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We took a few days to cross Gahne, pass by the national borders of Mejis, and head to the capital of Mejis just like that.

I personally would want to head straight to Serende, but we have brought the bare minimum supplies. Considering the burden on the horses, we can’t avoid resupplying.

In the first place, we have to give proper rest to the horses, or we would lose even our way to return.

We went through Taizu which is surrounded by forests and mountains, passed through the vast plains of Gahne, and arrived at Mejis, but I feel like it is lacking in nature compared to other nations.

There’s a lot of terrain that has the Mejis Nether encroached in it and I heard that the strength of nature had deteriorated greatly, but this is my first time seeing it with my own eyes.

I didn’t need to come here in the battle against the Scarlet Demon Lord after all.

“It is almost time for the capital to come into sight, I guess? It is fine for me and Dyuvuleori to just regroup with Blue, right?” (Purple)

“Yeah, I can’t really bring you along, Purple. Sorry.”

“It is the seed I myself planted. I can at least show that much self-restraint, you know?” (Purple)

The number one reason why the faith of the Yugura Church is deeply rooted is because their homeland has been corroded by the calamities stemming from the Mejis Nether.

There’s a lot of devils in the Mejis Nether, and the intelligence of those monsters is high. They even had clear antagonism towards humans, so that makes it even worse.

Having the very culprit that created this Mejis Nether, Purple, displayed to the public would be something that no side would benefit from.

“Even if you cooperated in stopping the invasion of the Scarlet Demon Lord, it is not like all the enmity will disappear.”

“Right…” (Purple)

Right now the monsters born in the Mejis Nether are living in hiding at remote places under the orders of Purple.

The lesser devils have no power to go against that order, and the intermediate and high rank devils know the power of Purple, so they are obedient. There have been no reports of trouble as of present.

But there’s a lot of people living in Mejis that have had their families and comrades killed by devils in the past.

They most likely won’t ever forgive Purple.

If this were a problem that could be forgiven with an apology, there would have been no need to create a 3rd faction and form a relationship where we keep each other in check after all.

Purple and Dyvuleori got down the carriage, left the driving of the carriage to Ilias, and two big buildings came into sight after a few hours.

One is the Mejis castle -the place where the king of Mejis is. And then, the building that’s far bigger than even the Mejis castle and is towering over everything is the Grand Church of Mejis, the headquarters of the Yugura Church.

Its design is similar to that of the Yugura Church facilities in the other nations, but with this one being their holy grounds, the scale of it is on a whole different level.

I feel like there’s ideas from buildings on Earth mixed in it, but this is most likely the knowledge given by Yugura Nariya at work here.

“This is impressive.”

“It is far bigger than the church of Maya-san!” (Wolfe)

I did hear about this before from Rakura, but there’s no point in walls against devils who can fly in the sky, so there’s nothing resembling ramparts around the Grand Church.

What’s in its stead is a gigantic barrier that devils can’t approach.

“We will be passing through the place that has a barrier set. Have the countermeasures with Kutou been done?” (Ilias)

“Of course.”

It may be inside a wooden sword, but Kutou is a devil.

It may be possible to avoid simple detections, but he would end up getting drained in an instant if he stays inside the barrier.

And so, we have covered the whole body of Kutou with a special cloth that we had Nora make beforehand.

With this cloth wrapped around it, Kutou won’t be affected by barriers, and it will be harder to detect it as a devil even with high precision detection magic.

“It honestly dark and cramped.” (Kutou)

“It was either doing this or leaving you with Purple. You accepted it too, so don’t complain.”

“Orders from above. Can’t refuse. Sad fate.” (Kutou)

“Yeah, it is the sad reality of hierarchical relationships.”

Haakudoku, who is riding the carriage ahead of us, has the same cloth wrapped around his right arm.

I was thinking about entrusting Kutou to Purple and the others, but if that happened, it would either be pushed into a cask or bag, or lose its original form. That would be too pitiful.

The cityscape of Mejis is more simplistic compared to other countries.

It is in part because it has the most damage caused by monsters and it is a dangerous environment, but I feel like their intention is also to make the symbolical flower of the Grand Church stand out more.

The knights of Taizu will be taking a break in the facilities of the Mejis castle, so we parted ways from them.

We head to the Grand Church in part to greet Pope Euparo.

