Episode 035
“…….”
A chilling cold sweat ran down her—Seria’s—back.
To be honest, it was more than just a cold sweat.
The gazes of the people around her seemed to tighten around her entire body.
In particular, the eyes of the High Priest and the Heroes, the core figures of the kingdom, felt like sharp daggers stabbing into her flesh.
“…Please explain yourself at once, Lady Seria.”
A high-ranking priest who stepped forward in place of the High Priest murmured in a voice as cold as ice, unlike his usual tone.
Originally, whenever he saw Seria, he would attend to her with a benevolent smile.
But now, instead of reverence, his eyes held keen suspicion.
“That’s…”
Seria turned her head and looked at her party members as if asking for help.
But Lurein, Arshe, and Rein all avoided her gaze as though they had agreed to do so beforehand.
These stupid bitches…
If I go down, you’ll all die with me. Do you not understand that?
‘You… dare abandon me?’
Seria’s lips trembled.
Those who had been adventuring together with Tanas only a short while ago had now turned into strangers worse than outsiders.
No, they must have been women like that from the start.
Then, suddenly, her eyes met Helena Ronain’s.
The Sword Master stared at Seria for a moment with eyes that seemed to be looking at a pitiful beast, then turned her head away as if disgusted.
“S-so…”
“Lady Seria, you had best speak clearly. The oracle descended upon the Saintess of the Empire, so why was it not heard by our kingdom’s Saintess candidate? Could it be that the Goddess has turned away from you?”
“……!!”
At the high-ranking priest’s pressure, Seria’s heart dropped.
She had once been a wretched orphan with no background whatsoever, and the sole reason she had been able to beat out candidates from illustrious families and rise to this position
was thanks to the title of “the child who hears the Goddess’s voice.”
In truth, even that was a somewhat distorted story, but…
Seria had never once revealed the proper truth.
That without Tanas, she could not hear the Goddess’s revelations.
The moment it was discovered that the voice had been cut off,
she would fall from a leading Saintess candidate back into the orphan who had once had nothing.
‘What do I do? Why now, of all times…! I was right on the verge of being appointed Saintess…!!’
At this rate, she might be branded a heretic and burned at the stake.
Perhaps an even worse future was waiting for her….
After all, in the history of the Order, the only prophets whose divine voices had been cut off were, without exception, traitors who had colluded with the demons.
Her mind began spinning faster than it ever had in her life.
The gazes of the people gradually changed strangely, and the armed paladins standing by around her began approaching little by little, as if to surround her.
“Hmm… I do not wish to do this either, but… we will proceed according to procedure… Everyone, take Lady Seria…”
And in that fleeting instant,
a lightning-like excuse flashed through her mind.
“I’m sorry… High Priest, I, I was foolish.”
Just as the paladins were about to bind her,
should it be called her finishing move?
“……!”
Seria suddenly bowed her head deeply and began to sob.
The act of a pitiful Saintess.
No matter how ugly Seria’s inner self might be, her outward appearance was as beautiful as a goddess, so the paladins rushing toward her faltered for a moment.
“The truth is… I received the oracle as well. The Goddess told me directly. But I could not report it immediately. That was…”
“Lady Seria, is that true? Then why on earth did you receive an oracle and conceal it? What was your intention?”
“…It was because of my relationship with the Hero of Recovery, Tanas…. Because of the guilt that I could not save him… and because of my personal feelings…. I only wanted to go to Tanas myself, tell him the oracle first, and ask for forgiveness. That was why I indulged in a moment of greed. I am truly sorry!”
A strange silence settled among the people.
They exchanged glances.
Because it wasn’t complete nonsense.
Now that the innocence of Tanas, the Hero of Recovery, had already been publicly announced, it was an open secret that the former Hero party had committed perjury.
In this situation, the excuse that Seria, a Saintess candidate, had her judgment clouded because of “love and guilt” was not entirely impossible to accept.
“Haa…”
The High Priest narrowed his eyes. It was not because he sincerely believed Seria’s words.
It was because he had to improve relations with the Hero of Recovery when they met him again.
Tanas, the Hero of Recovery.
He had been treated like an incompetent hero, like a complete idiot, simply because his martial strength was weak,
but in terms of his usual conduct, he had acted more uprightly than anyone else within the Order, so aside from strength, his reputation itself was good.
And now rumors were spreading that such a man had defeated “Inbium’s Nightmare”….
That was why,
even for the sake of improving relations with the true Hero, Tanas, the card known as Seria was still useful.
After all, even a dog passing by knew that Tanas had been devoted to Seria.
Soon, having finished his calculations, the High Priest clutched his head and sighed.
“See to it that this never happens again. I do not doubt Lady Seria’s faith… but it is fortunate that matters ended well this time. We nearly missed a calamity of the continent.”
“…I will keep that in mind.”
Seria lowered her head and let out a breath of relief.
