158 Dekan is quite skilled at betraying acquaintances.
Inside the church.
“Morion, you’re really weak.”
Dekan leaned on the pew, turning his head to look mockingly at Morion sitting far away.
“Hmph, did the two of you stick together like this during class at school?”
Morion coldly laughed and said.
“Hmm, so what?”
“Wouldn’t your teacher find this behavior unsettling?”
“How could they? The two of us are the top students of Knight Academy; teachers can’t get enough of us.”
Hearing Dekan’s words, Teacher Cat, who was nearby, wanted to say something but thought about it and swallowed the words back.
Cornelia was sitting next to Dekan as if they were in class at school, with no sense of distance between them.
And Morion was sitting far away at the other end of the church.
If it were one-on-one with Dekan or Cornelia, Morion wouldn’t act this way.
But as long as these two were together, Morion would keep his distance.
“Can you have her put away that book in her hands?”
Morion stared at the book in Cornelia’s hands and felt a chill run down his spine.
At this moment, Cornelia had abandoned her knight’s armor and dressed as a nun.
To better assist Dekan’s actions in the small town, the urban knight’s outfit wasn’t as effective as Holy Ritual Church attire.
In response, she also swapped her weapon from the “Horror War Hammer” (double pain) to a more elegant “Blood Detective Notebook” (Murder Book) (physical).
“You really should be more like your sister; she’s braver than you, Morion. That’s quite embarrassing.”
“Are you close with Flora?”
Morion raised an eyebrow, showing concern for Flora by his reaction.
“Of course, she’s our companion.”
“Flora, good friend.”
Cornelia seriously added a sentence nearby.
Though her expression was unchanged, when mentioning Flora, Cornelia’s tone noticeably brightened.
She and Flora had a good relationship; Flora would always find Cornelia to play whenever she came to school.
“Ah.”
Morion seemed to sigh in relief but also as if he were sighing with a heavy heart.
He stood up and, with an expression of resignation, walked over to Dekan and Cornelia, sitting next to Dekan.
“How’s Flora doing?”
“Every day, she’s happy doing what she likes. It was a bit tough for her with the final exams the other day. To get this truant king to take all her exams, I was exhausted.”
Flora originally wanted to skip all her finals entirely and start her joyful vacation early.
But when Dekan told her, “An idol can’t fail a class,”
Flora, despite herself, joined Dekan and Cornelia’s study group.
“Hehe, I didn’t expect you, this ungrateful guy, to actually care about your little sister.”
Dekan cunningly smiled.
“Since leaving the Norton Kingdom, the person I worry about the most is her.”
Morion, as if acknowledging his weakness, had a slight bitter smile on his face.
“Then you can rest assured. I promise you that the safest person in the entire Norton Kingdom right now is definitely her.”
Flora lives with two other girls; she might as well be safer than the king.
“What do you mean?”
Morion was a bit concerned that Dekan might be speaking sarcastically.
Dekan: “Hmm, beg me, and I’ll tell you.”
Morion: “Tch, I’ll just trust you.”
Both of them snickered and shook their heads.
Each using the “spiritual victory method” without backing down.
“Since you’ve finally opened up to us a little, let’s talk about serious matters.”
Upon confirming that this temporary team had established a little bit of basic trust.
Dekan became slightly more serious:
“Yesterday, I did a circle of investigations around the town and could confirm that on the night when the previous grand clergyman disappeared, a battle did occur.”
Dekan, after creating the “Big Wooden Person,” diligently resumed his investigation work the next day.
First, he had ordered “Captain De’Erkan” to conduct a thorough search of the town and didn’t find anyone with overt hatred toward him.
So, it was unlikely that there were reborn followers in the town.
If they existed, they probably didn’t have much hostility towards Dekan.
Additionally, Dekan went door-to-door to look for clues related to the disappearance of the clergyman and the damage to the bridge.
He ultimately confirmed that some townsfolk were certain they heard disturbances that night.
Moreover, Dekan learned about some folklore tales.
For instance, in ancient times, there was a great battle near the town between the Holy Ritual Church and the bloodline race.
Also, the church they were currently in was named Roderick Church.
“Do you think anyone is withholding information?”
“Can’t tell, unless we interrogate them.”
Dekan shook his head and said.
“Mew mew mew! Dekan, you really shouldn’t think about locking all the townspeople up for questioning mew! Without Chloix here, they would die from being interrogated by you!”
Teacher Cat sprung into action.
Dekan rubbed the Teacher Cat’s head, which barely held anything, and gave a helpless laugh:
“Relax, I’m certain we can’t harm the townspeople and must protect them.”
“What do you mean?”
Morion’s first reaction was also to suspect that Dekan wanted to extract information through torture, but he didn’t expect to hear such reasonable words.
Dekan stood up and walked towards the pulpit at the end of the church on his own.
Morion, looking at Dekan’s ambiguous behavior, didn’t know what exactly he had discovered.
“Even though we have hardly any clues, I’m beginning to guess the general scenario of this Shadow World. So, there’s no need to go through the usual investigation and logical reasoning process.”
While saying this, Dekan bent down, grabbed the carpet covering the pulpit, and violently tore it off, throwing it aside.
“Wait, was it possible to lift this carpet from the start…”
Morion remembered that on his first visit to this church, there was a colossal cross pressing down on the carpet.
Now, it seemed as if a superhumanly strong person had already moved it.
Seeing Dekan’s actions, Morion realized there must be a problem with what was pressed beneath the cross.
He also got on the pulpit, frowning as he stared at the place Dekan had revealed.
On the bulletin board, there was an extremely complex magical array, and one corner of the array was faintly glowing red.
“How much can you deduce from this magical array?”
Morion knew this magical array must contain key information related to the task.
But he didn’t understand why Dekan thought that simply seeing an array would lead to deducing the general situation in the Shadow World.
“Cornelia and I also saw a magical array in the previous Shadow World; it wasn’t nearly as complicated as this one.”
“If the previous Shadow World and this one are actually part of the same world.”
“Then this magical array must be the Holy Ritual Church’s way of sealing the bloodline race. Underneath this church, there must be a seal for an extremely powerful vampire, which is the hidden strongest enemy in this Shadow World!”
