Zeke's eyebrow twitched at Bacchus's words.
"The emperor wants Gio Rubern's remains?"
Preserving the bodies of saints or holy knights had been a common practice from the Holy Empire down to the Holy Kingdom.
But hearing that the remains of the first Holy King, Gio Rubern, were still in the Holy Kingdom was news to Zeke.
The Holy Kingdom that Gio Rubern had founded worshipped the God of Light, but the current Sun Order had split from the Creator God to enshrine the Sun God as the supreme deity, leading to doctrinal differences from the start.
From the Holy Kingdom's perspective, while they acknowledged Gio Rubern as a saint, there had been no particular need to preserve his remains.
"Gio Rubern's ruins. Even the Holy Kingdom couldn't enter them, so the relics and remains must have been preserved intact."
Zeke looked at Bacchus and said,
"The emperor wants Gio Rubern's remains. Where did you get that information?"
"If you want a deal, guarantee the safety of me and my comrades. Then I'll hand over all the related information."
Zeke pondered Bacchus's words for a moment before he nodded.
"Alright. We'll do that."
With Zeke's words, the oppressive pressure that had filled the chapel vanished.
Bacchus suddenly felt his strength drain and coughed.
Roban looked at him with a worried expression and supported him.
Zeke said to Bacchus,
"We should move to another location first."
Bacchus nodded and patted the head of Roban, who was supporting him.
"Roban, wait here a moment. I'll be right back."
At Bacchus's words, Roban nodded with eyes filled with fear.
He looked at Zeke and said,
"Go upstairs."
Bacchus and Zeke climbed the narrow stairs to the space above the chapel.
It seemed to be the living quarters where Bacchus, who had made the monastery his hideout, had stayed—traces of daily life like an old bed and clothes remained.
Bacchus gestured to a seat and said,
"I've heard you like tea, but given the circumstances, I apologize for not being able to offer any."
Zeke then pulled out a teacup, teapot, and hot water from his inventory.
Seeing this, Bacchus's eyes widened in surprise.
Zeke brewed the tea and poured it into his own cup and Bacchus's.
Bacchus savored the aroma of the tea Zeke had poured.
"Good tea. Your mother would have liked it too."
"A filial impiety who killed his stepmother himself saying that—doesn't it feel strange to you?"
Bacchus frowned at Zeke's words.
"I didn't kill my mother."
"Lady Kali personally confirmed Carmilla's death. Are you trying to deny it?" Bacchus fell silent for a moment before he slowly opened his mouth.
"The information that the emperor is after Gio Rubern's remains—that came from my mother too."
"What?"
Bacchus killing Carmilla had happened several months ago.
It had been impossible for the already deceased Carmilla to know about the emperor's personal campaign from a week ago and reveal its purpose.
"Explain what happened."
Bacchus took a sip of tea and began his story.
"You must already know that my mother was a vampire."
"Yes, I heard from Lady Kali."
"Do you also know that as a descendant of the royal vampires, she was a progenitor?" Zeke looked surprised at Bacchus's words.
"Carmilla was a progenitor? Wait, did the family head accept her knowing that?"
"Arthur Draker is... a complicated man in many ways." Zeke agreed with Bacchus's words.
Though both were sons of Arthur Draker, they shared the trait of not regarding him as a father.
Bacchus continued,
"As a progenitor, my mother was bound to Arthur Draker. The reason she entrusted herself to Lady Kali was to find a way to escape from Arthur Draker."
"Wasn't it because the family threatened her due to being a vampire, leading to a deal?" Bacchus nodded at that.
"There was certainly that aspect. But that wasn't the main reason. My mother wanted to break free from Arthur Draker's bondage and reclaim her true power as a progenitor. That would allow her to wield the full might of a royal vampire, making her comparable to a black knight."
"The true power of a progenitor. So Arthur Draker's bondage was preventing her from awakening it."
"Yes. In the end, my mother found a way to break that bondage. That's why I personally pierced her heart."
"Killing Carmilla was to free her from the bondage? Is this some metaphorical expression?" Bacchus shook his head.
"No, it's literal. A progenitor can revive through a ritual under the full moon even after death. Of course, there's a loss of power, but under certain conditions, it means they don't truly die."
"A being that can revive even after death."
Zeke hadn't known progenitors possessed such power.
"So, you killed Carmilla to break the bondage, then performed the revival ritual to bring her back."
"Yes. Freed from Arthur Draker's bondage, my mother is currently recovering her strength in a secret location."
Zeke could now understand why Bacchus had killed the captive Carmilla with his own hands.
"Hmm. But how did Carmilla learn that the emperor is seeking Gio Rubern's remains?"
"There are countless powerful figures across the continent who desire beautiful vampire women. The information they hold includes things even the Black Stage can't uncover. They revere my mother as their great mother and tell her everything."
"So Carmilla is running a spy network through vampire women."
"My mother has lived a long time as a progenitor. Even before being bound by Arthur Draker, she left many traces in various places. The Red Eye is also a seed she planted that has grown."
Carmilla's influence seemed to extend across the entire continent, more than expected.
"Regular vampires have lifespans similar to or slightly longer than humans. But as a progenitor, she would have lived several times that, so it's possible."
Zeke looked at Bacchus and said,
"What does the emperor plan to do with Gio Rubern's remains?"
