#87
Piccaol Temple (2)
“Ah! I’ve heard a lot about you, Sir Heinrich. Truly, as I’ve heard, you’re an outstanding talent!”
“You’re too kind, Cardinal. Thank you for welcoming me in person despite your busy schedule.”
“It’s nothing other than a matter concerning the Holy Sword. Plus, if the Saint herself recommended you, I had to at least see your face! Heh heh ha—”
After arriving at Piccaol Temple and being assigned his lodging, Heinrich soon faced Cardinal Donovan, the head of this place.
With wrinkles showing his experience and a long white beard, his first impression was that of “the friendly grandfather next door.”
But that impression vanished in an instant as he looked down.
“Wow… what are those shoulders.”
His physique was anything but ordinary.
“Heh heh, as expected from youth, such impressive muscles. Alas, my old body doesn’t feel the same as before. In my prime…”
The contrast between his gentle expression and those broad shoulders, along with a straight back and bulging muscles moving every time he spoke, was striking.
“Didn’t I hear he was a Paladin?”
They said he had risen to the rank of Cardinal due to his great reputation, yet he seemed to have never forgotten to train even after reaching such a position.
Seeing those muscles at over sixty years old was quite impressive.
“Well, Sir Heinrich? I heard you’ve become the personal guard of the Saint. How is the work treating you?”
“Oh, up until now, I’ve mostly spent my time training under her instruction to prepare for the trials of the Holy Sword. After all, the Saint stays mostly within the Sacred Grounds.”
“I see. How is she doing? It’s been a while since I last saw her, and I wonder how she’s been since something big happened not long ago…”
He was referring to the incident of the Undead King attacking the temple.
However, it seemed like he had a keen interest in the Saint, but it could just be his rambling starting soon after.
In short, it was about how deep his friendship with the Saint was.
“Phew, it seems like it’s been over three years since I saw her. Once you reach this position, it’s not something you can leave casually. Had I known, I wouldn’t have taken the Cardinal position.”
But that seemed a bit excessive.
The Saint, taken as the foster daughter of the current Pope Hatyanus II at a very young age, was raised in the Sacred Grounds and loved by everyone in the order.
Who could bear to look at a small, cute child running around with a bright smile in this world?
And that included Cardinal Donovan, who was a Paladin at that time.
“Do you know? How adorable she was when she used to place a worm on her tiny hand and showed it off, saying ‘Look at this!’?”
“Uh… I can imagine that.”
Having married without children, the Saint was like a daughter or granddaughter to him.
It had been almost a decade since he witnessed her growth as she joined the order.
He was then appointed as Cardinal and became responsible for Piccaol Temple.
“But this place is quite a headache. The kingdom folks aren’t cooperating at all, so how could we expect to have a breather?”
In fact, while Resk Kingdom, where the temple was located, was in a better position, other kingdoms banded together to subtly suppress the order’s influence from growing too powerful.
Of course, Talia Kingdom, where Heinz II resided, was exceptionally harsh in that regard.
Heinrich, with a serious expression as if he understood nothing, simply nodded along to the Cardinal’s words.
As if he deeply sympathized.
“But why is he telling me all this?”
Although he had been expressing agreement with whatever the superior said, he couldn’t understand why he was laying out such details to him.
While he was pondering this internally…
Crack crack—
As Cardinal Donovan put his arm around Heinrich’s shoulder, the thick muscle began to slowly constrict around his throat.
“C-Cardinal?”
“Indeed, Sir Heinrich. I must say…”
Even in that situation, his kind expression and gentle tone didn’t falter in the slightest.
“The bright smile of the Saint is too vivid in my mind, making it hard for me to bear seeing her sad face.”
Veins popped and muscles bulged from the arm wrapped around Heinrich’s neck.
“But since she’s only grown up in the Sacred Grounds since childhood, she might not know much about the world. I worry she might get hurt unnecessarily. Like, for instance… some scoundrel trying to seduce her innocence.”
The smile on the Cardinal’s face vanished as he spoke through clenching teeth.
His burning gaze met Heinrich’s eyes.
“Do you understand what I mean?”
“…Yes, of course. I will thoroughly protect the Saint as her ‘personal guard.’ Please don’t worry.”
What else could he say in front of this lovable old man?
It was better to give the answer he wanted.
As he confidently made eye contact, the Cardinal’s expression gently returned to a smile.
“Ha ha! Well, it’s reassuring to have the most promising member of the order keeping an eye on the Saint. Please do well from now on.”
“Yes! That’s my duty after all.”
After chatting cheerfully for a while, the Cardinal stood up to attend to his pending tasks.
“I must take my leave now. I hope you become the master of the Holy Sword. With the Undead King resurrected, we have no time to lose.”
With that, as Cardinal Donovan left, the Archbishop in charge of the Holy Sword’s seal approached.
“Everything is prepared. When will you be heading out?”
“There’s no reason to delay after coming this far. I’ll challenge it right away.”
