30 episodes
The priest put what he had brought down on the round table.
It was a dagger wrapped in a pure white cloth.
“Hmm.”
The Pope observed the dagger and tilted his head.
“But it’s strange. It looked different from what I heard from the princess. Is this really that dagger?”
As he knew, the dagger was said to have a red and dark glow as if it had been drenched in blood.
But the dagger in front of him didn’t do that at all.
Although it looked gorgeous, it just looked like an ordinary dagger.
“Ah, come to think of it, I found something like this with a dagger.”
What the priest laid down on the round table were black shards.
The black shards on the pure white cloth were very conspicuous.
“Um, I can feel the special magic and magic in that fragment.”
“What is this?”
The high priests frowned and observed the fragments.
“The eyewitness said it was the fragments that came from the dagger being purified.”
“Hey, is it true that the dagger was purified?”
“I can’t believe it, but if there is evidence like that.”
“Then it is understandable that the dagger has changed.”
“Isn’t this the church’s red robe, His Holiness?”
“Heh heh heh, that’s right. Priest Ethan’s actions always surprise me.”
The Pope slowly brushed his beard and smiled contentedly.
On the other hand, the corners of Shunin’s lips trembled.
He said whatever came to his head.
“Have you not come to a conclusion yet? The eyewitness may have misunderstood. Who knows if the shards may have come out of nowhere?”
Shunin glanced at Ethan who was standing nearby.
When the priest brought the dagger, Ethan had also come to the conference room.
At that time, Ethan was also closely observing Shunin.
So, when Ethan’s eyes met, Shunin shrugged his shoulders involuntarily.
The thief numbed my foot.
‘It’s strange too.’
Ethan muttered to himself.
The doubts I had about Shunin deepened.
‘It is completely different from the reaction of the Pope and other high priests.’
From the denomination’s point of view, the purification of the dagger was something to be proud of with two arms.
The priest belonging to the denomination removed the items related to the demon king.
After the death of the Demon King, could there be any greater activity than this?
However, Shunin had a completely different attitude.
It was a face that was anxious only by himself.
The other priests’ ears were drawn to Shunin’s driving public opinion.
“Well, I’ve just become a priest, and I’m definitely suspicious of you doing something like this.”
“Sir, it is still premature to judge based on these few circumstances.”
That was then.
“I testify of him.”
Cynthia, who was waiting outside, entered the conference room.
The sudden appearance of the princess shook the audience.
Cynthia opened her mouth, not paying attention to him.
“Because I was there too.”
“Then ask the princess. Is this dagger the one you were carrying?”
“yes. you’re right. On the way back to my home country after recovering the remains of the Demon King, I met an unidentified raider in the forest of the meeting. Then I lost the chest containing that dagger.”
“First of all, the first question has been resolved. So the second question. Is it true that Priest Ethan purified that dagger?”
“That is also true. When I heard that there was a riot, I ran to the treatment center. And I saw the divine power emanating from the hands of Priest Ethan. After that, the dagger became like that. When the dagger was originally shipped, such fragments did not exist.”
The princess’s answer was firm.
The high priests who had doubts nodded their heads.
“If you see the princess talking like that, doesn’t it look like it’s true?”
“yes. You can’t make up a lie for someone you don’t have a relationship with.”
“I’ve just become a priest, and to purify the demon king’s things, isn’t he a talented person who only comes out once in a hundred years?”
“The steps of Saint Eileen come to mind.”
“What a miracle boy indeed.”
If it were to Ethan, it was a conversation that would frown on his face, asking where he was compared to that woman.
The Pope also seemed to have cleared his doubts.
The Pope turned to Ethan.
“Ethan, you don’t know all this well, do you? Do you need my explanation?”
“no. On the way here, I heard information about it from the priest.”
Ethan looked around like that.
This was half true and half false.
Ethan had been aware of this to some extent from the beginning.
The princess was attacked and came to the country of Nouvelle.
A search party was looking for a specific item in the forest.
Meanwhile, the soldiers of the reconnaissance corps suffered a strange injury.
Ethan, who was suspicious of all of this, went to the forest to meet him, and noticed the whole story to some extent.
So, it could be said that it was understood much earlier than that.
“Hmm, I’m glad it is.”
“Sir, I have something to ask you.”
Ethan, who has just become a priest, asks the Pope first?
It was arrogant and it was a matter of swearing.
But the Pope has now been very generous.
It was because I liked Ethan’s successive performances.
“Tell me.”
“Please leave the treatment of the princess to me.”
“A treatment for the princess?”
Ethan continued speaking without hesitation.
“yes. I know that the current princess is almost healed of her trauma, but she has not received any treatment for poison. I would like to help the princess who would have continued her heavy duty of atonement as a family following the teachings of Goddess Pars.”
“Heh heh, if a request comes from such a good heart, I have no choice but to listen.”
The Pope smiled as he stroked his old beard.
Upon hearing that, Cynthia widened her eyes.
‘what?’
Until now, many people despised her.
Of course, there were those who felt pity for her like a dead nanny.
But what Ethan felt was not cheap sympathy.
