“Unrelated people, get out. I’m going to discuss official business!”
Truth, her interest completely gone, immediately began shooing people away, driving everyone out except for Marius.
Eve was the most confused of all.
‘Why was I kicked out too? Am I not Marius’s assistant?!’
Today had not been going well. She couldn’t touch the Saintess, she had been forced to kneel and apologize, and now her professional role was being denied!
It felt as though she were nothing more than a disposable ornamental vase.
No matter how one looked at it, she was still an Apprentice Inspector!
Without staying to deal with Omili and Tia, Eve left the Cathedral alone and sulking, muttering under her breath as she went.
“Fine, fine. I admit I can’t compete with you two. As long as you’re here, I have almost no chance of touching Little Truth. But what if I pick a time when you aren’t around?”
“Hmph! I won’t give up so easily. As long as it’s something I want to do, I’ll put all my effort into achieving it!”
“Wow, such a determined back. I feel like that short-haired girl is secretly planning something big?” Omili said while watching Eve’s receding figure.
At her side, Tia bowed slightly toward her.
“Greetings, Senior. You must be the guard sent by the Goddess to protect Little Truth, right? Please forgive my lack of hospitality.”
“No need to be so stiff. I’m very casual. So, Tia, should we sneak back and eavesdrop on Little Truth’s conversation? I have a way to make us invisible right in front of them.”
“Uh… that wouldn’t be right. I suggest we wait out here for a bit. If we’re caught peeping, it wouldn’t be good. Both the Church and Little Truth would hate us.”
“Caught? Do you underestimate me that much?” Omili squinted at Tia, making the latter suddenly feel a mountain of pressure. Just as Tia was about to explain, Omili laughed.
“Forget it. There will be plenty of chances to peep in the future. Let’s go to the lounge for some tea. You can tell me what Little Truth is like normally. For example, what scent of soap she likes when she bathes, what color of underwear she prefers, or if she has a secret crush…”
Omili pushed Tia toward the lounge. The latter agreed with a mix of reluctance and compliance.
After all, she just wanted to build a good relationship with this Ninth-Rank Senior.
It wasn’t because she wanted to secretly stalk Truth together!
……
“Lady Saintess, I’ll be direct. Regarding the Great Purge of the nobles in Deya City recently, the Church doesn’t actually care about whether those local nobles live or die. We only care about one thing: Are you cooperating with other forces?”
“Understand that your actions are a manifestation of the Goddess’s will, so this is very important to us. Please, tell us!”
Marius was practically being explicit with Truth. She didn’t need to hide the cause of the nobles’ deaths; the Church didn’t care.
The Church only wanted to know if Truth was being used by another faction or if everything was part of the Goddess’s plan.
Based on current intelligence, Marius could only confirm that two forces — Demons and Desecrators — had contacted Truth. This was the source of his uncertainty.
Would the Goddess cooperate with those two mortal enemies?
It was impossible! Dealing with Desecrators and Demons was written into the Tenet.
If it were true, it would shake the very foundation of the Church!
However, Truth indeed had not cooperated with any third-party faction.
“Inspector, have you ever considered a scenario where I never joined any faction, and someone else is simply using my decisions in the shadows to follow the trend?”
Truth spoke calmly from the bench, her voice light.
“You mean someone committed those crimes but pinned all the guilt on you?”
“Perhaps.” Truth tilted her head, appearing quite innocent.
However, she had already planned how to fool this Inspector.
As a liquid organism, Truth could control her micro-expressions perfectly, making it impossible for anyone to tell she was lying.
“You could say that, but also not. To tell you the truth, Inspector, I don’t even know what happened myself.”
Truth’s pink pupils looked directly into Marius’s dark green eyes.
Her gaze was very flat, lacking any aggression, which made him feel strangely relaxed.
‘Hmm, the Lady Saintess looks like the type of person who wouldn’t lie, but I must remain vigilant!’
Truth continued.
