Chapter: 263
I joked with Grandpa about giving a gift to Tariki, but the reality is a bit different. The sun I want to create is merely a tool for my strategy.
According to Karia’s report, Tariki’s forces have already engulfed the Burrow territory.
Citizens of the territory. Servants of the mansion. Criminals in the alleys. Soldiers guarding the streets. Priests from a church. Knights belonging to a family.
Everyone, without exception, is consumed by darkness.
Previously, I thought I would only have to deal with a portion of them.
The difficulty of putting someone to sleep and the difficulty of moving someone is completely different. Given my current abilities as Nakrad, I determined that the limit would be moving a few at a time.
I believed that after finishing adequate preparations, a forceful push would lead me to face a dungeon disguised as the Burrow family.
However, now the story has changed.
If the magic circle activates and the darkness consumes the territory, all those people would become my enemies.
That quantity is beyond what I can handle.
It’s a kind of army and a disaster. If I respond inadequately, I’ll be suffocated before I even reach the mansion.
So I prepare the sun.
Whatever Tariki has planned, I will create a bright light that will erase all that darkness.
A clear light that will steal the night from those who have fallen into a deep slumber.
<…Theoretically, it should be possible.>
When Grandpa heard my plan to make the sun, he seemed somewhat displeased.
Was that to be expected? What I was about to do was far detached from common sense.
[The leap is too drastic and the risks are high. Honestly, if one of my subordinates came up with something like this, I would have yelled at them for being insane.]
“Grandpa, have you forgotten how I’ve been moving all this time?”
No, Grandpa. You’ve seen all the crazy things I’ve done; what are you talking about in terms of risks?
[Well, that's true.]
Having witnessed my bizarre antics more closely than anyone, Grandpa seemed at a loss for words.
‘So, it’s sufficiently possible, right?’
<Sigh… Yeah. If it works as you say.>
“That’s all I needed to hear.”
After receiving Grandpa’s affirmation, I told Alsatine to wait and stepped out of the Academy street.
Finding the person I wanted to meet was very easy.
With immense divine power, she herself was a landmark.
“Young Lady.”
Phoebe. The false saintess who would one day become the true saintess.
The more I train, the more I realize how outstanding her skills in divine magic are.
One of the scam characters at the Soul Academy.
She was praying before the idol in the church early in the morning when she smiled at me upon seeing my face.
A smile filled with reassurance, relief, and happiness.
I smiled back and spoke up.
“I need your help.”
“The sloppy saintess. Since you’re so lacking, I’ll give you a special chance to let me help you. What do you say?”
“What should I do?”
Even though I blurted out my request before even greeting her, Phoebe nodded without a moment’s hesitation.
In her demeanor, I sensed a kind of madness. The same kind of madness I’d seen in Karl.
Taken aback, I asked if she wasn’t going to listen to what I had to say, and Phoebe cocked her head and replied,
“No need to listen. It’s a request from the Young Lady, after all.”
‘…What if I ask you to do something weird?’
“Hmmm~ Anything? How about I make you crawl on your hands and knees and bark like a dog?”
“Is that necessary?”
Phoebe’s serious expression made it hard to tell if she was joking or not.
I couldn’t bring myself to answer. If I said it was necessary even as a joke, she seemed like she’d genuinely follow my words.
“I’m just joking, Young Lady.”
The short and heavy silence dissipated as Phoebe laughed.
…Oh. Right? It was a joke, right?
“What I asked was because I thought the Young Lady only had one thing to ask me.”
Ah. That makes sense.
It was Phoebe who confirmed the issues of the Burrow family. Naturally, if I came asking for something shortly after, it would have to be related to the Burrow family.
So now I’ve been played by Phoebe.
The kindhearted saintess is playing pranks on me. She must be feeling quite close to me.
Realizing this made me happy, but separate from that joy, being teased also annoyed me.
I must take revenge.
“Young Lady?! Are you hurt?! Does it hurt?!”
Having given her a fitting punishment by pinching her cheeks, I took the blushing Phoebe outside the church. It wasn’t the right place for secret discussions.
*
The day Phoebe noticed the issues within the Burrow family.
She explained everything she had seen to Lucy. She also said that if necessary, she could report the Burrow family to the church.
However, Lucy rejected her offer.
She had no intention of involving the power of the church, let alone revealing the issue. She asked the sloppy saintess to keep quiet for a while.
At that time, Phoebe couldn’t understand Lucy’s request.
