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The Holy-Evil War – Part 02

Translator: Kell

Now for the plan. First, Thirteenth would poke at Albus, creating a situation where Sanare had to stay with the girl. In the meantime, we snatch the princess and give Sanare a shot to her soul once she returned unknowingly.

There was another problem, however: the princess’s own will. I cast a glance at the priest.

“What is it?” he asked, noticing my gaze. He was bringing the spoon to his mouth in a graceful motion.

“Nothing. I was just thinking how it would make things easier if we just killed you and handed you over to them.”

If we were to believe Sanare’s claims, the princess was lending her body of her own volition. She swore vengeance against the priest and the Church after he killed her master whom she respected and admired.

I wished it was just nonsense, but the fact that her attendant Raul was still accompanying her was proof enough.

It meant that once Sanare was out of the princess’s body, she herself would still become our enemy.

I wasn’t particularly worried about her combat prowess, but if she somehow told Sanare that we were coming, our plan would be ruined.

“If you ask me, killing the Mooncaller Witch Albus would be the easiest,” the priest spat out.

“If you ask me,” Zero cut in, “me destroying the world would solve everything.” Her joke didn’t even sound like a joke at all.

“Please don’t say that,” I said. “It doesn’t sound like a joke when it’s coming from you.”

“I am not joking. A long time ago, before Master was killed by Thirteenth, we had a discussion like this in the cellar. How to bring the conflict between witches and the Church to an end and bring true peace to this world.”

“And your conclusion was to destroy the world?”

“While it was an armchair theory, we devised quite a meticulous plan. Would you like a detailed explanation?”

“No, thank you. It would only give me nightmares.”

I didn’t want to hear a plan to destroy the world from the mouth of a witch who had the very power to do so. The more I heard about Zero’s master, the more I thought they were an outrageous character. A witch who could conjure up such disturbing thoughts was better off dead.

“Well, killing the priest who was tasked by the Church to monitor us would cause all sorts of trouble. We understand that much, so you can rest assured.”

In other words, all we could do was knock the princess out before she noticed us, and let her sleep until the whole ordeal was over.

That’s why we were hiding out in a corner of the forest until Thirteenth could make contact with Albus, and pull Sanare out of the princess’s body.

The princess’s whereabouts and condition were constantly being monitored by a swarm of rats—Lily’s “friends”. No one would find rats suspicious at all.

According to information gathered by the rats, when Sanare was away from her body, the princess seemed to be mindlessly reading books on Sorcery. She was in an old underground tunnel, the campus that was originally the base of the Coven of Zero.

After the collapse of the coven, the leader, Thirteenth, destroyed the entrance to the campus in Latette and reconnected it to another location. No one had come to the campus in the past year as a result.

The old witches who originally used the campus as a stronghold had long since perished in the witch hunts. It was said that there were many abandoned witch lairs all throughout the continent. Apparently, witches and sorcerers sometimes embarked on long journeys to seek the many books that witches left behind, books that contained their vast wisdom.

“If Zero and I don’t return, the cellar in Moonsbow Forest will become an abandoned lair as well,” Thirteenth said. “Many wisdom had been lost this way. If witches united together like the Church, and shared their wisdom and knowledge, we might not have lost the war.”

Thirteenth’s words reminded me of a story Zero had told me. She said that the reason why witches lost the war was because Sorcery was too tedious. It took time to learn it, and performing it was a huge task. That’s why Sorcery didn’t propagate, and that’s why they lost the war five hundred years ago.

But the people of the Church couldn’t use either Sorcery or Magic. Explosives would not have been available five centuries ago. Food supply was much worse back then than now. Dea Ignis didn’t even exist back then.

Yet despite all this, the Church defeated the witches. Their unity paved the way to victory. If the witches worked together in the same way, it would not be so far-fetched to think that the witches would have won.

Had they joined forces and shared their knowledge with each other, they might have discovered Magic much earlier.

With the founding of the Magical State of Wenias and the actions of Cestum, witches were now quietly banding together.

Knights Templar numbering around eighty thousand had gathered from all over the continent. That was the official number, at least. In reality, there were probably a lot more than that. Lords who were ardent followers of the Church were also sending their own troops. It was safe to assume that all in all they totaled as high as a hundred thousand.

Even after five long centuries, the Church’s unity still remained strong.

“Does she think she can win?” I muttered to myself.

“Who knows?” Zero said. “Wolf said that the lass had decided to become the villain. And as far as I know, villains always fall to the righteous.”

Wood from the fire crackled. Lily stood up, sensing something. A stubby little rat was staring at us silently from the distance. The way it was looking at us, neither running away nor approaching, gave it a sense of majesty that I would not expect from a rat.

