Chapter 608
Rowan was not dead.
She feigned death to buy time.
However, all of Rowan's subordinates were killed by the Holy Knights sent by Eleion Bolton. There might be a few survivors among them, but they would be a small minority.
If Rowan was planning something, what was she planning, and what could she possibly do?
Rowan disappeared.
But she couldn't have left the Empire, so she must be somewhere within it.
But where?
I have formed an alliance with the Five Great Religions, and although the Commander of the Holy Knights would be reluctant, he cannot defy the Popes and must cooperate with me.
"An encrypted document…"
"Yes, we're working on decrypting it now."
One fortunate thing was that not all of the records in Rowan's church had disappeared.
They might be related to the current situation, and they could reveal what Rowan had been doing so far. Right now, Eleion Bolton was in the process of decrypting the records recovered from the church's underground. Fortunately, there was no way the Inquisitors' records wouldn't be decrypted within the Holy Knights. It would just take some time.
Yes, that damned time.
"There's no guarantee that nothing will happen until that work is done."
Even if it was a document that could be decrypted, it was still a large amount of text.
Rowan must not take action until we could deduce what she could do from the meaningful truth within the massive amount of documents.
Was there enough time for that? Maybe, maybe not.
It was not impossible that Rowan wasn't scheming something but had simply gone into hiding.
"It's not like we can't predict what she's going to do."
Those were the words of the Pope of the Tu’an Order.
"What are you talking about?"
"In the past, perhaps, but now is not the time when heretics can be killed easily. Especially not by the hands of the Holy Knights."
"Even so, it seems like you're doing a pretty good job of killing them."
"…"
"No, I didn't mean to provoke you. It's just my way of talking. Come on, tell me what you mean."
There's no need to say something that would make the old folks angry.
The Pope was not wrong. Now that heresy has become the mainstream, it was impossible to completely eradicate heretics. Massacres were bound to occur.
"If we could annihilate them, it would be great, but they cannot be fundamentally eradicated. They keep emerging."
"I see."
"Neither extermination nor conversion was possible for the heretics who inevitably emerged."
"But if the Inquisitors were operating in the Empire, they must have been doing something, right?"
"If we couldn't stop the heretics, we at least wanted to know their scale. If there was a core, who it was, and where it extended to. Things like that."
It seemed clear that Eleion Bolton had never heard such a story before.
This was something happening within the Empire. It was evident that he had not been thoroughly informed about the internal affairs of the Empire until now.
I felt like I knew what the Pope of the Tu’an Order meant.
Bertus had said it before.
The organization of crime is inevitable.
The demand for the underworld must be met, and supply arises for that satisfaction, and the supply inevitably becomes organized.
Wiping out organized crime would only give rise to new organizations, so it was ultimately better to have control over them, he said.
At that time, Bertus had asked me if I had ever considered becoming the master of a thieves' guild.
Could this be the same situation?
The fundamental reason for the emergence of heretical factions was the distrust towards the Holy Order. As long as that distrust remained unresolved, capturing and killing the heretics could not be a fundamental solution. Inevitably, other heretical factions would arise.
Therefore, the Church leaders' choice was not to eradicate or remove the heretics.
It was to understand their scale and scope.
The emphasis was on meticulously grasping the heretical factions themselves. Even if they couldn't be eliminated, knowing their whereabouts would be helpful.
There were too many heretics.
So instead of eradicating them, they chose another approach.
Bertus tried to gain control over crime itself by owning a criminal organization.
Would the thoughts of the Church leaders be any different?
"Rowan had control over the heretical factions, especially the key figures."
There was no need to win the hearts of all heretics. If they could control the leaders of each heretical faction, it was as good as having everything.
Eleion Bolton looked at the Pope of the Tu'an Sect.
"…Are you saying that the Holy Religions are essentially the force behind both the heretics and the Hero Religion?"
"You could see it that way."
The times were chaotic, so the inquisitors of heretics were not working as they used to.
The Holy Religions were not judging the heretics, but rather holding them in their grasp. The Church leaders made that decision, and Rowan was the one responsible for it.
Rowan was, in a sense, the field manager overseeing it all.
She pursued dangerous tasks and was executed for defying the orders of the Holy Knight Commander.
In reality, Rowan would detest the faith of the Hero Religion as well as the Demon God Cult.
However, due to the inevitability of heretical factions arising, she had been working for a long time to grasp the strength of the heretical factions and control their leaders.
In this era, the one who could become the true master of the heretics was not someone who could establish an all-encompassing faith and captivate people.
"Isn't this just like saying that Rowan is the owner of all heretical factions, just with slightly different wording? It's not exactly the same as being a leader, but isn't it something similar?"
If one could control all the heretics, wouldn't that make them the de facto leader?
Eleion Bolton decided that he had to kill Rowan, who was digging up the truth that could potentially cause a head-on collision with the Empire.
But he knew nothing about the actual threat that Rowan posed.
The Church leaders were cautious about giving too much information to Eleion Bolton in order to keep him in check.
