Genius Warlock-Episode 677
677. shrift (2)
People Love Rankings.
It may seem like a sudden story, but no one will deny it..
Is it because of a base instinct to divide people into classes, curiosity, or just boredom?······.
The exact reason is unknown, but people were enthusiastic about ranking.
We often had simple yet childish conversations about who was bigger, who was stronger, and who had more..
There were no exceptions from children to adults..
And the ‘United Kingdom’ has been at the top of such questions for the past several decades..
Among the selected countries, a small island country located in the north is.
Although the size of the home country was not that large, thanks to its numerous colonies, the United Kingdom was currently the country with the largest territory..
So, conversely, which country is the smallest??
If you include selected countries as well as uncivilized and barbaric countries,?
Surprisingly, the answer to this question was also found in the selected country..
That country was none other than a ‘prosperous country’..
A city-state in the south, opposite the United Kingdom in the north..
In this small city-state, there was 'Seonghwangcheong', the headquarters of the Pater religion, which worships the Father of Heaven..
Strictly speaking, Seonghwangcheong was established first, and Seonghwangsi-guk was established to assist Seonghwangcheong..
Anyway, the smallest country in the world was thriving here..
A tiny country with a territory of less than one district of Landa and a population of less than a thousand people..
To be honest, it wasn't big enough to even be called a country..
But surprisingly, no country in the world could ignore the prosperity of this country..
The reason, of course, was in Seonghwangcheong..
Seonghwangcheong, the headquarters of Paterism.
Why on earth?
Belief in God and respect for the Paterism that worships such God?
It's not wrong, but there was a more direct reason..
It is the Seonghwangcheong of each country. To be precise, it was because it provided great help to each government..
This is because the positions of each royal family and government could change according to the words of the Holy Emperor, the headquarters of the Paterism..
That wasn't the end.
Aside from that kind of work, the Holy Emperor provided irreplaceable help to each country..
A group of holy men and nuns were dispatched to take charge of the security and welfare of the country.,
We provide financial support to each country based on donations received from numerous believers.,
High-ranking priests, such as cardinal priests, served as counselors to heads of state, diplomats, and politicians..
The representatives are Cardinal Armand, the Prime Minister of Gallos, and Cardinal Roderick, who serves as a counselor to several minor royal families in the central continent..
Thanks to this, even though it was an age of sin where gold transcended faith, each country had no choice but to keep an eye on the Holy Emperor's Office..
Even though it could not be brought to its knees by spreading excommunication as in the past, the Seonghwangcheong here was able to exert influence on each country..
Either create a hole in administrative power by withdrawing the paladins and nuns. Such as depriving Seonghwangcheong of its funds and causing it to die, or isolating it by closing its diplomatic channels..
Therefore, even social leaders who did not have religious beliefs at least pretended to have religious beliefs within the Holy Office..
Seonghwangcheong also used its secular power to maintain faith and order..
Just like the current secret meetings held periodically by cardinal priests..
“It must be disposed of! I don't know why I have to make such an obvious claim.!!”
A towering hill in the center of Seonghwa City.
Under the pure white and pious Seonghwangcheong that sits above it.
A cardinal priest made a strong claim in a secret conference room whose existence was unknown to all except a few..
At those words, the other cardinal priests who filled the huge conference hall and the cardinal priests who attended the meeting through the mirror each nodded..
Every time you nod your head, a murmur arose, and the murmur became an echo and filled the conference room..
The atmosphere is becoming increasingly noisy..
At that time, a cardinal priest quietly raised his hand. The rumbling subsided..
Just because the class was the same, even the influence was not the same..
Everyone looked at the cardinal priest who raised his hand..
He was none other than one of the top contributors who played the biggest role in this incident..
It was the Cardinal Priest Roderick who brought out the unspeakable cursed being hiding in the corrupt city and revealed its identity..
When he raised his hand as thick as a piece of iron, all the cardinals in the venue fell silent, giving him a chance to speak. The facial expressions weren't good though.
“Speak up, Lord Roderick..”
The old man who chaired the conference hall said.
On average, he was the oldest senior among the oldest cardinal priests..
Roderick, who was permitted to speak officially, opened his mouth..
“I'm against disposing of him..”
Roderick said exactly what he had been saying for the past few days without changing it one bit..
Of course the reaction was the same.
“It's that story again,”
“Why on earth······.”
“Is it because of that?······?”
Frowning faces and murmurs of incomprehension filled the venue, and some people whispered..
Everyone maintained their dignity as those in high positions, but the conference room became noisy like a street corner..
‘No, isn't this more orderly? Considering the situation where the survival of humanity is at stake,······?’
Roderick thinks. Then, someone raised their hand..
He was a cardinal priest like Roderick, but the difference was that he belonged to the moderate faction..
