Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 279

Ilia spoke, her voice coming from the small screen. “There are problems inside the Order that I must fix first. Only then can we repay your Majesty’s kindness.”

Logan smiled at Ilia’s face on the communication device.

“Repay? There’s no need for that, Saintess Ilia,” he said.

He meant it. He had already received more than enough.

“Formal titles make me uncomfortable, Your Majesty. Please treat me as you always have,” Ilia requested.

“No. I cannot treat someone of the rank of Cardinal lightly. Nor am I the Emperor of the Empire,” Logan replied.

Cardinal. That meant Ilia was now seen as equal to a King. The Temple’s rules were old, almost as old as the Empire itself. A Pope was like an Emperor, a Cardinal like a King.

It was a rule created long ago when the Pope seemed to give in to the Empire, but in a continent where the faith of the Nine Gods was absolute, it was as good as law.

Because of what happened with the Pope, people might look down on the Empire too…

Ilia said, “I am sorry. All of this was possible thanks to Your Majesty.”

“How could I create the qualifications of a Saintess? It is Saintess Ilia’s ability,” Logan said.

Ilia responded, “No. Still, I cannot forget Your Majesty’s grace. The Order will now change, and the Temple will regain its former glory. When that time comes, I will surely repay you.”

“Haha. If you put it that way, I have no choice,” Logan chuckled.

“Yes?” Ilia asked.

“I’m not one to say no to a gift, especially not from someone who might become the next Pope! I’m really looking forward to it,” Logan said with a smile.

Ilia laughed softly. “Ah… Haha, yes, of course, I will repay you. But that’s a lot of pressure! Becoming Pope… I don’t know. I’m still quite new to all this. There are others, like Cardinal Austin, who are much more experienced.”

Logan tilted his head.

“Other Cardinals? Weren’t they part of the former Pope’s faction?” he asked.

Ilia explained, “Well, they are claiming to be victims, saying they were tricked by the Pope’s scheme… Of course, tens of thousands of believers saw their disgraceful behavior, so even if there are internal Cardinal election rules, it will be hard for any of them to become Pope. We cannot completely ignore what the believers think.”

“I see,” Logan responded.

Ilia added, “However, the election of the next Pope will be delayed a bit because of that.”

Hmm.

The election of the next Pope becomes more confusing.

Even if Ilia was worried about the Pope election being delayed, Logan didn’t mind at all.

He had been very surprised by the Temple’s sudden fight this time.

Logan smiled and changed the subject.

“Still, it’s lucky in a way. Oh, what was that thing the Pope had?” he asked.

“Yes? Didn’t you already know?” Ilia asked, surprised.

“How would I know that?” Logan responded.

Ilia seemed even more surprised. “…I’m more surprised that you don’t know.”

“Yes?” Logan asked, confused.

What is this about?

Ilia said, “You knew everything, from the fact that the Pope had such a thing to what it could do.”

“…I just guessed from the information I had,” Logan replied.

Ilia responded, “It’s amazing that you knew that information, which even the Pope’s close aides didn’t know…. The Order and I have really benefited from Your Majesty’s luck.”

“Haha, I suppose so. So, what was that thing? If it can copy the Sacred Mark, it can’t be an ordinary object,” Logan asked.

Logan kept asking because of something.

The only things that give off divine power on their own are the nine divine artifacts, which are like sacred objects of the Nine Gods. That was true for thousands of years since the Order was created.

In his past life, he only knew that the Pope was attacked and the object was revealed, which led to the Pope’s downfall. At that time, he didn’t care about the Pope’s rise and fall, so he ignored it, but now he had to pay attention to what was happening in the world.

But now that an object that completely changed the Order’s situation had appeared, he had to be interested.

Ilia explained, “At first, most people thought it was a sacred object. Cardinal Tenner Rainey even said that the former Pope should be forgiven, because he found a new, tenth sacred object.”

“At first? So, it’s not a sacred object after all,” Logan asked.

Ilia said, “Yes. I also felt something different from pure divine power, and someone who handles Aura and divine power very well agreed. So, we decided it wasn’t a sacred object.”