"What an aging, sickly emperor wants is simple."
Bacchus continued slowly,
"The emperor intends to use the first Holy King's remains to restore his body to a young, healthy state."
"Even the Holy King's remains shouldn't have that kind of power."
"He must know some special method, which is why he's seeking those remains.
Perhaps a way to harness the miraculous power the Holy King wielded."
Gio Rubern, as the Holy King, had been a healer class capable of using light magic as well as miraculous powers.
If the emperor could wield the Holy King's power, while not achieving immortality, restoring vitality to his body would certainly have been possible. "I need to stop him from reaching the Holy King's ruins first."
As Zeke organized his thoughts, Bacchus said to him,
"Zeke Draker. I have a proposal for you."
Zeke turned to look at Bacchus, who was sweating profusely, seemingly very tense.
"What proposal?"
"You may know this, but my mother and I are currently searching for traces of the royal vampires."
"To fully restore her true power as a progenitor."
"Yes. The only way for my mother to completely escape Arthur Draker is that. She's free from the bondage now, but... if he seeks to bind her again, we have no way to stop him."
"Does Arthur Draker know Carmilla has revived?"
As he conversed with Bacchus, Zeke began to think that Arthur's goal might not be solely Bacchus.
"Why does Arthur Draker want to keep Carmilla bound? A progenitor is rare, but not something the Draker family head would obsess over."
Even if Carmilla, as a progenitor, found the traces of royal vampires and unlocked her true power, it would have been impossible for her to oppose Arthur, who possessed grandmaster-level strength.
Bacchus hesitated before he slowly spoke.
"The being my mother and I are searching for isn't an ordinary royal vampire." He paused for breath before he continued.
"We're searching for traces of the vampire king, Caligula." Zeke frowned at Bacchus's words.
"The vampire king."
Even in his previous life, Zeke had never heard of a vampire king.
Thinking back, in his previous life, both Bacchus and Carmilla had likely died during the continental war.
Zeke looked at Bacchus and said,
"You're asking me to help find Caligula's traces." Bacchus nodded.
"If you do that, we'll become your ears and eyes, Zeke Draker."
"Hmm."
"Our intelligence network is faster than even the Black Stage. Especially for underworld information. Now that the syndicate is dismantled, this should be quite appealing to you."
As Bacchus said, after dismantling the syndicate and developing the Cusco Kingdom and southern islands, operating an intelligence organization had become more difficult than before.
The syndicate's information network across the continent had suffered losses with the organization's dissolution.
Zeke pondered Bacchus's words.
"If I hand Bacchus over to the Black Stage, the family head said he'd give a great gift. He doesn't use such expressions lightly, so I might even receive the guardian knight seat. But if I help, I can gain the cooperation of a progenitor." After weighing it, Zeke looked at Bacchus and slowly spoke.
"Alright, I'll accept your proposal."
Bacchus looked surprised at Zeke's words.
Though it was what he hoped for, he'd thrown out the proposal expecting it might be difficult, but Zeke accepted surprisingly readily.
"Really?"
"Why, don't you like it?"
Bacchus shook his head.
"Of course not."
Zeke adopted a more relaxed posture than before and looked at Bacchus. "Then tell me properly now. Why did you feed false information to Sister Kali?" Bacchus looked troubled at those words and slowly opened his mouth.
"It was unexpected for me too. I confirmed it multiple times before passing the information... I never thought it was a trap set by the Siemens side."
"If that's true, your skills as an informant are questionable." Bacchus shook his head in panic at Zeke's words.
"It may sound like an excuse, but if I'd had a bit more time, I would have realized it was a trap. But things moved so urgently, and suspicions about me were rising within the Black Stage. Souma was calling in internal investigators at the time, so I had no choice. I was aware the information was incomplete, so when I passed it on, I added warnings about several concerning points."
After hearing the information about the pirate king from Bacchus, Kali had indeed acted hastily instead of deliberating.
If Kali had prepared her forces more cautiously before entering the island, she might not have fallen into the trap so easily.
Zeke's suspicions about Bacchus weren't fully dispelled, but he seemed worth dealing with.
Zeke pulled out an oath contract from his inventory.
Seeing the oath contract on the table, Bacchus looked as surprised as when he saw the teacup.
"...You carry something like this around?"
"You never know when or where you might need to make a contract."
Zeke wrote up the oath contract according to their deal and proceeded with the signatures. Soon, their names were engraved on each other's wrists.
Zeke stored the oath contract back in his inventory and looked at Bacchus.
"Alright. But why did you kidnap the pope's successor in the midst of being chased? The Black Stage thought you were handing him over to the emperor to seek asylum in the empire."
Bacchus shook his head in response.
"It's the opposite. The emperor is implementing oppressive policies against nonhumans. A human supremacist emperor would never grant asylum to a vampire." He paused before he continued.
"Caligula's traces are connected to the Holy Kingdom. I rescued Roban to obtain related information from the pope."
Contrary to the Black Stage's expectations, Bacchus had actually intended to protect the successor and send him to the Holy Kingdom.
Even so, Zeke looked puzzled and said,
"Then why keep him here instead of sending him to the Principality of Vadoka?" Bacchus's expression darkened at that.
"Because taking Roban to the Principality of Vadoka now would put his life in danger."