“Could you please allow me to ask a question??”
“Please tell me.”
“thank you Since you gave permission, I will ask you directly... Could it be that [Deus Ex Machina] is the reason you are opposed to disposing of him??”
[deus ex machina]
A secret project underway under the auspices of hardliners against the apocalypse..
As it was a secret project, only a few people except the Cardinal Priest knew about it..
Coincidentally, all of those present, if not all, had a general knowledge of [Deus Ex Machina]..
To artificially create an angel son.
It was the same with the cardinal priest who asked the question.,
A direct interpretation of his question was this:.
‘Are you trying to keep ‘that unholy being’ alive for the unholy and extremely dangerous project being carried out by the hardliners??’
‘Are you, by any chance, trying to stake the survival of humanity on the political battle of the Church of Paterism??
Roderick, who was closer to a secular politician than a religious person, understood what he meant and answered accordingly..
“Not necessarily.”
There was a murmur..
Roderick raised his hand to calm down and then said:.
“What I mean is, is there a need to kill someone who is now captured? Rather, wouldn't it be more dangerous to provoke people for no reason when they are calm now??”
Everyone here knew how that 'being' was caught..
It was even weirder not knowing..
When I captured that being, the number of eyes I saw was hundreds of Holy Knights and thousands of Servants..
So even though I couldn't believe it, I had no choice but to believe it..
The Prince of Hell, who is said to open the gates of Hell and lead the world to the end, revealed his identity and was captured..
For your information, the Prince of Hell was obediently imprisoned in an officially non-existent dungeon deeper than this secret meeting hall..
Without sleeping, eating or drinking for days, holding only the quarter staff..
Roderick pointed out this point and argued.
“So it is not a good idea to act hastily. Hasty action can lead to unexpected anger..”
Some cardinal priests who had been bribed by Roderick agreed as if they had been waiting, and other cardinal priests also followed suit..
Each one of them was a handful of talented people, but strangely, when a certain number of people gathered together, they became a group of people..
Just like a rule.
However, there are exceptions to every rule, and the cardinal priest who asked the question was one of those exceptions..
“That's why I argue that it should be disposed of now..”
The priest Chugi, who was advocating for the disposition, directly refuted it..
“We may be calm now, but we never know what will happen later. I'm sorry, but I also know that killing people is a reckless argument. That being killed the Pied Piper, something we Paterists have not dared to do for hundreds of years..”
Then someone retorted. He was a hard-line cardinal priest..
“Maybe he's not the prince of hell?”
Everyone's attention was focused on those words..
Not the prince of hell?
The priest Chugi, who was said to be the advocate, explained.
“I heard it too. He declared himself the Prince of Hell and used incredible powers.······.”
The conference room buzzed again..
All of the cardinal priests in the room heard the report of the being's actions..
With a single wave of his hand, he reduced the Pied Piper to dust, brought everyone to their knees with an inexplicable feeling of overwhelm, and made people burst into laughter just by walking..
I couldn't understand it properly because I didn't see it in person, but considering that the kings and agents present were unable to escape from mental shock and the Holy Knights were so devastated that they could not return to their duties, I was able to guess that this was not an ordinary incident..
Because of such news, no one suspected that the being was the Prince of Hell..
“But, can that be evidence? Specifically, we can only guess, but we don't know what the Prince of Hell is..”
The murmur grew louder..
Paterism also studied and analyzed the apocalypse using various methods for a long time, but was unable to find out what the prince of hell was, what the prince of angels was, and how to prove it..
It wasn't strange.
Even though they said they served God on behalf of humans, it was Seonghwangcheong who could not even see the face of God..
“Above all, he is the one who cooperated with us, didn't he? Controlling the warlocks of Gallos..”
“Do you want to use it??”
“No, that's not necessarily true... Anyway, the Prince of Hell would have no reason to kill the Pied Piper.?”
A rebuttal came right away..
“It is said that all of the Pied Piper's anger was extracted before he awakened. This is consistent with the content of eschatology!”
“······Take the key from the false gatekeeper?”
someone muttered.
“yes! you're right. ‘Tick tock. The moment a huge hole opens at the end of the world, the clock starts moving. A black sun rises from the land, an all-devouring monster is born in the western sea, the key is taken from the false gatekeeper, and the wandering child becomes a boy.' This is each verse of the eschatology, and we are almost at the end.!”
bang!
The cardinal priest who was insisting on disposition hit the table with his fist..
It was a violent act, but no one could stop it..
“A few years ago, hell broke loose in the Land of Ice and has reached the present! And yet we couldn't do anything! nothing! But you still want to keep waiting??!”
The cardinal priests were silent in response to that shout..
