Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 473

Logan was still waiting for news about Clayton. But right now, a different, urgent message had arrived – one that couldn’t wait.

“From the Holy Kingdom?”

“Yes. The Saintess communicated directly, with the Pope’s explicit approval. She also requested that Lord Hayman be present to receive the message with you…”

“With Lord Hayman?”

If they were summoning Hayman with such urgency, it couldn’t be good news.

Logan hurried to the communication room, where he saw Hayman’s grave expression. It only confirmed his suspicions.

“What’s going on? A direct communication now? Is something wrong?”

“I have some idea, but let us first hear Her Holiness’s words.”

Hayman’s voice was heavier than Logan had ever heard. The hand clutching the holy relic, Licentia, around his neck trembled slightly, an ominous sign.

‘Surely, nothing has happened at the temple again…’

Logan entered the communication room with a grim face.

The story he heard as soon as he greeted the Saintess was shocking.

“[Your Majesty, I have terrible news. We sent our best knights, the elite of the Holy Knight Order, to the location you mentioned. Two hundred knights, mainly sword masters including three deputy commanders. However, since the signal to breach, there has been no report for a week.]”

“You mean…”

“[Contact agents outside reported hearing a large explosion inside the mountain range. The temple believes they were likely annihilated.]”

“Oh… This is…”

Logan bit his lip without realizing it. He felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. He hadn’t seen this coming at all.

When he gave the information to the Saintess, he hadn’t anticipated this. He had reasonably expected the elite of the Magic Tower, including Tower Master Cassel, to be with the Imperial Army. Even if Louisa’s information was false, he thought the Holy Kingdom’s power would be enough to overcome it.

However, he hadn’t informed the Holy Kingdom that the Cassel Magic Tower’s forces hadn’t appeared in the war.

‘This is my mistake.’

If Tower Master Cassel and his elite were already there, it wasn’t strange that the Holy Kingdom’s elite were wiped out.

Logan’s face darkened, and an even more dismal story followed.

“[They must have walked into a trap. The cardinals are pressuring me to reveal the source of the information.]”

“…It’s my fault. I have no excuse. You can reveal that the information came from me.”

“[…Don’t be so quick to take the blame. There’s something even worse happening.]”

More serious?

In this situation?

Logan’s brow furrowed as Ilia’s gaze in the crystal ball turned to Hayman beside him.

“[Lord Hayman, have you felt anything unusual through Licentia recently…? Ah, so you have too. I hoped not… ]”

“Your Holiness, too…?”

The Saintess and Hayman seemed to have confirmed something just by facing each other through the communication device.

Logan, unable to understand the reason, tilted his head in confusion.

“Your Majesty, it seems the gods are up to something.”

“[It seems the gods intend to directly interfere in the mortal world. It’s the worst-case scenario.]”

Very ominous words spilled from their mouths.

“…What!?”

“[The day the deputy commanders said they would enter the cave, I felt the will of the gods through the holy relic. A will to interfere in the lower world, even at a great cost.]”

“Could it be…?”

The gods are intervening just because the Holy Knight Order was annihilated?

Wasn’t that a common occurrence in the Holy Kingdom’s history?

Logan found it hard to accept, but the Saintess didn’t seem to think so.

“[It’s probably related to their communication being cut off. At the same time, I felt Amon’s influence again through Sententia. I cut off the connection to block the god’s interference, but Sententia has been constantly trying to move since then.]”

“Licentia is the same for me, Your Majesty.”

“[It seems they plan to create apostles using the holy relics.]”

Whirr!

Logan watched Hayman clench the Licentia around his neck with a bitter look.

It was a serious situation, but even if all the assumptions were true, there were some reassuring aspects.

“…It’s fortunate that Lord Hayman hid the other five holy relics.”

However, Hayman shook his head with a heavy face after hearing those words.

“The holy relic of Ageron, Aurum, disappeared into thin air before my eyes. And around the same time, I felt the barrier I had set up break.”

