The ones who killed the nobles were a group of mysterious forces, and this group had the Goddess’s tacit permission.
This was the information Marius obtained from Truth.
Even though he still had many doubts, since Truth had brought up the Goddess, Marius had no way to question it.
He could only accept what Truth said as fact and then, on behalf of the Church, directly reject everything in that signed whistleblower letter.
The Church’s upper management just wanted a result, anyway. After all, no one dared to offend a Saintess.
Of course, the investigation couldn’t end there. Marius still had to follow the proper procedures.
After saying goodbye to Truth, he immediately recalled his subordinates to begin integrating and analyzing all the clues.
As for the three God-guides, Marius asked Truth how to handle them.
Truth stated that they were merely frightened victims and didn’t need punishment.
On the contrary, they should be rewarded slightly.
The Church needed more people who dared to report misconduct to effectively clean out the maggots who loved corruption.
‘Well, this approach fits the stereotype of the overly compassionate Saintesses,’ Marius thought.
“By the way, since you Inspectors are already here, why don’t you do me a small favor? Could you help me root out and clean up the Church’s maggots in Deya City?”
Truth suddenly spoke just as Marius was about to leave. He didn’t dare refuse.
“We haven’t even had the chance to help you yet. Helping the Saintess is our highest honor. I guarantee you that by sunset today, evidence of corruption for all the local Nobles in Deya City will be tied up on your desk!”
“All of them? No, no, just the Church personnel will do. If you arrest all those Nobles, Deya City will fall into chaos. I still need those local power players to help me work.”
Hiss—
‘So the Saintess is retaliating against those three God-guides?’
Marius suddenly had this thought. Based on his five years of experience, nine out of ten low-level God-guides weren’t clean.
‘But the Ninth Saintess doesn’t look like the type to seek revenge. Maybe she just simply wants a small favor,’ Marius mused.
However, she wasn’t. Truth simply wanted to retaliate against those three God-guides…
……
That night, after sunset and finishing her second daily prayer, Truth returned to her bedroom on the second floor of the Cathedral.
Originally, this was just a storage room, but it had been converted into a very simple, unadorned bedroom.
Inside, there was only a large bed, a table, and an empty wardrobe.
Several stacks of documents sent by Marius lay on the table. They were all filled with the disciplinary violations of the local Church personnel in Deya City.
Truth only gave them a cursory glance before putting them down. Either way, these violations were enough to justify a death sentence.
At this moment, Truth was sitting on her bed, quietly observing Mailun’s group of four as they frantically slaughtered Slimes inside the Mist.
‘Mm, the Mist Energy is growing steadily. Perfect.’
Then there was that Little White Snake. Little Mist was hiding in a tree, secretly observing the passing Adventurers.
After its previous experiences, it didn’t dare appear in front of Adventurers anymore, fearing it would be stuffed into a sack.
‘This fellow only seems to recognize Chinese. It looks like I’ll have to find an opportunity for it to learn the Common Language of this world.’
Truth felt it wasn’t good for both rulers of the Mist to be illiterate.
Actually, she could do it herself, but it had been many years since her Gaokao.
Her brain had completely regressed, which meant her learning efficiency might be very slow. Thus, it was better to let Little Mist learn it.
Knock, knock, knock.
Just then, a knock sounded at the door, followed by a slightly hoarse voice.
“Saintess, are you there? It’s me, Dickinson, your most loyal servant!”
‘Dickinson? Who’s that? I don’t know him.’
Truth narrowed her eyes and peered through the wall to see the visitor’s vital signs.
‘He’s in his fifties, Level 28, and wearing the clothes of a God-guide. Is he one of the three who reported me?’
‘Great, I didn’t expect him to deliver himself right to my door!’ Truth pushed the door open slightly and looked out at the panicked old man.
“You aren’t my servant. I’ve never hired a servant.”
“I will be after tonight, Saintess! Please, let me come in and sit. I have something important to tell you!” Dickinson’s tone was very urgent.
Truth didn’t ask too many questions and let Dickinson in, leading him to sit at the table in the bedroom.
She planned to see what kind of scheme he was hatching before killing him.
The latter didn’t hesitate and got straight to the point.
