

The victims whose identities were confirmed were sent to the church knights with compensation and were taken to nearby churches for assistance in their physical and mental recovery.

The care of the children who had become orphans was taken over by the church, and investigations into their identities continued.

There are still many issues to be resolved, such as the territories of the dissolved noble families, but the series of disturbances finally came to a temporary end a week later.

It is said that those who were involved in other crimes but were not caught this time were trembling in fear.

The king, who had been busy with daily official duties and had no time to eat with his family, crushed the twin princes, launched a kiss attack on Anneliese, and tried to kiss me too, so I put up a barrier and firmly refused!

I don't need any kisses from an old man!