It was a rare moonless night, the kind that left everything tinged with just that extra bit of darkness.

Leonidas could have done this the night prior, but it was exactly because of this new moon that he decided to wait a day. Plus, he needed to give these lurking shadows some time to implement their plans.

To the people of Violet Waters, the new moon was an ominous sign, the singular day of the month where the protection of Goddess Yves was felt to be the weakest.

Of course, these were just superstitions. Not many believed it to begin with.

Still, whether by conscious choice or coincidence, the streets were much emptier today than they would be on any other night.

Leonidas walked about slowly, his tail swishing in the air.

He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for if he was honest with himself. But, he only had a few hours until dawn to find it.

Nothing happened by coincidence. And, someone seemingly as intelligent as Deacon Ezor wouldn’t act without cause either.

And yet, the Lower Ogres had attacked and retreated without accomplishing anything.

Of course, this wasn’t entirely true. Their actions had netted them information about Leonidas, an Apostle they had no prior knowledge of.

If the attack was just a probe, it was barely within the realms of acceptability. But, Leonidas felt that that was nothing more than a smokescreen.

In a war between Sub-Shrines, or Shrines, for that matter, the first most useful commodity was Blessing Units.

The second most useful commodity, though, was commoners.

Father Barat’s position as Father was meant to act as an overseer of the common folk, a protector. Why would Goddess Yves, or any God for that matter, give a non-Apostle such power and weight if their task was not important?

Apostles were the blades of the Gods. However, commoners were the foundations upon which their pantheons were built.

A God could still make more Apostles if all of theirs were killed. If all the followers of a God were annihilated, though, said God would be finished.

This was a matter that was quite taboo to talk about, but it was also an open secret.

During a war like this one, if one wanted to cripple a Sub-Shrine, there was no doubt that the best way to do it would be to wipe out all the townsfolk of Violet Waters.

This wouldn’t harm Goddess Yves too greatly as it was just a Sub-Shrine of hers. The Sub-Shrine itself, though, would become like an empty vessel, making it more difficult to defend and easier to conquer.

‘This all makes sense, but there’s a glaring issue. If the goal of the ogres was to harm the commoners, then why did they stop at a single assault?

‘The obvious answer is that they wanted to gain benefits while not losing much. But I killed almost 20 of their 50 Knights, and even more of their large wolves. That price should have been too high for them.

‘But I still feel like I’m missing something.

‘If the Rardins are really in bed with Swallowing Tusk, why wait this long? Why be so patient? What’s their angle, exactly?’

Leonidas’ gaze drifted to the skies, his steps silent and the cool night air licking against his sharp jaw and defined cheeks.

Such slow wind wasn’t enough to move his thick hair, but it still felt nice.

Complex thoughts swirled about in Leonidas’ head. He rarely had to think so hard, deductions almost came as easy as breathing to him.

The unfortunate part was that this web was far too complex and it had likely had its beginnings spun before he was even born.

‘Could it be…?’

Leonidas’ gaze sharpened, his aura shifting like a proudly standing saber.

He realized that he had neglected something very important.

‘That day in the tunnels when I found myself stuck outside the lake of Mana, I ran into all sorts of ores, some of which were precious, especially the Blessing Titanium.

‘If I compared those ores to the ones that that woman Maw was directing the mining of, it would be like night and day.

‘Not only did those mined tunnels have fewer valuable ores, but they were also in much lower supply.

‘How could I not see this before?!’

It made no sense.

Why would Maw and the others be putting so much effort into mining such low-quality ores when there were tunnels of much more precious metals just a few hundred meters away?

The answer was obvious when placed under a certain perspective…

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They didn’t know those tunnels were there!

This might sound like an enormous leap for Leonidas to make, ridiculous, even. However, when Leonidas considered the fact that the lake of Mana he and Eve had almost fallen into was purposely hidden from the outside world, it made perfect sense.

‘It’s all starting to fall into place.’

The fact that Eve was able to stumble into the Fallen Apostle hideout. The fact that Deacon Ezor seemed to be so willingly biding his time. The fact that Deacon Ezor wanted them all to think he waged this war out of rage instead of for benefits…

Then all wrapping back to those new, untouched tunnels.

Leonidas felt that he had grasped 90% of the picture.

‘Deacon Ezor likely found the hideout and felt that there was something more to it long before anyone else had. However, knowing that it was far above his pay grade, he chose to bide his time, using others to probe the situation.

‘He realized that if he wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, he would need to play the long game. With Violet Waters being so nearby, he decided that instead of destroying a useful pawn, he would make use of it, and thus roped the Rardins in.

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rardins’ secret method of producing Healers was even provided by Deacon Ezor himself, though I can’t confirm it. In fact, I can’t confirm any of this.

‘But, I am still almost 100% certain that this long con is related to those tunnels.’

Leonidas understood why those tunnels were untouched despite how precious they were: they had only just appeared.

How would tunnels just magically appear like that? Well, how is it that Leonidas could walk through what seemed like an open path, only to find a dead end to his back?

If Leonidas was correct, there was a hidden pathway that led right to the lake of Mana. The issue was that those paths were currently being protected by complex spells, likely working with higher-order laws related to space.