“Saintess, you must stand up for me! I’ve worked diligently in Deya City for thirty years, guiding nearly a thousand lost lambs into the Goddess’s embrace. I’ve never done anything to betray the Church. But just a few days ago, I was suddenly dragged onto a sinking ship by Luwen and Burns. They forced me to sign that whistleblower letter, or they would smear my name! That’s why I haven’t been able to sleep for the past few days. Every time I—”
“Ahem.”
Truth suddenly interrupted Dickinson’s confession.
Shedding her usual quiet demeanor, she looked at Dickinson with a very mocking expression and said, “You say you’ve never done anything to betray the Church?”
‘I thought he’d tell me some shocking secret, but he’s just here to flip and backstab his teammates…’
According to Marius’s report, Truth knew this guy was the one who initially proposed reporting her to extort her.
The other two hadn’t even thought about it at first. Yet, here he was playing the backstabber again.
“Yes, I swear on my life!”
Dickinson nodded vigorously with a determined look in his eyes. However, Truth gave a cold laugh.
“Then why did the Church Inspector say that starting from your second year as a God-guide, you began scouting boys between eight and twelve years old in the city? And under the guise of free education, you took them to your home to do some unspeakable things? For example… satisfying your own perverted hobbies.”
Truth flipped through the files on the table and pulled out the ones regarding Dickinson. They clearly listed over a dozen of his crimes.
The lightest was using his position to amass wealth. Dickinson didn’t even dare to look at the heaviest one.
Besides the crimes, there were also details on several victims who had been assaulted by Dickinson in the past.
These were all investigated by Marius’s people, and they were all facts.
“This is?!”
It was only then that Dickinson realized the documents on the table were the criminal records of their Church members!
“You’ve lived a very comfortable life all these years. So… how do you plan to explain this?” Truth asked coldly, resting her chin on one hand. This made Dickinson tremble instantly.
‘This is bad! When did this Saintess investigate me?!’
After learning from Marius this afternoon that the Ninth Saintess had done nothing mentioned in the letter, the three of them knew they had lost.
Luwen and Burns had already accepted their fate, but only Dickinson wanted to take one last gamble.
‘Didn’t they say the Ninth Saintess is gentle and kind? Then maybe I can go directly to her since she looks naive and try to flip. Maybe she’ll choose to forgive me for the sake of my decades of service to the Church. Then, I can slowly confess my past sins and repent.’
He believed that the gentle Ninth Saintess would most likely forgive him!
“What’s wrong? Not going to explain? Then let me change the question. What kind of death do you choose, and where do you plan to die?”
Truth used the most innocent voice to utter words that made Dickinson even more terrified.
“You… You! You despicable, shameless Saintess! You’re lower than a pig or a dog! Your entire Church is hypocritical! The Goddess of Life, the Life Doctrine… it’s all just brainwashing—”
Dickinson didn’t choose to explain. Instead, he simply gave up and intended to insult this beast-hearted Ninth Saintess before he died.
However, his aggression was far too weak for Truth, who felt nothing.
“Are you triggered already? You can’t even insult someone properly. *Sigh*, how pathetic.”
‘Small fries are just like this,’ Truth sighed.
Then, with a gentle wave of her right hand, three Crimson Claw Blades instantly sliced the still-cursing, red-faced Dickinson into three pieces.
Blood immediately soaked the wooden floor.
‘Fine, I’m too lazy to move the body. I’ll have Tia come up and clean it later. Otherwise, if the Goddess of Life suddenly peeks, I’ll be in deep trouble,’ Truth thought as she watched the blood soak into the floorboards.
However, she had been in the Cathedral all day without anything special happening.
She guessed the Goddess wouldn’t be bored enough to peep on her with such high intensity.
‘Come to think of it, how did this guy get to the second floor? Isn’t Tia downstairs teaching her students?’
Truth wondered for a moment. It seemed Dickinson had sneaked in.
Clack!
Suddenly, a grappling hook flew in from outside the bedroom window and precisely hooked onto the edge of the frame!
“There’s another expert?”
Truth looked toward the window with a shocked expression.
Who was it this time? No, now wasn’t the time for guessing. She had to deal with the corpse quickly!
Truth immediately sprang into action. A few seconds later, accompanied by a faint climbing sound, half of Eve’s head appeared outside the window.
A pair of blue eyes carefully scanned the bedroom.
