Chapter 31 : Apostle of Corruption - 2
Alcala's Calamity.
A large-scale disturbance caused by the apostles of the God of Corruption, Alcala, targeting nations located in the northern part of the continent.
As befitting apostles serving the God of Corruption, Alcala's apostles held a firm belief that the human body must rot.
The reason they were called the continent's villains was certainly due to their wicked and vicious doctrine, but the biggest problem was that their method of evangelizing their beliefs was excessively violent and one-sided.
The method Alcala's apostles adopted to spread their beliefs was none other than kidnapping, confinement, and brainwashing.
They secretly raided villages located near the northernmost part of the continent with rare contact with the outside world, turning the residents there into their puppets.
And using them, they attacked nearby villages, gradually growing their military force.
By the time each nation grasped the situation, their power had already spread across several nations.
Only then realizing the severity of the situation, the authorities hurriedly sent suppression forces to the areas occupied by the apostles.
However, the apostles, who had anticipated this, took out a hidden card they had prepared in advance.
The suppression forces, hit by an unexpected move, suffered near-annihilation damage, and rather received the baptism of corruption, becoming Alcala's puppets.
Truly cunningly, Alcala's apostles targeted small nations with weak national power as their first targets, and the small nations, lacking the capacity to immediately organize 2nd and 3rd suppression forces, could not effectively suppress the situation.
Eventually, with the help of nearby powerful nations concerned about the apostle's rise spreading to the continent, the calamity was suppressed, but small nations including Zodiac suffered extreme damage.
Also, for the reason that they could not solve their own country's problems by themselves, their national prestige suffered tremendous damage.
In particular, the Reichart family suffered irreversible damage; not only the direct damage from the calamity, but the resentment pouring in for failing to perform the duty of protecting the North was also immense.
'The aftermath of this incident, and the attack of the Sub-Dragon that will happen a little later. These two events become the catalyst that accelerates Reichart's downfall.'
I, Hein Reichart, bit my lip firmly.
Due to these two events, Reichart, who was the leader of the Zodiac North, eventually becomes a hollow husk of the North.
And eventually becomes a playground for corrupt nobles, facing the end of being swept away by Gillian's blade.
1 year.
I knew all too well that one year from now would be the decisive period determining Reichart's rise or fall.
'Alcala's Calamity' and 'Sub-Dragon's Attack'.
These two disasters could be a crisis and an opportunity at the same time.
As the first step to turn the crisis into an opportunity, I was running without rest through the forest path where darkness had not yet lifted.
'Looks like that is the place.'
As the small village spread out below the mountain path came into view, I stopped the horse.
The small village nestled tightly in the valley's embrace and the smoke rising lazily above the wooden buildings.
Outwardly, it was a truly cozy landscape.
Shing.
With a murderous sound that did not match such a tranquil landscape, I took out a short dagger.
And pulled down the leather bag tied to the horse.
Zip.
As I loosened the leather bag with the dagger, two men with unusually dull-colored skin were tied up with gags in their mouths.
These two were Alcala's apostles who had pounced to capture me as a sacrifice when I approached the village a little while ago.
They were ones who had undergone harsh training, but the gap in skill was too large to deal with me.
"Mmph mmph."
The men glared at me with bloodshot eyes, but I did not blink an eye and raised the dagger high.
"Mmmph!"
And I plunged the dagger straight into one of their shoulders.
"Speak. How many of you are hiding in the village down there?"
"Woo woo, mmph."
The stabbed man glared at me with eyes full of malice instead of answering.
Thud thud thud.
"Mmmph!"
However, just three strokes of the knife were enough for a look of resignation to settle in the man's eyes filled with venom.
"I ask again. How many are down there? Who is the boss?"
"Fi, fifty or so. The leader is Bishop Badoc……."
Looking at his shoulder which had become almost like a rag, the man answered in a terrified voice.
A smile formed on my face upon hearing the answer.
"Is that so? The leader is a guy named Badoc?"
Ending with those words, I pulled out the dagger and then plunged it straight into the man's neck.
As I drew the dagger left and right without hesitation, the man's head was cut clean off.
Aiming the sword tip at the one remaining man, I took out a piece of paper from my bosom and spoke.
"If you don't want to end up like this idiot, you'd better stop trying to trick me."
"……."
The moment he saw the paper I took out from my bosom, the remaining man could understand why his colleague ended up like that.
What was held in my hand was a secret document containing their classified information.
I had already raided another assembly point before attacking them and knew some information, and through this, I saw through that the killed man was telling a lie.
"Speak. Who is the leader of the guys over there?"
"T, the one in total command of us is Bishop Bertoli…… His ability is……."
The man hesitated for a moment but eventually started to confess fluently what he knew.
Faith in Alcala could not overcome the fear of death.
Having cross-verified that the man's words were sincere through previously secured information, I nodded.
And I gave the man who gave an honest answer the reward he deserved to receive.
Thud.
"Guh……."
Thanks to confessing honestly, the man breathed his last at once without great pain.
