"Greetings, we have received Your Highness's request. That which you seek is located in the Katze Plains... We wish you success in battle..." Tsukasa read the contents of the letter. Aside from some formulaic greetings, the only truly useful piece of information was the location: "Katze Plains."
It seemed that would be her next stop.
The Katze Plains—located in the area of the city of E-Rantel—connected the border regions of the Dragon Kingdom and the Slane Theocracy, with villages of demi-human races nearby. I see. They hid in such a remote place; no wonder there was no news. However, she heard that the Dragon Kingdom was a nation ruled by a True Dragon Lord. Surely the people of the Goddess Cult wouldn't be crazy enough to cause a ruckus in a Dragon Lord's home? They clearly lacked any prominent powerhouses, yet their actions were unexpectedly reckless.
It seemed her previous worries had come true. The Goddess Cult was truly aiming to become an enemy of the world. After offending the human nations, they weren't done; now they planned to deal with the Dragon Kingdom. At this rate, even neutral nations like the Council State might fall victim to them.
She had to extinguish the chaotic fire of the Goddess Cult before things reached that point. Although the Goddess Cult didn't know she was their "mastermind," this matter wasn't completely without flaws. After all, Ainz Ooal Gown and the captives he had seized knew that Nigun was under her control. While the fact that Nigun was the founder of the Goddess Cult was currently known only to the Cult and themselves, as long as such a flaw existed, there was a risk of exposure.
"Alice, have Hanta prepare the carriage."
"Understood, Master."
Alice went down to make preparations.
Tsukasa ignited the letter in her hand, watching the reply burn to ashes. Although there was no need for secrecy, for the sake of caution, it was better not to let others know for now that she already had this information. She always felt like there were eyes from the Goddess Cult nearby. This feeling was merely an unfounded intuition, but her intuition had always been very accurate; there was no longer any need to doubt it.
Intuition was different from conjecture. While her conjectures weren't necessarily correct, her intuition had never failed. Since she could feel someone observing her nearby, then it was definitely happening. Moreover, the fact that she couldn't discover them meant the other party hadn't sent scouts directly, but was monitoring her through some method she didn't know. Could it be magic?
If it was magic, then the act of burning the letter just now was a bit redundant, as the information had surely already leaked. But there was nothing she could do about it. It wasn't that she didn't specifically study magic, but the magic of this world was inherently difficult to learn. Humans could only cast up to sixth-tier magic, and legendary heroes were said to be able to cast seventh-tier magic.
However, the grimoires recorded at most fourth-tier magic. Magic above that required a teacher's instruction. So even if the difficulty of learning magic itself was trivial to her, the paths to learning it were very scarce. As for her nominal teacher, that Old Man was extremely annoying; she didn't even want to see him, let alone ask him for guidance on magic.
Furthermore, the magic of this world wasn't as strong as the magic she originally possessed, and in the Sword Saint State, she could even create her own magic as needed. Given that she had the capital to be willful, she didn't want to humble herself to seek help from those guys in the Empire.
Besides, even without those spells...
She could still wipe out the Goddess Cult!
Surveillance and such—it was something that could be solved just by eliminating the mastermind. She was now so strong she even scared herself. Perhaps she couldn't compare to the Dragon Emperor or the Creator God from this world's myths, but she dared to say that she was the "strongest" on the surface right now!
Even against the Demon King Ainz Ooal Gown and his followers, she now had the confidence to win. Although the effects of true artifacts were terrifying, once the principles were understood, there were ways to deal with them. The simplest way was to carry the true artifact "beauty that topples cities and nations" with her. That way, she would receive the protection of a true artifact, which was enough to negate the effects of other true artifacts. Unless she encountered a higher-level true artifact, she wouldn't need to worry. But even if a more powerful true artifact appeared, could a higher-level artifact even exist?
No, that possibility was almost zero.
If one needed to worry about the effects of a true artifact, they should worry if the effect was some kind of invisible curse. After all, to negate a true artifact's effect, one must first be equipped with a true artifact. But if one were caught off guard without being equipped, then even if they held a true artifact, they could be screwed over. However, there was no need to consider such a situation. After all, if there really were a true artifact with an effect like a Death Note, it would be completely unpredictable, and being caught off guard would just be bad luck.
However, she was already analyzing the principle behind that negation effect. It's just that this thing seemed to involve the essence of this world. Even in the Sword Saint State, she currently only had a partial understanding and hadn't fully cracked it. It seemed that even her Sword Saint State had an upper limit and couldn't do everything.
"But there shouldn't be anything to worry about for this operation. Others might not know, but don't I? The Goddess Cult is so poor they don't even have a single true artifact."
After all, the only true artifact they had acquired was in her hands, and she was considering how to melt it down and remake it; otherwise, she really wouldn't want to equip the thing.
Meanwhile...
Inside the royal palace, a maid said to the girl drinking tea in front of her, "The Sword Saint has received the information. Shall we begin the next phase of the operation?"
"Let's begin."
The girl looked with a smile at the red dots in the mirror. On the entire map, they were surrounded by red dots. This was the maid's Gospel ability—[Information Network and Information Nullification]—a...
quite useful ability that could mark the followers of the Goddess of Dusk, and even pull the members' spirits into an illusion for communication, or transmit the power of a sacrificial ritual to one of the members. Of course, this ability wasn't just for internal use; it also had various uses externally, though it required gathering intelligence beforehand.
Previously, Number 1 had wanted this maid to take over Number 9's work, but since Number 9 had escaped, that matter was dropped. After all, it was precisely because of this ability that she could control the Cult so well. From a personal perspective, she didn't want more people to know about the existence of this Gospel.
Because there were secrets within that weren't suitable for more people to know. For example—that the Sword Saint who was hunting down the Cult was herself a follower of the Goddess of Dusk—if such a thing were known, it would surely cause a massive uproar. Moreover, this Sword Saint's ritual was almost overflowing; with just one more spark, the Goddess would surely be able to descend.
However... "It's a bit too early."
"Hmm?"
"It's nothing. Continue."
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