Chapter 43
[ A Saintess is about to be born in the Empire. ]
[ Go to the Empire immediately and prove your Divine Power. ]
“Eh?”
One week before the Proclamation Ceremony of Heavenly Mandate.
Mirne received an unexpected message.
“A Saintess is being born in the Empire?”
This was a flow that did not exist in the original work.
[What was the name of the Saintess Candidate… who originally competed with me?]
Honestly, she couldn’t remember well.
She was a character who wasn’t heavily featured in the original work to begin with.
Just briefly mentioned as having split off due to a difference in the Religious Order’s views.
After that, no further story about her appeared.
There wasn’t even any struggle between Saintess Candidates over the position of Saintess.
In the original work, the proper flow was for her to naturally become the Saintess.
[No, did we meet briefly?]
Her memory was hazy.
[…She asked how I believed in God, back then… Did she say it was different? Between us?]
She squeezed her memory, but that was exactly it.
However, that had absolutely nothing to do with the story unfolding now.
A story development far too different from the original work.
Mirne panicked, but at the same time, she immediately contacted the Saint, Balleryan.
“Hello, Saint, it’s Mirne.”
“Mirne, I have been waiting for your contact. As a matter of fact, what happened is…”
But truly astoundingly, Balleryan also brought up a story related to the Saintess.
A story about how the Empire decided to announce a Saintess, and how he was incredibly sad because he had no choice but to go.
Mirne sympathized with that story and gave off just the slightest hint that she wanted to go with him.
To be exact.
“I have some free time then, so I will pray for you to have a safe trip, Saint.”
She mentioned that her schedule was open.
“If you have free time… how about going to the Empire with me?”
The Saint thought it was a great idea and took the bait right away.
From then on, there was nothing difficult at all.
“Dad! I’m going to the Holy Kingdom!”
“…Alright, go ahead.”
She just had to diligently travel straight to the Holy Kingdom, and that was it.
Perhaps it was because she received help from Teleportation Magic and Spirits.
Despite moving secretly on her own, she was able to arrive at the Holy Kingdom in no time.
[It would have been better if Silphiner was here.]
There was no Spirit as good as a Wind Spirit when traveling.
But that Spirit was currently contracted with the Crown Prince.
[Will I be able to get it back someday?]
Promising herself for a distant day.
As soon as Mirne arrived at the Holy Kingdom.
“Saint, I think it would be best for me to go secretly.”
“You will soon be the Saintess of the Holy Kingdom, so is there a need to go secretly?”
“I haven’t become the Saintess yet… and they originally invited figures from the Holy Kingdom, so it would be a bit awkward if I just went.”
“That makes sense too. Instead, you must not leave my side. That is the condition.”
“Sounds good!”
She immediately asked him to hide her identity, and entered the Empire in that state.
And from then on.
“If the Divine Power is split in two, what happens to me, and the Saintess? We are of the same Religious Order but have different wills… how is God maintained?”
The Saint continuously muttered incomprehensible words.
But it was truly only for brief moments, and even this was content that did not exist in the original work.
[I don’t know what to do in an unexpected situation like this.]
Mirne decided to observe the situation for now and simply stayed by the Saint’s side.
However, this attitude of Mirne’s quickly changed.
The Proclamation Ceremony of Heavenly Mandate proceeded without a hitch. And the moment the Saintess of the Empire was officially announced accordingly. [ The Saintess of the Empire has been born. ] [ The Divine Power of the of Heavenly Mandate proceeded without a hitch.
And the moment the Saintess of the Empire was officially announced accordingly.
[ The Saintess of the Empire has been born. ]
[ The Divine Power of the Romper Church is about to split. ]
[ Romper descends into the body of the Saint! ]
Pure white messages filled Mirne’s vision.
[Descends? What in the world is this.]
An incomprehensible situation.
While Mirne was panicking at a story that was excessively far removed from the original work.
Swish.
[The Crown Prince?]
In an instant, the Crown Prince grabbed her and Balleryan by the neck.
He then used Teleport to move their location to a mountain far away from the Imperial Center.
[…?]
It was a ridiculous Mana Manipulation.
Usually, a Teleport for two or more people required controlling the other person’s mana to set the coordinates.
The probability of failure was incredibly high, and it wasn’t even something that could be done in such an instant.
But the Crown Prince pulled it off as easily as knocking down a sandcastle.
