The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 101

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 101
* * *
The plaza, which had been peacefully bustling moments before, descended into chaos in an instant.
“Undead!”
“Kyaaahhh!”
Three Undead creatures, their faces riddled with holes and their knee joints twisted at grotesque angles, shuffled across the plaza with aimless, lurching steps.
Looking closer, it became apparent they were moving toward a single location.
There stood an elderly noblewoman and her personal handmaid.
“Madam. Your Grace……”
“Shall I brew some tea for you……?”
“Welcome back……”
Even as the Undead drew closer, the two women remained perfectly still.
“No, this can’t be happening!”
“Run! Get away, quickly!”
Those who had fled moments before shouted at them to escape, but the pair stood rooted to the spot.
The crowd assumed fear had frozen them in place.
“Damn it……!”
A young man rushed forward to aid them.
In that instant.
A sharp, heavy sound split the air and came crashing down upon the Undead.
A massive battle axe, swinging with Holy Power, cleaved the Undead in two, leaving a long scar across the plaza’s stone.
The Undead, purified by the blow, scattered into pale dust on the wind.
The Heretic Inquisitor looked upon the sight and whispered a brief prayer.
After securing the battle axe to his back, he approached the noblewoman who appeared to be the Undead’s target.
“My name is Olive, a Heretic Inquisitor.”
“An Inquisitor……”
“The clothing worn by those Undead troubles me. Typically, only retainers of noble houses wear such garments.”
Olive the Heretic Inquisitor held up the clothes he had collected from the creatures.
“Do you happen to recognize them?”
“They were……”
The noblewoman, the Duchess of Stria, spoke with a hardened expression.
“Servants from the Deste Estate.”
“Servants, you say?”
“I am presently recovering at the Deste Estate. That is why I recognize them so clearly.”
“Do you recall their names?”
The Duchess of Stria turned to look beside her. Her personal handmaid, Kara, trembled but steadied her voice to speak.
“Their names were Medi, Orcs, and Rita.”
“What, what did you say?”
It was then.
Someone appeared, crying out as though in anguish.
“Orcs is my cousin! He was a servant at the Deste Estate!”
Olive examined the male servant’s garment that had been split in half. Inside the fabric, the name Orcs was embroidered.
“Ah, ahhh……!”
Upon confirming this, Orcs’s cousin clutched his head in both hands and wailed.
“A Deste servant turned Undead?”
“What, what is happening……!”
“Wait! My friend works there too……”
“My daughter! My daughter works at the Deste Estate too……!”
Dread spread through the crowd with terrifying speed.
People frantically searched their memories for any connection to the Deste servants, while those who remembered family or friends employed there paled with fear.
Thud!
Olive drew his battle axe once more and struck the ground forcefully with the base of its long handle.
“Calm yourselves.”
His composed voice rang out across the now-silent plaza.
“The Central Temple will move directly to assess the situation.”
“B-but surely not right now……!”
“Yes. We move now.”
Olive said.
“For today, His Majesty the Holy King has arrived in the Deste Territory.”
* * *
The moment Rashid saw the visitor enter the Deste Estate, he understood: the plan had failed.
Ah, so it’s all come undone.
“This cannot be…….”
The visitor was already weeping before he’d crossed the threshold.
A pristine white Priest’s Robe that fell to his ankles, and across his shoulders a short black cloak.
Silver hair swept back with elegant precision, and a face radiant with kindness.
On his left ring finger, a plain Black Onyx Ring.
“How could such a terrible tragedy befall this land, blessed by the descent of an Angel…….”
The Holy King Ecclesia Cathol.
He moved through the estate, murmuring his lament as he observed the servants going about their work.
“Your Majesty, what brings you to this place?”
Rashid asked, suppressing his alarm beneath a mask of deference.
Even as his perfect plan crumbled around him, his mind raced with a single desperate purpose: to ensure that the fallout did not reach him or the Crown Prince.
The Holy King Ecclesia spoke, his voice trembling with tears.
“I have come to authenticate a sacred relic.”
“A sacred relic…….”
At those words, Rashid recalled the Angel said to have descended here last spring.
“I was on my way to authenticate the feather left behind by the Angel, when I sensed a most sinister aura—and so I redirected my steps to this place with all haste.”
…….
Rashid found no inconsistency in the Holy King’s account.
Which made it all the more suspicious.
‘Why now, of all times?’
Now, when they were poised to strike down the Duchess of Stria.
Now, when they were about to place the Magic Engineering Academy under the Emperor’s direct control.
Now, when they were maneuvering to use the High Priest Saikuf.
Now, when the Crown Prince was here.
The Holy King had remained silent even when Clavis was extinguished—so why was he moving now?
And with such irreproachable justification, no less.
“Undead, you say?”
Rashid feigned bewilderment, as though he hadn’t the faintest notion of what the Holy King meant.
“That’s absurd. There are no Undead in this place…….”
Whish!
