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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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‘From his perspective, all his comrades had died.’
Even if we brought back Annelise who had fled, she was no longer a comrade.
The mercenary world wasn’t lenient enough to recognize someone who had fled alone to save herself in a moment of crisis as a comrade.
Even though Tildi was a priest, it would likely be difficult for him to forgive her.
Of course, Tildi’s forgiveness was meaningless.
I wouldn’t forgive her.
After both guardians had stopped functioning, Kayla, Athena, and Baldur returned to me with tired faces.
The first to bow her head to me was Kayla.
“…No, no. It was my mistake. I should have intervened more quickly…”
Baldur stood silently in his place.
He had done everything he could.
It just seemed he couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable in this situation.
“There’s no need to apologize. We didn’t know there would be something like a berserk mode.”
If anything, I was the one who should apologize.
I was the leader of this team.
I should have investigated more.
Even if it took more time, that would have been the right approach.
To be honest, we hadn’t suffered any losses in the end.
However, the process had been fraught with problems, so I couldn’t help but feel bitter about it.
“…No, I could have won alone easily…”
Unexpected situations could happen at any time.
Kayla blamed herself, saying she shouldn’t have been shaken by such things.
“If I had been a little calmer…”
She said that if she had responded calmly, it wouldn’t have been dangerous at all, and Athena’s help wouldn’t have been necessary.
Listening to her self-reproach, I felt a bitter taste in my mouth.
‘It must be because of me.’
She must have realized that if the guardian she was facing could go berserk, the one I was facing could do so at any time as well.
Therefore, she must have thought, as I had judged, that dealing with Cereo’s group should be postponed and the guardian should be dealt with as quickly as possible.
This led to anxiety, which caused many mistakes.
As a result, even after Athena intervened halfway through and Baldur joined, they couldn’t deal with it immediately, and in the end, I had to deal with one guardian by myself.
Of course, if I had to pick the person who made the most mistakes among our group, I would undoubtedly choose myself.
I shook my head at Kayla who was blaming herself and said,
“Think of it as experience. Thanks to this, I’ve grown too. More importantly, how’s your body?”
“…I saw that you grew. You used magic I hadn’t seen before. How dangerous was it for you to break through the wall…”
She didn’t even answer about her body condition and was still digging herself into a hole.
“Master’s body is fine. I checked. Although his armor is completely shattered.”
“We can buy new armor. We have enough money. You worked hard too, Athena.”
If we were short on money, we could sell gems.
“No, no. I should apologize too. …I should have intervened earlier…”
The latter part was just a whisper, glancing at Tildi.
I also thanked Baldur for his hard work.
Among our group, Baldur was the only one who had done more than his share.
“For now, we should check what they were trying to protect. …We also need to keep our promise.”
At the mention of the promise, Tildi got up.
If there were artifacts or holy relics, he would observe the corruption process, and if there was nothing special, they would have to be destroyed.
Of course, it didn’t seem likely that there would be nothing.
Just looking at the aura of the hall, there had to be at least one holy relic.
The first place we headed was the center of the hall.
As I put my hand on the cloth that was visible even from afar, I immediately had to stop.
‘This is a jackpot from the start.’
The cloth wasn’t just any cloth.
‘Was it a robe?’
Under the robe, bones that were presumed to have once belonged to the owner of the robe were scattered.
‘…Even the bones aren’t ordinary.’
It might have been a saint.
‘Then is it not a holy relic but a sacred relic?’
The difference between holy relics and sacred relics was simple.
Holy relics were directly bestowed or influenced by a god, while sacred relics referred to the remains or possessions of humans, specifically those called saints or holy individuals of saintly caliber.
Of course, even if a saint used a holy relic during their lifetime, it wasn’t called a sacred relic.
That was just a holy relic.
‘It seems quite special for a relic…’
Even now, it was subtly pushing me away.
Honestly, whether it was a holy relic or a sacred relic wasn’t very important.
What mattered more was how much it would help me when tainted with demonic energy.
For now, it could be said that the future looked promising.
‘For now, let’s collect everything.’
I gathered the robe and the bones presumed to be those of a saint.
The soul would be gone since it had been dead for a long time, but given enough time, I was confident I could handle these bones as well.
‘The bones of a saint…’
But this wasn’t the end.
“…It’s a holy relic. I can sense traces of divinity. It seems to be an item from the Earth Church.”
The small golden cup was a holy relic imbued with such strong divine power that even Tildi could say so definitively.
“The Earth Church…”
Religious forces were generally small in scale, except for the Goddess Religion.
No, to be honest, they weren’t just small, there were hardly any left, and most were at the level of being persecuted.
There were countless religions that had completely disappeared.
‘At least it’s not a religion that has disappeared or been forgotten yet.’
I knew it was small but still maintaining its name nominally.
They would probably be overjoyed if we brought this to them.
