Almoressa. One of the cities located in the northwestern part of the Holy Country Jardalk, it is a small city with a population of about 40,000 people. The city walls are about twelve meters high and were built with enough room to accommodate the leaping power of the snow wolves that roam the snowfields. A pack of about ten or twenty could be driven back by the soldiers on the walls alone. In the freezing cold air――the earth is actually frozen and snow is falling on it. Even in such conditions, the streets of Almoressa are bustling with activity. The reason for this is that no matter how severe the cold, if you are in the town, you will not be threatened by vicious monsters or wild thieves.

"The building you see over there is the church"

A middle-aged man wearing several layers of rags and a well-worn robe on top of that, addressed the girl, who was at least two years older than him, in a humble manner. When the girl looked up slightly at the church, he could see golden hair and blue eyes through the robe that covered her head. It was enough to make him realize that this was a beautiful girl that he would never see anywhere else.

"Thank you. May the goddess of light, Irigamit, bless you"

One of the candidates for sainthood in the Holy Country of Jardalk――Evalina Foddo said and made a prayerful gesture towards the man.

"H, Hey! I was just doing what is natural as an Irigamit believer!!"

The man hurriedly bowed his head to Evalina. The holy country of Jardalk is a religious nation and the pope at the top of it has been appointed by women for generations. In other words, inevitably, the power balance in each position of Irigamitism is higher for women than for men. Moreover, Evalina is a candidate for a saint. It can be said that it is unavoidable for a man to be more humble than necessary.

"I've been waiting for you"

"Thank you for your hospitality"

When Evalina visited the church, it was probably because she had informed them in advance. A young apprentice boy immediately showed up and took care of her. With the boy's guidance, Evalina went to a room in the church. What was waiting for her there was a man with inflamed cheeks.

"I've been looking forward to meeting you, Evalina-sama!"

Evalina hesitates at the man's hand trying to hold her in his excitement. What she didn't react to exaggeratedly was her self-confidence, which makes it easy for someone like this to lie down and her care not to make her uncomfortable.

"Excuse me. This body is dedicated to the goddess Irigamit"

――She didn't go so far as to say that she didn't want the opposite sex to touch her lightly. Evalina didn't want to get him angry and have an effect on the rest of the hearing. Despite her actions according to her own beliefs, it is her act of over-righting that the saint Evalina is investigating the Hilfe camp, which is under the jurisdiction of other departments. The body.

"I'm......I'm sorry, that was a mistake on my part"

The man who patted his hand regretfully was a deacon of the Irigamit religion. In the case of a church in a large city, the position of a deacon is one of the lowest positions in the Irigamit religion, excluding apprentices. In the churches of large cities, the head of the church is the archbishop. Even in a small city like Almoressa, the bishop is in charge. However, the purpose of Evalina's visit to the church was not to meet the bishop, but to meet this man who was an assistant priest.

"I want to know anything about the Hilfe camp"

The man glared at the apprentice boy with annoyance and made a gesture of sending him away with his hand. The boy casually glanced sideways at Evalina, but when she smiled at him and said, 「It's okay」, he bowed and left. After seeing this, the man urges Evalina to take a seat.

"Yes. I heard that you used to work at Hilfe Camp until a few years ago and I would like to talk to you about it"

"It's a liturgy, not a job. Please do not make that mistake"

Evalina neither nods nor affirms. She just smiles a little. That alone makes the man feel good.

"But you want to know about the Hilfe camp? Surely it would be difficult for you, a saintess, to know about that camp"

"You're right. That's why I wanted to talk to Cardinal Bataille, the head of the camp, but I couldn't even get a meeting with him"

"Y, You tried to......meet with Cardinal Bataille......?"

The man's face began to sweat profusely. Bataille is literally the most authoritative person in the Holy Country of Jardalk, with the exception of the Pope. It is difficult for even the three saintess to meet him easily. To do so, a number of procedures and arrangements are necessary. But even though she was a candidate for sainthood and judging from the context of the conversation, it seemed that she had visited him directly without making any arrangements. This is why children who don't know anything――no. Even though Evalina is not an adult, she is a candidate for saintess and she has been trained in various liturgy and rigorous disciplines. Although she has been raised in isolation from the world, she should be familiar with the power structure, customs, rules and laws within the Irigamit religion. So she――knows......after all. It was because he noticed that he sweated horribly.

"Yeah. Is there something wrong?"

"N, No. So......about the Hilfe camp......"

"By all means, tell me, innocence"

Far superior――a beautiful girl who couldn't even speak to her smiles and asks herself and the man forgets his fear for Evalina he had felt and his self-esteem is filled.

