At this moment, midnight in White River Town, which should have been a time of deep night and quiet, there was a clamor coming from the central square.
The residents of White River Town glared angrily at the bloated-bodied Owen the priest standing in the middle, constantly clearing his throat.
"This bastard from the church, not satisfied with making a fuss during the day, he has to come here and bark at night too... Astaria the Goddess must be blind to let such a piece of shit be her priest..."
A young worker at the factory stared angrily at Owen on the stage, who was posturing, gritting his teeth while holding his tool.
"Be careful what you say... Now that Mr. Lister is gone, in the future we can only go to the church if there's a problem..."
His companion beside him pulled him and said to him in a low voice.
"Who would go to this bunch of scumbags from the church? The one who helped us build roads was Mr. Lister, the one who built factories for us was Mr. Lister, he told us that even without these dog shits from the church, we can live well on our own! I say, we should just hang this old thing who only knows how to make money, and then rescue Mr. Lister..."
"Keep your voice down! Do you not want to live anymore!?"
"If I can't live, I'll fucking rebel and run to the south to join the Demon Lord's army!"
"Those nuns are still here!"
"So what if they're here? They call themselves the messengers of Astaria, but what's the difference between them and that dead fat man? They're all vampires riding on our backs, it's better to rely on ourselves than on them! Just like Mr. Lister said, happiness can only be..."
"Ahem... My dear believers, beloved children of Astaria, I, your affectionate priest Owen, have an important announcement to make here."
At this time, Owen on the stage finally opened his mouth leisurely, holding a manuscript and squinting his eyes.
"As you can see, the brutal, filthy Demon Lord ruthlessly destroyed our beloved church, countless believers in White River Town who were looking forward to salvation and prayer lost the place to comfort their souls... How heartbreaking, how heartbreaking it is!"
Owen waved his hand at this point and even pretended to wipe his tears.
"So, in order to rebuild the church that everyone loves, please enthusiastically donate, no less than 100 gold coins per person..."
"Fuck your mother!"
"Donate, donate my ass! I'll donate to your mom!"
"Get down! Get down!"
The enthusiasm of the crowd was completely ignited by Owen's words, they waved their hands and praised Owen endlessly.
Seeing that these people who used to be half-dead dared to curse him to his face today, Owen's face turned livid with anger, pointing at the crowd below, unable to squeeze out a word for a long time.
The entire square instantly became lively.
...
"What's that noise?"
Inside the mayor's mansion, Karen heard the commotion coming from outside the square, she frowned and stood up to look out the window, only to see people in the distance pointing at Owen on the stage, although she couldn't hear what they were saying, it definitely wasn't anything good.
"...Sigh."
She had already guessed what had happened outside.
Obviously, Helen also read some information from Karen's expression, she immediately stood up and said to Karen,
"Madam Mayor, please let me handle the issue with Priest Owen."
"...No need, Sister Helen, this is the mayor's job."
Karen shook her head, put on her coat and called the servant to follow her out.
"Please wait here for a moment, I'll be back later."
Karen left the room, leaving only three nuns and a witch in silence.
Helen had just heard about Lister's image again from Karen's description.
He came to White River Town five years ago and was appointed by the Empress as an honorary advisor to Mayor Karen, living in the southern district of White River Town.
During his tenure, he guided the people here to develop and build, open up trade routes, plant specialty products, and even had connections to introduce the precious elf medicine and magitech electrical devices that were hard to come by on the market. In just a few short years, he transformed this place from a desolate frontier into a prosperous small town. The local people all loved and respected him, and Mayor Karen even unabashedly referred to him as a teacher.
The charges of "illegal trade" and "deceiving the people" were all malicious misinterpretations based on hearsay.
As for "colluding with foreign races"...
In the teachings of the Church of Astaria, monsters were considered enemies of humans, bloodthirsty and brutal beings. In fact, this was indeed the case, as there had been countless wars in history where the Demon Lord led monsters to invade human empires.
But as the old man said, if the things obtained from trading with them were used to save others...
Does this really count as "colluding with foreign races"?
Helen was confused.
"You also heard what the mayor said."
At this time, Olivina, who had been sitting on the side and was a bit absent-minded, finally spoke to Helen and the others.
"At this point, I don't expect you to understand what kind of person Lister really is, as long as you know he's not the criminal you say he is, that's enough."
"...I also hope he's not."
"Then isn't that right? Tell me where he is, and save you the embarrassment, I'll go bring him back myself."
"..."
Helen hesitated for a moment, then said,
"...We don't know where he is right now either."
"...Huh?"
Olivina's voice lowered, the mechanical wand was gripped in her hand, emitting a faint glow.
"I'm not in the mood for jokes."
"It's not a joke. Didn't the Demon Lord destroy the church during the day? At that time... he was in that church. However, now it can be basically confirmed that he is alive... eh?"
As Helen was explaining, she was about to reveal the traces of the Holy Light Shackles she had used on Lister, but she suddenly found that the previously applied shackles had disappeared at some point.
There were only two possibilities for the disappearance of the shackles' traces. Either they were cleverly removed by someone, or... the person shackled had died.
"..."
Olivina's aura had completely turned cold.
She stood up and drew a magic seal with three women with her hand.
"I swear in the name of the Three Prophets, if Lister is harmed because of you..."
"Don't be in a hurry, respected witch."
Just as Olivina was about to make a vow, Aquiluna, who had been silent for a long time, smiled and interrupted her.
"Helen and little Iris didn't see it... but I did see where that Mr. Lister is now."
"...Where?"
"He was taken away by that Demon Lord who destroyed the church, carried on his back, looking extremely intimate."
Crack.
The tip of the mechanical wand shot out red lightning like a firearm, but was slashed apart by the thin sword Aquiluna drew from her waist.
But Olivina immediately drew another wand with a grip and trigger from her waist and fired at Aquiluna without hesitation:
Bang!
The wand made a loud noise, Aquiluna looked at the bullet she had slashed open, deep in thought.
"The inscriptions engraved on it... are really quite dangerous. If it were to be shot into the body, it would be a big problem. Is this also one of the ideas Lister gave you?"
"Are you still not going to tell me where Lister is?"
Olivina didn't answer Aquiluna's question, she looked straight at her, threw away the wand she had already fired, and prepared to draw another one.
"I didn't lie to you. As for evidence, it's not that there isn't any, it's just a bit troublesome to go find it in that pile of ruins. That's why I said, don't be in a hurry, Miss Witch."
Aquiluna smiled again and put away her thin sword first.
"I do have a good suggestion, want to hear it?"
"Speak."
"Actually, my purpose in coming here is slightly different from my two companions... If it's confirmed that Lister was indeed taken away by the Demon Lord, you'll go find him, right?"
"...That's right."
"So, how about joining forces with me and taking a stroll to the Demon Lord's Castle together?"
Aquiluna smiled and extended her hand to Olivina.
"! Aquiluna!"
"What are you saying, senior!?"
Aquiluna ignored the voices of Helen and Iris beside her and continued to look at Olivina, who was curiously looking at her while pulling her hat.
"Coincidentally, I've been interested in this mysterious shadow man for a long time."