Episode 370

I didn't know how many times silence had fallen in this place. Perhaps it was just due to my mood, but the silence this time wasn't too uncomfortable.

The witch society had to be the ones who were uncomfortable. They stood there awkwardly before their gazes eventually fell on Ozma. Her characteristic dullness couldn't conceal the hint of discomfort on her face.

I wondered how things would unfold from now on. I watched the situation without getting careless. It was true that Lise had shown an overwhelming performance, but I felt like the opponent hadn't shown all their trump cards. Their power was still unknown. It wouldn't be strange if an all-out battle erupted soon, so I was ready to use the First Fire Technique at any time.

Finally, Ozma acted. Her palms slowly rose towards the sky. Seren gripped her sword from beside me.

"I surrender." A somewhat dull voice rang out.

In an instant, the tension drained from me and I almost sighed openly.

At those words, Dorothy's head snapped in Ozma's direction and she exclaimed, "Surrender? Are you insane?"

"I am completely sane. What would we gain from fighting any more?"

"We still have some options left."

"Yes."

"Do you think we would lose if we mobilized all of them?"

"I don't know. Some battles are impossible to predict, no matter how hard you think. In my experience, it is best to avoid such fights."

Dorothy seemed to have a lot to say. Her mouth moved silently a few times, but she eventually chose not to press any further.

Based on her attitude, it seemed that the woman called Ozma was just as stubborn in her own way. She was the type who didn't easily reverse her decision once she made it.

Ozma looked at me and said, "I have no excuse for our rudeness. If you have any wishes, please feel free to express them. If there is anything we can compensate you with or help you with, we will cooperate as much as we can. Ah, I guess the order is to apologize first. Dorothy—"

The moment she said this, Dorothy once again touched the floor with her feet and disappeared in an instant.

Lise looked slightly impressed, and Ozma sighed. I was also dumbfounded.

I asked, "Where did she go?

"Mm, who knows? I'm not sure, since she is a selfish person to begin with," Ozma answered. "But if she's left like this, I probably won't see her for a few months."

What kind of ridiculous organization is this supposed to be? I wondered.

The whole situation was absurd, Dorothy's response was even more absurd. The whole mess had started because she kidnapped me on a whim. Now that things had gone wrong, she stayed silent and vanished. Didn't she know the meaning of responsibility?

Lise stared at where Dorothy had disappeared and muttered in an interested voice, "I didn't feel any signs of mana, but I don't know how she teleported. It is the first time I've seen such a technique. Is it the power of the shoes she is wearing?"

"Yes. Even you would find it hard to analyze. It is a concept that is completely alien to this world."

Ozma's words made my mind go cold, as if it had been hit by cold water. I asked, "Another world?"

"Yes." Ozma glanced around and declared, "We are not of this world."

***

The half-broken round table was restored in an instant.

The witches and I sat facing each other. Ozma and Lise took the seats in the center. Then there was Seren, the ghost knight Tin, and myself.

"How much would you sell your brain for?" Crow asked.

"I won't sell it," I answered as I sat across from the crow doll.

Once the robe came off, I saw that this thing was more like a scarecrow than a doll. To be honest, its appearance was terrible. It looked barely complete compared to the many puppets I had seen.

Well, a scarecrow itself was far from sophisticated, so it wasn't a big deal. Still, despite its shabby appearance, the movements it showed during the battle were sharp enough to resemble a real creature. Among all the puppets I had seen, it was the best in that regard.

Thus, this crow scarecrow was a contradictory being in many ways.

Well, if everything Ozma said was true, it wasn't entirely incomprehensible. In reality, they were all from other worlds. Taking that into account, there were many things that now made sense, such as the reason why Seren was involved with the witch society.

"We came here around 150 years ago," Ozma explained.

"Do you mean all the witches?" I asked.

"That's right. The people in this society, including Dorothy, could be seen as coming from the same world."

"It sounds like there are members who don't fall into that category."

