The Evil God Summoned by the Saintess-Chapter 78 - 76: The Holy Daughter’s Sting Operation
Not long after leaving the Twilight Tomb, Hilia found her way back nearby and flew along the trail toward Dawn City.
By now, night had fully fallen.
In one day, she had destroyed another heretic base.
This base even had a Tier Four Mage sitting in charge.
Hilia felt it was a bit ridiculous.
"If another Holy Daughter came, would she have returned safely?"
Hilia thought about this question.
She felt that even if Benovia had come, she probably would have fallen into the sect and been forced to wait for outside rescue.
Now that she thought about it, Hilia felt a lingering fear.
If their Magic Array hadn’t happened to have a defensive mode and a self-destruct mode, and both activated to trap them like rats in a cage, she’d probably have been captured by Tier Four Mage Suna and brainwashed by now.
"Taking risks can be good... but being too reckless isn’t."
Looking at the emerging Dawn City ahead, Hilia murmured to herself. At last, the huge weight on her heart fell.
Hilia decided not to be so reckless from now on. If she found a base, she’d report it to the local Divine Hall or mentor at the academy. If she messed up on her own, there’d be nowhere to cry.
"It was a bit too much this time, and didn’t help your combat experience at all."
Rose agreed with Hilia’s thought process.
Returning to her temporary accommodations at the Mercenary Guild, Hilia yawned.
"Good night, Mr. Rose."
...
The next day. Hilia organized the evidence recorded yesterday and, after some thought, didn’t go straight to confront Wagner at the Dawn Divine Hall, but instead sent the evidence and information to the Judgement Priest of Huijin Divine Hall—Vasily.
As the Judgement Priest under the Holy Court Archbishop in charge of Judgment, Vasily could come handle it directly.
"Dawn City is a large town. The head of the Divine Hall here probably isn’t a High Priest, but a bishop. I wonder if that bishop is also in collusion..."
If not, the bishop could settle it as well.
To be safe, Hilia still sent it to Vasily and explained the situation.
Vasily was busy with other affairs and took a while to reply to Hilia.
"Dawn City? Okay, two hours."
All the while watching Hilia contact Vasily, Rose smiled, "Weren’t you ready to barge in and kill the High Priest yesterday?"
"If I had barged in to kill, even if I succeeded, I’d still end up in Judgement Court tomorrow."
Hilia curled her lips, "A Divine Hall High Priest colluding with a sect like this and gravely violating the law is a matter for the Judgement Priest to decide, the Chief Judge to judge. The Holy Daughter shouldn’t be doing this."
Rose said, "With this evidence of yours, it might not be enough for conviction. What if they stubbornly deny everything? Aside from actually running into them on their way back from the Twilight Tomb, the rest are based on necro-echoes."
Necro-echoes are Dark Element magic. The Holy Court would never officially acknowledge them.
As for Wagner’s conversation with the heretics, he could easily claim he didn’t know those Dusk Investigation Team members were heretics.
"Right... those pieces of evidence..."
Hilia thought carefully, then pushed the door open and left her room, heading to the Mercenary Guild’s entrance.
"I’m going to the Divine Hall. Before the Oath and Law Knight Order arrives, I’ll see if I can find any evidence inside about Wagner’s crimes."
Rose didn’t say anything. He was quite curious how Hilia would try to find evidence against Wagner.
This sort of grave violation of church law—if there’s any evidence left, it probably wouldn’t be kept in the Divine Hall. More likely, it’d be hidden in the person’s own private residence.
"Still, there’s another way to easily get evidence." Rose recalled a classic enforcement tactic—
Entrapment.
Hilia quickly arrived at the Divine Hall. Unlike the remote Snow Fir Divine Hall, this place didn’t openly ask for money just to see the High Priest.
Instead, you had to register, and there were plenty of people ahead in line waiting to confess to the High Priest.
"This Divine Hall actually has three High Priests?"
After taking her cue number, Hilia glanced at it and discovered that, besides Wagner, there were two other names, both holding the Divine Position of High Priest.
"It’s not going to work just to keep waiting around."
Hilia thought of the way she had met the High Priest at Snow Fir Divine Hall before and walked over to the reception staff.
"Hello, I’d like to donate ten Gold Coins to the Divine Hall for the purchase of an Absolution Certificate. Could you help me contact High Priest Wagner? He handled my absolution before, so I’d like to give it to him in person."
As she spoke, Hilia spread out ten Gold Coins and placed them in front of the Assistant Priest at reception.
These were all the coins she’d swiped off the boatman when she fed him to the fish.
Not her own Gold Coins... it was painful to spend them.
A ten Gold Coin donation—the Assistant Priest instantly became much more attentive.
She picked up a piece of embossed paper, wrote "Ten Gold Coins" on it, and handed it over with both hands to Hilia. "This is your cue. High Priest Wagner is in Confessional Room 3. You can go straight in."
Hilia nodded and accepted the slip.
At least the exchange wasn’t happening here.
The news that someone was donating ten Gold Coins was quickly relayed to Wagner, and he hastened his current confession with a Believer, then sat waiting for his "benefactor."
Hilia didn’t disguise her appearance. Whether Wagner recognized her or not, she had prepared accordingly.
Entering the confessional, Hilia sat across from Wagner and stared into his eyes. "Good day, High Priest Wagner."
"Hello, dear lady. Don’t be nervous. Take your time. God will forgive your sins."
"We met yesterday," Hilia said.
"Oh? Where?"
"Outside the Twilight Tomb, Dusk Investigation Team."
A slight change came over Wagner’s expression. He quickly replayed the scene in his mind. He remembered that Dusk Sect-posing ’Dusk Investigation Team’—he’d even lent them a hand.
But he didn’t recall this woman?
While Wagner doubted, Hilia added, "It’s normal that you don’t remember—I was scouting near the camp. When Mr. Beck spoke with you, I wasn’t at the camp."
"So that’s how it was." A smile appeared on Wagner’s face. Inwardly he half-believed her but was still deeply suspicious.
Why would a Dusk Sect heretic come to the Divine Hall to confess?
If you need to transact, wouldn’t you contact me privately?
In the confessional, out of ten Gold Coins, he’d barely get a cut—the Divine Hall took most of it.
Wagner silently scolded this heretic in front of him for being clueless about the rules. He put on a gentle smile: "So, dear lady, what would you like to confess? You can tell me. You don’t have to hide anything from me."
Hilia tapped the table and took out a little gadget that could replay scenes from yesterday, showing Wagner covering up for the heretic, collecting bodies for them.
At the same time, her wristband was secretly recording everything faithfully.
Indeed, she was planning to use this to bait Wagner.
Though she’d never tried entrapment before and was a bit clumsy, after visiting a heretic base and learning more about the Dusk Sect, she thought she had a chance of trapping Wagner.
"I accidentally found this at the Twilight Tomb, High Priest Wagner. This is yours, isn’t it?" Hilia fixed Wagner with her gaze and spoke slowly.
Wagner’s expression changed, and he shot up, Tier Three pressure bearing down on Hilia.
"Where did you get this?"
