The imperial western road stretched long across the central and western regions of Lacania. A group of men and women walked along the road. They were clad in shabby travel-worn clothes and carried large bundles on their backs like wandering merchants.

Of course, they weren’t actual merchants. It was simply Karnak’s group in disguise. They had changed clothes and slipped away after leaving the Saisha temple under the pretense of returning to the Altas merchant guild.

As they walked, Karnak suddenly licked his lips. The Saisha temple had spared no hospitality. They had served not just a hearty dinner, but a generous breakfast too.

"Temple food really is good," Karnak commented.

Varos, disguised as a porter, nodded in agreement. "Right? Maybe it’s the quality of the ingredients?"

Leven chimed in matter-of-factly. "No matter how good street food is, it can’t compare to upper-class cuisine. They just don’t have access to the same ingredients."

To secure quality produce year-round, one needed more than just money. They needed influence.

Serati added her thoughts as well. "But the wine wasn’t that great, don’t you think?"

"The climate around here isn’t ideal for growing grapes," Leven replied.

They chatted like food critics as they walked. This was good, that could’ve been better, this was excellent... Not that they were actually obsessed with food. They were just bored during the walk and filling the silence with conversation.

Milia clicked her tongue after observing their conversation. "That was the most extravagant meal I’ve ever had."

"Hm? Aren’t you a priest, Miss Milia? Don’t you eat temple food every day?" Leven asked, puzzled.

Milia gave a bitter smile. "Not everyone at the temple eats the same thing."

Sure, the high-ranking clergy probably ate well. But what did low-ranking priests like her get? Nothing special. Karnak and Varos nodded in understanding.

"Ah, so we got the premium treatment."

"If we’re getting served like that, it probably means we’re far from just ordinary guests."

Of course, Milia was now a second-class inquisitor. In other words, she was high enough in the ranks to enjoy the good temple food.

"But I was assigned to the King’s Order the moment I became an inquisitor," she explained.

So she’d been living off the food at the Drunta Inn ever since.

Karnak glanced her way with a faint look of sympathy. No wonder she jumped at the offer when we said we’d buy her a meal.

Now that she was one of his vassals, he figured he ought to treat her to something nice from time to time. Thus, the group continued down the long road, heading in the opposite direction of the inn where the Altas merchant guild had been staying.

They had informed the Saisha temple they were returning to the Eustil Kingdom. With Count Hudel’s successor taken care of, they claimed they were heading back to the Seven Kingdoms alongside the Altas merchant guild. But of course, they had no intention of actually returning. Their real business hadn’t even begun.

"Still, we had to make it clear we were heading out. That’s the only way to throw off the Cult of the Black God," said Karnak.

Naturally, the cult wouldn’t believe everything they said. They’d probably suspect that Karnak’s group had faked their departure and were still lurking somewhere in the empire. And rightly so.

Karnak shrugged. "But even if they suspect it, they’ve got no way to act on it."

Being a secretive organization came with its own limitations, and it was a well known fact that communication within the cult was a mess. And even outside of secret societies, real-time communication was a luxury reserved for a privileged few.

Only ninth circle mages could communicate in real time across long distances, and there were only a handful of such people on the entire continent. Each one was considered a top-tier elite. One couldn’t just ask someone like that to run messages. Karnak only had access to a communication system thanks to the four elders.

So, the typical methods involved enchanted carrier birds, magical messages, relay riders, or human couriers. Magical messages were used in urgent situations, and relay riders delivered accurate, detailed messages. But both required thorough preparation and cost a good fortune.

Magical messages were fast but lacked secrecy. Anyone could see them flying through the air. And sending a human meant covering all their travel, lodging, and food, just to deliver a letter.

"They couldn’t afford to send word to Elezar right away, even after they confirmed we were coming," explained Karnak.

Serati muttered in disbelief. "So they can summon an angel, but they can’t send a letter?"

"They’re a secret cult, after all," responded Karnak.

"That’s why people should live honest lives," Varos commented.

Karnak nodded. "Yeah, living honestly really is easier."

"Excuse me?" Serati asked them, genuinely bewildered.

Apparently, Karnak genuinely believed he was living an honest and upright life now.

Well, everything in the world is relative, Serati thought.

He was living an upright life compared to his days as the Monarch of Death. The group continued walking while chatting away.

Suddenly, Varos spoke. "By the way..."

He sounded as though the thought had just occurred to him. "Who do you think helped Diogres escape?"

***

Karnak was able to extract some rough information about Diogres Kolon from Harbert. There were two key takeaways.

The first was as Karnak explained, "Diogres currently has his magic sealed. He can’t wield power like he used to."

Leven and Serati looked unconvinced.

"You’re saying someone sealed an archmage’s magic?"

"There’s a spell that can turn a tenth-circle mage into a powerless wreck? Doesn’t that make that spell the strongest of all?"

Karnak simply shrugged. "It’s an extremely restrictive spell. Not something you can use easily."

