"Esteemed Divine Envoy."
The first believer to come forward was pot-bellied.
"My daily work is serving in the police department.
Though nominally in service to the King, I have always believed in the one true Savior.
I've used the convenience of my position to obtain firsthand intelligence for the organization..."
"Several times before, the evil god churches tried to destroy us.
With the information I provided, the organization crushed their plans.
Not only did they fail, but many of their minions died in the process."
"Well done!"
"Those damned evil god churches, obstructing the Lord's return. They deserve it!"
The believers praised him.
"Very good."
Silas nodded in approval, gesturing for him to stand aside, then looked toward the next person approaching.
"Divine Envoy, my family tried to obstruct my faith in the Lord and remained stubbornly unrepentant, even threatening to report me."
This believer was a middle-aged woman with disheveled hair, yet her face radiated a blissful smile.
"So I prayed to the Lord for salvation, and in His mercy, He bestowed His grace, allowing my obstinate family members to also bathe in the Lord's glory..."
Great.
After the traitor, here's another one who sacrificed her entire family.
Silas once again expressed approval and continued listening to the next believer's confession.
Eventually, he reached a conclusion: not one of these people was innocent.
In that case, what more was there to say?
"Divine Envoy, surely we've been devout enough? Can we receive your protection?"
The believers, whose minds had completely lost all reason, asked this with gleaming eyes.
Through sharing their faith in the Lord with one another, they felt a resonance between them and desperately needed the Divine Envoy to affirm their actions.
"Of course."
Silas smiled and used his finger to tap four points on his chest, from bottom to top, from right to left, forming an inverted cross.
"You are all devout believers in the Lord, making contributions to the Lord's glorious return to earth."
His words brought smiles to everyone present, especially the young man, who was moved beyond measure, as if his entire life had been validated.
But very soon, they wouldn't be smiling anymore.
Because Silas's next words were:
"You've really worked hard, believing so faithfully in a madman hanging upside down with blood rushing to his head... Sure enough, idiots are drawn to each other."
"Divine Envoy, what... what are you saying?"
Everyone was utterly confused, completely unable to process this for a moment.
"I'm saying you're all brain-damaged fools."
Silas, wearing Mr. A's face, sneered contemptuously, speaking words that were utterly blasphemous to them.
"You believe in your Lord so much, right? Fine, then I'll send you to hell first.
Wait there a bit, and I'll make sure your Lord comes down to join you very soon."
With that, he raised his hand.
"Bang!"
The obese police mole bloomed into a crimson rose, chunks of flesh and blood splattering everywhere, landing on the others.
Those stained by this flesh began to swell and rapidly explode. In moments, like a chain reaction, all these believers turned into blood and gore in an extremely short time.
By now, aside from Silas, the only one still standing at the scene was that young man.
"This... this is..."
The young man seemed completely unable to accept the situation.
His face pale, his lips trembling, he suddenly laughed. "I know! This must be a test from you, Divine Envoy, right?!"
"Test my ass. They were just killed by me, that's all."
Silas walked up and patted his cheek. "And I'm not your so-called Divine Envoy.
The Divine Envoy you knew was killed by me long ago and eaten."
"Swoosh!"
He stopped using his Faceless ability and returned to his original appearance.
The young man looked at Silas's unfamiliar face, gradually filling with terror.
"You're not the Divine Envoy! Who are you?!"
"I'm the one who destroyed your Aurora Order. All those missing believers of yours were cleaned up by me."
Silas answered.
"Originally I was still troubled because the remaining believers were really hard to find, but fortunately, with your help, I was able to catch everyone in one net."
The young believer seemed to slowly grasp the meaning of his words, his face becoming extremely twisted.
Was it pain? Despair? Self-blame? Regret?
Silas didn't know, nor was he interested in investigating.
After expressing his thanks to the other party, he pressed on his chest, letting him too bloom into a rose.
With this, Backlund's Aurora Order was completely annihilated.
"Did you see that, Mr. A?"
Silas stood in the pool of blood, in the center of the nest Mr. A had been so proud of, talking to himself.
"The Backlund Aurora Order you worked so hard to build has been completely destroyed by me."
"Boom!"
He could feel it.
Somewhere inside him, Mr. A's shepherded soul was giving an intense reaction.
His fury seemed ready to overflow through the barrier of Silas's flesh and blood.
"Quiet."
Silas said.
The Shepherd's ability activated accordingly, bringing down punishment on the disobedient "lamb."
"Crack!"
An invisible whip lashed across Mr. A's soul.
He seemed to hear the other party's shrill scream, and the corner of his mouth couldn't help but lift slightly.
Looking around, he felt this house no longer had any value worth preserving.
Might as well sell it.
The deed to this house, plus the deeds to houses in several other districts... he wondered how much they could all fetch together.
Selling slowly would definitely yield higher value.
Someone like him, eager to dispose of them quickly, would instead get the price pushed down.
I'll just sell them directly to Miss Audrey.
Silas thought.
He'd use the market average price as collateral, letting her slowly help him resell them.
Then he'd use this as startup capital for the factory. Several houses should fetch at least over ten thousand pounds...
He had already decided to open a textile factory in the East Borough, using the lambs in his flock.
Of course, those children wouldn't have to work full shifts. Apart from school, they'd just do some simple tasks.
Miss Audrey seemed to have mobilized certain connections, packaging their operation as a relatively formal foundation, nonprofit, the kind that specialized in relief for the poor.
She had also used her artful way of speaking to get her parents to express cautious support, though whether it would succeed still depended on their performance going forward.
But at least for now, selling these houses meant funding for the factory was secured.
As for whether the Aurora Order might come to reclaim them, Silas felt the possibility was quite small.
Because the houses themselves belonged to Backlund's Mr. A, and members elsewhere couldn't possibly know about them.
Of course, if you asked whether Silas felt any pain throwing all this money into the factory, naturally he still felt some pain.
But for the sake of role-playing, and for the slight sense of responsibility that had unknowingly developed, he still felt he should do this.