Chapter 13 (2/2): The False Revelation

From the novel, she knew that Liuna had natural affinity because the count had given her natural essence to drink.

And the Inquisition fell hardest for “demon contracts.”

“Uh… there’s a red-haired noble. She has a brown-haired guard with her. They carry some unusual aura.” Mili lowered her voice. “I suspect she might have made a contract with a demon.”

The communication was silent for a moment.

Sailafei’s voice did change.

“A demon…!”

Mili apologized silently in her mind.

‘Sorry, red-haired noble. You look like you have tough luck. Help me take the heat first.’

“Please go track them down. For now… everything is fine in the border town.”

She said this while unconsciously glancing at the ceiling of the underground chamber.

Another explosion sounded faintly from outside.

Mili added, expressionless:

“Although a few people have died, fortunately, no problems have occurred.”

Sailafei: “Understood.”

The communication ended.

The bracelet’s glow faded.

Mili let out a long breath. Sweat had already beaded on her forehead.

“Yeah… just a few dead people.”

She whispered to herself.

“It’s just that there are no living people left… yeah.”

After that, she looked at the pope’s skeleton on the golden throne.

“Your Holiness, please don’t get up and hack me to death.”

She pressed her hands together and bowed.

Since she had bowed, she could continue taking.

Mili looked at the pile of gold coins nearby, and the holy water placed inside the Holy Grail.

Several thousand.

A full several thousand.

Next to them was written “Indulgence.”

Mili fell silent.

“This corrupt church really rakes in money…”

She started stuffing gold coins into her pockets.

After the fiftieth coin, her pockets couldn’t hold any more. She reached for the pouch at her waist.

“Huh? Where’s my pouch…?”

“Shit, I didn’t bring a pouch!”

Mili looked around for something that could serve as a temporary bag.

Then her gaze landed on the pope’s skeleton.

That skeleton was draped in a papal cloak trimmed with gold and gems.

Around its neck hung a large gold chain made of fifteen magic gems stacked together.

On its head was a papal crown crafted from over thirty diamonds, fifteen black onyx stones, and one massive aquamarine.

Mili’s eyes lit up.

“Your Holiness, may you be generous and merciful, may you be happy and healthy, may you be tall and mighty, may your merits be boundless, may you live as long as a mountain.”

She chanted while taking off the large gold chain.

The moment she put it on, a warm sensation spread through her body.

All attributes strengthened.

Feeling this for the first time, Mili froze.

“…That’s really direct?”

She also took off her priest’s cloak and replaced it with the papal cloak, then put her original priest’s cloak on over it, perfectly concealing the inner papal cloak.

A faint magic flow circulated.

This cloak could deflect magical attacks.

Although the duration was limited, it could definitely save her life in a critical moment.

As for the crown…

Mili stared at the ridiculously extravagant crown for a long time.

If she wore it out like this, the level of abstraction would be no less than “Everyone, look at me.”

“This thing is hard to carry…”

She regretfully gave up.

Another explosion came from outside.

Mili’s expression changed.

Time to go.

She reached for the Book of Necromancy.

The next instant, a powerful repulsive force burst from the pages, throwing her back.

Dark purple mist coalesced into the phantom of a purple-haired girl floating above the book.

Mili’s pupils contracted.

“Bro, there’s a trap card?!!”

She had no time to look closely, nor did she intend to greet it.

‘There’s a bound spirit in this damn book?! Taking it requires the book spirit’s approval?!!’

This kind of setup usually meant three things: curse, contract, or plot kill.

She didn’t want to touch any of them.

Mili grabbed Omnis and ran.

It took her some time to burst out of the underground and return to the church’s back hall, where she immediately closed the hidden entrance. After finishing, she leaned against the wall, panting, sweat pouring down her forehead.

“I definitely won’t pry into the affair between Your Holiness and your little maid, just don’t come looking for me.”

She raised her hand and used a holy spell to recover a bit of stamina.

Then Mili ran toward the square.

She had to get out of town as quickly as possible.

