Chapter 39
“Graaagh, graaagh—!”
The black stakes pierced through his body without mercy.
The sacred sigil rejected the presence of darkness.
“Aaaagh—!”
Cardinal Albert’s appearance changed before the gathered crowd. The true form he had concealed was mercilessly exposed by the… ‘sigil that reveals evil’ prepared for the Hero’s test.
Crack!
Crunch!
“Uaaagh—!”
His body swelled, and darkness poured out….
Anyone could see,
he looked like a demon worshipper from the scriptures.
Anyone could see,
he was a being of darkness revealed beneath the sunlight.
And so.
The crowd fell silent.
….”
….”
….”
….”
They were confused.
The nobles and commoners.
The Theocracy and the Republic.
The nobles’ faction and the reformists.
Cadets and outsiders.
….”
Everyone gaped in silence.
The merciless revelation was all the more shocking for that. A renowned clergyman of the Theocracy… had revealed his corrupt true form the moment he touched the sacred sigil.
The conflicts of the human world
were meaningless before the agent of evil standing there.
….”
Those who had spent their entire lives learning the teachings of the Church of the One felt hollow. All the more so for those who had received religious instruction from Cardinal Albert until just recently….
“What… is this?”
“Cardinal…?”
“What on earth…?”
“How can this be…?”
Anger rose quietly.
It was a deep, heavy anger.
“…You’ve been deceiving us all this time?”
“!”
“You filthy apostate…!”
“?!”
‘I got exposed this easily, like an idiot?’
Albert struggled.
The delicate political web, authority, and standing he had spent ten years building were crumbling to pieces. So he desperately pointed at Beatrice and shouted.
“N-nooo—! Th-this is a curse—! That woman, that filthy whore, cursed me with the power of the Dark Realm…!”
“Cough, enough. You’re pathetic….”
“A-Adrian…?”
The people gathered in the plaza murmured.
The Theology Department cadets pleaded through their tears.
-What is going on?
-Prayer Priest…!
-Please, explain what’s happening!
-What are we supposed to believe…?
“Albert….”
Adrian entered the plaza, supported by Black Knight Zach. He was pale after receiving emergency treatment. With a stricken expression, he quietly shook his head.
“Cough…! Enough, enough. Albert. You have no right to call that woman filthy. No—no one in this world has the right to call her filthy….”
“What?! Adrian! Please, listen to me…!”
“Enough! Cough, stop talking… You have no right…. That sigil is real….”
After catching his breath,
the Prayer Priest gritted his teeth.
Then, his anger boiling over, he shouted.
“So this is—!! The reality of the Theocracy—!! The Inquisitor! The Cardinal! You’ve all abandoned your own wills… and sold your souls to filthy demons—!!”
“!”
“!”
“!”
The crowd instinctively looked at the Cardinal.
Just one thing.
The truth had surfaced.
-Albert is a traitor.
The academy cadets drew their swords, holy symbols, and magic catalysts. Their uncontrollable confusion and fear turned to anger.
-Traitor….
-Traitor…!
-To surrender your body to the filthy mana of the Dark Realm…!
-How much blood have you smeared on yourself?!
-Were you trying to turn us into the demons’ limbs, too?
-You traitorous bastard!
-I’ll kill you, demon—!
The irrepressible anger
slowly closed in on Albert.
….”
Albert, instead, grew calm. His sacred vestments fluttered in tatters from his body, now bristling like a porcupine.
‘…I failed. As a bishop of the Black Temple, I accomplished nothing.’
His research into the black stakes,
his plan to turn the Hero into a puppet….
The Archbishop’s orders, too.
-Use faith as a cover and bring the academy into your hands.
“…Hmm. I failed.”
Where had it all gone wrong?
Just as he wondered,
a golden light glimmered at the edge of his vision.
Albert lifted his head.
“!”
In the distance, the cadets who had defeated the skeletal rider came running toward him with their swords drawn. They had witnessed Albert’s transformation clearly.
And.
He also saw the princess before them, wearing a cold smile. She walked forward quietly with a sword in one hand, like an arbiter of judgment sent by the sun.
Albert murmured.
“Lydia… de Gallia…?”
Right.
Now that he thought about it,
‘…Something went wrong as soon as the princess enrolled.’
His plan to manipulate a Hero boy who was nothing but a commoner, and his plan to use the skeletal rider’s rampage to bring about Zach’s downfall….
Everything had gone awry as soon as the princess got involved.
She was not the frail girl the rumors described.
