They are all characters I control.

"Everyone, what are you doing here?"

As if the timing was perfect, Mother Martha's voice came from not far away.

Chapter 38 Taking a Short Break

Mother Martha appeared at just the right moment, just as Claire, Megan, and Grace discovered the seal beneath the cemetery.

Naturally, they couldn't let Mother Martha discover the seal before them.

Claire tucked the badge into her pocket, and together with Grace and Megan, closed the coffin lid. She stood up and patted the dirt off her knees.

“I just made you some soup in the village.” Mother Martha walked to the grave, a coarse cloth belt around her waist and the basket in her hand.

Her voice remained gentle. "You all disappeared as soon as I turned around. I was still looking for you."

As she spoke, Sister Martha walked up to Claire, reached out, and gently brushed the dirt off his shoulder.

"So you've all come here. Well, have you already met Eleanor's father?"

Claire looked at the nun in front of her. There was no anger or questioning on her face, only a habitual, motherly reproach.

"Yes, I've seen it." Claire glanced at the empty coffin beside her.

"finish watching?"

"finish watching."

"Let's go back then, the soup is getting cold."

Sister Martha smiled slightly, turned around and beckoned the group to walk down the hillside.

Watching her figure disappear, Claire, Grace, and Megan exchanged glances and breathed a sigh of relief.

The group relaxed, and right beneath their feet was the seal they had found under the coffin.

“Oh, right, that coffin—” Sister Martha took a few steps, then suddenly stopped and turned back.

Claire's heart skipped a beat, and Grace and Megan held their breath.

“There’s a hole down there. You didn’t step into it, did you? It’s been in disrepair for years, and the bottom is hollow. Falling in would be terrible.”

Claire looked into her eyes.

Those deep brown eyes were crystal clear, revealing nothing unusual.

“There’s no hole,” Claire said. “We put my father’s lid back on.”

"That's good." Sister Martha nodded and continued walking.

Claire followed behind her. Grace and Megan followed behind Claire.

Four people, one in front of the other, walked along the dirt road back to the village.

Grace lowered her voice and whispered in Claire's ear, "That hole she mentioned earlier—"

“It’s fake.” Claire looked at Mother Martha’s retreating figure with some confusion. “She doesn’t want us to know what she discovered.”

But that doesn't justify saying it outright. If they could have kept quiet, they might not have even noticed the hole under the coffin.

Of course, if he didn't say anything, he wouldn't know that Sister Martha actually knew there was a seal under the coffin all along.

Grace shrugged, equally puzzled by Mother Martha's actions.

Megan, carrying the dead cat, walked at the very back, looking down at the road beneath her feet, muttering something to herself.

Upon returning to the village, Mother Martha went straight into the kitchen and began heating up the soup.

Claire stood in the doorway, watching her retreating figure.

"nun."

"Ok?"

"When did my father, William Redgrave, die? I mean, in which year specifically?"

Sister Martha pondered for a moment: "It was the year after the war against the evil god emperor ended."

"So I was born after that?"

"Ah."

"How old was he when he passed away?"

Sister Martha was silent for a moment. "Early forty."

Claire didn't say anything.

In his early forties, more than a hundred years ago.

If William Redgrave were alive today, he would be over 140 years old.

"Eleanor".

Mother Martha's voice interrupted his thoughts.

She stood up, turned around, and looked at him. The firelight flickered behind her, casting a long shadow.

"Your father's death has nothing to do with you. He passed away peacefully, so don't blame yourself."

“I understand,” Claire said.

Claire turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Upon arriving at his room, Claire lay down. This login session was now over; he needed to sort through the mixed information he had gathered so far, some true and some false.

Of course, this was also thanks to Mother Martha's cooperation.

This saved Claire a lot of time.

Back in Ophelia's room, Claire slowly opened her eyes from the bed.

Sunlight streamed in through the window and fell on his face.

He looked down at his tiny hands, the collar still around his neck.

Ophelia was already up, leaving Claire alone in the room.

Just in time, Claire also had some things to investigate. If she had been with Isabelle before, she wouldn't have been able to find the information on her own like she is now.

The room before us is the room of the master of the Inquisition.

Here, you can naturally find a lot of information that you can't find in Isabelle's.

