Chapter 187
"[The Inverted Fruit] is a fragment of a god. But precisely because of that, it is rather dangerous. The world's balance could fall into chaos, so we secure and store [Inverted Fruits]."
If the Inverted Fruits appearing all over this land were to be taken by the Corrupted or the Dragon Clan even by chance, the continent would fall into chaos once again.
That is something goblins detest.
Because if the continent falls into chaos, the accumulated knowledge will be scattered and destroyed.
And because goblins also desire civilization to develop even further.
And because they detest the intervention of gods in this world more than anyone else.
"I-I normally would absolutely never give this away, but... well, giving one to a human won't be noticeable."
Rector reassured himself and handed over the Inverted Fruit.
Holding the irresistible amount of goblin gold coins Callius had handed him in his arms.
"He's just a human anyway. So what? Or is it? He's not a Corrupted or a Dragon. He's a human who will die soon, so it doesn't matter. Ahem! Of course not!!"
Handing over the fruit shining with five mysterious lights while justifying it to himself.
To obtain just this one thing.
Callius spent 15 out of the 22 goblin gold coins he had collected so far.
To goblins, gold coins from the old days hold a value beyond their special meaning.
Goblin gold coins.
Inside them is an artificial substance they created, but it is a lost substance now, so they cannot be made anymore.
This is because the Decals used by goblins can be used more efficiently and powerfully only with those goblin gold coins.
To goblins, gold coins are nothing short of a kind of fuel.
In this current era, the goblin gold coins were items that could not be obtained even if one tried.
No matter how much they babble about gods and balance, in the end, goblins are also intelligent beings who consider their own practical interests.
They couldn't refuse this many gold coins.
"Are there really no more gold coins? If you have more, I wouldn't mind exchanging them for these..."
Rector said, pointing to the items placed on the stall.
But Callius shook his head.
It was better to have some left over.
And the remaining items were not treasures with enough power to tempt Callius. They were not of great use either, so he didn't feel the need to have them.
"Then this transaction ends here."
"Do I not need to ask more?"
"What do you mean? I've already asked everything I needed to ask. I, too, know that there are things that can be answered by asking, and things that cannot. Callius. Even if I ask about your identity, whether it's true or false, you probably won't give me an answer that satisfies me. And I would have to pay the price for that."
As expected of someone who has lived a long time, he isn't stupid.
If it weren't for their excessive thirst for knowledge, it wouldn't be strange for goblins to be called sages.
"Rector."
"What is it? King of the North."
Rector was holding Materigan's Leg. Since there was nothing more to gain and the transaction was over, it was to teleport somewhere else.
It would probably be difficult to see Rector again. Even if he could see other goblins.
"If you go to the Council, you may speak of me. Tell them I know the secret of Corruption."
"...At first, it was interesting. Your very existence was fascinating. But now, I'm increasingly terrified of you. Throwing out the very things our Council, let alone us, consider the greatest dilemmas, as if tossing bait to fish."
Rector tightly gripped his staff.
The one whose end of knowledge cannot be seen.
Just how much does he know?
What on earth is his identity?
'Like a god... tch tch. That can't be.'
Rector patted the gold coin pouch in his arms, his lips loosening. Either way, obtaining this many gold coins was also a fortune for him.
A satisfactory transaction.
All Rector had to do now was leave.
"Then I'll be going. Callius."
"Speak."
"I'll ask just one last thing."
When he nodded, Rector threw something from his arms and asked.
"What is your earnest wish?"
Earnest wish.
Catching what was thrown while hearing that, Callius chuckled and answered.
"I am still a pilgrim."
"I see... I see. A pilgrim. Yes. That's right. Heh heh heh."
What he handed as a price for the question was the same as what he was holding now.
It was Materigan's Leg.
"Callius. You are not a Challenger. Should I see you as an Abettor?"
"That is unknown."
Challenger. Abettor.
Truly arbitrary terms.
Because they mean challenging a god, and abetting the work of a god.