"That's right. In the first place, the only condition for joining the witch society is that you must be from another world. That is it. It is tricky to prove, but on the other hand, it isn't difficult to join as long as you prove it."

I glanced at Seren. It seemed she was at the stage of proving it.

Lise said with crossed arms, "It is hard to believe, but it isn't like there is no basis for it. Many of the artifacts called OOParts are shrouded in mystery. It isn't just their origins, but even how they are used."

"That's right. That is why one of our witch society's tasks is to collect the OOParts filled with mysteries. That is how I came into contact with Shi-Hyeon," Ozma said.

So it was because of that thing called the smart whatever.

"I see. So that means you aren't primarily black mages?" Lise asked.

"Yes. Our main focus lies elsewhere," Ozma replied.

It felt like a big question had been solved. Actually, I had always wondered why they were called witches to begin with. This wasn't an era where simply being a woman and using magic was enough to be considered a witch.

In the first place, there were women among the seven-colored archmages and the magic towers. Meanwhile, those who caused chaos in the empire with their secret techniques were called church members rather than witches. There was no reason to call women with magic powers witches.

However, the story was different if they were mages from another world. That was because no ordinary mage would understand the concepts of magic that they used. The spatial movement magic Dorothy had just used was one such example.

"There is only one reason why we learned black magic. It is the only study in this world that deals deeply with dimensional shifting. Of course, most of it is associated with Hell. But in the end, Hell is the only place in this empire that has even the slightest bit of information about other worlds," Ozma explained. "Our witch society has been investigating Hell for a long time. Recently, I learned something new."

"Something new?" I asked.

"Hell is connected to other worlds."

I quietly felt admiration in my heart as I recalled the conversation I had with Senior Sister Tian on Spirit Mountain.

"All worlds are independent, yet the concept of Hell is strangely consistent... It is like how, no matter which mountain you view the sky from, the moon remains unchanged."

I had murmured, "What does that—"

"So Hell is like the moon in the night sky."

That was something I'd also learned from Senior Sister Tian. It was a hidden truth of the world that could never be discovered using ordinary methods. That meant the witch society had painstakingly investigated such a truth over a long time.

Along with the feeling that things were more intriguing than I expected, I also felt that this was a critical moment. The two worlds that had always felt separate to me, the continent and Spirit Mountain, now seemed to be vividly overlapping.

"So by going through Hell, it should be possible to return to our original worlds. Of course, that dimension is incomparably larger than this world and is incredibly dangerous. Ordinary humans can't survive for even a second there, and even those with anti-demon resistance have their limits," Ozma continued. "So we need to train our black magic more deeply. We need to know about demons and Hell. Thus—"

"That is why you cooperated with the Dark Church?" I deliberately interrupted Ozma and got to the point. Her story was interesting, but I felt like I had heard all the interesting things now.

Ozma nodded and said, "No one knows more about demons and Hell than the Dark Church."

"If this were to be found out, you would be pursued by the empire for the rest of your lives."

"I know. We thought about it carefully for a long time, approximately 100 years. Then I pinned my hopes on Shi-Hyeon..." Ozma's gaze slowly turned to Seren and she shook her head. "Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work either."

"My work is still ongoing. Didn't I ask you to wait a bit longer? You have already endured for over 100 years, yet you can't even wait for one year before causing such an incident," Seren grumbled, causing Ozma to chuckle.

"Just because I have lived 100 years doesn't mean that a single year is short. Sometimes, the longer you have lived, the slower the passage of time feels," Ozma replied.

"That is true." The quietly listening Lise agreed.

Somehow, the only old people present seemed to have formed a consensus.

I said, "Even so, we can't let this go."

"I guess so. What do you want? Like I said before, we will do whatever we can," Ozma said.

"Do you not still have to cooperate with the church?" I asked.

"An alternative has appeared, so is it really still necessary?" As she spoke, Ozma's gaze shifted to Lise.

Lise's expression was casual as she brushed the remaining cookie crumbs from the bag. "Mm."

