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The cathedral's scale was enormous.
It could be said that Sacher, northwest of the Bure Plains, existed solely because of the cathedral.
It was a bustling tourist city, crowded daily with people from all over the continent who came to visit the cathedral.
"Wow."
Liber's mouth dropped open.
He had been on a tour of the royal palace, but the cathedral's majesty and scale were different from the palace.
A massive fortress finished with gray bricks.
The long, vertical windows were decorated with colorful mosaics.
Next to it were several more massive buildings in the same style.
"How many buildings are there?"
Nubes pretended to know.
"There are more behind this. They're all cathedral buildings. There must be more than ten buildings?"
"Oh, Nubes. You seem to know a lot for someone who's only been here once."
Since it was a field trip for the entire fourth grade, many teaching assistants were also assigned.
Teaching assistants from various majors were in charge of leading each group.
The teaching assistant in charge of Davian's group was none other than...
"TA. We want to see the building in the back."
"W-What? No, Davian. That area is off-limits to the general public."
"I still want to go."
"I said no?"
"Just keep your mouth shut, TA."
"Davian, you're doing this on purpose..."
Dennis Fionn, a teaching assistant majoring in psychokinesis magic, looked troubled.
What were the odds that he would be assigned to lead the group that included Davian out of all 13 groups?
"Do you realize now? I specifically asked the professor to have you as our TA."
"Davian, you..."
"We have something to find. Do you want to come with us, or do you want to rest somewhere and meet us here later?"
"Where are you going? I need to know that much. I'll be taking all the responsibility if something goes wrong."
Davian frowned.
Teaching Assistant Dennis Fionn.
He needed to be reminded every now and then to understand.
"The responsibility for trying to kill a freshman is okay, though?"
"Hey! Don't bring that up! It was three years ago!"
Davian shrugged.
"Did I ask to be a target for mental magic, or did I ask to be a sparring partner? I'm just saying you should rest. Isn't that better? Let's meet here again before the general service."
After ditching the teaching assistant, Davian's group began to search the cathedral in earnest.
"Liber, which way?"
"Just a moment."
Liber unfolded the map again to check.
A floor plan of the cathedral that he had requested from his family.
"This way is closer, but it's more likely that we'll encounter a priest. Let's go around that way."
The floor plan even had the priests' usual routes marked in color.
Routes with frequent movement were marked in red, medium movement in yellow, and routes with almost no movement in blue.
Latia asked in admiration.
"It's really big. There are so many buildings, and they're all connected by indoor passages."
"The archbishop probably wanted to show the authority of Deus by building the cathedral this big, but now it's being used for a completely different purpose."
"By the way, I still can't believe it. Davian said it himself, so it must be true, but to think they're taking kids and experimenting on them in the cathedral..."
Davian turned to look at Latia.
"And very cruel experiments at that."
The third field trip for the fourth grade, first semester, to the cathedral.
After the fourth graders, led by their teaching assistants, headed to the separate chapel prepared for the evening service.
A quest notification and a horrifying event occurred.
One wall collapsed, and grotesque monsters poured out. On closer inspection, they were formed by the haphazard combination of teenage boys and girls' bodies.
Some monsters had two heads, while others ran on the ground with four arms.
Some even had long, vertical tears in their backs that were actually large mouths.
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[Quest: Completely Destroy the Bloodline Lab]
―The Carlton Order's bloodline experiment has resulted in a horrific outcome. You must find and completely destroy the bloodline lab inside the cathedral to prevent the infinite creation of monsters.
―These monsters were children who had participated in religious camps run by the Carlton Order and decided to walk the path of a clergyman.
―End their suffering.
―The longer the destruction of the bloodline lab is delayed, the greater the damage to your academy peers.
―Reward: 40K Mana Points
=====
A scene of utter chaos.
If a monster was cut down with a sword, it would cling to the corpses of other monsters on the floor and rise again as a new monster.
If it was burned with fire magic, it would become a charred monster and rise again.
"This way!"
Davian opened an empty door and let his friends in.
He himself entered the empty room and carefully closed the door.
Liber whispered, "Why? Is someone coming?"
"Yeah. Let's wait here for a moment."
Bonita asked this time, "What if someone was in this room? Did you know there was no one here?"
Davian nodded.
After his magic power and inner strength combined, he could easily feel it without seeing it.
"Just with your senses?"
"Yeah."
Bonita chuckled and shook her head.
"You're amazing, Davian."
The room Davian's group had entered seemed to be a place where laundry was collected.
Dozens of priestly robes were piled haphazardly in a large basket.
"The color of the collars are different?"
Liber replied, "The Merlin Order is yellow, and the Carlton Order is red."
"I see. The Carlton Order must hate the Merlin Order for clinging to prophetic interpretations. The bloodline lab Davian mentioned, was that also created by the Merlin Order?"
