Chapter 27

“…”

After hearing the man’s words, Zoe remained silent, not saying a word, nor making any move to step forward.

“My dear student, your hesitation now is an utterly foolish act,” the man sneered.

“You didn’t hesitate before enrolling, you didn’t hesitate when involved in the plot against the princess, and you didn’t hesitate when becoming our accomplice. Now, when the deed is done, when your future is ruined and there’s no turning back, you suddenly hesitate. How foolish.”

“Are you naively thinking you still have other value? Give up. The moment you started working for us, you were already on this pirate ship, whether you wanted to be or not.”

“Now, apart from being slightly valuable to us, if your identity as an accomplice of the Demon Pillar cultists is discovered, if your actions come to light, you’ll become a wanted criminal across all human nations. If caught, you’ll be sent to the guillotine. Do you think you still have the right to hesitate, the right to choose?” The man laughed mockingly.

“So, you’ve been deceiving me from the start?? You never intended to spare me or my brother?!” Zoe seemed to finally wake up to the truth.

As long as she had once been forced, for the sake of her brother’s safety, to cooperate with the Bronze Blood, her life would forever be tainted by an indelible stain, a stain that would cost her her head.

From then on, the Bronze Blood could always hold this over her, forcing her to act as their glove and tool, without needing any further coercion.

She would also, for the sake of her own life, dare not expose her identity, completely boarding the Bronze Blood’s pirate ship.

And when the day came that she was exposed, or when the Bronze Blood had some need of her, she would be mercilessly discarded, like a rusted, useless tool.

Realizing all this, Zoe broke out in a cold sweat.

If this were the case, not only her brother but her entire life would be ruined.

There would be no turning back; she would have to help these lunatics commit countless evils, only to be exposed one day, discovered, and cast aside like a pawn.

“I said earlier, I have no right to answer your question, nor can I answer it. All I can do is relay the higher-ups’ response to you, nothing more,” the man said, his expression turning indifferent once more.

His icy tone was like the biting winter wind of December, seeming to seep into her bones.

His dismissive attitude and cold excuses had already laid the bloody truth bare before her.

The truth was just as the blue-haired youth had said earlier, the Demon Pillar cultists, these lunatics, would never spare her or her brother. Once tainted, she would be bound to them until death.

If it weren’t for that youth and President Mirexia pulling her back, she might indeed have ended up as the masked man had said.

Thinking this, Zoe felt a wave of fear.

“Alright, you have no room to bargain with me. Hurry up and hand over the princess. I’ll take her and disappear through the secret passage,” the man coldly urged.

“…Secret passage??”

“Don’t ask. You have no right to know. Remember, you’re just a pawn we planted in Carillian Academy. If we want you to keep living, you can. Conversely, if we want you dead, we can make it happen in an instant.”

“You have no choice. As a traitor to all humanity, you’ve lost the right to live in any human nation. Now, only we are willing to take you in, to give you a place to stay,” the man sneered.

“Did you see those ignorant heretics at the banquet when you came? Hehe, they’re going to have a ‘horror party’ tonight, right here in the heretics’ cathedral, which they consider sacred!”

“Don’t be modest. You played a part in this. We won’t forget it, and neither will anyone else, hahaha,” the man laughed.

“Before your horror party, you might just have a bloody disaster,” a cold, beautiful voice suddenly interrupted the man’s laughter.

The golden-haired girl who had been leaning on Zoe, seemingly unconscious, straightened up and stepped forward, letting the evening breeze tousle her hair, bright as the golden sun.

At the same time, several figures appeared in front of the dormitory, dressed in the uniforms of Carillian Academy’s senior instructors.

They surrounded the man, looking at him with cold, meaningful eyes.

“Vermin of the academy, cancer of the earth, your time is up,” the tall instructor at the front said, raising his gaze.

“…What do you mean by this??” The man’s expression instantly froze, his face as if crawling with maggots, his gaze like an invisible hand gripping Zoe’s neck.

“You, you dared to secretly contact the heretics??” The man gnashed his teeth. “Do you know what the consequences of this are?? Don’t you care about your brother’s life??”

“Hah, hah, I see. So, between yourself and your brother, you chose yourself, huh?? How naive. Do you think you can continue to live safely among these heretics??” The man said viciously.

“Impossible. Even if they pardon your death sentence, you’ve already been branded as an ‘outsider.’ From now on, wherever you go, you’ll never be able to be a pure ‘human’ again!”

“Better to repent and return than to remain stubbornly wicked,” the instructor said. “Capture this maggot of the Demon Pillar. Don’t kill him; we have many questions to ask.”

“Hah, hah, hahaha!… You, catching me won’t mean anything!” The man suddenly burst into mad laughter for some reason.

In response, the instructors remained calm, unafraid of him lashing out in desperation.

The instructors sent here to protect Mirexia and capture the Demon Pillar cultists were among the best at Carillian Academy. In front of them, the man’s desire to self-destruct was but a pipe dream.

“Mr. Demon Pillar cultist, it seems you still don’t understand the situation? That secret passage you mentioned, the people guarding it, and your accomplices on this mission, they’ve all likely been found by our people. It won’t be long before you maggots can reunite in the stinking sewers,” the tall instructor with a large scar on his face said calmly.

“…You are, [Boneless] Morinkate??” The man looked at the combat instructor at the front, gritting his teeth.

“Oh? You know me? Am I that popular among the Demon Pillar cultists?” Morinkate smiled.

“How could I not know you??… You once removed the bones from an entire Demon Pillar cultist army.”