But halfway there, she saw Liuna.

She was standing near the square.

And not far away was the border count’s corpse.

Mili hid behind a tree, peeked out half her face, and immediately had wide-eyed shock.

“Th-this isn’t right…?”

She opened the Book of Revelation and quickly confirmed the original description.

The border count was indeed supposed to die.

Killed by assassination.

But the gruesome scene before her didn’t look anything like an assassination.

The square was blown to pieces, firelight reflecting on pools of blood. The count’s chest was pierced through. He looked like he’d gone through a frontal battle, then just slumped over with a “Urgh!” and died on the spot.

“This is what they call assassination??”

Mili was stunned. Was this assassination learned from Master Kang? Pick up a small axe and a hidden blade, then go in for a berserker-assassination rush?

According to the original, the count should have died in the fortress. His body discovered later, leading to the subsequent border catastrophe chain.

But now?

The fortress was half blown up, fires still blazing.

She couldn’t just throw the count’s corpse into a burning ruin and then report to the Holy Council that it was an assassination…

Mili’s head ached. She wanted to report to the authorities… but this place was already such a mess, where were the authorities?

Then, suddenly, it clicked.

‘A priest is also an official! Good!’

So, after Liuna and Luo Sha left, Mili rushed to the square.

Without a word, she used gravity magic to hoist the border count’s corpse.

Take it away first.

Figure out what to do later.

But just a few steps later, she heard movement behind her.

An old man landed on the square, followed by four guards who looked brainwashed.

It was the eagle-feather cloak old man.

He walked up to the fountain, revealing a sinister smile.

“Border count, border count… now that you’re dead, I’ll turn your corpse into a puppet, my last line of defense.”

Mili, holding the count’s corpse, hid in the shadows, nearly stopping her breath.

The old man walked to where the corpse had been.

Then he froze.

“?”

He looked at the bloodstains on the ground.

“Wait, where’s the count?”

The earth mage beside him was also bewildered.

“I can’t find him… where did he go?”

The old man was silent for a few seconds, then finally snorted.

“Whatever. Doesn’t matter. Probably buried. Since he’s dead, I’ll dig him out later.”

He turned to instruct the guards:

“Clean up the battle traces here. I want to turn this place into my territory.”

“Yes.”

Then the old man teleported away.

Mili waited a while, confirming the area was temporarily safe, then looked down at the count on her shoulder.

“This is really open-hearted… sigh…”

“Cross that bridge when we come to it. Let’s take him away first.”

Then she heard a heartbeat.

thump.

Mili froze completely.

thump.

She slowly turned her neck.

The supposedly dead corpse on her shoulder spoke.

“Put me down.”

Sweat instantly trickled down Mili’s back.

“Y-you… you’re not dead! Don’t scare people! Your body isn’t well, sir; how about we get out first?”

“Put me down, priest.”

Mili put him down quickly.

The border count slowly stood up.

He cracked his neck. The penetrating wound in his chest didn’t heal normally, but squirmed and writhed in a tangled mess of flesh and deep green light. An intense, terrifying aura of natural essence poured out of him.

His eyes no longer looked human.

On the back of his hand, an eye opened.

Mili stepped back.

Stepped back again.

‘…Run!!!’

She turned to flee.

But a sword blade suddenly slammed into the ground in front of her.

Three eyes on the blade stared at her simultaneously.

Mili slowly turned around, a stiff smile on her face.

“Ahaha… Count, any orders?”

The border count stood there. From the huge hole in his chest, a deformed goat-like head formed. After a few seconds, those abnormalities were forced back inside by some will. He returned to human form.

“Little girl, how about we make a deal?”

Mili swallowed.

“Wh-what?”

“I see your attire. You’re a priest of the Holy Council, right.”

“Count, just tell me straight. What do you need me to do?”

The count extended his hand.

“Cover my whereabouts.”

The next moment, his palm struck Mili’s chest.

The pain wasn’t strong.

But three prism-shaped patterns rapidly appeared on her chest, like some kind of contract brand embedded deep into her skin.