I roughly threw the leather bag containing the two corpses into the forest.
Since they are guys crazy about corruption anyway, the corpses will soon rot away without a trace.
'The guy named Bertoli seems to be quite high-ranking. If I can just secure the secrets he holds, I can grasp the rough direction of their initial progress.'
It has already been a week since I left the fortress in search of the apostles' traces.
This was already the fourth advance base of the guys I had raided.
After putting the classified documents secured through the raid into my bosom, I headed toward the village with stealthy steps.
Soon, my figure melted away into the faintly settled fog.
***
"Bishop, Bishop! It is an enemy raid!"
"What!"
Bertoli, who was taking a rest in the basement of the base located in the center of the village, stood up from his seat in surprise.
"A raid? Did the Reichart Knights come? Was our identity exposed?"
As the surprised Bertoli blinked his eyes, the skin attached to his face flowed down.
Unlike lower apostles whose skin color merely discolored, he, who was of a quite high rank, had distinct traces of corruption all over his body.
'Nonsense. We moved so secretly, and we didn't neglect surveillance on the territory either. How on earth did they notice our identity?'
Bertoli blinked his eyes and fell into thought.
This uprising was not done on a momentary whim but was the order's long-cherished desire proceeded after decades of planning.
And one of the parts the order put the most effort into while investing that long time was strict secrecy.
But such a sudden raid?
"It is not the knights who raided us. The raider is just one person."
"What? Just one person? You stupid bastards!"
Enraged by this nonsensical fact, Bertoli threw the documents he was holding without realizing it and screamed.
"There are fifty personnel stationed here alone. Yet you are making a fuss saying you cannot handle one raider!"
Bertoli guessed that the identity of the one who raided them was a Ranger passing by this vicinity by chance.
If it was just one Ranger, there was no way his strong soldiers trained with harsh doctrinal lessons could not handle him.
"Bishop, I am sorry to say, but it is not simple. Just the number of guards sacrificed already numbers ten……."
Crash.
Swish!
The priest who was about to say that the sacrificed guards alone numbered over ten could not continue his words to the end.
"Kuh, guh, gurgle."
A dagger that flew piercing through the door had pierced straight through the priest's neck.
Crack.
"Hiiik!"
The dagger that pierced the priest's neck in an instant flew at a fierce speed without losing momentum, grazed Bertoli's cheek, and stuck into the wall.
"I am neither knight nor anything else, so you'd better stop catching innocent subordinates."
And the owner of the dagger revealed his appearance a little late.
On the longsword held in the intruder's hand, the blood shed by over fifty guards sacrificed to protect Bertoli was gathering while vomiting hot steam.
"Who, who are you?"
I quickly looked around without giving an answer to Bertoli's question.
Soon, the confidential documents Bertoli was reading came into my eyes.
If there were documents containing that amount of information, there was no need to dig for information through Bertoli's mouth.
"There will be no need to take the trouble."
"……!"
Bertoli grasped the intention from my muttering and the direction of my gaze, and immediately threw his body toward the documents.
As a high-ranking bishop, his faith in Alcala was thorough, and he thought he could not hand over this information to the intruder even if it meant throwing away his life.
However…….
"Gurgle……."
His action ended in failure.
The Family Sword I threw had pierced straight through Bertoli's chest and stuck into the wall.
"Ah, you were plotting such a plan."
Making Bertoli into a skewer hanging on the wall, I slowly examined the documents.
Having finished all necessary work such as gathering documents that could be evidence, I pulled out the Family Sword that had fixed Bertoli in place.
Shing.
"Cough!"
As I pulled out the sword, turbid-colored blood leaked from Bertoli's mouth.
I brought the Family Sword straight to Bertoli's neck.
And soon shook my head.
"No. Such a death is too undeserved for trash like you."
Lowering the sword, I opened my right hand instead.
Fwoosh.
Then, a purple flame bloomed from the back of my hand.
That flame immediately transferred to Bertoli.
"Guh, guh. Guhhh……."
The purple flame began to greedily swallow Bertoli's body.
Watching Bertoli's corrupt body melting down without even being able to scream in extreme pain, I fell into thought.
'First, I will send the documents I secured to the Family Head. The Family Head will make a separate report to nearby nations or the upper echelons of Zodiac. If there is this much evidence, they won't be able to just ignore it. Then we can prevent the order's power from spreading to an unmanageable level like before.'
Rip.
As I tore the scroll, a blue-tinted hawk floated into the air.
As I tied the document I secured a moment ago to the hawk's ankle, the hawk began to flap its wings vigorously toward the Magic Tower located in the Reichart Inner Castle.
Rip.
As I tore one more scroll, a pen and paper appeared in the air.
I immediately left a message to deliver to the Haken Knight Order, and
Fwoosh.
The paper soon disappeared along with flames.
'Then shall I get going too?'
Confirming that the message was delivered to the Haken Knight Order, I turned my body and exited to the surface.
Soon, Bertoli's body turned to a pile of ash, scattered into the wind.