Chapter 717: Truth and Rumors

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

“Chaos Girl? What’s that?”

As I habitually gathered information, I actually learned something quite interesting, although I should probably call it a rumor.

Basically, the rumor said that Empress Maria of San Antonio was actually the reincarnation of some Demon Lord from the Chaos Abyss, which was why she had been born with such natural talent to command the powers of the Chaos Abyss, helping her to become the strongest demon warlock in the world.

The rumor also said that as long as she successfully gained rule over all of San Antonio, the demons would invade and the world would be destroyed—something like that.

Nobody would actually believe such a rumor. Even the information brokers on the streets felt that this was a rumor that Prince Winston had intentionally spread in order to discredit his main rival.

After all, over the past few years, there had already been too many rumors around about how Maria was the daughter of some demon, secretly allied with the demons, and so on.

However, someone actually believed such a rumor. That someone was Pope Caloma the First.

“I am the most devout follower of the Holy Light, Caloma the First. I declare that Maria Solain is the enemy of the Holy Light, and that all believers of the Holy Light must make it their mission to cleanse this evil and corrupt woman.”

On the next day, early in the morning, posters with those words from Pope Caloma were posted all over San Antonio’s capital city.

“Isn’t this all way too unseemly…?”

I was feeling rather helpless. Didn’t they think that it would be too much to play such political schemes at such a point in time?

San Antonio’s name had the word San in it, which was short for Saint. This was evidence of its religious preference. Most of San Antonio’s citizens worshipped the Holy Light. Using divine authority to suppress royal authority would definitely sound like a good idea.

Having Pope Caloma announce that Maria was a heretic would help Prince Winston take away her proper right of royal inheritance. Politically speaking, this would indeed be an excellent move.

However, the Holy War was still ongoing. Weren’t they afraid at all of Maria becoming angered and actually joining the Chaos Faction?

Even if you were the type who would kill the hound after the rabbits die, you would still need to at least wait for the rabbits to die first. Maria still held half of San Antonio. Prince Winston and Pope Caloma weren’t afraid of losing control of their own scheme by breaking unwritten rules like this?

Demons would never accept humans trying to join them. However, Maria was a demon warlock. She was a type of mage who had a demon bloodline in her. She could easily use a magic ritual to transform herself into an actual demon. Wouldn’t that make things far worse?

If things really became like that, then the rumor would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe that was what Pope Caloma and Prince Winston actually wanted to happen.

“I, Roland Mist, the discoverer of pure Holy Light, the one who carries Estrada’s inheritance, the strongest Holy Knight in the world, declare that Maria Solain is a devout believer of the Holy Light.”

And so, at noontime, I shamelessly used my angel wings to fly into the sky while cosplaying as an angel to make a loud magical announcement that everyone would hear.

The Southern Sect’s belief in the pure Holy Light was already widespread in the world of Eich. San Antonio would have plenty of believers in the pure Holy Light. I also wrote a letter to the Southern Sect. In just a few days, it was likely that she would be officially declared a saint.

Two different churches here were now declaring her to be either a heretic or a praiseworthy and devout saint. This had now become a religious conflict between different church branches instead.

When I descended from the sky, Pope Caloma was glaring at me so much as if he wanted to devour me. However, I simply shrugged, indicating that all of it had nothing to do with me.

“I… I really did receive trustworthy information that she is a heretic who’s an incredibly evil Chaos Girl!”

It really was amusing to see the pope having such an angry expression. Naturally, I replied with great sincerity.

“I also received very trustworthy information that Empress Maria is indeed a devout worshipper of the Holy Light. I swear on this in the name of the Holy Light.”

Pure Holy Light descended upon me, proving that I wasn’t lying. In fact, according to my private information sources, Maria the demon warlock was indeed a ridiculously strange worshipper of the Holy Light. I wouldn’t have told them this, though, if it wasn’t for the fact that I really wanted to contradict the Church of Holy Light right now.

Pope Caloma was so enraged that he wanted to fight me with his forces right here, but his subordinate Cardinals stopped him from doing so. It was likely that the Cardinals had been worried that he would lose in a fight against me.