The mood was roughly turning toward letting it pass as “a pathetic blunder by a Saintess candidate blinded by a man.”
But then,
Dmitri, the Hero of Magic, who had been standing behind her with his arms crossed, let out a cold sneer.
“Hmm… How strange.”
Dmitri adjusted his glasses and stared intently at Seria.
The High Priest’s brow furrowed.
“Hero of Magic, are you perhaps doubting the will of the Goddess?”
It was a warning that implied the brand of heretic, but Dmitri did not so much as blink as he offered an elegant bow.
“How could that be? I am a faithful servant of the Goddess. It is simply… that I wish to confirm whether this is truly the Goddess’s will, or whether someone is maliciously distorting it. Whether the contents of the oracle match the Empire’s, down to the very last word.”
“…….”
Goosebumps rose once more along Seria’s back.
Sharp-witted people such as Helena and Dmitri seemed to have already seen through the fact that Seria was hiding something.
They were merely watching because they had no proof.
‘Please, please, Tanas… come back quickly!’
Seria screamed inwardly.
She had to meet Tanas and get their stories straight as soon as possible.
If she could not get her story straight with him, then the moment the next oracle descended,
Seria would be branded a collaborator with the demons and sent to the guillotine.
Judging by the fact that he had disappeared without even telling us, he seemed truly, terribly angry, but…
She had to soothe sulking Tanas’s anger as soon as possible and return things to the way they had been.
There were some things that made her uneasy, but she was not greatly worried.
With other party members, like Lurein, Arshe, or Rein, it might be different, but
‘I’m his childhood friend.’
She was different from those rootless girls.
The arrogance that she was special supported her in a corner of her heart.
“This way.”
Before long, she moved toward the grand conference room as if being dragged in.
…She did not want to go, but she had no choice.
Normally, as a Saintess candidate, Seria would have sat confidently in a seat of honor, but now she trembled as though sitting on a bed of thorns.
“…Then, Lady Seria.”
The High Priest’s heavy voice signaled the beginning.
“I would like you to clearly state, here and now, the contents of the oracle you say you received from the Goddess. We need to compare it with the Empire’s oracle…”
She moistened her parched lips with her tongue.
She had no idea what the Empire’s Saintess had said, and if she pretended to know too much, it would become poison, so she opened her mouth as vaguely as possible.
“…It was an oracle that a great threat would befall our Ersha Kingdom. …I saw a vision of a very ominous aura of darkness covering the kingdom.”
“Is that all? That’s far too…”
Helena Ronain pointed it out sharply, but Seria brazenly replied.
“Yes. I have only stated what I saw.”
If a leading Saintess candidate says so, what can she do about it?
Inwardly, she sneered at the Sword Master.
“Hmm… Then what is this? Did the Goddess truly deliver an oracle only about Inbium’s Nightmare?”
Murmurs broke out here and there in the conference room.
Inbium’s Nightmare had indeed been a great calamity, but doubts arose as to whether it was enough for a god to personally step forth.
The High Priest gathered the atmosphere and nodded toward the messenger.
“Please be quiet. Then let us now hear the full text of the oracle delivered to the Saintess of Autumn.”
The messenger read the letter aloud in a trembling voice.
Its contents were roughly: [At the eastern edge of the Ersha Kingdom, a terrifying darkness that will drive the entire continent to ruin is rising, so it must be stopped immediately.]
In addition, it stated that the Empire had no spare strength because of the Demon King’s army, and therefore could not send troops.
A similar, yet subtly different oracle.
“…….”
“…….”
No one said it aloud, but doubt flickered in their eyes.
“The Empire’s Saintess specified the direction and the nature of the threat. A darkness in the east of the kingdom…. Dame Seria, why was such a grave warning missing from the oracle you received? Surely Lady Aseria would not have omitted information only for the kingdom.”
At the princess’s cold interrogation from the seat of honor, the conference room began to fill with commotion.
The fact that Seria’s oracle, who had prided herself on monopolizing the favor of the three goddesses,
was more lacking than the Empire’s oracle was an issue directly connected to the kingdom’s authority.
After all, this had been a major factor in their ability to receive support from the Empire until now.
“Doesn’t that woman seem suspicious?”
“How interesting, for oracles descended around the same time to differ this much…”
The Heroes’ suspicious gazes now began to move beyond Seria and toward the other party members.
“S-Seria, don’t tell me you forgot the oracle? Think carefully again!”
Arshe grabbed Seria by the shoulders and shook her as she shouted. From her fingertips, instead of sharp aura, cold sweat seeped out.
“Now, now, let us stop there. Lady Seria seems tired.”
“…….”
The High Priest smoothed things over appropriately, but Seria realized it.
There would be no second time.
“Now, the next agenda is who will depart for the east…”
‘Where on earth are you?’
The woman who had pushed Tanas into the abyss had now fallen into a hell where she could not endure even a single day without him.
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