Chapter 60: The Situation in the Lawkingdom

Inside the large wagon swaying faintly, Soares narrowed her eyes, pretending to be unconscious while constantly scouting the surrounding situation.  

The women abducted from the village, including Soares, were unconscious due to a drug inducing a coma-like state, yet surprisingly, they were treated politely.  

The knights steadily fed them water and porridge, and although all the knights were men, there was no sign of any unsavory behavior.  

‘Is this really unexpected?’  

It was still speculation, but if the saint had indeed encountered some problem and they were searching for a female replacement, then it made sense for them to be treated with courtesy.

There were no decisive clues yet, but considering the rumors that the abductees would be escorted to Saint Capital, it was safe to say it was true.  

‘The saint has a problem, but it’s a disgraceful issue that can’t be publicly announced. Therefore, they must secretly find a replacement. They can’t openly declare it and carefully select a qualified successor, so they’re just abducting women indiscriminately, pushing through with numbers. Is that it? Then what happens to the women who don’t become saints? Is it evidence destruction?’  

It was an extremely inhumane method, but Soares also thought it was the kind of thing the Lawkingdom would do.

Outwardly, it was a country that followed the doctrine of the Sun Faith, preaching goodness and justice, but in reality, the Lawkingdom was politically corrupt beyond comparison across the entire continent.  

It claimed to be a nation where there was no distinction between nobles and commoners, where all were equal servants of the Sun God, but in truth, power was monopolized by a few high-ranking clergy, including the Lawking and bishops, who indulged in aristocratic luxuries.  

No, it was even worse than the nobles of other countries.

Normally, nobles bear responsibilities and duties proportional to their power, but the high-ranking clergy of the Lawkingdom enjoyed power while neglecting their obligations.  

Corrupt nobles exist in many other countries, but the problem here was that the entire leadership was corrupt.

Without the living sanctity of the saint, this nation would have rotted away and disappeared long ago.  

‘Now that there’s a problem with the saint, it’s really on the brink of decay.’  

Frankly, Soares didn’t care if such a country collapsed or went to war with others.

But since it was certain to obstruct Zion’s path, she couldn’t just stand by.  

‘That child likely suspected something similar.’  

Thinking of the missing subordinate she had lost contact with, Soares felt somewhat relieved.

It wasn’t that the subordinate had suffered some mishap; she had likely infiltrated internally on her own accord to gain a clear understanding of the situation, just like Soares.

That explained why no letters had reached her.

Writing secret letters while being treated as a replacement for the saint would not be an easy task.  

‘She was quick on her feet when escaping. I believe she’ll be fine. I’ll be arriving at Saint Capital soon, too.’  

The knight squad that had abducted Soares and the other women stealthily entered Saint Capital, while another knight squad emerged as if to relieve them.

They were probably planning a similar operation again.  

Analyzing these facts coldly, Soares managed to infiltrate safely into the heart of Saint Capital — the Sun Palace Almar Sol.  

‘Could it be…’  

To cut to the chase, Soares’s speculation was wrong.  

The corruption of the Lawkingdom was far beyond what she had imagined.  

‘My goodness. It’s drugs.’  

A cup was placed before her, who pretended to be unconscious.  

Soares analyzed the scent of the drink inside and felt chills all over her body.  

‘Stimulants, relaxants, hallucinogens, all mixed evenly. And the composition is perfect. If an ordinary person drinks this, they’d become nothing more than a puppet obedient to others’ commands. This drug was made for brainwashing.’  

Fortunately, Soares had immunity to such psychoactive drugs, thanks to the training and procedures she underwent in her childhood to fulfill her duties in the Royal Guard Division.

Her subordinate, who had infiltrated earlier, was the same.  

Moreover, she had the Artifact of Arcs as insurance.

Since it was etched onto her body as a tattoo rather than worn as jewelry, there was no worry about it being confiscated.  

‘The situation in the Lawkingdom is worse than I thought. If I leave this be, it will definitely cause a catastrophe. I have to find out what conspiracy they’re plotting.’  

Having made up her mind, Soares faintly shifted as if consciousness was returning.  

The priest monitoring her by her side flinched and hurriedly reported to a high priest.  

A little later, the high priest returned, trembling as he picked up the cup in front of Soares.

He slowly poured the drug into her slightly opened mouth.  

After swallowing the drug, an intense dizziness struck her.  

Fortunately, it subsided quickly, and she felt no other abnormalities afterward.  

Soares was certain her judgment had been correct.  

Thus began Soares’s life as a “Saint Candidate.”  

Her act was perfect.

She behaved like a puppet completely addicted and unconscious of her surroundings, and neither the monastic priests attending to her nor the high priests she occasionally met suspected that she was actually lucid.  

The priests openly disclosed all sorts of crucial information in front of her without hesitation.  

“This month, I heard that the amount of Labyrinth resources contracted hasn’t even reached half yet. Is that true?”  

“Ha ha, those barbaric mages will never keep their promises. They don’t even realize we’re showing them mercy by sparing them. Their excuse is that an abnormal situation in the Labyrinth has disrupted resource collection.”  

“I’ve heard through spies as well. The Jewel Tower failed to manage the Labyrinth, and monsters spilled out onto the surface.”  

“Oh my. Cardinal Tindia, you must be more careful with your words. It’s not ‘spies’ but ‘pilgrims,’ isn’t it?”  

“Ha ha ha. Cardinal Dahit, as always, you worry too much. Who else is here besides the two of us?”  

“There are only the two of us, but the Sun is always watching over us.”  

“Ha ha ha! The Sun must be proud of our actions, so why worry?”  