With that being the case, Deacon Ezor was most probably trying to find a way to break those protections. And, somehow, this war would help him in doing so.

‘If Deacon Ezor wants us to believe that he’s acting out of rage, then that means that that also helps his case.

‘If someone is infuriated, they’ll attack more erratically and the skirmishes will be more frequent.

‘Could it be that the main reason he wants to hold up this facade is to force more battles? Could more battles be what he needs to undo what remains of the complex protections?’

Leonidas’ crimson irises glowed.

He also realized something else.

Just because an action could fulfill one necessity well, didn’t mean that it couldn’t perform other functions as well. This was especially so in the case of intelligent people.

Deacon Ezor sending an assault of Knights after Violet Waters just might have fulfilled three purposes.

The first was to reaffirm Deacon Ezor’s rage.

The second was an attempt to strike at the commoners of Violet Waters.

And the final…

Was to probe Leonidas.

There were two reasons Leonidas felt that even if the first two weren’t true, the final one definitely was.

The first reason was the rusted bronze ax. Even now, the power of that strike loomed in Leonidas’ memories.

And the second reason was related to the new tunnels.

If Leonidas was correct about all of this, there was no way that Deacon Ezor wouldn’t notice the birth of the new tunnel.

He would check each one meticulously so he could see if he had finally broken through and found what he had waited all these years for, or if he still had more of a wait ahead of him.

In such a case, Leonidas was almost certain that his ore samples would be found by Deacon Ezor. Although he had done well in hiding them, nothing in this world was perfect, least of all himself.

In Deacon Ezor’s view, someone would have not only been strong enough to kill one of his Level 2 Apostles, but they would have also stepped into these new tunnels long before him.

And, such a person would have coincidentally appeared right after the destruction of the hideout he had been paying attention to for so long?

If Leonidas were in Deacon Ezor’s shoes, he would be very interested in himself.

And that didn’t even consider the matter of…

‘The tome…’

Leonidas’ heart skipped a beat.

If the tome was really in the hands of the Rardins, and the Rardins were really the pawns of the Lower Ogres, then the likelihood that his tome had fallen into the hands of Deacon Ezor was high.

Leonidas exhaled a breath.

It felt like he and Deacon Ezor were back-to-back on a strip of dry land. A whipping wind kicked up the dust of the road as both their hands hovered above their holsters, waiting for a signal to turn around and shoot.

Leonidas had enough insider knowledge to decipher much of Deacon Ezor’s plot.

At the same time, Deacon Ezor seemed to have a sniper rifle aimed at his head.

Leonidas was surrounded by enemies from all sides while Deacon Ezor had an entire tribe of ogres at his beck and call, not to mention several human traitors.

With all of this information, Leonidas didn’t even want to start thinking about how his mother was even aware of these things.

‘Time is short, but I already knew that…’

Leonidas’ steps came to a stop.

He stood before a stone well, but this one wasn’t part of Goddess Yves’ Exchange. Rather, it was one of the dozen or so water wells used by the commoners of Violet Waters.

Leonidas was quite familiar with this well in particular. One of his previous duties in the brothel was to help stock up on water for the day.

As for why Leonidas was here, he could only say that his feet had brought him.

He stood over the well, taking in the scent of the earthy waters. The smell somewhat reminded him of fresh rain and it soothed his wildly beating heart.

But then, his eyes narrowed.

‘That’s it.’

Leonidas stretched out a hand. “Mana Hand.”

Leonidas knew he was pushing it. The surface of the water was over a dozen meters down and he wasn’t yet skilled enough to use Mana Hand on something as free-flowing as water.

But, he did so anyway.

It took several minutes, but he eventually managed to raise up a palm-sized, amoeba-shaped, blob of water that squirmed about as though it would spurt out of his control at any point.

Beads of sweat fell down Leonidas’ brows, but he felt quite proud of himself.

He pushed down the feeling, closing his eyes and communicating with his portable Shrine.

<…>

The feedback Leonidas received was akin to static noise. There was nothing for him to gain.

‘Was I wrong?’ Leonidas thought to himself. ‘No, maybe… It seems I’ll have to make some noise.’

Leonidas let the drop of water fall.

Walking to the side of the stone well, he grabbed onto the turning hand.

The creaking sound of old wood and metal squeaked as Leonidas lowered the bucket.

He had always hated this sound, it felt especially grating to his ears. But, he still eventually pulled up a bucket full of water, easily a few dozen times more than his previous amoeba blob.

<2.39 mL of Level 1 Nocturnal Root Potion>

Leonidas’ pupils constricted. He had been correct, the Rardins really did do something to the commoners’ supply of water.

With the attack of the Lower Ogres having failed, they needed to find another way to target the common people and weaken the Sub-Shrine.

In doing this, they would be able to force the hand of the Apostles into a more aggressive offensive, something Leonidas had little doubt the Rardins would help to force the issue on.

Nocturnal Root was a very slow-acting poison and it was most lethal when taken over a long period of time.

It would first manifest as drowsiness. Then would come the cold sweats.

The fatigue and drop in core body temperature would continue to become worse until eventually you fell into a deep slumber, never to wake up again—dead.

‘What do I do about this?’