As if mocking them for finding something so trivial to be difficult.
However, now was not the time to marvel at such things.
“Saint! Please calm down!”
“I want you to become a complete Saintess, not a divided and torn Half-Pint Saintess… I want you to become a Saintess who can fully use God’s Divine Power as it is.”
The appearance of the Saint, Balleryan, with pure white Divine Power dwelling in his body.
Looked like a Judge continuously spewing white flames.
Wings made of Divine Power shone brilliantly, brightly illuminating the surroundings.
The Saint, emitting a pure white glow from his eyes, ignored Mirne’s words.
“Crown Prince, you are ruining everything. How dare you try to split the Divine Power?”
He continued speaking while glaring at the Crown Prince.
Slash!
Instead of words, the Crown Prince swung his sword straight away without hesitation.
The Zweihänder was drawn so quickly that it was impossible to tell when he had unsheathed it.
It immediately created a red diagonal line across the Saint’s body.
“Khaaaak!”
A heat so scorching that flames surged from every cut.
It wouldn’t have been strange if he fainted from the severe pain at any moment.
Whirrrrr!
Pure white threads spewed from the Saint’s body and immediately stitched the wound closed.
“What in the world are you doing!”
As if he had never been cut, the Saint was restored to a perfectly fine state.
A ridiculous regenerative ability that could truly be called a miracle.
Seeing that sight, the Crown Prince.
“I cut with the intention of splitting you in half, but you’re quite sturdy.”
Calmly spat out his impression.
It was an attitude that showed he had expected that much.
++++++
[Holy Knights originally have a strong image of being like cockroaches, after all.]
Tanks with not very high attack power but incredibly high regeneration and defense.
Generally, that was exactly the image of a Holy Knight, and the Saint seemed to be of that type as well.
[ As the Saintess of the Empire is born, Romper is in the process of dividing. ]
[ Romper existing under the Sun and Romper existing above the Holy Kingdom ]
[ It will take time for these two to separate. ]
The messages that followed while I was analyzing the Saint’s state added to my understanding of the situation.
[So that’s what dividing meant.]
Originally, just because a Religious Order split didn’t mean the god would divide or anything like that.
The core of this matter was the religious view held by the Saintess.
The Saintess believed that Humans accumulated Divine Power through prayer, and that Divine Power became God.
And this was no different from a stance that denied God.
Come to think of it, Rowena suited the Villainess position incredibly well.
[A Saintess Candidate who denies the way God exists.]
On the other hand, Mirne wouldn’t have anything like that at all.
Naturally, a confrontational structure was bound to emerge, and it was understandable that she would be called a Villainess.
[Interesting.]
Muttering that inwardly, I once again swung my sword with all my might.
In this situation, there was no need to show off various techniques.
Because right now, Balleryan just felt like a tank wrapped in Divine Power.
“Crown Prince!”
As he swung a mace he had pulled out from who knows where, a massive amount of Divine Power followed its trajectory and engulfed me.
BANG!
The Divine Power touched the Sword Path I had swung in advance and was neutralized.
[I get the feeling that I’m still not using this body properly.]
I was calling it my full power, but it didn’t feel like my full power.
It felt like the vehicle was an F1 car, but the person driving was a novice.
[Like when I killed the Northern Grand Duke, how did I cut him?]
More intensely and destructively.
I wanted to explosively draw out and use the power in the Crown Prince’s body.
“You are ruining everything! By giving birth to something like the Saintess of the Empire! This disaster has occurred! It is all your fault!”
The Saint shouted at me triumphantly, with a face that clearly thought he had gained the upper hand.
“You speak just like the Northern Grand Duke.”
I considered that sight to be just like the Northern Grand Duke, who was now dead and gone.
Come to think of it, I think that guy said something similar.
What happened to him now?
While I was thinking for a moment, the Saint showed signs of moving.
I reacted instantly and immediately swung my sword to the side.
Crimson flames flew straight out.
And in the direction they were flying was.
“Crown Princeeeee!”
BANG!
Mirne.
Standing still, there was no way Mirne could react to the attack.
The one who reacted instead was, obviously, the Saint.
Since he looked exactly as if a god had descended into his body.
I thought if I fired flames toward Mirne, he would protect her with Divine Power.
[Seeing him block it with his body, his humanity still remains.]
A clumsy humanity.