Neither an abandoned golden child,
nor a Golden Princess.
But a proud swordswoman….
“!”
‘C-could it be…?!’
Albert sensed it.
It was an instinct honed by a long political career.
This board… ‘Arien Academy’…
had never been the Black Temple’s chessboard in the first place.
Someone had been sitting on the other side.
Laughing at him in the darkness,
secretly sweeping away his chess pieces one by one.
‘The Black Temple’s true enemy… isn’t the Hero, but the princess!’
It was only a faint intuition.
But that alone was enough to shake the board.
Albert shuddered.
“I-I have to tell them…!”
“Die, traitor—!”
“!”
Dozens of swords,
dozens of spells,
and dozens of divine incantations surrounded him.
‘Even if I have to use all my strength…! For the Black Temple…!’
Albert roared like a beast and summoned all his strength. The black stakes throughout his body trembled and belched thick smoke.
Whoooom!
“Kyaaaagh—!”
“Aah?!”
“What is this black fog?!”
Endless darkness covered the sky.
For an instant, the plaza seemed to be swallowed by an eclipse.
The cadets covered their noses and mouths as they searched for the traitor.
“Where are you?! Show yourself—!”
“I’ll kill you, apostate!”
But….
When the fog lifted,
the filthy demon worshipper was no longer in the plaza.
The crowd looked around. Then, muttering in dismay, they sank to the ground.
“Damn… it!”
“We let him get away….”
“We were just playthings for demon worshippers from the very beginning.”
The Theology Department cadets who had trusted Albert in particular knelt and prayed. Their teeth chattered with fear, and tears of betrayal and self-loathing streamed from their eyes.
“P-please… forgive me…!
“I… I didn’t know! I really didn’t know he was a demon worshipper…!”
“The faith he taught me, the miracles I learned… were they all lies?”
“Aah…! Th-that can’t be…! I’m not an apostate!”
“Sun God…! Please, please, anything but divine punishment—!!”
The women sobbed,
and the men clutched their heads.
-Was our faith a lie?
In this world, divine punishment was real.
That was why they were terrified down to their bones.
And the people around them looked at them coldly.
….”
….”
….”
Could it be….
You’re traitors, too?
Even though you bear the name of the Theocracy?
That was the suspicion in their eyes.
….”
Lucian and the other Gallian nobles quietly rested their hands on their sword hilts. The Republic’s mages narrowed their eyes and watched coldly.
-Don’t try anything funny.
Under those glares,
the Theology Department cadets shrank even further.
-Are we really traitors?
Amid them, a clear voice rang out.
It was Lydia.
“Enough.”
“Your Highness?”
“Do not suspect one another.”
Everyone looked at her.
Lydia, the Golden Princess, walked among the despairing Theology Department cadets. She now held in one hand the sacred sigil Beatrice had been holding.
Lydia held it aloft among the despairing cadets.
“I will give you all a chance.”
“W-what kind…?”
“A chance to forgive yourselves.”
“!”
Lydia placed a hand on the head of a sobbing girl. The Sun God’s sigil glimmered softly. It conveyed not anger or divine punishment, but a thread of compassion.
Lydia said,
“Look. The Sun God does not punish you. Though you were deceived by a wicked man’s lies, your faith was never a lie. No one here has transformed into a hideous demon.”
“…!”
“Do not let fear obscure the truth in your hearts.”
“Th-then… what should we do?”
“Look forward to tomorrow.”
“Pardon?”
“Look forward to the dawn of freedom, when you can escape the wicked and claim your own will.”
“!”
The next words came from beside her.
“And.”
“!”
Aria, battered all over, walked into the plaza hand in hand with Arti, who limped beside her. She quietly continued Lydia’s words.
“And… reflect.”
“Saintess!”
“Reflect beneath the setting sun, so that you will never be deceived by the wicked again or led astray by lies that blind us… Otherwise, we will only repeat yesterday’s mistakes.”
….”
“Reflect, look forward, and pray.”
Pray.
Let it be a prayer for tomorrow.
….”
The people of the Theocracy,
the Theology Department cadets, clasped their hands together.
“…We will pray.”
“I pray.”
“I hope….”
“We will reflect and move forward.”
….”
Beneath the sun shining over the plaza, the Sun’s servants prayed.
Dozens, hundreds of believers….
Knelt in the ruined plaza.
They sought to cut away the rotting flesh and tend to the grievous wounds.
….”
In the silence, the tension slowly eased.
