chapter 57
57 – Finding a saint.
What if I had been a little more patient when I saw the three women sitting comfortably in the bush and eating? Ed thought for a moment. But wouldn’t it be more of a problem if we had a saintess as our guardian and didn’t respond to provocations that crossed the line? Of course, it was refreshing to see him crawling on the floor and crying out in pain when his limbs grew, but considering the eyes of the people around him, even if he thought about it, it was a little too much.
‘If I turned back time, I would have cut my throat, so I acted calmly enough.’
While thinking about that, Ed also ate. Perhaps because it was stored in Hermona’s sub-space, it was enough to satisfy hunger without major changes to the food. Arebiju, who was the first to finish his meal, spoke out what he had been thinking about on the move.
“But if the other denominations knew the destination, wouldn’t they use a method to block it from there? As anyone can tell, we’re on our way to visit Saint Mary.”
“You shouldn’t have included the option of returning to the north in the first place, right? No matter what you add, it won’t change.”
If you drag the two people in the center to the north, it will be difficult to track or punish them, but now there is nothing to see in the center. It was easy to infer that if he wanted to continue living in the center, he would find a saintess of the Church of Truth for the newly joined necromancer Hermona.
It’s because you just have to stop getting on the train, detouring and going up to the center, and eventually meeting the saintess, the final destination. Thinking over Arrebijou’s words, it was still a bit difficult to turn the situation around.
“By the way, Ed, if you meet that saint, you’ll be able to rectify the situation, right?”
Hermona, who had never met a saint and never experienced the power of God, asked an innocent question. He said he had to go see the saintess, so he was heading up north as if being swept away, but if he couldn’t overcome the situation after meeting the saintess, it seemed that he would eventually have to go up north with Ed, defeating the chase.
Of course, from Hermona’s point of view, going up north with Ed wasn’t bad, but I was curious. And Ed answered that question.
“I can only speak the truth in a space where the power of the Saint of the Church of Truth is within reach. If it’s ramen, there will be restrictions on using power in the center.”
“The fact that you cut off my limbs and glued them together means that you can prove that you crossed the line first, right? Then it will fizzle out.”
Hermona listened to Ed’s answer and nodded, understanding roughly how to resolve the situation.
Of the four, Glowin, who was the least ordinary person and knew a lot of information, saw that he understood the words and said with a bitter smile.
“There is a possibility that other churches will interfere by using authority rather than force. If you use the power of the punishment church, it is true, but you can measure the size of the sin.”
“If I get hit by that power, will I die?”
“I heard that depending on the degree of sin, you feel unbearable pain. There is no one who does not commit sins in life, so I don’t use it often.”
In the case of the Punishment Church, if we were to broadly discuss people, the Truth Church could sift out only the necessary information. Because of that difference, the Church of Truth received a little more calling in places like the courtroom. Measuring sin by the degree of suffering was too vague to make a judgment.
“If you use it on me, I’ll be able to endure it.”
Ed feels sorry for the three homeless people, but he doesn’t have much feelings for them. Even with the authority of the Church of Truth, he was able to hide his skills by telling the plain truth, and by speaking without making up the current situation.
So, authority isn’t perfect. Ed had thoughts that would make the priests and paladins of the church angry if they heard of them, but the necromancer who studied violating the providence in the first place had nothing to do with God.
“If you peacefully interfere with the Church of Truth, some churches will try to judge you with authority, and if you use force, you can increase your crimes, so both must be annoying. Still, wouldn’t it be better to break through once? Are you?”
“Among the gods who don’t give authority related to battle, it’s normal? It’s a little better than average, because I even escorted the saintess.”
Then Ed didn’t bother to add that the paladins wouldn’t be a problem either.
Arrebijou, who had a rough idea of what Ed meant without saying anything, couldn’t help but laugh awkwardly. I went to the South and saw with my own eyes what a monstrous skill Ed was. And gradually the heat went away a little and came up to a place where you could feel the chilly autumn weather.
Ed was stronger than when he was in the South.
***
“It’s noisy outside today too.”
