The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 139

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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 139】

No matter how many times he checked, the reality remained unchanged.

Logan slumped down powerlessly.

“It’s… it’s all wrong…”

If there was any way for him to survive, it would be either Rianel or Asil coming to rescue him.

But if one of them was captured here, didn’t that mean there was no one left to save him!

Logan banged his forehead against the wall.

His weakened body slowly slid down along the wall.

Though he had prepared for death, the brief hope he had harbored was crushed again, and the sense of loss and shock was indescribable.

“I was a fool.”

To place expectations on such a person.

As he muttered weakly, Rianel spoke.

“There’s no need to be so pessimistic.”

“Why? Do you have some kind of plan?”

Logan turned only his head to look at Rianel, hoping against hope.

However, that sprout of hope was immediately trampled.

“I meant that since an excellent human resource like myself is in the same situation, you don’t need to blame your judgment or intelligence.”

Wow.

‘How can a person be so consistently insufferable?’

Logan wanted to curse himself for even thinking of this person for a moment.

But all he could do with his bound body was turn away so he couldn’t see Rianel.

As he was mulling over exactly when his life had gone wrong.

“Is this the right place?”

A voice came from beyond the hole in the ceiling where water dripped whenever it rained.

It was even Asil’s voice.

‘What? Am I hearing things?’

Logan looked up at the ceiling where the sound came from, then weakly shook his head.

He hadn’t eaten properly, and his energy was depleted from what just happened, so he must be hearing things.

‘Right. That can’t be.’

Logan tried to close his eyes while leaning against the wall. That was the only way to endure the sense of loss.

However.

Crack!

With the sound of rotten wood being torn away.

Thud!

A tall, lanky figure jumped down. The entire building shook loudly.

“Wh-what?”

Logan hastily opened his eyes.

At first, he couldn’t see the figure clearly due to the backlighting.

Dust and debris scattered in the air, and the man standing tall among them brushed off the debris from his shoulders.

Only when he bent toward Rianel and spoke could his face be seen.

“I’m a bit late because it took time to clear the surroundings.”

A sharp yet cunning face, with lips curved up in an annoying smirk.

It was unmistakably Asil.

Was this a dream? Or a hallucination?

The face he encountered after completely giving up hope was too surreal, so Logan remained frozen in bewilderment.

However, the outside air seeping through the hole in the ceiling persistently insisted this wasn’t a hallucination.

Logan’s shoulders trembled as he stared at Rianel again.

“Didn’t you say he wasn’t coming to rescue us?”

“I was intentionally detained.”

“…”

Logan no longer felt like arguing.

The more he talked with her, the more he felt like he was the only fool.

At the same time, he breathed in the outside air deep into his lungs and grinned.

‘Still, I somehow survived.’

Because his joy was greater than this absurd situation could turn into laughter.

“By the way… how did you know I was here?”

Logan asked what he was curious about.

Now that his survival needs were met, curiosity arose.

“I didn’t know.”

Rianel hadn’t ruled out the possibility that Logan might already be dead.

She had simply judged that if he were alive and detained, this place had the highest probability.

“You maintained contact with us in the Imperial Capital, then suddenly went silent.”

Moreover, it hadn’t been many days since he disappeared.

“Therefore, I judged it highly likely that your detention location was near the Imperial Capital.”

“Not in the Imperial Capital itself?”

“The Imperial Capital isn’t suitable for long-term detention.”

The Imperial Capital had expensive land prices, so most of it was filled with buildings, and the population density was high.

In such an environment, it would be difficult to detain someone long-term without being discovered.

Moreover, with recent events, the Temple would need to be even more cautious.

They would likely choose a location they thought they could completely control as their crime scene.

“The decisive clue was tungsten.”

Tungsten was cheaper than gold, but expensive compared to other metals like copper or iron ore.

The Temple had ordered such material to be delivered to an empty lot with nothing on it.

They chose a remote location as the delivery point to hide the fact they were making counterfeit gold, but moving metal to a completely empty space was dangerous.

It could be stolen, and outsiders might witness the tungsten being moved.

“Therefore, I judged it highly likely that a Temple hideout existed near that location.”

The Temple side would watch when Martan delivered the tungsten, then secretly move it during times when no one was around.

To avoid exposing their location to outsiders, they likely observed from inside the building, and to grasp the surrounding situation, they would monitor from a height of two floors or more, looking down.

“Coincidentally, there was a building nearby whose owner had died long ago, and I speculated that the Temple likely owned that building under a false name and used it as a hideout.”

Of course, everything was just speculation.

Rianel always moved with the premise that she could be wrong. This time was no exception.

She acted like someone looking for missing family while wandering the area.

If her speculation was correct, she could catch their attention or elicit a meaningful reaction.

