At this point, the truth was clear. The illusion Veronica had traced out in holy light still floated before Gawain. After being re-rendered and completed by the Ophelia Matrix, the marks scanned directly from the side hall's floor had been assembled into a clearer image. One glance was enough to tell that it was the face of Bofar, the God of Commerce. Gawain had even turned back to study the holy statue on the granite platform several times, repeatedly confirming that it was the same face.
Of course, there was still a slight difference between a face smashed into the floor and one on a holy statue. At the very least, the former was nowhere near as dignified and solemn as the latter. That was understandable, though. Mr. Bofar had probably been in quite a hurry and under a great deal of pressure when he left that mark, so he presumably had no spare attention to adjust his expression...
"...Looks like it was fortunate we asked Archbishop Boris to step aside for the moment," Gawain sighed. Though he had desperately tried to come up with countless other explanations for the traces in the side hall, in the end he could only admit that Veronica's discovery might be the sole truth. This made him all the more grateful that he had temporarily sent Boris out of the side hall. "Otherwise, he probably would have martyred himself by now..."
"Definitely. That would at least be worth two hours of faith-burning," Amber remarked dryly from the side, casually swinging the cudgel in her hand. For some reason, she was in an absurdly good mood at the moment. It seemed to have begun the instant she summoned that cudgel. "So our original guess was right after all. The Night Lady went to the foreign