"The 'Star of Nagran'."

Beltrail did not recognize the unfamiliar words that flowed from his mouth.

"What... star?"

Seeing that Beltrail did not understand the word he had spoken, the man smirked.

"It's a pleasant term meaning paradise. The Star of Paradise. A place created solely for the salvation of our brethren. And we despise garbage like you the most."

Did you think I wouldn't know what you've been up to in the basement of the outbuilding? His cold, warmthless eyes seemed to suggest as much. At that moment, Beltrail instinctively realized that this man intended to kill him and trembled fiercely.

The reason he had saved Beltrail for last wasn't merely because he was an Elder Priest or because of his high status. He simply wanted to inflict longer terror, greater pain, on his prey.

"No, I was, I was just, I was just conducting, conducting research...."

"Research.... that sickening study where you were trying to find a way to transform a human into an Awakener by replacing their entire blood with Awakener blood? Or are you talking about the damned experiment to see if an Awakener in heat could give birth to a child that isn't cursed by your family's accursed bloodline? There's just too many for me to even know what you're talking about."

The once-respectful man mocked Beltrail with icy eyes.

"That's not what you call research."

"Ah, ahh!"

As soon as the man finished his words, the corpses around them began to rise and crawl towards them. Beltrail struggled to escape from the reaching hands of the clinging assistant priests' corpses with empty eyes, but his legs felt rooted to the ground.

"No!"

Claw-like hands grabbed his limbs, and teeth soaked in blood tore into his flesh. Despite the gruesome sounds of flesh tearing and bones breaking, his mind was painfully clear, to the point of madness. Beltrail screamed in agonizing pain.

"Aaah! Save me! I admit, I've done wrong! Please, get these things off me!"

"Didn't you ignore them when your test subjects said the same thing?"

The man's slow words echoed clearly amidst the pain. Beltrail shook his head, crying out.

"It was all for the children of families suffering from the 'Blood of Blessing'! Is it a sin to research for the sake of the children who were born to die immediately!"

"'Blood of Blessing', what a joke. It's 'Cursed Blood', isn't it? If it were truly a blessing, would trash like you be so desperate to resist it? Isn't it all a result of you lot greedily desiring forbidden power?"

"Ah, ah!"

Incredibly, even though Beltrail had been half-eaten by the corpses, he hadn't died yet. Of course, the reason was that the eating corpses and the pain were all illusions, but Beltrail's mind, filled with extreme pain and fear, had already been paralyzed beyond the point of questioning this.

"Despite having coveted divine power, you're not satisfied. Now you're greedy for your brethren's power and lives as well. It's more righteous to dispose of trash like you for the greater good."

Beltrail couldn't hear the man's cold voice properly as he was screaming in pain from a corpse gnawing at his face. However, he could sense the killing intent becoming increasingly potent, so he desperately screamed his plea.

"No, please, I'll do anything. Please, save me!"

The man, void of any sign of hesitation, slowly opened his mouth to issue his final command to Beltrail.

"Now, it's time for you to die..."

At that moment, an unfamiliar force from somewhere rushed violently towards the man. He swiftly retreated, avoiding the power targeting him, but due to this, his attempt to kill Beltrail was left incomplete. His gaze turned towards the underground passage behind Beltrail.

"Well, they've arrived sooner than expected."

"Nahan."

Yuder, revealing himself from within the passageway, quietly called the man's name.

"Step back."

"What a pleasant face. Are you here to save the trash again, brother?"

"I told you clearly last time not to refer to me like that."

Nahan grinned at Yuder's cold retort, his sword drawn. His gaze briefly shifted towards the corridor where Yuder had been hiding, then swung back.

"Did you hear our conversation from inside there? Then you must know what trashy things this guy has done. And yet, you intend to interfere again?"

Yuder did not respond to his words. It wasn't that he agreed with Nahan's words, but his emotions were confused for other reasons.

'I suspected that Nahan wasn't acting personally, but I never thought I'd hear the name Star of Nagran here.'

In his previous life, he had heard about a group called Star of Nagran.

