Chapter 150: Chapter 151

After meeting three demon lords, I’d come to a conclusion...

I should not view them as enemies to be defeated.

Not yet.

I don’t stand a chance against them.

Let’s face it, demon lords weren’t the kind of opponents that should be challenged out of martial pride—they were catastrophes to be avoided, at least for now.

Naturally, my focus had shifted toward stopping the ritual, but...

"A demon lord has already been summoned,” I said.

Evan nodded nonchalantly while staring at the sky lit by the setting sun. "Yeah."

I followed his gaze and said, “But there’s no eclipse."

His gaze didn’t waver as he replied, "Because it’s Hadenaihar."

I paused, then recalled Hadenaihar's other name. "...Wait, does that mean Hadenaihar’s sign isn’t a solar eclipse but a lunar eclipse?"

"You're half right. But that doesn’t mean we can see it with the naked eye. The erosion happens on the Veiled Side."

“ ‘Veiled Side’? What's that?"

“The shadow realm, the world beyond the lake’s surface... To simplify, you could call it the dream world. Hadenaihar is also known as the ‘Demon Lord of the Veil’," Evan explained with a smile. “Light and darkness, day and night, the sun and the moon, two sides of a coin... The Demon Lord of the Blood-Lit Moon is also the ruler of the False World.”

“...”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

How much of what he was saying should I believe?

I couldn’t believe everything he was saying, of course.

I knew all too well how deceitful and cunning cultists could be.

And Evan wasn't just any cultist, he was a vice-cult leader, someone at the top of the hierarchy. It was entirely possible he was lying through his innocent expression.

But...

I too had a way to discern whether or not someone was speaking the truth.

Of course, my method was not as precise as Fourth Senior Brother’s, which relied on biological responses. My method was largely based on experience with a splash of instinct.

Generally, humans are not good at lying when their survival is at stake.

That wasn’t to say they couldn’t lie, just that it was harder.

After all, how many people could calmly lie through their teeth when a blade was at their throat?

In that sense, what Evan was saying right now felt...

...Pretty genuine?

A person on the brink of death doesn’t always react violently.

Instead of anger, sadness, despair, fear, or frustration, some people feel a sense of emptiness, which was exactly how Evan seemed now.

He didn’t appear to fear death at all; rather, he seemed to have resigned himself to it.

Anyway, it was clear that Evan had awakened as a vice-cult leader, but his attitude was a little puzzling.

“If a demon lord has been summoned, isn’t that good for you?”

The cult leader received the demon lords’ unconditional favor.

According to Juan, vice-cult leaders were treated similarly.

“Only if I’d been the one to officiate the summoning ritual. But even last night, I was barely able to escape. I died once and awakened as a vice-cult leader, but the demon lord still tried to kill me.”

I was quite surprised by that revelation.

I knew the factions within the order didn’t really get along with each other... but Evan was a vice-cult leader.

Juan, a high priest, had seemed to care about vice-cult leaders.

The Demon Lord of the Black Swamp had crushed and killed the high priest who had officiated the ritual without hesitation, yet Evan, who had just awakened as a vice-cult leader, had managed to escape that death sentence.

In many ways, the treament Evan received within the Church of Darkness clearly varied.

So the demon lord just wanted to kill him?

Of course, I couldn’t rule out that this too was a lie.

“Do you understand? The bastard who caused this mess has no sense of propriety, and he’s hell-bent on killing anyone who gets in his way. Vice-cult leader or not.” Evan twirled his finger. “They must be a bit unhinged. If they were sane, they wouldn’t have summoned Hadenaihar in the first place.”

“...”

The discomfort I got from Evan.

Of course, it probably stemmed from the fact that he was acting in ways that the “Evan Helvin” I knew would never behave.

But it wasn’t just that.

This guy doesn’t feel like he’s loyal to the cult at all.

I had sensed it vaguely before, but now I was certain.

The Church of Darkness was still a church, so perhaps it would be more accurate to call it “faith” than “loyalty.”

Yet Evan showed little sign of it.

Is that why he’s so willing to share information about the cult?

At least one thing was now clear: a demon lord had indeed been summoned.

It was the thing I’d been most afraid to hear, but denying reality would only lead to further denial.

That was how life often was. The more you wanted to deny something, the closer it was to the truth.

Of course, that didn’t mean all my questions had been answered.

“To summon a demon lord, three conditions must be met: a sacrifice, a land rich in mana, and a high priest to recite the Wicked Scripture.”

This land, where the academy stood—well, it was a small island in the middle of a river, so calling it a “land” felt a bit off... but still, it was filled with mana.

In fact, the Twilight River itself was like a massive mana stream.

I had heard that this location had been chosen to become the heart of The Empire, the Imperial City, because of the river.

“Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that a priest is hiding somewhere in the academy. What about the sacrifice?”

To summon even a fraction of a demon lord, you’d need dozens if not thousands of sacrifices.

Naturally, that many people couldn't possibly disappear without a trace, especially in a place like Kartell Academy.

But I knew some people could summon a demon lord without paying such a big price.

“Is there another vice-cult leader?”

“Who knows...” Evan smirked. “I’m still a member of the cult. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to reveal everything about it.”

For a couple of seconds, I just silently stared at Evan. “You do know that you’re currently a straggler, right?”

“Of course.”

“Yet you’re still acting so confident. Do you think Luan Bednicker would go easy on you, Evan Helvin, his former roommate?” I said with a smile that didn’t reach my eyes.

