Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 503 Different Histories
The giant demon swung its greatsword, slashing down hard at the Night Raven mech. But at that moment, a burst of intense flames suddenly erupted from the Night Raven mech's left-side thruster, causing it to dodge to the right in an instant, narrowly avoiding the giant demon's attack. The demon's greatsword missed its target and slammed into the ground, embedding itself deeply into the stone slab as if cutting through a piece of butter.

"Oh?"

Seeing this, the saintess's eyes lit up. She had to admit, it was a very interesting design. For humans, dodging such an attack wasn't easy, and the same applied to puppets. However, while this strange steel puppet wasn't particularly agile, even somewhat rigid, its ingenious concept and design compensated for this shortcoming.

It moved parallel to the ground to dodge the opponent's attack. The advantage of doing so was that it did not need to readjust its fighting stance, but could take the opportunity to launch an attack—in fact, that's exactly what Li Wei did.

As soon as the Night Raven mech landed, flames erupted from its back thrusters again, propelling the entire mech like a cannonball as it crashed into the giant demon.

The latter, having just swung its sword, was unable to regain its balance and was rammed head-on by the mech charging from the side. The demon roared in anger, throwing away its sword and attempting to grab the mech with its bare hands. However, at that moment, the machine guns located on either side of the mech's head suddenly turned and aimed at the demon's eyes.

"Da da da da da!!!"

"Ohhhhhhh!!!"

With a series of gunshots, the demon's eyes were instantly riddled with blood and gore, and it let out a piercing scream. Its hands, which had been trying to grab the mech, instinctively withdrew and covered its eyes.

Just then, the mech raised the pile driver in its left hand and pressed it against the demon's chin.

With a loud roar, steam burst out, propelling the thick pile hammer forward!
"boom!"

The thick, heavy hammer pierced straight through the head of the giant demon, whose body shuddered violently before collapsing limply to the ground.

The Night Raven mech pulled out its hammer, quickly retreated, and warily raised its machine gun, aiming at the demon's corpse.

Fortunately, the body did not rise again.

"Well done."

Jeanne—or rather, the saint's voice—sounded, and Levi opened the cockpit and looked in her direction. She stood on a rooftop not far away, quietly watching him.

"So, does this mean I've passed the test, Miss Saint?"

Li Wei piloted his mecha to the rooftop and gazed at the saintess, who also looked back at him quietly.

"Of course, come with me."

After saying this, the saintess turned and walked towards the end of the passage, while Li Wei jumped out of the cockpit and followed behind her. At the same time, he snapped his fingers, and the mecha immediately disappeared without a trace.

"Do you mind if I ask what those guys are?"

Following behind the saintess, Li Wei asked curiously, and the saintess answered without turning her head.

"demon."

"The kind of demon the Holy Bishop spoke of?"

"The Holy Bishop is lying."

The saintess clearly had no intention of giving the holy bishop any face, which shows that even during the reign of Emperor Arthur, the relationship between the holy bishop and Emperor Arthur was definitely not good.

"They are just confusing right and wrong, creating a false impression; they are a bunch of shameless liars. They have cleverly covered up history and the truth, and manipulated everything."

"According to scholars of theology in this era, the devil refers to a believer who was once defeated and who worshipped other gods."

"Yes and no."

The saintess's voice carried a hint of annoyance.

“Arthur opposed the Holy Bishop’s idea from the beginning. He believed that labeling heretics as demons would not help them integrate into the empire, but would only create more divisions. Therefore, in Arthur’s time, the propaganda was to integrate the beliefs of various religions so that other believers could also accept the rule of the empire.”

Good grief, so unofficial history is the real history?
Li Wei silently complained to himself, "If the current followers of the Holy Lord heard what the Holy Maiden said, they would probably have their worldviews completely shattered and jump off a building."

"Listen, I don't have much time."

Although the saintess spoke calmly, she spoke very quickly.

“Because you have come to my castle, the Holy Bishop’s confinement of me has been temporarily halted, but this will not last long. Through her memories, I have learned of your origins. You come from the Empire, and you have proven your strength, so I want you to do something.”

As she spoke, the saintess turned her head and looked at Li Wei.

"Protect humanity, destroy the gates of hell."

"The Gates of Hell? Sorry, I've never heard of such a place."

"Now that place has another name—you call it Huadu (Flower City)."

"………………………"

Francis's capital?

The Gates of Hell?

Li Wei was dumbfounded, his mind a complete mess, while the saintess continued speaking without the slightest hesitation.

"The Holy Bishops were created by Arthur to unite the faith of the Empire, but they betrayed Arthur and the Empire. I don't know when it started, but the priests of the Holy Bishops began to worship the devil and completely degenerated into their lackeys."

As she spoke, the saintess glanced at Li Wei.

“Aren’t you curious about where these demons came from? They were summoned by the Holy Bishop in my castle.”

"……………Um?"

“I deliberately spread false information, and these demon cultists foolishly fell for it. They sneaked into my castle disguised as workers, wanting to completely destroy it and kill me. In fact, every demon you see is a transformation of those Holy Lord cultists—demons can only come to our world by possessing human bodies unless they open the gates of hell.”

"This is really..."

Li Wei was at a loss for words, but in the end it seemed that this saintess had still messed up.

I know what you're thinking.

Li Wei strongly suspected that this saintess might have mind-reading abilities.

"I admit that the final outcome was not very satisfactory, because I did not expect that these believers of Holy Lord had a closer connection with the devil than I imagined. They even summoned the Demon Lord—if you cannot understand, you can think of it as the devil's god."

"The results of it?"

“I banished it, but I was also severely traumatized by it and had to find another way to make a living.”

"You're not thinking about immortality, are you?" "There is no such thing as true immortality in this world."

