After witnessing the horrific massacre in Honorsway village with his own eyes, Cain barely reined in his surging emotions and returned to the imperial palace.
The Army Devourer Termio, set up as essentially the final boss in the undisclosed DLC March of the Dead. He had rushed to Honorsway village leading troops to personally confirm the traces left behind out of wariness toward his rapid appearance, but only now did he realize he had been swept up in emotion and failed to make cold, rational judgments.
In his heart, he wanted to hunt down the black mages who seemed to invite the hopeless, dreamless ending typical of dark fantasy worlds and annihilate them all immediately. However, Cain knew his position well. He returned to the imperial palace right after listening to the advice of Viscount Denver and Viscount Solard.
Of course, that didn’t mean he left without taking any additional measures.
“Summon the Beheading Priest. If it’s related to heresy, that fellow with the endlessly light rear end will come running the moment he hears that a black magic school specializing in undead and necromancy attacked an imperial village and massacred hundreds of innocent imperial citizens.”
The Beheading Priest Podric Kendal was that kind of man. He was the sort who would refuse even a summons from a monarch of another country if he judged it unnecessary, but if the hated ‘heresy’ was involved, he would rush over without hesitation.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I will convey the message at once.”
At Cain’s command, the chief chamberlain of the inner palace, Viscount Alons Kaelid, bowed politely and withdrew. Not long after, the Beheading Priest Podric arrived at the audience chamber.
“I have heard about the situation. I will visit the affected village with my executors and collect the necessary evidence.”
The Beheading Priest, sincere in tracking and executing heretics and devoted to praying for the annihilation of all evil on the continent, responded to the news Cain delivered and appeared in the audience chamber. Without lengthy words, he cleanly declared that he would take action himself.
“Viscount Loti Solard of the 4th Imperial Legion’s direct knight order will support you.”
“To be honest, support is unnecessary. When hunting heretics, local knights often become hindrances instead.”
Even to Cain’s goodwill of attaching the knight order as support, Podric showed the expected reaction and refused.
“It will be much more convenient to take knights with you when walking through imperial territory to reduce troublesome matters, Priest of Ellington.”
“In that case… I will accept.”
At Cain’s explanation, the Beheading Priest no longer refused and withdrew from the audience chamber. He did not specify his subsequent actions in detail, but he would most likely head to Honorsway village.
After the brief conversation with the Beheading Priest ended, Cain summoned Rachel, whom Isabella, the leader of Nightmare, had attached as a liaison. Currently performing the temporary disguised role of ‘head maid’ in the imperial palace, she came running at once upon Cain’s call.
“Your Majesty. You summoned me?”
Rachel, with her striking purple hair, appeared before Cain and bowed her head. As always, maintaining her cold, expressionless demeanor, Cain handed her a sealed letter bearing the imperial crest in wax.
To avoid unnecessary conflict with the Beheading Priest, who held negative views toward certain specific races, Isabella was currently spending time in another region. Cain intended to request that she use Nightmare’s informants to conduct background investigations on the black mages operating covertly near the capital Granada who had been detected, and to gather additional information on whether other sinister forces were present.
“Deliver this to Isabella.”
“The crows are acting quite passively lately, perhaps because of the recent black mage activity. Delivering the letter shouldn’t be a big problem, but it may take longer than usual.”
It was a time when swift information gathering was needed, but Rachel’s reply was somewhat disappointing. Still, Cain did not show it like an amateur. It was thanks to the expression management skills he had diligently honed during his social life in the Republic of Korea, famous for hellish half-islands.
“Understood. Do it as quickly as possible.”
“I’ll try, but I can’t promise.”
At Rachel’s still cynical response as she withdrew, Cain let out a sigh with an incredulous expression and summoned Count Steiner Randerk, who held the position of imperial army commander.
Count Randerk had also received reports about the tragedy in Honorsway village and was in a meeting with imperial army commanders to handle the aftermath and track the perpetrators, but he responded immediately to the emperor’s summons.
Cain considered using the audience chamber, but wanting a quieter atmosphere for the discussion, he moved to the imperial palace office.
“How is the cleanup proceeding?”
As soon as Count Steiner Randerk entered the office with a rigidly hardened face, Cain’s sharp question pierced him.
“Since we have not found any bodies, we are focusing on controlling the site and conducting a wide-area search operation to root out the forces behind it rather than cleanup. We have detached around 200 infantry from the 4th Imperial Legion to establish a base near Honorsway village for temporary garrison and area control, and we are awaiting support from mages requested from the imperial magic tower. Additionally, we have mobilized around 200 knights and 1,000 cavalry for the first phase of the search operation, and we plan to add 1,000 infantry within two days… and 1,000 more cavalry within three days to join the search.”
