The negotiations between the two major churches had concluded smoothly—the measure of "smoothly" being that one party had gotten everything it wanted.
In the center of the small rotunda, dancers clad in traditional Dark Moon Island attire twirled gracefully, while a nearby orchestra played soothing music.
Personnel from both churches would be departing Dark Moon Island in a few days, so arranging this sort of social gathering was only natural.
The war was over, and life would go on.
Cardinal Kred of the Church of Order had his legs crossed, leaning back against the plush backrest of his chair. He alternately closed his eyes to rest his mind and cracked them open to appreciate the dance.
Seated beside him, Gatekeeper Romir of the Church of Samsara kept her hands folded on her lap and her back straight away from her chair, exchanging a few words with Kred from time to time.
Kred's responses amounted to little more than a slight nod or a soft chuckle.
Below them, bishops of Order and Samsara toasted one another and chatted. Their conversation covered everything: literature, scenery, wonders of the world, even the upbringing of their descendants. The only topic they tacitly avoided was the current state of affairs among the churches.
The losers would not invite humiliation by bringing it up, doing their best to maintain their poise;
the victors were more inclined to display their own reserve—dispensing respect was, after all, a pleasure in itself.
"The people on Bastin Island..."
Romir voiced her request.
Kred hummed in acknowledgment and said, "Order will provide them with a secure environment and ensure they have no communication with the outside world."
Bastin Island was an outer defensive outpost of a Church of Samsara holy site. An army of believers from the Church of Samsara had been stationed there—not large, merely thirty-six individuals who manned a defensive formation.
After the Order Knights breached the holy site, they sent word to the defenders of this nearby islet, demanding their surrender.
And so, they surrendered.
Yet for reasons unknown, the report Samsara Valley received was that these thirty-six believers had killed Order's envoy, proclaimed an oath that they would rather die in battle for Samsara than live on in dishonor, and perished to the last man.
The Church of Samsara had held them up as exemplary paragons, and even now, the propaganda campaign continued.
After regaining power, the old-line families within the Church of Samsara were eager to purge and suppress the previous leadership's faction. They used this false narrative in their propaganda to convince the church's faithful that the Church of Samsara was actually formidable and its believers staunchly steadfast; the defeat had been solely due to the incompetence of former leadership and Order's sneak attack.
In short: our people were not weak, our faith was not flawed, and our God was not inferior—the fault lay entirely with the previous administration.
Those thirty-six believers who had supposedly chosen death over surrender served as prime evidence.
The absurd part was that during contacts with the Church of Order following the defeat, Samsara was stunned to discover that the glorious paragons they had been extolling were still very much alive. Not a single one had fallen; every last one of them had surrendered.
Which made things rather awkward.
"What I mean is..."
Romir trailed off halfway.
For some people, staying alive was far worse than simply being dead.
Kred gave a slight shake of his head. "Order cannot do that. But rest assured, Order places great value on its friendship with the Simosen family. We also trust that under the Simosen family's helm, the Church of Samsara will swiftly recover while building a close cooperative relationship between our two great churches, ensuring such a tragedy will never repeat."
"Naturally. Unpleasant matters are behind us. Their only significance is to remind us to cherish this hard-won peace."
"Indeed. Strife is always temporary; peace is our eternal pursuit."
"A toast, then, to peace?"
"Agreed."
Romir raised her glass with both hands.
Kred lifted his with one.
The two shared a smile and each took a sip.
"Ah, one more thing. The Church of the Goddess of the Moon has been expanding its diocese, and the overlap with ours is growing. I worry this might spark unnecessary friction between our churches, so I hope Order can step in to mediate."
Hearing this, Kred chuckled. "Order intervenes only when believers affect ordinary people and society. Disputes between churches are not Order's concern. Order respects the autonomy of every church."
"If that is so, then some unpleasant things will certainly unfold between Samsara and the Goddess of the Moon."
"That is truly sorrowful news. Peace will once more be trampled underfoot, which is heartbreaking. Of course, if any major upheaval arises, Order will step in from the standpoint of an onlooker to reaffirm peace."
Romir smiled and nodded. "Samsara supports Order taking the lead in such matters."
Kred countered with a question, "Has Samsara recovered already?"
"Between our families, we still retain some accumulated foundation," Romir replied.