Ozma looked at me again, as did Seren. It meant the right to negotiate had been given to me.

It wasn't strange. After all, I was the one who was kidnapped, almost killed, and almost ended up an idiot. If this witch society had someone to apologize to or compensate, it was none other than Luan Badniker—no, Nalu.

I licked my lips and said, "First of all, please tell us about the church's plans. Then I will take your sins into account to some extent."

Ozma fell silent before sighing. She eventually said, "It seems this was inevitable. Okay. What should I explain first? First of all, the faction currently active around Airuga is the Green Tongue faction."

Green-Tongued Demon King Tantata was a name I hadn't heard in a long time. I asked, "What are they doing?"

"Do you know about Rahild?"

"I do."

"Including what is happening there?"

"I have an idea."

Ozma nodded and continued, "Isn't it strange? In a place where excavations have been carried out for over 100 years, artifacts are suddenly pouring out like this. Even the identity of the monsters that appear with them are shrouded in mystery."

It was definitely strange. I was about to respond directly when something Ozma had said crossed my mind. I answered, "Is it summoning magic?"

"That's right."

"Do you mean that demon summoning is taking place at the Rahild Labor Camp?"

"It is more about summoning monsters than demons. It is a kind of black magic. Due to that, traces of the church's unique miasma are faint."

"Then what about the artifacts that appeared with them?"

"They are bait."

I couldn't help laughing. I asked, "Do you mean that they are using expensive artifacts as bait?"

"The wealth of the Dark Church is greater than that of the imperial family. The number of artifacts they have secured can't even be counted. In the first place, they have the technique to mass produce replicas of artifacts, so it isn't a big loss from the church's point of view," Ozma explained.

What came to mind was the chain weapon I had encountered back when I faced Ludwig at the Badniker family's main estate. I remarked, "They must take an astronomical amount of money to make."

"It depends on the type. None of them are weapons imbued with special powers. Mere ornaments and accessories aren't particularly troublesome. It is enough to secure a few skilled dwarf craftsmen."

"Mm." I doubted at first that a proud dwarf craftsman would willingly cooperate with the church, but then I couldn't help feeling convinced since I had seen it at Sandstorm Hill. I asked, "So? What are they trying to do by baiting the labor camp?"

"Naturally, it is the descent of a demon king. Close to tens of thousands of slaves have died in the labor camp. More than ten years worth of blood has already accumulated. Ah, right, this is one of the recent changes in the church. Now they can use the corpses of the dead as sacrifices. Of course, those that are completely rotten or decayed are useless."

"I know," I answered.

I was the one who had spread the word in the first place, after the operation in Ymir's corpse up in the north.

"The demon king will descend in three months at the longest, or within a month at the shortest. I know that if they chant the Evil Scripture right now, a demon king can be summoned immediately," Ozma said.

"Then the key is the priest. Do you know anything about the priest?" I asked while naturally thinking of the name of the person I thought would come out: Big Boss Gustav. Perhaps all the corruption happening in the Rahild Labor Camp was being orchestrated by him.

However, that wasn't what came next. Instead, Ozma said, "Recently, several of the church's core plans have been overturned."

"Hm?"

"Things like the imperial academy and capturing the corpse of Ymir in the north. All that took a lot of effort from the church's perspective. Thanks to that, the church is currently in an emergency state in its own way."

That sounded like good news, so I wondered why her tone of voice was so unsettling.

Ozma explained, "This time... To be honest, it will be hard to stop. It seems that the church is determined to succeed."

"Um, are there two or three priests?"

"That would have been preferable. No, that person is in the south."

"That person?"

"A being who has lived longer than the history of the empire. The one who has received the grace of the six demon kings. The one born under the night star. The one who wants to sacrifice the Nameless Empire to ascend as a new god of disaster."

The atmosphere froze. Most likely, my expression was also a bit stiff.

Seren muttered in a low voice, "The Dark Pope?"

"Yes." Ozma nodded. "Right now, the Dark Pope has come to the south in person."