"Whether to challenge or to abet. I have not decided on either yet. Who knows? I might even usurp."
"...Kik kik kik! How arrogant! Do you think you'll become a god? Not a challenge, but usurpation! I have never heard such an arrogant remark. Especially not from the mouth of a believer who serves a god!!"
Truly a bizarre fellow.
Rector felt an intense desire for knowledge to the point of wanting to dissect him.
To the point of wanting to rummage through Callius's head and explore the knowledge he possessed.
But he barely suppressed it.
Because it felt like Callius would soon appear again even if only a little time passed.
"You're not someone who would be satisfied with just the North. I look forward to the day we meet again."
Crack.
Rector, having broken Materigan's Leg, had his body distort and get sucked into space.
Wooooo-!
With the sound, Rector's figure disappeared from sight in an instant.
Callius looked at the Materigan's Leg and the Inverted Fruit in his hand.
He put them all away and only then began to inspect the inside of the Holy Land.
"A lot of them have bloomed."
Divine power lovingly illuminating the inside of the Holy Land.
The divinity emanating from Fatalite's statue caresses the Sacred Flowers.
I was worried if it would be okay, but in just three years, quite a lot of flowers have bloomed.
It seemed that just by leaving them alone, seeds were sown and they sprouted again repeatedly.
'About thirty blossoms.'
Not bad. However, to prepare for war, there is a need to slightly increase the scale.
"Emily."
"Yeah."
"Pick ten Sacred Flowers. I need to take those to the Order."
"The Order? Why the Order?"
For an all-out war with the Empire, it is good to give the Order some hope of their own.
And because a larger place than here is needed to grow them in large quantities.
"If it's the Order, they'd be willing to buy Valterus's Tears even for an astronomical sum."
The current Order has lost its Holy Water.
And it has also lost the hearts of the people.
But if they restore the Sacred Flowers and produce Holy Water again at this point, the Order's name, which has fallen to the ground, is bound to rise again.
Anyway, it's good for key figures to have Holy Water.
Using this as an excuse, he could expand his influence, and even if he couldn't seize the hegemony of the war, he would be able to exert a tremendous influence.
If he could freely set the stage based on his knowledge, the win rate of the war would increase even more.
"The North's finances are not very good. Although the war was led to victory, the damage is also great."
The North is now Callius's hometown.
He wanted to stop leaving it as it is now.
Selling the Sacred Flowers to the Order to receive full-fledged support and resolving the financial situation would be beyond perfect.
"Emily. Unless a major incident occurs, I want you to take charge of the Holy Land from now on."
"Me, here?"
"As I explained earlier, I am someone who cannot stay in the North for long. Until I finish all my work."
"Yeah..."
"You will manage Fatalite's Holy Land from now on. The reason I came here at this dawn is the same. You must not tell anyone. Keep it strictly secret."
When the Empire first struck Carpe in the back, what they did was also eliminate the Sacred Flowers. That means Holy Water is a core item of religion.
The Sacred Flowers, which are indispensable for manufacturing Holy Water, are more important than anything else.
He would take precautions, but he couldn't let many people know about this place.
In the worst case.
Because there was no law stating that the cultivation of the Sacred Flowers handed over to the Order wouldn't fail or that they wouldn't be burned again.
'Ten blossoms to the Order. I should plant the remaining few somewhere else, just in case.'
Although he bluffed in front of Rector as if he knew everything, Callius only knew what he knew.
He didn't know everything.
There were times when he even forgot what he ate yesterday, so how could he remember all those numerous settings, characters, and various things in detail?
There were many things he had forgotten, and there must be many things that had disappeared in this world.
Weren't there things that didn't exist at all, like Emily? Therefore, he had to prepare and be ready for everything he could prepare for.
Because he didn't want to see his people die again.
"I picked them all!"
"Good work."
Callius, receiving the ten blossoms, put them straight into his subspace.
He had inspected the Holy Land and told Emily what she needed to hear, so he had no more business here now.
'It would be better to leave the North quickly as well.'