...Evan wisely kept his mouth zipped shut...

“Good job.”

“For what?”

“If you’d given me another one of those smirks, I would have chopped off one of your arms.”

Fortunately, he wasn’t completely oblivious. It seemed he understood that I was in no mood for jokes.

He wasn’t visibly intimidated by my threat, but he became more careful with his words and actions.

Anyway...

If Evan Helvin was indeed a cultist, then it would be impossible to extract information from him through interrogation or torture.

That was the nature of cultists.

They couldn’t be broken through pain, they had no ties outside of the cult, and they had no particular weaknesses to exploit.

In other words, I would need to extract information through conversation, which would require the specialized skill of someone like a heretic inquisitor.

Truthfully, someone like Einsburn, whom the Lord of Blood and Iron had interrogated, shouldn’t be even considered a cultist.

* * * * *

* * * * *

“Anyway, what you’re saying is that everyone inside the academy is going to die soon?”

“Yeah. Timing-wise... I’d guess around the full moon this month.”

The second full moon, exactly when Sellen had said it would happen.

I nodded. This was probably all the information I could get from Evan right now.

In that case, it was probably time for me to cut to the chase.

“Evan,” I said, and I realized this was the first time I’d called him “Evan.” You could say I was finally admitting it.

Even though he’d awakened as a vice-cult leader, even though he’d changed a lot, he was still Evan.

“Yeah?” he replied.

The way he tilted his head slightly was the only thing about him that resembled the Evan Helvin I’d known.

“Let’s work together on something.”

“On what?”

“While we are here at the academy, how about we work together to drive out the demon lord?”

Evan stared at me in shock for a second before bursting into a hearty laugh. “...Are you seriously telling me that you will join hands with a cultist—a vice-cult leader no less? You? Someone from the Bednicker bloodline?”

Every time the Bednicker name was brought up at times like this, it annoyed me. It felt like every conversation revolved around “Bednicker this” or “Bednicker that.”

I felt like I was being stereotyped against my will, regardless of my actions.

“I’m not like the other Bednickers, and I think you realize that.”

“I had a feeling, but I never expected you to so openly propose joining forces like this. Perhaps you’re a cultist yourself?”

“That joke rubs me the wrong way”

Evan coughed awkwardly. “Sorry,” he said.

“And if I'm a Bednicker heretic, then aren’t you a church heretic?”

“Me?”

“I am, in a way, suggesting that you rebel.”

Evan smirked and said, “You’re not wrong, but... my views on the demon lords are different from the rest of you.”

“Different how?”

“I believe that human affairs should be resolved by humans,” Evan murmured in a strange tone. After a moment of silence, he looked back at me with a bright smile. “I’ll take your word for it. I’m sure a normal Bednicker would have cracked my head open the moment they realized I was a cultist. But I have a condition.”

“Shoot.”

“First, don’t tell anyone my identity.”

I nodded. “All right.”

It was a condition I had expected and one that worked in my favor. Bringing him into the fold now meant there would inevitably come a time when he would have to meet others in the group... like, say, Sellen...

I didn’t think it would be a good idea to reveal his identity when that happened.

It would only add unnecessary confusion.

“The second condition is that you will have to trust me completely during this operation.”

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. In this temporary alliance, I will do everything I can to stay alive. I’ve thought about it, and I’ve decided I don’t want to die just yet,” Evan said with a tiny shrug. “I’m going to make use of all the memories of evil that reawakened in me.”

“Well, what’s bad about that? It sounds like a good thing.”

“It is. But the common sense of the cult is very different from what you know. You seem flexible for a Bednicker, but even so, you’ll find it hard to follow my orders without any doubts.”

I smirked and said, “You’re worrying over nothing. I’m far more experienced and flexible than you give me credit for.”

In truth, whatever common sense I’d once had, it had basically been destroyed in the ten years I spent living on Spirit Mountain.

“That said, I won’t blindly follow everything you say,” I said. “But I promise I won’t dismiss your words as bullshit.”

Evan offered a firm nod, his face serious. “Good enough.”

“Right now, as far as I can tell, the two most likely suspects are Glenn Scarlet and Ferith Scarlet.”

“The prince and the princess.”

I was surprised. It hadn’t even been a few days since we’d arrived at the academy, yet he had already narrowed it down to them.

Either way, it seemed that my decision to bring Evan into the fold had been a good one, impromptu as it had been.

“Right.” Evan nodded and continued, “It’s hard to be certain which of the two is a cultist. Rather, it’s impossible. As I said, we don’t have much time left. Threats, torture, and interrogation won’t do much good. If they officiated the summoning of Hadenaihar, nine times out of ten, their mind is already broken... So I came up with a clever solution.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“We kill them both. I can take out the princess and you can take out the prince. How does that sound?”

Evan looked at me with an expectant expression, clearly waiting for praise.

I nodded, thinking over it for a moment, but I couldn’t find any hidden reasoning, so... I decided to respond like this: “Evan, you fucker, I said no bullshit,”

Evan was visibly puzzled by my profanity, but then he seemed to realize something. He slapped his forehead with an “Aha!” and said, “Got it, then I’ll kill the prince, you can kill the princess.”

He turned to me with hopeful eyes and a look that just screamed “Happy?”

Now it was my turn to facepalm, albeit for an entirely different reason.

Should I just kill him?

Our alliance was off to a rocky start.

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