PARALLEL MEMORY

-THUD! -THUD!

Cardinal Hildred approached Zero with a smile on her face.

While he was paying attention to her, he didn't explicitly do anything since he knew that Cardinal Hildred could do no harm to him. The most she might be able to do was scratch his face maybe.

Anyway, she looked confident and stood before Zero.

"Haha… Stupid! Idiot!"

Cardinal Hildred laughed and cursed.

???

Zero was totally confused by her behavior. He knew that she was a wretched woman but he didn't think that she would show her real personality in front of so many people.

However, even if she was cursing and insulting him, he didn't do anything to her.

He thought that maybe she was trying to get him to hit her so that she could have a reason to prosecute him. In any case, he decided to watch her for a longer period to get a better understanding of the situation.

"Pathetic fool!" Cardinal Hildred spat at Zero, her eyes gleaming with malice. "You thought you could defy me? You're nothing but a weakling, a pawn in my grand scheme!"

Her voice rose in volume as she continued her tirade, hurling insults and curses at Zero without restraint.

Zero remained calm, his expression was unreadable as he watched Cardinal Hildred's outburst. What surprised Zero was that even when Cardinal Hildred was showing such behavior, none of the other people were paying attention to it.

( Is this normal? Maybe everyone knows her real personality? )

Zero thought. However, they were too calm to the point of being eerie. And Cardinal Hildred coming out and provoking was also a weird thing. He had a feeling that something was going wrong here.

"You still have that stupid expression. Do you still think that you are high and mighty?"

Cardinal Hildred said angrily. She got closer to Zero and it seemed that she was going to slap him.

-SLAP!

Anyway, Zero simply blocked her attempt and slapped her instead.

The sound of the slap echoed, however, people were still not looking at them. Cardinal Hildred staggered back, her hand on her cheek, a look of shock on her face. She hadn't expected Zero to retaliate.

"Y-You! How?" 𝙗𝙚𝒅𝒏𝒐𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Cardinal Hildred said in shock.

"What do you mean? Did you think that you can just slap me whenever you want without me retaliating?"

Zero asked.

"This is not possible! How? I should have controlled your mind!"

Cardinal Hildred said in anger.

Zero narrowed his eyes when he heard that. He didn't know what was weird about this atmosphere earlier but now he has some speculation.

He immediately looked towards the Saintess who was busy with her prayer. However, one could see that even though she was praying, other people were not really listening to her. Even Holy Knights Captain Zain and Adeline seemed out of their minds and not concentrating on protecting the Saintess.

-WHOOSH!

Zero knew that he had to immediately take Saintess Amelia out of this place.

While moving around, he looked closely at the faces of the people and they were all emotionless. Zero thought that it might be them trying to put on a brave face but guess it was because their mind has been manipulated by someone or something.

( But the scale of the effect is too large. And I didn't sense any mana being emitted. Was it in the food? )

There were thousands of people present here who were attending this farewell ceremony and all of them seemed to be affected by some kind of spell.

However, Zero knew that it was not done by some magician as he didn't sense the change in mana nor sense any fluctuation in mana. As for the food, many Holy Knights who are guarding the area hadn't eaten but they also seem to be affected.

That being said, the only option is that Cardinal Hildred or whoever is helping her has used some kind of Artifact that should be of Rank-S.

Zero didn't know why that Artifact didn't affect him or Saintess but he knew that with the situation being as such, it was dangerous for Saintess to continue the ceremony.

Cardinal Hildred, who was still in shock because of the slap, got angry and stood up.

"HEY! Did you do it properly?"

Cardinal Hildred yelled. She seemed to be communicating with someone.

"Yes, the whole area should be under our control. Except for the Saintess who is full of Holy Mana, nobody should be unaffected."

The voice was of Priestess Helena and she replied to Cardinal Hildred.

"Dammit! Then how did that person escape its effect? Don't tell me that he is also overflowing with Holy Mana like a Saintess?"

"T-That I don't know! The Lord has given this artifact to be used in an emergency and I still don't have much practice."

Priestess Helena replied.

"Damn! I wanted him to kneel down and follow my orders just like the dog he is. Dammit!"

Cardinal Hildred was angered.

"He might mess up without a plan. Let's kill Saintess and Jester quickly!"

Cardinal Hildred ordered with hatred visible in her eyes.

********

Zero quickly approached Saintess Amelia, who was still lost in her prayers and gently grabbed her arm to get her attention.

"Saintess Amelia, we need to leave now!"

Zero said urgently, trying to break her out of her trance.

Amelia blinked in surprise, her eyes unfocused for a moment before she seemed to snap back to reality. She looked at Zero in surprise.

"What's happening?"

Amelia asked, her voice filled with concern.

"No time to explain but I believe that someone is controlling the mind of people around here. Luckily, you and I are unaffected."

Zero said that before quickly taking her out of that place.

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As they made their way through the area, they encountered a group of Holy Knights who were under Cardinal Hildred's control.

"Stop right there!"

Cardinal Hildred yelled as she quickly followed Zero and Saintess Amelia.

"Don't think you can escape!"

Zero frowned, his mind racing with possibilities. He didn't want to harm the Holy Knights if possible, but he couldn't let them stand in their way either.

"Stand aside!"

Zero said firmly, his voice filled with authority and a threatening mana aura. However, maybe because their minds were under control they didn't feel fear. So, none of them left.

"Haha… Your little intimidation is useless! Unless you are to kill them, they won't disobey me."

Cardinal Hildred said excitedly.

"Then how about this?"

-WHOOSH!

Instantly Zero closed the distance between himself and Cardinal Hildred. Even if he can't attack others, he could definitely do that with Cardinal Hildred.

He thought about threatening Cardinal Hildred to make everyone normal. As a B-Rank, Cardinal Hildred could do anything against him.

When Zero changed his direction toward her, Cardinal Hildred became scared for a moment. However, she didn't panic.

Instead, she smirked, her eyes glinting with confidence.

"You dare lay a hand on me? A mere commoner like you!"

Cardinal Hildred said with disdain, her voice dripping with arrogance. Even with a Rank-A person coming to potentially kill her, she was full of arrogance.

-CLANK!

Just before Zero could capture the Cardinal, two Rank-S Holy Knights appeared and blocked Zero.

!!!

Zero was indeed startled. However, it was nothing surprising as the second most authoritative person in the church would indeed have some Rank-S Holy Guard as their protector. And they also didn't seem to be mind controlled.

-CLANG! -CLANG!

Zero tried to sneakily approach Cardinal Hildred, however, Rank-S Holy Knight easily saw through his plans and blocked them.

Seeing that he didn't have much chance of success, Zero retreated.

He quickly assessed the situation. He needed to come up with a new plan to save Saintess Amelia and stop Cardinal Hildred. He couldn't rely on brute force alone, especially with the Rank-S Holy Knights guarding her.

And he couldn't also rely on others since they were all under his mind's control.

Zero looked at Saintess Amelia, who was watching the events unfold with worry. Luckily, Cardinal Hildred seemed to be obsessed with beating him rather than taking care of Saintess Amelia.

"Saintess Amelia, If you have some Trump card, this might be the time to use it."

Zero said. He was just making sure that Saintess Amelia doesn't have a solution in case he had to make a drastic decision.

"I don't think I can cure all of them with my skills."

Saintess Amelia replied. If given time, she might be able to heal one or two people, but healing a thousand people would be impossible, especially if they had the intention to kill her.

"Haha… Stop thinking and surrender! You two will never be able to escape from our grasp."