‘You just want to realize the teachings of faith? Does this make sense?’
Cynthia looked around in disbelief.
The high priests, including the pope, did not seem to be too surprised.
It meant that this wasn’t the only time the boy had behaved like this.
‘I don’t know what’s inside. However… I don’t even want to distrust you. Why?’
In this way, the Pope and Cynthia fell into a swamp of delusion.
But Ethan’s intentions were completely different.
‘Shit. That was the real Demon King’s dagger, right? To be purified by just that much divine power, it’s like a weak thing.’
In fact, the divine power that Ethan radiated was not ‘only that much’.
When Ethan released his divine power, his divine power was suddenly amplified.
‘I don’t know why that happened, but now is not the time to worry about it. Let’s deal with this first.’
The plan went awry because he purged things that he had no intention of purifying.
Ethan was determined to make up for his mistake somehow.
‘I tried to track down a dark follower with a dagger as bait, but things went awry. Since this has happened, there is no other choice but to attach the lifeline of the princess.’
It was crazy and I was running around, but I couldn’t help it.
Even the princess, one of the remaining clues, had to do something.
At that moment, Shunin suddenly stood up from his seat.
Then he went straight to Cynthia and grabbed her by the shoulder.
“What the hell is this?!”
Cynthia expressed displeasure and clapped Shunin’s hand.
“High Priest Justia!”
The other ambassadors were also perplexed.
But the surprise didn’t stop there.
The magic and magic that came from Cynthia infiltrated Shunin without fail.
“… Ugh!”
Unlike ordinary people, priests can have divine power in their hands.
However, magic has penetrated into the body of the high priest Shunin?
This meant that Shunin did not intentionally wield the divine power.
“Ugh.”
Shunin lifted her black hands with a face wet with pain.
Cynthia, startled, clasped her trembling hands and muttered a little.
“I, I stop without knowing… … .”
Shunin spoke to the popes and high priests around him.
“Have you all seen it? Doesn’t someone come to mind when you see this being that infiltrates magic and magical power just by touching it? Think back to a hundred years ago. We owe this bloodline a debt!”
It’s like a warning.
“Please don’t forget that.”
Shunin let go of the threat and left the meeting room.
However, the rest of the crowd doubted Shunin’s mental state, rather than being frightened.
“Obviously, there were no complaints until the time you took the treatment of the princess, didn’t you? Why are you suddenly like that?”
“It’s like a person has changed.”
“I’m really old, did I get senile?”
Ethan was equally ignorant.
‘what? Are you crazy?’
In this way, the search for the remains of the Demon King came to an end.
* * *
next day.
A priest came to Ethan’s room.
This is because the permission for the treatment of the princess has been lost.
“I will guide you to the place where the princess is. Follow me.”
Ethan followed the priest to the Great Crusade.
It was the same path that Jacob had led before.
Ethan asked the priest.
“What happened to High Priest Justia, who was originally in charge of the treatment?”
The priest coughed as if in embarrassment.
“High Priest Justia has withdrawn from the treatment of the princess.”
“Then I guess I was in charge of the treatment on my own.”
The priest looked around and responded slightly.
“Actually, there is also a reaction that High Priest Justia’s objection is natural. Because there is something tangled between the Church and the Empire.”
“Hmm.”
But Ethan had a different idea.
‘Certainly, it’s not unusual for a priest of the Pars Church to have animosity towards the Empire. But wouldn’t it have been better if he had refused treatment in the first place? At first he didn’t say anything, but why did he do such a sudden thing now?’
Then a memory flashed through Ethan’s mind.
A renegade priest whom the delegation of Aurum spoke of.
Schnin was actively defending Matilda Harper.
Secret stories of the followers of the Demon King, which he learned through his jet-black eyes, etc.
‘That secret story happened a hundred years ago. However… … .’
Wouldn’t those who infiltrated the church once in the past do the same thing now?
‘It seems that the old man is now a rotten part of the Church.’
It was at that time when Ethan and the priest arrived at the entrance to the Great Sanctuary.
I saw a group standing in the lobby of the Grand Sanctuary.
Ethan’s left eye twitched when he saw them.
‘What about those guys?’
Ethan soon recognized who they were.
It was the Dark Followers in the disguise of an emissary.
‘They were with Matilda Harper.’
A high priest was handing them something.
It was a small box wrapped in pure white cloth.
“Although it is sealed properly, it is not an ordinary item, so handle it with care.”
Ethan’s eyebrows twitched at those words.
Meanwhile, Philip Gordon, who received the item, talked with the priest.
“This is the remnant of that Demon King.”
“yes. I discovered it a long time ago, but I couldn’t find any traces of magical power, so I’ve only kept it in the church until now.”
“Hmm, that’s odd. I’m sure it’s the Demon King’s thing, but I couldn’t find any traces of magic. Clearly, it is best to do a detailed inspection in our Aurum.”
The priest was relieved when Philip said it was no big deal.
The remnants of the Demon King that Philip received were objects that had been sleeping for a long time in the Central Church.
This is how this item was transferred to Aurum.