Davian shook his head.
"No, it's the Carlton Order."
Velum asked back in surprise, "The Carlton Order? Why would an order that values devotion to God over focusing on prophecies do such a thing?"
"It's the result of a misguided obsession with God."
"Misguided obsession?"
This time, Liber replied, "There's been a saying for a long time. Somewhere on the continent, there's a bloodline that can communicate directly with Deus."
Latia nodded and joined the conversation.
"I've heard that too. They said that if someone with that bloodline awakened their ability, they could gain the power of God."
Davian continued, "But for a long time, no one with such a bloodline has appeared. So the Carlton Order tried to create that bloodline themselves. It may have started with a desire to communicate with God, but as time passed, the meaning must have changed."
What Davian was telling them now was the truth that was revealed by the royal investigation team after the third cathedral quest.
The horrific things that the Carlton Order did to create a bloodline that could communicate with Deus had been going on for over 20 years.
Even though the number of believers had decreased, there were still plenty of parents who wanted to send their children to the cathedral camp.
All the children who had special components detected in their blood were captured and used as test subjects.
No priest opened their mouth about what that component was until the royal investigation was over and they were all sentenced to death.
The parents of those selected children were notified that they would become formal priests.
The fact that the clergy's location was kept strictly secret from the outside was stipulated as law, making it easy to avoid parents' suspicions.
"So Nubes could have been a test subject too? He almost went to the camp when he was younger."
"Maybe."
"Does that bloodline that can communicate with God even exist?"
"Well, I don't know about that."
"I thought the Merlin Order, which is obsessed with prophecies, would be the villain. It's completely the opposite."
"Liber made it easy to understand, but the prophecies are so complicated that the Merlin Order priests who are dedicated to solving them should be seen as scholars."
Velum nodded.
"What did Chatterbox say? Our continent will be destroyed by the hands of a man?"
"Yeah. A man who is neither human nor God."
"Who could that be?"
Liber replied, "It's probably a metaphor. Figuring out what that metaphor is is the lifelong wish of the Merlin Order priests."
"Ah, I see."
A man who is neither God nor human.
A man who will bring the end to the Pax Continent by bringing a giant sword.
The image of one person suddenly came to Davian's mind.
'Judging by his movements, it doesn't seem like he uses a sword.'
Bonita, who was standing by the door, gestured.
"I think they've all passed?"
"Let's go."
Davian moved while hiding, sensing the movements of the priests for a long time.
He finally arrived at the building next to the annex chapel where everyone had gathered for worship during the third trip.
'This is the annex chapel, and the monsters poured in when the left wall collapsed...'
Davian looked back and forth between the map and the building and raised his index finger.
"Let's go that way. I think we're almost there."
Davian retraced the memories of his past life.
He had fought a fierce battle with the hideous and pitiful monsters for a long time.
Following the quest guidance, he had gone down to the basement of the next building to destroy the bloodline lab.
At that time, the buildings were already collapsing and broken in various places, so it was difficult to make an accurate comparison with the present.
"Liber, if there was a passage to go underground near here, where would it be?"
"Hmm."
Liber, who was staring intently at the map, reached out his finger.
"Over there?"
"Let's go."
"We have to go underground, right?"
"Yeah. A long way down."
As they headed towards the place Liber was pointing to, Davian felt that there was an empty space under his feet.
Davian was the only one who knew that there was an empty space under the thick stone floor.
"Oh, Liber."
"Why?"
"You're right, this way. How did you know?"
"Well, I studied the floor plan hard before coming here."
Davian nodded lightly.
"Good job, Liber."
"But where is the entrance? If we want to go down quietly without getting caught..."
"Why?"
"Huh?"
"Why do we have to go down quietly?"
"Well, we have to move secretly without the priests knowing."
"We don't have to do that anymore. It's going to get loud anyway, so what's the point?"
"Oh, really?"
If they had come with some kind of question, they would have to be careful when going down.
Now that they were here, there was no need to be wary of the priests' eyes.
Because the notification that only Davian could hear rang in his ears.
Ding.
=====
[Quest: Completely Destroy the Bloodline Lab]
―The Carlton Order's bloodline experiment has resulted in a horrific outcome. You must find and completely destroy the bloodline lab inside the cathedral to prevent the infinite creation of monsters.
―These monsters were children who had participated in religious camps run by the Carlton Order and decided to walk the path of a clergyman.
―End their suffering.
―Reward: 40K Mana Points (x2)
=====
The same quest.
However, the part about the damage to his peers increasing as the destruction was delayed had disappeared.
This was the difference that occurred because he had come here directly without waiting for the quest to appear.
Davian was no longer a being dragged around by quests.
"Move aside a little."
Davian made his friends step away and stomped his foot.
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