With a heavy investment of real money, Icot quickly ousted the original bishop.
His position in the Old City District Church became as solid as Mount Tai, and the treatment of the Holy Knights and Mercy Nuns also improved significantly.
His partnership with Xiao Lage was completely unimpeded.
But as time went on, the demand for “goods” from Xiao Lage’s side grew larger and larger.
He began urging Icot to introduce him to other bishops to expand his business scale.
After a long period of careful consideration—Liya could even guess what he was thinking—it came down to two points.
First, he didn’t want to increase the number of suppliers and lose his pricing power.
Second, this matter was disgraceful after all; the more people who knew, the easier it would be exposed.
Once it was weighed on the scale, his future would certainly be ruined.
In the end, Icot waved his hand dismissively and said, “Don’t look for anyone else. Leave it all to me.”
From then on, the Old City District Church entered an era of “great increase in production,” with annual supply volumes skyrocketing.
The cooperation between those two had become truly elaborate.
“To explain ‘why there are so many demon collaborator incidents in the Old City District every year,’ cooperating hidden demons are used as a scapegoat, creating the illusion that ‘the Old City District is a blessed land that particularly attracts demons.’ Pretty clever, right? Those cooperating hidden demons cause a stir in the district, while for those who don’t cooperate, they fabricate the illusion of demons causing trouble themselves.”
After organizing the whole story and detailing it to Joen in full, Liya ended with a lingering conclusion.
Joen’s mouth fell open.
He held that pose for a long, long time, like a machine that had broken down and frozen.
A single phrase kept flashing through his mind.
‘How can people be so evil?’ ‘How can people be so evil!’
His mouth slowly closed, and a kind of pale, scorching rage began to surge.
Mixed with the anger was a self-mocking, final-settling bitterness—even though he had long guessed the truth was exactly like this, he had still foolishly fantasized that everyone would have some bottom line in their actions.
“I have to save those people.”
Joen’s right hand suddenly clenched.
The crinkling sound of crumpled paper startled him.
He quickly and carefully unfolded and flattened the paper ball bit by bit.
“You don’t need to worry about that now.”
Seeing this, Liya casually advised.
“Anyway, why? Because they can say this doesn’t count as evidence. This matter is just others spreading rumors to slander him. Only when a wall is falling does everyone push it—defamation becomes meaningful. He gives money to the Church, so the whole Church will definitely support him…”
“Oh no, maybe except for that old drunkard.”
Liya hopped among the letters, methodically checking the secret letters she hadn’t read yet.
“Isn’t there any way to make everything he did public and grant vindication to the wrongfully dead?”
Joen’s throat felt dry and hoarse.
He even momentarily had a violent thought: ‘Just forget everything and go kill him directly.’
But the next second, he painfully stopped himself.
‘No… it will harm the innocent…’
As a Hero, the one who wields the Holy Sword on behalf of the Empire’s countless subjects, how could he overstep the rules and personally break the law? Moreover, if his cause wasn’t justified and his name wasn’t righteous, many people who didn’t know the truth would come to stop him.
If he made a mistake, it would be a sin.
But even as reason pulled that string, there was another thought.
A growing, evil thought.
‘Evil… why can’t justice judge evil? You are just. Those who stop you are all evil. Why not? You are justice, heaven and earth declare it.’ It whispered in his ear. ‘Swing the sword, swing the sword. You hold the Holy Sword for this very moment.’
These conflicting thoughts nearly tore his heart apart.
Fortunately, at that moment.
“Joen~”
A voice as beautiful as a spring oriole reached him.
Like magic, it soothed the brutality in his heart and vaguely showed him a direction.
“There is a way.”
Liya played with the hair by her ear, seriously studying the handwriting.
There was no more wonderful music in the world than this.
Joen instantly regained his calm.
He stared blankly at that back, suddenly feeling a self-deprecating sadness.
After a long time, because Joen hadn’t spoken, Liya turned back in confusion and asked curiously:
“Why are you always staring at me?”
“I suddenly feel like I’m really useless. Every time something happens, besides getting angry, I can’t do anything else.”
Joen’s tone was confused and dejected.
“You’re still young. Experience will come. But if you lose your anger, then you lose it forever.”
Liya gave Joen a deep look, replied quite seriously, then turned back to continue studying the handwriting.
These words weren’t comfort, but words from the heart.
A long time ago, Liya had already stopped feeling anger at other people’s unjust suffering.
Instead, she accepted it with a calm or even joking attitude.
That’s just the way the world is.
If you encounter it, you encounter it.
If there’s no way, there’s no way.
Just his bad luck.
Hmm, it’s just that.
Not as tragic as the last one.
Sometimes she envied Joen’s abundant vitality, which allowed her, a demon, to feel a strong “human flavor.”
But other times, even she felt emotionally drained for Joen.
Many feelings of compassion surged in her chest.
Liya unilaterally judged them as “unnatural” and “all because of the curse effect.”
Her small, pink hands transformed into many tentacles, doodling on the edges of the letter paper.
“Whew~! It’s done~! Friend~! Look, look~!”
She showed it to Joen with a smile.
“This is… amazing! Lily, you can do anything!”
Two lines of small characters, imitating the handwriting of Xiao Lage and Icot respectively.
Then Liya extended a tiny tentacle and touched the characters.
The original dark green handwriting faded instantly.
She explained:
“I’m a Water Magic Beast~ I can absorb water and manipulate it according to my will. Ink is also water.”
“Great, Lily! That way we can use the handwriting to forge letters of his transactions with the gang as evidence to take him down!”
Joen happily picked up Liya and gave her a big kiss.
“Letters, letters are useless…”
Liya’s face turned red again.
She suppressed the overwhelming joy, happiness, and many wonderful emotions that were about to send her to heaven, and explained dizzily:
“A person like him will definitely have greased all the wheels. Just relying on these ‘small stains’ is not enough. We need to make him commit an unforgivable big mistake for real.”
“Icot seems to be meticulous in everything. Could he make a mistake?”
Joen was curious.
“Ha~ A book I read says: Greedy people will make mistakes because of money; lustful people will make mistakes because of beautiful women. As long as you target the weakness, there is no fortress that cannot be breached.”
In Liya’s eyes, a pink light flickered, as dangerous and alluring as swaying winter cherry blossoms.
Joen thought seriously for a long time.
“From today on, I’ll do whatever Lily says. What’s the next step?”
He found it very reasonable and smiled happily.
“First, pretend you don’t know about these letters.”
Liya subconsciously hugged Joen’s finger, rubbing it like a pillow.
“Mmm~ After we go back, you first transfer to become an Inquisition Knight. Then, using the official procedure, make a big show of investigating unjust cases to attract Icot’s attention.”
She instructed.
A person’s attention and energy are limited.
The difficulty of deceiving someone who is focused and in good shape versus someone who is overwhelmed and irritable is like the difference between heaven and earth.
Let Joen occupy Icot’s attention from the front.
That way, the carefully prepared “pig-butchering scam” would be more likely to work.
“By the way, Lily.”
Joen’s tone was a bit embarrassed.
“Is there a chance to save those people sold to the gang?”
Liya originally wanted to refuse, as it might alert the enemy.
But from the corner of her eye, she saw Joen’s expectant and anxious brown eyes.
Somehow, perhaps due to the curse, a feeling of heartache and pity rose in her heart.
“I c-can try.”
She agreed against her better judgment.