Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 579

After leaving the refugee camp, Rowen headed towards the Temple of Ouen, located on the outskirts of the capital.

“Is that where you stay?” Ludwig asked.

“I prefer to rest at the temple closest to where I need to be the next day, so I don’t have a fixed residence,” Rowen replied.

The capital was as vast as the refugee camp, and Rowen did not have a permanent residence, instead choosing to rest at whichever location affiliated with the Church of the Five Great Gods was most convenient.

“Please be here by nine tomorrow at the latest. If you’re late, I’ll leave without you. Got it?” Rowen said playfully.

Ludwig scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Yes, I’ll make sure to be here by then.”

Tomorrow, he would visit the headquarters of the 17th District Guards to make his report to the captain, confirm that the epidemic had truly been eradicated, and then escort Rowen to the next area.

Helping Rowen was merely a temporary assignment, but it was a necessary task. Just being able to assist in such work seemed to alleviate some of the burden and pressure Ludwig felt about having to make judgments.

Would he know what was right If he had been smarter or wiser? In the face of these difficult tasks, Ludwig had to confront his own limitations in order to overcome them. In that sense, Ludwig was wandering about, lost, while Rowen was nothing short of salvation for him.

The Temple of Ouen exuded an aura of decline. Its surroundings were desolate, with not a single passerby, as if people feared to get close lest they contract something awful. The guards at the gate also looked visibly fatigued.

Moreover, the temple’s stone walls seemed damaged, and were marred with illegible graffiti. Both the temple’s dilapidated state and the graffiti scrawled on its walls were clear markings of the anger and hatred towards Ouen and his believers.

Other temples of Ouen and Alse on the continent were likely in similar states.

People avoided them, unless they came to vandalize the place, and even the few believers who visited did so secretly.

“Isn’t it shabby?” Rowen asked.

“Huh? Oh...” Ludwig stammered.

“There have been several attempts at arson as well,” Rowen added.

The mention of attempted arson shocked Ludwig.

“Are things that bad?” he asked.

“Yes,” Rowen replied calmly, though her expression was tinged with deep sadness.

The hatred towards Ouen’s priests and followers was naturally expressed more intensely at this temple.

People now treated the Temple of Ouen as if it were a shrine to the Demon King.

As Ludwig approached the temple entrance, the guards, who had appeared tired, suddenly looked tense.

It wasn’t him they were nervous about.

The priests’ gazes were directed to Ludwig’s right.

“Archbishop! Thank you for your hard work today!” they exclaimed.

“Yes, you’ve all worked hard too,” Rowen replied.

Archbishop... The word left Ludwig frozen in place.

“See you tomorrow, Sir Ludwig,” Rowen said with a smile, nodding slightly before entering the open temple.

Rowen had mentioned she was a priestess, but had never specified her rank, and Ludwig hadn’t asked either. He had simply assumed she was a regular priestess. However, he belatedly realized that a priestess capable of purifying the epidemic running rampant throughout a large portion of the refugee camp with just a single prayer couldn’t be merely ordinary.

An archbishop wandering the refugee camp without an escort of holy knights—was it a reflection of how powerful the archbishop was, or did it signify the extent of the decline of the Order of Ouen?

Learning that the female priestess he had walked with all day was an archbishop of the Order of Ouen, someone he wouldn’t normally encounter, left Ludwig dazed.

He had even questioned her, asking her why the gods had chosen the Demon King. That question, under normal circumstances, could have led to an inquisition. Perhaps Rowen had shown him mercy due to the situation.

Rowen wasn’t just a regular priestess; she was an archbishop, someone of incredibly high status.

Yet there was something else to make Ludwig feel foolish.

‘How high is an archbishop...?’ he wondered.

He was surprised to learn that Rowen was a high-ranking member of the clergy, but Ludwig couldn’t quite understand just how high that rank was.

***

I had discovered what the Empire was doing at the magic department in the Temple’s university, and had even seen the project with my own eyes.

They were doing more than just reviving dead mages as liches. They were performing a half-resurrection, restoring their bodies and abilities but not their memories or selves.

It was on a different level than creating a lich or a Death Knight.

After my discussion with Vertus ended, I relayed the information to Sarkegar.

I had not uncovered any immediate connection to the Black Order, and even if there was, I had decided to accept it, so I chose not to pursue that any further.

Sarkegar had been more cautious about the potential dangers than I had anticipated, but he couldn’t go against my decision.

If ending the Gate Incident was the only good in this world, then bringing an end to it even a little faster was a good thing. Therefore, I decided to overlook the empire’s actions regarding this project.

Ultimately, I’d had no choice but to take the bold step of meeting Vertus directly, but things turned out decently in the end.

