After what had just happened, the Town Mayor, who had previously boasted about taking back everything that was his, now offered almost no resistance and spilled everything he knew.
Just as Ileya had expected, these guys… the so-called “Truth Sect” was a real cult organization.
However, they followed the “Truth Doctrine,” which was somewhat similar to Buddhism from Ileya’s past life, but far more extreme.
They required total devotion of body and mind to the so-called “Truth.”
Wash away all filth and distracting thoughts, achieve Great Perfection, seek the foundation of glimpsing the Truth…
“Truly a load of bullshit doctrine…”
Whether for the Kingdom or the East Capital, followers cultivated this way had neither power nor desires or ambition.
Such people were generally called… cannon fodder.
Although, according to the Town Mayor, there were indeed beings resembling Transcendents among the members of the Truth Sect, it seemed they were all high-ranking executives of the organization.
Two possibilities.
First, all the doctrines of this cult were real, perhaps the standard of some Supreme Being, requiring its followers to cast aside all distracting thoughts and attachments, dedicating themselves wholeheartedly for even a glimmer of a chance to glimpse its foundation.
Thus gaining transcendent power.
Second… this so-called Truth Sect was just a tool for a few Transcendents to gather wealth together.
Emerging in times of chaos.
And for this twisted world, Ileya was more inclined toward the second possibility.
But regardless, the trembling Town Mayor in front of her was now useless.
As she pondered, the Lady grabbed the trembling Town Mayor by his collar and, under the gaze of his family, tossed him directly into the black hole of the Underworld.
“Aaaahhh—!!!”
With the Town Mayor’s scream, the black hole before her closed instantly.
Both the Town Mayor and the black hole vanished as if they had never existed.
“Holly… today I’ll teach you something more.”
Ileya looked at the Holy Sword Bearer beside her, whose expression was somewhat bewildered after listening to her words.
Without waiting for a reply, she turned her gaze toward the Town Mayor’s remaining family.
Each of them stared at the spot where the Town Mayor had disappeared with pained fury in their eyes.
“Tell me… isn’t this Town Mayor deserving of death?”
“…”
For a moment, no one spoke.
Finally, the Town Mayor’s wife spoke, her voice trembling.
“He… he tried to hoard the entire town’s wealth, deserving of death… but Lady, the children knew nothing of these matters… I beg for your mercy!”
The woman slowly bowed, speaking with tears streaming down her face.
“Wrong~~ Your husband’s biggest mistake wasn’t his ambition. I actually rather admire people like him… daring to act and fight~~ It was just that he stood in my way.”
Ileya smiled and shook her head slightly. Then, under the woman’s bewildered gaze, she snapped her fingers and sent her to reunite with her husband.
Instantly, the surrounding silence returned, everyone afraid to make a sound.
But the Lady didn’t stop there. Instead, she looked at the Town Mayor’s two sons.
Though both were over a decade older than Ileya, they trembled before her, not daring to raise their heads…
“I’ll tell you the truth~ Your whole family is going to die. If you have anything to say, say it now.”
Ileya suddenly said this. At that moment, the eldest son seemed to finally crack under the pressure!
Or perhaps he wanted to show some backbone to earn a chance to survive…
Either way, he suddenly stood up, his eyes filled with hatred as he stared at the girl before him. He opened his mouth to say something—
Squelch!!
The Insmouth behind Ileya swung its giant sword, sending his head flying high into the air!
It landed with a thud… In his final moment, hatred turned to terror in his eyes…
“I told you to speak… so impatient.”
Ileya shrugged helplessly, then turned her gaze to the Town Mayor’s second son, who had remained kneeling the entire time, utterly still.
“What about you? Anything to say?”
Thud!!
Even after what had just happened, the second son was drenched in cold sweat from fear, but he still slammed his head heavily onto the ground.
“Lady, I… I wish to pledge my allegiance to you, to be your most loyal servant!!”
“Oh? I killed your parents… Don’t you hate me?”
Ileya raised an eyebrow slightly, looking at the second son before her.
“I… I hate it, of course I do, but I want to live even more…”
As he spoke, he slammed his head onto the ground again.
“Please, Lady, give me a… a chance to live!”
“Heh…”
Ileya let out a soft laugh, lightly tapped his forehead with her finger, and planted a Blood Slave Mark.
The second son didn’t resist at all. Of course, if at this moment he harbored any thoughts of revenge or anything against Ileya…
He would drop dead instantly.
And since he didn’t die, it proved that what he had just said was true.
“Good. From now on… you will manage Stream Town.”
Ileya said this quite casually, waved her hand, and turned to leave.
Only the bewildered second son remained.
