Although Eliza had arrived quickly, she was not actually as concerned as she appeared to be.
Now that the Holy Church was contracting while the sects of various gods rose one after another, it was time for the Holy Church to step down from the stage.
With Eliza about to ascend the throne, she would certainly need a major reform.
And the Holy Church's withdrawal was a foreseeable "reform." Deep down, she might even have been secretly delighted by the Pope's sudden disappearance. So any claim that she desperately wanted to find the missing Pope was complete nonsense.
Likewise, the Duke's Mansion was not particularly concerned about the Pope's disappearance either.
Although the Duke's Mansion's intelligence network had cooperated with the Holy Church, only the Pope had gone missing—it was not as though the Holy Church had fallen.
They had even belonged to opposing camps in the past. It was impossible for them to truly sympathize with their enemies.
Thus, Alvitr had only come because she had no choice. Of the outsiders present, none genuinely cared about the Pope.
Under those circumstances, even if he had uncovered a sliver of the "truth," he did not necessarily need to reveal it.
In short, there was no need to be too "helpful."
So Dark stood behind Alvitr for a full half hour.
Half an hour later, with the discussion yielding nothing, Eliza was led to the Pope's study—the "scene of the crime."
Naturally, Dark's group followed behind Eliza and arrived at the scene as well.
The Pope's study stood open.
Several bishops inside were using magical artifacts to search for clues. But at best, they were merely doing what they could.
The study was perfectly intact, without the slightest "trace" left behind. In theory, even if a [True God] had forcibly attacked