"I'll go back and ask."

In such matters, Loren never bothered with beating around the bush.

Perhaps Koranda wouldn't tell him the truth, but Loren could still glean something from her response.

When Loren returned, Koranda had already used Rooting to anchor herself to the ground and was slowly healing her injuries.

After Loren's earlier treatment, Koranda at least looked human again. The major issues were gone now; she just needed time to recuperate.

"Koranda, how did you know I was being attacked?"

Since Koranda hadn't encountered Movila, Loren didn't mention her either and went straight to the point.

"After the last assassination attempt, I've become much more vigilant. Even while healing, I've been continuously using Entwined Roots to sense my surroundings. I detected that someone had been killed, so I rushed over to check and ended up running into you..."

"Is that so?"

What Koranda said was plausible enough, but it was *only* plausible.

The effect of the Justice Card was different from a normal injury. Healing while sensing your surroundings is fine with a regular wound, but Koranda's injury was still causing continuous damage.

If she truly was healing while maintaining perception, her Mana would be draining faster than it could recover. If something really happened then, Koranda wouldn't even have the strength to fight back.

After all, not everyone had over five thousand points of Mana like Loren. An ordinary person's Mana reserves couldn't withstand such waste.

Of course, if you insisted Koranda was just being extremely cautious, it wasn't entirely unacceptable—prioritizing perception over healing efficiency. And the personality she had consistently displayed was indeed of that type.

Since there were no major holes in Koranda's story, Loren didn't press further and instead began analyzing the current situation.

"Those Greed Worshippers used high-tier Abundance Sequence magic, meaning they are from the Bountiful Church. They're not the same group as the ones before who used Night Magic...

"Are you sure the people you encountered earlier were truly Greed Worshippers? Their identity as Night Worshippers is undeniable, but their status as Greed Worshippers is questionable.

"Greed Worshippers rarely cooperate. They might perform sacrifices together and share the benefits, but they seldom take risky actions like the ones just now.

"It's rare even for Greed Worshippers in the same locale to do such things, let alone engage in cross-border cooperation..."

Loren wanted to patch up his previous lie as much as possible. Continuing the investigation along the lines he had previously misled would hardly yield reliable results.

"I'm not entirely sure either. I just saw gray mist around that girl, identical to the gray mist from the sacrificial ritual..."

Regarding this matter, both Loren and Koranda were lying, and they both knew that Caroline had nothing to do with the Greed Worshippers. They just couldn't tell the truth.

The only difference was that Loren knew Koranda was lying, while Koranda didn't know Loren was lying. So, her lies were crafted to align with Loren's narrative.

"There are plenty of ways to create gray mist. I know several Night Magic spells that can produce it."

This was still a lie. Night Magic truly couldn't create gray mist, but Koranda didn't know that. And even if someone tried to verify it, Loren could just invent one on the spot.

"Is that so... Then doesn't that mean our previous line of thinking was indeed quite mistaken?"

"It seems that way... After all, we had too few clues initially.

"This attack isn't without its benefits for us. At the very least, it proves these Greed Worshippers are from the Bountiful Church, and they hold high positions.

"From the start, they tried to force me to reveal the method to break the blocking ritual, which also confirms their identity.

"Investigating along this line won't be wrong..."

After giving these instructions, Loren left. Logically, Koranda was in great danger now and should at least have a few Scarecrows assigned to protect her. But since Koranda was unwilling, Loren wouldn't force the issue.

Conventional wisdom suggested the leader of the Greed Worshippers had been dealt with by Loren and the others. Still, Loren felt things weren't that simple. It was better to stay cautious and take preventive measures.

"I should start researching another method to counter the rituals..."

Even though not a single sacrificial ritual had succeeded since Loren provided his method, he still wasn't at ease.

On the surface, those Greed Worshippers were getting desperate because of Loren's method, to the point of taking such huge risks to kidnap him.

But Loren felt they were *too* desperate. Desperate in a way that felt like they were deliberately emphasizing how effective his method was.

Loren knew people in this world were full of schemes, so he kept his guard up against everyone except the Witches. Even though Koranda had nearly died for him, Loren didn't fully trust her.

"Should've played dumber games back then..."

All this scheming and mind games with these people was a hassle for Loren. But ultimately, it boiled down to his lack of strength. If he could just crush everything with raw power, he wouldn't bother using his brain.

My super-intelligence is telling me to use super-strength.

Perhaps the current Loren could instantly kill the vast majority of people in this world, but facing Orthodox Gods or even Outer Gods, he still couldn't guarantee victory. He needed to continue lying low and developing. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

...

After returning home, Loren entered his laboratory. This time, he didn't plan to tell anyone about the method he was researching. Today's events had driven his trust in the Church to rock bottom. If people capable of using eighth-tier Abundant Magic were Greed Worshippers, were there any good people left in the Bountiful Church?

"Time for a ruthless move..."

Previously, Loren's approach had been to use the God of Bountiful Harvest to block the God of Greed's rituals. This time, Loren wanted to be more ruthless—simply let two Outer Gods clash.

Loren recalled the time he tried to use Pluto's Mouth to devour Aisaco's heart and failed.

Pluto's Mouth was the channel through which the God of Greed could exert its power to the maximum extent, far stronger than these sacrificial rituals. Therefore, Loren could also throw something imbued with the Goddess of Love's power into the sacrificial ritual to disrupt it.

However, this would require the Witches' help. It was already late, so Loren decided to deal with it the next day and returned to his Bedroom.

Then, Loren saw a dog bed beside his own bed, with Caroline curled up inside it.

What's more, a dog bowl was placed next to Caroline. Loren suspected Mirrorheart was already having a custom cage made for her.

Caroline was sleeping soundly now, and Loren didn't have the heart to disturb her. He'd have to make do for the night and settle the score with Mirrorheart tomorrow.