As the second son, though born of the main wife, he could never bypass the principle of primogeniture…
Everything his father had could only be inherited by his elder brother.
But now… he never imagined that even if he wasn’t killed, he would be thrown into a dungeon for a few years.
After all, conspiring with a cult to plot against the entire town was a crime punishable by extermination of the entire family if discovered by the Kingdom or the Holy See.
It might even invite the legendary Heresy Judgment…
But… the Lady just let him go like this? He… became the new Town Mayor of Stream Town?!
“Th… Thank you, Lady!!”
Trembling, the second son once again bowed heavily toward the Lady’s retreating figure. A hint of excited smile even appeared at the corner of his mouth…
……
“Did you understand anything?”
On the way back, Amisa looked at her disciple and asked softly.
“Uh… the Lady acted decisively and intimidated them?”
Though she had experienced quite a bit along this journey, Holly had only gotten slightly used to the Lady’s methods.
As for insights… she had only grasped the surface.
And from her perspective, the focus of the issue was different.
Her main concern was that she didn’t quite agree with the Lady’s “feudal thinking” of punishing the entire family for one person’s crime.
“Oh, you… why is your thinking so strange?”
For this kind of humanitarian thinking from her disciple, Amisa, a native of this world, couldn’t understand it at all.
She could only attribute it to her disciple being naturally kind and innocent…
“Why do you think the Lady chose to spare the second son alone?”
“Because… he submitted?”
“Of course not. If the Lady wanted them to submit, she has a hundred ways…”
Amisa said patiently.
“In a family—especially among nobles and wealthy gentry—the second son usually holds an extremely awkward position. Especially when born to the main wife, despite equal status, the family business goes to the eldest son.”
“So the second son inevitably harbors some different feelings toward the eldest son and the father…”
Hearing this, Holly understood almost instantly.
“The Lady is… deliberately amplifying this rift between family members? Especially…”
The Holy Sword Bearer’s words stopped abruptly.
She had always thought that the Lady simply slaughtered small fry indiscriminately.
This had been one of the few points she didn’t quite agree with, or dare to agree with, regarding the Lady.
But now it seemed…
“When someone dies, that’s the end of everything. Plus, with his father executed by the Lady for such a crime, even if he wanted revenge, no one would cheer him on.”
“Being a lone avenger is not easy…”
Amisa chuckled softly, turning to look at the second son, who had already stood up and begun rallying the town’s militia, a faint smile on his face.
“By amplifying this rift between relatives and then giving him the town mayor position he dreamed of… he might even feel grateful to the Lady now, grateful that his elder brother and father are dead…”
Holly didn’t know what to say.
She only felt her fear of the Lady deepen a little more.
With just a few words, the Lady had toyed with the entire Town Mayor’s family, turning hatred into gratitude…
“Remember…”
Just then, the Lady, walking ahead, suddenly spoke. Her now-clean pretty face slowly turned, her red eyes meeting Holly’s.
At that moment, Holly instinctively wanted to lower her head, not daring to meet her gaze.
“Killing is only a means, not the end.”
Holly chewed on these words, her dark eyes sinking into thought, gradually showing signs of understanding.
Seeing this state in her disciple… Ileya turned back with satisfaction.
The life or death of this family, the control of Stream Town… none of it mattered to Ileya.
If it weren’t for instilling some “survival skills” into this naive girl, Ileya wouldn’t have bothered with all this roundabout trouble.
She would have just thrown everyone into the Underworld and turned them into materials.
As for why she bothered to teach these things…
As the Holy Sword Bearer, Holly was undoubtedly a genius. She was excellent in both combat and thinking ability.
She just wasn’t adapted to some things in this world…
Aside from her own little sister, she was the most worthy person to cultivate.
Earlier, she had hesitated because of Holly’s identity as an “Avenger.”
But now, not only was there a scapegoat, but Holly also had a mark planted inside her.
If this girl was going to follow her in the future, she couldn’t remain so clueless, right?
However…
Ileya frowned slightly as she sensed her own state.
Just as she had thought, after cleaning off the bloodstains, she had developed obvious symptoms of “blood thirst.”
It seemed that just “bathing in blood” wasn’t enough. Did she have to…
The Lady’s red eyes flickered with bloody light as she subconsciously looked at the people beside her.
“Ah… Senior Veil…”
Just then, Holly, who had just come out of her contemplative state, suddenly pointed ahead with a somewhat bewildered expression.
Everyone looked in that direction and saw that girl… dangling from the eaves of a house…
More accurately, there was a rope tied to the eaves, and on the rope hung a piece of cured meat.
She was biting down hard on it, like a fish caught on a hook with its mouth open…