Since the Holy Sword was the core of the sealing barrier, getting to its location involved quite a complex process.
There was also a limit to how many times one could attempt in a year, and this time Heinrich had gotten the chance to challenge it.
‘Even renowned Paladins have failed, so I feel a bit pressured though…’
Still, he had faith in himself.
After all, he had a certain connection with the Holy God.
Surely, he would take care of him again this time, wouldn’t he?
‘Well then, I’ll do my best. I’ll work harder from now on!’
As Heinrich followed the Archbishop, he offered a solemn prayer to the Holy God.
With a slight hint of selfishness.
*
In Talia Kingdom, Duke Bright’s Mansion.
“So, you mean to say there’s still no significant information?”
“That’s correct. It seems that due to a sweeping incident related to the Undead King, no major Black Magic forces remain nearby.”
“What about forming an intelligence organization?”
“We’re working on that, but we need more time to gather information from distant areas.”
After all, it wasn’t going to be easy.
It was an issue that needed more long-term planning, but immediate needs couldn’t be ignored.
“Understood. If you find any minor Black Magician, report it separately. Ah, also any nuisances interfering with our work. I’ll handle that from this end.”
“…Understood.”
As Mulo lightly lowered his head and left, Heinz approached the window, pulling back the curtain to look up at the night sky.
‘Hans isn’t planning on making a move yet, but if problems arise, it means others are preparing something… I have no way to gather information.’
Indeed, there was a need to expand their influence faster.
And at that moment, he had the continent’s finest human resources.
Flap—
The moonlight swallowed by clouds over the darkened night sky.
Hans looked down upon the land with eyes steeped in the Abyss.
‘For now, I suppose I can assist Heinz.’
He was also considering gathering those he could boss around as slaves… no, extras and staff.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an unfair contract.
He planned to pay with something precious to anybody.
‘Life,’ that is.
‘I can’t take responsibility for any accidents that occur during work… but isn’t the chance of survival better than dying right away?’
That was better than dying instantly.
Heh heh heh… There’s one hiding over there.
If one belonged to the realm of Ma (magic), they couldn’t escape from his “Eye of the Abyss.”
*
In the Azerion Empire, adjacent to the Sacred Grounds.
“Hey! Signal detected!”
The man with blond hair, sitting in a well-decorated room in an armchair, suddenly opened his eyes wide.
“Goodness, I thought it was just wishful thinking, but it seems the Undead King truly is back. I really can’t decipher anything about the current Undead King. Why was there no signal all this time?”
His Unique Skill, “Trail Observation,” was optimized for information gathering.
It was a skill that could even read the past.
After hearing of a significant incident at Rosellia Temple, he dug into the details and stumbled upon information regarding the Undead King.
‘There was an overwhelming barrier surrounding the location of the Undead King’s appearance, so I could not verify it myself, but gathering information is the foundation of inquiry.’
Many had been mobilized for battles against him, and collecting information through them was relatively straightforward.
Every careless word each of them let slip was a piece of information.
Of course, that was only possible because he had accumulated Karma through all sorts of events and enhanced his Unique Skill three times.
“Hmm, but I guess being a big shot comes with its drawbacks. With so many enhancements, I still can’t observe him. I had suspected this.”
His ability had its many limitations.
He needed specific details about the subject of observation, and he couldn’t read individuals of significantly higher rank.
It was obvious that he wouldn’t be able to observe the Undead King.
Yet his reaction now had a reason.
When he activated “Trail Observation” just in case earlier, the outcome had been rather strange.
It wasn’t that his ability was lacking and he was told ‘unknown,’ but rather that there was simply ‘nothing’ to observe.
So he had worried whether the Undead King had perished at Rosellia Temple, but his allies dismissed it as nonsense.
If the Undead King had fully resurrected, there was no way he could have died that easily.
Ever since that day, he had been habitually attempting to observe the Undead King once a day, and today the result had changed to ‘unknown.’
“Wow, they were right… So has he been hiding in some dimension, shut off from the world while recovering?”
As he ruffled his messy blond hair, he didn’t find the situation all that unfavorable.
Now that a grand event was about to begin, the revival of the Undead King was, in fact, welcome news.
‘This timing is too good! Am I lucky?’
He only had a bit of Karma left before his fourth enhancement.
If he wrapped this up smoothly, he should be able to enhance without issues.
Moreover, this operation was just the beginning; it wasn’t the end.
‘How much Karma would I earn if I contributed to the destruction of an entire world?’
He chuckled, reclining comfortably in his armchair.
‘If they simply gather information from a safe and comfortable place, the rest will be handled by others; this is what I call a created economy.’
He was well aware that those present were incredibly dangerous, but somehow it didn’t concern him at all.
When the time came that the situation here became truly precarious, he would already be back on Earth.
“Ah~ I’m getting excited. If I return to Earth, I could achieve world domination, couldn’t I? I could wipe out state secrets and all that… heh heh heh.”
Another Awakened One transmitted to the dimension of Auterica was thus lost in his daydreams.
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