“Even if you give in and say that the being is not the prince of hell, would it really be right to let him live? What guarantee is there that he won't become the new Pied Piper? no! It's even worse! According to the intelligence I heard, the warlocks are even showing signs of solidarity with him.!!”
The cardinal priest who insisted on the disposition spoke like a machine gun, and it was true..
‘Immediately after the 'existence' defeated the Pied Piper, the warlocks present took advantage of the commotion to disperse and spread the rumor to the afterlife..
The one who defeated the Pied Piper, the strongest warlock, or the devil himself..
A level that cannot be prevented even by the control of Paterism..
As a result, the world behind the scenes was shaken, and even the Black Hand was shaken..
A vast organization of warlocks led by warlocks called Fingers..
Recently, there were rumors going around that they had lost their central axis by disappearing fingers one after another and were trying to unite around that being..
If we were not careful, a being with more power than the Pied Piper could have created a massive warlock organization unprecedented in history..
“Even if I make a hundred concessions and say that the being is not the prince of hell, it is too dangerous to keep alive. Especially now that the end is just around the corner. Aren't Gallos, the central continent, the United Kingdom, and the selected core countries all confused??!!”
I couldn't deny it this time either.
Gallos was thrown into confusion due to the death of the human meat cook, and was in the process of recovering, but its presence threw it into confusion again. The center of the continent, the center of the incident, was also in chaos..
Although the reasons were different. Randa was also confused at the moment..
Attacked by an army of the dead believed to be led by Puppet..
I heard that if the kingdom's army, which was clearing out warlords and gangs around Landa, had not come as support, it might have been destroyed. In return for surviving, they were currently fighting over autonomy with the royal family..
Anyway, as Priest Chugi said, the world was becoming more and more confused as if the end was approaching..
“So, at the risk of being rude, I’ll ask! Lord Roderick... What would you do if, even tomorrow, the being down there changed its mind and tried to leave this place??”
Everyone in the room was silent and looked at Roderick..
“What would you do if the being trapped below didn't want to be trapped any longer and decided to do as he pleased? Is there any way to stop it?”
Roderick was silent..
He rose to the highest position as both a paladin and a priest..
“I am arguing that we should dispose of him now while he is still docile. A bomb that might explode at any moment should be dismantled, not used. Especially if the fate of humanity depends on that bomb.!”
The cardinal priests quietly gathered their thoughts after coming to a reasonable conclusion after analyzing the current situation and what they could do..
Gradually my heart becomes more and more inclined.
Cardinal Roderick tried to open his mouth to break the mood..
“I'm against it.”
At that time, someone spoke first..
It was none other than Cardinal Armand..
Chancellor of Gallos, one of the leaders of the moderate faction, and above all, one who, together with Roderick, made the greatest contribution in this matter..
Everyone was surprised by his opposition..
The person who captured the being and continued to remain silent suddenly claimed the opposite..
There was a backlash.
“What do you mean? What should I do?······.”
A cardinal priest asked.
I felt like a question was coming out of my throat, ‘Is it because of my personal history with you?’.
It was so famous that Erman used that existence to control the warlock of Gallos..
Armand shook his head..
“Please don’t misunderstand that I am opposing this for a different reason..”
“other reasons······?”
Cardinal priests who don’t understand. Armand kindly explained it..
“Now, there is someone who has as big a stake in this issue as we do as the Pater Church... I mean the archive..”
A silence that went beyond silence covered the hall..
Archmage Archives.
Since he was a wizard, he seemed to have nothing to do with the Paterism, and officially that was true, but unofficially it was a bit different..
Because apocalyptic issues have had a close relationship between the Archives and Paterism for hundreds of years..
And the archive is currently here in Seonghwangcheong..
Under the title of temporary teacher of that existence and the title of watchdog of the end,.
His authority was not something that even the Patereans could ignore, and for the past few days he had blocked the opinions of the cardinals attending the meeting..
As a result, this meeting lasted several days. I couldn't move quickly because the archive was in the way..
The merits of the achievement are meritorious, and we also have the practical force to block the Pallet Bridge..
But he wasn't there right now..
Someone who recognized the fact too late opened his mouth..
“Why wasn't the archive present today??”
Some cardinal priests, who were relieved not to see an unpleasant face and were not curious, agreed and asked about the whereabouts of the archive..
Cardinal Priest Armand responded to this:.
“I went to see that being..”
There was silence in the hall..
***
Seonghwangcheong, located in the center of Seonghwangsi-guk.
Below there was a dark, deep basement..
So much so that not even the Pater Church officials know about it..
And deep down in the basement, there was a prison..
A huge prison like a safe.
“Is it here??”
An old man entered there and asked.
It was Archive Merlin, a collaborator of the Paterism..
The nun, who cut off her tongue to take a vow of silence, nodded..
“open the door.”
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