“Then…”

“Yes. It seems the other holy relics have already moved to find ‘sacrifices.'”

“[Reports have come in that the holy relics in the McLaine Temple and the Caron Temple have also disappeared.]”

The Saintess added evidence to Hayman’s words.

“Oh… Then it’s certain.”

“[Yes. It’s hard to think of the disappearance of the holy relics as anything other than apostasy.]”

Of course, there were still questions.

“But if that was possible, wouldn’t they have done so earlier? Why now?”

“[The gods are losing something big because of this. But we don’t know what it is.]”

It felt like being struck by lightning out of the blue.

Logan was momentarily speechless. He thought everything was going well, but this happened again.

Thinking about the time with Ilia, it was like suddenly having seven 8-class powerhouses appear.

Powerhouses who were trying to kill him.

In that case…

“Is there no way to find out which priest will become an apostle? If I could know that in advance, I could…”

Kill them.

No one present failed to understand the unspoken words.

“[Um… ]”

Ilia hesitated for a moment, then slowly opened her mouth with a dark face.

“[…The two of them are almost certain, but the other five will be difficult. As you know, the current clergy doesn’t always have a proportional relationship between status and divine power.]”

“If it’s two people… Former Pope Austin and Priest Zাইল.”

“[Yes. I have already ‘recommended’ that those two undergo separate secluded training. They expressed doubts, but they willingly entered the windowless meditation cells. I check on them several times a day.]”

Ilia nodded and added to the words at Hayman’s sudden interjection.

When Logan cast a questioning look at him, Hayman hurriedly added an explanation.

“They are the ones the apostle chose when I entered the Central Temple with Lord Viktor last time. Former Pope Austin even showed signs of soul erosion.”

“Ah, I think I heard that from Viktor.”

He remembered Viktor mentioning something about Austin harming himself.

The worry in the room was thick enough to touch. Logan nodded slowly, his face grave. He rubbed his chin, thinking hard.

“So,” he said, his voice low, “a reserve Apostle. Like a god’s emergency backup?”

Ilia nodded, her eyes dark. “Yes, Your Majesty. But even that is only a short-term fix. It won’t solve the real problem.” She looked down at the table, her voice barely a whisper. [Even if we somehow stop these two, the moment another Apostle appears somewhere else and shows themselves to the world, Harman and I are doomed.] Her thought was a cold stone in the quiet room.

Logan just hummed, a deep sound in his chest. He stared at the map on the table, but he wasn’t really seeing it.

Ilia’s words, so starkly realistic, made the situation even more bleak.

‘One mountain after another to climb…’

But another question immediately arose. He couldn’t shake his doubts about the timing.

It wasn’t about what penalties the gods faced, but whether it was even possible.

If such a thing were possible without restraint, why would they have waited until now?

“Why didn’t they do it when they failed to seize Harman?”

“…Certainly, I did sense that Aria was hesitating about something.”

[…Perhaps they didn’t think the cost was worth it back then? Maybe the situation is more dire now than it was then. From their perspective, anyway.]

“Indeed. Even when demanding my death, they didn’t escalate things to this extent. Considering that, it’s clear the gods must be incurring a significant loss with this action.”

Agreeing with the Saintess, Logan moistened his dry lips. As he continued to speak, his thoughts seemed to coalesce.

“But then, why now? What’s changed since then?”

“The war… perhaps?” Harman said slowly, his voice trailing off, as if he wasn’t sure of his own words. Logan shook his head quickly.

“Is Macline’s victory in the war really such a big deal to them?”

[…That can’t be it. The gods don’t seem to care about the outcome of such wars.]

“Ah… Indeed, Aria showed no interest in the power dynamics of the human world. So why now of all times?”

As Harman added his thoughts, Ilia’s expression changed.

[Are you suggesting…?]

“The cave where the Holy Knights were annihilated… or rather, from which news ceased. Could what happened there have provoked the gods?”

[…There have been times in history when not just the elite, but the entire Holy Knight Order was wiped out. Apostles didn’t descend every time.]