During the period when the Katchian Emperor was seriously reaching out to domestic and foreign powers to increase the forces that followed him, a terrorist group had made a plan to gather the Awakeners and attack the nobility and royalty of various countries. However, their plans collapsed due to internal division. That group's name was the Star of Nagran.

While their base was destroyed due to infighting, fortunately, it was near the southern desert and the damage to the public was minimal.

Because the Katchian Emperor didn't pay much attention to the incident, Yuder personally sent a few members to investigate, confirming that Star of Nagran had completely collapsed and there was no chance of regrouping.

However, a few years later, after Yuder had been away from the Empire for a long time to investigate a massive earthquake that marked the beginning of a disaster, and the appearance of a monster from a crevice in the ground, he unexpectedly heard the name again among the rumors in the social circles.

There was a rumor that a sage, leading numerous followers, was traveling all over the continent, teaching foreign kings and nobles, and the name of this follower group was called Star of Nagran. There were even some imperial nobles who went abroad to meet him.

As time passed, the sage and Star of Nagran grew their influence, resembling a massive religious group. At that point, even the Katchian Emperor started to show interest in the sage, who appeared in the Sun Palace, looking like an old and wise mage that people typically imagined.

Although the sage quickly captured the heart of the Katchian Emperor, Yuder could not shake off his suspicions. After investigating him secretly for a long time, he found out that the sage was an Awakener with the ability to influence people's moods and was connected to the former terrorist group 'Star of Nagran'. On the orders of the Katchian Emperor, Yuder killed him.

That incident had made many enemies for Yuder. While the sage was dead, his fanatical followers remained scattered in various places, even within the ranks of the Cavalry. Even the Katchian Emperor, who had ordered Yuder to kill the sage, had become increasingly paranoid and had come to trust no one, leaving Yuder with the feeling that he had lost more than he gained.

The name "Star of Nagran" might have been insignificant compared to the countless natural disasters that had struck the continent. However, Yuder considered it as one of the biggest disasters in a tangible sense.

'I intended never to let such charlatans appear in this life... I can't believe I'm seeing this preliminary battle here.'

The image of the Star of Nagran that remained in Yuder's mind was primarily of the sage who led the religious group and his followers. Therefore, after he returned 11 years to the past, he believed there was no need to worry about the Star of Nagran.

He thought it would be a group that hadn't even been formed yet, so he planned to casually conduct Cavalry activities and then immediately beat up anyone who looked suspicious, potentially the future sage. However, seeing Nahan in front of him now made him question that judgment.

'If the Star of Nagran existed much earlier than I thought, there's a high probability that the internal division that occurred in my previous life wasn't fully understood by the investigation back then.'

The members of the investigation team Yuder had dispatched in his previous life reported that the cause of their division was a power struggle between a faction trying to ally with nobles and a faction that wanted to shun them. If everyone had the same mind, they would not try to join hands with the nobles who looked down on the Awakeners, but when several people gathered, power naturally divided.

Among the followers of the Star of Nagran that Yuder had met, there was no Nahan, so Yuder hypothesized that Nahan might have died when the Star of Nagran first collapsed in his previous life.

'A group made for the Awakeners... Its purpose is not less than Kishiar's.'

But the difference between Kishiar, who tried to save as many people as possible, and Nahan, who was willing to kill anyone for his goal, was quite stark.

Nahan, who could not guess Yuder's complex feelings, seemed to think that Yuder agreed with him because there was no answer. He raised the corner of his distorted lips and smiled.

"Do not interfere, brother. I've already taken care of everything here. Only that guy remains."

"Uh, ugh!"

As soon as Nahan finished speaking, Beltrail, who had collapsed as if dead, writhed and moaned. Yuder did not look at him but frowned and spoke.

"Where did you take the Awakeners trapped here? You couldn't have let them go already."

"Well, where could they be?"

Yuder turned his gaze away from Nahan, who showed no signs of answering. He noticed many footprints and the marks of cart wheels among the fallen bodies. The marks led into the forest. Considering Kishiar had said there was a graveyard and a prayer hall in the west of Apeto's mansion, the only place that could hide a large number of people would have to be there.