“Oh, so even you Bronze Blood know about that? Knowing that, you still dared to lurk in Carillian Academy and commit atrocities? Should I admire your courage and boldness?” Morinkate smiled without warmth.

“Alright, if you have something to say, you can talk to me slowly in the interrogation room. We don’t entertain here. If you don’t want your bones removed right now, you’d better behave,” Morinkate said, returning to his previous indifference. “Your plan has completely failed.”

“…Uh, ahhhhh!” However, at that moment, the man suddenly fell to his knees, clutching his head and roaring.

“Petty tricks,” Morinkate sneered. He wasn’t in a hurry; even if the man wanted to self-destruct, he could remove his bones before it happened.

But the situation didn’t seem to be that way. After a brief moment of agony, the man looked up again, his eyes different, glowing with an eerie purple light, his expression completely changed from before.

“Greetings, esteemed members of Carillian Academy. This should be our first meeting, though I regret it must be in such an undignified manner.”

“Who are you?” Morinkate immediately saw that the man’s soul had already fled; the one controlling him now was not his original soul.

“I am a devout servant of the Lord of Truth, Erunes, the High Priest of the Bronze Blood,” the man dusted off his clothes, a smile on his lips as he glanced at everyone present.

“[Boneless] Morinkate, and the princess of the Camella Kingdom, it’s an honor to meet you.”

Seeing the man’s strange behavior, Mirexia silently moved to shield Zoe behind her.

“You Demon Pillar cultists sure talk a lot. Spit it out,” Morinkate said impatiently.

“Be patient, Lord Morinkate. It seems you’ve won this round of the game?” the man said leisurely.

“But, with so many combat instructors sent to protect the Cathedral of the Deceptive Goddess and those heretic eggs, have you considered that there might be more moles hidden within your ranks?”

“What if these moles, taking advantage of your forces being diverted to protect the cathedral, attack your anti-magic arrays from within? What then?”

“Once the Order Spire’s anti-magic arrays collapse, what will become of Carillian Academy? Hehe…”

“Is this your entire plan?” Morinkate pondered for a moment, then laughed mockingly. “You fell for our bait, but so did we. Knowing this was our trap, you used the opportunity to strike elsewhere while our forces were spread thin. Did you think we wouldn’t consider that?”

“Before this plan even started, we anticipated you would deliberately fall into our trap. So, we stationed many instructors near each array point.”

“Now, those moles of yours tasked with attacking the array points have likely been completely wiped out by the instructors secretly guarding them.”

“High Priest of the Bronze Blood, your plan has utterly failed,” Morinkate said coldly. “After this, I will surely extract something useful from you.”

“…” The man was silent for a moment, then suddenly burst into wild laughter. “Hahahaha!”

“Oh? Really? Is that so?”

“Then, we shall see,” the man said in a mocking tone. “With so much of your combat strength tied up protecting the holy cathedral and defending the array points, how much do you have left??”

“The night’s revelry is about to begin. So, goodnight, Carillian Academy.” With that, the man’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth, dead.

“These pesky rats,” Morinkate said, sending two instructors to check the man’s condition before approaching Mirexia.

“Instructor Morinkate, I fear the Bronze Blood’s plans tonight are more than just this,” Mirexia had already anticipated that the Bronze Blood had deliberately sent out a few pawns to fall into their trap. But now, it seemed they had an even deeper scheme.

The man who had fainted, thinking himself a core member, had continuously mocked Zoe, but in reality, he was just a disposable tool sent out by the Bronze Blood, to be discarded after use.

“Is there something we’ve overlooked?”

“Who knows? The thoughts of these light-fearing maggots are hard to fathom. For now, we can only take it one step at a time…”

“Boom!!” At that moment, a massive explosion erupted beneath their feet, accompanied by terrified screams from the holy cathedral.

“Damn it! Something’s happened at the holy cathedral??” Morinkate was stunned, his expression instantly grave.

“From the sound, it seems to be coming from the banquet in the rear hall,” Mirexia said, her expression serious.

“How is that possible?? There are so many instructors there, and besides the students, no one else is allowed into the rear hall. What’s going on??” Morinkate didn’t know what had happened, but with the students’ safety at stake, he had to go check immediately.

“Student Mirexia, you and one instructor take Zoe and this guy back. The rest, follow me!” Morinkate called out, and everyone followed him quickly downstairs, heading towards the rear hall of the Saintness Selina Cathedral.

—

At that moment, in the banquet hall of the Saintness Selina Cathedral’s rear hall.

“Damn it, my steak!”

Winnie had no idea what was going on. He was just enjoying his steak when, out of nowhere, an explosion occurred. The ground shook, and the steak flew up, nearly hitting him in the face.

Then, all around, there were terrified screams and panicked footsteps.

What the hell is going on??

Has the protagonist triggered some passive ability?? Can’t I just have a peaceful meal??

Looking around, the banquet had turned into complete chaos. The students didn’t know where the explosion had come from or if anyone was hurt. The sudden disturbance had everyone running around like headless chickens.

“Stay calm, students! Follow the instructors and evacuate in an orderly manner!” Fortunately, the instructors who had been hiding in the shadows to protect the students appeared in time to maintain order, or else there might have been a stampede.

“Ugh! Winnie?? What’s happening??” Next to him, Shikondel was so scared she looked like a quail, wishing she could bury her head in her knees.

“You’re asking me?? I have no idea?? Clearly, all that talk about the Saintess’ protection and the goddess’s protection is just nonsense. This place is blowing up!” Winnie couldn’t help but complain.