It was clearly no ordinary rodent. I cast a glance at Zero.

“It is Thirteenth’s familiar,” she said.

The atmosphere suddenly turned tense. Once the rat confirmed that it had all our attention, it stood up on its hind legs.

“We move tomorrow morning,” it said in Thirteenth’s voice.

“Tomorrow morning?! That’s way too soon! I need time to mentally prepare myself!”

“Please stop complaining,” the priest said. “You’re playing a minor role. I’m the one who needs the preparation.”

I thought he was on my side, but he shot me down ruthlessly.

As I fell silent, hurt quite a bit, Zero pressed a knife to my chest in a show of encouragement. It was Theo’s knife, which I left with her for a while since she asked for it.

“Worry not. You have a major role to play,” she said. “I am counting on you.”

“I’m not worried about anything. As a matter of fact, the priest is the key to capturing the princess.”

The first step of the plan was to use the princess’s hatred of the priest to lure her out of the campus. Zero, lying in wait, would then cast Etrach to trap her, and cast a warding to cut her off from Sanare. We then prepare a fake princess for Sanare to return to.

Of course, if the princess escaped, the plan would fail. In addition, the warding required a complicated Magic circle that couldn’t be drawn easily. We needed to lure the princess to a warding that we had prepared in advance.

I would assist with the plan as a wall of flesh in case of an emergency, exactly the kind of job a mercenary would be asked to do. I was, in fact, only going to play a minor role this time.

Since Zero negated the princess’s ability to cast Magic spells, I probably wouldn’t be needed, but better safe than sorry. After all, she had the horse Beastfallen Raul as her attendant.

“A word of advice, priest,” I said. “Raul is calm and smart. He’s a loyal retainer who’ll do anything for the princess. Even a member of Dea Ignis would struggle if you fought him head-on. Keep your guard up.”

“Thanks for the unnecessary advice. Don’t worry, I know what to do. Engage a little then find an opportunity to fake a retreat. Witch-hunting is Dea Ignis’s specialty.”

“That’s the exact opposite of keeping your guard up.”

“And I said your advice is unnecessary. Do you not understand? Should I spell it out for you? You worry too much for someone your size.”

I see. He was confident enough to dismiss my advice with a quip. Like a supporting character, I kept my mouth shut.

Zero was drawing a mind-boggling Magic circle in a clearing. “Is this the right pattern?” she mumbled. “Wait. I think this symbol here is not supposed to be a snake. This is why I despise Sorcery. Drawing a circle is too troublesome.”

I asked her if she could draw them in a flash like Thirteenth did before, to which she said, “Do not lump me in with that aberration.” Apparently, Thirteenth had a special gift when it came to Magic circles.

Lily listened to what the rats had to say and continued monitoring the princess.

Looking up, I could see the jet-black night giving way to the dark-bluish morning sky. Soon, we would see the sun rising through the trees.

“It is done!” Zero exclaimed as she rose to her feet. She poured the blood of a strangled bird into the Magic circle she had drawn on the ground using a tree twig. The circle glowed faintly for a moment before vanishing without a trace.

“It’s gone,” I said.

“I made it invisible,” Zero replied. “It is a trap, after all.”

“Anything’s possible, huh?” I muttered in disbelief.

Zero raised an eyebrow. “It is not something that anyone can do. I am a genius—or so I would like to say, but my childhood experience of fighting Thirteenth with traps has served me well. While I am gifted, when it comes to Magic circles, I was no match for him. He could draw up a Magic circle with only an incantation, expand its range, transfer it somewhere far away, combine multiple circles, among others. He could do unimaginable things easily. The only two people who could do that in the cellar were my Master and Thirteenth. In order to compete with him, I thought of making Magic circles disappear.”

Come to think of it, I knew that Thirteenth and Zero were siblings, but I had never once heard about how they grew up. No, wait. Back in Latette, I heard something about how they played hide-and-seek, but that was about it.

Considering how much Thirteenth doted on Zero, it was apparent that they were very close when they were kids.

“So, did he fall for any of your traps?”

Zero cackled. “Not even once.”

“Well, then. What good are you?”

“He stole my research materials and took preemptive moves. I was so furious that I retreated into the depths of the cellar for a few years. Oh, yes, I remember now. It was at that time, I believe, that Master taught Thirteenth forced summoning. So he could drag me out.”

“Talk about an unadorable sibling quarrel.”

“He failed to learn it before I willingly came out, though. I lost interest in Magic circles at that point, so I did not even bother learning it.”

“Big brother!” Lily called. She didn’t have to tell me. I knew why she called my attention.

The priest quietly stood up. There was no hint of nervousness on his face.

“Well, then.” He cracked his shoulders. “I’m off to hunt a witch.”