In South Vantina, a mana rail train sped across the rolling plains. The view opened wide on both sides; the sweeping grasslands, blooming meadows, and shimmering lakes seemed all the more tranquil and deep amidst the roar of the rushing train.
Inside the carriage, the clock hands pointed just past five. Warm yellow sunlight danced across the solid wood paneling, and the passengers sat quietly or chatted in low murmurs.
In an inconspicuous corner, four clergy members sat on opposite sides of a table.
"The people of South Vantina have always been—"
Loren was conversing with the three younger clerics, but midway through the sentence, as if suddenly reminded of someone, he broke off abruptly.
Aside from Loren, the cleric investigation team traveling from Ikerite to South Vantina consisted of three other members. Among their specializations, scout priests typically operated alone, while guardian knights and healing priests were deployed as pairs.
These three were effectively his students; whenever he went on assignments, he often brought them along for practical training.
Although Loren could have flown to South Vantina using magic far faster than riding the train—and held the requisite permits to cast high-speed travel spells within the kingdom's borders—eighth-tier figures like him rarely resorted to such methods unless faced with an emergency.
"In any case, keep your wits about you in South Vantina. That Cardinal from the Northern Continent could brush shoulders with you or even speak directly to you without you noticing a thing,"
Loren warned.
Their primary purpose in South Vantina was to take preemptive precautions against whatever schemes the newly appointed Cardinal might unleash.
Naturally, they were also fulfilling a request from the United Council of Kingdoms, which hoped the Church of the Goddess of Fate could investigate clues regarding recent anomalies near the border between the Hutton Kingdom and the Creti Empire.
Over the past two months, strange rumors had emerged from the Creti Empire, unsettling dozens of nations large and small across the Southern Continent United Kingdom Council.
As the true titan and hegemon of the Southern Continent, the Creti Empire was not an opponent any single kingdom could hope to match.
And every one of the Twelve War Gods of the Empire was an adversary who would give even Loren a massive headache.
Should war ever engulf the land, whether royal nobles or commoners of any nation, all would face absolute devastation.
"Haha, I can't help laughing every time the Northern Continent comes up. I wonder what evidence the Cardinal of Dimensions possibly produced to genuinely convince the Bishop of Destruction that Mr. Loren wasn't in the Southern Continent."
Slumping back in her seat, the healing priest—who looked like an innocent young girl in white clerical robes—giggled, completely unfazed by Loren's stern demeanor.
Whenever she recalled the sight of Loren stepping onto the scene that day looking thoroughly exasperated, lines of dark dismay practically drawn across his face as he scared the Destruction high clerics into questioning their very existence, she thought Mr. Loren carried the aura of a mastermind villain. It was entirely too cool.
"It really had nothing to do with me. I was completely baffled that day myself. The church was suddenly attacked, and I was furious."
Loren sighed through his expression, replying with sheer exasperation.
The most absurd rumor spreading right now even claimed that the Protos Empire was erecting a monument to him in the Imperial Plaza, and that the peace talks between the Kingdom of Asethelan and the Protos Empire had been dubbed the "Homage to Loren Crantel Agreement." The Northern Kingdoms of the Northern Continent, having heard tales of his deeds, were allegedly venerating him as well, calling him the god who brought the wind of peace.
Why on earth did the Resurrection Church actually believe that nonsense?
"True. If Teacher Loren really orchestrated a scheme in secret to cross back and forth between the northern and southern continents in the blink of an eye, even I would find him a bit terrifying."
The scout priest was a short-haired girl who wore light, supple armor beneath a padded jacket. She sat impassively by the window, nodding in agreement.
With his perennial image as an earnest, pure-hearted do-gooder, Loren looked incapable of lying.
"Teacher Loren, if you slicked your hair back, put on a sharp look, and flashed an enigmatic grin... wow."
The guardian knight beside Loren remained in neat, formal knightly garb even aboard the train. His hair was similar in color to the scout priest's; he was her younger brother, though he got along better with the healing priest and worked with her far more often.
Listening to their teasing banter, Loren could only stare out the window and sigh inwardly.
Lately, he found the concept of fame rather terrifying.
Several news outlets had credulously swallowed the rumors blowing in from the Northern Continent and begun publishing sensationalized reports, claiming they saw the shadow of the Holy Emperor in him. They wrote that if turbulent times arrived, whether he wished to be a leader or not, the people of the Northern Continent would push him into the position.
Fortunately, back on the Southern Continent, his reputation was merely respectable. Setting aside the unaligned Creti Empire, when it came to candidates for the next speaker of the allied United Council of Kingdoms, he was merely on the consideration list and ranked near the very bottom in popular acclaim.
Crushing the previous assault by the Destruction branch had earned him some modest prestige among the nations of the United Council, but that kind of luck wouldn't come twice.
