Chapter 594
It is very likely that the remains in the graves of saints were not stolen, but disappeared after someone revived them as undead.
Knowing a very important fact thanks to Ludwig’s intuition, Ellen asked the paladin who served as the lead.
“Did you know about the Templars?”
“… … .”
“You knew.”
silence is the answer
But just because he kept it a secret, he couldn’t argue why he lied.
The fact that those who were promoted as saints became undead would surely remain an insult and fatal stain on the saints of the Five Major Churches.
No one would have wanted to know this. Even if it’s a warrior.
“Not sure. It’s just speculation.”
“I guess so.”
Elaion Bolton would not have wanted Ellen to know this. But strangely, Ellen tried to stop here, but Ludwig unexpectedly reached the truth.
The Templars knew.
However, it was kept secret because it should not be known to the outside world.
Elaion Bolton couldn’t stop Ellen, but that was probably why he hid the truth.
“Are you hiding anything more?”
“doesn’t exist.”
But Ellen couldn’t believe it.
“I’m leaving.”
There is nothing more you need to know in the field.
* * *
After leaving the Temple of the Knights Templar, the four of them are still walking down the snow-covered streets.
“For now, let’s go back to the temple and think about it slowly. The Templars have no intention of helping us properly.”
“I might be in the way. I’m sorry.”
I don’t know if it’s Ellen alone, but there’s even Louise von Schwarz.
Not only the hero but also the heir of Kernstadt learned about the very serious problems and even fatal truths that had occurred in the Templars.
So it was inevitable that Ileion Bolton would be uncooperative with Ellen.
“No, you were helpful enough. Whoever it is, you won’t be able to touch Ludwig easily.”
It is clear that Ludwig’s safety was politically secured. Louise can’t help directly, but just being by her side helps.
Ellen sorts things out.
“The Templars knew from the beginning that they were not just thieves, but a group of mages. It must have been the same for Rowen.”
“The commander of the Knights Templar said that Rowen, who investigated the case even after he returned, did not share the results of the investigation, so he said he did not know what Rowen was doing. But I’m not sure if this is true.”
“It’s not that there’s absolutely no possibility that the captain’s words are true. Five Popes were in charge of managing the Five Main Orders of the Imperial Capital and the Templars, and it seems that Rowen did not have to report to the Commander of the Templars if the Pope had directly instructed them.”
“Anyway, Rowen must have investigated the case knowing about the connection between becoming undead and wizards. I guess it was only natural that the focus was on demonists and pagans.”
“While tracking down the case, Rowen offended those involved, and that’s why he was killed, which is at least what we know now.”
“I’m not sure if they’re really demonists.”
“And why did you approach Ludwig… … . I don’t know. I guess it has nothing to do with this case. It is true that he was targeting me, and the intention was not related to this case. think so.”
There are many truths to know.
But in the end, I couldn’t get to the most important point.
I was able to deduce to some extent why he killed Rowen.
It’s not clear who killed it, but the candidates are narrowing down.
but where the heck are they?
The simpler the case, the harder it is to know the truth, and the more complex the case, the easier it is to reach the truth.
However, in the end, there are only complicated clues, and you don’t know where each clue points.
Now that I can’t distinguish meaningful clues from meaningless clues, I can’t draw any conclusions because I have to consider everything.
“If you are a demonic cult… … .”
Ludwig speaks carefully.
“The fact that I was able to revive the ashes and kill the priest… … .”
Ludwig looks hesitantly at Ellen.
“What the Demon King did… … . Maybe… … ?”
“… … .”
Ellen’s eyes widened at that question, and it was the same for Louise and Heinrich.
Louise heard from Heinrich today that the Demon King might not be such an evil being, and that there would be a truth unknown to the world in the Gate situation.
The Demonic Church and the Demon King are inextricably linked.
Either the demonists acted under the direction of the demon lord, or the demon lord himself infiltrated the graves of saints and revived the remains as undead before disappearing.
Ellen feels a shattering headache come over her again.
Reinhardt couldn’t do something like this, Ellen gritted her teeth and tried to endure the pain.
“It is unlikely.”
“is that so… … ?”
It was Louise, not Ellen, who shook her head at Ludwig’s doubts.
“We all do not know where the Demon King is. yes?”
“yes… … .”
“Let’s assume that the demon king did this. Just because I know that, can I find out where the demon king is and punish him?”
At Louise’s words, Ludwig blankly nodded.
“Yes… … .”
“What is the reason for the demon king to murder that priest? Whether or not he knows what he did, no one knows where he is.”
“ah… … .”
“Therefore, there is no reason to take the risk and have the demon king attack the temple and kill all the people there.”
If the one who revived the remains of the catacombs was the Demon King.
And if Rowen was murdered while pursuing the case.
