[Vol. 8] Chapter 38: The Truth
Under the bright moonlight of the third moon hanging in the night sky, the black-haired girl stood with her hands behind her back. She didn’t seem surprised at all. The silver light fell softly over her like a veil, and her dark, inky hair shimmered faintly like stars. The scene made Frederica’s breath catch slightly without her even realizing it.
“So… what’s the good news?”
After a short pause, the Saintess hesitated for a moment and then said thoughtfully,
“Well… maybe it’s not exactly good news. While we were secretly investigating the fortress, we did find signs of the corpse mutation that Raymond talked about. But for some reason, the number of cases was much lower than expected…”
“More precisely, it’s that the total number of people in the fortress was much lower than we thought. But as we saw on our way here, they didn’t escape toward the Austre Empire’s lands, and it’s even less likely they went toward the buffer zone where the enemy is. So, most likely, they were captured and are being held by the allied tribal forces. That means even though the tribes used such a cruel method, they don’t actually want the corpse infection to spread out of control. At the very least, they’re still acting with some reason. If that’s the case, then maybe this won’t turn into a huge disaster.”
“Hehe, you’re pretty optimistic~”
The priestess girl turned around and gave a faint smile, not saying whether she agreed or not. She tossed a memory stone from the Ancient Spirit Realm toward the Saintess.
“But the truth isn’t always as nice as we imagine. Go ahead and look, this holds the answers you need.”
“...?”
Frederica instinctively caught the stone with both hands. Although she was a bit confused, she didn’t dare be careless with something Violet handed over personally. After a quick look, the knowledgeable Saintess soon figured out how to use it and activated the stone.
At once, the image of a woman with large moth-like wings appeared. Behind her was a blurry background filled with bones, adding a disturbing and realistic sense of bloodshed to the otherwise plain-looking recording. Frederica’s eyes narrowed slightly.
What Violet had shown her was, of course, the video she had recorded earlier while interrogating the woman who claimed to be Flora of the Illusion Butterfly Tribe.
She had gotten a lot of useful and critical information from that woman, things like the real reason the sixteen tribes of the buffer zone declared war on Austre Empire, where the giant behemoth that attacked during the day came from, and the way they used corpse mutation to infect the living, only to feed them all to the Soul Eater Mother Worm, turning them into pure energy to offer their god.
These answers explained nearly all of the mysteries the delegation had faced since the war began. But the cruel and heartless ritual of sacrificing lives like they were nothing disgusted even Violet a little.
Gods could ignore the cries of living beings and stay silent to their prayers. But when a god uses overwhelming divine power to massacre mortals on purpose, that’s another matter entirely.
That god called [Wild] was almost certainly an evil god.
Violet hadn’t killed Flora. Instead, she let her go with a message to deliver to her master. Something along the lines of “don’t get too cocky, watch yourself.” Of course, the exact words were probably not that polite~
After all, this was similar to what happened with the Goddess of Withering before. Violet was never the kind of person who demanded absolute justice or couldn’t tolerate a single grain of sand in her eye. Gods have their own ways, and she could turn a blind eye to some things if they weren’t her concern.
But if a god continued to push things too far, doing worse and worse even after being confronted. Then Violet certainly wouldn’t just let it slide.
The priestess didn’t openly say what would happen if her warning was ignored, nor did she reveal her own or Xiao Guang’s name and identity to the Illusion Butterfly woman. But judging from Flora’s words and actions, it was pretty clear what kind of personality her master had. Most likely, that master wouldn't listen to any advice.
So, rather than ending here, this matter would probably only get worse. In fact, it might even push that god to come out into the open.
This whole situation wasn’t simple. Right now, things looked more like a case of [Wild] and the Austre Empire fighting like two mad dogs. The delegation was just unlucky enough to get caught in the middle. If they rushed in without thinking and tried to fight that evil god head-on, they might end up being used as free muscle by the Austre Empire.
And that idea annoyed the priestess more than the evil god slaughtering civilians ever could.
That’s why Flora was only the first test she set up, and Frederica was the second piece in her plan.
"How could anyone do something so cruel and inhuman?! An evil god, this is definitely an evil god! Has Tairnak lost his mind?! He’s really working with an evil god just to get revenge on the Austre Empire? At this rate, their people are going to be destroyed sooner or later!"
As expected, after watching the entire recording and understanding what had happened, the kind-hearted Saintess burst into anger. Her beautiful eyes widened, and she gripped the handle of the Judgment Holy Sword tightly with one hand. The overwhelming power of a being above the top tier roared from her body like stormy waves. Even her chest, just as impressive as her little sister’s, heaved with emotion.
…Yeah. Totally not the right time to think about that. But wow, she was really strong.
Violet was talking about her strong sense of justice.
Seeing how angry she was, the priestess just gently patted the Saintess on the shoulder, signaling her to calm down.
Bringing this up wasn’t meant to make Frederica angry.
"This matter… well, we can’t blame the Behemoth chieftain for everything. You heard what that so-called divine messenger said. That god called [Wild], who claims to be the ‘Child of the Ancestral God’, probably showed up without being invited. He just appeared suddenly among the wild tribes. Other than a few followers he brought with him, the rest like Flora and the local tribes were probably just tools he picked up and controlled at will."
"The power of a true god is something ordinary people can’t resist. It doesn’t matter whether those sixteen tribes worship him or not. If a god tells someone to do something, they usually have no choice but to obey. And just the few followers that god brought are enough to destroy everything if people refuse."
"If Tairnak really is as rational as you described, I’d guess he gave in partly by force and partly by pressure. Yes, it was still wrong, but in a critical moment, he might still be someone we can work with to stop this from turning into an even bigger disaster."
Listening to this lesson, the Saintess fell silent in thought for a moment. Then, as if she had figured something out, she nodded and carefully handed the memory stone back to the priestess.
"So what you mean is, the true one to blame is the evil god. Tairnak was just forced into going along with it. I understand now. That chieftain has always put his people’s survival first, so it’s not surprising he made such a choice."
"So what do we do now? Should we go and defeat the evil god called [Wild] who came into this world?"
The black-haired girl glanced at her with a slight grin, half-joking.
"Defeat an evil god? And who’s going to do that, you? Or me? That so-called chosen hero who’s supposed to save the world hasn’t even been picked yet, you know~"