Suicide Before Defeating the Final Boss

Suicide Before Defeating the Final Boss – 62

EP.62 The Revealed Truth Part 5

As the gazes of everyone gathered focused on her, the Second Princess Karina bit her lip tightly. She was already under pressure due to the incidents at the academy, and now, with this new disaster, she realized that the weight of responsibility had grown far beyond repair.

‘…We can’t keep going on like this.’

She realized that it was now impossible to continue reaping benefits while playing both sides. She had considered taking matters into her own hands and cutting down the corpse golem to resolve the current crisis, but the harsh reality stopped her in her tracks.

‘A concubine’s child cutting down the body of a pure-blooded royal? And the body of the deceased, no less?’

Unlike the First Princess Charlotte, Karina was a lowly child of a concubine, one who didn’t even know her own mother. Yet, while the pure-blooded royals stood by passively, she would be the one to step forward and cut down the pile of royal bodies?

‘They would surely hold me accountable.’

No matter the circumstances or how unavoidable the situation might be, they would not hesitate to tear her apart and drag her down into the dirt.

‘I’m stuck. There’s no way out.’

Realizing she was completely trapped, she hoped someone else would step in and take the fall. However, those who might have done so were either dead, demoted, or sent to the front lines. Everyone present, including herself, was merely watching the situation unfold without taking action.

***

Jeong-hyeon let out a sigh of amazement as he looked at the elixir in his hand. With just this one, even the dead could be revived without any restrictions. Carefully, he placed the precious elixir into his subspace pouch and scanned the room.

‘Now, let’s clean this place out.’

He began sweeping the various precious items into his subspace, focusing on those that radiated mana or divine power, rather than ordinary jewels or gold.

As he continued stuffing the items into the storage, he noticed a familiar shape in the distance.

‘…No way.’

Despite his disbelief, he approached it as if drawn by a spell. There, Jeong-hyeon found the ‘Elixir of Growth’ he had longed for.

*-*

[Elixir of Growth made from the World Tree]

– An elixir that maximizes growth. The sacrifice of the World Tree is essential for its creation.

– Increases growth rate by three times for one month.

*-*

He was astonished for two reasons. First, these lunatics had sacrificed the World Tree to create the elixir. Second, the efficiency of the growth elixir was unbelievably high.

‘Is this even real?’

With just this, he could become twice as strong as he was now. Jeong-hyeon felt an overwhelming urge to consume it immediately and dive into training, but…

‘It’s more efficient to use it in the Trial Chamber.’

Deciding to save it for later, he resisted the urge and placed it into his subspace with a heavy heart.

***

For about an hour, he wandered around the treasure vault, stuffing anything that seemed useful into his subspace. During his search, Jeong-hyeon stumbled upon something interesting.

[Large Teleportation Device] / [Small Teleportation Device]

Two different teleportation devices.

Realizing that he could use them to easily escape with the corpse golem, he decided to grab them. It was time to leave.

‘I’ll grab the golem on my way out.’

Heading planned to head back to the academy. But before leaving, he decided to leave a little parting gift. He pulled out the large teleportation device and began stacking most of the items from the vault onto it.

‘Bishop Lea has disappeared after dealing with the investigators, and Miria mentioned that the Malone Church is ignoring the auction house incident.’

Now, if traces of a large teleportation device were found in the kingdom’s treasure vault and it appeared to have been sent to the church, how would the kingdom respond?

‘It’s blatantly obvious, but…’

If such incidents kept happening, the kingdom would have to respond. The church would have to explain itself, and seeds of distrust between the two sides would inevitably grow.

Deciding to proceed with the plan, he set the teleportation device’s destination to the church’s headquarters and activated it.

[Using the Large Teleportation Device!]

A powerful surge of mana filled the air. Realizing the intensity of the wave was strong enough to be sensed from far away, he decided to make his escape immediately.

‘Of course, I can’t leave without a final touch.’

Using his divine power, he set fire to the items being sent to the church and the treasure vault itself, then quickly exited the vault.

***

He slipped out amidst the confusion of the guards, taking a quick glance around.

‘Seems like everyone’s focused on the corpse golem. Escaping wasn’t too hard.’

It felt so easy that he wondered if he could sneak in again without being noticed. Sensing the intense surge of mana from the treasure vault, he decided it was time to leave.

‘Certainly, a bunch of troublemakers will come swarming in.’

