The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 138

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Chapter 138】

Logan was continuing to spy on the interior of the temple.

He had plenty of opportunities to escape.

However, not only did he remain in the temple.

-I targeted the moment when the Pope entered the relic storage room and stole this. I’m sending it as it seems to contain necessary information.

In the end, he stole and delivered the personal records that the Pope wrote daily.

‘Is he really insane?’

Asil felt more bewildered than grateful, rubbing his brow and shaking his head.

As expected of someone’s disciple, he was doing his spy work ‘half-heartedly.’

Still, there were things they learned thanks to those records.

“The Pope appears to be a regressor.”

Asil said while carefully turning through a notebook so old it was difficult to gauge when it had been written.

“Yes. That possibility is high.”

The notebook contained not only the original story’s content, but also all records of repeated cycles.

Each cycle, the Pope tried various attempts to change the original story, failed in all sorts of ways, and in the process discovered countless facts related to this world.

Pope Maron had been Pope since the time when the former Duchess was a Saint candidate. He was an elderly man who had been with the religious order for such a long time.

It seemed he had been taking notes of his life to prevent his memories from getting mixed up in the repeating time.

Thanks to this, the two could easily grasp the situation.

“I believe there’s a high possibility that the problematic relic’s function is ‘regression.'”

Or there was a possibility that another relic with such a function existed.

Then another question arose.

“Then why isn’t the temple executing regression this time?”

Asil rested his chin on his hand.

The temple’s recent situation had not been good.

The temple, having lost people’s trust, was slowly collapsing.

Naturally, the Pope would want to return to before all these events occurred.

‘The fact that they’re not using the relic’s function means.’

“I think there might be some restriction on manifesting the function.”

Or perhaps it activated only when specific conditions were met.

Just look at the Saint.

Considering her personality of trying to avoid even slight crises, if regression were simple, she would have already turned back time.

The fact that she hadn’t meant there were other reasons.

‘Of course, it’s possible the Saint isn’t aware of that relic’s existence.’

In any case, it was clear that regression wasn’t something that happened easily, anytime.

Even so, they couldn’t be at ease because.

“As long as that relic exists, this world could restart at any time.”

Asil became displeased.

It meant all the fruits we had built up until now would become invalid, and Ensilen would return to the Emperor’s side again.

He could somehow tolerate the fact that this world was a novel, but he couldn’t accept a development where Ensilen returned to the Emperor’s embrace.

Asil quietly clenched his fist.

Fortunately, there wasn’t no way to solve the problem.

“Since the relic’s power weakens as trust in the religious order declines, I plan to use this in reverse.”

The notebook also contained information about the relic.

Now that they knew they didn’t need to worry about the temple doing crazy things with the relic.

Rianel suggested the simplest way to weaken support for the temple.

“We need to secure Logan’s person.”

Logan was a living stain on the temple.

The moment he came out into the world and exposed the secrets inside the temple, the temple’s collapse and division would accelerate.

“Is that your only purpose for rescuing Logan?”

Asil looked at Rianel with a subtle gaze.

“Could you clarify the intent of your question?”

“I just thought it would be better if you honestly said you’re worried about that guy.”

Of course, you spoke indirectly because you know my petty inner thoughts.

“I didn’t mean to present an opposing opinion to Master. I just wanted to say that we have the kind of relationship where we can share that level of honesty.”

As long as Rianel’s care for that guy remained within the bounds of a teacher caring for a student, Asil could act leisurely.

However, there was one problem.

“But since we don’t know where he’s being held… that’s the problem.”

Asil looked at the Empire map hanging on the wall.

There were dozens of temple-owned properties marked on the map alone.

If they included land the temple owned under borrowed names, the search range would increase exponentially.

Searching all those places would not only be inefficient, but the more times they got the answer wrong, the greater the possibility that the temple side would notice their intentions.

The risk of the temple moving Logan to another location or killing him off early would increase accordingly.

However, Rianel didn’t ponder for long.

“But the temple side knows the answer, don’t they?”

“Of course they would.”

Since they’re the ones who imprisoned Logan.

But why are you stating something so obvious?

Asil was mulling over his master’s words when he reached one possibility.

