CH 579

After leaving the refugee camp, Rowan headed for the church of Tu’an, located in the outskirts of the Imperial Capital.

"Will you stay there?"

"I prefer to rest at the church closest to the place I have to go the next day, so I don't really have a fixed residence."

As vast as the refugee area was, so was the Imperial Capital. Thus, she traveled around the Imperial Capital without a fixed residence, resting wherever she could find a place affiliated with the Five Great Religions.

"Please come here by nine o'clock at the latest tomorrow. If you're late, I'll leave without you. Got it?"

At Rowan's playful remark, Ludwig scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression.

"Yes, I'll make sure to be there."

Helping Rowan was a temporary measure, but it was absolutely necessary.

Just by being able to help her, Ludwig felt that the burden and pressure had somewhat disappeared.

If he had been smarter, wiser, could he have known what was right?

Facing difficult tasks, Ludwig confronted the limits of his ability to overcome them.

In a way, Rowan was nothing short of salvation for the lost Ludwig.

The Church of Tu’an.

In the church, one could feel an aura of decline.

Perhaps thinking that they could catch something evil, there were no passersby around, and the people guarding the church also seemed fatigued.

Not only that, but the church's stone walls were covered in illegible graffiti and many places were damaged.

The anger and hatred of the people towards the Tu’an faith were evident in the church's decaying state and the graffiti.

Every church of Tu'an and Als must have been like this.

People avoided them, there were hardly any devoted followers, and people even secretly damaged them.

"Pathetic, isn't it?"

"Pardon? Oh..."

"Sometimes, there are people who try to set it on fire."

Graffiti and damage were one thing, but arson attempts?

At that statement, Ludwig couldn't help but be shocked.

"To that extent...?"

"Yes."

Rowan's calm response carried a deep sorrow.

People treated the church of Tu'an as if it were a place of worship for the Demon King.

Ludwig approached the entrance of the church.

The faces of those guarding the door changed.

As if they were tense about something.

Of course, it was not Ludwig himself that made them tense.

The priests' gazes turned to Ludwig's right.

"Your Grace, the Archbishop! You've worked hard today!"

"Yes, you've all done a great job too."

The Archbishop.

At that moment, Ludwig had no choice but to freeze.

"See you tomorrow, Ludwig."

"Wh-What? Ah... Yes, yes!"

After giving Ludwig a slight bow, Rowan entered the church.

Come to think of it, she had said she was a priestess, but she never mentioned her rank.

Ludwig never asked, either. So, it wasn't that Rowan deliberately deceived him, she simply didn't mention what he didn't ask.

He had thought she was just an ordinary priestess.

However.

He finally realized that a priestess who could purify a vast refugee area's epidemic just by offering prayers could not be an ordinary priestess.

Did the fact that the Archbishop wandered the refugee camp alone without the escort of holy knights mean that the Archbishop was a great person?

Or did it mean that the Tu'an Order had declined to the point where it had to be that way?

All day, Ludwig had walked alongside a priestess, never imagining that she would turn out to be none other than the archbishop of the Tu'an Order—an individual he would never have expected to encounter under normal circumstances. For a while, Ludwig was completely dumbstruck upon realizing this.

In front of the archbishop, Ludwig even dared to question why the gods had chosen the demon king.

It was impossible to know if Rowan had shown mercy because of the situation, but under normal circumstances, Ludwig's sacrilege would have been grounds for being dragged away by an inquisitor.

Rowan was not an ordinary priestess, but an archbishop.

She was a priestess of incredibly high standing.

And yet, Ludwig had been a fool.

'An archbishop... How high-ranking is that?'

Though he was surprised to learn that Rowan was of high rank, Ludwig had no idea of the extent of that position.

------

He knew what research was being conducted at Temple Magic University, having seen it with his own eyes.

It wasn't just about reviving dead mages as liches; they were doing something even greater. They were essentially reviving individuals with half of their former abilities, but without restoring their memories and sense of self.

This was on an entirely different level from liches or death knights.

He relayed what he had discovered to Sarkegaar.

There was no immediate evidence of a connection to the Black Order, and even if there was, he had resolved to accept it. So they decided not to take any action regarding this matter.