While the corpse golem, made of royal flesh, was difficult to deal with, everything else wasn’t. To avoid being blamed for doing nothing, they would surely come here. Knowing their tendency to avoid responsibility, he smirked and decided to go to the ceremony hall where the corpse golem was causing chaos, ready to complete his plan.

‘But before that…’

Since he had already set a fire, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to start a few more. Deciding to unleash divine fire around the royal palace, particularly near the Second Princess’s chambers, he made a quick stop by her room to ignite the flames. Once satisfied with his fiery mischief, he wrapped up the destruction.

‘Now, let’s go retrieve the corpse golem.’

With the royal “meat puppet” having served its purpose, it was time to collect it. He quickly moved toward the ceremony hall, pulling divine power into himself as he sped along.

***

What would be the most advantageous method to exploit the kingdom?

He kept thinking about this question since arriving here and concluded that driving a wedge between the kingdom and the church was the key.

‘After all, a real war is happening as we speak.’

Not just any war, but one aimed at the annihilation of an entire species. If the kingdom, with the largest population, and the church, with its many divine power users, were to split, the already dire situation would worsen.

‘That’s why I planted a few seeds of doubt here.’

The first was the corpse golem that exuded radiated power. The second, the use of the teleportation device to send items from the royal treasury to the church. And the third, the divine-powered fire he had just set ablaze in the palace.

Sure, anyone with half a brain could figure out that this was all orchestrated, but with everything that had happened at the academy and now this, suspicion would still arise.

‘Even if it’s obvious, the kingdom will have to question the church.’

After all, when something happened repeatedly, people became used to it, and they stop noticing how strange it was.

‘But this alone isn’t enough.’

He decided to add one more piece of evidence to confirm the kingdom’s suspicions. As he made up his mind, he reached into his subspace and pulled out “Bishop Lea,” greeting her with a mocking smile.

“How have you been?”

“…Ugh… Ugh.”

She groaned in pain, trembling from the torture she had endured before being thrown into the subspace. He patted her on the shoulder as if to comfort her and spoke.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said, and you know what? I think you were right. The more I think about it, Lucia—or rather, the Saintess—something about her doesn’t sit right.”

Whether it was due to the continuous torture or because she desperately wanted to hear those words, Lea’s face lit up with joy despite her pain.

‘This crazy woman… what’s with her?’

Every time they met, she would shout, “Lucia is deceiving you, Hero!” He had once wondered if she had a strange affection for him and decided to test her, only for her response to be disturbingly positive.

He felt a chill run down his spine at her reaction, wanting nothing more than to get rid of her. But for the sake of his plan, he held back. Leaning in, he whispered to Lea.

“So, from now on, I’ll follow your words and stay by your side.”

Under normal circumstances, someone who had been tortured and then heard such words would have reacted with fear, anger, or attempted to escape. But Lea? She nodded fervently, her entire body trembling with joy.

“Finally… Finally, you’ve heard me!”

Lea sobbed, as if she were the victim in all of this.

He couldn’t help but think that if Lucia saw this, she’d be furious and faint. Watching Lea, he pulled her aside and spoke quietly.

“So, there’s something I’d like to ask. Can you do me a favor?”

Half expecting her to refuse, he threw out the question. To his surprise, instead of rejecting it, Lea eagerly nodded her head.

“Yes… As long as it has nothing to do with that damned Saintess.”

“Then can you just stand by my side for a moment?”

“Yes, yes.”

What? Was it supposed to be this easy?

He found her overly cooperative behavior unsettling, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. He decided to put his suspicions aside for later. For now, with Lea in his side, he climbed onto the ceremony stage and began drawing in divine power.

The radiant divine power filled the air, enveloping the entire ceremony hall. Suddenly, every gaze in the room shifted from the corpse golem to him. Facing the crowd, he shouted loudly.

“Bishop Lea will punish you for your blasphemy!”

After uttering that short phrase, he drew upon his divine power and unleashed one of the blessings of the Rosary, the Blessing of Fire, sending a massive sword aura of divine power towards them.

Boom!

A deafening explosion rang out. Although the Sword Saint was present, which meant casualties wouldn’t be too high, the collapse of the building and the thick black smoke rising from the fire would be enough to create chaos.

‘The important thing now is to obscure their vision.’

Using the confusion, he decided it was time to retrieve the corpse golem. He shoved Lea, who was no longer useful, back into the subspace with a grin.

“Oh, by the way, did you know? Back when I was a hero, neither you nor anyone else ever called me by my name, not even once.”

At that, Lea’s expression went blank for a moment as she tumbled into the subspace.