SWNOVELXO Chapter 396
“That was a total mess!”
It was pure chaos after that.
Out of nowhere, an elf barged in, started munching on food, and then suddenly began to vomit.
During this mealtime disaster, someone screamed.
Someone else kneeled to clean up the puddle of vomit soaking the floor.
Yet another person brought her a change of clothes.
And one brave soul just kept on eating amidst the commotion.
As things started to settle a bit, the elf, referred to as the Archbishop, tearfully sobbed because she couldn’t eat her tofu hamburg.
Eventually, after a while, the chaos calmed down only after Kurt specially made her a tofu steak without any meat.
Once the meal, which felt more like a battle, finally ended, the group now sat calmly and stared at the female elf known as the Archbishop.
“So… now that we’ve finished eating, I’d like to start talking.”
“Ah. That was delicious. Truly worthy of Lynette’s praise. I felt grateful we decided to import tofu after tasting it.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
Kurt smiled at the elf’s gratitude, but then quickly changed his expression when he caught the disapproving glares from the group sitting nearby and put on a serious face.
“No, that’s not it. What I want to ask is your identity. Who on earth are you to just sneak in among us?”
The elf woman, who had naturally intruded into the restaurant and was addressed as Archbishop by the characters from the Holy Kingdom, seemed vaguely familiar, like a half-elf I had seen before somewhere, acting silly when she threw up or devoured her tofu steak. But as the meal concluded and the atmosphere grew calm, her composed demeanor radiated an aura of both sanctity and gravitas.
In fact, it was already clear what her identity was when Lynette and the characters from the Holy Kingdom referred to her as Archbishop, yet Kurt still asked her again for confirmation.
“Ah. This is….”
“It’s okay, Lynette. I can introduce myself. My name is Tierra. I am an elf who has served as the Archbishop of the Holy Kingdom for the past 500 years, though I might seem lacking.”
“So… you really are the Archbishop.”
She urged Lynette, who had taken an undeservedly cautious stance, to remain calm and revealed her identity to Kurt’s group.
Despite having an inkling of her identity, the news of her status caused a look of bewilderment to spread across Kurt’s group’s faces.
Archbishop.
The number of bishops in the Holy Kingdom was eight and could fluctuate in history, but there was always only one Archbishop.
This was because, in the Holy Kingdom, where there is no formal title for a king, the Archbishop effectively ruled as the king.
Kurt’s expression displayed disbelief at the fact that the woman before him was the highest authority in the Holy Kingdom.
“Heh, you look quite surprised.”
“Yeah. To think the greatest authority in the Holy Kingdom would be someone who throws up like that.”
“….”
He was indeed surprised, in more ways than one.
Kurt shook his head incredulously and, to his astonishment, the others in his group nodded silently in agreement.
Truth be told, it had been a thought that had lingered in his mind, but expressing it felt too rude.
“Ahem. Archbishops are human too. We all have moments where we might vomit. I completely understand.”
“….”
No change in her expression, Tierra defended herself against the group’s subtle gazes.
“More importantly, I’ve come to discuss the religious trial you all got involved in.”
She promptly shifted to the main topic before Kurt’s group could cool their gazes any further. In fact, her strategy turned out to be effective.
Their expressions, which had previously looked at her like a silly elf, turned serious in an instant.
“First, I want to apologize to you two who were caught up in Gelio Gelatin’s scheme. It’s my fault as the head of the Holy Kingdom for not catching his betrayal beforehand.”
“Ah, that’s not necessary! Archbishop, you don’t have to say that…!”
Tierra said this with great seriousness as she bowed her head.
As soon as she did so, Daria and Aila, who received the apology, fidgeted awkwardly.
“In fact, I recently obtained information suggesting that there might be a traitor within the Holy Kingdom, and I’ve been carefully monitoring the situation. However, I never imagined that the traitor would be Gelio. Thankfully, because of your timely appearance in the Holy Kingdom, Lynette was able to unmask the traitor. I owe you all.”
“…Now that I think about it, Lynette suddenly came to us for help not just because of her students’ requests, huh? In that case, there’s no need for you to apologize. No matter how hard we may have tried, we wouldn’t have captured the culprit without Lynette’s help.”