If resolving the Gate Incident was the only hope for this world, then anything that could speed up its resolution would be a better hope.

Therefore, he would tacitly allow and ignore the empire's actions.

Though he had no choice but to meet with Bertus directly, the outcome was not unfavorable.

He could not know how this matter and his conversation with Bertus would develop in the future, but this was the best course of action he could think of at the moment.

He did not immediately return to Edina.

Truthfully, right now, Ellen would tearfully and angrily search the entire Temple if he were to disappear.

If she didn't return to the coalition army's camp without him, he would be stuck here.

It was best not to cause a cat disappearance incident that would affect Ellen's mental state.

If there was an urgent matter, he could reluctantly leave Sarkegaar behind as a substitute.

In any case, he had no choice but to remain at the Temple for the time being.

At the banquet hall in the late evening, those who had returned late after taking care of business were having dinner. Though the official dinner time had long passed, preserved food was prepared for latecomers, so they could at least stave off hunger.

Ellen and Heinrich, who had been patrolling the Imperial Capital today as well, seemed to have found nothing unusual. At least the monster problem seemed to be well under control.

From the beginning, there couldn't be a monster problem. The extermination force on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital wasn't simply a patrol or a knight squad—it consisted of resurrected war heroes.

Their actual mission was not to exterminate monsters, but to verify whether they could be properly controlled for deployment in real battles.

It was like using a missile to kill a chicken rather than a knife, so there was nothing for Ellen and Heinrich to do.

And now, Ludwig, who had just returned late from his guard duties.

There was no particular reason to sit separately, so the three of them gathered and ate their late dinner together.

Ellen had hard tack and water.

Heinrich had jerky.

In front of Ludwig lay a piece of hard bread.

Everyone knew that even this much was a luxury, so they tended to eat sparingly.

At this late hour, there weren't many people in the banquet hall.

As a cat, I sat on the table, listening to the conversations they were having. Ellen offered me a piece of dried meat she had prepared, but I didn't put it in my mouth.

I wasn't particularly hungry.

I didn't like to waste food either, just like them.

After tapping my nose a few times, Ellen gave up trying to force me to eat and took a bite of the meat herself.

"Archbishop?"

"Oh, how important is an archbishop?"

Ludwig asked, sitting next to Heinrich after quickly consuming the hard bread and a cup of water upon his return.

What does an archbishop have to do with the guards?

Heinrich chewed on his meat in response to Ludwig's unexpected question.

"Well... there are many cases, you see."

"Many cases?"

"We don't know if the archbishop in question is a rank-based one or an archdiocesan one."

"...Archdiocesan? What is that?"

At Ludwig's question, Heinrich looked at him quietly.

Would Ludwig's brain overload? Or would mine while explaining?

Thinking about it, Heinrich wasn't as slow-witted as Ludwig, but he wasn't a fool either.

Heinrich carefully opened his mouth.

"I don't know the details, but from what I know, an archdiocesan bishop manages a large diocese. However, not all archbishops manage a large diocese. Some are responsible for archdioceses while others have entirely different roles as archbishops. So, even among archbishops, their tasks can vary, and there is a hierarchy."

"..."

At these words, Ludwig looked at Heinrich in silence.

"Um, sorry, but... what's a large diocese?"

"Ah."

It wasn't a matter of understanding.

There was nothing to understand in the first place.

Heinrich's mouth hung open slightly, as if he didn't know where to begin.

"Think of it simply."

Finally, our Ellen stepped in.

"If a bishop manages a few churchs, an archbishop manages dozens of churchs. Not all of them, but you can think of it like that."

"Ah... like a lord?"

"Yes. Think of a bishop as a lord and an archbishop as a great lord. In fact, there are cases where clergy like bishoprics and archbishoprics perform duties similar to those of lords. Of course, the meaning has been lost now."

Not only similar to a lord, but in the case of bishoprics and archbishoprics, they are actually lords.

With Ellen's considerably abridged explanation that bishops are lords and archbishops are great lords, Ludwig found it much easier to understand.

"So, they're really high-ranking priests?"

"Yes, only cardinals and the pope rank above them."

"But what do you mean by a hierarchy among archbishops?"

Heinrich's unnecessary words made Ludwig more curious.