We should at least greet the king of Mejis if we have the time, but for Mejis that has the holy grounds of the Yugura Church, Pope Euparo has more authority than the king of Mejis.

Depending on the era, this is a situation where the king would have suppressed the church in desire for political power, but the Yugura Church has been taught many techniques by Yugura Nariya.

There’s no idiot who would make an enemy out of an organization like that.

If I were the king, what would I have done? Would I have had spies infiltrate in order to steal their secret techniques to slowly fill up the gap in technique?

But I don’t know whether the people would follow.

It might instead be better to just become a moderate puppet since it would lessen the burden of responsibility.

Yeah, I am not someone fit to stand above others.

I was imagining scenarios in my head like a highschooler as I arrived at the entrance of the Grand Church.

It is the entrance of a historical giant construction, so it really is overwhelming.

“Welcome to Mejis. We have been awaiting your arrival.”

The ones who welcomed us at the entrance were a number of clerics and the assistant of the Pope, Lilisa-san.

It reminds me of the time when I reunited with General Odyus in Torin. The relief of meeting a familiar face in a place I have come for the first time is indescribable.

But I have barely spoken to her in person though.

She was Raheight the first time I met her. Calling her Raheight would be an insult.

“It has been a while, Lilisa-san. The air around you has changed a bit.”

Lilisa-san’s hair is a lot shorter compared to when she came to Taizu.

It gave me the impression that she took great care of it and she didn’t seem like the type who would find it a pain to maintain.

In that case, maybe a change in her mental state…? Could it be that she broke up with Yox…?

No, she doesn’t look like she has a broken heart.

“Y-You could say that… The Pope-sama is waiting deeper in, so I will guide you there.” (Lilisa)

“—Yes, please do.”

I have a bit of a bad feeling from that reaction just now. No, it is not only a bit.

That reaction was different from a misfortune happening in her past.

It is the type where she feels bad about the person in front of her.

I don’t think something bad could happen to us from Lilisa-san cutting her hair.

In other words, the reason why Lilisa-san cut her hair is in part because there’s some bad news regarding us.

We regrouped with the people from the other carriage and we were guided to a place that seemed like a guest room.

There was Archbishop Ukka and Pope Euparo who I haven’t seen in a while.

Archbishop Ukka gives off a friendly atmosphere as usual, but Pope Euparo seems awfully anxious.

“Nice to see you have come. What do you think of your first look of the Grand Church?” (Euparo)

“I have seen big castles in other countries, but this is my first time seeing a religious facility of this scale. I was overwhelmed. I am grateful that you have agreed to cooperate with the resupplying.”

“Stopping the ambitions of Nektohal is something that must be prevented by the Yugura Church…no, by the world. I don’t plan on being uncooperative.” (Euparo)

The state of Pope Euparo is strange compared to before. I could tell in the call before that he was mentally exhausted, but this lack of energy has some other reason.

It is similar to Lilisa-san’s. Something close to guilt.

With this amount of points, a number of theories pop in my head, but…let’s try narrowing them down.

“By the way, Pope-sama, is Yox doing well?”

“—”

Aah, I don’t even need to narrow it down now. I am right with this one.

It is not only Lilisa-san, even Pope Euparo made an easy to tell reaction.

“…I am impressed how well your brain turns.” (Euparo)

“It is because you are showing your emotions in your face more than usual, Pope-sama… Yox must have headed to Serende ahead of me, didn’t he?”

“What?!” (Ilias)

Ilias raised her voice in surprise. I stop her and face Pope Euparo.

He most likely didn’t have any intention of hiding this.

It is not like it is something that can be hidden completely anyways.

“One of the Archbishops, or someone with influence comparable to that must have spoken to him. The reason why you couldn’t control it was because Yox had already left by the time you got that report… No, you were made to stay silent until Yox left, isn’t it, Lilisa-san?”

“…Yes.” (Lilisa)

The guilt Lilisa-san is feeling isn’t that of someone who has committed a crime, but closer to that of someone who shares a crime.

That person is someone that’s in a relationship with Lilisa-san, and someone I know.

That’s why Lilisa-san felt bad towards me.

Who is the one that shares that guilt? It is someone who is close to Lilisa-san and is not Pope Euparo.

Archbishop Ukka who was the same as usual the moment I came inside the room and was surprised by what I said just now would obviously not be the one.