Inside, the Ninth Saintess Truth was sitting on the edge of the bed with her back to Eve. That tiny, delicate silhouette made Eve’s heart beat faster.
‘Hehe, the operation has been very smooth so far! There’s just one problem… isn’t the Saintess’s room a bit too plain?’
Eve felt this didn’t look like a young girl’s room. Moreover, the Saintess seemed a bit messy.
Why were there a bunch of documents scattered on the floor? ‘Wait… hang on…’
Eve’s nose twitched. Why was there a faint smell of blood?
After hanging outside the window for a long time, Eve quickly reached a satisfactory conclusion. ‘Mhm, the Saintess must be on her period!’
‘She must be sitting on the bed because her stomach hurts so much she can’t move. No wonder she didn’t notice me climbing through the window. She probably didn’t tidy the room for the same reason. Hmph, heaven is really helping me. It’s time for me, the caring big sister, to make my debut!’
Eve performed a very graceful flip and landed inside the room.
Then, with a side-slide, she moved from the foot of the bed to Truth’s side and said with great concern, “What’s wrong, Saintess? Why are you sitting alone on the bed? Are you in any trouble?”
Truth looked up at Eve’s triumphant expression. Before she could speak, Eve continued, her small hand gently resting on Truth’s right shoulder.
“Ah~ don’t ask me how I got in. You only need to know that I’m here to help you.”
‘Oh, oh, oh! The Saintess’s smooth shoulder! Even through the clothes, I can feel how soft and rounded it is!’
“Trouble? Well… there is one.” Truth tilted her head as she thought. On the side, Eve hurriedly urged her on.
“Is it that you don’t have well-fitting clothes, a problem related to love, or that once-a-month peri—”
“Tell me, what should I do to achieve World Domination?”
“World Domi… what?!”
“I’m definitely going to have countless enemies once I ascend to godhood later. Plus, I need to clear this in one life. So, just to be safe, I should probably just kill everyone who can threaten me. If I do that, won’t I be the strongest in the world? It’s equivalent to World Domination. It’s just that I haven’t had a detailed plan yet; I’ve been taking it one step at a time…”
Following Eve’s question, Truth frowned in distress. She really hadn’t seriously considered this matter.
She knew her primary tasks now were to level up and develop the Mist.
Meanwhile, Eve looked at Truth with great shock.
‘So the Ninth Saintess has eighth-grader syndrome!’
If anyone else had said this, Eve might have believed them. But who was the Ninth Saintess?
She was handpicked by the Goddess! There was no need to worry about her character.
“That’s a very deep question. It’s stumped me too… By the way, Truth, why did you use your foot to step on my head today?” Eve started changing the subject again.
“Because I felt you would really hate it if I did that.”
“I… I didn’t! Actually, I think I kind of liked it…” Eve replied in a small voice. The night was long; maybe she could try letting Truth step on her again. Hehe.
“That’s why I pulled my foot back.”
“Huh?!”
Eve found that every time Truth answered, she said something unexpected.
Was she playing Eve like a fool?
‘Forget it, next step.’ Since Truth didn’t reject her touching her shoulder, maybe she could slowly move down and try to hug the Ninth Saintess’s slender waist, and then…
Knock, knock, knock!
Suddenly, the knocking sounded again, scaring Eve into stopping her movements.
Simultaneously, Tia’s voice came from outside the door.
“Truth, are you in there? I just heard that someone sneaked onto the second floor. I’m coming up to check the situation. I’m coming in, okay?”
“Oh no, I need to hide!”
Inside the bedroom, Eve instantly panicked.
She had clearly avoided everyone’s eyes and even used a grappling hook to climb up from outside the Cathedral. How was she discovered?!
If Marius found out she had conducted a night raid on the Saintess tonight, she would be in big trouble!
“I’ve got it! Hide in the wardrobe!”
Eve saw that Truth’s wardrobe was just large enough to fit an adult’s body.
She took a leap toward the wardrobe. Truth also panicked slightly and stood up, shouting.
“The wardrobe is off-limits!”
But before she could finish, Eve had already dove inside. Immediately after, Tia pushed the door open and saw a slightly flustered Truth.
“What’s wrong?”
“No… it’s nothing.” Truth sat back on the edge of the bed.
It really was nothing. She just accidentally let Eve discover the dried-up corpse of Dickinson that she had hidden in the wardrobe…