But…
‘They can’t handle this, nor can they repay us.’
It would be better for me to use it instead.
“It will take a day.”
“Can it be done in a day?”
“It may not be perfect, but we just need to confirm that it’s been tainted.”
If it was contaminated to a certain extent, it would never return to its original state without external help.
If it went a little further, it would reach a level where recovery was impossible even with external help.
Tildi nodded and then said to me,
“Then… I will collect the bodies of my comrades.”
It seemed he didn’t intend to check every step of the corruption process.
“Go ahead.”
With my permission, Tildi immediately headed towards where Cereo’s group had died.
They probably wouldn’t be in a presentable state, but since he seemed to want to collect them as best he could, I didn’t stop him.
‘I should process this as quickly as possible.’
I immediately started drawing out demonic energy.
Conscious of Tildi’s gaze, I used an artifact to mix in some impurities, but the essence was still pure demonic energy.
‘…I should do this all at once too.’
The saint’s remains might be a bit difficult.
Just as I was about to act on that thought…
“Inha.”
Athena suddenly called me.
“…I think there’s a hidden space here.”
I briefly showed a surprised expression at her words.
“…A hidden space?”
I glanced at Tildi.
He was still busy collecting the bodies of Cereo’s group.
Their corpses weren’t of much use to me, so it wasn’t important.
“Where?”
She immediately pointed down with her finger.
“…There’s a hidden space under this altar?”
Following her finger to examine the traces, I too belatedly noticed that there was a hidden door.
‘This is amazing.’
I was honestly impressed.
It showed that she had high observational skills.
Even I had focused on the results first…
But that wasn’t it.
Thinking about it, Athena discovering something like this before me wasn’t due to chance or my carelessness.
‘Well, she had already surpassed me in many ways for a while now.’
As a mana awakener, her physical abilities surpassed mine.
Her senses were the same.
Although I had senses far beyond ordinary humans thanks to the assistance of demonic energy, the truth was that I fell short compared to a knight who fought directly on the front lines.
And from the beginning, she was a stealth type.
As someone who received specialized training to prepare for all sorts of situations, it was natural for her to notice such things.
Still, I could tell that her rate of absorbing this knowledge was extraordinary.
“…Let’s pretend we didn’t notice for now.”
Athena nodded at my words.
‘We’ll have to come back here later.’
By the way, the harvest from this request was incredible.
More precisely, it was what I had come looking for…
‘The sword and armor, and even the Earth Church temple that was hidden in my previous life…’
Suddenly, a strange thought occurred to me.
‘Wait a minute. But… this isn’t the Earth Church’s emblem…?’
Did the Earth Church change its emblem in later generations?
It would be a very special case, but it was not impossible or unheard of.
‘Still, if there’s a holy relic, they usually wouldn’t change it, right?’
The emblem engraved on a holy relic couldn’t be changed.
That was different because it was directly bestowed by the god.
‘Did they lose the holy relic and then change it?’
Even so, a sect that once possessed a holy relic wouldn’t do such a thing.
If there was an emblem engraved on the holy relic, it would be considered directly given by the god and would become a kind of legitimate emblem.
‘It’s the same as the emblem at the temple entrance.’
Since the emblem on the shield was the same as the one at the temple entrance, it must be the religion’s emblem…
‘But it’s not the Earth Church’s emblem.’
It was a bit confusing.
Tildi was certain it was the Earth Church based on the divine power…
‘Did he think they changed the emblem in later generations too?’
It seemed I would need to look into various things.
While watching Tildi collect his comrades’ bodies, I was pouring demonic energy into the cup and robe.
Meanwhile, the Specter returned, and Annelise was nowhere to be seen around it.
‘Did it kill her?’
However, I soon realized from the Specter’s behavior that it hadn’t killed her.
‘It seems to have drained all her energy and left her.’
That worked out well.
I instructed Athena to follow the Specter and bring her back, and before long, she returned with an unconscious Annelise.
“…She tried to run away?”
When Athena asked what had happened, I answered truthfully.
Hearing my words, Athena threw Annelise down as if she were filth, and Kayla and Baldur also looked at the unconscious Annelise with considerable contempt.
“I thought she was an opportunist, but I never imagined she’d be a traitor.”
“It wasn’t an incomprehensible action. All her comrades except Tildi were dead, and there seemed to be no chance of winning.”
She didn’t know about the final measure I had.
“So? Are you going to forgive her?”
Athena asked, looking at me with eyes that said ‘surely not’.
I shook my head and answered.
“Of course not.”
“You surprised me.”
She should have known that wasn’t my personality, but it seemed she had misunderstood a bit because I had spoken as if I was defending Annelise.
“Then if that’s the case, why didn’t you just leave her behind? Why bring her back?”
“I plan to have her executed through the Mercenary Guild.”
She could also end up as a slave.
In that case, I intended to receive her and then execute her.
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