The tenth circle absolute magic seal in question was Hug of Queen. It was a rather bizarrely named spell that didn’t even exist in the current age.

"Elezar developed it in the future, under my rule, to take out other archmages. The target back then was Giyen Ren," explained Karnak.

The essence of the spell was a sort of magical collateral. It sealed the opponent’s mana by putting the caster’s entire mana on the line.

"It turned out to be a lot less useful than it sounded, though," muttered Karnak.

Serati tilted her head. "Not useful? Why?"

"The sealing levels were asymmetrical," Karnak responded.

The caster, Elezar, lost all her mana. She became a total cripple who couldn’t even cast a first circle spell. But the target, Giyen Ren, only had his tenth circle magic sealed.

"I don’t know whether the technique was incomplete or whether that was just its limit. In any case, it couldn’t seal anything below the ninth circle."

In other words, one archmage, the caster, became completely powerless, while the other was reduced to a master of the ninth circle.

Serati nodded. "Oh, that’s a terrible trade."

"Right? So I just tossed the spell out and forgot about it..." Karnak said.

In fact, Karnak had completely forgotten the spell even existed until Harbert brought it up. It was so useless that it had completely slipped his mind.

"But it looks like Tesranach somehow perfected it," he continued.

The current Elezar, under Tesranach’s control, had used Hug of Queen on Diogres with different results. While she still couldn’t completely seal his mana, unlike before, this time she managed to suppress his magic all the way down to the fifth circle.

"In other words, Diogres is now a fourth circle mage," said Karnak.

If a spell reduced an archmage to a ninth circle master, it wasn’t worth sacrificing one’s entire arsenal. But reducing them to a lowly four circle caster?

Karnak continued, "That’s worth the trade, isn’t it?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Then Varos asked, "So is Elezar now a cripple?"

Karnak nodded. "As a mage, yes."

"And someone like Harbert knew such a huge detail? That seems suspicious," commented Varos.

Karnak shook his head. "Not necessarily. That’s because he was only weak to us. Harbert was actually one of Elezar’s higher-ranking subordinates."

Hudel had been one of Elezar’s most trusted confidants. And Harbert was Hudel’s successor. In truth, neither Harbert nor the other necromancers were pushovers. Karnak’s group had grown too strong too quickly.

"And besides, it’s a different situation now than it was in my time," said Karnak.

The Elezar under Karnak had either been a mage or a necromancer, never both. In life, she had been a mage. After death, as an undead, she used her converted necromantic power like magic. So when she used that spell, she became a true cripple.

But Elezar was both a mage and a necromancer under Tesranach. Even after sealing Diogres’s magic, she remained the strongest necromancer in the Cult of the Black God.

"With plenty of power left, she probably judged that it was safer to tell her top subordinates the truth so they wouldn’t mess things up," Karnak speculated.

Of course, even Harbert wasn’t fully informed. But it seemed clear that Elezar, with help from Dreltein, had successfully sealed Diogres Kolon’s magic.

"One long-standing question has finally been answered. They were relying on this spell," said Karnak.

There had always been something Karnak found curious. Why had they targeted the archmages first, even though they weren’t exactly easy prey? Did they have some guaranteed way to suppress them? More difficult than killing an archmage was preserving their body intact.

"If Hug of Queen can achieve something like this, it would’ve made sense to take down the archmages first and stabilize their power," continued Karnak.

As a result, the archmage Diogres Kolon had lost most of his abilities and was now reduced to a fourth circle mage. Under normal circumstances, there would’ve been no way for Diogres to escape.

That led to the second piece of information Harbert had shared with Karnak. "When Diogres Kolon was cornered, an unidentified individual appeared and rescued him."

But even Harbert didn’t know who this mysterious helper was.

Serati found that strange and asked, "They shared something as sensitive as Diogres being unable to use magic, but kept the helper’s identity hidden? Why?"

"Ah, it’s not that it was hidden on purpose..." Karnak gave a wry smile. "To be precise, Elezar didn’t hide the helper’s identity at all."

They were trying to track down where Diogres and his rescuer were hiding within the empire. At that point, there was no reason to conceal anything. Some of the information had simply been lost during the correspondence process.

"So Harbert was still waiting for further updates," said Karnak. That said, the possible candidates for the rescuer could be narrowed down considerably. "They may have been called unidentified, but plenty of clues were left behind."

The very situation itself was the first clue. "Even if she couldn’t use magic anymore, Elezar was still a powerful necromancer. And don’t forget. Martial King Dreltein was also there," explained Karnak.

Yet this so-called mystery helper managed to rescue Diogres Kolon from both of them.

Karnak posed the question. "How many people on the continent could pull off something like that?"

It was the same problem Karnak’s group had faced back in the Grental territory. Even if they wanted to keep their identity hidden, the sheer power required to defeat a being like the Angel of Radiant Wings naturally narrowed the suspects.

It was the same situation here. As Karnak put it, "It has to be either a martial king or an archmage."