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If anyone asked, where the authority lied in the empire, most would point to the capital, the holy city of Torra.

Located inside the holy city was the throne of eternity in which the emperor was enshrined. The landmark and milestone of the empire.

But it was hard to argue for it, as it wasn’t a living authority.

A pragmatic person would rather point to the ‘Citadel of the sun’, where the empire’s regent was located, Vares Valte himself.

Head of the empire’s strongest and most powerful knight order and in overall command of half the empire’s armed forces.

But if one asked an honest person in private, they may instead point to the ‘Vatican’ where the Pope resided.

The church had a big influence on how the empire’s citizens thought about things and acted.

They represented humanity’s saviour, the emperor and acted as his proxy.

While some people didn’t believe this to be true, the Pope, Helmut Helvine did.

“……..Is there still no response from the White crow knights?”

Helmut was anxiously roaming across his corridor at the Basilica.

While he was over ninety years old, his body was still functioning fine.

Lately however, there’d been some news that deterred him from his sleep.

“No, not yet your holiness.”

It was a question that had recently been repeatedly asked, and the young priest answered him while having her head glued to the floor and on her knees.

Helmut scowled and kicked the girl in the face.

The priest girl rolled onto her back but then quickly got back to her knees again. Her face was already bruised up and a few teeths were missing.

As blood dropped onto the corridor, the young priest quickly wiped it clean with her sleeve.

“It’s already been several days! How could there not be any update! The Blue rose knights should have encountered him by now!”

The young priest shivered and could do nothing but bow her head.

She had the power of healing ‘grace’ so these injuries didn’t matter, but she couldn’t perform ‘grace’ in front of Helmut in fear of greater punishment.

She could but hope that this conundrum would quickly come to pass.

“Your holiness, message from commander Ethan Ethil of the White crow knights has arrived.”

At last, she heard a voice of a saviour.

Helmut quickly made his way over to the priest who came to deliver the message.

The moment Helmut disappeared, the other priests came over to heal the girl priest.

“What, did they say they got him?”

“Your holiness.”

With a sour expression, the priest handed over the letter.

Skipping over the flowery introductions and phrases at the top, Helmut quickly looked down towards the main crux of the letter.

A short message, enough to fit on two lines.

[Pursuit of child apostate halted due to detection of Hugin knights activities]

That was it.

Helmut almost let out a curse.

He specifically instructed the White crow knights to kill the child apostate from Tantil.

But the knight commander Ethan Ethil decided to ignore this and pursue a different objective.

‘That little shit, you did this on purpose!’

Helmut just about swallowed the curse rising up his throat.

He knew there were many out there who mocked his humble position.

The ability to deliver messages was instant through ‘grace’. There was no reason why a simple message took so long to get delivered.

At the bottom of the letter, there was a wordy excuse for the lateness, but he was sure Ethan had sent the message late on purpose knowing his pursuit for Hugin knights would be opposed.

“Is there anyone that does their job properly!”

Helmut shouted while ripping the letter into pieces.

He had given clear orders to Bishop Rieto, Inquisitor Kato along with many other church practitioners.

But now, Kato had gone missing and the Blue rose knights were unreachable.

Helmut Anxiously bit his finger.

“Your holiness.”

Helmut flinched at hearing a deep low voice from across the hallway.

Seeing the newcomer, the other priests all hurriedly left the room.

A man stood at the end of the hallway, fully armored and a sword strapped to his waist, even though weapons were strictly prohibited inside the Basilica.

“Are you still thinking about the prophecy.”

He was tall and his hair was completely white. Scars were found on each well built muscle on his body.

But the thing that caught most people’s eyes was his strapped white cloak with a sun symbol.

“Commander Pavan.”

Commander of Capital’s knights. Pavan Peltere.

The sun was the symbol of the emperor, so in the past only the royal guard were able to use it. However, in the emperor’s assasination, the captain of the imperial guard was found to have collaborated, thus the symbol was deprived.

After that, the Capital’s knights under the command of Vares Valte began to use the sun as their symbol.