“Aura and divine power? Ah! Shield of God….”

Logan knew the name of Harman Killerbrew, the Shield of God.

Ilia continued, “Yes. We all thought it was not a sacred object given by God, but a fake. We were even more sure when we questioned the Pope.”

“Did the Pope tell you where it came from easily?” Logan asked.

It was about his life.

Ilia’s face stiffened briefly. After hesitating, she said, “The Order’s… experts got the truth from him in just one day. But what he said was very strange….”

Ah. The Order’s torture experts, who were said to create even fake heretics.

Right. They would be able to do that.

Logan smiled sadly as he thought about these people he had only heard about, and Ilia continued reluctantly.

“It was a relic left by someone with the strange title of Mad Saint…”

Zzzzzing!

“Ugh!” Logan clutched his head in sudden, extreme pain.

“Your Majesty?” Ilia asked, concerned.

Mad Saint. As soon as he heard that word, a sharp ringing filled his mind. His vision blurred with pain, and his mind grew faint. Then, a strange memory flashed through his brain.

“- I ask you. You are the only one who knows ancient languages well now.”

“- If you have to, burn the books, but you must remember what’s in them and pass them on to someone talented. If you can’t even do that….”

In the last moment of his previous life that he remembered, an unfamiliar but familiar memory appeared.

“- In the worst case, you can throw away the secrets. But this relic must never fall into the hands of Emperor Baros! Never!”

“- The relic of the ancient transcendent, the Mad Saint Jibric Cassel… If this gets into that madman’s hands, the world will be turned upside down….”

The face of Louis Hyon, full of scars and looking much older than now, flashed through his mind.

“- Where is the sacred object?!”

“- How dare you want the Empire’s treasures!”

He also remembered the object he had been carefully holding in his arms while running away.

“- The ritual will be completed with that sacred object. Hand it over quietly!”

“- Bullshit… Heh heh, I’d rather die.”

Fire and smoke filled the air. Shouts echoed through the battle.

“That crazy bastard…! Stop him!”

“Let’s die together!”

Kwaaaang! The sound of metal crashing against metal shook the ground.

The final moments of his past life flashed more clearly in his mind. Deep within his soul, the fog that had clouded his memories began to dissipate.

The pain gradually subsided, leaving his head feeling clearer, but Logan found no reason to smile.

[Your Majesty! What’s wrong all of a sudden? Are you unwell…? ]

A flash of white light in his memory made a name surface in his mind.

“The Magic Saint. Zibric… Cassel?”

[Zibric Cassel? Do you know him, Your Majesty?]

“Ah, no. Not yet, anyway… I’m not sure. More importantly, Ilia, was that object a small sword, perhaps?”

[A sword? No, Your Majesty. It was a bracelet.]

“A bracelet… Ah…!”

The massive magic circle he had witnessed in his final moments in his previous life.

Within it, mountains of corpses piled high, and upon the altar of those corpses, two objects glowed eerily.

One of them was a bracelet.

“A bracelet shaped like a ring, emitting a pure white light… is that right?”

[Yes? Yes, that’s it. So you did know!]

“…Ah. Yes… Yes, that sounds right.”

The brief clarity he had felt after the pain subsided was fleeting; the resurgence of his memories brought with it a wave of exhaustion.

He longed to lie down and rest, but there was still something he needed to confirm.

“Did the Pope mention where he acquired that object?”

[He claims to have bought it by chance in the black market of Aserian during his younger years. It seems to be the truth…]

“Ha….”

A sigh of disappointment escaped Logan’s lips.

If the information had been extracted by the Order’s torturers, it was likely to be true. And if it had been acquired in the black market of Aserian, tracing its origins would be impossible.

The glimmer of hope he had harbored vanished in an instant.

‘Will I have to wait until the Empire finds Zibric Cassel’s tomb in this life as well?’

Perhaps that ritual had sent him back to the past.

No, it probably did.