"Very well."
The Church of Samsara urgently needed an external victory to stabilize morale and the general situation. They had chosen the Church of the Goddess of the Moon and were preparing for a small-scale conflict; as long as Samsara won, their people's hearts could unite once more.
What Romir had requested was that when the Goddess of the Moon prepared to retaliate, Order would step in to suppress her church—and Kred had agreed.
At that moment, a bead on the bracelet around Romir's wrist suddenly cracked.
Every bead on this bracelet represented the soul of an exceptional descendant of the Simosen family. If someone's soul was annihilated, their corresponding bead would shatter.
Whose bead was this one again?
Ah, right—Kangmo.
He was already dead, wasn't he? Had his soul formed a contract? With whom?
Oh, Peide.
Sigh, what a nuisance.
Romir rested her fingertip on another bead and offered an apologetic look to Kred beside her. "Pardon me. Please excuse me for a moment."
With that, she closed her eyes, and a gray stellar glow flared beneath her feet. She was still sitting there, yet she was no longer there.
Seeing this, Kred gently tapped his fingertips against the tea table.
*Tap... tap... tap...*
...
Karen, wearing his silver mask, saw his aura fall into violent turbulence. Wisps of Order's presence spilled outward from him, and then his body leaned forward, pitching into a fall.
Lying prone on the ground, Peide wore a look of pleasant surprise. Eldest Uncle had succeeded!
At this sight, Ophelia summoned the Dark Moon Blade to her hand, ready to strike and kill.
However—
Halfway through his forward plunge, Karen's body abruptly snapped taut. Bending his right leg, he kicked off hard against the ground. He pressed his left hand down, catching the hilt of the purple greatsword, and hurled himself forward at blinding speed straight toward Peide on the ground.
Before the smile could fade from Peide's face, he found his field of vision being filled by that greatsword.
The mask on Karen's face vanished at that moment, revealing cold, murderous eyes.
Instinctively, Peide reached for the pendant on his chest, intending to channel spiritual energy into it, but it was clearly too late—Karen's sword was faster!
Yet right then, a gray barrier materialized, halting Karen's sword. Karen intended to smash through the barrier in one go, not lessening the force in his hands by a fraction, but while the barrier looked ordinary, it was despairingly resilient. No matter how much strength Karen applied, it did not budge in the slightest.
A burst of starlight appeared beside Peide, and from within it stepped an elderly woman in gray clerical robes—Gatekeeper Romir of the Church of Samsara.
When her gaze fell upon Karen, he instantly felt suffocated, as if the nape of his soul had been seized by an iron grip.
*Damn it!*
Karen cursed bitterly in his heart. He had laid the groundwork and launched a sudden ambush, but the Samsara Gatekeeper had appeared at the eleventh hour, ruining his plan to kill Peide.
Just a hair away! Just a hair!
What Karen hadn't realized was that Romir hadn't been notified by Peide; rather, it was Karen annihilating Kangmo's soul within himself earlier that Romir had sensed.
With the contracted soul obliterated, she naturally thought of Peide.
Romir's gaze narrowed slightly. A gray dot appeared between her and Karen, then abruptly split open, sending Karen flying with terrifying repulsive force.
This was no longer a contest on the same plane. It wasn't just "beat up the kid, here comes the elder"—this was straight to the grandmother's generation.
After landing, Karen drove the greatsword into the ground to bleed off the momentum. He knew she hadn't intended to truly harm him, only to shove him back.
Romir looked down at Peide lying on the ground, then raised her head to look at Karen in his Order clerical robes opposite her.
She knew the caliber of this grandnephew of hers; for his age, he was already considered exceptional, not to mention having formed a contract with Kangmo.
Yet even so, he had been beaten into the dirt by this young man before her. Had she not arrived in time, her grandnephew would already be dead.
Romir's first reaction was not protective anger, but the immediate realization that this young man's status within the Church of Order had to be extraordinary.
Just then, faint sounds of fingertips tapping reached Romir's ears. She knew full well where those taps were coming from.
"What happened here?" Romir asked.
"Grandaunt, he—"
Just as Peide started to speak, his mouth was sealed shut by an invisible force.
How could he use a familial address in front of outsiders? Romir knew her grandnephew had been completely rattled out of his wits.