Ellen silently put a piece of hard biscuit in her mouth and chewed it for a while. Then, she took a sip of water and spoke.

"An archbishop who manages all the churchs of the Empire."

"In Serandia, which we just conquered, there must have been an archbishop managing all the churchs since it was a big city."

"Archbishop of the Imperial Capital, Archbishop of Serandia."

"Both are archbishops, but who ranks higher?"

At Ellen's question, Ludwig nodded his head as if he had an aha moment.

"The Archbishop of the Imperial Capital, I suppose?"

"That's right."

After Ellen observed that Ludwig had understood quite accurately, she nodded her head.

"But is there an archbishop managing the entire Imperial Capital?"

"...I don't know since I'm not affiliated with the Holy Knights or the Five Great Churches. However, the Imperial Capital has the most churchs in the continent. So, the dioceses might be more subdivided. There could be multiple archdioceses, and the position of the Archbishop of the Imperial Capital might be altogether different..."

As Ellen tried to explain something, she looked at Ludwig.

"I don't know."

Ellen quietly said so and took a bite of her biscuit.

That's right.

Don't bother explaining.

He won't understand anyway.

All he needs to know is that archbishops are high-ranking, but their ranks are not equal.

However, Ludwig seemed to have more questions.

"Anyway, Cardinal and Pope rank higher than Archbishop, right?"

"Yes."

"Then, what rank does the Holy Knights' Commander hold?"

Ah.

I see, he might wonder about that.

"Higher than Cardinal, lower than Pope."

Ellen answered briefly.

"Originally, the position of the Holy Knights' Commander is ambiguous since it's a non-existent rank. Technically, it's below the Pope, but in terms of actual power, it surpasses the Pope. So, you could say it's almost on par with the Pope."

"I see..."

"Why did you suddenly bring up the Archbishop?"

It was Heinrich's question, and I had been wondering the same thing.

Why was he curious about this?

Ludwig explained the events of the day.

An epidemic-stricken area, and how he had been assigned to escort a single priestess.

And then, after everything was over, he found out the person he thought was a regular priestess was actually an archbishop.

"An archbishop doing that work personally? And without any Holy Knights escorting her?"

"It must be quite a serious situation."

Both Heinrich and Ellen seemed shocked by the news of the archbishop taking action personally.

Well, given the circumstances, it would be better to distribute the clergy's manpower to refugee camps and rely on the help of the guards for protection.

"It seems like I'll continue to escort her starting from tomorrow."

"That's good."

He had seemed quite confused recently, but his expression brightened, indicating that he found today's events quite rewarding.

It was a task that was needed by the people, and it wasn't dangerous.

And although it wasn't the best thing to say, it was a task that seemingly had no end.

As long as the famine in the Imperial Capital persisted, the epidemic would continue to break out. It was a never-ending cycle.

There had been no issues today, but there was no guarantee that there wouldn't be any in the future.

"However, come to think of it, it might not be that strange."

It was Heinrich's words.

"Not strange, you say?"

"An archbishop moving alone."

"Ah... I've heard it's because there are many tasks that require priests."

"No, I mean there might be many archbishops. So, they might be moving alone."

"Huh?"

"Almost all the places worthy of being called archdioceses have been destroyed, right? So, it's only natural that there would be many archbishops in the allied forces' garrisons, the Holy Knights, and the Imperial Capital."

"It might be possible."

Could one still be called a lord if they lost their territory?

If so, an archbishop who lost their archdiocese to manage could still be called an archbishop.

Heinrich's point was that it might not be strange for a priest of such rank to move alone since many archbishops were gathered in the Imperial Capital, and I found it quite plausible.

High-ranking priests had flocked to the Imperial Capital because there was nowhere safe in the world.

As a result, the number of archbishop-level priests, who were usually hard to come by, had increased.

Most of them served in the allied forces, and those who weren't wandered the streets to purify the epidemic.

In a way, the power of the high-ranking priests was concentrated.

Yet, the situation was still grim as there was a shortage of manpower.

In fact, that was only natural.

There were more survivors concentrated in the Imperial Capital than there were priests gathered there.

Still, an archbishop...

-Meow

"Why?"

This was kind of...

A bit cheap, wasn't it?