“It’s been a while, your holiness. I’ve heard the news. It’s a mess.”

Helmut felt sick hearing Pavan words. While he was a Pope with authority and influence over the empire, he couldn’t underestimate a commander of the Capital’s knight who was basically Vares Valte’s deputy.

“The effect of the emperor’s generosity has reached lands beyond my influence. I see its reached ears inside the Citadel as well. It’s only a minor incident. Nothing too concerning.”

Helmut tried to act nonchalantly about it but Pavan was deceptive.

“Our general doesn’t seem to think that way.”

Hearing that Vares Valte had his interest in this incident, Helmut bit his lip.

The reason why Vares Valte was able to take control of the government affairs was because he had no ambition in politics.

If Pavan showed signs of wanting authority then it would be easy for him to weaken Helmut’s position of power.

While it was the church that ruled the empire, in reality at the top of the chain, the power lied with Vares Valte.

In creating policies and plans, Helmut couldn’t do anything to offend Vares and stay vigilant in his shadow.

“Shall we take a walk. You must be sick of staying inside this building for most days.”

“…….The Basilica is big enough to accommodate me fine.”

Pavan started to walk past Helmut. An irritated Helmut silently followed.

“So, what was the prophecy again? I believe it started off like ‘The black emperor….’ or something like that.”

“…..The black emperor will appear from the south and dye the fields in grey. A dragon will wake, fallen gods will rise, the border will be torn down and the emperor will be dragged from his throne. Word for word, that’s what our saint cried out last month.”

Pavan absorbed the prophecy and looked into space while pondering. Then after a while, he let out a laugh and shaked his head.

“Didn’t your holiness already…….hmm, expect the saint’s prophecy?”

He was expressing the fact that the saint’s prophecies were all fabricated in the first place.

The Pope regularly picked apart omens to their own advantage and released it to the public.

The saint’s prophecies were no exception.

The saint was made to prophet lies, or distorted truths.

Vares Valte did know this was happening but chose to ignore it.

Their union had existed since the early days.

As Helmut had no ways to win against him, he was a valuable resource.

Helmut twisted his lips.

“This prophecy is different.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, how’s it different?”

“First of all, this isn’t a prophecy I had my hands on. There was a great fire on the southern plains that we still don’t know how it happened, and Tantil’s Colosseum was set on flames. Adding to that, when the Gray tower collapsed, reports tell us of a torrential rain swept the area when it was not even the rainy season. There are even whispers that Taltere and Grunvalde have revived. One by one, the boxes are being ticked.”

Instead of a reply, Pavan gave a shallow laughter. Helmut realised Pavan wasnt believing anything he just said.

It was as expected. He would likely have laughed if he was in his shoes.

“Isn’t it just coincidence? Maybe it’s a good idea to stop believing everything that comes out of the saint’s room, your holiness.”

“…….You’re right. Maybe I’ve gotten too old and kind.”

“It’s nothing but a passing breeze. There’s bound to be many strange phenomenons here and there. Making a fuss about a strange development here in the capital will cause restlessness, which we don’t want.”

Helmut observed a strange feeling from Pavan’s accent. His face hardened.

The appearance of apostates and cultists usually gave the opportunity for the church to strengthen their power.

Pavan was skeptical whether Helmut was using this instance to spread the church’s influence even further.

Vares’s opinion was of the same.

Helmut’s quick awareness and balance was the reason how he managed to sustain a friendly relationship with Vares for so long and rise to the position of Pope.

“……….I’ll make sure to be cautious. Please relay that to the general as well.”

“I’m most gratified at seeing his holiness take my humble advice.”

Helmut quietly nodded his head.

All he could do was to bow and stay obedient for now.

Vares and his subordinates were arrogant enough to enter the Basilica, while jiggling their armed weapons.

And they had the power behind it to support their arrogance. It was natural for them to act that way.

Even though Paladins were strong, they couldn’t match the entire capital’s knights and the imperial army.

“Then I’ll take my leave here. At hearing your holiness so willing to heed my advice, I have nothing more to say. May the emperor watch over you.”