Loren had always believed that luck had to be traded for with moral merit.
He had preached that to Mikhail constantly.
As a result, when Hyperion was small, Mikhail had terrified her by claiming she would suffer bad luck if she didn't build up merit. Sometimes, when Hyperion misbehaved, Mikhail would play tricks to "manipulate" her luck just to tease her. In the end, Hyperion grew up utterly convinced that luck was tied to moral merit, behaving far more like a decent human being from childhood than any of her peers.
When he really thought about it, Mikhail's parenting was an enormous drain of merit in itself, and the man had never cared about merit anyway...
"Even though the Bishop of Destruction retreated far from the Hutton Kingdom after the last failure, the Son of Destruction, Salomon, might still be lingering nearby."
The discussion among the three clerics cut through Loren's wandering thoughts.
They seemed to be discussing new intelligence from the United Council of Kingdoms concerning the Destruction branch.
The Bishop of Destruction, Ivanos, was never one to take slights lying down; even if she swallowed her anger for a time, it only meant she would exact far crueler vengeance with heavy interest later on.
"If the three of you ever cross paths with Salomon, don't hesitate for a second. Run with everything you've got."
Loren's tone turned markedly grave, sending goosebumps prickling across their skin.
"That guy is completely different from the Saintess of Destruction. If he fights the three of you, it will only take a minute or two to wipe you out completely,"
Loren warned again.
It wasn't that the three sixth-tier priests he had painstakingly trained were weak; rather, Salomon, at the seventh tier, was an adversary no light vanguard squad could handle.
Even with a frontline tank, a healer, and damage dealers, it still wasn't enough.
"We just wanted to bring you honor, Teacher Loren, just like Junior Brother Lanqi."
The guardian knight sighed.
"The Saintess of Destruction is one thing, and the Son of Destruction is another. You're already wonderful in my eyes. No matter how absurd Lanqi is, he couldn't possibly kill the Son of Destruction as well. Don't let your imaginations run wild."
Whenever Loren thought of Lanqi, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
"If the Son of Destruction really does die one day, and dies at Lanqi's hands, do you think the Cardinal of Dimensions would actually pay up?"
"I think he was just joking."
"Hey, don't say that. If the Cardinal of Dimensions really wires twenty thousand pounds, I can't say whether the Bishop of Destruction would lose her mind, or whether she'd go to kill the Cardinal of Dimensions or Lanqi first."
Listening to his three students' chatter, Loren cradled his forehead once more.
"Ivanos might also come to tear me to pieces first, fighting to the death. I have zero desire to brawl with that lunatic woman."
Though Loren had never dealt much with the Cardinal of Dimensions, Toliya, he always had the impression that the fellow was an utter bastard. After Lanqi killed the Saintess of Destruction, the Bishop of Destruction, Ivanos, had grudgingly accepted the loss and refrained from hunting Lanqi down in person. But after being provoked by the Cardinal of Dimensions and having the story plastered across media throughout the Southern Continent United Kingdom Council, making her the laughingstock of every nation, Ivanos truly might flip the table.
Hearing that, all three clerics tensed up.
Standing at the peak of the eighth tier as the bearer of the Original Slate - Fire, if Ivanos truly lost all restraint, she could unleash a cataclysm on par with legendary realm-destroying disasters.
People of their caliber would be turned to ash in an instant beneath that apocalyptic, vicious flame.
"Still, there's no need to worry too much. Strong as she is, Ivanos cannot assault the Hutton Kingdom on her own,"
Loren explained gently, realizing he had frightened them.
South Vantina possessed both a national border defense barrier and a city barrier. Even if a Cardinal managed to sneak in and dared to make a rash move, it would immediately trigger an alarm sent straight to the royal capital and impose suppressive debuffs within the barrier's area.
"By the way... could the barrier ever fail?"
the scout priest asked abruptly.
"Something like that happened in the past, so stricter authorization limits were added afterward. To interfere with the border territory's barrier, one would need to obtain both the cipher key from the royal capital and the cipher key from the South Vantina Lord's Manor simultaneously. Then they'd have to trigger an emergency shutdown of the barrier and attack the power station to prevent a restart. Only then could the barrier possibly be brought down."
As Loren replied, an inexplicable thread of unease began to stir in his chest.
If someone possessed infiltration skills far beyond those of a scout priest, obtaining the cipher key from the South Vantina Lord's Manor was not entirely out of the question. But the key in the royal capital was practically impossible to steal.
The atmosphere aboard the carriage remained cozy and warm. From time to time, the cheerful laughter and easy chatter of other passengers drifted over. In the distance, South Vantina's main city drew steadily closer.
Loren gazed out the window at the full moon rising early, tinged with a faint crimson blush. Aside from the slightly strange lunar phase tonight, it didn't seem as though anything bad was about to happen.
Chapter 503