But now, he couldn’t afford to dwell on the complex magic circle that had consumed countless lives, a memory shrouded in obscurity.

Even if his current life wasn’t as arduous as his previous one, which had been nothing but hardship, it was still challenging. Unless everything was ruined again, he had no desire to repeat such a difficult existence.

Logan had a different expectation as he recalled his past life.

‘If I can find that sword, the one I named the Holy Sword.’

The sword that had allowed him, a mere foot soldier, to evade the Empire Special Inspection Department for over a month and even infiltrate key locations.

If he had that sword, the fight against the Empire would be much easier, but it seemed he would have to abandon that hope for the time being.

[We are also most curious about that fact. Even if it’s not real holy power, how could a bracelet grant holy power greater than that of an archbishop to someone who isn’t even a regular priest? If there are more similar objects, it would be truly….]

Ilia’s subsequent words didn’t quite register.

‘The Magic Saint’s relic. If it reappears, I must be the first to….’

Lost in thought, he merely organized the memories of his past life that resurfaced.

“You must guard that bracelet carefully, Ilia.”

[Of course, Your Majesty. Although it is not a divine artifact, it is a valuable item, so we plan to treat it as a treasure of the Order.]

“Yes. That’s a relief.”

‘I can certainly prevent that bracelet from falling into the Empire’s hands.’

In any case, the preparations to change his fate seemed to be going well so far.

Even if it was just a stroke of accidental luck.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Imperial Palace…

The Second Prince was in his room. It was grand and luxurious.

“Ha. The Pope was really impeached? How absurd.”

The attendants and escort knights, along with everyone else who was listening, held their breath and froze in place, but a handsome man with blue hair gestured, dismissing everyone around him.

Once he confirmed that everyone had left the room, he quietly opened his mouth.

“He possessed an artifact that could deceive the eyes of the world and allow one to wield Saint-level divine power.”

“An artifact that grants divine power? That’s absurd. You might as well say another divine artifact has appeared.”

The Second Prince’s brow furrowed even deeper, but Leos calmly continued.

“That is what the Order has announced. Well, regardless of its authenticity, the reason Your Highness is displeased isn’t because of the existence of such an artifact, is it? You’re still unhappy that the McLaine Kingdom is still intact.”

“…Indeed. Logan McLaine, that lucky bastard, slipped through my fingers again. That’s what I don’t like. How many times has it been already?”

A feeling of unease settled in his chest.

The Second Prince’s expression remained troubled, unable to shake off the unpleasant sensation.

“Aren’t you too fixated on him? No matter how lucky he is, how long will it last? Wouldn’t it be better to focus on finishing the matter with the small kingdoms’ alliance first?”

“No, no. I have a bad feeling. The Inquisitors being annihilated… you’re sure it has nothing to do with us? What about my brother’s side?”

“According to the investigation, it appears to have nothing to do with our Empire. However, McLaine also did not have any troop movements that would suggest such an act. We have confirmed that not only were there no large-scale troop movements, but also that the king and Sword Master remained in their positions.”

“No, no. It’s definitely their doing. If we single them out and fabricate evidence, can we make the Order attack them again?”

At those words, Leos’s expression changed for the first time.

“Your Highness. You usually decide things based on facts, not feelings. I don’t understand why you’re so sensitive about him.”

Just stop worrying about it. Let’s finish what we were doing.

It was a word of advice, but Baros von Ares, the Second Prince, did not accept it.

“No. Lately, that irritating feeling has grown stronger. I have a strong feeling that we can’t leave him alone. You know about the blood of the prophets that flows in our imperial family, don’t you?”

‘It’s just an obsession born from the constant disruption of his plans.’

Long ago, the first emperor was said to see the future. But no one in the family has had this power since.

But Leos swallowed the truth that had risen to his throat.

Even as a recorder, he couldn’t cross that line.

At that moment when he couldn’t say anything.

“I should pay a visit to His Majesty.”

“Yes?”

“I have to eliminate him, even if I have to resort to unreasonable measures.”

The Second Prince’s dark eyes gleamed fiercely.