A sharp sound whistled past Rashid’s right ear.
Behind him, something crashed to the ground.
And then, that something crumbled into dust that scattered into the air with a sound unmistakably clear.
The Holy King, who had hurled an iron needle, straightened his disheveled sleeve as he spoke.
“I have just eliminated one Undead.”
…….
“Do you require proof?”
…….
Rashid clenched his teeth in silence.
‘He knows everything.’
The Holy King knows it all.
A chill of dread scraped across his skin.
The Holy Knights standing behind the Holy King were troubling enough, but what truly unnerved Rashid was the Holy King himself—a man who seemed to possess not a single flaw, not the slightest opening.
The Holy King continued.
“I received a report just now of three Undead appearing in the Plaza…….”
Rashid’s eyebrow twitched.
‘Three Undead.’
Yes—the same number the Crown Prince had been toying with as hired servants.
‘But I incinerated those myself.’
He had placed them in the crematorium behind the Deste Estate and burned them until nothing remained but bone ash.
‘Then how did they wander the streets?’
But the Holy King gave him no time to untangle the riddle.
“From this moment forward, all authority over the Deste Estate is revoked—in the name of myself, the Holy King Ecclesia Cathol.”
…….
“Not a single ant shall leave this place. Not until every investigation is complete.”
Outside the window, a transparent barrier began to form.
The Deste Estate was sealed.
* * *
‘How interesting.’
From a distance, I watched the Deste Estate trapped inside a massive rectangular barrier as though it were someone else’s concern.
Soon, Holy Knights encircled the mansion and took up defensive positions.
‘I never imagined the Holy King would visit in person.’
Brushing aside the faint exhaustion I felt, I headed to the Deste Temple alongside Aig.
Saker, who had been waiting for me outside, showed me to the reception room.
The Duchess of Stria, who had been sitting with an anxious expression, relaxed the moment she saw me.
“My dear!”
“Duchess.”
I offered her my thanks.
“Thank you for helping us. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“What would there be to hurt?”
She drew me into a light embrace and gestured toward the opposite side of the room.
“It’s thanks to the Heretic Inquisitor that we came through unharmed.”
“Olive, thank you for your help.”
“As a servant of God, I merely did what was natural.”
Olive’s response was clipped and formal.
…
I tilted my head in confusion.
“Are you upset?”
“Something like that.”
“Ah, so summoning the Holy King was too much of a burden after all…”
“That is not the reason.”
Olive cut me off sharply, closing his eyes and releasing a heavy sigh.
“It is a matter of personal displeasure. While it is not entirely unrelated to you, the root cause lies elsewhere, so please do not worry.”
“That only makes me more concerned…”
“And as for His Majesty…”
…
I waited for what would come next, but Olive never finished his thought.
‘What’s gotten into him? Going through a difficult age?’
At sixteen, it was certainly the time for it.
I took a seat beside the Duchess of Stria.
“Duchess, how is Kara?”
“She went to the train station to buy tickets. With your escort, naturally. We were planning to leave tomorrow originally, but given these circumstances, it seems we’ll need to delay a bit.”
“I see.”
If she went with Ian, there’s nothing to worry about.
Then I looked over at Saker and Cherdo.
The two, meeting my eyes in turn, spoke.
“When the Holy King’s secretary visited, we reported that Chief Priest Saikuf stole Angel’s Feather and fled.”
“We also informed you that the Miracle of the Well, which nurtured the Dulchebia, disappeared with it. We showed you the dried Dulchebia we had collected as proof.”
I nodded and exhaled slowly.
‘It’s finally over…’
The past few days of struggle for this moment rushed past me.
‘First, I removed the Undead that the knight commander was trying to dispose of.’
It wasn’t a difficult task.
The crematorium where Knight Commander Rashid had placed the corpses was actually the crematorium of Izelium Village’s community hall, which I had switched through my abilities.
Verity, who was in the village, removed the Undead and replaced them with three fake corpses made of pork and bone.
And before releasing the three Undead.
“Stationing troops at Deste? If there is just cause, it can be arranged immediately.”
“Of course there’s cause! The Deste Temple has Angel’s Feather, and there’s the Miracle of the Well that cultivates rare medicinal herbs…”
“…The Central Temple has received no report of such things.”
“Don’t look at the priests like that! There were terrible circumstances for keeping these secret!”
I gave Olive the justification to move the temple’s forces.
“Duchess, would you be willing to visit the antique shop regularly?”
“Will that be enough? And is it alright if I tell Kara…?”
“It’s fine if you tell Kara. If you trust her, then I trust her too. And please remember these names.”
“These names are…”
“The names by which the Undead who attacked you were called in life.”
“…Names I must remember for all my days.”
From the Duchess, I requested something different: that she fall into the trap.
And as a precaution, he asked the headmaster of the Magic Engineering Academy to engineer a Magical Blackout in the surrounding area.
Just as before, through the window—by slipping in a letter.

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