117 – Apostle of Lust – (1)

After hearing about Sinclair’s savage and violent side from Seira, the atmosphere in the room suddenly turned dark.

He must have been, and it must have come as a shock to him that the handsome middle-aged wizard we were talking to was actually an ugly pedophile.

In particular, Lyncia’s expression was worth seeing. She had her worm-eaten expression on her lap with her fists clenched.

“Do you not eat?”

Lyncia hadn’t even touched her meal Sinclair had sent her since earlier.

I asked while chewing on the bread, but Lyncia muttered in a chomping voice.

“How do you eat, I heard that sound earlier.”

“…… hahahaha.”

Well, right now, she is an enemy on all sides. Perhaps she is poisonous, but she may have been burnt.

Of course, the Archmage right in front of you is willing to play the role of Kimi Sanggung.

“That, Fried.”

After a moment of silence, Lin Xia opened her mouth cautiously.

“Yes.”

“I’m asking just in case. Sinclair, what do you think about him liking a younger woman?”

“What are you thinking?”

I tilted her head, but Lynxia just stared at me.

She finally answered her reluctantly.

“It’s a thousand things to do. In a way, isn’t it the original sin that is taboo?”

“…… Is that so?”

“Yes.”

It seemed that lusting after a child who was not yet an adult in this world was treated like a rotten bastard.

Of course, the standard for adults is about four years younger than the original world.

“…… Ugh, ugh. Okay. I see. That’s right.”

Lynxia nodded her head, but she was pouting and a drop of sweat ran down her temple. She clearly looked a little bewildered.

Silence again.

It was Lyncia who broke the silence this time as well.

“You know, Fried.”

“Yes.”

“No matter how taboo the original sin is…… First of all, isn’t it love?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, so I…… As long as the parties clearly agree, I think the age difference is fine.”

“…… Uhm?”

“Besides…… I don’t know about a ten-year-old girl, but if you’re older than that…… I wonder if the nature of the crime is softening…… It may not seem like it…….”

Lynxia stretched her horse’s tail and looked away.

Then, as if she suddenly remembered, she raised her hands and shook them wildly.

“Oh, of course I didn’t say it because I had a different meaning!”

“…… Huh.”

“That’s just the story.”

Lyncia cleared her throat for a while, then glanced sideways at me.

Then again, as soon as her eyes met, she jerked her head away.

“…… What the heck.”

Why the hell is this?

Recently, the frequency of Lynthia’s incomprehensible behavior has increased dramatically.

Is puberty over the immature?

“Ha ha ha.”

“What else is so funny?”

“There is such a thing.”

Mumbled her food as if only Seira understood the nuance.

*

Around the end of the meal, there was a sudden uproar outside the room.

I thought I could hear the sound of climbing the stairs and the sound of things hitting each other in succession, and then the door to the private room opened wide with a knock. And a woman walks in with a pile of papers, whimpering.

The brown eyes that were revealed through the hat shimmered.

She was a beautiful woman with a slender figure. On her head, she was wearing a cone-shaped wizard’s hat, which was virtually the first ‘wizard-like costume’ I encountered when I entered this world.

“Um.”

At the same time, I felt a strange sense of deja vu.

Because it was a visual that seemed like I had seen it somewhere.

But after thinking about it, nothing came to mind, and in the meantime, the woman staggered to the center of the room.

“Uh-guk.”

The woman struggled and laid her papers on her table and let out a small sigh.

Then they look at us and bow their heads. As she does so, the hat falls off and she hastily corrects it with both of her hands.

“Oh, that…… Nice to see you. I am… ….”

“Yes. You must be the elementalist Sinclair spoke of.”

At Seira’s words, the woman stood up straight at attention, and she answered in a stutter.

“Oh, that’s right! Nice to meet you, Grand Duchess! It’s called Merta Appent!”

“Yes. Best regards, Merta. You don’t have to treat me too harshly.”

Merta, the elementalist that Sinclair readily gave away.

The image of him arranging a pile of papers while sweating profusely didn’t look very believable. The oversized hat compared to the size of the head gave the impression of looking rather stupid.

Still, since he is a scholar belonging to the Mage Tower, he must have excellent skills in this field. It’s a matter involving the church’s apostles, but they won’t hand out third-rate magicians. Sinclair wouldn’t be an idiot either.

“That, so…… You said you were investigating this case…….”

Merta cautiously let go of her luck and watched us from the side of her eye.

And as soon as our eyes meet, he shakes his head for some reason. And lightly dropped her shoulder.

Am I that scary?

In order to relieve her Merta’s tension, I answered instead.

“Yes. As you may have heard from Sinclair, the person behind this incident is an apostle of the Church.”

“… ….”

“To be precise, he is a person called Phaedras, the Apostle of the Abyss. They are polluting the spirit realm by pouring in foreign powers through several ‘doors’ located in High Linx.”

I wondered if it was okay to speak short from the beginning, but now that I’ve become a national protectorate, my position is high if it’s high, but never low. After all, it’s just a magic wrapper, so there will be few aftereffects.

Merta smiled awkwardly at my answer.

