“98、99、100、101、101… One less? How could there be one less!? ”

……

"So you're here, Ron?"

"Leave me alone! Mondstadt, I'm not in the same league as them! ”

"No, the master said 102, not one of them is missing."

"Don't take the devil's word for it, Mondstadt, no one has ever made a deal with the devil and it has a good result! Never!! ”

……

"You're right, Ron Fitztier. It's a pity that you're a little late. ”

"You ——?!!"

……

As the investigation progresses, the monastery's past is revealed, and the fog of the unknown is quickly dispelled, even surprisingly.

At the same time, people suddenly found that the young man who was originally regarded as the weakest in the team and needed protection had become a crucial point at this moment!

"What the Mentor said is indeed true, in many things, the role of ordinary people is not weaker than that of extraordinary people......

One of the clerks in the team sighed secretly, and then in the face of the white-robed bishop's gaze, he coughed dryly, took the record of events that had been written, and began to sort out the key points of the matter.

"On the whole, the murderer summoned the devil as a ritual of killing a large number of people, but what we don't know now is which devil the murderer summoned, and what the devil did after he came, or what was the purpose of its arrival?"

"In addition, how the murderer got in touch with the devil, we still need to investigate clearly, and then clean up the aftermath."

"And then there'......"

The dome in the hall of the monastery library was so high that even the clerk's report was constantly echoed.

Listening to the echoing debriefings from behind him, Bernie was wandering around the library, seemingly casually, looking around.

The people in the hall were scattered all over the place, some combing through the case with the white-robed bishop, some searching for other possible clues, and others gathering around the last victim to pray for him—

At this time, everyone was basically sure that the monastery was safe, but after watching the incident, they found that the murderer and the devil attached to the murderer had left here.

So people are relatively relaxed.

However, the matter is far from over, and on the contrary, the investigation that needs to be carried out has become more and more......

As he thought about it, Bernie's fingers ached, and when he looked up, he found himself touching a dagger with a dull color that was being sandwiched in a thick parchment.

"Pretty sharp......"

Looking down at the blood surging from his fingers, Bernie raised an eyebrow, and then flicked his fingers to shake off the blood that had spilled from it.

Then he walked nonchalantly to the body of the last victim not far away.

On closer inspection, the victim, named Ron, had a monk-like Mediterranean hairstyle and was dressed in the same wide-sleeved robe made of wool that was not dyed.

Because he was not bitten by insects, his body was still alive at this time.

The slumped in the corner of the bookshelf with angry eyes widened, as if he had just died.

Bernie was not interested in listening to the prayers of the clergy gathered around the corpse, so he approached a young deacon who was crouching not far from the deceased, seemingly curious about what he was doing.

The young deacon didn't really do anything, he was just squatting there flipping through a book, and to say that he was young was only relative.

He must have been thirty years old, in fact, and Bernie turned his head to look at him as he approached, and then a smile.

Then, without waiting for Bernie to ask, he took the initiative to explain his behavior at the moment.

"I suspect that Ron had already guessed a lot of truths before the murderer found Ron, and I even think that the truth he found had something to do with the specific identity of the devil who descended on him."

"Identity?"

Bernie asked casually, because it was not polite to stand and look down at the other person, so he also squatted down.

"This page is the last time Ron turned it in his lifetime, you see here."

The young deacon, who was crouching next to him, pointed to a passage in the book at hand,

"It is written that the realm of the Lord of Dread is filled with fire, venomous crows, and indescribable evil traps that cause everything to fall into the realm, and the creatures, including the demons of hell, tremble greatly, stir up the deepest and most difficult shadows in their hearts, magnify and deepen them infinitely, and then pit the victim against their own fears until the victim is completely engulfed by their fears."

"So you see, if it's this kind of power, then the monks who are left to the slaughter can make sense, and we can confirm this from another clue - I wonder if you have noticed that since we entered the confines of the monastery, we have always behaved abnormally?"

"You mean it's not very stable?"

"Yes, in retrospect, our performance is not at all worthy of being a senior clergyman, not even a rookie...... Well, I mean that's really humiliating. ”

"So you think this is the ghost of the Lord of Fear?"

"No, I don't think the Demon King did it."

The young deacon shook his head, and then, as if sensing that Bernie had thought too much of what the word demon king meant, said in a deep voice like a story—

"There are hundreds of millions of demons in hell, but there are only seven demon kings."

"Over the course of thousands of years of human history, they have brought countless deaths and disasters. The massacre of Wilcotez, the rebellion of the Red Hand Knights, the plague of blood, the fall of Pope Peck III ......"