The logical conclusion is that it was the Demon King who murdered Rowen.
However, the Demon King must have a reason to kill Rowen.
There is no reason why the Demon King should find and kill the Heretic Inquisitor named Rowen who is after him.
It is the same in case of notoriety.
Even if it is known to the public that the demon king raised the ashes of saints in the catacombs of the Knights Templar to the undead, the demon king did not suffer any damage.
In the face of being treated as causing the gate incident, how about spreading the story that he revived some corpses?
There was no reason for the demon king to kill Rowen because it had no meaning or meaning.
Consequently, erroneous inferences occur.
The Demon King has no reason to kill Rowen. So he wouldn’t have killed him.
The people who killed Rowen are the catacombs grave robbers of the Knights Templar.
Therefore, the false inference that the devil would not have been involved in the grave robbery of the saints is complete.
“that’s right. The demon king… … . There’s absolutely no benefit to be gained by killing Rowen. Rather, it is just taking the risk of infiltrating the imperial capital and doing such a thing.”
Ellen, barely able to speak while enduring a headache, was thinking the same thing as Louise.
I didn’t think so because I believed in Reinhardt.
Seriously, even if you think about it soberly, there is no reason Reinhardt should have killed Rowen.
The scene of the incident was ostentatious.
Catch it if you want to catch it.
If that had happened, it could have been the work of the demon king.
However, because Rowen was murdered while pursuing the case, the possibility that it was the devil’s work was infinitely lowered.
It was clear that the conclusion Louise and Ellen reached was the most reasonable one.
However, the world is far from rational.
Therefore, the probability of a rational judgment being wrong was always, always high.
* * *
said Ellen. If it was a simple case, she wouldn’t be able to figure it out.
There might be something complex, strange, hidden that can only be found out if there is something hidden.
However, the incident hid overly large roots, and the roots were not fully exposed.
The priest who was doing the purification work was the head of the Heretic Inquisitors.
The Heretic Inquisitor was investigating the whereabouts of the stolen remains and the culprit, and was catching and torturing heretics.
And it is very likely that the remains were not actually stolen, but were resurrected through undead conversion.
After all, you can’t solve everything in one day.
Although the name of the demon king was mentioned, Louise and Ellen judged that the possibility of the demon king being involved in this case was infinitely low, and Ludwig, who raised the question, had no choice but to agree with that opinion.
Back to the Temple and back to the Royal Class Dormitory.
Ludwig’s expression continued to harden.
No matter who is involved and what the truth of this case is, it doesn’t change that Ludwig has been tricked by Rowen all this time.
He didn’t know what he was doing, and he didn’t even suspect what his intentions were when he approached him.
It was scary and terrifying to see the guards killing civilians carelessly.
So when Rowen showed up, I was very happy.
I did it because I thought it was necessary for everyone, and I thought it was necessary without any worries.
And when Rowen asked if it would be okay for me to serve as his bodyguard tomorrow and in the future as well.
Ludwig felt as though he had been saved.
However, Rowen was a heretic inquisitor who committed evil acts that were incomparable to those of the guards.
It is impossible to count how many people were tortured and killed at Rowen’s hands.
Ludwig didn’t know that.
Even though I could tell from Rowen’s strange appearance that she was a different person than normal.
Even so, since he is a person who does what people need, he must be a good person.
I was vaguely thinking that.
Strictly speaking, I believed it because I wanted to believe that Rowen was a good person.
Ludwig was foolish.
Rowen knew Ludwig before he met him, and in the end, Rowen was killed before he could achieve what he wanted through Ludwig.
But if Rowen hadn’t been murdered, she would have achieved what she wanted through Ludwig.
Whether it was killing Ellen to get rid of the Cult of the Braves or whatever else.
What if Rowen approached Ludwig with the intention of killing Ellen?
Maybe it’s a good thing Rowen was killed.
way back to the temple.
Ludwig hated his weakness.
disillusionment with oneself.
Hatred.
anger.
I thought that was getting better after meeting Rowen.
However, now that he didn’t recognize anything about Rowen, and was rather made fun of.
The comfort and stability he gained through Rowen plunges Ludwig deeper into the abyss.
In fact, nothing happened through them, but Ellen and Louise already had a hunch that Rowen was suspicious even without knowing anything. Even when she was killed, she sensed that Rowen was no ordinary priest.
Ludwig only regarded Rowen as a victim of injustice.
It was stupid, just stupid.
“… … .”
Now Ludwig could only hate his own stupidity.
says Ellen, who walks ahead.
“We have to assume that there are wizards among the demons in the refugee camp. However, there is a possibility that a warlock, not a demonic cult, is involved. Rather, it might be more likely that way.”
The situation varies greatly depending on who the alleged culprit is.