“…… Also, did you?”

“Do you have any guesses?”

“Actually, I did a little research on my own without the support of the Mage Tower.”

Merta unfolded the pile of papers she had hurriedly brought. Dazzlingly drawn patterns and neatly written letters were embroidered on her white paper.

“Since I am also an elementalist, I would never see my children suffer.”

Merta laughed and flicked her hands, and only then did she see the numerous spirits clinging to her body.

Each of the five-colored lower spirits clung to Merta’s back, her shoulders, and even the top of her head. Their number was in the tens of thousands.

“What is this?”

“hahahaha… …. I signed a little…… No, a lot of it was octopus-style. All the spirits are cute, so I signed a contract with them one by one, and later the number increased…….”

Lyncia’s eyes widened, and Seira smiled.

“hahahaha. Merta, you were a better elementalist than I thought, right? In terms of the number of mana passes, it’s about the same as mine, right? Shall I hand over the Archmage too?”

“…… Ahahahahaha. It’s really nothing. The number of mana passes is just too many, and the spirits that can be contracted are limited to low to intermediate level. There’s no speed. If everything is available, it can last no more than five minutes.”

“Ha ha, Jorune.”

“Please cover up your words.”

“How are you! Between us!”

Pangpang Seira slapped me on the back.

“You look good.”

Merta listened to our conversation and laughed horribly before she pulled out one of her maps from the pile of papers.

Looking closely, it was a document that recorded the geography of Highlings in detail. And, of course, Merta’s memo was meticulously written there.

Merta explained.

“It’s a map that shows all the areas where the fallen spirits have recently appeared and the gateways to the spirit realm. There may be some errors, but the records for the last month are all there.”

“Awesome? Did you investigate yourself?”

“…… Yes. Although I was criticized for neglecting my job because of that.”

In fact, the map Merta pulled out was detailed enough that even I, an outsider in this field, could understand it.

She pricked a point with her finger.

“If it is true that the foreign messenger intervened, it is highly likely that they are using this place as their base.”

One point that Merta pointed out.

Without any notes, it was just a point in the air.

A bare field without even a structure at a glance. However, Merta had a confident look on her face.

“Why?”

“The fact that the Church intervened means that the event is no longer a magical category. The cult’s tricks are closer to the divinity of the clergy than magic. It can be seen as a form of primordial magic, where each location and each structure has a meaning.”

“Hmm.”

It’s not that I couldn’t understand it, but it was a story I didn’t know well.

But Seira nodded as if it was different from the eyes of the same mages. Lincia also seemed to understand roughly, her eyes shining.

“So, the main base is here. It would not be possible to spread its power over this wide area unless it was here. It may not be certain because it is based on ancient documents, but this is my opinion.”

“Hmm.”

I saw Yuria.

When her eyes met, YuRia stuck out her little tongue and shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know, but I think she heard something similar from Mr. Duke when she was a priest. Structure and arrangement are important for authority.”

From noble mtl dot com

If you say Duke, you’re referring to Duke, the necromancer who was decapitated by Uriard in the second act.

In fact, the cult summoned Atral by splitting the mausoleum in half through Duke’s severed head.

This is probably also the part that fits the structure and arrangement.

“Then it’s decided.”

When even Yuria agreed, she partnered with her, and Seira clapped her hands.

“Let’s start right away. It’s a bit far to use teleportation, so I’ll have to get a wagon as fast as possible. Ah, there might be a battle, so she prepares well.”

The last one said after looking at Merta.

“…… Eh.”

Merta opened her mouth with a look of astonishment.

“Am I going too?”

“Then why don’t you go? I have to act as a guide.”

At Seira’s blow, Merta mumbled her mouth and let out a deep sigh.

The Grand Duchess of Highlings asked me to accompany you, but no wizard would dare to refuse.

“Oh, I see. I will report to the tower lord.”

She spoke weakly and turned her body around.

Her back as she trudged out the door looked pathetic. Could it be because of the faint light emitted by the small spirits on her back?

Finally, before leaving her door, Mertha took off her cone-shaped hat from her head, and her wine-red hair cascaded down her shoulders.

“… ….”

Seeing that, I frowned.

She realized the identity of her, the feeling of deja vu she felt the moment she saw her for the first time.

In the fifth act, several enemies appear.

Typically, the final boss, Lautrek, the Apostle of Foreign Gods, and various corrupted upper-class spirits led by Atral and Gaia Khan, who appear as mid-bosses.

Lastly, there was an elite mob called the ‘Outer Dimension Elementalist’ who led the fallen spirits.

The fighting power was at a terrible level, but it was a tricky opponent because it harassed players with small magics and summoned corrupted spirits at regular intervals.

That’s why I remember it clearly.

Her tattered witch’s hat and auburn hair were clearly visible even among the tiny dot graphics.

Yes. It was a feature that perfectly matched the Merta in front of her.

I don’t know if it’s the same person. However, even in the game, a large part of the elemental magician from the outer dimension who worked with countless spirits and Merta, who contracted with dozens of spirits like now, matched.

“…… I’m going crazy.”

Already, anxiety began to set in.