“If you break the contract, you’ll die.”

Mili’s face turned pale.

“Yes… I’ll keep my mouth shut…”

She paused, then very pragmatically added:

“Also, there’s an old man wearing armor that looks like your subordinates’ earlier. He was searching your belongings and your body.”

The count looked at her coldly.

“No matter. You only need to know who you serve.”

At this moment, Mili suddenly recalled a monster from the original story.

Forest Prism.

That thing appeared in later plots, but it was no longer human.

In the original, the border count died by assassination, and then there were no more positive descriptions. He vanished from the story like he had evaporated into thin air. Mili had thought it was the Ice Shadow Group destroying the evidence, or the author being too lazy to handle the corpse.

But now she understood.

It wasn’t the Ice Shadow Group that made the count disappear.

The count had disappeared himself.

The “Forest Prism” that would appear a few years later… might be this very man.

Mili’s back ran cold.

“I didn’t see anything.”

She turned and fled.

She could no longer maintain the original storyline.

If she kept meddling, she’d end up dead.

She ran toward the outskirts of town. On the way, she saw the old man assimilating the guards. The soldiers, originally under the count’s command, had hollow eyes—their souls drained by some spell, leaving only empty shells that obeyed orders.

Mili glanced, felt a bit guilty, then glanced again.

Then very decisively looked away.

But before she could run far, a cross-shaped attack suddenly smashed in from the side.

Mili quickly ducked into the shadows, covering her head.

A girl with cross-shaped pupils stepped out from the flames.

Almana.

Someone from the Inquisition.

Mili recognized her.

She was a complete pain in the ass.

Almana didn’t attack the old man. Instead, she took out an oracle and aimed it at him.

“Liuna…?”

The old man seemed not to understand who she was looking for.

Almana stepped on him, her voice cold and excited.

“Right. She’s the one I’m looking for. The oracle just gave me a mission: eliminate her. It says she drank natural essence—a lot of it.”

Mili, hidden in the shadows, felt her heart race.

She remembered the giant magic crystal ball in the center of the Inquisition.

If you wrote a name into the oracle, you could learn the target’s abilities and magic specialties.

So the red-haired noble had indeed been targeted. And the executioner was Xiaona… This just made things even worse…

The old man started playing dumb.

“I don’t know! I’m just a worthless old man hired to clean up the trash! I heard from the guards that they went toward the forest!”

Almana removed her foot.

“Good.”

Mili didn’t keep watching.

She couldn’t let Almana meet the count.

If she saw the count, the count would definitely kill her.

And if the count was forced into a full rampage because of that, the border town might not even leave behind ashes.

Mili left quickly.

The memory ended there.

***

In the room, Mili slowly opened her eyes.

She was lying on the bed, holding the Book of Revelation.

Outside the window, migratory birds flew under a gloomy sky. The clouds in the distance were terrifyingly dark.

Soon, fine raindrops began to fall, tapping against the window glass in a soft, continuous patter.

“In the end… I got dragged into all this.”

Mili got up and drew the curtains.

She reorganized the cloak, coins, pendant, and other things she had stolen and could hide. Then she glanced at the Book of Revelation again.

The pages still hadn’t changed.

“Sigh…”

Mili rolled over and lay back on the bed.

“Guess I’ll just keep scrounging inheritance to level up. Let’s see what else is worth exploring.”

She looked at the time. The clock’s hands pointed to half past six in the evening.

It was still raining outside.

‘I’ll just call it an early night.’

Mili put the book aside and prepared to wash up.

But as she reached the bathroom door, she suddenly stopped, looking down at her chest.

Beneath the fabric, the three prism marks seemed to retain an extremely faint warmth.

Mili was silent for a few seconds. Finally, she looked at the mirror and forced a tired, self-deprecating smile.

“Hee hee… I’m going to survive.”

The rain grew louder.

The darkness outside gradually swallowed the remaining light in the room.

And the Book of Revelation, which would never update, lay quietly by the bedside.