‘Don’t tell me.’

Just as Asil was about to open his mouth.

“Fortunately, I possess a secret that can make the temple side uncomfortable, so I plan to use it.”

Rianel’s words fell, so calm that they made the listener tense instead.

* * *

“I knew this would happen.”

Logan muttered lowly and clicked his tongue.

Logan was imprisoned in a secret residence owned by the temple with his limbs bound, and beside Logan sat others tied up in similar positions in a row.

Their sniffling sounds and frightened breathing made the air in this place even heavier.

They were all people who would be used in the temple’s human experiments.

Logan looked around and tried twisting his bound arms. However, he couldn’t endure the pain of the rope cutting into his flesh and released his strength.

He was tired of attempting escape now. Logan leaned his body against the cold wall and let out a long breath.

While infiltrating the temple, he had sensed such an end, but now that it had really come to this, he felt so empty that he couldn’t even laugh. He hung his head low.

Logan’s family was poor, but they tried to protect their son’s dreams somehow.

His parents and older brother responded to the temple’s job posting to pay for his tuition.

The faces that smiled brightly, telling him not to worry about money.

That was the last image Logan remembered of his family.

When Logan saw them again, they were no longer living people.

Specimen 17, 18, 27.

Those were the names the temple had given to their corpses.

‘And soon I’ll be called by a number too.’

Since Logan knew what went on in the temple, he could easily guess his future.

‘I did it knowing everything anyway.’

So regretting it now would be meaningless.

Logan closed his eyes as if shaking off lingering attachments.

“….”

The moment he should face the panorama of his life.

For some reason, not his family’s face, but the face of the professor who had worried about and cared for him like a parent came to mind.

‘If I had known it would turn out like this, maybe I should have focused on studies like Asil instead of pursuing revenge.’

Logan thought for a moment, then soon let out a bitter laugh and shook his head.

‘No. The result would have been the same anyway.’

He knew his own weakness well.

His reason for infiltrating the Temple wasn’t solely driven by a desire for revenge.

Every time he received praise from professors and was called an outstanding Academy student, he couldn’t bear the feeling that he was continuing his studies with the price of his family’s lives.

If he graduated from the Academy and achieved success, it seemed he would have to carry that guilt for the rest of his life.

Logan didn’t have the confidence for that, so he left the Academy.

If he had made the professor his second pillar of support, he wouldn’t have been able to maintain his sanity the moment he lost her.

‘Like Asil… No, I would have gone even more insane than that bastard and become obsessed with bringing down the Temple.’

Either way, he thought the conclusion would have been the same, and a laugh escaped him.

‘…What a filthy life.’

Logan was closing his eyes when he heard footsteps and hunched his shoulders.

Someone was coming this way.

Two sets of footsteps.

Mixed between them was the sound of something being dragged.

‘Those bastards must have caught something from somewhere again.’

The iron door opened, and they threw something into the room before leaving.

Logan didn’t want to check, so he curled up with his eyes closed.

‘It’s obviously another victim.’

People dragged to this place would initially wail and make a fuss begging to be saved, then soon curse everything in the world before falling quiet.

There was a reason the Temple didn’t immediately use them as test subjects but kept them imprisoned.

It was to drain their strength.

Though he didn’t want to become like those Temple bastards, Logan had also become powerless while trapped here, so he would wait until they exhausted themselves and became quiet.

There was nothing he could do for them anyway.

Logan plugged his ears waiting for the noise to come, and several minutes passed.

“…?”

However, this time it was quiet without any noise.

‘Why is it so quiet?’

Logan cautiously opened his eyes.

Immediately, he saw someone with familiar features.

Logan thought it couldn’t be, but thinking there couldn’t be two people who looked like this in the world, he uttered the name that came to mind.

“…Professor?”

Even as he said it himself, he couldn’t believe it, so his voice trembled.

There was no way that person could be in a place like this—

“You were here.”

However, when he heard that bleak voice that no illusion could ever imitate, Logan’s face instantly brightened.

He straightened his back with delight.

“You came to rescue me!”

“No. I was captured too.”

What?!

Logan’s eyes widened as he saw Rianel bound like himself.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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