Site investigation and control, requests for additional specialist support, and deployment of search operations. By modern Earth standards, it was quite a clean handling of the matter. However, to Cain—who meticulously planned everything, including summoning the Beheading Priest of the Ellington Holy Alliance to root out the Five Dukes faction suspected of colluding with black mages—there were a few regrettable aspects.
“The search is sufficient at that level, so withdraw them. Concentrate as many troops as possible in the northern part of the capital and issue standby orders so they can depart at any time.”
At Cain’s order to halt the search, Count Randerk wore an expression of incomprehension, but realizing the person before him was the emperor of the empire, he hastily regained his composure.
“Your Majesty. If it is not rude, may I ask the reason?”
“You saw that there were no bodies in the village, right?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“And you heard the report that undead appeared?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
At Count Randerk’s reply, Cain let out a long sigh and slowly opened his mouth again.
“It is not certain, but they are probably a black magic school specialized in necromancy that handles undead. A characteristic of black mages is their proficiency in hiding. If we scatter in small groups chasing traces for a wide-area search, they will be picked off one by one, turned into undead soldiers, and later become blades aimed at our own throats. The fact that the villagers’ bodies were not found is ultimately because they were resurrected as undead soldiers.”
After the explanation, the order was no longer incomprehensible.
“However, Your Majesty. If we do not conduct the search operation, we will not be able to locate and severely punish the forces behind it.”
Count Randerk cautiously offered his advice. His opinion had merit. Without a search operation, how were they supposed to find and eliminate the enemy? Normally, Count Randerk’s view would be the correct one, and Cain would have agreed to proceed with the search even at the cost of casualties. But the situation now was slightly different.
“Count Randerk.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Your concern is natural. However, there is no need for our army to take the lead in finding the enemy itself.”
At Cain’s explanation, Count Randerk once again wore an expression of not fully understanding. It seemed additional explanation was needed, so Cain slowly opened his mouth with a faint smile.
“Count. Don’t we currently have the mad dog of Ellington, crazy about executing heretics?”
The mad dog of Ellington referred to the inquisitor famous under the nickname Beheading Priest, Podric Kendal. Count Randerk belatedly recalled his existence and now wore an expression of understanding Cain’s plan.
“The mad dog of the Sanctuary will find the black mages on his own. I guarantee that the black mage bastard will be caught within two days. Therefore… all we need to do is prepare the army so we can immediately deploy military force the moment the Beheading Priest locates the black mage.”
“As expected of Your Majesty.”
Count Randerk was so impressed that tears seemed about to flow as he spoke with a choked voice.
While Cain hurried preparations to gather troops at the imperial palace, Podric—who had somehow become the emperor’s scout—was tracking the traces of the black mage who attacked Honorsway village.
“Damn it! Boss! Slow down a bit! Shit! My knee cartilage is going to be completely wrecked!”
Bellikian, a Grand Chevalier-level swordsman and one of Podric’s direct executors, also called a hound, complained while running after his superior who had been sprinting at full speed for over four hours without a minute’s rest. However, the Beheading Priest, who had already caught the scent of heresy, could not hear his subordinate’s feeble outcry.
“Heresy! Heresy!”
Right beside him, the one-eyed Torres—nicknamed the parrot—was repeating a single word as if mocking, and right behind, Cecilia Wonderbell—known by the alias crow—was following using her power as a high mage.
Torres, as a former elite ranger, did not sweat a drop despite the long full-speed run, and Cecilia was borrowing the power of magic from the start, so she had no reason to tire. Just as Bellikian was about to roar in anger while watching his completely unfazed comrades…
“Halt.”
The Beheading Priest Podric, who had been leading the way, stopped.
“Boss?”
“Everyone be on guard. The heretic is nearby.”
When the veteran inquisitor detected the enemy and issued the warning, his direct executioners drew their weapons.
The high mage Cecilia readied her spellbook and holy water.
The mercenary-turned-swordsman Bellikian drew his sword gleaming with cold light.
And Torres, the elite ranger from Visendium, drew his longbow and nocked an arrow.
“Heresy!”
In the suffocating tension, Torres—who had lost most of his language ability after consuming a curse potion in the past—warned ‘heresy’ at the same time that pitch-black ominous fog began to fill the spaces between the trees in the deep forest.
Under the ominous aura and sky dyed black, green eyes staring at the inquisitor of the Holy Alliance appeared one by one from the darkness, dragging their rotting bodies.
There were around 100 of them, but the Beheading Priest Podric instead wore an excited expression.
“O Lord, bless my punishment.”
With a single prayer, he raised his divine power and grasped the weapon for ‘execution.’ The moment of judgment and execution had finally arrived.