A hint of melancholy appeared in the saintess's eyes.

"Even gods cannot escape death, let alone mortals. We may be able to postpone this deadline for a long time, but sooner or later, the inevitable moment will come."

That's not entirely wrong.

"But why..."

Li Wei was about to ask another question, but the saintess interrupted him again.

“I know what you want to ask, but I don’t have much time. Anyway, you need to know one thing. In our time, the Gates of Hell were the outposts for demons to attack the human world. But Arthur sealed it away completely—no demon could break that seal and come back to the human world.”

That's it!

Although the saintess's words were rambling and incoherent, Li Wei immediately understood what she meant!
He had several questions before, such as why the Saintess would build a castle fortress here, since this wasn't the most remote region of the empire and there were no threats around. Now it seems that the Saintess is here to guard the Gates of Hell sealed within Francis, which is why she came here.

And the other question is thus easily solved: why did the Holy Church confuse the public, equating "demons" with "heretics," which was also the reason for the saint's extreme anger? Clearly, the Holy Church was doing this to distort the public's perception, and Li Wei knew that in this world, public opinion could influence reality.

If everyone believes that the demons the Holy Bishop refers to are other heretics who were once defeated, then the meaning of the word "demon" will shift. Once they no longer fit the original meaning of "demon," then the seal that Emperor Arthur used to imprison the gates of hell might be broken.

This Holy Bishop Nima has pulled off a literal trick, a complete usurpation!
Thinking about this, Li Wei suddenly recalled some words he had seen before that had different meanings in different countries. For example, in Chinese, "爱人" (àirén) refers to one's wife, but in Japanese, it refers to a lover... The same word, different meanings, referring to different targets.

Clearly, the holy bishops did the same, equating demons with heretics to distort public perception. Once everyone believes that demons are not demons, but heretics, then the seal against demons will likely become ineffective!
only……………

"Does the current Holy Bishop possess such great power?"

"They are still colluding with the demons. I tried to destroy them before, but I failed."

Ah... I was talking about when the saintess was branded a witch.

Li Wei finally understood what had happened back then. He had always suspected that the Holy Bishop was behind the Saintess's destruction. However, Li Wei couldn't figure out the Holy Bishop's motives at the time, but now, after hearing the Saintess's words, he finally understood why the Holy Bishop had done it.

It was obvious from the saint's appearance that she was preaching a completely different religious story from the saint's, or rather, she was exposing the lies the saint had woven for centuries. Once the saint led the army and completely drove Crante out of Francis, her reputation would undoubtedly be unparalleled in Francis for a time.

At that time, whatever the saintess said would be right, and whatever the holy bishop said would be wrong.

Therefore, in order to maintain his rule, the Holy Bishop secretly colluded with the nobles of Cronte and Francis to kill the saintess.

"According to legend, you were burned at the stake as a witch?"

"The Franciscans really disappointed me."

The saintess snorted coldly.

"Weak and incompetent, easily defeated, no different from now. Only indulging in some fancy delusions, while disdaining the cold reality. But fortunately, I am not completely unprepared. Although those demon believers have imprisoned my soul, I still left myself a backup plan."

"and many more."

Upon hearing this, Li Wei raised an eyebrow.

"You're not trying to say that the legend of the savior saint was something you started, are you?"

"The power of thought is very strong, Mr. Li Wei."

The saintess's voice remained calm and indifferent.

"We may not be as powerful in this era as we were back then, but as long as we accumulate enough strength, miracles can still happen, right? As long as the conditions are met."

Goodness, Miss Saintess, you're quite the ruthless one.

Upon hearing the saintess's answer, Li Wei inwardly scoffed. Now he understood why the saintess was dressed as a shepherdess when she awoke.

Although this saintly lady may never have been a shepherdess in her past life.

But that doesn't matter, because according to legend, she was a shepherdess.

And why she appeared at this time is easy to answer.

According to legend, the saint would reappear when Francis was in danger.

Huh? Wait a minute?

"If it's just a matter of strong faith, then Emperor Arthur should have returned long ago, right?"

Li Wei sensed the problem; according to this logic, Emperor Arthur would have already returned to the empire, while the saintess shook her head.

"Of course it's not that simple. A vessel to bear the faith is essential. Unfortunately, this is all I can do. And... this method is not without its flaws."

"You mean...personality?"

Li Wei seemed to understand what the saint meant. Previously, Jeanne's personality was more like that of an ordinary person, but now this saint was somewhat different from Jeanne.

“That’s right. The influence of the public’s opinion is very tricky and troublesome. Even the gods cannot avoid a similar fate, which is why they made a deal with Arthur. And I am just an ordinary mortal, so it is even more so.”

Even the gods could not escape a similar fate?

Upon hearing this, Li Wei's heart stirred, but before he could ask anything more, the Holy Maiden had already arrived in front of a tightly closed stone door.

“We’ve arrived. This is the heart of the castle—I think you can see it too. Strictly speaking, the castle isn’t completely finished yet. But fortunately, its core functions are still intact.”

As she spoke, the saintess reached out and placed her hand on the stone door. A moment later, Li Wei saw a flash of blue light, and then the stone door slowly opened.

Unlike other places, this place looked very clean. There were many transparent pipes on the surrounding walls, which looked like they were made of glass (although they were definitely not glass). They extended outwards in all directions like a spider web, penetrating deep into the inner walls. Inside the pipes, Li Wei could see streams of blue energy surging.

Hmm... this suddenly looks very sci-fi.

Li Wei followed the pipes and saw that they all converged in the center of the room, where there was a huge jar, and in the center of the jar, a stone that emitted the same radiance floated.

"You may have heard of this."

The saintess looked at Li Wei, her tone carrying a hint of smugness for the first time.

"It is the Philosopher's Stone."

(End of this chapter)