I couldn’t predict how my ability to have a conversation with Vertus would develop in the future, but for now, this was the best I could think of.

I didn’t return to Edina immediately.

Honestly, if I disappeared now, Ellen would run around searching the entire Temple for me, crying and wailing.

But if she didn’t return to the Allied Forces’ camp and kept me at the Temple, I would be stuck.

It wasn’t the time to disappear and create an incident that might affect Ellen’s mental state. If something urgent came up, I could leave Sarkegar to take my place as a last resort.

Because of this, I had no choice but to stay at the Temple for the time being.

Late that evening, those who returned late were having dinner together in the banquet hall. Although the actual dinner time had long passed, preserved meals had been prepared for those who returned late, allowing them to have a meal, albeit not a proper one.

Ellen and Heinrich, who had patrolled the capital that day, were there.

It seemed neither had encountered any unusual incidents that day either. At least the monster issue seemed to be well managed. Then again, the subjugation squad patrolling the outskirts of the capital were not made up of regular guards or knights, but resurrected war heroes, so it was unlikely that they would face any more monster issues.

In fact, the point of the subjugation squat wasn’t the extermination of monsters. It was a test to see if these resurrected heroes could be well-controlled enough for actual deployment.

It was like using a missile to kill a chicken, so to speak, which meant Ellen and Heinrich had nothing to do.

Ludwig, who had just returned from a late shift with the guards, joined them.

There was no reason to sit separately, so the three of them sat together to have a late dinner.

Ellen had some dried biscuits with water, Heinrich had jerky, and Ludwig had a piece of hard bread in front of him.

They all tended to eat sparingly, knowing that food was a luxury.

The banquet hall was nearly empty due to the late hour.

I sat on the table in my cat form, listening to their conversation.

Ellen offered me a piece of jerky, but I didn’t touch it. I wasn’t hungry, and I didn’t want to waste food either.

Ellen tapped my nose a few times with the jerky but didn’t force me to eat it. Eventually, she put it in her own mouth.

“An archbishop?” Heinrich asked.

“Yeah. How high-ranking is an archbishop exactly?” Ludwig asked, turning to Heinrich as soon as he sat down with his bread and a cup of water.

‘What does his guard duty have to do with an archbishop?’ Heinrich wondered as he chewed on his jerky.

“Well... there are many possibilities,” Heinrich replied.

“What do you mean by many possibilities?” Ludwig asked.

“Because we don’t know if the archbishop is an archbishop by rank or is a metropolitan,” Heinrich explained.

“A metropolitan? What’s that?” Ludwig asked.

Heinrich looked at Ludwig silently.

‘Is Ludwig’s brain going to overload when I explain this to him?’ he thought.

While Heinrich wasn’t as slow-witted as Ludwig, he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed either.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Heinrich began cautiously, “but as far as I know, a metropolitan is a priest who manages a metropolitan area, but not all archbishops manage a metropolitan area. There are archbishops who are metropolitans, and then there are those who are given the title of archbishop for entirely different reasons. Therefore, even among archbishops, their roles can differ, and their ranks can vary,” Heinrich explained.

Ludwig remained silent, staring at Heinrich.

“Uh, sorry... but what’s a metropolitan area?” Ludwig asked.

“Oh.”

It wasn’t just a simple matter of a lack of comprehension; Ludwig simply didn’t know anything.

Heinrich froze, unsure where to start.

“Think of it simply,” Ellen interjected. “If a bishop manages three or four temples, then an archbishop manages dozens. Not all of them are like that, but you can essentially think of it that way.”

“Oh... so like a lord?” Ludwig asked.

“Yes. Think of a bishop as a noble, and an archbishop as a great lord. There are also cases where an actual noble holds the office of bishop or archbishop, but of course, that might not mean much now,” Ellen replied.

In some cases, bishops or archbishops were actual lords.

Ellen’s simplified explanation was easy for Ludwig to grasp.

“So, they’re a very high-ranking priest?” Ludwig asked.

“Yes. The only ranks above an archbishop are cardinal and pope,” Ellen replied.

“But what do you mean by archbishops having different ranks?” Ludwig asked, growing curious after Heinrich’s unnecessary comment.

Ellen chewed on her biscuit in silence for a while, then took a sip of water before speaking.

“Think about an archbishop who manages all the temples in the capital. We recently occupied Serandia, which was a large city. There must have been an archbishop managing all the temples in Serandia. Both the archbishop of the capital and the archbishop of Serandia are archbishops, but who do you think has a higher rank?” Ellen asked.

Ludwig nodded, understanding. “The archbishop of the capital, right?”

