[Reality]
[Light Calendar, April 23, 625, 23:00]
[Comment: Though you still haven't changed Fated Death, you've come infinitely close to the truth...]
[Rating: C]
[Reward: 40 Points]
When Ansu opened his eyes again, he was back in the dark alley beneath the night sky.
This was the longest he'd survived in any simulation, and the information he'd gained was also the most crucial. After all, he'd jumped straight to the Open Day event.
Ansu glanced at Freya, who was keeping watch beside him.
After several nights of staying up late, she was finally starting to feel the strain. She raised a hand and yawned wearily.
When she finished, she noticed Ansu staring at her and suddenly looked a little awkward.
"Sorry, Lord Ansu..." Freya forced her eyes wide open. "I'll stay alert!"
"You've worked hard these past few days." Ansu smiled gratefully. "Tonight will be the last time. You won't need to keep accompanying me tomorrow, so you can get some proper rest."
"Hm? Why aren't we keeping watch anymore?" Freya blinked in confusion. "Does that mean Bishop Terry is no longer suspicious?"
"No." Ansu shook his head. He was planning to resolve everything tonight.
He gazed toward the Holy Dome Cathedral in the distance, its windows glowing with pale light.
Bishop Terry was still working on the third floor. Perhaps he was already secretly gathering people and preparing for tomorrow's operation.
Ansu recalled the scene from the simulation where Terry had directed the Inquisition. It seemed his target was a "decapitation strike": draw out Samantha, the leader of the Echo of Truth, then kill her.
Ansu pondered silently. At this point in time, Samantha's influence was indeed greater than Cecilia's.
Under her leadership, the Echo of Truth Cult had been locked in a struggle with the Church for nearly a century. Samantha was someone the Church despised with every fiber of its being.
But they could never have imagined...
Even if they eliminated Samantha, it wouldn't matter. Her successor, Cecilia, would bring the Church an even more terrifying and despairing shadow...
Ansu pulled his thoughts back from their increasingly distant path. The truth had basically come to light, and the solution was simple.
He just had to deal with Bishop Terry himself.
"Freya, go notify Bishop Paul now. Tell him to bring more people..."
Ansu gave her a meeting place. "We'll meet later at this abandoned inn."
"Oh... All right!"
Freya didn't know why Ansu wanted so many people there, but seeing how calm he was, she figured Lord Ansu had everything planned out.
Perhaps tonight... they'd be able to expose that villain in the Church!
After Freya hurried off,
Ansu took out a small pendant-like ornament. This was a magical item Cecilia had given him, and it let him communicate with her over long distances.
[Communication Amulet]
The item could only transmit brief messages. Ansu didn't dare cast a spell outside the Church, so he waited until he was some distance from the Holy Dome Cathedral before contacting Cecilia.
But he'd only exchanged a couple of words with her when a circle of pale blue magic lit up in the alley.
Cecilia's languid, graceful figure gradually appeared.
She yawned lazily, too. "Why did you call me over? Is something happening on your end?"
Ansu glanced nervously at the distant cathedral, his tone helpless.
"Witch, could you please... not use Teleportation so close to the Church next time?"
"What's there to be afraid of?" Cecilia chuckled. "I'm very confident in my magical abilities. I could cast a spell right in front of the Cathedral without them noticing. Don't believe me?"
"Impressive, impressive..." Ansu was already used to the proud, show-off Scum Witch.
He looked Cecilia over once more.
Although Cecilia knew nothing about what had happened in the "future," and didn't know what Ansu had once promised her, his state of mind had changed greatly.
Fortunately, the Witch didn't know what he'd said to her in the simulation. Thinking about it now, it had been pretty chuuni—and pretty embarrassing...
Never again!
"Why do you keep staring at me?" Cecilia asked suspiciously. Ever since she'd arrived, the guy had been staring at her face.
"Uh..." Ansu coughed awkwardly. "It's nothing..."
"What, you missed me after just one day?" Cecilia asked with a teasing smile.
