Taming the Evil Saintess

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The Shadowhold I visited after a long time was no different from my previous visit.

And not in a good way.

“Hey, there, lady. You should come with us…”

“…”

The thugs still had their greedy eyes on Ophelia, and one of them was a familiar face.

He was the same guy who had demanded money from me last time I was here with Owen, only to get thoroughly beaten up.

“Hey, before things get ugly, you should…”

“…”

“Hmm?”

The gang leader, whose wrist had been cleanly severed, turned pale as he recognized Ophelia and me.

Trying to back away and gather his crew, he was too slow; Ophelia was faster.

“Kid, if you can’t recognize your sister, it looks like your death is near.”

As she brandished the Branch of the World Tree, the gang leader rushed forward, kneeling and prostrating himself.

“Ah, n-no! I was just momentarily blinded. Hehe…”

“Ophelia.”

“What?”

“Do you know this guy?”

“Of course. Yurede cut off his wrist.”

“…”

Well, if it’s Yurede, I could believe it.

Ophelia stomped on the gang leader’s head and glared at the thugs behind him.

Just the murderous intent alone made them awkwardly kneel.

The gang leader cautiously raised his head, bowing deeply.

“Ah, haha… So, what brings you, esteemed guest, to such a humble place…?”

“That’s none of your business…”

After a moment’s hesitation, Ophelia said, “Hand over all the money you have.”

At the very least, Ophelia’s miserly tendencies seemed ingrained into her nature.

*

“Hyuk hyuk. Elliot, look. Gold coins!”

Shaking a bag full of gold coins from side to side, Ophelia smiled as if she was in heaven.

“Making money is easy, huh? Should we just go around the Empire’s big cities collecting funds after we capture the Demon King?”

“Ophelia, that’s called looting, not collecting funds.”

“Doesn’t matter! If we’re robbing from bad guys, we’re just being vigilantes. Plus, this is all for my retirement fund.”

Her serious tone was staggering.

Letting out a sigh, I lightly tapped Ophelia on the back.

“Let’s go.”

We had already arrived in front of the Magic Tower.

The last time we had fled from the Cathedral, we had been there for five days, so the mage greeted us with a smile.

“Welcome! What brings you here this time? If you’d let me know in advance, I could’ve prepared a meal for you.”

“Forget about that.”

Waving my hand dismissively, I continued.

“We’re here to see Archmage Eldarian.”

Upon hearing this, the mage looked troubled.

“The Archmage is currently preparing for an experiment. It should be finished by this afternoon, so if you could wait a bit in the room…”

“So, the Archmage is indeed here at the Magic Tower?”

“Uh, yes? That’s right?”

The mage tilted his head, and I ignored him as I ascended the tower’s stairs. He tried to stop me, but I wouldn’t listen.

Climbing the long staircase seemed to challenge Ophelia as well. Eventually, I just picked her up and bolted up the stairs, crashing through the door of Archmage Eldarian’s study on the top floor.

Inside, Archmage Eldarian Barried was looking at us in shock.

“Uh… Knight Elliot, and Saint Lady. What is the sudden emergency?”

“I know about Emily.”

“Emily… you mean?”

“Your apprentice. You implanted the Mark, didn’t you?”

I blurted out, but Eldarian raised his half-slipped monocle as if he’d partially anticipated this.

“Who told you?”

“Princess Adelheit.”

“…Huh.”

With a deep sigh, Eldarian summoned a chair toward us with a simple telekinesis spell.

“Please, sit down. This is going to be a long discussion.”

*

“The initial idea of Mark implantation came from my master.”

The Archmage was part of a group that had dominated the Empire’s magical community for centuries. As such, Eldarian’s master also held sway over the continent as an Archmage.

The Previous Archmage was noted as a Mark-holder and a comrade of heroes who, alongside Elf Great Warrior Kaius and the Previous Saintess, had fought against the Demon King.

“My master believed the Marks should be passed down to the Archmages. In his old age, he left various studies through his body and the Marks.”

These certainly didn’t seem like standard research practices.

“So the Previous Archmage discovered how to implant the Marks?”

“Not perfectly, but yes. And to delegate this task to me, he personally extracted the Mark and bequeathed it to me.”

While a comrade who had fought the Demon King alongside the Hero engages in research to artificially replicate and implant a Mark…

“Your master must have been an atheist.”

“That would be difficult for me to answer. However, I can’t deny that sorcerers tend toward a fanatical obsession with dismantling anything to uncover its principles.”

“You too, Archmage Eldarian?”

“Indeed. If not, I wouldn’t have completed my master’s research.”

So, it meant that Eldarian had completed the method devised by the Previous Archmage.

However, he had not A) implanted the Mark onto himself.

