Miss Witch’s Devotion Has Gone… Twisted

Caroline had no specific recollection of the exact location, but Loren could guess that the spot where Caroline had acted back then was somewhere around those crime scene areas.

When Caroline had taken action, no one had seen her, only her Arcane Ability. Even if the Arcane Ability was witnessed, normal people would only associate it with Greed Worshippers.

Only Greed Worshippers would think this was the work of a Witch.

As for the Outer Gods’ followers who went to capture people, Loren felt there was a high probability they were Greed Worshippers; they were the ones most capable of sacrificing lives.

And Loren also reasonably suspected that performing this ritual required sacrificing several lives in advance. Otherwise, how could such a powerful ritual be activated so simply?

With a simple chain of associations, Loren formed a deduction:

Actually, Koranda was a Greed Worshipper. While she was capturing people for sacrifice, she was unexpectedly thwarted by Caroline.

Since Koranda herself was an absolute high-ranking member among the Greed Worshippers, she knew deeply that the Gray Mist before her eyes was definitely not the work of Greed Worshippers. The peculiar ability, combined with the risky, righteous intervention, made Koranda think of a Witch. That’s why she became convinced a Witch was here.

Later, when she arrived in the Gedlan Kingdom, she tried every possible method to make Loren believe all of this was the doing of a Witch, thereby exonerating herself and all the Greed Worshippers from suspicion. Once she captured the Witch, Loren would lower his guard, thinking everything was over, and then she could make her move against Loren later.

It wasn’t until she realized Loren didn’t believe a Witch was here, or more precisely, until Loren rescued Caroline, making Koranda realize her hope of capturing the Witch was futile, that she changed her approach, substituting other Greed Worshippers for the Witch in her plan.For this purpose, Koranda did not hesitate to sacrifice Greed Worshippers twice. The first time, she deliberately made them appear fake, so that the second time would seem more authentic.

Or perhaps, this was the real plan all along. The Greed Worshippers she sent had no idea about Koranda’s scheme.

During the first time Loren was attacked, the plan Koranda told him was probably to have him come kidnap Loren. That’s why he was so shocked when Koranda delivered a fatal blow to him. What he finally wanted to say, but failed to utter, was likely an accusation of Koranda’s betrayal.

The second time, what Koranda told him was that the method for the Blocking Ritual had already been sabotaged, instructing him to proceed with the ritual at full force. His furious, frantic demeanor at the time was not an act at all, which is why he was so utterly stunned when Koranda later attacked him.

He wasn’t shocked by Koranda’s speed, but by the fact that Koranda was assaulting him. The first strike even landed on his mouth, completely robbing him of any chance to expose Koranda...

If Koranda was indeed a high-ranking member among the Greed Worshippers, then all the previous inconsistencies could be explained...

After thinking this through, Loren actually felt a sense of relief. Knowing exactly who he needed to kill made things much simpler.

As for evidence, Loren truly had none. But Loren never needed evidence to kill someone. However, if it really came to an official trial, Loren’s word would be the most powerful evidence.

If Loren said a painting was authentic, even the painter themselves coming forward to deny it would be useless.

Koranda would definitely have a real move later; that would be the true killing blow.

Today’s sacrifice was not only for misdirection but also for probing. Loren had reason to suspect the first method had already been cracked by Koranda long ago. Her probing this time was to see if Loren had any other methods. Clearly, she guessed right; Loren really had kept a backup plan.

It’s just a pity she probably couldn’t guess that Loren had kept more than just one backup.

”Movila, go check the places where the Bishop and the others set up the rituals before. I suspect Koranda will soon send people to sabotage those rituals. Also, keep an eye on Koranda...”

Splitting their forces, while Movila was on the move, Gwen was also in action. She needed to investigate how Koranda had cracked Loren’s first method. Perhaps she could extrapolate and crack Loren’s second method as well.

However, the third method was uncrackable. The Goddess of Love was the most mysterious of the Outer Gods, to the point that unless one had been involved in Noah’s incident, it was almost impossible to know about the Goddess of Love.

And the one who handled that incident was the God of Confusion. It would not allow what happened in its territory to leak out.

The remaining followers of the Goddess of Love were also scattered, but they all shared a unified characteristic: they had no need to reveal the existence of the Goddess of Love to outsiders. The Goddess of Love also did not require sacrifices and faith like the other Outer Gods.

Therefore, Loren was absolutely certain that no one in this world understood the Goddess of Love better than he did. Consequently, no one could crack Loren’s third method, especially since this method was extremely simple and crude.

The simpler something was, the harder it was to interfere with or disrupt.

...

Tonight was not peaceful. The Church’s people were everywhere, hunting down Greed Worshippers. Their haul was substantial; during that sacrificial ritual, many Greed Worshippers had been stationed nearby.

This time, the Church captured more Greed Worshippers than all previous captures combined. So, the Church naturally concluded this was the Greed Worshippers’ final operation.

Without leadership, the Greed Worshippers were a scattered mess, with no concept of cooperation. They were all thinking about securing greater benefits for themselves, utterly indifferent to the lives or deaths of others.

Thus, they also became exceptionally easy to deal with. In the eyes of the Church’s people, they were all merits, especially since Loren placed great importance on this matter, so they were particularly zealous.

And Gwen mingled within the crowd, silently investigating.

She came to a tree. This was the token imbued with the power of the God of Bountiful Harvest. The runes Loren provided were carved on the tree.

To prevent the Greed Worshippers from noticing anything amiss, the runes were all carved at the base of the trees. Gwen crouched down to examine the appearance of the runes and quickly discovered the problem.

”The runes here are completely wrong...”

These runes were basically identical to the ones Loren provided, with only extremely subtle differences, as if they were simply carved incorrectly.

Subsequently, Loren also checked the other trees. The runes on them were exactly the same. Now, Loren had found the reason for the blocking failure.

Loren couldn’t have written them wrong, and people couldn’t have all copied them wrong. So, there was only one reason these runes were incorrect: Koranda had given the others the wrong version.

At the time, Movila had been monitoring her the whole time. What the others received were copies transcribed by Koranda; only Koranda herself had seen the original.

Moreover, even if the runes were wrong, they shouldn’t have had zero effect. Since this happened, it meant the person who altered the runes clearly knew how to affect the runes’ efficacy to the maximum extent with minimal modifications.

Only someone like Koranda, a high-ranking member of the Bountiful Church, could pull off something like this.

This was the definitive proof. Loren now had conclusive evidence, even though he didn’t need this evidence.