“But regardless, it’s a fact that this incident has caused harm to two nuns in the Holy Kingdom and you all. I will ensure that the Holy Kingdom provides maximum compensation in the future. And the second topic, the main focus is… Have you got any clues about why Gelio Gelatin betrayed the Holy Kingdom?”
Having finished her apology to Kurt’s group, Tierra immediately introduced the second topic.
In fact, that second topic was the main reason Tierra came looking for Kurt’s group.
Gelio Gelatin, who had lived his life as a bishop under the Archbishop, betraying the Holy Kingdom was a serious event that could not be taken lightly.
What on earth could drive him to betray the Holy Kingdom?
And did his actions, risking getting caught, amount to nothing more than framing Daria and Aila for a religious trial?
“Considering Gelio’s actions, it seems that there’s definitely something related to the Ancient Ruins you discovered in Astram. What was it about those ruins that led a bishop of the Holy Kingdom to risk revealing his betrayal and take such drastic actions? Any ideas?”
“Well, we only just heard about Gelio upon our arrival in the Holy Kingdom. If you want to learn more about his motives, it would be faster to interrogate him directly instead of asking us.”
“That’s… impossible. Gelio has been captured, and during the process of transferring him to the interrogation room, he mentally broke down and became a husk of his former self. He used magic to erase all his memories.”
“…He went that far?”
Kurt asked with a stunned voice at Tierra’s words.
The magic Gelio cast on himself signified a punishment that Daria and Aila might have faced had they not been framed.
It was a punishment imposed when high-ranking officials or agents who knew the Holy Kingdom’s secrets betrayed it, erasing all memories related to the Holy Kingdom’s secrets.
The spell’s effect was simply to wipe away all memories related to the Holy Kingdom’s secrets, but considering that high-ranking officials or secret agents often live lives closely tied to those secrets, erasing such memories meant losing a significant portion, sometimes even more than they retained.
And of course, erasing so many memories at once would lead to problems.
For them, receiving such a memory-erasing punishment was akin to becoming an idiot or akin to a mental death.
While Kurt had bad associations with the man named Gelio and didn’t know him well, hearing that he resorted to what was practically suicide by shattering his own sanity was no laughing matter. So the group’s expressions darkened at the news of Gelio’s self-harm.
“But I can’t understand. What was his purpose in framing Daria and Aila and ultimately choosing to become a husk?”
“That’s why I’ve come to you, to find out. What could those ruins in Astram possibly contain that Gelio would go to such lengths to hide, or rather, it’s not even hiding. If an investigation had started properly, it would only have been a matter of time before information about the ruins reached the Holy Kingdom.”
In that case, no matter how much Gelio tried to reduce Daria and Aila to husks, it wouldn’t have changed anything.
It was simply a matter of.
“Exactly. It was merely a time-buying act. What on earth was in those ruins that led a figure of Gelio’s stature to risk everything?”
Tierra stared unwaveringly into Kurt’s eyes at that moment.
At that moment, Tierra radiated the dignity of a ruler and a living history that had stood at the pinnacle of the Holy Kingdom for 500 years.
“I’m sorry I can’t meet your expectations, but… we won’t be able to provide much assistance regarding that.”
Still, Kurt’s group had nothing particularly to respond with.
In fact, Kurt and his companions were just as curious about why he had done such a thing to Daria and Aila.
“We can explain what we saw in the ruins, but the connection between the ruins and the bishop’s betrayal remains a mystery to us.”
“Honestly, we’re just as curious!”
“Exactly. What could have driven him to bear such a grudge against the two?”
“To be honest, the information we discovered in the ruins is only impressive from our perspective; it’s not like the Holy Kingdom wouldn’t already know about it…”
“…Is that so?”
As Kurt’s group nodded vigorously, Tierra quietly bowed her head in understanding.
“Given Gelio’s actions, it must have been important information that needed to be discovered without delay… Alright. If you can’t think of anything, then that’s that. But just in case, let me share what little I know about the ancient ruins…”
It was at that very moment.
“I know.”
“Huh? Who just said that?”
“The reason that man betrayed us. And what the large human nation is plotting. I know.”
As he spoke, stepping out from the gaps in Kurt’s group, was Kurt’s childhood friend, the sole shaman of her tribe—a Lizardman, Lakia, who had run away from their hometown.