The cold wind blew into the window on the second floor of the library, picking up the broken hair on Yaer's temples. Yaer stretched out his hand to cover the slightly dazzling white light outside the window, and rubbed his sore eyes and wrists.
He said with a little murmur,
"Roy, you should look at the sky outside, we've been looking for an afternoon, and it's getting dark! You have to understand that I'm just an ordinary person, short-sighted, without the perverted physique of a witcher, can you let me Rest for a while?"
"Come on, man." The witcher's voice was loud, still full of energy, not showing any signs of fatigue.
"Let's hurry up and save Leto from the pervert!"
"And didn't you say this morning, have you seen the concept of the 'seven deadly sins' in a travel journal? Let's look through the travel journal again, and we will definitely find it!"
"I wish I had copied all the books in the library so I could find the book right away."
After Yael finished speaking, he wailed and continued to bury his head in the book.
For a time, in the empty library, there was only a rapid rustling sound of pages turning.
I don't know how long it took, Yaer's heavy eyelids almost closed completely, his eyes were red and tears were flowing, and his narrowed eyes swept over a certain book, and suddenly became round.
He slammed the table and stood up suddenly,
"Roy, come and have a look, I found the book!"
"My dear, it's really yours—"Van Zelenan's Travel Notes"..."
Yare opened the yellowed hard cover and came to the first page, groping for the words with his slender fingers, reciting them over and over again.
"Van Zelen, 1168-1239, missionary of the Temple of Meritelli in Erland, traveled to Nilfgaard in the south in 1215, and spent ten years traveling around most of the southern land, and then returned to the temple to write this book. . This book introduces the customs and cultural beliefs of the Nilfgaardian Empire in detail."
"The thirty-ninth page, the city of the urn..."
Roy moved his head to Yare's side and read word by word intently.
"Today, I came to the capital of the Nilfgaardian Empire, the City of the Golden Tower. This magnificent city on the banks of the Alba River is the heart of the Nilfgaardian Empire. In the eyes of the locals, there is only the City of the Golden Tower and Only the people living around it are eligible to be called true Nilfgaardians. The inhabitants of the rest of the Empire are not eligible for this honor."
"It is adjacent to the Yaruga River and has the largest port in the entire South. It has the unique advantages to become the economic center of the South."
"Not only that, but it's the center of southern religious culture and sits the headquarters of Nilfgaard's 'biggest religion'."
"The origin of the 'biggest religion' has to be mentioned eight years ago in 1207, when the then king of Nilfgaard, Fergus Enreis, carried out drastic political and religious reforms, so that the originally flourishing South, One of the biggest religions was born, the Sun Cult."
"Forgus Enreth appointed the Sun Cult to be the Nilfgaardian Cult, and appointed himself as the high priest of the Sun Cult, letting the clergy in the sect serve as key officials of the state's public institutions, unifying the monarchical power with the divine power, skillfully Make the entire empire more united and power more concentrated."
As a religious person, Van Zellen may have felt it, and he focused on the Sun Cult here.
"Glory to the great sun! Praise the sun!
—The Nilfgaardian Hymn. "
"The Cult of the Sun became supreme in the South. The Temple of Meritelli was female-dominated, while the Cult of the Sun was diametrically male-dominated, with both its high priest and clergy being male."
"These men of great power believe that all life in the world is sheltered by the sun, the giver of life and the protector of mankind! But equally cruel and destructive."
"Unlike the tolerance and kindness that the goddess always preached, the dark side of the Sun Cult is shocking."
"By chance, I discovered the hidden secrets of the Sun Cult."
"Forgus Emhyr wrote the seven original sins in a secret scripture to alert the core members of the church. They are greed, gluttony, laziness, anger, jealousy, silver lust, and arrogance."
"Every year, the church secretly selects the seven sinners from the death row inmates and performs a little-known sacred prayer ceremony!"
"Sacrificing the blood and flesh of the original sin to the supreme sun will destroy evil and give birth to beauty. The sun will bestow blessings. In order to maintain the purity of the ceremony, during the sacrifice, the hands of the participants should not be stained with the blood of innocent people, otherwise the ceremony will be contaminated."
"The vast majority of followers of Sun Cult are male, and the purpose of rituals is usually to let the sun bless their spouses."
"Although the meaning is beautiful, I think that the sacrifice process is extremely inhumane. Even if the so-called "sin" is triggered, it will not lead to death. If it goes on like this, it will inevitably lead to disaster."
(Following words: As expected, in 1236, my mind was not completely chaotic, and suddenly I heard news from the south that Fergus Enris was completely overthrown by the usurper, and the power of the Sun Cult plummeted and never returned to the past.)
…”
"Sun Cult?"
Roy pondered the word and lost his mind for a moment.
And Yael suddenly realized, "No wonder we have been looking for so long. The Seven Deadly Sins are not from a sect in the north at all. They were born in the southern empire and involved a secret ritual. The Sun Cult has only flourished for less than 30 years. With the emperor's abdication and complete decline... It is estimated that the thousands of books in the temple are recorded in this travelogue!"
"No..." Roy muttered to himself, "now the Sun Cult has begun to revive."
The unification of theocratic and monarchical powers, Forgus Enris, is the biological father of the current Southern Emperor Emhyr Enris, who was overthrown and murdered by the usurper, but his good son had already reported for him a few years ago. The one-shot revenge killed the usurper and regained the power of the empire, and once again put the Sun Cult on the political stage in the south.
"The Prince's Revenge as soon as it appears."
Roy felt that with the restoration of the Sun Cult, the Nilfgaardian Empire continued its northern expedition, and no fanatics of the Cult were allowed to come to Elland.
"Then can it be concluded that the murderer, that high-level vampire, is a remnant of the Sun Cult?"
"According to the description in the travel notes, he killed the seven sinners one by one in order to offer sacrifices to the supreme being. The murderer was a tall male vampire, and male believers usually participated in the ceremony to pray to their favorite women or spouses. . This should also be the murderer's motive."
"The corpse sites are gathered around the palace - this is not a coincidence!" Roy suddenly looked shocked, and Yaer, who was opposite him, looked blank.
"In the palace, there is a woman the murderer likes, and the murderer is showing his love to the woman in this way! If this woman is a maid, it would be a big deal to spend a lot of time for an ordinary maid..."
"Does Prince Heward have a princess?!"
Roy suddenly uttered a sentence, which startled Yaer, and the thin young man was stunned, and stammered, "No... No, His Royal Highness has no heirs!"
"Roy, my boss, what on earth did you think? Don't be surprised. I haven't slept all night. If you startle again, I'm feeling weak... "
"By the way..." Roy ignored his complaints, but remembered that after Richward's death, one of his relatives legally inherited his throne as Siward II. If the prince had a child, he would not let that Relatives take advantage.
"Since there is no princess..." So his brows furrowed tightly, "Who in the palace deserves the murderer to offer such a lofty sacrifice?"
"Nilfgaardian Sun Cult, sacrifice, palace, woman," these words came together, and Roy suddenly felt a cool breath on the back of his neck, "This... Could it be that a woman is... "
"And the killer can beat Leto..."
Nine times out of ten, it is a high-level vampire.
He already had a suspect in his mind!
Although the information observed before is normal, high-level vampires, like the cursed, can change their form and blind his perception.
Now that the motivation is basically clear, it's time to go to the showdown with that guy!
"Yar, if I don't come back to report my safety before tomorrow night, help me hand over this notebook to Mother Nannick."
The road ahead is unpredictable, life and death are unpredictable.
But he couldn't back down, and Leto was still there.
The witcher took a deep breath, checked the alchemy supplies, and stood up abruptly.