The Apostle of Evil God was trying to swallow the Duke’s family. If not dealt with quickly, it could lead to a great disaster.
According to the original plan, once she noticed any signs, she should have reported them to the church to nip it in the bud.
Having been the symbol of Lord Jushin for a long time, Phoebe understood the importance of this procedure better than anyone.
Yet still, she followed Lucy’s words without question.
She was the Apostle of Armadi. A person who hears the words of God from the closest proximity. There must be a profound meaning to whatever she requests.
Phoebe kept her silence without any doubts.
She waited patiently for the day when the will of God would descend upon the earth.
A few days later, on a morning.
Lucy, who would normally be sweating it out in the training grounds, came to the church to find Phoebe.
That alone made Phoebe understand the situation. The Apostle of God needs her to defeat the Evil God.
Her expectations were not wrong. Lucy sought Phoebe to combat the disaster that was arising from the Burrow territory.
She had been chosen by the Apostle, Lucy.
It was certainly something she should feel honored about, and if it were the old Phoebe, she might have cried tears of joy.
But she couldn’t do that.
“Let me be clear, this is a trap set by filthy trash trying to pull me into their mess. Given how cautious that trash is, they’re probably well-prepared and extremely dangerous. So think carefully. It could be a life-or-death situation.”
Lucy’s words were so strange that they made Phoebe uneasy.
“…Uh. Young Lady.”
“What is it, sloppy saintess?”
“A trap, you say?”
“Yeah. That wretched, weak Evil God can’t take his revenge on the Shoddy God directly, so he’s trying to torment me instead.”
“And yet you want to go there directly?”
“Hey. Are you unwell? Why do you keep asking me the same question like a goldfish?”
“Why?”
Why?
Knowing that it’s a trap.
Knowing that it’s dangerous.
Knowing that if she goes there, she will suffer, and might even die.
Why would she insist on going there?
There are plenty of alternatives.
She could rely on the power of the country or the church.
No matter how she thought about it, there was no reason for the Young Lady to step into danger.
The Apostle chosen by Armadi shouldn’t have to risk her life at all.
So why insist on going?
“Why should I have to rely on those weaklings or that pitiful trash masquerading as a god?”
“That’s not such a simple matter! Young Lady!…”
Phoebe, who was about to raise her voice disapprovingly at Lucy’s answer, suddenly realized a certain fact.
What if.
What if Phoebe brought in other forces as she proposed?
What if the country and the church got involved?
Phoebe knew the answer all too well.
She had heard it through voices, read it in texts, seen it in pictures, and witnessed it with her own eyes.
The Burrow family would vanish.
Erased from history just because one of their members reached out to the Evil God.
The Duke Burrow would lose everything due to the foolish actions he committed when he was young.
Without even having the chance to repent, he would fall into hell.
But what if she resolved the issues of the Burrow family without bringing in any other forces?
What if she quietly buried all those matters?
With those thoughts, Phoebe halted her words and let out a chuckle.
Not a soft laugh filled with saintly grace.
But a laugh born out of disbelief.
And a laugh created from the sheer awe of the person before her.
So the Young Lady intends to throw away her own life for someone else’s, as if it were a matter of course?
No one would recognize that achievement.
There’s no guarantee that even the Duke Burrow himself would thank her.
And yet, without any hint of hesitation, she’s thinking of throwing away her own life?
Ah, I see. I get it now.
It’s for this reason that Armadi selected you as an Apostle.
Meanwhile, this fool—myself—was calculating the value of lives.
Believing that the life of the young lady who holds the title of Apostle is worth more than anyone else’s.
Even after being saved by your nobility.
I guess I’ll have to spend a sleepless night saying prayers of atonement.
Just how much did I laugh?
Only when Lucy began to look at Phoebe with concern did she finally open her eyes.
“Young Lady.”
“…Sloppy saintess? You’re not going crazy, are you? Right?”
“I’ll do it.”
“Huh?”
“No matter what danger awaits, I’ll do it.”
To add my humble strength to the noble Apostle’s will.
“So please tell me what we need to do.”
When Phoebe said something similar in church recently, Lucy had scolded her not to do that, but this time was different.
She raised an eyebrow slightly and merely lifted one corner of her mouth.
“Alright, sloppy saintess. I’ll let you know what we need to do.”
“Yes. I’ll do my best, no matter what.”
“We’re going to the Arteia family right now to sell dignity to the divine pervert there.”
“…What?”
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