CH 236

C236 - Individual Study, Group Study (1)

"I had no idea you would recognize me, Sir Vitura." Jin spoke as he approached.

"I attended the enemy's celebration. I stayed in a corner and only drank alone, so it's no surprise you didn't see me there."

Vitura's eyes seemed bitter as he looked at the Golden Shield Knights he had killed.

"Even a large portion of the Sacred Knights under my direct control have defected to your side. Lani, I'm grateful that you weren't injured in this mess."

"Sir Vitura, I had questioned your loyalty. Please forgive me." Lani bowed as she spoke.

Vitura made a gesture of apology.

"I would have done the same since your father and I have been hostile towards each other for a long time. In fact, I was always the first to say that we should side with the Zipple."

The Holy King, Miklan, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Sacred Knights, Vitura Veltor: both were known to be enemies for a long time, and they had indeed engaged in quite furious debates in the national council.

But it was all just the roles they played to maintain political balance. Miklan played the benevolent role of squeezing those in power, while Vitura played the wicked role of representing them.

The conflicts that arose between them since Miklan's coronation were actually a collaboration between them, and only the two of them were aware of this agreement.

There was a long history behind it.

But Vitura thought that now wasn't the time to explain those things to Lani. They had to talk about the current situation.

"Lani. Soon, the Zipple will receive news of your visit and Lord Jin's. There aren't many people in the mansion who obey me without question, and even they are being watched."

"The Zipple must think you're on their side, Sir Vitura."

Vitura nodded.

"They must have the impression that I was the first to side with them. They started planting spies in the Holy Kingdom twenty years ago."

Back then, Jin hadn't even been born.

He was expelled from his clan in the past life, with no access to any information. What he didn't know was that the Holy Kingdom had also fallen into Zipple's hands at that time.

"The Holy Kingdom is currently divided into two."

"On one side supporting the Zipple and the other opposing them?"

"No, between those supporting the Zipple and those supporting Kinzelo. The fake double of the Holy King is Kinzelo's doing. I still can't believe it, but Kinzelo seems to have a Transfigurer among them."

Lani's eyes widened. The Holy Kingdom was not only invaded by Zipple, but it was also under the influence of Kinzelo. She was more than surprised.

In fact, she thought that Kinzelo was a third-rate terrorist group, incomparable to the Zipple Clan. Anyone with such ideas would have reacted like her if they were told that half of the Holy Kingdom was under Kinzelo's control.

Jin didn't show much reaction, and Murakan simply shrugged.

"You don't seem very surprised by the mention of Kinzelo, Lord Jin, nor does your knight."

I'm not a wretched knight. Murakan considered saying this aloud but decided against it.

"I was attacked by some Transfigured ones on the day I departed for the Sword Garden. They were Zipple extremists. After that, I started tracking their identities and found out that Kinzelo and Zipple had formed an alliance."

"You went through something like that? I see. But they're not together anymore. They had been allies until some time ago, but recently they turned their backs on each other for some unknown reason."

Vitura had been observing the state of affairs while pretending to serve the Zipple clan.

But there wasn't much he could do since the reigning Pontiffs Montiano, Connieu, and the others - along with their organizations - were all in total submission to Zipple.

So, when the two allied forces became hostile towards each other, Vitura thought that the only opportunity to reclaim the Holy Kingdom was within reach. He hoped that their grip on the Holy Kingdom would weaken.

But instead, the Holy Kingdom was divided, along with the struggle between the two factions.

The soft-liners allied with the Zipple, and the hard-liners with the Kinzelo.

"The traitors believe that Keliac Zipple and the leader of Kinzelo are bigger than Ayula. I haven't seen the leader of Kinzelo myself, but Keliac seemed to have enough power to make the weak in faith find him quite convincing."

Even after his loyalty came to an end, the two factions decided to hold onto their semi-domains over the Holy Kingdom and pursue their own interests.

There were a few loyal servants like Vitura, but their number was far outnumbered by the traitors.

The struggle to reclaim the Holy Kingdom was futile if neither the soft-liners nor the hard-liners were interested in it.

Vitura continued with his rapid briefing session. Meanwhile, the bodies of the slain Golden Shield Knights began to emit the smell of blood.

"When did the experiments with biological golems begin? When we went to secure Lani at the Eastern Temple, we fought against soldiers of the Holy Kingdom turned into these golems."

Jin took out the fragment of the biological golem's heart from his pocket.

"Oh, great Ayula. Your children suffer such terrible fates." Vitura held the fragment, and his whole body trembled. "They started their experiments in the Holy Kingdom about six months ago. Over a hundred civilians and soldiers of the Holy Kingdom are captured and sent to their location every month to be used as test subjects."

Lani was horrified.

The fact that she was oblivious to such things happening right under her nose made her feel like she could lose her mind.

"Lani, it's not your fault. It's ours, your father's and mine. We both missed the moment to tell you these things."

"By their location, do you mean the Lutero Magical Federation?"

Jin naturally thought that the experiments with biological golems were the work of the Zipple.

"They're not the Zipple. It's the work of Kinzelo."

But unlike in Kollon, the experiments with biological golems conducted on the people of the Holy Kingdom were the work of Kinzelo.

"Is Kinzelo conducting biological experiments with golems?"

Kinzelo was deeply related to the Half-Men. The prominent combat tribes among them, like the white werewolves and crimson tigers, took orders from Kinzelo's leader.

Jin recalled that the fragment of the golem hearts had accumulated a blue aura, which gave him a creepy feeling.