“The Temple side was so obsessed with why I was wandering nearby and whether I had companions after detaining me that they failed to grasp Asil and the knights’ movements in time. Therefore, we occupied the hideout and rescued the hostage, so we achieved our intended purpose.”

Then shouting could be heard from outside.

The sounds of metal clashing, falling, and screams mixed together.

But soon the noise subsided. It meant the situation was being resolved.

Shortly after, a knight’s voice rang out from outside.

“We’ve subdued everyone. What should we do?”

“Leave them as they are. We’ll collect them later.”

Asil untied Rianel’s bonds first.

As if to show they were lovers, Asil carefully rubbed the red marks left on Rianel’s wrists with concern.

Frowning at that sickeningly sweet display would come later.

Logan groaned and twisted his still-bound arms.

“…Ugh, could you untie my hands too?”

“Ah, of course.”

And so, freedom regained after so long.

Logan shook his hands and rolled his shoulders widely.

But standing in front of the door, his hand wouldn’t readily reach for the handle. The memory of guards outside persistently held back his wrist.

Wouldn’t he be captured again? Wasn’t all of this a dream? As he hesitated with such thoughts.

“Let’s move this way.”

Asil opened the door first.

At the entrance, two priests lay unconscious on the floor.

They were the guards who had pushed Rianel into this room earlier. They were also the ones who had been blocking Logan’s escape.

‘It’s over.’

Only then could Logan truly feel that he was free.

‘Completely over….’

The knights who entered afterward untied the restraints of the remaining people.

The imprisoned people rose one by one, staggering. Those who had been confined for a long time couldn’t walk on their own and headed outside with the support of others.

Logan watched as various colors—vitality, hope, and a bit of fear—filled the corpse-like faces, then turned his head toward Rianel again.

“So… what was the probability that your guess would be wrong?”

“0.01%.”

“…?”

Then wasn’t it almost certain?

Logan let out a hollow laugh in bewilderment.

He thought he had adapted sufficiently to this person, but it seemed he still had a long way to go.

“If you knew everything so well, why did you come looking for me?”

You could have figured it all out by yourself.

When Logan grumbled, Rianel replied emotionlessly.

“To bring down the Temple, we need people who can directly testify to their atrocities.”

And the more people who could testify, the better.

That would create more credibility.

Rianel turned around, and the people who received her gaze instinctively shrank back.

“Are, are you asking us to testify?”

“Not immediately.”

She planned to weaken the Temple’s power as much as possible before putting the victims on the witness stand.

It was like using the Temple’s own methods to bring down the Temple.

‘Really, what an interesting professor.’

Logan suppressed his laughter and raised a question.

“But the Temple has performed many roles in the Empire until now.”

Although the Religious Order’s headquarters was in the Imperial Capital, the Temple’s branches were spread throughout the Empire.

The branches provided relief to the poor in each region, and in places without medical centers, they served that role instead.

Even without faith, quite a few people frequented the Temple for this reason.

“Would such a place collapse easily?”

“Complete removal would be difficult.”

“See, that’s what I—”

“But replacement would be possible, wouldn’t it?”

Logan was at a loss for words.

This time it wasn’t because of absurdity, but because of a different emotion.

“The Temple has existed as the sole religion, an indispensable part of the Empire’s citizens’ daily lives.”

However.

“There’s no reason why the Empire must have only one religion in the future, is there?”

If you can’t eliminate it completely, you can create other options.

This was a direction Logan had never considered.

At the same time, it was an idea that could open new paths for the entire Empire.

Logan’s shoulders trembled, and his nostrils flared as he couldn’t suppress his excitement.

Thinking that a force he believed could never be brought down could fall much more easily than expected made him swallow dryly and sweat formed in his clenched fists.

“Could… could I hear a detailed explanation?”

Logan straightened his posture.

This was a special lecture that couldn’t be heard easily anywhere else.

* * *

“Are you alright?”

During morning mass time.

When Cardinal Janol, whose pale eyes still hadn’t lost their bloodshot appearance, passed through the corridor, a fellow cardinal examined his complexion.

Janol pressed his fatigue-worn brow and answered roughly.

“I’m fine. I just lost some sleep.”

To avoid telling anyone about last night’s events, he had no choice but to make such excuses.

He pressed his stiff shoulders and headed toward the cathedral.

“Have you arrived, Cardinal?”

These days, with even the Pope staying secluded, Janol had become the Religious Order’s second-in-command, organizing accumulated work and making various necessary decisions.

Recently, he was regarded as the most upright and diligent person in this Religious Order, receiving the trust of many supporters.

When such a Janol appeared, the believers and priests bowed their waists.

Janol waved away their greetings and climbed onto the altar to look down below.

The number of believers had noticeably decreased, but they hadn’t completely disappeared.

