Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 588

“Have all the bodies been recovered?” Ellen asked.

“Yes, they’re being transported to the main temple of the Order of the Holy Knights,” came the reply.

Ellen quietly surveyed the charred remains of the temple. With all the bodies already recovered, the scene was eerily empty. Given that the temple had already partially collapsed, it was crucial that the bodies were swiftly removed.

Ludwig scanned the scorched and desolate interior, looking grim.

Ellen examined the small chapel of the burnt temple.

‘It seems likely this was an attack by rioters,’ she thought.

The temple was small enough to be vulnerable to attacks by civilians, and the priests could have been easily overpowered.

Identifying the culprits would be challenging, but the incident didn’t seem to hide any deeper secrets.

“Do you know the circumstances around the fire?” Ellen inquired.

“It appears the arson occurred after the priests were killed. When the fire started, a crowd rushed in to loot the place before everything inside was consumed,” was the response.

“They came in to loot the place after seeing the fire?” Ellen asked incredulously.

“Yes. Many witnesses say that people eagerly rushed in when they saw the flames.”

“Unbelievable...”

Both Ludwig and Ellen frowned at this revelation.

As Louise had mentioned, the events had occurred sequentially, but arson hadn’t been the final act. It seemed looting was the last act.

“So, they didn’t loot the place then set it on fire, but rather looted the place upon seeing the fire?” Ellen clarified.

“Yes...”

Under normal circumstances, such behavior would be unthinkable, but when every penny and meal was vital, desperation drove people to take action.

The temple had been set on fire, and those who saw it attempted to salvage anything valuable or intact, whether rare items or food.

The assumption that arson had been the final act was incorrect. That assessment had merely been born from a lack of understanding of people’s desperation.

Looting had indeed been the last act, and the looters hadn’t been the murderers, but onlookers who seized the opportunity to steal what they could.

Of course, it was possible that the murderers had done the looting first, set the fire, and then the onlookers took whatever remained.

‘If the fire had come first, the priests would have escaped before the flames consumed them. Arson definitely followed the murders, and the looting was done by the onlookers. So the correct sequence of events was: the priests were murdered, the place was set on fire, then the onlookers looted the place.

‘This suggests the murderers killed the priests and then set the place on fire. Whether their motive was murder, looting, or something else remains unknown. At least we know the looters Ludwig saw aren’t the murderers. They were petty thieves who rushed in to steal after watching the fire. Still, I’ve learned something.’

After organizing her thoughts, Ellen turned to the anxious holy knight.

“Is there a chance of catching the culprits?” she asked.

“At this stage... I can’t say for sure,” the holy knight hesitated.

If this was truly the work of a violent mob, there wouldn’t be much to uncover, regardless of what sort of priestess Rowen was, and even if Ludwig and Ellen got more involved.

Even if they searched the refugee camp and the capital thoroughly, they might only catch a few petty thieves, and those thieves might not even be the ones who killed the priests.

‘There’s a slim chance this could lead to a massacre of civilians by the Order of the Holy Knights, but given the already unfavorable public opinion of them, it’s unlikely they’d take such a risk...’

Interpreting this incident as a challenge to divine authority and intensifying the search for heretics would be the worst-case scenario, but if that happened, public opinion of the Church of the Five Great Gods, which was already unfavorable, would only worsen. The Order of the Holy Knights had no need or reason to take such a cruel and horrific gamble.

Ellen pondered. This wasn’t a good situation, but if she said it was a straightforward incident, Ludwig would back down.

Rioters had attacked the temple and set it on fire. The culprits were civilians, and Rowen, lacking any combat ability, had been brutally murdered with only the power of healing to defend herself.

Regardless of Rowen’s true position, and whether she was a spy or something else, Ludwig had no reason to dig into it.

“Hero, please leave this matter to us...”

However, Ellen was aware of the presence of the holy knight who kept trying to usher her out. Like a thief with a guilty conscience, the holy knight was visibly uneasy about Ellen’s presence.

If they had just left her alone, she might have come to the conclusion that there was no reason to dig any further, but the holy knight’s anxiety kept Ellen from leaving so easily.

It could be interpreted as concern that Ellen might get caught in the building’s collapse, but Ellen found something suspicious in his attitude.

‘All the bodies have been recovered...? Hmm...’

It wasn’t unreasonable that the bodies were quickly removed to prevent them from being buried in the collapsing building.

The entire building hadn’t burned down, nor had it completely collapsed.

It had been constructed with a mix of stone and wood, so while the wood had been burned black, the building still awkwardly maintained its shape, although it sagged in certain places, while other places had been completely burned away.

Ellen examined the walls of the building that hadn’t been consumed by the flames.