Ansu nodded. "A day apart feels like three autumns. I think of you every moment, Witch."
Cecilia paused, then gave Ansu a massive eye roll.
"Why are you so sweet-tongued today? That's unlike you. Are you hiding something?"
Ansu was acting really strange today...
She had the feeling he had something on his mind but didn't want to tell her.
Cecilia narrowed her eyes and kept studying the silent Ansu. She'd have to find a chance to hypnotize him again and find out what was going on...
After telling Cecilia about his plan to deal with Bishop Terry, Ansu also shared his deduction.
"I suspect Bishop Terry has colluded with one of the Echo of Truth's elders and plans to harm your teacher, Witch."
Those lovely, deep-purple eyes blinked.
Cecilia looked slightly surprised. "How is my teacher involved in this? Where did you get that information?"
"It's like this." Ansu was already used to making up false intelligence in front of her. "Over the past couple of days, Freya and I followed Terry and found that he really was meeting a mysterious person in the Black Port District. I investigated on my own and discovered that this person could use magic and was also one of our fellow members in the Order!"
Seeing Cecilia listening intently, he continued, "This member of the Order is just a low-level operative. His superior should be part of the Council of Elders. I used Shadow Stealth and hid nearby for a long time, listening in on their conversation."
"He seemed to be in contact with an elder named Simon..."
"Simon?" Cecilia's brow furrowed at once.
Ansu noticed that her reaction to the name was just as strange as it had been in the simulation.
"Is there something wrong with this Elder Simon?" Ansu asked, very curious.
"You can think of Elder Simon as my teacher's lover. He's one of her trusted confidants." Cecilia gave a cold laugh. "I never thought he'd betray her, too."
"Looks like the infighting in the Echo of Truth is pretty serious. They even managed to turn one of Elder Samantha's closest people against her," Ansu murmured.
He thought of the three candidates for pope. The rivalry between the three bishops was practically a mirror image. The two organizations, one righteous and one evil, really were a perfect match...
"Humans are always good at infighting!" Cecilia scoffed. "Even if the apocalypse left only three people alive, they'd split into two factions."
"Witch, you really are biased against us humans..." Ansu laughed. "The demons are intelligent beings, too. I refuse to believe they don't fight among themselves."
"Maybe..." Cecilia pursed her lips and dropped the subject, instead explaining the two factions within the Order. "It's time I told you about the complicated situation within our organization. Hall, whom I burned to death last time, and elders like Kori are members of the Reformist Faction in the Echo of Truth Cult."
"The Reformist Faction?" Ansu really didn't know much about the Echo of Truth Cult at this point. By the time the game's story began, Cecilia had killed almost every elder who refused to obey her...
It didn't matter what faction you belonged to. Against the "King Daxi," the Witch of World Destruction, nothing worked. Kill, kill, kill, kill!
Cecilia had used "physical" methods to prevent the Order from splitting apart.
"Mm." Cecilia nodded. "The members of this faction are devoted to reshaping the order of things. They care more about worldly power and hope to restore the glory of the Magic Empire from the previous era by some means. That's why they keep plotting coups across the continent."
"They have the most supporters, too, because the benefits they offer are tangible."
"As for the other faction, that's my teacher Samantha's side." Cecilia continued, "They're known as the Truth Faction. They're more orthodox and believe the Order exists for the sake of magic—for exploring the world's truths and obtaining divine power."
"Ever since the Great Magic Collapse, the Truth Faction has focused on solving the backlash caused by High-Tier Magic. As a result, these aging mages have spent most of their time buried in endless tomes. They may be fewer in number, but they're not to be underestimated.
"Mm... I think I understand." Ansu nodded. "One side has money, the other can fight."
"More or less." Cecilia looked at Ansu and asked with a smile, "You look like you've already got a plan. What are you going to do next?"
"Next..." Ansu narrowed his eyes. "I'm going to bait them into taking the bait."
Before you continue