The sharp, suspicious glares softened, too. And people gazed with awe at the two girls who had saved the people of the Theocracy.
-She really is… a Saintess.
-So this is what a divine representative is like.
-So evil really is coming…?
-The Golden Princess….
-Gallia’s gold was a light like the break of dawn….
….”
Morgan heard the murmurs clearly. Morgan also saw Lucian—the golden giant—looking at Lydia with a trembling gaze.
‘People are beginning to see… your light.’
But.
Why….
Wasn’t I happy for her as a friend?
….”
Morgan quietly lowered her head.
Lydia respectfully handed the sigil she held to the Prayer Priest. He took it and went before the Hero to make his declaration.
“As of today, I recognize Arti, the boy from Gallia… as a Hero. However, this is not the end of the trial. It is a warning that we must prepare for another trial, one that has unmistakably revealed itself to us.”
….”
“We do not even know the name of that darkness. But we now know it exists. And the price was horrific.”
“That is right.”
“So prepare yourselves. For tomorrow… pray.”
“We shall.”
And so.
The Hero’s test came to an end.
The stage of a legend, where the enemy the Hero must fight appears,
and a true Hero and Saintess are born.
But the people could not cheer.
….”
The battle against the darkness would begin soon.
They had realized that.
….”
….”
….”
They simply stood in silence,
wearing complicated expressions.
….”
Mave watched them from a distance.
The confidence Mave had gained after defeating the skeletal rider had gone cold, too. The thought that another battle might begin weighed heavily.
“…Hmm.”
But,
where had Lady Lydia gone?
*
“Hah… hah!”
Cardinal Albert ran with black stakes embedded all over his body. Dressed in torn rags like a slave, he fled through the dark forest.
It was a wretched downfall.
But it was also another opportunity.
‘I have to tell the Archbishop…!’
The princess.
Lydia de Gallia was
a grave threat to the Black Temple.
“Hah…!”
Just to convey that fact….
He ran.
But he was forced to stop.
Because Black Knight Zach blocked his way.
“I-Instructor Zach…?!”
….”
In the darkness of the forest,
the inside of Zach’s helmet glowed faintly.
Eyes like flames.
“!”
Albert was horrified.
“H-how…?!”
“Ten years.”
“…?”
Zach said,
“We’ve known each other a long time.”
“Z-Zach…!”
“The fact that I couldn’t just kill you at the academy all this time… is your accomplishment. Be proud of it in the depths of the Dark Realm.”
“W-wait?!”
“Forever.”
Zach said no more and charged. The earth and rocks around them shattered and flew into the air. It sounded like a massive iron ball rolling toward him.
Bang—!
Though strengthened by the power of the Dark Realm, Albert’s limbs were crushed by a single punch, and he was sent flying. He truly looked like a wretched porcupine.
He wriggled across the ground, crawling like an insect.
“Hah… hah…!”
“We don’t let the remnants of the Black Temple escape.”
“You look absolutely pathetic~!”
“?!”
Albert’s eyes darted around.
Before his crawling eyes, he saw two women.
One wore leather clothes, and the other a black dress. Their eyes, too, burned in the darkness of the forest.
Albert murmured blankly.
“…Flames?”
“Oh, old man, you’re sharp! Good eye. Keep it up and you might even figure out our group’s name~! Give it your best!”
“Beatrice.”
“Okay, Sis. Still, you know I only joke with people who look like they’re about to die.”
Albert couldn’t accept what they were saying.
“…What?”
And.
A crimson blade was pointed at Albert.
“!”
“…We had a brief acquaintance, Albert.”
“No way.”
Albert’s jaw trembled as he looked ahead again.
There stood the princess, holding a crimson sword. A clearly burning flame wrapped around her blade, and she gazed at him with a haughty air.
Truly.
The bearing of an emperor.
“…Lydia de Gallia.”
“That is right. It is I.”
“How can the princess be…? I thought you’d been discarded.”
“That is right. I was discarded.”
Lydia said,
“And I stood back up.”
“!”
“Tell the Dark Realm.”
“Tell it what…?”
“Tell them that I, Lydia de Gallia, was the one who killed you.”
The proud blade of dawn rose high.
“Tell them… that you were killed by this slash of dawn.”
“…!”
The blade of dawn rushed toward
the apostate’s neck.
And so.
The fate of this world changed.
The Hero who howled in grief after his beloved was taken.
The villain who survived through sinister schemes.
The holy knight who toyed with the Saintess as if she were a plaything….
They all disappeared.
Only the princess knew that.