“Why did you implant the Mark on Emily instead of on yourself?”

“As you can see, I have aged. And… getting older brought about a sense of disillusionment.”

“Were you not skeptical about implanting the Mark into Emily’s body?”

When I said it teasingly, Eldarian sighed and set down his teacup.

“I regret it now. It was youthful folly. Driven by inferiority complex, I finished the research thinking I wanted to surpass my master, but in the end, I regret it deeply. I lacked ambition and conviction.”

“Is Emily your daughter?”

“She’s my adopted daughter. Just one of the many orphans in Shadowhold.”

“…”

“You’re thinking what I expect. You believe I took in an orphan and used her as my test subject. I have no excuses, really.”

Eldarian bit his lower lip as he spoke to me.

“Now, I regret that and hope that Emily can be as happy as possible.”

That statement didn’t seem like a lie.

The first time I met Emily, she was a blissful girl unaware of the world.

I shifted the topic.

“Do you know about Princess Adelheit’s plans?”

He wouldn’t not know.

Upon hearing the princess’s name, Eldarian’s expression darkened.

“There was no other choice.”

“You use the Marks to exploit the power of the gods. This would be what the religious folks call sacrilege. Did you not argue against it?”

“Of course, I tried to dissuade them. There was significant backlash from my inner circle, but it was impossible to bend the wishes of the princess. More importantly, the Magic Tower in Shadowhold is supported by the Imperial Palace…”

This meant several political issues were at play.

“Moreover, Princess Adelheit is soon to be the Empress. Being out of favor with the Emperor on this continent means…”

“Death.”

Even heroes had to bow before the Emperor.

In the end, Adelheit had coerced the Archmage into garnering research on the implantation of Marks, formulating her plans to create an invincible army.

If this continued, even if they defeated the Demon King, peace on the continent would be out of reach.

“…We’re screwed.”

It wasn’t me but Ophelia who muttered that.

*

I had a rough understanding of the situation.

The research notes left by the Previous Archmage were completed by Eldarian when he turned his adopted daughter, Emily, into a Mark-holder proof of the research.

And it seemed Princess Adelheit had conceived her own possibilities after seeing that research.

“Knight Elliot.”

Having gathered all the necessary information, as I turned to leave, Eldarian spoke up.

He handed me a scroll.

Upon closer inspection, it was an expensive teleportation scroll. Since teleportation was a spell equivalent to high-level magic, it would practically be free to someone like Eldarian, who could easily hand over such treasures.

“Why are you giving me this?”

“It’s a gift.”

“A gift?”

“Is Emily doing well?”

“She’s doing too well for her own good.”

Ophelia snorted as if she agreed.

Eldarian nodded and got to his point.

“I have a request.”

“What is it?”

“Please don’t tell Emily where her Mark came from, or its origin.”

“…”

So this scroll is basically hush money.

Naturally, I had no intention of revealing anything.

I also didn’t want to see Emily in the original story.

However, even if I didn’t say anything, Emily would find out herself.

At the very least, she was talented enough to be called an Archmage’s disciple.

When that time comes, well, that’s their business.

“Understood.”

“Thank you.”

“I should mention, though, it seems Chimera Sorcerer Idmien has caught wind of the princess’s plans.”

I had no information about the Possessor Morgan who had crossed over to the Empire’s forces, but Idmien seemed to have realized Adelheit’s scheme through some method.

As I pointed this out, Eldarian nodded seriously.

“We must stop that harlot’s plans.”

The moment we stepped out of the Magic Tower, Ophelia looked incredibly displeased as she voiced her opinion.

“How?”

The natural follow-up question was certainly HOW.

“How do we stop the princess?”

“We grow stronger. We uproot the Imperial Palace.”

“Are you serious?”

“We’re planning to vanquish the Cathedral too.”

“…Ophelia, you have zero sense of reality.”

“What’s wrong with that! If we’re going to do this, we should do it right!”

Ophelia said confidently.

However, an individual cannot directly oppose the Imperial Palace. That was simply impossible.

I dare not point out that Ophelia’s plan seemed more akin to wishful thinking than a feasible strategy compared to Adelheit’s.

“Anyway! I’m going to catch the Demon King and live the easy life. You too, right?”

“Well… yeah.”

“So help me out.”

With her saying it like that, I had no choice.

I sighed and nodded.

At the same time,

“Hey, there, pretty girl. You’d better do what we say while you still can.”

A armed thug jumped out from a back alley, grinning and exposing his yellowed teeth.

“…Do they not have any learning capabilities?”

I muttered in disbelief, but Ophelia merely sparkled with excitement.

“Elliot.”

“What?”

“Looks like we can eat at an expensive restaurant today.”

I felt a twinge of envy at how easy she found life to be.