'Kinzelo, those bastards! Are they trying to recreate the Legends!?'

The hearts of the biological golems in the Holy Kingdom were somewhat similar to the Light Hearts of the Legends.

Murakan seemed to think the same. He leaned forward to get a better look at the fragment.

"But how? By what means? My brothers vanished completely from the human world five thousand years ago. There are no stories of the Light Heart being passed down through generations, and the Technique of the Sword of Legends was completely..."

Jin was thinking about that when he remembered an article from a newsletter.

The article was about Bamel, who was actually him using lightning. Then he remembered the Kinzelo agents who survived at that time, all witnesses to the Technique of the Sword of Legends.

"It can't be just because of that, right?"

An indescribably unsettling and ominous feeling weighed on Jin's downcast heart.

"The Kinzelo have been taking the citizens of the Holy Kingdom to Old Oterium."

It was the headquarters of the Dark Magic Guild and the place where Riol Zipple's legacy rested.

Biological golem experiments were carried out there.

"Are the Zipple capturing people and experimenting on them too?"

"Not for now, at least. The Zipple showed signs of attempting to use our sacred relics and the relics of the demons we guard, but they didn't use our people for experiments."

"That's probably the result of their decision to gain favor with the public when they have to fight against Kinzelo to become the sole owners of the Holy Kingdom. That's how those hypocrites operate."

Vitura nodded with a heavy heart.

However, he was also quite surprised. Jin only needed a few sentences to accurately deduce something that Vitura had concluded after many years of observation.

"Well, damn! Look, Holy Knight Chief. How is it that you've never once sought help from the Runcandel or the other factions when things are already such a mess?" Murakan said in frustration.

Vitura sighed in response. "If the Runcandel were to join at this point, what would be left of this land?"

Jin thought they had acted wisely.

The Zipple and the Kinzelo would only try to discreetly control the Holy Kingdom. But the Runcandel would have seized the opportunity to start a total war, turning the Holy Kingdom into a wasteland and taking away the highly skilled Healing Saints and the objects from the eternal safe.

To be precise, what the Runcandel needed was not Vankela, the neutral kingdom. It was the healing ability of the Saints and some valuable objects they desired.

"Hm, you're right. Kid, what are you thinking?" Murakan asked.

Jin had his arms crossed and fell into a brief silence.

"I'm thinking of a way to drive both the Zipple and Kinzelo out of this place without great sacrifice."

Jin started racking his brains as soon as he learned that it was actually the Kinzelo who were behind the biological golem experiments, not the Zipple.

He was thinking of a way to mess them up for good.

"What?"

"I have an idea. We should be grateful that the Kinzelo are still unknown to the public. Sir Vitura?"

"Yes, speak, Lord Jin."

"Everyone making decisions in the Holy Kingdom is either a traitor or loyal to the Kingdom but without power, like you. Am I right?"

"Yes."

"But the people don't know anything about it. They must not be aware that a hundred or even more citizens of the Kingdom are being used as experiments every month."

Vitura's eyes began to widen.

"Are you going to reveal that to the public?"

"Yes. But no one will believe the plain truth, so we'll need some evidence. I'll go with this guy to Oterium and rescue the captured citizens."

"I also thought of doing that. But there are many eight or nine-star wizards from Kinzelo in the area."

"Yes, I know. They are the Wizards of the Dark Magic Guild, under the umbrella of the Kinzelo organization. I've also done a lot of research on the matter."

"But are you sure you two can rescue the people alone?"

The question begged to be asked, but Vitura decided to listen first.

"The rescued citizens will be the most powerful evidence of all this. But unfortunately, the inhabitants of Old Oterium are unlikely to be in their natural state. They would have already been turned into biological golems or be in the process of transformation."

"Then, do you mean to reveal the truth to the people of the Holy Kingdom by showing their states?"

That was the best option if they could only bring back the people who were captured to be subjects of experimentation. However, with the current number of loyal forces to the Kingdom, reaching Oterium itself was utterly impossible.

"Yes, that's my plan. And all the responsibility will fall on the Zipple, rather than Kinzelo because I will claim that I rescued the people from the Fourth Magic Tower of the Zipple Clan."

"The Fourth Magic Tower of the Zipple Clan? But that would be a lie."

"It wouldn't matter if it's a lie or not. Once the news spreads that people from the Holy Kingdom have been captured and even sacrificed for biological golem experiments, the Zipple will have to speak up. It will be much harder to control the people once they fall from grace."

People were unaware that the Holy Kingdom had already fallen to the Zipple.

But once it was revealed that the Zipple had conducted experiments on their people, the Zipple would have to make a tremendous effort to stabilize a land they already had in their grasp.

It was not something they could turn a blind eye to, as they were supposedly the defenders of justice, at least in appearance.

"The lie would be exposed if the Master of the Fourth Tower speaks up about it. But it seems he has a plan, Lord Jin."

"Currently, the Master of the Fourth Tower, Karl Zipple, is not in the Lutero Magical Federation. He is being held hostage by the Kinzelo. But you see, Kinzelo is currently known as a third-rate terrorist organization."

If Jin entered the Holy Kingdom with the people he had rescued, the Zipple would be forced to make a decision.

Either admit that Keliac's son, Karl Zipple, is being held captive by an unknown third-rate terrorist group. Or assume the blame of Kinzelo and be accused of the biological golem experiments.

The former would damage their power reputation, and the latter their justice reputation.

"So we will crush Kinzelo with force and the Zipple with reason."