Chapter 72

"Before I explain why the Succession Shrine is unknown, there is something I must tell you first."

Noa got down from my lap and walked over to the window.

Her face no longer held any of the joy from before.

She turned around and stared at me with her azure eyes.

"Zero, have you heard of the Cult of the Evil God?"

"The Cult of the Evil God?"

Tilting my head at the unfamiliar term, Noa nodded seriously.

"Yes. They are a group that aims to revive the Evil God that Zero and others defeated in the past."

"―――!"

At that moment, a memory resurfaced in my mind.

The Evil God—this was the largest-scale boss monster in Creon, a creature born from the accumulation of people's malice.

It was said to appear once every few thousand to ten thousand years.

Although we, including Zero, Scarlett, and other players, managed to defeat it through cooperation... it was an incredibly powerful enemy.

The fact that there is a group trying to deliberately revive such an entity is quite shocking.

However, I have a slight concern.

"You said they are trying to revive the Evil God, but wasn't it supposed to revive on its own eventually?"

"Yes, that's correct. So their goal is not just to revive the Evil God, but to hasten its return... To achieve this, they deliberately cause tragedies around the world to gather people's malice."

Noa's voice was tinged with uncontainable anger.

"I became aware of their existence about 300 years ago."

Noa looked into the distance as she began to recount the events of that time.

"After the Evil God was defeated, people with great power, including Zero, suddenly disappeared. People believed that Zero and others were heroes sent by the goddess to defeat the Evil God. The Evil God, being a manifestation of accumulated malice, causes disturbances around the world as its revival approaches, but the world regained peace after its defeat."

I remember that during the Creon era, there were many quests related to the Evil God, which involved resolving anomalies that occurred around the world.

With the Evil God defeated, those anomalies disappeared.

And the one who contributed the most to the Evil God's defeat in my previous life was revered as a hero.

"However, such peace did not last forever."

Looking out the window, Noa continued.

"About 300 years ago, unnatural damage began to occur gradually around the world. During my investigation, the existence of the Cult of the Evil God came to light. Seeing the people being hurt in the process of the Evil God's revival, I decided to stop their plans for the sake of the world that Zero and others had protected. For a while, I dealt with the situation with the help of some long-lived species, such as my acquaintances among the dragon race."

Hearing about Noa's acquaintance among the dragon race, an NPC came to mind.

However, before I could ask about it, Noa continued, "But it became clear that this was not enough. Specifically, there were not enough of us. The Cult of the Evil God has been increasing in number year by year. Although the individual strength of its members has decreased, their sheer numbers made it impossible for us to handle the situation alone. Even if we tried to rely on other powerful individuals, the tendency to seek strength had diminished since the Evil God's defeat... While this was a positive development, it became a problem in this situation, making it difficult to find capable allies."

Noa returned to the desk and slowly sat down in the chair.

"That's why I approached the Kingdom of Alexia, with whom I had a long-standing relationship, and decided to establish the Royal Academy. Officially, it was to nurture talented individuals. In reality, it was to train elite forces to counter the Cult of the Evil God. I would select promising individuals, provide them with appropriate guidance... and sometimes inform them about the existence of the Succession Shrine."

"......I see."

I understood the general course of events.

After we defeated the Evil God, the world temporarily became peaceful.

Due to the reduced need for strength and the fact that only players and some NPCs knew about it, the number of people who knew about the Succession Shrine gradually decreased.

This was the reason why the Succession Shrine was not widely known in this era.

However, a new question arose.

"Can I ask one thing?"

"Of course, go ahead."

"I understand the process of establishing the Royal Academy... but I'm a bit curious about what happened after. Wouldn't it have been simpler to teach everyone at the Academy about the Succession Shrine? Not only are there skills that can only be obtained at low levels, but having Succession Skills should speed up their growth, right?"

"......"

"Um, Noa?"

However, Noa reacted unexpectedly.

She puffed out her cheeks and looked at me with a dissatisfied expression.

"There are two reasons for this. First, I don't even know where the low-level Succession Shrines are or what their appearance conditions are! Zero and Suu-chan never told me that!"

"......Ah~"

I couldn't help but nod in agreement.

I remembered that Noa's level was already high when we first met.

Therefore, the Succession Shrines we told her about were only those for high levels and with biased Succession Skills.

I wanted to tell her more, but the Evil God raid came up before I could...

(If I had known this would happen, I should have told her as much as possible.)

While it's understandable that I couldn't have predicted this situation back then, I couldn't help but think this.

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