“You should already know that those nobles died one by one after I threatened them. Profit-wise, the old nobles were at odds with me, so killing them aligns perfectly with my interests. Meanwhile, many witnesses claim I did it personally. One could say the evidence is conclusive, lacking only an interrogation. But that is exactly where your contradiction lies, isn’t it?”
“How could a Life Saintess who hasn’t even reached the Second Rank personally kill over ten nobles? Inspector, may I ask what you think?”
“My thoughts? At first, I thought of the Church Assassins, because the Saintess has the permission to bypass the Church and order them to act. But after examining the corpses, the methods didn’t look like those of the Church Assassins at all. That’s why I focused on a third-party faction.”
“As far as I know, the Desecrators from Wangsheng City have already contacted you. However, they have no reason to kill over ten nobles just to frame you, only to send you gifts and engage in friendly negotiations afterward.”
“That method of smearing someone is too foolish. The Disciples simply won’t believe that a Saintess below the Second Rank could kill so many people in a single night. I don’t believe it either.”
“Later, I even dared to consider if you were cooperating with Demons, but that thought was so ridiculous I dismissed it immediately. In the end, I even suspected you asked that Ninth-Rank Senior to handle the killings. I can only say that even now, I still don’t have many clues.”
Marius spoke with a furrowed brow. There were still too few key leads. Everything pointed to the Ninth Saintess, yet there wasn’t a single piece of evidence that could prove it.
“Is even a Senior Inspector of the Church stumped? It seems that faction is hidden quite well.”
Truth replied calmly, but her words set off a storm in Marius’s mind.
What did she mean by “that faction”?!
“Inspector, do not spread what I am about to tell you. I will explain the reason in a moment.”
Truth looked at Marius’s slightly panicked face and said, “Since I became the Saintess, I have made many decisions, but very few were implemented. The fundamental reason was that they touched the interests of the local power players. This gave me a massive headache, so I began looking for a solution.”
“After a while, I discovered a very miraculous phenomenon. Any decision regarding the development of the Mist of Calamity went exceptionally smoothly. It was smooth to the point of being… eerie.”
“I once tried to propose logging rare trees within the Mist to earn the initial capital for city development. The result was exactly as I expected.”
“The proposal passed?”
“No, it failed. The Mist would not agree to any decision that harmed them. Later, I tried proposing the promotion of the Mist, turning it into the calling card of Deya City. Initially, several nobles rejected the proposal, but on the second day, they expressed their willingness to accept it with faces full of terror.”
“You mean a faction is deliberately guiding Deya City to develop the Mist?”
Marius hit the nail on the head immediately, but Truth did not answer. Instead, she continued.
“Following that, I proposed many things that benefited the Mist. Although there were some small conflicts in the middle, the results all passed as expected. It was then that I confirmed the existence of this secret faction. It made me uneasy, so I tried to seek help from the Goddess. But the Goddess only smiled without speaking and gave me a shushing gesture.”
At this point, Truth slowly raised her index finger to her lips. A faint smile played on her face, and her entire aura turned cold.
“The Goddess seems to be permitting that faction’s actions and even told me to keep it a secret.”
“Later, I thought that since the Goddess had permitted it, I might as well go all the way. I directly announced that from then on, the entire Deya City would develop with the Mist as its core. As expected, this was met with rejection from many of the power players.”
“Indeed. No one would choose to bet on a fading Mist.”
“Exactly. That’s what I thought too. So, at the meeting, I threatened them directly, saying I could make them obediently agree to the decision by the next day…”
As Truth spoke to this point, Marius finally understood the general course of events. He guessed nervously.
“And then that faction carried out a massacre for an entire night, eliminating all the power players who opposed your proposal to ensure it passed smoothly… right?”
“Correct. That should be the general summary of what happened.” Truth nodded. “Inspector, there is no need to be nervous. This was all permitted by the Goddess. Remember what I told you at the start about not speaking of this?”
“That is also the Goddess’s requirement.”