Chapter 615
Ellen quietly led her group away.
Taking Ludwig, who seemed to have realized something and lost his wits, they disappeared.
"We really have bad luck."
At Rowan's words, Olivia chuckled.
"I'm sure we have some kind of curse. We always end up seeing the scenes we really don't want to see. Unfortunate."
"Ha ha, maybe all moments are scenes we don't want to see?"
"You might be right."
In the conference room turned into a bloodbath, Olivia watched Rowan cleaning up the scene.
With a purification prayer, a rag, and a broom, she was wiping, clearing, and organizing the scattered flesh pieces.
"If you're going to clean up so diligently, why did you make such a mess in the first place?"
"People like them shouldn't die comfortably. That's why I made them suffer a bit."
"… What kind of death do you think someone like you deserves?"
"I'll think about it when the time comes."
"Nice attitude."
"An attitude is all I've got."
Neither Rowan, who was laughing and cleaning the bloodbath, nor Olivia, who was watching the scene sullenly without any intention of helping, could be called sane.
"I wonder what happened to Eleion Bolton?"
"If he went back, he went back. If he couldn't, he couldn't. There'll be measures taken."
"Good to know."
Whether they intercepted Eleion Bolton returning to the allied forces or not, they were prepared.
Eleion Bolton couldn't lead his army back safely to the base and return with the imperial troops.
"We're not going to kill Eleion Bolton. Any objections?"
"I'm not sure about objections, but wouldn't there be repercussions?"
"We'll send him somewhere where there can be no repercussions."
"Isn't it not possible to send someone into exile these days?"
"Exile? We'll provide him with a nice house in a place with good water and scenery, so he can live out the rest of his life comfortably. He just won't be able to use anyone or be used by anyone. Don't you think someone like him deserves at least a comfortable death?"
"As someone who almost died because of him, I shouldn't be the one to say, but yes."
Eleion Bolton would spend the rest of his life in Edina.
Rowan laughed brightly, understanding the meaning of Olivia's words.
"Anyway, it seems you've found a new base somewhere."
"Do you want to see?"
"Of course."
"Go see."
"I'll do my best."
Even though she seemed like a tasteless writer, and a madman who sends chills down one's spine, her loyalty to the Demon King was real.
It had only been a few days since Olivia had seen Rowan.
However, she treated Rowan very warmly.
"I understand that you like Reinhardt, but why do you like me?"
"When no one believed in the Demon King, you were one of the few who did."
"…Ah."
Rowan claimed to be a follower of the Demon King, but when she first met the Demon King, she thought his words were false.
Her thoughts changed when the Gate incident occurred, and everything went according to the Demon King's foresight.
That's why Rowan could only think of the three people who believed in the Demon King from beginning to end as being almost equal to the Demon King.
"I wonder if it was really necessary to kill the Popes."
Olivia sighed deeply.
"They won't be able to accept the Holy Order. It's still difficult for me to accept that the Demon God Cult and Holy Religions actually share the same roots. Can these old popes really accept that?"
"I guess not."
Before Rowan learned about the Demon King's contact, her plan was to add two more orders to the Five Great Holy Religions.
She would incite chaos in the refugee camp, leading to a massacre, and intensify the resentment against the empire.
Then she would take control of the Holy Religions and remodel the Holy Knights Order and the Five Great Holy Religions to include the Demon God Cult and the Hero Religion.
She didn't think it would go smoothly, and she had no concrete plans.
However, she knew that the moment the Five Great Holy Religions expanded, enormous chaos would ensue.
What Rowan wanted was destruction.
But then the Demon King appeared in time.
The Demon King didn't want chaos.
Rowan had desired destruction, but the Demon King didn't, so her objectives changed.
Rowan's plan had been halted midway, but there was no way to undo what had already happened.
The massacre had taken place, and resentment against the empire had reached its peak.
She would not attempt the next step of indiscriminate expansion and turning the order itself into a bomb to be detonated at will.