"Please leave it to me! The Hilfe camp is divided into about twenty-four blocks. I say approximately because a lowly person like me doesn't have the authority to know or have jurisdiction over all the blocks. The number of people sent to me varies from day to day, but I'd say between 2,000 and 3,000 a month. I was the gate guard for a while, so you can assume that this is a very specific number. The first two blocks are where the most heinous criminals, political prisoners and heretics are kept. The third through sixth blocks would be for human males, the seventh and eighth would be for human females and all subsequent blocks would be for demi-humans. I was in charge of the thirteenth block――"

Despite the fact that she had heard this story many times, Evalina wished in her heart that it was a lie. The Hilfe camp was supposed to be a camp for ideological education. Yet this man used the word imprisonment as a matter of course. She wanted to argue that she couldn't believe it, but Evalina had heard similar stories elsewhere from people who had worked at Hilfe Camp.

"If I may say so myself, I have been performing my sacred duties in the name of the goddess Irigamit with great――"

"No"

"Devotion......ha?"

"There is no such thing as a demi-human race. The Bible also states. "There is no noble in the race", if you are also an Irigamit, you will understand this meaning"

"I......I´m sorry"

"It's okay if you understand. There's one thing that bothers me about your story"

"What is it?"

"You said earlier that two to three thousand people a month were interned at the Hilfe camp"

"Yes. I'm pretty sure of that"

"What is the maximum number of people allowed in Hilfe camp――"

"Its 100,000!"

The man replied to Evalina's words by covering them. He doesn't know what the reason is, but he sensed that Evalina was in a bad mood.

"There are 100,000 people....... At the very least, 24,000 people a year will be housed there. This will be more than the number of people allowed in less than five years. Or will the detainees be released from the Hilfe camp within four years?"

Without realizing it, Evalina had used the word liberation. If the Hilfe camp was a facility for ideological education, as Evalina had previously told Yuu, such words would never have been uttered.

"The Hilfe camp will never exceed its capacity. No, it won't"

The man answered confidently, his expression even proud.

"Why is that?"

Somewhere in her head, an alarm bell rang. But Evslina couldn't help but ask for her own justice, for the rightness of the Irigamit religion, for the belief that the holy country of Jardalk had not committed any atrocities.

"It's simple. Because...it's purifying. Every day, more and more people are being purified by Irigamit, the Goddess of Light. The filthy demi-humans......are departing to the gods by our hands! This is the very salvation! This is the holy work of righteousness! Oh. And those imprisoned will live for five years――no, three years is better. I'll be there――and others――in this way――"

As if in direct contradiction to the man's passionate speech with an ecstatic expression on his face, Evalina's heart conversely grew cold. It was as if the core of Evalina's most cherished heart had frozen over.

"Haahaahaa. So I told. A demi-human who dares to speak the name of God――"

"Can you explain the purification process?"

"Don't tell me about......purification?"

"Tell me the details"

The smile on Evalina's face had vanished, as had all emotion.

"You can't talk about purification with someone as lowly as me"

The man stuttered at the sight of Evalina's changed demeanor.

"Then, who can speak in detail? Don't tell me there is no one else but the Cardinal"

"Th, That's......"

"Say it"

"Hii....... I, I wonder if Chesa Tamha Borjima-sama can explain in detail"

"It's an aristocrat to guess from its name"

Everyone knows that the Holy Country of Jardalk is a religious state. Religious unification――the Irigamit religion is in charge of national affairs and religion and sits at the top. However, about 1,300 years ago, the country was a monarchy with royalty and nobility in charge. There are those who can be called the residue of that and their descendants. Those who inherited the noble bloodline were forbidden to be involved in the center of politics, but they were given certain positions in lordships and various institutions.

"He´s the younger brother of the late Count Nebkado"

"Nebkado......was purged by Archbishop Stella?"

"What!? Please be careful what you say! Count Nebkado, I'm afraid, was killed in battle with honor. His name is on the list of martyrs of the Irigamite religion!"

"What a blatant lie"

"I, I'm not lying"

"Can you swear by the name of Irigamit?"

The man looks away as if to escape Evalina's eyes staring at him.

"I'm sure the people in the church know about it, even if the people don't know about it, people in the church like you and me do. I'm not going to say that I don't know what happened as a result of Count Nebkado sending his troops to Reinhardt's Forest to satisfy his own greed. Don't tell me you don't know. You can't say you don't know how many innocent people were killed in neighboring villages and towns due to the overflow of monsters living in Reinhardt's Forest. In addition, Count Nebkado, who should have taken the initiative in protecting the people, unexpectedly ran away first with only himself, his family and some of his men. It was no wonder that Archbishop Stella, who was sent to deal with the monsters and protect the people, purged Count Nebkado. Well, that's fine. Preaching to you here will not bring back the lives that were lost. This Count Nebkado's younger brother, Cheza, can tell me more about the Hilfe camp, right?"

"Y, Yes. Cheza Tamha Borjima is the former director of the Hilfe camp, so he should be able to talk about purification and the treatment of dead demis――beastmen, elves, dwarves, etc......no, talk!"