‘Bloodstains...’

She noticed blood splatters on the walls, possibly where a body had been, as if the flames had missed that spot.

Although there were no bodies, Ellen imagined the murder scene in her mind through the bloodstains on the wall.

The victim had probably been killed while leaning against the wall.

‘Blood on the wall, and a large pool of it on the floor... They must have died instantly, right there.

‘The weapon used was a blade—most likely a sword. The blood spatter rises up and to the right... That suggests an upward slash, from left to right. Not a downward strike, but an upward one—a motion that doesn’t lend itself to much force.

‘And judging by the amount of blood... it wasn’t just a superficial wound. This was a clean cut—it cut through bone. Without that, blood wouldn’t have sprayed this far, especially onto the wall like this.

‘No untrained civilian could have made a cut like this, not in a single stroke, especially one who did not receive specific training with a sword. Absolutely not.’

Ellen narrowed her eyes, staring closely at the blood-smeared wall.

‘The blade even scraped against the building wall slightly...’

The mark was faint, but unmistakable.

The sword had sliced not only through a body, but had bitten into the stone behind it.

‘There must have been at least one person among the attackers who was capable of Mana Reinforcement.’

Ellen silently read the story written in blood—a slaughter that a human of regular strength could never have caused.

That realization led to another.

Had the holy knights not noticed these clues? Or... were they pretending not to?

It was impossible to tell whether the holy knights had truly overlooked the evidence or if they were deliberately concealing it.

Perhaps it was because Ellen was an outsider. Perhaps it was something they weren’t allowed—or didn’t want—to reveal. Or maybe Ludwig simply hadn’t realized it, despite the signs being right in front of him.

“Did you... figure something out?” Ludwig asked quietly, noticing her contemplative silence.

“Hmm... No, not really.”

Ellen’s gaze remained fixed, but she didn’t share what she had uncovered. Not yet.

Leaving the bloodstained chapel behind, Ellen moved on to inspect the rest of the temple.

It was far from intact.

At the rear of the structure, the roof had entirely caved in. The area once used by the priests—which held their quarters and the kitchen—had also collapsed.

Cold air swept in through the gaping hole above, and snow had begun to accumulate inside.

“Hero, further collapses might occur,” one holy knight warned.

“It’s fine,” Ellen replied calmly.

Rubble from the fallen roof lay in heaps, obscuring anything that might be buried beneath.

“Could there be more bodies under there? What’s the status of the search?”

“Ah... All bodies have already been recovered. That section collapsed this morning.”

“I see.”

Ellen studied the skeletal remains of the roof, quietly acknowledging the knight’s warning. The snow continued to fall. If it kept piling up, the temple might eventually collapse entirely.

Ellen was convinced the holy knight’s claim—that the attack had been the result of a riot—was either a lie or spoken in ignorance.

The notion that a small temple couldn’t fend off armed civilians had already been disproven.

The attackers hadn’t just been ordinary civilians.

The sequence of events was clear: first, murder, then arson, and finally, looting.

Based on the brutality and precision of the initial assault, Ellen could only conclude that the killers were not random rioters. So then, why? Why this temple?

If the attack hadn’t been motivated by a spontaneous outburst of rage, there had to be some other reason. This place had to have some significance. But what kind? It was only a modest temple.

Even after examining it thoroughly, charred and ruined as it was, Ellen hadn’t uncovered anything particularly notable.

If this had not been a mindless act of violence, then there had to be some sort of intent behind it. A valid motive, hidden beneath the surface.

But clues were scarce. The holy knights had already removed all the bodies. If they had held any sort of evidence, Ellen had no way of discovering it now.

Any useful signs, aside from the blood splattered across the walls, had likely been destroyed.

Ellen recalled Louise’s theory that the incident had occurred in three distinct phases: murder, arson, and looting.

Murder had come first—and it was almost certain that the perpetrators weren’t civilians. Their goal had not been to loot the place at all, but to kill the priests.

Looting had come last. The looters had been opportunistic bystanders, taking advantage of the chaos. In other words, they had nothing to do with the core of the incident.

Louise had suggested that each of the three acts might have been carried out by different groups.

This wasn’t a simple case of an angry mob losing control.

Looting could be explained—whenever something valuable is about to burn, petty thieves are bound to show up. In that sense, there was no need to discover any further reason behind the looting; it was almost inevitable.

The looting was incidental, and the core of it all was murder.

Why had this temple been attacked?

There had to have been a clear and compelling reason. Something beyond what could be seen on the surface.

The second stage had been arson.

Why was the fire necessary?

There had to be a reason for it.

But what? What was the desired result?

