Volume 9, Chapter 2 – The Divine Religion Hidden in the Noble District

After walking for about fifteen minutes, Yisi and her party finally arrived in a tranquil area.

This was the noble district, a place untouched by slaves and beggars. While clean and tidy, it was even more lifeless than the street they had come from. The stone-paved road was so quiet, with barely a sound to be heard, that it created the illusion that no one actually lived in the district at all.

If I were to walk here alone at night, I would definitely feel like I was in a city of the dead. Yisi couldn’t help but recall her memories from Earth. In some newly developed areas, the roads were so wide and the towering residential buildings so sparsely populated that even walking there in broad daylight felt eerie.

It’s certainly quiet and beautiful, but it doesn’t make me want to live here. It’s just too desolate.

As if reading everyone’s thoughts, the purple-haired young woman leading the dozens of Divine Religion members, walking slightly behind Lin, slowed her pace and began to explain to Yisi’s group.

“This is the noble district. Because the Chloe Kingdom has very few cities, most nobles, aside from those with prosperous fiefs, choose to reside in the more comfortable royal capital. This district is home to one-third of the kingdom’s nobility.”

“Don’t they live in their own fiefs?”

“In the eyes of the Blood Clan, it may be strange for a noble not to live in their own fief, but for the nobles of the Chloe Kingdom, it’s the norm. Most of the kingdom’s land is mountainous and forested, unsuitable for developing cities and farmland. Rather than guarding a few small villages and eating beans and field mice caught by hunters for every meal, it’s more comfortable to live in the royal capital where trade is more frequent. Of course, this doesn’t mean they don’t manage their territories. They usually send their eldest son to manage the fief, allowing them to familiarize themselves with tax collection while letting the populace get to know their next lord.”

At this point, a hint of what looked like contempt appeared in the purple-haired woman’s eyes, and she tilted her chin up slightly.

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“Well, not that these nobles who don’t live in their own territories are much better. They’re not only inferior to the Empire’s nobility but can’t even compare to the Kingdom’s nobles who value appearances and pursue extravagance. They possess none of the things that make a noble family—heritage, etiquette, and the like. They’re just a bunch of lumberjacks born slightly more noble than others. Hmm… you might think I’m exaggerating, so let me be a bit more specific. Even nobles of the viscount rank not only can’t do arithmetic, but their literacy rate is appallingly low. If one out of ten knows the Norta Empire’s language, that’s already considered quite good. Most of them can’t even afford to live in the noble district.

As for the reason, the past few kings were muddle-headed and bestowed titles upon many traveling acrobats who visited the kingdom, causing this country’s nobility to be held in very low regard by other nations. Even an earl from here is treated worse than a mere quasi-baron in other countries. It’s both laughable and pitiful.”

“And now?”

Yisi picked up the thread of the conversation. The Divine Religion was now the true master of the Duchy of Chloe, so her subtext was asking the purple-haired woman what the duchy had become under their jurisdiction.

Understanding Yisi’s implication, the purple-haired girl shrugged.

“As for how things are now, it’s best if you see for yourself, honored guests. Our destination is just across this street.”

“Aren’t we going to have an audience with the king first?”

“It would just be a waste of time. If you wish to go, honored guest, I can accompany you later. We need only announce our names, and he will know what to do.”

He sounds just like a servant of the Divine Religion.

What a pitiful monarch.

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Glancing at the castle at the far end of the noble mansions, a sense of cheap pity rose in Yisi’s heart.

After turning right into a noble’s courtyard that had no distinguishing features other than its size, and then proceeding down an unremarkable corridor for less than a minute, Yisi finally arrived at the location of the Divine Religion’s main base.

An indoor, underground shaft, a hundred meters deep and over thirty meters in diameter.

A magnificent, unparalleled, and massive facility.

The pitch-black opening was like a man-eating beast, instilling a fear that came from the bottom of one’s heart.

Before arriving here, Yisi would never have imagined that such a colossal construction project existed underground. The circular shaft descended vertically, like the entrance to an abyss, its shape perfectly regular. The inner walls were uniformly lined with meticulously fitted gray stone bricks. Surveying the great hall from the corridor where Yisi stood—about ten meters from the shaft’s edge—it was clear that the entire building she was in served this central structure. It was as if a giant had inverted a barrel on the ground, dug out all the soil from within, and then built a hollow shell of a house over the deep pit as a disguise. Such was the nature of the Divine Religion’s headquarters.

Around the shaft, a soldier in a helmet and silver armor stood guard every few meters. According to the feedback from her [Omniscient Map], these soldiers were all above level 30. Although Yisi couldn’t see their expressions behind their helmets, she could feel that all of their gazes were currently fixed on her group. If she were to make any sudden moves, all of them would react in unison. It was a solemn and dignified place, where even the air seemed to have stopped flowing.

I really don’t get why churches in other worlds always like to bury their core areas underground. The Divine Religion is like this, and so is the Ymir Church.

Complaining silently in her heart, Yisi took the hand of Camilla, who was following behind her. A spiral staircase wound its way down along the inner wall of the shaft. Perhaps to prevent a large number of invaders from rushing in, the staircase, less than two meters wide, had no handrail. If one were to slip and fall, they would plummet directly to the bottom a hundred meters below, becoming nothing more than a corpse.

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Lin was the first to step onto the staircase at the edge of the shaft.

“Follow me. Don’t look down.”

“What’s down there?”

“An illusion barrier and the undead. Anyone who looks down will have their mind disturbed by the illusion barrier and will jump of their own accord. Also, do not use magic in the shaft. There are stone golems on the other side of the walls. If they sense magical power, they will break through the wall and knock anyone on the stairs off. The end result is the same as those affected by the illusion barrier—being devoured as food by the hungry undead below and assimilated into one of them.”

“What a morbid sense of humor…”

Ignoring Yisi’s comment, Lin continued forward on her own. To prevent her companions from being affected by the illusion, Yisi first entrusted Mary and Tiffany to Camilla and Laxy, respectively. Then, she positioned herself in the middle of the group, so she could easily provide aid should any sudden situation arise.

Less than a minute into their descent, Yisi noticed something was wrong with Camilla. Walking ahead of her, Camilla’s every step was heavy, as if she was unwilling to go any deeper.

“Camilla, are you not feeling well?”

“…There’s a really disgusting feeling.”

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“Me too…” Mary muttered in a low voice. On her neck, the king-shaped pendant—or rather, the Divine Key, as it should be called now—was emitting a faint glow.

Is it reacting to the aura of death in the air?

The deathly aura emanating from the large number of undead at the bottom of the shaft had even materialized, dyeing the air on the upper levels with a hazy tint. This was especially true for the Undead Archmage, whose level exceeded sixty. It was hard to imagine what method the Divine Religion used to trap such a being in the shaft.

“If an ordinary person with no magic were to walk down, they would gradually turn into an undead. If you really can’t stand it, I can have Purple take you back to the surface. This isn’t the only path to the main hall.”

“No need. I hate the smell on you more than I hate this aura.”

Camilla’s words were filled with disgust.

Does Camilla really hate Lin?

A question arose in Yisi’s heart. Over the past half a month, Lin had barely spoken a word, and Camilla had been by her side the entire time. They had never had any conflict. And unlike the situation with Evelyn, Lin had kept her distance from Yisi; they could hardly even be considered acquaintances. If Camilla were to hate someone, it should be the purple-haired woman who had been constantly trying to get close to her and probe for information along the way.

I’ll ask Camilla for the reason later. I have a feeling it’s not that simple.