Petty power struggles. And mutual fear.
Their actions were leading to catastrophe.
The world was so strange that the inquisitors, who should have been killing and converting the heretics, had become the true masters of the heretics.
And now, what would Rowan, who had been abandoned by the Holy Religions she had sworn loyalty to, do?
Rowan would be in the refugee village.
She would try to use the heretics for something.
——
That night.
Louis, Christina, and Anna, three second-year B-class students, returned to the dormitory after a long time.
It wasn't for a long-awaited rest.
Now that Ludwig knew the truth, they could do something for him that they couldn't before.
The Lost Arm
It could be returned.
"It's not as easy as it sounds."
However, unlike the other two who said that returning the arm was a basic procedure, Christina immediately brought in Ludwig to convey a negative outlook.
Christina was talking to the emperor at the time, so she only heard later what Anna and Louis had said to Ludwig. That's why she had hurried back to the dormitory like this.
"I've heard it's painful. I've also heard about rejection reactions. But it's okay. I can endure it."
To regain the lost arm, to be able to fight again.
Ludwig wished that he could do something too.
Anna and Louis had already explained the issues like rejection reactions and pain thoroughly.
However, if he were to receive the Chimera procedure, it would inevitably be Christina who would perform it directly.
"Ludwig. That's not the problem."
"Not…?"
"Of course, in some cases, it can be easy. If it's just a matter of enduring… side effects and rejection reactions, and bearing the pain, that would be fine."
Then that should work.
As if she knew what Ludwig was thinking, Christina spoke while looking at him.
"They won't attach a rabbit, deer, or cow leg to you. What you saw was a rabbit. Not a person, a rabbit. It was a procedure that cut off a living rabbit's leg, then cut off another rabbit's leg, and attached it."
"…Yes."
"Attaching a right arm to you through the Chimera procedure means cutting off someone else's arm and attaching it to you. Ludwig, is that still okay?"
"…!"
At those words, Ludwig's eyes widened.
It wasn't a simple issue.
Body parts aren't created.
The Chimera procedure originally made incompatible things compatible. Therefore, the new arm Ludwig would acquire would inevitably belong to someone else.
That was what Christina was telling Ludwig.
It was to cut off someone's arm and attach it.
"Of course, you wouldn't want that. But there are many failed restoration corpses in that lab. As you saw. It's not perfect. So inevitably, you'll receive an arm from one of the corpses that didn't resurrect after being restored. A dead person's arm."
"So… that's how it works…"
The new arm he would gain would naturally be someone else's arm, not his own.
He couldn't use a living person's arm, and the arms left in the lab belonged to corpses that failed to be restored.
"Covered in dark magic, alcohol, and enhancement procedures. It's not an ordinary arm. It may look like a human arm, but it's not a human arm."
It looked like a human arm, but it had already become something else that wasn't a human arm.
"Didn't you think the restored corpses looked too intact?"
"Uh…?"
"Most of them are warriors. People who died in battle. When you die in battle… most of the time, limbs are severed or crushed."
Only then did Ludwig realize that he hadn't thought about the flawless appearance of the corpses being restored in the vats.
There were no severed arms or legs; everything was being cleanly restored.
"If they could use such a technique on people, they wouldn't be transplanting another arm onto you, but regenerating your arm."
If they could regenerate a corpse, why couldn't they regenerate a living person?
He should have thought of that question first.
"A living person can't withstand the process. That's one of the reasons this magic is difficult to use on the living."
Christina's expression was filled with pain.
If regeneration were possible, there would be no need for transplantation.
Regeneration is not something that can be used on the living in the first place.
And what is regenerated cannot be attached to a living person either.
"Ludwig, if you ask, I might be able to attach an arm that isn't from a corpse. Do you want that?"
"No… No, I don't want to go that far."
Ludwig could never bring himself to do the insane act of cutting off a healthy person's arm and attaching it to himself.
"Ludwig, I won't say it's absolutely impossible. The important thing is, I don't know what the outcome of such a procedure would be. And I don't want to do it."
After finishing her words, Christina looked at Anna and Louis.
They were not lying, of course. If Ludwig underwent the Chimera procedure, he could regain his lost arm.
But only if it were the arm of a living person.
They mentioned the Chimera procedure because they feared Ludwig might engage in strange behavior.
They were not unaware of the risks.
But they mentioned the Chimera procedure because they thought Ludwig might try to end his own life.
No one knew if the person who receives the transplant could endure it.
Transplanting the byproduct of magic meant for the dead onto the living.
Ludwig could only wear a hardened expression as hope was given and taken away.
Seeing his expression, Christina bit her lip.
"Ludwig, if you really want to do it… I can do it for you. But if you die… I won't revive you. Never."
He might think of wanting to fight as a resurrected corpse if he died during the procedure.
That's why Christina firmly drove the point home that Ludwig should not attempt the procedure with the intent to die, unlike Asher.
"I under…understand."
In front of a dazed Ludwig, Anna and Louis could only hang their heads with heavy expressions.