In that case, the chances of it being Yox are extremely high by process of elimination.

This is most likely how it went.

There were most likely people who didn’t like that things were moving with us as the lead, so they made a plan to attack Serende before us using the holy knights.

Yox would have refused since he puts importance to the feelings of Pope Euparo, but the reason why he didn’t was because there’s the possibility of other holy knights being sent to Serende instead.

Yox told the situation to Lilisa because they are in a romantic relationship, and asked her to report to Pope Euparo later.

“The objective was to secure Seraes faster than us?”

“That’s right. I heard that was the case from Lilisa. Apparently Yox didn’t tell her who was the one who ordered him, but…considering it is someone who can move the holy knights…it is most likely Archbishop Omsam.” (Euparo)

Archbishop Omsam is the same as Maya-san who is in Taizu, a person who has been left with a branch of the Yugura Church in Gahne.

There’s people aiming for political power in Gahne because the fact that Gold is a Demon Lord has been spread.

Archbishop Omsam was brought back to Mejis in order to prevent him from using his backing, which is the Yugura Church, if I remember correctly.

“When did Yox leave Mejis?”

“3 days ago. If they have even prepared fast horses, they should have already reached Serende.” (Euparo)

Fast horses refers to the method of switching horses at several points on the way. There’s no need to have the horses rest by doing that, so they can continue running as long as the stamina of the rider lasts.

You normally have limitations like the stamina of the rider and the night that has bad vision, so you normally can’t shorten the time by that much just because you are doing fast horses.

But holy knights have enough stamina to ride horses for several days without resting, and they should be able to move even at night if they shine light on their path with magic.

“Ilias, when will you be able to get there if you were to go by horseback instead of using the carriage?”

“The warhorses of Taizu are faster than normal, but they can’t be changed. There’s the need to rest on the way, so it would be around the same speed as fast horses.” (Ilias)

Horses that can be as fast as fast horses despite running day and night with rests in between? That in itself is pretty baffling.

We should be able to arrive a little bit sooner to Serende if we call Blue and move with Daruagestia, but we would have to leave the knights of Taizu.

We would be losing manforce, but it is mostly that we might be severely limited in our actions in Serende if we lose the backing of Taizu.

“No choice but to hurry as much as possible, huh… Rakura, please call Purple and have her send her Butler Army to Serende to check the state of Yox. Assist if possible.”

“Got it!” (Rakura)

We would be able to get there faster if it was just Dyuvuleori and Ekdoik, but they are pieces that I can’t not have in my fight against Raheight and his group.

This is the limit of what we can do to help in this.

“Lilisa was simply asked by Yox. This is my responsibility as the one who chose the wrong people to leave the production of the key to.” (Euparo)

“You are doing enough, Pope-sama. I will just consider this an unfortunate accident and do my best to deal with it.”

Just the fact that he is accepting me -someone who works with Demon Lords- is already great.

If Pope Euparo were not supporting me, there’s a high chance that they would have tried to interfere with us in an even nastier manner.

If Pope Euparo had taken the same actions as Seraes, a war between humans would have happened without doubt.

There’s not that many people who would be able to keep issues to just this much within the shaking cognition of society, after the reality that the foundation of their religion was flipped on its head.

“Resident-sama of Yugura’s planet…I am fully aware that I have no right to be saying this, but please…Yox…” (Lilisa)

“There’s no one aside from you who has the right to say that. I will do my best.”

I will throw a complaint or two at him though.

I can’t believe he made his lover feel such guilt.

Even though it suits you better to have people clicking their tongues at you in the shadows as a straight-laced guy acting all lovey-dovey in front of others.

This is the first time I came to Mejis, but we had to finish preparations to depart tomorrow morning, so I ended up heading to Serende without even the time to tour the place.

The holy knights have around 3 days to act in Serende.

Considering they have information of Nektohal’s base and have obtained the key to reach there, an incident must have happened already.

—

Author: It seems like the publishing of the 2nd chapter has ended, but if the readers increase, there might be a republishing.

This is not really an extra, but I will be introducing the rough design of a character here.

It is Rakura Salf-san who is a disappointing cleric in a lot of fashions.

She seems like she would have high heroine power if she were to stay silent. IF she were to stay silent.

There’s illustrations of Rakura trying to use charm magic and crying to the protagonist.

Also, the two seem to be doing some evil scheming.

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