“Yes. That too could be evidence that the gods have no interest in the power structures of humans. But the situation is somewhat different now. The opponent is the Kassel Magic Tower, after all. As you know, they are trying to revive Zibrick Kassel, a legendary and feared mage from the past, whom the Nine Gods fear the most.”

At Logan’s words, Ilia and Harman’s faces stiffened.

[…You don’t think it was just a simple trap?]

“A simple trap wouldn’t be able to kill three powerful warriors with god-like powers.”

[In that case… ]

“The Kassel Magic Tower is carrying out some kind of operation there. And if the gods saw it through the Holy Knights, and if they think that’s why the gods are making unreasonable moves, would that be too far-fetched?”

[…Hmm, that seems plausible.]

“Perhaps, or rather, in all likelihood, the purpose of the Apostles descending this time isn’t just to kill me.”

At Logan’s words, the two had no choice but to nod in agreement.

“Let’s observe the situation for now. And I will go to Noviens first.”

“Your Majesty!?”

[Your Majesty, personally?]

“If the Apostle intends to fight the Kassel Magic Tower as is, that would be ideal, but if they try to move the Holy Kingdom, they will come to Noviens.”

Which meant he intended to find and kill them first if that happened.

If it were all seven or even five, it might be a different story, but one at a time, or even two, he was confident he could handle them now.

The faces of the two ‘apostates’ clouded over as they understood the hidden meaning in Logan’s words.

[Even so, this isn’t the time for the ruler of Macline to leave his post… ]

“A viceroy is enough for those returning to the homeland. Or are you worried about the sacrificing priest?”

[…I won’t deny it.]

“There is no chance of salvation for those who are consumed by the gods and become Apostles. It is virtually impossible for a situation like yours to happen again. You know that, don’t you?”

“That’s… right.”

[Understood. I will follow Your Majesty’s will.]

With the Saintess’s determined expression, as if she had steeled her heart, the communication ended.

But a few hours later.

A forced connection from an unknown line. One piece of news delivered there changed Logan’s course.

[We have the Golem Master’s body. If Your Majesty comes here in person, we will return him unharmed.]

“Huh, do you think the king of a nation would walk into an obvious trap for the sake of a mere subordinate?”

[We know you care deeply for your people. Are you going to abandon the Golem Master, who could be considered a founding contributor to your kingdom?]

It was a cheap provocation, but Logan laughed inwardly.

‘This situation is getting interesting…’

Whether they knew his thoughts or not, the mage in the communication device, his face hidden by a robe, continued calmly.

[Above all, what we desire is only one thing: for the Sacred Hero, His Majesty Logan, to come in person and stop the Holy Kingdom’s movements. The recent attack caused considerable damage as it is.]

“You want me to act as your puppet?”

Words spoken and heard, both knowing it was just a flimsy excuse.

But the conversation continued smoothly, like a well-rehearsed play.

[Yes, about a month should suffice. In addition, His Majesty, who has reached the pinnacle of Aura Mastery – his incredible control over his inner power – would hardly fear us. Of course, you are welcome to bring your subordinates if you wish.]

Don’t come if you’re scared.

Macline, which had not yet finished dealing with the aftermath of the war, could not mobilize its army.

He knew they were provoking him knowing this fact, but there was no need to respond to words with such obvious intentions.

‘I have no intention of abandoning Clayton anyway.’

Logan’s brow furrowed involuntarily at that moment.

“Huh?”

Logan’s senses, encompassing the entire territory of Luthspellheim, caught a strange but unforgettable wave.

Another enemy that made his skin crawl just thinking about it.

‘Why now…!’

He had expected it, but the timing was the worst possible.

But he couldn’t just ignore it.

“I’ll talk to you later.”

Thud.

[Ha! You think we’re bluffing. If that’s not it… Your Majesty? King Logan! You’re really leaving!? What are you doing…!!?]

The spot where Logan had disappeared.

Only the mage in the communication device was left, venting his empty frustration.