Maria Cetin Quasar, with long white hair, continued signing the papers, listening to the noise outside. Even in the Church of the Front Chamber, when receiving a necromancer as a sponsor, they independently verified it, feeling that it was not properly verified, and tried to restrict the movement of the saintess, and the outer church had a limit in the power bestowed by the Goddess of Truth, so this happened. He kept emphasizing the fact that he was invincible.
In an unprecedented situation where her qualifications and power as a saint were questioned because of her sponsorship of a necromancer, Maria silently did what she had to do even in such a situation.
“Saintess. I think I was hasty too.”
A middle-aged man standing next to Maria said. A man who looked strong just by looking at him wearing large armor to suit his large body. His black hair was cut short and long cuts were left on his face.
“Is that what Wheatstone thinks?”
“Yes. Didn’t you know that Arrebijou would not be able to properly control the necromancer?”
Wheatstone Guardian, who can be said to be Arebijou’s teacher, recalled what he had heard before changing duties with his pupil Arebijou. Defeated three times in one sparring with a necromancer. Martial arts, elemental magic, curses, and what they were hiding, said that the necromancer was stronger than the paladin thought.
So Whiston could guess that in the first place, the uncontrollable paladin was sent with the necromancer, and that Maria had no intention of controlling Ed Frozenborn.
“That’s right. I just thought it would be good to have someone with skills and a familiar face by my side.”
When Maria said that it wasn’t a line that took into account the necromancer’s control, Wheaton made up his mind again and said.
“Then, is the saintess aiming for something with this matter?”
“A rigid church, and a big shake in the center. Everyone will think I’m insane when I hear what Aunt Enild has entrusted to me. You can think that this necromancer’s sponsorship is really no big deal. Wheatstone said that Aunt Enild Don’t you think it’s too much?”
Enild Setin Quasar, a former saint of the Church of Truth, was well known to Wheatstone, so it was difficult to manage her expression. It is basic to use the power of truth well like a saintess, and she used light attribute magic really well. Even if several paladins attacked, they were all knocked out by the holy light spear, and even the strongest paladin seemed to be overwhelmed.
“Since the saintess also stood on that side, didn’t you follow Enild-sama’s opinion to shake the church and the center?”
“I’m a nephew, so I just do what my aunt tells me to do.”
Having said that, Maria raised the corners of her mouth slightly and began to look at the documents again. Seeing that, Wheaton shook his head slightly.
***
Thinking that the other churches would move to block contact with the Church of Truth anyway, Ed and his party moved rather leisurely. Ed thought his experience of the South was very brief compared to the time he actually went down there.
Of course, the absolute period is about a month, and a month is an incredibly long time to think of it as a simple vacation, but half of it was used to expand the subspace. He hunted desert lizards as if he were taking a short walk, but it was great that he only stayed four days in the monster paradise he had to stay in earnest.
In such a situation, it was surprisingly not bad to go up to the center while slowly making your way through the forest. The day was cool, so it was good to be active outside, and if you had to sleep, you could use Hermona’s skeleton to make a decent bed right away. It goes up along a small stream of water that I happened to find, so there was no problem keeping it clean.
As they continued their leisurely journey through the woods, Glowwin spoke to the three as if waking up from a dream.
“Is it okay if we move around like this?”
Compared to when I rode the Skeleton Desert Lizard and ran without a break, my body and mind were comfortable, but I said it because I seemed to put a problem in one side of my mind and intentionally didn’t care.
“Saint Maria will not be able to move because of the surveillance around her, so it’s okay to go slowly to Tabie. It’s okay if we step out of the other churches thinking we don’t intend to come, and I hope it snows when we arrive.”
Ed said, looking up at the still blue sky. Of course, the temperature has not dropped that much, so snow is impossible, but the time to maintain the ‘frozenbone’ state is several times longer than in the south. This amount of time was necessary in order to overwhelmingly subdue all who attacked and go to the church.
“But I’m a little curious to see how far we can heal if there are so many members of the church.”
“really….”
Glowwin, who enjoyed finding out-of-the-box information that would energize her leisurely daily life, now hated being caught up in the middle of an incident. The days spent joking around with her sister Glodia on a purple moonlit night felt too far away.