The Demon King intended to reform the faith.
Not like Rowan, who wanted to cause chaos by simultaneously inciting the Hero Religion and the Demon God Cult.
He would correct the misunderstandings about Demon God Cult and Holy Religions under the name of the United Holy Church.
Of course, that work wouldn't be easy either. In the end, it might still turn into a bomb.
But this time, the designer of the bomb had no intention of detonating it.
Therefore, transforming the Holy Religions into the United Holy Church couldn't happen suddenly like in Edina.
They would take their time and gradually progress through stages.
"Even if the popes couldn't accept our plan, it wasn't impossible to set them up as puppets. Wouldn't that make the cleanup easier? Who will do the work the popes have been doing up to now? It would be suspicious if five popes were replaced at once. I have no intention of arguing with Reinhardt's decision, but I'm not sure if it's the right choice."
"Ah… I see what you mean."
The sudden appearance of five vacant seats among the popes.
Chaos that Reinhardt didn't want would ensue.
Rowan lowered her head at Olivia's question, which implied that the chaos itself would intensify and the Holy Religions would falter.
"Don't worry, the popes never really did any work in the first place."
"…They just occupied the positions?"
"Of course, when they gave orders, we worked, but they didn't really do any work themselves. They had no real power either. So, there's no problem without the popes. It might even run more smoothly."
"But if they gave orders as they wished and the people below had to do the work, it means the popes were working and had real power. What are you talking about?"
"Do you think those orders came from their own minds?"
"Huh?"
Olivia tilted her head, seemingly not understanding Rowan's words.
"Did they listen to the advice given by the assistant bishops, make judgments based on their advice, receive analysis, and learn the best choices, or did they just parrot the words like a parrot? Can we really say that the decisions they made came from their own minds?"
"Ah."
"If you can control the information entering someone's head, you can control their actions and judgments as well. But that person would think that they've made the decisions and acted on their own accord. Surprisingly, it's easier to manipulate the thoughts of stubborn old people."
"Control, you say?"
"Did they really worry themselves into thinking that they had to join the Demon King? Was it the Popes' judgment?"
"Ugh…"
"Whispers in their ears about the overwhelming power of the Demon King, how his support is abundant within the Order itself. That if things continued like this, the Order might be completely taken over. That a coup might happen within the Order. The trend these days is like this. It's difficult to change the trend. If such words are whispered repeatedly."
Rowan laughed.
"What kind of thoughts would arise in the heads of old pigs desperate to preserve their positions?"
"Of course, they'd think they made their judgments and decisions based on their own evaluation."
"But what if the Demon King's support wasn't as substantial as the Popes had heard?"
"What if those whispering around them exaggerated, inflated, and even fabricated facts?"
"Would their judgment still be valid?"
People make judgments based on information.
But information isn't synonymous with the truth.
When the information provided leads to a single path, people follow it, thinking it's their own judgment.
They don't think about who paved the way.
They don't think about who's showing them the path.
That's why people, believing it's their own judgment and decision, walk the path led by someone else without realizing it.
The Popes were in a state that was no different from being brainwashed.
And now, having outlived their usefulness, they were killed.
And it wasn't just them.
"What about others besides the Popes?"
The same goes for others within the Order.
Rumors began to spread about the growing positive sentiment towards the Demon King and his followers, gaining people's sympathy.
It's possible that it never existed in the first place.
It might have been falsely recognized as a trend, and as people jumped on the bandwagon, it actually became one.
If Rowan's words were true, the Order's fall to the Demon King started with a mere baseless rumor.
It's like becoming a trend because it's known as a trend.
The Order crumbled due to mere rumors.
"I didn't want this outcome, but thanks to the information planted in the Popes' heads, I got to meet the Demon King. So, I guess it wasn't a waste of time."
"What was your original plan?"
"I wanted to make the Order support the Demon King and have them fight against the Empire."
