Chapter 611

For some reason, Rowen was waiting for me. I wonder what's going on. Did the Popes deceive me? Is there a reason for it? In a situation where the answer is not certain, Rowen kneels before me, which means complete obedience. "It is an infinite honor to see you again, Your Majesty." I had only met someone who could properly hand over the Divine Sect to me. "Everyone who shares my intentions is ready to support you, Your Majesty." The sects in the Empire were not under the control of the Popes, but under Rowen's. The Knights of the Holy Sword who had tried to subdue Rowen were not his. "Didn't the Popes mention it?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Didn't they talk about the purification of the heretics?"

The purification of the heretics.

The eerie word made me freeze all over.

"You didn't think the five Popes would just observe the scale of the heretics, did you?"

Yes.

That's what they said.

'Now' is not the time to kill the heretics recklessly.

It was a statement that revealed the intention to kill them anytime once it became possible.

And through Rowen, they were aware of the scale and leaders of the heretics.

They tried to control them because they couldn't eliminate them in the first place.

And after all this was over, they would have tried to eliminate them all.

"You have to put new wine in new wineskins, so why are you trying to put vinegar in old leather wineskins?"

Rowen was almost punished.

And now, he was talking to me about punishment.

"Are you saying you did this to save the heretics?"

"I hope the Empire will be destroyed. And I hope the Demon King will become the master of the new era."

"…."

"Saving tens of millions of heretics is like saving a byproduct."

Rowen smiled strangely.

It was a very awkward and eerie laugh.

"And even if I'm good at killing and torturing people, it's sad that tens of millions of people will die."

"…."

"That shouldn't happen."

The life of the heretics is still a life, says the inquisitor.

It had a very unpleasant resonance, like a serial killer talking about the dignity of life.

And that discomfort came from the fact that Rowen's words were not wrong.

There is nothing more disgusting than a wrong being saying the right thing.

"The Popes really tried to kill all the heretics? And do they think the sect can survive even after doing that?"

"You don't think they can do it?"

"…What?"

"If the number of refugees who can't even become cockroaches decreases, isn't it a good thing for the Empire?"

I could only widen my eyes at that eerie possibility.

"Do you think it's impossible to blame the incident in the underground of the Holy Sword Knights on the heretics and kill them?"

"…."

"It's a matter of whether you can handle it or not. You know that if you want to do it, you can do it."

What happened in the Holy Sword Knights was my doing.

But the Popes didn't try to find the culprit, they tried to disguise it as the heretics' crime?

"Did they already have that kind of policy in the first place?"

"They told me to investigate in that direction."

The Popes tried to control the heretics. That's why they used Rowen.

That's why this strange structure was established where the heretics' backers were the Five Great Sects.

But in the end, the Popes could only control them without killing them, and they were determined to push them all away if they could.

The Popes wanted to make this incident a crime of the heretics, regardless of the truth. However, Rowen was in a situation where he knew almost everything about the heretics in the refugee village. Even if they tortured the heretics they captured who were not aware, they could only find out that they were not the culprits. They tried to approach it as if the Empire was the culprit. There, although Ileion Valtin ordered her to stop the investigation, Rowen did not listen. It is clear that the Popes are preparing to kill all the heretics someday. Of course, such a thing will not happen immediately. The Popes hid such intentions from me, knowing that I would be sensitive to words like "heretic purification." They are people who swallow when sweet and spit out when sour. They attached themselves to me because the public opinion within the sect was flowing in my favor. Is Rowen crazy? Or are the Popes crazy? Both would have been crazy. But it became clear whose hand to hold. * * * The atmosphere of the imperial capital was gloomy and turbulent. It was because of the recent riots and the massacre of the guards. Smoke from burning corpses rose here and there, and the guards walking around the refugee village were not the usual guards. They wore helmets that covered their faces and walked the streets silently. In the midst of the hatred and anger towards the guards, there was no one who dared to touch the guards who were walking alone. Everyone saw that the silent observers were a different existence from the simple guards. Strange beings that were human but not human wandered around the refugee village. They used extreme means at the slightest sign of violence. It seemed like a machine that did not respond to anyone's words or screams was wandering the streets. The guards who now control the refugee village did not say anything and did not give any warnings. They walked slowly down the street and disappeared calmly when they saw signs of trouble. In that inhuman appearance, people felt extreme fear. After a few days passed like that. The four who were chasing Rowen's death were each staying at the temple in that ominous atmosphere. They needed time to organize their thoughts after learning the shocking truth. And Ludwig had hope that he could regain his arm through the Chimera procedure, but he knew that it could become a threat to his life, so he was contemplating his choice every day. And because of the sudden chaos in the imperial capital, they had to spend a few days in silence inside the temple. But they couldn't keep doing that forever. Ellen called Heinrich, Louise, and Ludwig. "I think we need to decide what to do now." The fundamental problem was still unresolved. Who killed Rowen? The emperor said it wasn't the empire's doing. "Berthus' words at that time are unlikely to be false. If they showed us the appearance of the laboratory, there was no reason for the empire to hide if they killed Rowen."

"That's right."

Louise nodded as if agreeing with Ellen's words.

Showing a secret bigger and more important than killing Rowen. Strictly speaking, the death of one priest is a very small matter compared to what is happening in that laboratory.

If they killed Rowen, they would have had no choice but to do so.

There was no reason to lie unnecessarily, so logically speaking, the fact that the empire did not kill Rowen is likely to be true in itself.

What Daitomorian said.

He said that we would know if we found Ashur, but what we actually found out was that Rowen's death was not related to the empire.

But that too is a fact that we have learned something.

We could exclude one of the powerful suspects.

"If Rowen approached Ludwig, it was originally to investigate the temple."

"Yes, that's right."

"Then the reason for killing Rowen is with the empire. They revealed something that shouldn't be known. But the empire is irrelevant, and there seems to be no reason for it to be a lie based on the situation...."

The attack by the thugs was not originally planned.

The force that had a reason to try to kill Rowen was the empire, but the empire did not kill Rowen.

So the situation itself was in a maze.

"Did the heretics really kill him?"

Heinrich threw a question.

Since Rowen was originally an inquisitor, if the heretics knew of his existence, he would always have been a presence they wanted to kill.

"There is a possibility that he was not killed while tracking the incident, but was retaliated against due to the accumulated information."

Ellen affirmed that possibility, unable to deny it.

"But even saying that the refugee village is dangerous is not enough...."

There was a large-scale riot, but it was a place where a massacre was lurking. So the refugee village area was a place where it was not good to go in recklessly.

Massacre.

Literally, it was like a thunderbolt.

Moreover, everyone in this place knew that the army being created to end the Gate Incident was being deployed to kill people.

No one knows that too much is being justified by the pretext of the Gate Incident.

But even if it's not dangerous, it's no different.

If the heretics killed Rowen, no one knows where they are.

"But originally.... Something happened at the Holy Knights Cemetery."

Ludwig, who had been silent, opened his mouth.

"What happened there.... Was it the empire's doing?"

"Uh."

"Hmm."

"....!"

Only then did everyone realize that they had not been thinking about the first thing they should have been thinking about in the shocking truth.