Romir turned her gaze toward Karen, indicating that her question was directed at him.
Karen put away his sword. Though he knew this was not her true body in person, he knew even better that even in this state, he was by no means her match.
"He infused the consciousness of another into the body of an ordinary girl, in violation of the Code of Order. I was enforcing the Code of Order to place him under arrest, but he resisted."
Karen was well aware that killing him would be as easy for her as crushing an ant. The higher one's tier, the more overwhelming the advantage over those beneath. He did not believe a Gatekeeper of the Church of Samsara could be a purely administrative official.
Fortunately, even if he was an ant, he was an ant wearing the clerical robes of Order.
Romir shifted her gaze behind him, catching sight of the woman hiding behind a tree.
She knew what this young man of Order said was true, because her grandnephew had always had this peculiar predilection.
Romir reached out a hand, and the woman's body was dragged straight over, forced onto her knees before Romir.
Next, the woman's face twisted in agony as a milky-white glow emerged from the crown of her head, while inside the body remained a ball of light so faint it could extinguish at any second.
Romir shook her head. Rather than extracting the woman's consciousness entirely, she gently closed her fingers as if crumbling a ball of dough; the intruding woman's consciousness shattered completely, turning into nourishment that flowed back into the body.
The faint remaining light expanded somewhat, and though still feeble, it was in far better shape than the flickering ember on the verge of snuffing out.
A gentle gray luminescence radiated from Romir's palm, nourishing both the girl's soul and body.
"Her soul has not completely extinguished. I have consolidated it for her; once she wakes, she will return to who she was."
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Seeing this, Peide's eyes bulged as he struggled frantically, but his mouth remained sealed, preventing him from speaking.
With a wave of Romir's hand, a sharp smack rang out, and Peide was knocked unconscious, lying motionless on the ground.
Immediately afterward, two flashes of light severed both of Peide's ears.
"The child was disobedient; it was my failing in disciplining him. Thank you for your trouble."
At that moment, the pendant at Peide's chest detached from his neck, flew toward Karen, and settled on the hilt of the sword planted before him.
"This is Samsara's compensation—compensation for the efforts of an Order priest in upholding order. The remainder is restitution for this girl. Please deliver it on our behalf."
The victim had been saved.
The criminal had been punished.
The enforcer had received compensation for his trouble, and the victim had been granted restitution.
The entire procedure was complete.
Though he still found it a pity that he couldn't kill him, Karen understood that for someone of her exalted stature to handle the aftermath so thoroughly, there would be no point in taking the matter up to Order's leadership.
After all, what more could anyone demand of her?
Karen could only cross his hands over his chest and address the Gatekeeper:
"Thank you for your respect toward Order."
"Thank you for your dedication to upholding order." Romir looked at Karen. "Perhaps you could tell me your name?"
"Karen Silva."
"I truly envy the Church of Order; every generation has no shortage of talent." Romir smiled faintly. "When you come to Samsara Valley, you may bring this to find me. I am fond of promising young men."
With that, Romir's figure vanished.
Karen blinked in surprise. That was... it?
Ophelia stepped out at this point and asked, "Karen, are you all right?"
"I'm fine, I just need a little rest." Karen held the pendant in his hand, still unable to comprehend how decisively the woman had wrapped everything up.
"She doesn't care about such trivialities," Ophelia said. "She is a true sovereign figure; there is no way she would let such a minor matter distract her right now."
"Doesn't care?"
"Mm. She probably doesn't care whether Peide lives or dies, even if he is her descendant."
"What about that soul?"
"That soul? His contracted soul?"
"Yes, also surnamed Simosen. She doesn't care about him either?"
"Is that soul still inside your body?"
"No, after forcing through the power of purification, his soul had largely dissipated, so he couldn't affect me much. Well, mainly, my faith in the God of Order is steadfast enough."
Back when he had first arrived in this world, he had managed to squeeze an evil god out into a dog.
Not to mention now, when his body harbored multiple powers of faith. For Kangmo Simosen to try seizing his body was truly seeking his own doom.
"Since he's gone, she won't care either," Ophelia said. "In her eyes, this is the most trivial of matters. Had the distance not been so short, she might not even have bothered to appear."
"Seems you understand her quite well."
"My father didn't shed a single tear over the deaths of my two brothers, did he?"