"…You do know that you're the person Reinhardt hates the most, right?"
"Wouldn't it be stranger if he liked someone like me? In fact, if there was someone like that, I'd be scared."
"…You really know how to ruin a mood."
"Your Majesty."
"I'm not yet that, but what?"
"Ludwig, he must have been hurt."
At the unexpected remark, Olivia furrowed her brow.
It seemed as if her memories were slowly resurfacing.
During the Temple Tournament, was he the one who had faced Reinhardt?
"…It's quite refreshing hearing that from someone like you. What do you want me to do about it? Who is he to me?"
"It's nothing."
Rowan said it more harshly.
Ludwig was nothing.
Rowan didn't say anything more. But Olivia thought of Ludwig's expression.
The expression of someone who seemed to have gained a miserable realization.
The expression of someone who had unknowingly known the truth and heard it confirmed by others.
He was a nobody.
But wasn't all of this happening because of those nobodies?
Was it a warning not to hurt those who were nothing?
Or was it a warning that no one knew what would happen if they hurt those who were nothing?
It was probably the latter.
"Because he's nothing, we should have been more careful?"
"Instead of hurting, it would have been better to kill him."
When those who were nothing became something to someone, what would happen?
That was happening right in front of Olivia's eyes.
——
The news of the assassination of the Poped of the Great Religions did not spread anywhere. It was an easy matter to control the information within the Churches since it did not have frequent external activities.
All work was conducted quietly, holding their breath.
The change of the Holy Knight Order leader.
The control of Olivia Lanze's brain trust.
The sudden appearance of priests with great divine power.
Their new teachings.
Everything was carried out quietly, covertly.
The snow stopped.
The sky cleared.
Mild weather continued.
Suddenly, truly suddenly.
The snow, which seemed like it would fall forever, stopped abruptly, and warm sunlight shone on the earth as if it were a lie.
It was almost late spring when the warm weather arrived.
The frozen atmosphere in the Imperial Palace did not melt, but the fallen snow did.
Like a lie.
As if the snow had never fallen, everyone in the Imperial Palace could see it all melt.
"You know, with this, we can't stop it, right?"
"I know."
The Demon King was walking with Liana de Grantz in a quiet park of the Imperial Palace, watching the melting snow turn into streams of water.
"We might be able to prevent the massacre now, but later you might have to kill even more people with your own hands."
"…"
"You're not unaware that postponing the problem will make it bigger."
"True."
The empire used violence to suppress the riot in the refugee camp.
They captured Rowan to prevent the ominous atmosphere from turning into a larger riot.
In exchange for capturing Rowan, they gained control over not only the Holy Knight Order and the Five Great Religions but also the refugee camp area.
But this was just a temporary solution.
Just like the empire prevented its imminent collapse through massacre.
Before the Gate incident, no group's collapse could happen, so these things occurred.
The task of bringing down and absorbing the empire that had already lost its legitimacy and cause would be the work after the Gate incident.
At some point, when this matter surfaces, the Demon King must repeat the same history.
And on a larger scale.
"Can you do it?"
"…"
Everyone knows that they are only plugging the holes as they come, and one day the dam will collapse.
This time, someone blocks it; next time, someone else blocks it.
They know that they are merely postponing the moment the dam collapses.
"Did I ever do something because I was able to?"
Swinging a sword, too.
Becoming the Demon King, too.
Everything I had done up until now was not because I could do it.
I had done it because I had to.
At the end of everything I thought I had to do, all I found out was the truth that I shouldn't have done anything.
Still, I continue to do what must be done.
But upon hearing those words, Liana bit her lip as she looked at the Demon King.
"In the end, you can't say you can do it."
"…"
All the Demon King could do was laugh miserably at those words.
"Poor thing. Come here, let your big sister give you a hug."
"Get lost."
A brief spring came to the Imperial Palace.
Snow and ice melted, but in the end, nothing really melted.
Such was the fleeting spring.