Except for the things he absolutely must do, he could leave everything to Tel.
First of all, he had to let Carpe know that he was holding a Saintess as a captive.
'I wonder if Her Majesty's swordsmanship has improved a bit. Stella's swordsmanship is extremely difficult compared to others.'
The Queen's potential is quite high.
Because she was a Named character originally designed with the expectation of dying, she had the trait of a late bloomer.
Since he saved such a Named.
No one knows how she might have changed. Even a god wouldn't know.
"For now, first..."
Callius took out the Inverted Fruit from his arms. Shining mysteriously with five lights, it looked like an apple at first glance.
He took a bite out of it.
* * *
A few days later.
Caaah, ptooey!
A woman holding a shield, spitting irritably as she walked toward the castle.
The Saintess of the Shield, Junis, strode toward Zerban's fortress.
Her actions and speech were more vulgar than a thug's, and her appearance was also peculiar.
Her eyes sparkled as if embedded with rubies and amethysts, and her hair was generally purple, but she braided the back of her hair into two strands.
Judging only by her appearance, she seemed like she would set a man's heart on fire, but her actions were so fierce that there were countless Northern knights who had approached her based on her looks alone, only to end up seeing stars in the daytime.
Anyway.
Such Junis was currently in a very irritated state.
She thought that Callius guy was quite a big-handed fellow for giving her land, but it was near the border. Up to that point, it didn't matter.
Because there was a lot of forest and the land was vast.
Even if the land wasn't fertile, Junis knew her own agricultural techniques.
She had brought crops that could grow even in such barren land in advance, so it was fine.
However, the problem was the magical beasts that frequently visited from across the border whenever they pleased.
Or the orcs.
The North was essentially telling them to block those guys or die trying.
Thus, Junis was on her way to find Callius and demand different land.
"What is that idiot doing."
Eili.
She was facing Callius.
Even Emily, who was no different from the princess of the North, was together with them in the garden prepared on one side of the castle.
'Come to think of it, what was it again.'
Callius's daughter's name was Emily.
And the Saintess's name was Eili, so there was a baseless rumor going around that the two were mother and daughter, right?
Junis was dumbfounded.
There was no way such a rumor would spread just because their names were a bit similar.
She thought that people with nothing better to do had created such a rumor.
But, well.
'The more I look, the more they do look alike.'
They really looked alike.
They were so similar that it was confusing whether it was Callius or Eili. With that being the case, Junis felt like she understood why such a rumor had started.
"But why is that bitch acting like that? Could it really be true? No, but I heard Emily is fifteen."
It's roughly similar.
But to be exact, it was 13 years ago.
'It can't be real.'
Looking again, feeling it was strange, Eili's figure glancing at Callius was not ordinary.
Like a woman harboring romantic feelings, her face was slightly flushed.
There are those kinds of people.
Those who have no interest or involvement in romance themselves, but are quick to notice other people's romantic feelings.
"Junis... why are you here."
Junis was of that type.
Whatever was going on, Eili's reaction was clearly that of a woman in love.
And that was the Saintess of the Spear, her mortal enemy.
Eili.
Then should Junis look at her and support her with congratulations?
No.
Junis is absolutely not that kind of personality.
Rather.
"Callius! I came because I missed you."
She was closer to ruining the mood.
Originally, Eili and Junis were exactly in a relationship where they should kill each other.
It was a relationship temporarily set aside thanks to Callius's mediation, but that didn't mean Junis would leave that sight alone.
"J-Junis?"
A woman who would sell her soul if it meant pissing off Eili.
That was Junis.
"I missed last night so much. We were quite hot, weren't we?"
"Wh-what..."
Glancing at Eili's reaction, she was frozen stiff, quite a sight to behold.
The moment she was convinced that her thoughts were right and felt exhilarated.
Shring.
A sword was thrust to the edge of her chin.
Callius, feeling displeased by Junis's attitude of clinging to him, drew his sword.
"Back off. It's displeasing."
A vein popped on Junis's forehead.