Chapter 172: 172

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Three days later, the events of the capital city had finally reached the Church of Caiolium’s headquarters . And the ones reporting the truth happened to be none other than the Church’s own Priests .

Not just any Priests either, but the ones Cardinal Mikael had personally sent to the capital, no less .

These people, they were…

“This was our fault!”

“We must repent! We must ask for forgiveness right away!”

…All clearly deranged .

The Priests sent in as the saboteurs had this distant, longing look in their eyes while loose smiles were etched on their lips .

They spread open their arms and shouted at the members of the Church of Caiolium still engaged in the life of debauchery .

“The Seventh Imperial Prince has spoken . He who is a Saint and the divine king, has issued a decree!”

“If you acknowledge your sins and bow your heads, he shall forgive your crimes!”

“We must heed the words of the noble being who has descended to this world to preach the will of Goddess Gaia!”

“Everyone, it’s still not too late . Yes, it’s not too late!”

The Priests of the Church, who were still enjoying themselves in various indecent conducts as usual, could only exchange glances with one another while listening to the rants of their colleagues returning from the capital .

These Priests, sent to infiltrate the capital’s streets, slums, and even the imperial court, were instead preaching to the Church of Caiolium now .

The ranting Priests turned their heads towards the leader of the Church wearing a gorgeous golden robe and holding a wooden crosier .

They glared straight at Mikael and rebuked him .

“Also, you have crossed the line . ”

“Your eminence, Cardinal Mikael . It’s not too late for you . Bow your head and implore his highness . ”

“If you do, you shall receive salvation and forgiveness in the form of your eternal respite!”

Those words caused the corrupt, naked Priests drowning themselves in fine liquor to freeze up on their spots .

The insanity of the returning Priests seemed to be worse than they initially thought . So much so that it was Cardinal Mikael who got flustered instead .

These returning Priests were supposed to be his loyal subordinates, while their faith in him and the Church should have been unshakeable .

Yet, they had returned after going through a ‘metamorphosis’ .

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“Repent, your eminence!”

“Oh, the corrupt one who perverted the teachings of Gaia! Repent!”

The muscles around Cardinal Mikael’s eyes started twitching uncontrollably .

These returning Priests had said something that really got on his nerves .

He had no problem letting most of the insane ramblings slide . But the assertions of him going against Gaia’s teachings and being corrupt definitely touched his reverse scale .

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Mikael shot up from his seat as rage spread on his face .

He took aim at the returning Priests with his crosier, injected his divinity into the staff, and unleashed it .

The bodies of the Priests exploded .

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Bits of blood and flesh landed everywhere after their torsos were blown cleanly apart . Their lower halves slowly faltered to the floor .

The other Priests screamed in shock .

Mikael simply ignored them and muttered to himself, “Just what happened back in the capital?”

He stared at the dead Priests as cold sweat trickled down his spine .

What exactly did they witness? Just what happened to them that they ended up changing this much?

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Even before these Priests made their way back to the Church, Mikael had already heard about the general gist of the situation .

He heard that the Priests and subjects protesting on the streets of the capital had suddenly gone quiet . They instead began defending the Seventh Imperial Prince and demanded that the Church of Caiolium be punished .

This abrupt change happened literally overnight .

And now, all connections to the Priests in the capital who happened to be on friendly terms with the Church had been cut off .

Cardinal Mikael chewed on his nails .

His legs began trembling on their own from a sense of restlessness .

Eventually, he managed to come up with a theory .

“Brainwashing, is it?”

The Priests of the Church of Caiolium flinched a little when he murmured that out, and they hurriedly approached him .

“Brainwashing, your eminence?”

“What do you mean by that, sir?”

Mikael glanced at them before clarifying himself, “The Seventh Imperial Prince has made a deal with the devil, has he not? Which means he should be an expert at wielding Necromancy by now, too . So, I was wondering if he resorted to brainwashing the masses through black magic . ”

“But how can that be?!”

The complexions of the Priests paled instantly .

This was nothing more than speculation at this juncture .

First of all, such a brainwashing technique was impossible to pull off unless you broke the target’s mind first, and secondly, brainwashing not just one or two people but tens of thousands in one go was also theoretically impossible as well .

But through this encounter, it became certain that there was ‘something’ at play here .