“Hmm… Cardinal Tindia does have a point. Ha ha, I admit I may have been overcautious.”  

They were discussing, for example, the detailed terms of the contract the Jewel Tower and Lawkingdom had made regarding Labyrinth resources.  

“By the way… since the other side is failing to uphold the contract, we don’t have to either, right? The Lawking himself just watches as they capture test subjects alive from Saint Capital?”  

“Hohoho, don’t worry. His Majesty only gives them a reprieve out of pity. But if they continue their vile acts of capturing people alive from the capital for trivial experiments without fulfilling the contract… they will painfully learn what it means to be burned whole by the purifying flames.”  

“That means… the holy war is near at hand, yes?”  

The dizziness Soares felt was almost unbearable as she barely swallowed a groan and forced herself to remain calm, sorting the information.  

‘So it was the Jewel Tower that first raided the border villages of the Lawkingdom and abducted people. That was exactly why the Lawkingdom could import Labyrinth resources at much cheaper prices than other countries. They were trading their own citizens to import resources.’  

The more she heard, the more outrageous it became, but there was plenty of useful information.

The exact reason they needed to gather ‘Saint Candidates’ so aggressively, for example.  

“I’ve heard the saint’s power is showing signs of rampaging again.”  

“It’s not quite at the level of ‘rampage’ yet, but instability is indeed real. Rumors have quietly spread that this saint lacks aptitude, but nobody expected her to be this unable to control her power… Ah, I also heard another monster horde rampaged near the capital. Bishop Cainrich commanded the operation, right? How’s the situation?”  

“We’ve just finished exterminating all scattered remnants. The monsters were wiped out, but… to be honest, the damage is considerable. The Knights of Divine Order, 17th Division won’t be ready for deployment until they reorganize.”  

“The new saint really must appear soon.”  

“Lord, burn away the evil with the purifying flames and guide us with your radiant sunlight…”  

‘The saint’s power became unstable, resulting in monsters appearing across the Lawkingdom? Or the reverse? Monsters appeared, but the saint’s unstable power left them unable to respond? Either way, the urgent gathering of saint candidates makes sense now.’  

In the meantime, Soares was able to meet the subordinate who had infiltrated earlier as expected.  

She was also pretending to be drugged and secretly gathering intelligence.  

“S-Soares?! How did you get here…!”  

“Olsora. So you had infiltrated here as well.”  

With twice the personnel, efficiency soared more than double.

The two began exchanging information covertly, evading the priests’ watchful eyes, and started exposing the Lawkingdom’s true face in detail.  

After several days of gathering information, collating, cutting unnecessary details, cross-verifying credibility, and condensing it, they finally grasped the whole picture.  

“Forcibly injecting unstable power to mass-produce unstable saints… this is inhuman.”  

“No, Olsora. Only humans could think of something like this. Set aside unnecessary emotions. Let’s begin the final summary.”  

“Understood, Soares.”  

The ancient relic that foretold the next saint and bestowed power upon the chosen one, the “Sacred Relic,” had begun to lose its power — that was the origin of everything.  

As the Sacred Relic weakened, the blessings protecting the entire Lawkingdom began to falter.

Monsters started to run rampant, and the saint could no longer control her power.  

The Lawking and high priests tried to restore the relic but found it beyond repair.  

They swiftly concluded: the Sacred Relic would lose all its power in the near future, meaning the Lawkingdom’s entire system would collapse from its foundation.  

They needed to find another substitute to act as a unifying force before that happened.

Conveniently, there was something suitable nearby — the Labyrinth.  

‘The Lawkingdom planned to topple the Jewel Tower and seize the Labyrinth. The saint candidates abducted from the border were nothing but weapons for winning the war.’  

Even those unsuitable as saints could receive a fragment of the Sacred Relic’s power if they were women, though briefly.  

The problem was that unstable power given to those without aptitude became a ticking time bomb ready to explode anytime.  

The Lawkingdom sent these human time bombs to the battlefield to weaken the Jewel Tower’s strength and simultaneously fabricated stories that their self-destruction was the Jewel Tower’s atrocity to keep the shaken public opinion in check.  

‘I can understand how Olsora feels.’  

It would have been easier if demons were the root cause of this.  

But Soares knew that humans, too, could sometimes become as evil as demons.  

Despite knowing this, a wave of disgust and nausea welled up inside her.  

‘Now I have to report this to Lord Zion as well…’  

She could use her communication Artifact anytime, but honestly, she felt guilty about directly telling him such a vile truth.  

Still, she didn’t want to give false reports.  

The war would break out soon anyway, and imagining Zion’s sense of betrayal when he learned the truth belatedly made her unable to do so.  

‘A report… I’ll write a report. I don’t have the confidence to say it directly, but at least a report…’  

Soares handed her subordinate Olsora a report carefully written with as little emotion as possible.  

Olsora naturally panicked and protested.  

“You want me to flee alone to safety while leaving Your Excellency in danger?!”  

“Have you forgotten the basics of escape — dispersal, Olsora? If you escape first, I’ll find a chance to flee in another direction.”  

“I refuse. I will help, too!”  

“Olsora, you’ve grown quite arrogant after being apart for so long. To think you’d belittle me so much as to say I need your help to escape.”  

In the end, Olsora gave in.  

Late at night, seizing a brief moment when the watch was lax, Soares bid farewell to Olsora as she escaped Saint Capital.  

Then Soares returned to the Sun Palace with a determined expression.  

‘She said she’d escape later, but that doesn’t mean she won’t do anything in the meantime.’  

There wasn’t much she could do alone.  

Still, she could at least disrupt the Lawkingdom’s conspiracy and delay the war a little longer.