In the end, Xio did help Fors out after all.
She found an informant from the East District and, in her own name, delivered the report letter into the hands of a nearby Night Church clergyman.
As a bounty hunter and underground enforcer who enjoyed a certain reputation in the East District, a letter passed along by Xio was likely to be taken seriously by the officials.
At the same time, Fors also passed word of the matter along to Silas.
The Goddess Church's response came faster than Silas had expected. Thirty minutes later, the letter had already appeared on his desk.
"This is a report from a follower of the Goddess."
Leonard, across from him, explained. "She discovered traces of Mr. X of the Aurora Order."
"Is the information reliable?"
Though he already knew the intel checked out, Silas still had to go through the motions of confirming it.
"According to the local church priest, that follower is a trustworthy person of good character." Leonard answered, then couldn't help but ask, "Your Excellency, what do you think?"
He was asking Silas whether, based on this report, it was worth launching an investigation, one that would lead to gunning down these mad cultists.
Leonard still carried this grudge.
Ma'am M, who had caused the death of the team captain and directly triggered the Tingen incident, was from the Aurora Order. The Evernight Church was a True God church, while the Aurora Order was a mad Evil God organization, so the two were natural enemies.
If it were up to him, he'd genuinely love to wipe every last one of these damned cultists off the map.
Silas took out the letter and skimmed through it roughly.
Under Leonard's gaze, one carrying a barely concealed hope, he looked up and asked, "How many Red Gloves do we currently have in Backlund?"
"Three teams in total, nearly twenty people. Our team, Ms. Daly's team, and the team led by Captain Hull, who's just returned from an outside assignment... Your Excellency."
Leonard caught the implication in his words, a flash of excitement passing through his eyes before it vanished.
"Tell everyone to be on standby."
Silas said, gripping the letter as he rose from behind his desk. "I'll go have a word with the Archbishop."
"What do you intend to do?"
Archbishop Anthony set down the letter, looked up at Silas, and asked calmly.
"Wipe them out."
Silas answered curtly and coldly.
"Very well, you have my permission. But I have one requirement: do it cleanly. Try to eliminate as much of the Aurora Order's strength as possible in a single engagement." Anthony nodded. "As you know, cultists breed at an alarmingly fast rate."
Without changing the underlying conditions in the East District, even if every single member of the Aurora Order were wiped out this time, the worship of Evil Gods would still keep spreading.
Silas thought to himself privately.
Of course, he didn't voice this response out loud, and simply agreed to Anthony's terms instead.
"In that case, the preparatory work beforehand might need to be somewhat more extensive."
Silas analyzed. "I'll need to arrange for people to conduct reconnaissance on the periphery, and put together a more thorough plan..."
"You may coordinate whatever resources you need on your own.
Additionally, you're also authorized to draw out some suitable Sealed Artifacts to use in the operation." Anthony said calmly, offering him a faint smile. "Of course, Tier 0 Sealed Artifacts are off limits."
Even if you let me, I wouldn't dare use one anyway...
Silas grumbled inwardly.
"Heh, well then, I'll just..."
He twitched the corner of his mouth into an obliging smile, intending to take his leave from Anthony and go arrange his people to prepare, only to notice the latter was still watching him with an amused smile on his face.
"Ishmael, how long has it been since you arrived at the Backlund Diocese?"
the Archbishop asked.
"Nearly ten days now."
Silas answered, a bit on guard, unsure what the man was getting at with this question.
"Only ten days in, and you've already led a team to kill a demigod who'd lost control, brought in an 8,000-pound donation for the church, and now you're about to head out again, to clear out the Aurora Order's forces... One could say you've truly worked very hard, and accomplished a great deal."
Anthony said, then shifted the direction of the conversation. "But you are, after all, part of the organization's upper leadership, and to a certain extent represent the Church. You mustn't handle things quite so coldly and harshly."
Silas raised an eyebrow slightly.
He said nothing, simply watching as Anthony continued, "Take what you did with the Sanguines, for instance.
In the short term, it did indeed produce quite good results. But in the long run, it will accumulate resentment toward the Church among them."
"We're not the only True God church in Backlund. We're competing with the Storm and Steam churches for the support of the faithful, and quite often, as a member of the leadership, one has to consider things from a broader perspective..."
He counseled gently, in a mild tone.
"Your Excellency, perhaps you could put it a bit more plainly." Silas said directly. "The Loen way of speaking tends to be too indirect, and I'm worried I might have missed your true meaning."
Anthony laughed upon hearing this.
"What I mean is, as a member of the Church's leadership, you can't just focus on wiping out cultists. You also need to consider the Church as a whole."
He put it more bluntly. "For instance, attending various religious functions to spread the Goddess's gospel, maintaining good relationships with Backlund's upper class, thereby expanding the Church's influence..."
Ah, so that's what he meant.
Silas realized.
What Anthony said actually wasn't wrong.
If Silas really were a member of the Church's leadership, someone who'd considered rising further within the organization, then indeed he ought to be mindful of matters like these... But his true goal was to rapidly accumulate merit, so as to advance to Sequence 3 as soon as possible.
The only one he answered to was the Evernight Goddess herself.
"...Conveniently enough, there's a ball happening next Saturday."
the Archbishop said. "If you're interested, I'll get in touch with Count Hall, the host of the ball, and have him send an invitation your way as well. You could make some friends at the ball, and gradually expand your social network from there..."
Count Hall... Justice's father, wasn't it... Silas's instinct was to decline, but the name suddenly brought two things to mind:
Justice had mentioned before that there'd been a recent trend within noble circles of mocking Feysac.
Deacon Silvester, too, had frequently participated in social functions while he was alive.
Perhaps he could find some clue in all this... With this thought in mind, he nodded at Anthony. "
Then I'll trouble you for that, Your Excellency."
"It's nothing at all.
Anthony chuckled, "Keep up the good work, both in your duties and your socializing."
After this, Silas finally found the chance to take his leave from the man's office.
Backlund, West District, within a public cemetery belonging to the Storm Church.
This kind of public cemetery didn't involve burial in the ground; instead, small cabinets were used to store the ashes of the deceased.
The advantage of this approach, of course, was that it could accommodate a great many of the departed, while also being quite affordable, allowing even the poor a final resting place.
Rows of walls, densely packed with cabinets from top to bottom, and standing among them was a middle aged man in his forties.
His features were rather pleasing to look at, his black hair streaked with a few threads of silver, his blue eyes deep and calm, giving him an air of maturity and refinement.
He was in the process of placing a set of ashes into one of the cabinets.
Klein, no, the man who should now be called Dwayne Dantes closed the cabinet door, leaving behind the deceased's name and epitaph upon it.
This was a teammate of his who had died during that book based adventure, a Loen native, who after a hundred years had finally returned to rest in his homeland.
Once this was done, he picked up the box, turned, and walked into the mist, which was no longer quite so thick as before.