I, who was eager to retire, became an Imperial General.

Chapter 293 Archbishop Faum, Frostach Estate

Hearing the anxious shouts beside him, John snapped back to reality, only to be met with a bearded old face:

"Bruno? What's this...?"

Looking at Bruno's tense face, John was filled with doubt, but the sharp pain in his mind and the return of the previous illusion made him realize what had just happened, and cold sweat broke out on his back.

"Thank God, General John, you've finally woken up!"

Seeing that John was finally able to speak, Bruno breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the sweat from his brow, and then quickly explained to John:
"Ever since you stepped out of the Stargazing Spire, you suddenly stopped in one spot and didn't move at all. No matter how I asked you, you didn't respond. You looked like a puppet, which terrified me."

"If I hadn't been certain you were still breathing, I would have thought you'd been assassinated by a psychic assassin!"

No, in some ways, my encounter in this illusion was far more dangerous than that of a mental assassin.

Looking at Bruno's relieved expression, John couldn't help but smile bitterly. The memory of the nightmare-like illusion he had just experienced still sent chills down his spine.

The scene resembled a cult sacrifice, the prayers that seemed to enter my head like demonic chants, as if trying to shred my brain, the eerie gray-robed nun, and the strange golden hand that suddenly appeared before I lost consciousness.

All of this demonstrates just how dangerous the secret hidden within the original body truly is.

"Speaking of which, Trotsky did not show up after he fell into the illusion."

"Is it that they didn't notice? Or is the terrifying nature of the clash between those two mysterious forces such that even this Demon King, who is said to stand at the pinnacle of human power, would have to give way?"

John didn't know the answer, but after Trotsky had a conversation with some unknown being, who then banished him from the Stargazing Spire, and just as he stepped out of the building, he was dragged into an illusion by that damned gray-robed nun.

He then realized that there must be some connection between the two.

"However, since the Grey Sister's illusion attack was forced to stop by the sudden appearance of the golden arm, it also means that this attack on John von Maslow, the vessel of the curse, has come to an end."

"If nothing unexpected happens, the other party shouldn't make another move anytime soon."

During this time, he could try to draw power from the curse through the detachment mark given by Trolowski, so as to break through to a higher level and deal with possible future crises.

"But next time, it won't be that easy!"

John muttered to himself, a cold, murderous glint flashing in his dark eyes.

He disliked the feeling of potential risk, and since the other party had already attacked him, they should have been prepared to die, right?

"General John, did you just say something?"

Bruno, who hadn't heard clearly, looked at John with a puzzled expression.

And for some reason, as he stared at John, he suddenly felt that this newly promoted lieutenant general, who always had a smile on his face, was now bringing him an indescribable sense of danger.

It was as if he, now 39, had returned to the age of 15, when he was a reserve member of the surveillance force and was receiving his first formal training with the Royal Secret Surveillance Force, where he had to hunt a demon bear alone in the jungle.

However, at the mission location, he encountered two high-ranking magical beasts engaged in battle. At that time, he was just a low-ranking mage, so he could only cower behind the rocks in fear, covering his mouth tightly and not daring to let out even the slightest sound of breathing.

The instinctive warning he felt when faced with a terrifying being capable of annihilating him in an instant remains unforgettable to this day.

Unexpectedly, now that he has been promoted to a high-ranking mage and has become the leader of the 101st squad of the inspection force, he has experienced this again in a young man who is 15 years younger than him.

It's simply unbelievable.

Just as Bruno was filled with doubt and shock, John suddenly turned to him, gave him a natural smile, and then slowly said:

"Nothing, I just thought of some interesting things. Also, Major Bruno, I would like to ask you to take me somewhere. Do you have time?"

"Ah, no problem, no problem, General John."

Bruno snapped back to reality, quickly opening his umbrella and holding it over John's head to shield him from the pouring autumn rain. He then carefully helped John into the car before rushing to the driver's seat himself. A brighter smile than ever before spread across his face as he looked at John, whose face was obscured by shadow and whose expression appeared somewhat cold, and asked:

"General John, where do you plan to go next?"

"Thank you for your help, Frostach Estate, where the West family resides."

"You don't need to be so polite, it's my pleasure to serve you!"

"boom!"

With the roar of the engine starting, the black sedan slowly moved forward as Bruno lightly pressed the accelerator.

In the back row, John gazed intently at the towering, cloud-piercing tower receding into the distance for a few seconds before turning his gaze away.

Instead, he took out his rarely used brown sheepskin gloves from his pocket, put them on his hands to cover the conspicuous laceration mark on the back of his right hand, and then closed his tired eyes to rest.

Under Bruno's steady driving, the car gradually drove away, and under the autumn rain that had somehow slowed down, it moved at a steady speed along the smooth road of the First Military Academy of the Empire, eventually turning into a small black dot and gradually disappearing into the end of the road in the ripples.

"Wow!"

“You have overstepped your bounds, Archbishop Famille Ferrona.”

At the same time, shortly after John left, Trolowski, who had been watching this scene from the window, slowly turned around and looked at the figure who had appeared in the study at some point and was now smiling silently with his eyes closed.

The other person was wearing a bishop's robe made of the finest silver brocade, with a flawless base color and a long hem. He wore a platinum crown of thorns on his head and held a scepter as tall as a person, topped with a winged angel embracing a ball of light.

Her hands were adorned with a pair of pure white silk gloves.

Her face was like a finely sculpted work of art, perfectly matching people's imagination of a sacred leader.

