Chapter 564
This is not Avalon
After that, the Pure White Saintess quickly arrived with a full squad of twelve Pope’s Guards—arguably the highest combat force within the entire Church.
However, Eivass was not troubled. Under her arrangements, Eivass was directly sent home.
According to her, the investigation would conclude soon. Regardless of the outcome, she would have Janis inform Eivass of the corresponding results before sunset today. Even if the item wasn’t found, Eivass could simply pass a lie detector test and repeat what Loki had told him. So, the problem wasn’t really that big.
Eivass even suspected that Cardinal Loki had deliberately given him that information before making his move, precisely so that Eivass wouldn’t face trouble after killing him.
Although part of it might have been a lie, at least the “information Eivass possessed” was indeed these facts; they accurately and completely constituted Cardinal Loki’s chain of motives.
He was even considerate.
It wasn’t until the afternoon that Lily returned with Freya.
“Mr. Oswald isn’t here?”
Seeing Lily return, Eivass, who was reading a book on the living room sofa, closed the book and casually asked.
“No. Did something happen on your end, Young Master?” Lily replied. She didn’t seem overly worried, especially since Eivass had returned safe and sound. As long as Eivass was unharmed, she didn’t really care about Cardinal Loki’s fate.
“How did you know?” Eivass was somewhat surprised.
Had the death of Cardinal Loki already reached Oswald so quickly?
“I guessed.”
Lily shook her head and replied softly, “When I came back just now, I noticed some people on the street seemed a bit uneasy.”
“The Fifth Ring?”
Eivass nodded with interest. “Interesting.”
After the incident in the Eleventh Ring, the Pope’s Guards quickly secured the scene. The other priests, on the other hand, were restrained by the Night Demon, and even after the battle ended, they hadn’t recovered. Eivass’s biggest mistake here was likely attacking those innocent Elf Priests. Although it was to prevent them from getting caught in a more intense battle and their injuries could be fully healed by Fire Worship, it did cause them trouble.
Only about three hours had passed since then when Lily returned. By this time, the Fifth Ring was already in visible chaos. The Fifth Ring didn’t have many residents to begin with, and they were mostly short-lived species… How did they get the information?
“We didn’t look for you immediately because Mr. Oswald mentioned something.”
Freya placed the partially eaten, but packed lunch she was carrying on the table and said to Eivass, “He said, ‘Things will eventually conclude safely in a Moriarty Style.’ What exactly happened?”
“…I suspect this sentence was told to Mr. Oswald by Father, right?”
Eivass narrowed his eyes slightly and spoke. Freya nodded.
Moriarty Style—this phrase carried immense information.
Did it refer to Professor Moriarty’s spider-like wisdom in manipulating people’s hearts, or Eivass’s style of gaining social status with each enemy he defeated? After all, both James and Eivass were Moriarty.
However, speaking of spiders…
“Lily,” Eivass’s heart stirred, recalling something he had forgotten, and he suddenly asked Lily, “I remember when you saw Cardinal Loki and Bram, you seemed to have seen something?”
He remembered that Lily had some strange reactions then. Although it was only for a moment, Eivass had kept it in mind. Bram used gray spider silk, which seemed somewhat similar to Lily’s abilities.
“…Ah.”
Lily recalled for a while and remembered a part of it. “It seems like it. But I can’t recall it…”
But soon, her expression changed: “Wait, I remember! That fleeting illusion—it felt very similar to when I read the Spider Silk Grimoire!”
Hearing this name, Freya, who was beside them, showed a slight shift in her expression. Lily even felt fear—she had completely forgotten about this matter from an unknown source! This was unnatural. Normally, Lily would have hinted at this to Eivass immediately. But she herself couldn’t remember it at all, and hadn’t mentioned it even after two days. The feeling at that time was like a moth in a corner, disappearing the moment your gaze shifted.
“…Are you sure Cardinal Loki had it too?”
Eivass opened his eyes in surprise. Lily tried to recall, not very sure. “It felt similar… but that feeling seemed stronger.”
“Bram, that’s easy to understand…”
Eivass fell into thought. Bram was known for his rebellion when he was in Avalon. He had also heard that he used a Grimoire… If the one he used was the Spider Silk Grimoire that Lily later obtained, it was possible; or perhaps he obtained another language version of the Spider Silk Grimoire overseas.
But Cardinal Loki—wasn’t he a Giant? A Giant who was either “thoughtless” or “unhappy,” yet mastered the Spider Silk Grimoire, which focused on the power of “lies”… it sounded very strange.
