Chapter 169

“The collective suicide of the elves.”

When this fact was reported to the Imperial Palace, it wasn’t the Princess or Roka who came upon hearing the rumors. No, it wasn’t even someone from the Empire.

Instead, Archbishop Halonen, whom I had seen earlier, clicked his tongue and brought people with him. He looked much older and more exhausted than before.

People believe that the dead return to the earth. So, to console the deceased, they usually call upon those who serve the Goddess of the Earth.

It’s not strictly necessary, though. If the family is devout followers of another god, they might call that god’s priest instead. Some believe the dead ascend to the heavens rather than returning to the earth.

There are also those who call upon the Aldehir Church to pray for the essence of the deceased rather than the buried body, but they are not the majority.

“How did this happen? Tsk.”

“I didn’t expect the Archbishop to come personally for something like this.”

“There’s no reason not to come, especially now…”

He seemed about to say something but gave up.

Then, he silently recited a prayer. It wasn’t originally the Archbishop’s duty to do this, but for some reason, he quietly led the memorial service.

I knelt beside him and offered a devout prayer. That solemn atmosphere was shattered in a matter of minutes, as if by a miracle. A familiar voice echoed loudly through the hall.

“Oh my, what in the world is this? There’s no smell of blood, but the place is filled with corpses.”

Lady Kisea, who had supposedly left to receive her title, appeared with a crowd of people in tow. The priests who were preparing the bodies and reciting prayers glared at her, but Lady Kisea paid no attention.

Who are these people? They all looked like government officials, and without hesitation, they barged into the hall.

“Excuse me, who are you all?”

Archbishop Halonen also asked in bewilderment. I approached Lady Kisea to ask for an explanation.

“Oh, you’re here too? Just out of curiosity, the god you serve isn’t some disaster god, is it? It seems like chaos follows wherever you go.”

To be precise, I only go where chaos is likely to occur. If I only seek out places where problems are bound to happen, it’s no wonder things get hectic.

Hearing this from someone who actually came to cause trouble made me feel a bit awkward. Anyway, Lady Kisea had her reasons for coming here.

“The old men at the Noble Council said that while they’ll grant me the title by His Majesty’s order, it’ll be hard to gain recognition in noble society. They said there’s hardly any precedent for beastmen becoming nobles, so I need more achievements.”

“The old man who’s the head of the council said, ‘Since you’re a wolf and have a good nose, why don’t you take some narcotics enforcement officers and go search for drugs? If you do that, we’ll consider it as fulfilling your duty as a noble for the safety and public good of society.'”

I’ve heard of people training dogs for drug enforcement, but is this similar? It seems like they just dumped a pile of tedious work no one wanted onto Lady Kisea…

Anyway, as long as she’s satisfied, that’s what matters. Lady Kisea, with her nose held high, instructed us to now call her Lady Kisea, the Baroness, before storming into the hall.

Even though being a noble is more of an honorary title with little real power, many still aspire to it. Even Yurinel once desired it and eventually achieved it.

But shouldn’t nobles usually be called by their family name rather than their given name? Except for special cases like Count Marcus, it’s standard to refer to them by their family name.

Even Yurinel was called Countess Lacphonsia when her title was mentioned. Normally, when receiving a title, the Noble Council handles such formalities, but did they skip it because she’s a beastman?

“Drugs. Tsk. So they came to enforce drug laws.”

“Were elves famous for drugs?”

“Those in the know knew. The so-called good water, soil, and air of Elvenheim were used to grow drugs like cannabis and opium. Crops that usually deplete the land and can’t be grown continuously in one place could be cultivated in Elvenheim without fallow periods.”

Ah…

“Originally, such drugs weren’t allowed to circulate freely on the continent. Saint, I don’t know how you view our Three God Faith, but if we were truly a group that only brought harm to the world, we would have been abandoned by the world long ago. I can’t speak for the other two churches, but I can confidently say that our Nemi Church has played a significant role.”

“Farmers call upon our priests every year to pray for the fertility of their fields. It truly works. The Goddess replenishes the land’s vitality that was depleted over the past year.”

“If we see drug crops in the fields during such work, we uproot and burn them all. We never tolerate such things. Fields exist to grow what people can eat.”

Without a word, I simply looked at him. Whether he knew or not, he changed the subject.

“But Elvenheim, protected by the Barrier of the World Tree, is the elves’ domain. We had no way to enter and destroy their drug fields. The Empire was the same. We couldn’t destroy the source.”

“No matter how much we suppress, as long as there’s supply, the demand for such things will never decrease. Eventually, we had to half-condone their business.”

“No matter what we say, they’ll make and sell drugs. If drug trafficking goes underground, beyond the control of the Empire and the temples, there’s nothing we can do. If there’s profit to be made, merchants will risk anything. Even knowing that getting caught could mean execution, many sought connections with Elvenheim to gain drug trafficking rights.”

