Even I felt like I had been hit in the back of the head by how cleverly she had wrapped her words, and suspicion soon clouded Frijian's face.
"You never intended to become the Young Duke in the first place. Yes, thinking about it, you were the problem. If only you hadn't pushed me aside like that from the beginning...!"
"I never advised you to marry Baron Kendall."
I said that firmly, then smiled gently at her as I explained kindly.
"It was you who brought the marriage document in haste, frightened before the Imperial Family even sent word."
Of course, if the Imperial Family had already sent word, there would be no taking it back, so it would have been essentially the same as having no choice.
But why should I care about such circumstances?
I was the one who created a few intentional situations, yes, but the choice was Frijian's.
With an impatient heart, with short-sighted vision, with irrational judgment.
"That's why the one ruining your life is you. Not me."
As my gentle words continued, the color drained from Frijian's face.
"So what will you do, Sister? You'll just have to watch from afar as Roam falls to that spineless, timid youngest sibling."
Frijian bit her lip. She bit it so hard that I could see blood seeping through.
"Does it not bother you at all? If you took that position from me, shouldn't you at least protect it properly?"
Finally, she revealed her resentment toward me.
She was criticizing my attitude for not being as desperate as she had been.
I put on an indifferent expression toward such a sister.
"Sister, you're surprisingly innocent. I am God's Resurrected One. The agent chosen by God."
I rested my chin on my hand and turned my gaze. Though blocked by escort knights and unable to approach, quite a few people sat pretending to be guests while watching this direction.
They were people who knew both my face and my sister's. Perhaps they came to eavesdrop on Roam's gossip.
But on some faces, clear envy and admiration had risen. Directed at me.
I smiled at them with my eyes, then whispered to my sister.
"Look at those people desperate to receive God's blessing. The position of Young Duke Roam is just one of countless options I can choose from."
Frijian's expression stiffened. She seemed to lack even the minimum composure to manage her expression, conscious of the surrounding gazes.
"But your options... I'm not sure. Do you even have any?"
"Do you think I don't know your intentions?"
Her low, quick retort was mixed with fierce emotion. It was more amusing than threatening.
Asking me for help by swallowing her pride would have been a wiser approach.
"It doesn't matter if you know."
Of course, if she had knelt before me, it wouldn't have been interesting for me either. Breaking the neck of an enemy with no will to fight would only be troublesome.
"Because I have options, but you don't."
I said listlessly as I straightened my seat. It was time to end the conversation.
"Will you be able to endure? A life that isn't Young Duke Roam."
Frijian remained silent with a pale face.
I gave her a silent farewell with my eyes and stood up. After pressing down the hat I had removed, I advised her with a benevolent voice.
"Heir? It was rather troublesome when I actually tried it. It wasn't a position valuable enough for me to fight to win. So do well."
I turned away. She didn't speak until the end.
* * *
Maxel had left the palace, so it was time to wake the Empress.
However, the Emperor summoned me before I could go to the Empress's palace. The reason was that he wanted to hear about the results at the Lindéa River.
Facing him, it seemed he was more intent on finding fault than asking about results.
"You say you eliminated the monsters at the Lindéa River?"
The Emperor's face was full of disbelief as he asked. At the sharp momentum of the Emperor, the servants stood without even breathing, watching me and the Emperor.
I had heard that recently he had been showing violent behavior toward those around him, and it seemed to be true.
I examined the atmosphere of the servants and nodded calmly.
"Yes."
"Then why has the Empress not awakened?"
From his tone alone, he seemed to want to place the blame for this entire situation on me.
They said the Emperor these days was displeased with Heinri bringing in external forces, and was unhappy about the imperial palace circumstances where he kept being swayed by me.
I had also heard that Maxel, accommodating the Emperor's mood, had persuaded him that he would subjugate the monsters to demonstrate the Imperial Family's power externally.
Lilia, guaranteeing Maxel's victory, had lent strength to the persuasion by claiming her prophetic ability.
Perhaps because of Lilia's prophecy, the emotion the Emperor showed toward me was very fierce.
"It seems the Resurrected One of God is not omnipotent after all. The Empire cannot forever rely on the Resurrected One."
While Maxel was away subjugating monsters, the Emperor seemed to want to reverse the palace atmosphere that had been swayed by the Resurrected One, if only for a moment.
"Since God's authority doesn't seem to work for this matter, the Imperial Family will..."
"I wonder if you remember, Your Majesty."
Disrespectfully cutting off the Emperor's words, he frowned.
I gave him a soft smile. Did he think I wanted to stay here continuously?
"I'm speaking of the evil energy that had thoroughly permeated the Imperial Palace."
"Are you still trying to make such absurd claims? You entered the ancestral tomb under the pretext of eliminating evil energy. But what was the result? The Empress was attacked by monsters!"
"The Empress was attacked by monsters because Your Majesty kept a wicked person in the palace. And now that person has left."
At that moment, the Emperor furrowed his brow. It was because he understood that the target I was referring to was Maxel.