But Trotsky's tone showed no respect whatsoever towards this archbishop of the Holy Radiance Cult of the Empire:

"Who gave you the audacity to attack my student in my territory?" *Snap!*

Almost the instant Trolowski finished speaking, the sixteen-layered magical barrier in front of Famille shattered, and a terrifying wind of magic surged forth. However, under the control of the Demon King's terrifying power, it couldn't even stir the pages of the surrounding books.

Fammue himself didn't even know how Trotsky had used magic to deliver this terrifying blow.

Despite being of the same Grand rank, her opponent destroyed all her defenses in the blink of an eye.

And the whole process was so fast that she didn't even see the other person's spellcasting movements clearly.

If the other party truly intended to kill her, her head would probably have already been completely shattered by the attack just now!
With a casual strike, he could completely annihilate her, the 96th-ranked Grandmaster, who was known by countless people as the 'Master of the Illusionary Realm'.

This is the absolute power possessed by the one who ranks at the pinnacle of the Grand Rank and is recognized by countless people as the Demon King!
However, Famille showed no fear in the face of Trotowski's warning. Instead, he maintained his elegant smile, then bowed his head to this being who had reached the pinnacle of humanity, and said gently:
“I have no intention of challenging your authority, Lord Demon King. However, I think you should also understand that the part of the curse information you submitted to the Church for deconstruction has been confirmed by the joint investigation of the six archbishops to be comparable to, no, far exceeding, the level of danger of an ordinary disaster.”

"If a curse of this level is allowed to fall into the hands of a human who is unable to control it, then once it erupts at some point in the future, what awaits the world will likely be an incalculable catastrophe."

"The reason I just used the Illusionary Realm on Lieutenant General John Maslow to trigger the curse within him through a mental attack was merely to test whether it could truly bind the curse, just to be on the safe side."

"The purpose was simply to determine whether Lieutenant General John Maslow was qualified to act as a vessel for the curse; there was no other purpose or malice."

"And I think someone as great as you should be aware of this, otherwise you would have stopped me, or even killed me, the moment I made my move, wouldn't you?"

"..."

Trolowski did not speak, but simply looked down at the archbishop in front of him with a cold gaze.

After a long silence, he slowly spoke:

"Get out of my mage tower before I lose my temper!"

"May the brilliance and wisdom carried by magic forever be yours, Your Majesty the Demon King~"

Seeing that the Demon King did not attack him again, Famiao immediately bowed to the Demon King's front, then tapped his staff lightly before retreating into the door behind him that had opened at some point and was emitting faint glows, disappearing completely from the room.

However, after Famille left, Trolowski did not continue to expand the Astral Realm as usual to explore the Astral Plane. Instead, he stared intently at the direction Famille had gone, his brow furrowed, his eyes flickering as if he were thinking about something.

He was naturally capable of stopping Faum's attack on John using the Illusionary Realm and his attempt to induce the spread of the curse.

But as Famille just said, he saw through the fact that the other party was testing the strength of the seal within John's body, which is why he did not stop them.

Because he was also unsure whether John could still contain the portion of the cursed power that had been extracted from their past collaboration, after four years of expansion and growth.

However, based on the current results, everything is moving in a positive direction.

For some reason, Trotsky always felt that there was something strange about this matter.

That is, Bishop Famille, the only one among the six archbishops of the Holy Radiance Church whose strength is at the Grand rank, seems to be paying a little too much attention to John.

Moreover, because the other party did not fully expand the Illusionary Realm when using it earlier, but instead used exquisite mental power to control it, linking it to John's and the other party's perspectives.

Only the caster and the target of the spell can fully perceive what is happening within the illusionary realm.

Therefore, he was unaware of everything John had just experienced in the illusion.

That's exactly what made him vaguely feel that something was wrong.

If the other party is really just testing, then why not fully expand the domain and let him observe from the sidelines?

In this way, if any unexpected changes occur, he can forcefully intervene and break through the domain in advance to stop the situation from deteriorating further.

However, the other party did not do that, but instead took the most disadvantageous approach to causing the situation to spiral out of control.

All of this makes it seem as if the other party's purpose was never just to conduct a test.

Rather, it was as if he wanted to completely release the curse from John's body!
"..."

Trolovsky, who had deduced this result, paused abruptly, but after a slight hesitation, he dismissed the absurd idea.

After all, as the Archbishop of the Holy Radiance Church of the Empire, and a genius mage who successfully entered the Grand Rank at the age of 37, he did not believe that this Archbishop Faum would do something so foolish as to dig his own grave.

Moreover, the other party's absolute faith in the Holy Light Church has passed the Pope's approval, making him an absolute fanatic.

Under the constraints of such faith, how could the other party possibly do anything that violates the sect's beliefs?

So, is it just an illusion?

Trotsky murmured to himself, and after some contemplation, he realized he couldn't deduce any reason why the other party would do this, so he put the suspicion aside and instead recalled the look John had given him towards the observatory before he left.

He naturally understood what the undisguised emotion in that gaze meant.

But in the end, he only sighed silently at the impending storm, showing no concern for the blows and retaliations that the Holy Radiance Church would suffer.

After re-covering the study with spatial runes, Trolowski calmly reopened the Astral Realm. As usual, he donned the swearing Crown of Omniscience and, surrounded by the power of countless stars, his eyes filled with longing, he threw himself back into the new exploration of the Astral Realm.

"Squeak!"

Meanwhile, on the other side, in the old noble district of the capital city of Eleno, in front of the Frostach Manor, which resembled an iron fortress, a black sedan slowly stopped outside the manor gate amidst the dense autumn rain, under the vigilant gaze of the guards on the high walls.

……

(End of this chapter)