Ellen looked up at the crumbling structure of the temple.

Was there something that needed to be burned? Or something—or someone—that had to be buried beneath the collapsing building?

She couldn’t be sure.

But there was one thing she was certain of.

Whether it was because of the murdered Archbishop Rowen, or because of something far more insidious about the temple itself... This temple was not an ordinary place. Of that, she had no doubt.

“What exactly was this temple?” Ellen asked.

The holy knight tilted his head, as if confused by the question.

“Huh? Well... it was a temple dedicated to Ouen, the God of Purity.”

“...”

Ellen could no longer tell if he truly didn’t know or was simply pretending not to.

Ellen scanned her surroundings. The outer walls still stood, but the roof had caved in, leaving piles of rubble in front of her.

Snow was slowly accumulating over the stone debris.

“Ellen.”

Ludwig, who had been silent until now, quietly called her name.

“Yes?”

“Don’t you... Smell something?”

Ellen paused. There was an odd smell lingering in the air.

At this point, it was hard to say whether the holy knights knew what had truly happened. Were they trying to hide something? Or were they genuinely trying to whisk her away because it was dangerous?

Ellen knew Ludwig wasn’t exactly quick-witted—even he admitted it—so for him to mention something meant it had to be really obvious.

She looked at him. Ludwig was sniffing the air, his nose twitching.

“...”

Of course, Ludwig wasn’t speaking in metaphors or alluding to anything deeper. He was literally talking about a smell.

There was a smell, yes. The thick scent of smoke and ash hung heavily in the air, as expected from the aftermath of a fire. Ellen had been deliberately taking shallow breaths to avoid it.

“What kind of smell?” she asked.

“It’s a... stench...”

A stench... While the reek of smoke was overpowering, something about the way Ludwig said it felt... off.

No—the burnt smell was already awful. Ludwig wasn’t foolish enough to point out the obvious.

There had to be something else.

Thinking that Ludwig’s offhand observation might actually be a clue, Ellen sharpened her focus—this time, on her sense of smell.

The overwhelming scent of burnt wood and ash dominated the air. But beneath it, there was something else. Something subtle, but unmistakable. A stench that crept up her nose, sharp and unpleasant. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

“You’re right. It smells like excrement,” Ellen said.

“Right...? I thought so too...”

Feces. Urine. The unmistakable stink of human waste.

“And there’s also blood in the mix,” Ellen added, narrowing her eyes.

A faint, metallic tang—the fishy, iron scent of fresh blood.

It could have come from the corpses at the scene. But what they were smelling wasn’t just a lingering decay. This was strong.

This wasn’t the kind of smell that could be burned away or buried under debris. It was coming from somewhere nearby.

Ludwig had instinctively focused on the smell.

The stench of a battlefield. It was a scent Ellen and Ludwig had encountered countless times, one that couldn’t be mistaken.

And the source of that smell...

Ellen rolled up her sleeves.

“Ludwig.”

“Yes?”

“Help me move these stones.”

The smell was clearly emanating from beneath the pile of rubble where the snow had begun to gather.

“O-oh, okay!”

“H-Hero...!”

As Ellen stepped forward, one of the holy knights quickly moved to block her path, as if insisting that she not take another step.

“If you say one more unnecessary word...” Ellen said calmly, lifting her cloak ever so slightly and tapping the hilt of the sword at her waist.

Her fingers rested on the sword of the moon—the Void Sword, Lament.

“Expect to experience something interesting.”

She was quickly losing patience with these pointless interruptions.

***

As Ellen and Ludwig began clearing the debris of the collapsed building, the anxiety of the holy knight watching them reached a breaking point.

The only relief was that the outer walls of the building remained intact, so those outside couldn’t see what they were doing.

Clearing the snow and shifting the massive piles of rubble was no easy feat. But Ludwig and Ellen knew that they wouldn’t have to move many stones to uncover something crucial.

The stench of blood and filth grew stronger, almost overwhelming their senses. Something was hidden beneath the debris.

Soon, more holy knights gathered to watch, but none dared to interfere. They couldn’t stop her, nor could they help, so all they could do was watch as she continued to clear the wreckage.

How much debris had they cleared?

“There’s a basement here.”

“You’re right.”

Beneath the rubble, hidden from view, lay a basement.

From where Ellen and Ludwig stood, they could see stairs leading downward. And from there, the stench of blood and filth coming up was unmistakable.

Ellen turned to the holy knights, their faces pale with fear.

“Stay here. Don’t follow us. Just wait.”

It was a warning. Since they had tried to deceive her, they were to brace themselves for what she might do and whatever she might uncover.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

With that, Ellen led the way, and Ludwig followed closely behind.