If you’re a Human, be a Human; if you’re a god, be a god.
“Huu.”
After letting out a short breath, I continued to blatantly target Mirne.
Until just now, it had been a purely ignorant clash of power against power.
But as soon as I realized Balleryan was keeping Mirne behind him and blocking attacks with his body, I changed my mind.
If I perfectly followed and connected the thousands, tens of thousands of sword strikes in my memories to cut Mirne.
“Stop! How can you commit such an act!”
The Saint, Balleryan, spitting out lines that sounded like they belonged in a play, took that Sword Path head-on.
The irregular swordsmanship unique to the Zweihänder pierced straight into Balleryan’s body.
Even while gripping the middle handle, the ricasso, and swinging strongly.
Slash!
The moment he tried to block the sword, I grabbed the original handle and changed the direction of the blade.
Normally, in this process, one would have to shift their balance to handle the greatsword.
But the Crown Prince’s ignorantly strong body lightly ignored such trivial conditions.
How long had I been cutting the Saint like that?
Behind the Saint, who was clumsily trying to swing his mace, Mirne standing still came into my view.
[But why on earth is she not doing anything while the Saint is getting beaten like this?]
To be exact, it wasn’t that she was doing absolutely nothing.
She was just changing her position enough to avoid me.
However, it was impossible for Mirne to shake me off.
All she was doing now was moving clumsily, and every time she did, the Saint filled the gaps in her movements.
It felt like dancing a terrible waltz.
[But he really is stubbornly refusing to die.]
Unlike how he had shouted while spewing anger.
The Saint was just taking the hits in an incredibly helpless manner.
The only thing keeping him going right now was his ignorant regenerative ability.
Even though I clearly aimed for his neck and cut it, his neck reattached at the same time it was cut.
It was such an excessive Male Lead plot armor that it left me dumbfounded.
[Is this just going to be a meaningless war of attrition? But the original Protagonist is here, and this kind of development keeps happening?]
It wasn’t bad for me.
Because the longer the engagement continued, the more I felt the body actively waking up.
Sol Bellos.
Unlike the first engagement, I felt the power said to have swallowed the Sun stirring even more intensely.
[Just a little more, just a little.]
As time passed, the body awakened.
And at the same time, I could see the Crown Prince’s Memory, which had been hazy and unseen, slowly trying to rise to the surface.
-Even if it is a meaningless task, wouldn’t it be better than not doing it at all?
A memory gently revealed above the surface.
The Crown Prince was continuously swinging his sword while looking at someone.
[Who is it? The Emperor?]
Where on earth was the Emperor?
Was it a MacGuffin-like setting? Or did something really happen?
My various questions trying to bubble up only lasted for a moment.
“Stop fighting! Please!”
Mirne’s cry, like a tragic heroine, rang out.
“…Ha.”
That cry applied only to me, momentarily causing my body to stop.
The Saint gained strength through Mirne’s cry, and the explosively increased Divine Power bound my body just like that.
A Knight protecting a Princess is strong, or something like that?
But it didn’t matter.
“With just this much.”
Crack.
This wasn’t my first time killing a Male Lead.
And I had already experienced events occurring in absurd situations.
“Explosion.”
Before the Saint’s mace could touch my body.
I activated Magic even faster than that and detonated it right in front of my eyes.
BANG!
The power that exploded by condensing the flames I had poured out while continuously cutting with my sword.
[This won’t do much damage anyway, but at least I blocked one of his bullshit tricks.]
The moment I felt it was a shame, not wanting to consume it so vainly like this.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
“W-What is this…?”
The sight of Balleryan bleeding came into my view.
[He was regenerating so stubbornly until now, and suddenly? Is his Divine Power finally depleted?]
Right when various possibilities were popping into my head.
Fwoooosh.
I felt Divine Power slowly filling my body.
It was truly faint, but it was clearly a power in the opposite direction of Romper’s Divine Power right now.
[Right, you’re not the only one with a Saintess.]
Rowena’s Divine Power was dwelling within me.
I could tell instinctively.
That this was the power that could kill the Saint right now.
[Since the Saint thrust a sword at me, the Pope won’t be able to avoid responsibility either.]
Right here, right now, the Saint dies.
And following that, even the Pope will not meet a peaceful end.
[Mirne, I will make you the Saintess of a ruined Religious Order.]
It is time to kill a god.