The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits - Chapter 181



EP9. ■■

As soon as Beatrice woke up, she hurriedly gathered her companions. She was in a state of confusion.

“Why did you call me?”

A question like that came up. Beatrice told everything she had heard.

“Hmm… So, the only way is to offer a sacrifice to summon an archangel and fight him?”

Feria clutched her head.

“… Certainly, the easiest way to deal with the Demon King would be to have someone of equal status fight him, but how are we going to prepare the sacrifices… Even if they are beings with a lot of divine power, they are priests… We can’t offer up priests as sacrifices.”

After hearing that, Lena thought for a moment and then said.

“…Why not offer it as a sacrifice?”

“what?”

“Priests. You can offer it as a sacrifice.”

“What do you mean?”

Beatrice looked at Lena with a hardened face and spoke. Lena flinched and trembled for a moment at the ominous aura that seemed to indicate that she would be punished if she did not give a proper explanation.

“Not all priests follow you, and not all priests are good guys, right?”

“…So, in a word… .”

“Let’s sacrifice all the guys who follow the Pope at once. Isn’t that not bad? Since they are all a cancer that is eating away at the empire anyway, let’s send them away together with the Demon King, who is also a cancer.”

Beatrice clutched her head when she heard those words.

“…That won’t do. In the first place, we can’t say for sure that all those who follow the Pope are evil, and even if we pick out evil people at will, we can’t say that it’s right. So, we have to find another way.”

“Another way? Even if you’re talking about morality, you can’t just sit back and watch the Demon King run wild! If the Demon King starts invading, it’s already a mess. The scars of war haven’t healed for both humans and fairies. In such a situation, how can you find a way by considering the means available?”

“… It can’t be helped, but even so, there are some basic principles that must be observed. … For now, it would be a good idea to let the church know about this. There might be something like a holy relic in the Vatican.”

“What? Will that old man help you? You know very well how sinister that old man is. You should know best since you’ve seen the records.”

“…Yes. I have seen what the Pope is capable of doing for power. However, I believe that is why he will cooperate with me.”

“What? How could you say something like that…?”

“Because the Pope has the sense not to join hands with the demons, even if he covets power and becomes corrupt, and if he accepts the fact that if things continue as they are, everyone will perish, he will cooperate. Coveting power is also a story that does not lead to destruction.”

“…If that’s what you think, then I don’t know, what the fuck… is that right…?”

“Well, since I saw the records, there hasn’t been a single day that I didn’t resent the Pope. That’s why I know. I’m the one who thinks the most about what kind of person the Pope is.”

“…Yes, it would be a good idea to ask the Pope for cooperation first.”

Sein also agreed with Beatrice. And then, Feria, who was watching them, said.

“Hmm… Okay, so Beatrice will be the first to initiate the conversation?”

“Yes, that would probably be the case.”

After a few words of dialogue, Beatrice contacted the Vatican.

…

The Pope was anxious because the saint had suddenly contacted him and told him that they needed to meet and talk.

Why? No matter how much I thought about it, there was no reason for the saint to have any conversation with me. The pope was a rival who was competing with the saint for supremacy within the church, and since he had fallen behind in the competition, the only thing left for him was the saint’s judgment.

At first glance, the power structure within the order seemed to be at peace, as Saint Beatrice had an overwhelming upper hand within the order and had yet to do anything, but once Beatrice began to make her move in earnest, there was nothing the Pope could do.

However, the Pope had no choice but to accept the saint’s message. He knew that ignoring her message could lead to even greater trouble. And what the Pope heard when he met the saint was very unexpected.

“…what?”

The murmur of a great crowd was heard. The Pope and the Senate groaned repeatedly with their eyes wide open.

In fact, the Pope had no idea that such a topic would come up. He just thought this when he saw the warrior who had somehow come back to life with the saint into the conference room.

‘Oh, everything got caught.’

The saint realized that the warrior had been framed by joining hands with the previous emperor. At least, that’s what the Pope thought.

However, the words that came out of the saint’s mouth were very different from what I had expected, and I could not accept them.

“That… what.”

Not only the Pope, but also the senior members of the Senate were present when word was heard that the Demon King had appeared in a place called the Demon World.

Not only that, but the entire territory of Grandis has already been blown away, and if we just sit still, there is a possibility that a few more Demon Kings will appear.

It was just a story about everyone losing their sense of reality.

At first, I tried to deny it. But it was hard not to believe it when I saw the serious look in both the warrior and the saintess’ eyes.

“…where did that information come from?”

One of the elders asked a question. Beatrice hesitated for a moment before opening her mouth.

“…Grandis herself came to us and testified, and it was cross-checked that her estate had actually disappeared, and most importantly… I was given an oracle.”

“What?”

“Poem, trust?”

Even among the elders who had experienced all sorts of things, voices of bewilderment were heard. The oracle was something that had not happened for hundreds of years. In modern times, even its existence was questioned. So the oracle had happened?

“What on earth was that about?”

The Pope somehow managed to pull himself together and asked the saintess this question. The saintess opened her mouth.

“It was said that offering a sacrifice is the only way to summon an archangel at the moment. Of course, this would never be possible under normal circumstances, but if I become a summoner and make it possible for an archangel to use his power, there may be a way.”

“that…”

These were stories that were completely unbelievable. After the Demon King, there was an Archangel? Everyone was so confused that they couldn’t even say anything.

But even in such situations, the Pope’s thinking was quick.

In this situation, he knew that trying to do something for power would only result in eating away at his own flesh.

“I understand. I cannot give you people, but I will hand over all the holy relics held by the Vatican.”

The history of the Vatican is very long. There were popes before the rise of the Phoenix Empire, and even after they were driven out into the wilderness, the popes and those who followed them held onto the sacred relics of ancient times. It was really, really, really hard to give them up, but there was no other way. They couldn’t all die.

When all of those relics were gathered together, a huge amount of relics were gathered.

“Yes, it’s good. However… it’s a little lacking. Not yet, to summon an archangel…”

But then a thunderbolt sounded. It was concluded that even with all the holy relics collected from the Vatican, it would not be possible to summon the Archangel.

The Pope broke into a cold sweat at those words. The help of the Archangel was absolutely necessary to stop the Demon King. But even with this much sacrifice, the Archangel could not be summoned? Does that mean that we really have to force the priest to be sacrificed?

No matter how divided the religious order was, there were taboos that could not be broken. And forcing priests to be sacrificed was clearly beyond the taboo.

“…I have no choice. I will offer up the eyes of the god as a sacrifice.”

The Eye of God. It was a sacred object that selected saints and saintesses, and offering it meant that the lineage of saints and saintesses would be cut off. Beatrice was prepared to make that kind of sacrifice.

At that moment, the elders raised their hands.

“No, I don’t need it.”

“…We actually intended to sacrifice the two of you when you and the saintess headed across Calethion.”

“But the warrior proved that he could win without doing that. We were wrong.”

“So, shouldn’t we be of some help now, even if it means sacrificing our lives to these old people who are no help and who almost committed a great sin?”

“…That, what?”

Beatrice said in a bewildered voice.

The elders all spoke with one accord.

“We will offer our bodies as a sacrifice.”