"Fair enough." Karen pointed at Peide, who lay unconscious on the ground. "What about him?"
"We can't kill him now."
"Yeah." Karen nodded, walked up to Peide, and planted a heavy boot right in his face. The unconscious Peide didn't flinch; only blood began trickling from his nose.
Romir had already carried out the punishment and paid restitution. If Karen killed him now, he would have no leg to stand on.
More importantly, doing so would be openly ripping away the Samsara Gatekeeper's face. The price would be too steep; she would only need to report the incident to the Church of Order, and Order's higher-ups would discipline him themselves.
The greatest stroke of luck was that Peide hadn't seen anything he shouldn't have seen. Karen had kept things well hidden throughout. Kangmo's soul had seen plenty of things he shouldn't have, but he was already gone.
"He'll wake up on his own in a while." Karen suddenly thought of something. "Ophelia, are there wolves in these woods?"
"How could there be wolves?"
"That's a pity, then."
Karen picked up the pendant hanging from his sword hilt. *Go to Samsara Valley? How would I get there? Ah, that trial spot for entering the Gate of Samsara? It seems it starts next month.*
*The question is, how do I sign up? Could the Captain pull strings for me?*
*Though it feels like even if I sold the Captain, he wouldn't have enough pull for this connection.*
*After all, there are only twelve spots in the entire church.*
*Besides, I was the one who cost him his promotion to squadron leader.*
Karen smiled, walked over, and moved to pick up the sleeping girl, Laima, but Ophelia beat him to it, hoisting the little girl onto her shoulder with one hand.
"Karen, were you actually hiding your true strength all along?"
"I really only broke through recently."
"Recently?"
"While sleeping last night."
"In other words, when I said those things to you earlier, you actually had the ability to silence me?"
"I never thought of that."
"Really?"
"Really."
"You're not lying to me?"
"Ophelia, there's one thing I can promise you: I have never deliberately tried to lie to you about anything."
*Whatever wild ideas you cooked up about playing games with the Captain have nothing to do with me.*
"Fine, I believe you. Now let's take her back. We can grab a late-night snack while we're at it."
"Eat again?"
...
In the small rotunda.
The magic circle beneath Romir's feet faded away, and she opened her eyes.
She looked toward Cardinal Kred seated beside her and said apologetically, "Just now, one of my juniors committed an offense and was disciplined by an Order priest named Karen. He handled it very well."
"Is that so?"
"I truly envy the Church of Order; every generation seems to have no lack of talent."
"Heh heh, which is precisely why Order is willing to select young people from Samsara to train."
"That is truly much appreciated. Samsara will certainly cooperate and support this with all our strength."
Kred smiled. "As it should be."
It was the smallest of matters; Romir didn't care much, nor did Kred.
The two continued discussing further guidelines for cooperation between their churches.
Eventually, the banquet concluded in a friendly atmosphere, and the leaders of both sides stood to take their leave. A large retinue of bishops followed behind Kred. As he walked down the stairs, Kred suddenly came to a halt, prompting the large group of bishops behind him to stop in their tracks as well.
"Ah, right. The Gate of Samsara in Samsara Valley opens next month. Have each region hurry to compile and submit their rosters. There is an age limit, and the interior of the Gate of Samsara is treacherous. If any of you plan to pull strings and insert people, don't go throwing their lives away inside."
"Your Eminence must be joking."
"We will certainly make our selections with strict impartiality."
"Yes, we will surely select exceptional young people with the utmost diligence."
At that point, Kred recalled the earlier interlude and asked offhandedly:
"By the way, there's a young man named Karen. Which region is he from?"
After a brief silence, Bishop Wolflen spoke up, "In reply to Your Eminence, he is a member of the Whip of Order in my York City Region."
"Oh, is that so? Quite a fine young man, heh heh."
Having said that, Kred resumed his descent, and the bishops followed along. To Cardinal Kred, disciplining a member of the Church of Samsara and alarming a Gatekeeper was an amusing occurrence, but only amusing; he lacked even the interest to meet this young man named Karen in person.
Walking alongside the other bishops, Bishop Wolflen felt cold sweat beading on his forehead:
*His Eminence the Cardinal is hinting that I should put Karen's name on the roster...*
Chapter 289