Could this be the intersection where Bram and Cardinal Loki knew each other? What were the commonalities between Loki, Bram, and Lily? These were three completely different people… Why would they be recognized by the same Grimoire?
Unable to think of anything else for the moment, Eivass sorted his thoughts and began by explaining the situation to the two of them. “Simply put, the Tears of Time were indeed stolen by Loki, and he did harbor malice towards the Saintess.”
“…So, those two deceased individuals have nothing to do with Cardinal Loki?”
Freya, hearing only the first half, guessed what Eivass meant. “Actually, Father realized this and tried to frame Cardinal Loki by killing them. And because Cardinal Loki had indeed committed another offense, he became unable to withstand scrutiny… Is that about right?”
“About.”
Eivass nodded. Although the details were slightly different, that was essentially the meaning.
It was evident that Freya had some understanding of their father’s methods as well.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
“Eivass, are you there?”
The voice of Saintess Pure White came from outside. Although this door couldn’t stop the Saintess, and Pure White could enter by simply pushing it, she still knocked politely.
Lily immediately went to open the door, welcoming Pure White and her two accompanying Pope’s Guards inside.
Seeing this, Freya retreated to a corner of the room. She crossed her arms, standing silently beside them without speaking. Only when Freya saw that the Saintess’s expression was not solemn or sorrowful, but rather relaxed, did she secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
The blindfolded Saintess seemed to sense Freya’s gaze and tilted her head slightly in Freya’s direction after entering.
Then, she “looked” at Eivass and nodded gently. “The investigation results are out.”
“How?”
Eivass asked. Before Pure White could answer, he glanced at the two guards and chuckled, “It seems the situation is optimistic.”
The Eternal Saintess, after all, was a support class. Although she could wield High-Tier Divine Arts of the Nine Pillar Gods, it was clear that Saintess training did not include practical combat knowledge—intense confrontations could easily agitate the mind, shattering that sense of tranquility that approached eternity. For this reason, the Saintess was always accompanied by Pope’s Guards when she traveled. Even the Eternal Pope was the same… The biggest difference between the Pope and the Saintess was the set of Divine Gear passed down through generations, but in terms of their divine art list, they were quite similar. Ultimately, they were still support classes, proficient in defense, healing, dispersion, and buffs, but not skilled in intense confrontations.
The essence of these Pope’s Guards was to act as professional fighters for these two top-tier support classes in the world. From this perspective, the Eternal Saintess and the Eternal Pope could even be considered summoners—except that these “summoned beasts” were elite Extraordinary individuals.
The more formal the occasion and the more dangerous the area, the larger the scale of the accompanying guards for the Saintess. A squad of twelve was the maximum standard. Because under the Saintess’s buffs and protection, a squad of Pope’s Guards could defeat any organization in the world without taking damage. The fact that the Saintess came to find Eivass with only the minimum of two guards indicated that her visit was definitely not bad news, and there would be no trouble or danger.
Freya still had to observe the Saintess’s expression… but Eivass knew the matter was over just by seeing how many people had arrived.
Pure White had clearly understood Eivass’s meaning as well.
She teased, “You understand well, Archbishop Eivass.”
“A little, Your Highness.”
Eivass placed his right hand on his chest and bowed his head. “Indeed, it’s good news—we easily found the Tears of Time he had stored. The composition has been verified, and it’s confirmed that Loki is problematic.”
Pure White’s expression turned serious. “Using this as grounds, I have temporarily stripped Loki of his Cardinal title, pending the results of the in-depth investigation and the vote by the Cardinal Hall. The Eleventh Ring has now ceased operation, and Loki is no longer a Cardinal… therefore, you have not committed the crime of attacking a Cardinal.”
“…I recall fighting Cardinal Loki first, and then you stripped him of his title.” Eivass tilted his head.
“This is not Avalon, Eivass.”
Pure White reached out and patted Eivass’s head, replying casually, “Things are not so ‘rule-bound’ here in the Church. Here, rules are meant to prevent people from going astray, but not for post-incident punishment—post-incident punishment is generally decided by the responsible person’s specific discretion. As long as an event largely follows the process and no one raises any objections, it can conclude like this.
“To put it more clearly… as long as no other Cardinal stands up to oppose me. Then I can handle this matter entirely.
“Because Cardinal Loki is already dead.”
(End of Chapter)