So the policy changed to taxing and tacitly allowing drug trafficking, Archbishop Halonen explained. Of course, the elves paid hefty taxes annually, greatly benefiting the Empire’s finances.

But just as many people in the Empire became addicted to drugs, spending large sums and ruining their health. From the Empire’s perspective, it’s not a favorable trade.

“So what could we do? If they went completely underground, we wouldn’t even be able to collect taxes. Eventually, we built an embassy and half-officially recognized their business. We even granted them immunity. The Empire is just one example. There’s more than one country on the continent. To them, it all looked like markets to sell drugs.”

Archbishop Halonen continued. Long ago, it was undoubtedly humans who brought drugs to the elves, who didn’t know about such things.

The reason is unknown. It might have been for money, or perhaps the elves themselves were the target, but humans introduced drugs to the elves.

When the elves, out of curiosity, tried the drugs and quickly became addicted to the pleasure, those who planned the conspiracy must have laughed.

There were surely elves who would sell themselves to humans to obtain drugs, long ago.

But the shift in thinking was swift. The elves decided not to pay humans exorbitant prices for drugs but to sell them instead. Once they obtained the seeds, the rest was straightforward.

Now, the elves sell drugs across the continent and use the money to buy everything else and send it to Elvenheim. Once wanderers of the forest, they now wear gold necklaces and jade bracelets, drinking expensive wine from silver cups. Those who first offered them drugs were pushed out of the market by the elves.

Everyone was hurt, Archbishop Halonen said.

“There’s a draft coming from behind that frame! There must be a secret passage. Search it quickly!”

“This ground, this mound feels strange. Bring shovels and dig. If you find anything unusual, bring it to me!”

The noise inside the hall didn’t stop. Occasionally, Lady Kisea’s voice rang out loudly, showing how deeply she was immersed in the task.

-It’s always like that at first. That’s why initial enthusiasm is something you can never recover. I, too, once had that passion. I gave my all for that one goal.

Archbishop Halonen opened his mouth. But the voice that came out wasn’t his.

It was the voice of a tired and weary woman. I didn’t need to ask to know whose voice it was.

-Once, I was a starving child. My parents would go hungry but still feed me a bowl of porridge. Thanks to that, I survived and overcame the famine. And so, I was left alone in the world.

The Goddess of the Earth, Nemi.

She, too, must have once been just a human.

No one is strong from the beginning. Even the Demon King wasn’t like that from the start.

The Goddess was once a girl you could see anywhere. Just a girl with grand ambitions.

-So I wished for a day when the world would have enough grain for everyone to enjoy. To ensure the land always promised abundance, I did a lot of research.

The girl eventually achieved her dream.

But is she happy?

-I shared the methods I discovered with the farmers. They worshiped me as the incarnation of the earth. An unexpected path to godhood opened, and my followers grew. Eventually, I became a god. But I didn’t seek the divine throne from the start.

-That position was merely a means to an end for me. At least, that’s how it was at first. I just wanted to make more land fertile. But how did it come to this?

She looked straight at me. I didn’t avoid her gaze.

“Your means became your end, and you pursued greater divinity.”

-At some point, I lost that initial purpose. Intoxicated by faith and divine power, I sought more belief and strength. The grand ambition I once had was long gone.

Slowly, Archbishop Halonen stood up. I knew well that it wasn’t the Archbishop controlling that body now. I could see her in my eyes.

-In the end, I was never meant to be a vessel for a god. To wield godlike power, one needs godlike wisdom, but I became addicted to more power before gaining that wisdom.

Tiredly, she shuffled forward, then suddenly turned her head to look at me.

-So perhaps this outcome is inevitable. I lost the very reason I could gain such great faith.

“The people of the world still worship the three main gods.”

She shook her head and spoke seriously.

“The gods give everyone a chance. From what I see, you still have a chance. Having received so much faith, it’s now time to fulfill your duty.”

-…If the gods truly give everyone a chance, may I ask one favor?

A serious reply followed.

-Does my daughter still have a chance?

“Your daughter, do you mean…?”

Though it wasn’t that long ago,

It feels like a distant memory now.

A name I had almost forgotten came to mind.

-Araidel. The reason I chose that child as a saint was that she resembled my past self. Foolish, naive, delusional, optimistic… Yes, looking back, I saw my younger self in her. That’s why I was drawn to her.

“Has something happened to her?”

If it’s Araidel, the saint of the Nemi Church, she should be with Yurinel’s party.

I wondered if something had gone wrong. The Demon World is far from this capital, from Citadel where chaos recently erupted, and from Elvenheim where the Death God rose.

-Have you ever heard of the Polymorph Curse?

But as they say, there’s no safe place under the sky. It seems there really is a problem.