If the atmosphere of persecuting the Seventh Imperial Prince had been reversed for real, then the Church of Caiolium would no doubt be punished as the organisation of heretics instead .

Mikael couldn’t let that happen without fighting back .

“Bring me all the reports related to the Seventh Imperial Prince at once!”

Soon, numerous documents piled up in front of Mikael . He carefully perused their contents . Eventually, his eyes narrowed to fine slits .

“A shovel?”

Apparently, during his banishment period, he defeated some zombies using a shovel .

“A musket?”

He then freely wielded a musket rifle, which was basically nothing more than an expensive ornament, in order to hunt down Vampires and lycanthropes .

Besides that…

“He lost to Princess Hilda during various sparring sessions?”

Did this mean that he was weak in close-quarter combat? No, wait . Princess Hilda was uncommonly strong in that regard, wasn’t she?

Well, she did enjoy the pastime of hunting lycans down for fun, so…

In any case, this avenue definitely needed to be looked at .

Mikael browsed through the incidents that happened in Humite next .

“He summoned the Blue Devils?”

However, what about the records of the Seventh Imperial Prince engaging in close-quarter battles?

Mikael couldn’t find any .

Most notably, it seemed that Harman from the Paladin Corps and Marquis Charlotte almost always accompanied him whenever he was fighting his enemies .

He’d summon the holy undead through Necromancy, then while using them as his shields, he’d fight from the rear of the formation . That seemed to his preferred style .

A grin floated up on Mikael’s face . “So that’s how it was . ”

The target, the Seventh Imperial Prince, knew only Necromancy and nothing else . And his main weapon was a musket, a ranged weapon .

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His overall combat ability might be excellent, yes, but he was glaringly insufficient in close-quarter battles .

Mikael perused the next report . It seemed that the stories of who the next Holy Emperor could be were now doing the rounds among the aristocracy .

“Looks like there still is a way to stop them, after all . ”

Mikael got up and headed to another location .

His new destination was the underground prison located below the Church of Caiolium’s headquarters . Countless prisoners were currently locked away in this place .

Cardinal Mikael silently walked past them before coming to stop . He then took a glance to his side .

“Pant… pant…”

The cell he looked into contained an aged Priest, currently covered with still-flowing blood from his head to toe . Shackles made out of Eltera, metal naturally resistant to magic, were bounding the wrists and ankles of this old man . His eyes and mouth were also covered up .

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It was none other than Archbishop Raphael .

This man still had plenty of uses left . When Mikael rose up to the position of the pope, he’d be able to utilise Raphael’s influence to his advantage .

But as things stood, Raphael had no value as a hostage .

‘The Holy Emperor won’t hesitate to discard his loyal retainers and his children . That’s just who he is . ’

Indeed, that insane emperor would threaten the ones trying to threaten him instead – while saying that if the hostages were not promptly released, or worse, if they got hurt even by a tiny little bit, then he’d ruthlessly massacre all of his enemies .

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‘However . ’

A chink in the Holy Emperor’s armour had finally shown up .

And that was…

‘…The boy who will become the next Holy Emperor!’

The Seventh Imperial Prince, Allen Olfolse .

By taking him hostage, the situation would change quite drastically .

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Not only was he a precious grandson, he was also seemingly destined to become the next Holy Emperor . Without a doubt, his value should be higher than anyone else .

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Mikael turned his gaze away and continued walking deeper into the darkness . He eventually reached the cell at the deepest part of the underground prison .

A prisoner who should’ve been executed a long time ago was shackled inside .

His face, barely visible through the sturdy steel bars, seemed to be that of a middle-aged man in his mid forties .

There were some wrinkles on his face and his unkempt beard had withered badly, but his physique was still amazingly robust .

This man used to be a member of the Order of the Golden Cross once upon a time . More than that, he was almost chosen as the inheritor of the title of the next sword king as well .

But he became a criminal after going against the Holy Emperor’s decree and slaughtered three hundred citizens suspected of being Vampires .

This man, who slaughtered over a hundred of Vampires and cut down one thousand Aslan warriors in his lifetime, was…

“Kasim Derian . ”

The man raised his head when his name was called .

“I shall grant you freedom . And a chance to exact your vengeance on the Imperial Family as well . ”

Mikael grinned brightly and addressed the man .

“I’ll have you go and capture the Seventh Imperial Prince for me . ”

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Fin .