After hearing about the location of Cheza Tamha Borjima and the Hilfe camp, Evalina stands up saying she's done.

"P, Please wait. A little longer, you know, talk to me"

The man who had done so much to upset Evalina's nerves had not yet given up his obsession. The pope of the Holy Country of Jardalk is strong, beautiful and the number of years she can maintain her youth is no match for her regulars. The same is true for the three saintess. Many Irigamit believers genuinely revered and worshipped them, but some had impure feelings about them. In other words, this man is lusting after Evalina, who has the appearance of a church king.

"My business is done. I thank you for your cooperation"

Even Evalina's cold response was a blissful moment for the man.

"Excuse me――"

"Please wait! Wouldn't you like to know about the prison break that took place at Hilfe Camp?"

"A prison break at Hilfe Camp? I've never heard of such a thing"

"Ha, hahaa. Isn't that right? Of course not! There has never been a prison break in the long history of Hilfe Camp, has there? But there was! Just once and it was a mass escape! The warden was dismissed for taking responsibility for it"

"Let's hear what you have to say"

When Evalina takes her seat again, the man nods satisfactorily. He didn't sit down and started talking as he walked around the room.

"I'll never forget it. I was in charge of the thirteenth block and I was doing my usual ministry to the sinful. Suddenly, a wind came out of the sky. The Hilfe Camp is a facility surrounded by a solid wall, right? I also wondered why the wind was blowing from the sky. The other guards must have wondered, too. We all looked up at the sky. Then, people started to fall from the sky. There was a tremendous roar. The blast was so loud that the guards around me were blown away"

Was it from fear? Recalling that moment, the man made a gesture of hugging his body.

"Did people come down?"

"'It wasn't a person. Don't be surprised, okay? What came down was a celestial being――and not just any celestial being! It was that Twelfth Death, 『Tenacity----』!!"

"The Death attacked the Hilfe Camp!?"

Evalina couldn't hide her surprise that such a big incident was hidden.

"Huu, Huhaa. Surprising, isn't it?"

Was Evalina's reaction what he expected? The man smirked.

"The guards immediately tried to seize him, but he was completely unstoppable. There was nothing we could do and he could rampage as much as he wanted. In the process, he made a huge hole in the protective wall and allowed a large number of people to escape from the prison. In the end, Gillivam Foddo, one of the 『Two Holy Saints』, appeared out of nowhere and left while we were still fighting. I wonder what would have happened if Gillivam had not appeared. Just thinking about it gives me the creeps''

"What was the purpose of the Death......"

"Would you like to know?"

The man whispers in her ear, placing his hand on Evalina's shoulder from behind her. Evalina is urged to get rid of the man's hand, but she puts up with it and encourages him to continue.

(Ah~. What a nice smell. ......)

"Do you have any idea?"

"Haaaa....... Ah. I, I'm sorry"

"Continue"

"When the 『Tenacity』landed, I saw it. I saw him talking to a beastman!"

"A beastman?"

"Yeah, yeah! It was a white beastman――a dog-type beastman, wasn't it? I recognized him at a glance. She was a famous young beastman in the 13th block"

"The purpose of the Death was to talk to a young beast girl? It's hard to believe"

"That's not just any beastman! It's a beastman with a history! After all, her mother is a beastman, but her father―― you know, the one who was even a bishop of a city――this is an unforgivable taboo! Of all people, a city bishop of the Irigamit religion would have an affair with an impure demi-human. That's why I noticed it right away, too. The upper echelons imprisoned her in the thirteenth block, where there are the most beastmen――hihii――――was a word of misery. Even while I was watching it. Don't get me wrong, I was ordered by my superiors not to do anything――――so――――it's miserable. Even if you're a city bishop, beastmen are still terrible. Even though she betrayed themselves, against the beastmen of the same family――she was still a young child――one after another――the mother cried――but the 『Tenacity』 went to the trouble of risking his life to show up at the Hilfe camp and talk with that young beastman girl. I'm sure there was some reason for it"

The content made Evalina want to cover her ears. Too much wrath, Evalina clenched her fist out of her anger.

"What do you think? I hope my story has been useful to you. If you like, we can have dinner afterwards――"

The man placed his hand on Evalina's shoulder and was about to slide it down to her chest when――

"Go, when are you good?"

It was clearly not Evalina's voice. It sounded as if it came from a large beast, coming from behind the hood that covered Evalina's head.

"No, you can't...you'll have a stomach ache if you eat this"

"Ev, Evalina-sama......what was that?"

"Thank you very much for your kind words, but as I am a very busy person, I would like to decline your invitation"

The man was unable to follow Evalina as she bowed and left. The only thing he could do was to break out into a cold sweat, so cold that his whole body soaked the floor with the thought that his life could have been lost.