"The monsters are gone, and the wicked one has left the palace, so everything will fall into place."
"You speak as if the Empress will open her eyes right now."
"Would you like to go and confirm right now?"
"And if she doesn't wake up now?"
"I will admit my shortcomings and accept my punishment."
When I answered obediently, the Emperor rose with an expression of disbelief. His accompanying me was not my intention, but it wasn't bad. Rather, it was good.
The Empress's palace, visited together with the Emperor, was as quiet as usual. Heinri was guarding beside the Empress who slept with a peaceful face.
The Emperor asked the imperial physician who attended the Empress's side.
"What is her condition?"
"There is nothing wrong with her health."
"How can you say there's nothing wrong when she cannot wake up!"
When the Emperor expressed his anger, the imperial physician floundered and looked around.
Heinri intervened as if to protect the imperial physician.
"Your Majesty, please contain your anger. According to the Resurrected One, she will wake soon."
"Tsk!"
The Emperor clicked his tongue instead of answering. Nowhere in that reaction was there any trust in me.
All I had done at the Lindéa River was recite a prayer I had constructed by arbitrarily pasting together plausible sentences.
The Emperor would have received a report on my actions, so naturally he wouldn't believe that I had eliminated monsters, or that the Empress would wake.
But the Empress was scheduled to wake. Right now.
"The Empress has been unable to wake all this time because Your Majesty ignored my warning and kept a wicked person in the palace."
I said calmly.
Then the Emperor's face flushed red.
He, unable to contain his anger, was about to shout something at me, but before that, I reached out toward the Empress.
The green light covering the Empress's eyes flickered slightly.
"This is that proof."
Thread-like rays of light crept up slowly. They touched my fingertips.
A cool sensation penetrated my fingertips. The threads turned into thick yarn, then into ropes.
As that happened, the bandage covering the Empress's eyes became thin and transparent. It was a power visible only to my eyes.
The authority granted to the Agent of Death.
And now, it was my power.
* * *
Before the Emperor, the First Prince, and many palace servants, the Resurrected One declared. That the palace's misfortune had departed, and therefore the Empress would rise as well.
Not long after saying that, the Empress opened her eyes.
Everyone marveled at the unbelievable miracle. Just as they were about to rejoice looking at the newly awakened Empress, a loud boom shook the ground.
Everyone was surprised and checked outside the windows. Beyond where the sound came from, dusty soil rose massively. It was the Crown Prince's palace.
On the day the Empress opened her eyes, the Crown Prince's palace collapsed.
Everyone who saw this sight with their own eyes, though they didn't speak, had the same thought.
About the Crown Prince, who had been publicly pointed out as having incurred God's wrath from before, the Empress who opened her eyes as soon as he left his seat.
And the palace's misfortune that the Resurrected One had spoken of.
About that connection.
* * *
'Authority, huh.'
When I spread my palm, light spread in all directions and sparkled. It looked like round particles rolling over my skin.
Whenever the light rippled, my palm felt a bit prickly, similar to a numbing sensation. Yet the cool temperature was particularly prominent.
When I concentrated my mind, the evenly distributed light gathered toward specific fingertips. I hadn't specifically tried it on anyone, but I knew.
'This power belongs to the Goddess.'
It was a power that could gift death on a large scale, and sleep on a small scale.
Through the authority reclaimed from Rusalka, I was able to directly experience the power I had only heard about in words.
I wasn't a mage, so I didn't know if this followed similar principles to magic. Just describing it as I felt, it was like having some kind of medicine inside my body.
That medicine normally pooled near my palm area. Then, when I wished, it seeped out as if permeating through my skin.
After clenching and opening my hand a couple of times, green light flickered over my palm. Perhaps because I had even gathered the power remaining in the Empress, the color was deeper than before.
It was fascinating no matter how many times I looked at it. This was authority?
"The Crown Prince's palace is damaged beyond repair, so everyone is surprised, saying God was greatly angered."
At the suddenly intervening voice, I, who had been looking down at my palm, raised my head. Zenon sat across from me.
I was currently visiting the lodgings where Zenon and Samuel were staying. The reason was that they had contacted me saying they had something urgent to convey.
There were various topics, but the first thing that came up was the Crown Prince's palace.
"But by heaven's fortune, no palace servants were injured."
Zenon added.
The two topics hotly rising in the marketplace and banquet halls right now were the collapsed Crown Prince's palace and the Empress who opened her eyes.
In chronological order, the sequence was reversed, but apparently that was how it became known.
I answered with an expressionless face.
"That's because there were no people in the Crown Prince's palace that day. Taking advantage of the master being away for a long time, he gave the others vacation as well."
And the one who gave that vacation was Heinri.
On his way back from nursing the Empress as usual, he happened to pass by the Crown Prince's palace, and seeing the palace servants working busily in a palace without a master, he took pity on them and gave them a few days' vacation.
They said Heinri received all sorts of praise for that deed. They said that since he coincidentally saved the lives of many palace servants, truly God's protection must follow him.