“That’s right,” Ellen said with a nod. Ludwig had caught on to her explanation.

“But is there an archbishop managing the entire capital?” Ludwig asked.

“Well, I’m not part of the Order of the Holy Knights or the Church of the Five Great Gods, so I don’t know for sure. But the capital probably has the most temples on the continent, so the capital might be more subdivided into dioceses. There might be multiple metropolitan areas, or the rank of the capital’s archbishop might be entirely different...” Ellen trailed off, looking at Ludwig.

“I don’t really know,” Ellen finally said, taking a bite of her bread.

‘Yeah. Don’t explain. He won’t understand anyway,’ I thought.

It was enough that Ludwig understood that an archbishop was considered a high rank among the clergy and that there were different levels among archbishops.

However, Ludwig seemed to have more questions.

“So, cardinals and the pope are higher-ranking than archbishops, right?” Ludwig asked.

“Yes,” Ellen replied.

“Then what rank is the head of the Order of the Holy Knights?” Ludwig asked.

‘Ah, right. He might be curious about that.’

“Above a cardinal, but below the pope,” Ellen answered briefly.

“The position of the head of the Order of the Holy Knights is ambiguous because it didn’t originally exist,” she continued. “Practically, they are ranked lower than the pope, but their power surpasses the pope’s. So, you could say that the head of the Order is equivalent in rank to the pope.”

“I see...” Ludwig said.

The cardinals of each of the Orders of the Great Gods would be involved in electing their pope. However, the head of the Order of the Holy Knights, which was a collective of the Church of the Five Great Gods, could not be considered a cardinal of any single order. Therefore, its position within the clerical hierarchy was slightly ambiguous. It was supposed to be a position below the pope, but the individual who held that rank was too powerful for that to be the case.

Practically, the head of the Order of the Holy Knights did not have a clear place in the hierarchy.

“But why the sudden interest in archbishops?” Heinrich asked, echoing my thoughts.

‘Yeah, why is he suddenly curious about this?’ I wondered.

Ludwig explained what had happened that day. The area plagued by disease, his assigned task of escorting a priestess around, and then discovering that the priestess he believed was just a regular member of the clergy was actually an archbishop.

Heinrich and Ellen seemed quite shocked by the news that an archbishop was working directly.

Heinrich and Ellen seemed quite shocked by the news that an archbishop was directly involved in such work.

“An archbishop is handling such a thing personally? And without the escort of holy knights?”

Well, if there were enough clergy members around, they would have to be spread throughout the refugee camp. If that were the case, it was better to rely on the local guards for escort.

“It seems I’ll be continuing to escort this priestess from tomorrow onwards,” Ludwig said.

“That’s good,” Ellen replied.

Ludwig had been quite troubled lately, but his expression seemed better, which suggested that he’d found that day’s work fulfilling. It wasn’t dangerous, and it was necessary for the people. And, though it could possibly sound a bit harsh, it was an endless task.

Diseases would keep breaking out here and there, so the work would literally never end until the issue of hunger within the capital was resolved. Without that, it would be an endless cycle of misfortune.

They might not have run into any unsavory incidents that day, but there was no guarantee such incidents would not happen in the future.

“Come to think of it, it might not be that strange,” Heinrich said.

“How so?” Ludwig asked.

“I mean, an archbishop-level priest roaming about alone,” Heinrich clarified.

“Oh... I heard it’s because priests are assigned many tasks,” Ludwig replied.

“No, I mean there might actually be many archbishop-level priests around, and that they might be going around alone,” Heinrich explained.

“What?” Ludwig asked.

“Of the places that could be considered metropolitan areas... Most of them have been destroyed. Therefore, there might be as many archbishop-level priests performing duties of regular priests with the Allied Forces, the Order of the Holy Knights, and in the capital,” Heinrich explained.

“That might be true,” Ludwig agreed.

Could a lord who had lost their territory still be called a lord? If so, then an archbishop who had lost their metropolitan area could still be called an archbishop.

Heinrich’s point was that it might not be so strange for high-ranking priests to be concentrated in the capital, and I found his argument quite plausible.

There was no safe place in the world, and it was natural that high-ranking priests would be concentrated in the capital. As a result, there were more archbishop-level priests around than usual.

Most of them were probably serving in the Allied Forces, and those who weren’t might be wandering the streets, attending to the sick.

High-ranking priests were being concentrated in the capital, and yet there was still insufficient manpower. It seemed completely laughable, but that was only natural. There were more survivors concentrated in the capital than there were priests.

‘Still, an archbishop...?’

Meow.

“What’s wrong?” Ellen asked.

‘This feels a bit... unsettling.’