I really wouldn’t be afraid of fighting powerful Holy-Light-wielding individuals. I was already one of the strongest users of Holy Light in the entire world. I wouldn’t fear the great majority of Holy Light Divine Arts. At most, maybe Pope Caloma could use God’s Descent, but I could simply run away then.

No, wait, perhaps this was actually a good chance for me.

“Go ahead and perform God’s Descent, Caloma. I’d really like to meet the God of Holy Light’s fourth incarnation. Three of his incarnations were already killed. One by Ayer, one in a certain dimension, and one by a forbidden spell. Heeheehee. He’s probably used up a lot of divine power by now.”

Pope Caloma was so infuriated that he almost had an aneurysm when he heard how I was blaspheming his God right in front of him.

In the end, Pope Caloma reached the point where he would angrily become short of breath whenever he saw me. Still, he took his forces to the frontlines as had been originally planned. I was more than happy to enjoy some peace and quiet.

Meanwhile, I had originally thought that Prince Winston would try to kick me out since I was defending Maria, but he actually treated me even friendlier instead, and invited me many times over for private discussions.

“Please don’t misunderstand. I really didn’t start that rumor. The pope declared Maria to be a heretic of his own volition; it’s really giving me such a headache. As a person belonging to the military, I do have common sense. Starting yet another civil war at this time would make me the greatest criminal of our San Antonio,” Prince Winston told me.

He sounded quite sincere, but he was still a politician, which meant I could only listen to his words without believing them. I had seen countless far more ridiculous and foolish decisions by politicians before, all made for the sake of what they believed would bring them more power and benefits.

“Your Highness Roland, I really am telling the truth. No matter who started this rumor and attracted the pope’s attention to come here and declare Maria as a heretic, this person doesn’t only want Maria to be killed. This person is trying to destabilize San Antonio’s entire foundation.”

I hurriedly nodded as it must have been too obvious from my expression that I didn’t believe him.

“Yes, I understand. I believe you.”

“…Your expression says that you don’t believe me one bit. I really am telling you the truth. Even if I wanted to start another civil war, I would at least wait until the Holy War ends.”

“Yep, yep, you’re definitely telling me the truth.”

Prince Winston was still quite handsome despite his age. He seemed like he really wanted to cry, but in my mind, I was actually praising him for his superb acting skills. His expressions seemed so realistic that I almost would have believed him.

How much was almost? I would have believed him if only I was 300 years younger. My 14-year-old self definitely would have believed him.

I didn’t have any intentions of staying for long in San Antonio’s capital city. After comparing the Sun God’s map to the royal palace’s topographical information, I confirmed a few locations that were most likely to be the ruin I was looking for, so I immediately said goodbye and left.

My only regret was that I would probably have to leave the matter of inviting San Antonio to join my Dawn Army until later. Judging from San Antonio’s current situation, they weren’t even able to finish resolving their own problems, so of course they wouldn’t have the time to do anything else.

But, before I left, I unexpectedly received a thank you letter and invitation from Maria. Basically, she wanted me to pay her a visit so that she could thank me for my assistance.

Of course, I wouldn’t refuse an opportunity to cultivate a relationship with the other main leader of San Antonio. I would go there even if it was a bit out of my way.

Not to mention, San Antonio still had the most food stored out of any country in all of Eich even now. Meanwhile, my Mist Alliance was the biggest weapons exporter in all of Eich. As long as we partnered together, trading would naturally benefit both of us immensely.

What? You’re asking me why I wasn’t selling weapons to Prince Winston instead?

Prince Winston had his royal knights and the assistance of the Holy Church, and even Pope Caloma and several Cardinals had personally arrived to help here. Why would Prince Winston possibly need our weapons and equipment?

It could be said that the moment that the Holy Church declared Maria to be a heretic, this made her into a potential ally based on the principle of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” She would naturally become a good ally for us based on this.

But as I traveled to meet her, I suddenly noticed that something appeared to be really off.

“This rumor about Maria being the Chaos Girl is spreading far too quickly and far too wide.”

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