Everything was no different from yesterday—familiar faces and the colorful light pouring through the stained glass windows.

That made last night’s events feel even more surreal.

Yesterday.

Janol had finished all his daily duties and returned to his room.

It was supposed to be a space where he could set aside his position as cardinal and exist as the natural person Janol, even if just for a moment.

But there was already another guest in the room.

[What is the meaning of this?]

Sensing a presence, Janol instinctively tried to open the door and leave the room, but a sword that approached faster than that touched his carotid artery.

It was Logan, who had been the Pope’s chess piece but was disposed of.

He didn’t know how Logan had survived and made it here, but one thing was certain—he was someone with nothing left to lose.

Such a person wouldn’t submit to the position of cardinal.

Janol brought up their past.

[Is this the price for rescuing you before the Pope when you were in trouble?]

Previously, when Logan was caught infiltrating the inner chambers, he had been cornered and mentioned Janol’s name. Janol had quietly covered up that incident.

Afterward, Janol couldn’t prevent Logan from being disposed of, but he believed he had done what he could.

But such an atrocity.

[No. I came to repay you.]

Logan straightened his shoulders and spoke.

His attitude was so brazenly confident that it sounded even more convincing.

[You’ve been frustrated because you can’t change the current situation, haven’t you, Cardinal?]

Janol was speechless. Logan’s words were accurate.

[But what can I do?]

The Temple’s upper management doesn’t change.

No, they never even intended to change in the first place.

[Yes. That’s right.]

Logan nodded.

[What cannot be changed, you can leave as it is.]

If you dislike the Temple, priests can leave, can’t they?

Logan added with a smile.

And now, back to the present.

“Are you really alright?”

When Janol stood there blankly, the fellow cardinal asked again.

“If you’re having a hard time, I’ll take charge of the morning mass.”

“No. No, I’m fine.”

No matter what, he couldn’t postpone his duties.

“I’m just feeling a little dizzy.”

He gripped the podium and took a deep breath.

After several inhales and exhales, his vision cleared and the donation box came into view.

Until just a few months ago, the Temple had propagated that donations would save the donor’s soul from hell. The donation box was filled with offerings.

Though he was aware of deceiving the people and felt guilt, he had remained silent because the Religious Order and he himself lived off that money.

‘But if I don’t speak now, nothing will change.’

No opportunity would come to shake off this guilt either.

He gripped the podium with his clenched fist.

“Before beginning the mass, I have something to say.”

Once his resolve was set, the words flowed without hesitation.

“As a Cardinal and as a clergyman, I have devoted myself to the Religious Order for many years. However, I cannot help but lament the Temple’s recent conduct.”

“…?”

“The doctrine has been arbitrarily interpreted by the Religious Order, and donations that should have been offered to God have been misappropriated for private use. The Priests even sold indulgences to extract more donations.”

The believers’ eyes widened one by one, and murmurs spread.

A Fellow Cardinal who sensed something amiss tried to intervene, but Janol did not stop.

Though the first sentence was difficult to begin, as he continued speaking his voice grew firmer, and with strength in his abdomen, his voice spread throughout the entire cathedral.

“God said that salvation exists only for those who repent, do penance, and feel remorse.”

He lifted up the scripture for all to see.

The scripture worn by countless hands over the years.

The time from when he first entered the Temple and received a new scripture until now was contained within it.

At some point, his colleagues had distanced themselves from the scripture.

But because Janol had tried many times to follow God’s word and pursue truth, his scripture alone was worn to tatters.

Within it, he had found the path he must take.

“However, the Pope has no authority to forgive sins.”

For only God can forgive sins, as recorded in the scripture.

“Only faith and God’s mercy can save you.”

He grabbed the documents that had been placed on the donation box.

They were indulgences.

Janol lifted them up and threw them down.

“This means no one will be saved by buying these scraps of paper.”

One believer struck by the papers screamed, and another Cardinal shouted.

“Are you denying God right now?”

“No.”

Janol raised his head.

“I have not denied God, but rather denied the merchants who tried to monopolize and sell God.”

At the word merchants, several faces turned red.

Open hostility was exchanged.

“You’re, you’re insane-,”

“You may excommunicate me if you wish.”

He spoke calmly.

From the beginning, this was not something he had started without such resolve.

Janol slowly set down the scripture.

“However, you cannot deny the scripture that contains the doctrine.”

For that was truly God’s word and the truth he had believed in all his life.

At that very moment when the Temple was being swept up in turmoil.

“There’s a way to weaken the Temple and strengthen the Imperial Family’s power?”

The young Princess’s eyes widened upon hearing Rianel’s words.

Rianel remained calm even at this moment.

“There is a simple method.”

To transfer the existing Temple’s income and support to the Empire’s Imperial Family.

“We establish a State Church.”

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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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