“May the emperor watch over you as well.”

Before Helmut even finished his wishes, Pavan turned his back and headed out through the corridor.

Looking at his back, Helmut again made the same promise that he’d made hundreds, thousand times.

The day he’d snap Vares Valte’s horn off his head, he’d use the horns to shove it down Pavan’s throat.

Helmut did his best to bow and look tame, but there were two things he was hiding.

One was that the main culprit behind these events was a black haired boy.

The other was that the saint revealed a new prophecy last night.

[I’ve never told anyone to serve me.

I’ve never told anyone to distort my teaching.

I’ve never told anyone to set fire to a village.

I’ve never told anyone to praise me with the blood of the weak.

That is not my….]

*****

Sina woke up. Of course with just her single eye.

At trying to open her left eye, she felt as if her eyelids were stuck together.

Only then, she’d realised her left eye was gone forever.

Injuries scorched with fire did not heal, even with the power of ‘grace’.

“You’ve awoken.”

Sina looked towards the sound of the voice. In front of her stood a bobbed hairstyle female knight with a cold expression.

Sina noticed the white silver armor with the white crow symbol and immediately realised she was part of the White crow knights. She was in their barracks.

“How…..?”

“We found you while we were tracking the Hugin knights movements. It appeared your comrades had already died. It was clear that there was an arduous fight. I’ve instructed the Laus mountain scouts to do their due diligence and pay respect before cleaning up the place. The bodies will be returned to Tantil.”

“Ah………..”

Sina once again was reminded of the fact all her comrades had died. Ausrey as well.

“Our knight commander didn’t particularly care, but I on the other hand want to apologise.”

The female knight bowed her head in front of Sina.

“I’m truly regretful. I know you needed assistance, but we were occupied trying to pull the roots of a far greater evil. It’s perfectly fine to resent us as it’s undeniable that your comrades will not return.”

“Ah, no. I already did understand your situation.

Although it was a lie if she wasn’t resenting them at all, she did acknowledge their reasoning.

It was natural for Paladin knights to prioritise Hugin knights over catching Juan.

Juan had only just caused an incident recently, while Hugin knights were one of the empire’s biggest thorns, having participated in the emperor’s assasination.

The Blue rose knights were abandoned and that was the right decision. And anyways, it was Hasell and Sina who still went through with the attack on Juan despite everything.

“My name is Camille Castoria. Deputy command of the White crow knights. You can call me Camille. I’ll try to do my best to provide anything you need during your stay. As we are still giving chase, it’s not the ideal time for a patient to recuperate but, if possible I’ll get someone to take you back to the nearest city.”

After saying so, Camille looked set to leave, wanting to give Sina some space to herself. Seeing this, Sina was confused.

“Ca, Commander Camille?”

“Hmm? You’ve got something to ask?”

“I uh, wanted to ask you that myself. Don’t you have anything you want to ask me? For instance, what I talked about with the boy?”

Sina was put on trial for speaking with Juan back in Tantil.

This time not only was she the sole survivor, there was evidence that she’d been cured by him. And yet no interrogation nor even an investigation was conducted.

“I was going to ask when you’re feeling a bit better. For now, we need all the manpower we’ve got to track down the Hugin knights. The bastard decided to patch you up, so I’m guessing he had something to tell us. But if you don’t want to, that’s also fine.”

“And why is that fine, if I may ask?”

“Apostates all have snake-like tongues. There’s no worth in listening to their words.”

Sina flinched at those words.

It sounded like she was telling her to wake up, if she had any doubts on her mind from Juan’s words.

Looking at Sina’s shaky eyes, Camille smiled and added.

“I can tell from the scar on your left eye, that you didn’t commit any sinful acts. The bastard kindly carved the ancient rune on to your skin. There’s no reason for him to do this, if you were on his side. Although it doesn’t really offend us either, so i’m not sure why he did this.”

“A rune……..? Can you tell me what it means?”

Camille replied.

“It means ‘the emperor’s watchdog’.”