One Hundred Nights with the Devil - Chapter 11

“If it were that, it would have been easier. The current Emperor is a human with little affection for his own lineage.”

The Pope let out a long sigh and rubbed his brow. Then he pointed out a place she hadn’t even imagined.

“It is Duke Conrad’s Castle in the West. I’m speaking of the descent location in question.”

“Do you mean the castle of the Conrad Ducal House? That place is…….”

“Yes. It is where his nephew whom the Emperor deposed, Duke Dieter Conrad, is confined.”

Dieter Laurencino Conrad. The only son of the Late Emperor Lloyd Norbertus Bavaria-Conrad and the Crown Prince who should have become the master of the next empire.

After being dragged down from the position of Crown Prince by his uncle, Lowell Sarbellio Bavaria-Conrad, he was saddled with the hollow title of ‘Duke Conrad’ and exiled to the West.

“As you know, the Conrad Dukedom is the most backward land even in the West. Perhaps the Emperor intended to leave his nephew stuck there and dispose of him once the imperial power stabilized.”

However, a Devil had appeared in the very castle where Duke Conrad was confined.

“It was discovered two months ago, but the actual time of descent is estimated to be one year ago. They say there are about four hundred missing persons.”

“It must have taken over the castle a year ago and cast a suggestion with its Authority. It must have become known as that lifted two months ago.”

It was common for the time of discovery and the actual time of the Devil’s descent to differ. In the case of the Devil of Swabia that Elena met, it had even erased its descent location from people’s perception for a whopping 50 years.

‘When I asked why it did that, the answer that returned was asking why I was curious about that.’

Elena recalled the small and terrible memory she had with the Devil of Swabia before returning to reality. Four hundred missing. In a fallen territory, that level would mean about one person disappearing per household.

However, to the Pope and the Emperor, it wouldn’t matter whether the missing were four hundred or four thousand. Because to them, the only thing that mattered was the safety of a single person.

“Whether the Deposed Crown Prince is included among those missing, or if he ran away and is secretly plotting treason……. You must have been concealing the Devil’s descent until now because you couldn’t figure that out.”

“Ahem.”

As soon as he heard those words, the Pope cleared his throat, showing his displeasure.

“I merely took the best measures for the Order. Should it reach the ears of foolish conspiracy theorists, we cannot allow them to be swayed by nonsense that the Holy Order hid the Deposed Crown Prince, can we? But to clarify, lest there be any misunderstanding: although we could not seek the Saintess’s help, the Eclard Church dispatched Exorcists to the West and has carried out maximum relief efforts.”

“Yes. You must have. There is no way Your Holiness would have missed the opportunity to rip a massive amount of money from the Imperial Family in exchange for dispatching Exorcists to the West.”

Furthermore, seeing him talk about measures without mentioning results, it seemed not a single Exorcist sent to the West after receiving money from the Emperor had returned alive.

And the Pope likely sent those poor people to the West knowing they would all die, prattling on about ‘God’s will’. And he would plan to continue doing so.

‘Cowardly murdering bastard.’

A curse naturally popped out. However, even if she poured out blame right here, it was obvious the Pope would just line up shabby excuses again.

“So, what is the reason for telling me the Western problem you’ve kept hidden so tightly the moment I visited? Did the Emperor suddenly change his words?”

The Pope made a face as if hit on the mark, then cleared his throat.

“That fellow suddenly said the situation had changed and demanded that we actively consider dispatching the Saintess.”

It was an answer she had already expected from the moment it was mentioned that a Devil appeared in the West and the location happened to be the Deposed Crown Prince’s exile site. But the Pope’s following words were not what Elena expected.