Claire climbed out of bed and walked barefoot to the bookshelf, her eyes scanning the covers of the books.

Ophelia's bookshelf was huge, taking up an entire wall, and filled with files, archives, and interrogation records.

Each book was wrapped in kraft paper, with a number and date affixed to its spine.

These are all records from the Inquisition, Claire's gaze swept over the numbers.

Going back in time from the most recent year to last year, the year before last, the year before that, and all the way back to more than a hundred years ago.

He pulled out a yellowed file.

The cover reads: "The War of Extermination: The List of Heretic Knights, Volume 3".

He opened the file, which contained a handwritten list of church knights who had been investigated by the Inquisition during the war of strife.

Each entry includes the name, the knightly order to which they belong, the investigation results, and the method of handling.

He turned to the section that started with the character "雷" (lei).

Unfortunately, Claire couldn't find the name 'William Redgrave' on it.

Claire frowned.

He wasn't sure if the name of Eleanor's father that Sister Martha mentioned was this one, and that the grave might simply have been built by Sister Martha.

However, the name on the badge was 'William Redgrave', and it also had his signature on it.

He closed the file and put it back on the bookshelf.

Ophelia's voice came from behind. "Did you find it?"

Claire turned around and saw Ophelia appear behind her at some point.

"Found what?" he asked casually.

“What you’re looking for,” Ophelia said with a smile, looking down at him. “You’ve been rummaging through my bookshelves this early in the morning; what else could it be but looking for something?”

Claire remained silent for a moment.

"nothing."

He walked back to the bedside, sat down, and leaned against the headboard.

Ophelia stood up, walked over, propped herself up on the edge of the bed with one hand, and looked down at him.

What are you looking for?

“A man,” Claire said.

Ophelia looked at Claire with great interest, never expecting that this 'Evil Emperor' would be interested in someone else, and not even a woman.

"If you really want to investigate, you can go to the tower in the Holy City, where you can find all the knights' service records and death reports."

Claire turned her head to look at the perfectly curvaceous figure of the Disciplined Saintess.

"Will you let me go?"

Ophelia turned around, leaned against the window frame, crossed her arms, and gave a wicked smile.

"It depends on your performance."

"..."

"Let's go take a bath together."

Chapter 39 One hundred years is not actually that long

Claire was stabbed while taking a bath last time.

Although it wasn't a fatal wound, he still vividly remembered the sensation of the cold blade piercing his chest.

However, there's no need to worry after that sword strike; Ophelia already knows enough that he is immortal.

That sword strike also confirmed his identity. Even though Claire still doesn't admit that he is the Evil God Emperor, Ophelia was able to confirm his identity through that sword strike.

As for whether Claire would have died from that sword strike, well, that's fine. Ophelia wouldn't care about a useless little boy.

Ultimately, all she cared about was Claire and the Evil Emperor.

Ophelia was also very interested in how to tame Claire, the evil god emperor, which is why she suggested taking a bath at this time.

"Let's go." Claire walked barefoot on the cold stone floor, nonchalantly toward the door leading to the bathroom.

Ophelia raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. "So well-behaved today? Not pretending anymore?"

Claire pushed open the bathroom door and turned to look at the hauntingly beautiful face that loomed above him. "Didn't you say you wanted to see my performance?"

Ophelia tilted her head, a slight smile playing on her lips: "So?"

"If I behave well, you'll let me go to the tower to check the files, right?"

Claire frowned slightly, looking at Ophelia behind her.

Ophelia paused for a moment, then smiled.

She crouched down, looked him in the eye, reached out, pinched his chin, and turned his face toward her.

"You're quite bold, asking to leave so casually here? Do you often make this kind of request with Isabelle?"

"Oh, I forgot, that's impossible."

"Because Isabelle has kept you locked up in a dark, sunless dungeon."

Why bring up Isabelle again at this point? Claire wasn't particularly interested in the rivalry between women; she just found it troublesome.

"These are the conditions you proposed, right?"

“My condition is ‘it depends on your performance.’” She released her grip, stood up, and said, “What constitutes ‘performance’ is up to me.”

Claire looked at this woman with a voluptuous figure but a terrible personality, and he neither refuted nor bargained.