For the time being, the demon king was excluded from the line of the dragon.
Demonic religious forces that might be in the refugee camp.
Or, mages, including warlocks.
If the demons are the culprits, you should investigate the demons spreading in the refugee camp.
I won’t torture and kill civilians, but there are limits to interrogation.
Torture aside from its brutality, there is no better way to obtain information. Torture makes you vomit up information that doesn’t even exist.
If the black magicians were involved, they would have to secure what the grounds were.
“I wonder if we can get this done before the winter is over… … .”
Ellen looked up at the sky and let out a deep sigh.
What if the demonic religion has taken root in the vast refugee camp, and it is wearing the mask of the cult of warriors?
“Even if the Demonic Church is not actually involved in this, the fact remains that if the Demonic Church, dressed in the skin of the Heroic Church, is rooted in the refugee camp, we must find them.”
“… … I guess so.”
The problem is that.
In fact, regardless of whether they were involved or not, the Demonic Cult was a force that should not exist in the ecliptic.
Even if they have nothing to do with Rowen’s work, finding them is a must.
Rowen had told Ludwig that it was a combination of both.
While working to clean up the disease, they find out about suspicious things happening in the refugee camp and take action.
Rowen did not fake the cleanup.
In fact, while purifying the plague, they interrogated, tortured, and killed the infidels they found.
Compassionate.
He must have been thinking of helping people and rooting out all of them once he found the Demonic Cult.
while rescuing people.
The Demonic Gods were also preparing for the massacre.
Rowen was already implicitly revealing that he was the Heretic Inquisitor, but Ludwig did not know that.
“It is a completely different matter. I have something to think about.”
Ellen looked at Louise this time and said.
It was Louise, not Heinrich or Ludwig.
“what?”
“The commander of the Knights Templar kept hinting at me. I don’t think it’s an illusion.”
“A hint?”
“I was too careful with my words. Of course, it’s because it’s in front of me, the incident is an incident, and the Commander came with me, so it’s probably because… … .”
says Ellen.
“If the Protestant popes were trying to hide something from them, they said they couldn’t know anything.”
“… … .”
Louise was silent at Ellen’s words.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to say, I was just choosing what to say.
Ileion Bolton deliberately withheld the information from Ellen, but eventually let Ellen see the scene. That was also because she couldn’t stop Ellen.
“When nations come together, empires are formed and emperors are created, but the Knights Templar, which was formed by the five major religious orders, said that they were not emperors.”
Not every emperor in history has been more powerful than every feudal vassal or king.
However, the Emperor of the Gradias Empire was truly the most powerful man on the continent who ruled over all the lands of mankind and held a greater power than all the kings of the vassal states.
However, the leader of the Knights Templar, the Commander of the Knights Templar, is, in the end, only the commander of the Knights Templar, not a king or anything else.
“Someone like Ileion Boelton is not a great man to say such things because he covets power before the popes.”
Louise, of course, isn’t close to Ileion Boelton, the current commander of the Knights Templar, but she knows as much as she needs to know. The reason why he was supported by the empire was not because he was a slave to the empire, but because he wanted to maintain the status quo.
He doesn’t want big changes in the first place.
It is not likely that he said such things to Ellen because he suddenly had a desire for power that he hadn’t had, and was resentful towards the Popes of the Five Major Churches and wanted to get past them.
“The popes are intentionally hiding something from the Templar, and he has no authority to find out what it is. He hinted at me like that.”
Ileion Bolton said nothing definite.
When the popes hid something, I just said I didn’t know it.
“But this is an internal matter for the Templars. I don’t know what this has to do with Rowen’s work. So I think approaching the popes will require a lot of thought.”
Ellen could meddle in any human power, but she didn’t want to get too involved in the Templar’s internal affairs. It’s a political thing, and she knows that Ellen, she shouldn’t mess with it.
After all, it is the same point of view as Ludwig.
People die, sacrifices, monsters appear.
It’s easy to get your hands on something like that.
However, when Ellen suddenly appears at the Papal Council of the Five Major Churches and tells them to treat the commander of the Templars as if they are higher than you from now on, it is difficult to predict the outcome of that matter, regardless of whether it is possible or not.
It may be for the best, but it may also be for the worst.
“If this is simply a conflict between the head of the Knights Templar and the pope of the Five Major Churches, then it would not be an issue for us to intervene.”
“I guess so.”
“But if the popes were involved in this case… … . I don’t know what to do.”
Too dangerous to handle.
It may have nothing to do with the case, but if it is related, you shouldn’t know about it.
“My head hurts… … .”
The Popes of the Five Major Churches might know what the Commander of the Knights Templar doesn’t know.
He was already sufficiently involved in the Templar’s internal affairs, and he did not know that he would be involved in more complicated matters here.