"The title of the Demon King itself represents catastrophes and tens of millions of dry bones......

When he said this, he coughed dryly, as if he felt very awkward to speak like this, so his tone returned to normal.

"It is gratifying that the third demon hunting battle is worthy of more than two hundred years, according to the laws of history, it is unlikely that the demon kings will come in this era we live in, and even if the demon king comes, we will get the revelation from heaven in advance."

"So I guess this thing must have been done by some of the devil under the command of the Lord of Fear, but why did it do such a thing, I can't figure it out......"

He scratched his head as he spoke, his expression puzzled,

"You know, a monastery like Amos is just the most common kind of monastery, with no schools open to the public, no imprisons of important people, and no sealing...... Well, there are some very important things to be sealed, except for a large amount of land under the name, there is nothing worth caring about here, but the devil cannot take a fancy to the land of human beings......"

"Obviously, we need more leads." Bernie took the opportunity to say what was in the other person's heart.

The young deacon nodded, and was about to speak, when there was a sudden sound of footsteps in the direction of the library door behind him.

The two turned their heads to see that it was the investigator who had been sent in the direction of the cemetery.

"Your Excellency, we found this in the cemetery."

I saw the middle-aged knight walk up to the white-robed bishop and hand him a box of things he was holding.

"Silver cups, bone meal, goat hearts...... They are all evil things used to summon demons. The white-robed bishop glanced at it a few times, and finally landed on one of the letters.

"What is this?"

"It was a letter of introduction from Boswell, the abbot of Amos, who recommended a monk named Mondstadt to oversee the livestock at a manor near Neuham. But strangely, we did not find the abbot from the body......"

The middle-aged knight replied, and then, seeing the white-robed bishop's thoughtful look, hurriedly added, "Not only that, but we also discovered, uh, something that wasn't very clean. ”

This man's words were a little slurred, and Bishop Rhodes couldn't help frowning, but then he seemed to have guessed something, and he couldn't help but shake his head.

After thinking about it, he beckoned to Bernie, who was squatting with the young deacon not far away, "You and I, Bernie." ”

Bernie replied, nodded goodbye to the young deacon next to him, and then got up and left the library hall with the white-robed bishop.

The perks were impressive, but they had become accustomed to it along the way.

Moreover, in a society where the feudal system is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, it is a matter of course to treat people differently, and no one has any objections to this.

On the other side, Bernie, along with the white-robed bishop and the middle-aged knight, walked down a nondescript utility room in the monastery to a cellar beneath the surface.

Beneath the entrance to the cellar is a progressive stone staircase, flanked by torches and torches.

In the dim light, the footsteps of the three of them echoed in the tunnel, and the light of the constantly shaking torches pulled their shadows to the elder, which also made the atmosphere in the passage very gloomy.

But when they reached a basement at the end of the passage, the dreary atmosphere was swept away.

There is no him, just because this place is so magnificent.

As far as the eye can see, a large number of gold coins are piled up in the light of the torches and emit an intoxicating halo, and various jewels and diamonds are densely dotted on the surface of the pile.

They were like a hundred flowers in full bloom in front of the three of them, and like a blonde lady showing off the jeweled hairnet she was wearing around her head, the colorful colors were entangled with each other, and they were very dazzling.

"Remember, Bernie, that darkness always follows where the light shines, but the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it."

The white-robed bishop stood in front of the pile of wealth for a moment, and finally said.

Immediately afterward, he walked around the pile of gold and took out several bottles of pale golden liquid hidden in the deepest part of the basement.

Then he said to Bernie: "Normally, the consumption of high-grade holy water for the baptism of the Divine Favor will be shared by the diocese where you are located, but you have made a key contribution to identifying the identity and purpose of the murderer in this case, so I can privately decide to use the several bottles of No. 5 holy water confiscated here to baptize you in advance as your reward." ”

After a pause, he continued, "In this way, when you officially obtain the position of the church, you don't need to consume the high-grade holy water stored in the diocese, and I can fight for more benefits for you in other places." But for now, what I'm trying to say is—"

Under the light of the torches held high by the knight next to him, several bottles of pale golden liquid in the hands of the white-robed bishop were radiated into a hazy light curtain like golden sand.

In the dim basement environment, the middle-aged bishop with a resolute face was embellished by this light curtain, and the whole person seemed to be covered with a layer of mythology, which also made his voice particularly sacred.

"Bernie, would you like to officially join the Covenant Church and become a faithful citizen of God?"

"Of course." The brown-haired young man replied when he heard this, and slowly stroked his chest.

"That's exactly what I was looking forward to."