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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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The Sage hesitated, then spoke.
“What will you do for me if I tell you what happened that day?”
Vanessa, who was holding the Sage’s wrists, said in disbelief,
“You think you’re in a position to negotiate?”
“…Then I have nothing to say.”
I gestured for Vanessa to let her go.
With a reluctant expression, Vanessa released her.
She couldn’t escape anyway, with her legs still in shackles.
I brought a chair from outside and sat down in front of the Sage.
I scratched my head and said,
“Rin, let’s make this easy on ourselves. I don’t want to resort to unsavory interrogation methods with a former comrade.”
A glimmer of hope appeared in the Sage’s eyes.
“Brother, please, help me. At least, unlike Rachel, I never ostracized or directly bullied you.”
“That’s true.”
The Sage’s role in my betrayal had been minimal.
The Hero was 50%, Rachel 30%, and the Sage and Priestess 10% each.
The majority of my stress had come from the Hero and Rachel, who had become an insufferable couple. The Sage and Priestess had only ever thrown me looks of contempt or made snide remarks whenever I returned from the brothel.
But there was a saying:
The sister-in-law who stands by and watches is more despicable than the mother-in-law who beats you.
“Rin, you’re a smart girl. You knew why the Hero was treating me that way.”
The Sage, glancing at me, bit her lip.
“…Because he was afraid you’d steal his woman?”
“Correct.”
I clapped my hands and said, my voice cold,
“And you chose to side with the Hero, who would be greatly rewarded for our success, and ignored my suffering, knowing I would be a mere footnote in his story.”
“But I had no choice! It was the best decision for me!”
I shrugged and rested my hand on the back of the chair.
“Life is a series of choices. I know you, a girl from a back-alley slum, chose to side with the Hero in hopes of a better life.”
“Then…!”
I cut her off.
“So, accept the consequences of your choice, Rin. You chose the wrong side.”
“Ugh!”
The harsh reality of her situation contorted the Sage’s face.
Vanessa, who had been listening to our conversation, whispered to me,
‘Is it alright to be so harsh? Wouldn’t it be better to be more gentle?’
‘Just wait. I have a plan.’
I pushed Vanessa aside and looked at the Sage.
“Now, let’s move on from this unpleasant topic and make a deal.”
“…What kind of deal?”
“If you tell me what happened that day, in detail, I’ll spare your life.”
“…How can I trust you?”
“I can write it on a Geass Scroll, if you like. You can trust this, even if you can’t trust me.”
I pulled a scroll from my pocket and waved it. A glimmer of hope appeared in the Sage’s eyes.
It was a lifeline in her moment of despair. She was desperate.
I maintained my poker face and waited for her to make a decision.
Finally, she gulped and accepted the scroll and pen.
I, Kaldrash, will not harm the Sage in any way after she has provided the requested information.
The Sage will not intentionally withhold any information from me, Kaldrash.
The terms were simple and straightforward.
She read the scroll several times and then signed her name.
I did the same.
A soul-binding oath was sacred.
Even I couldn’t break it.
The terms were broad, making it impossible for me to backstab her later.
The Sage, knowing this, looked at me with a resolute expression and began to speak.
“It happened three days ago.”
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Seventy-eight days had passed since she was imprisoned.
The colorless, sterile environment was a stark contrast to her vibrant, book-filled life.
To pass the time, she would talk to her fellow prisoners, the Warrior and the Priestess, or draw on the floor of her cell with a small stone.
But the walls and floor were now covered in her drawings, and even her companions had grown weary, their spirits broken.
That day, after another meaningless day, she had finally fallen asleep.
The cold, stone floor was a poor substitute for a warm bed.
Leaning against the wall, she drifted in and out of a light sleep. Suddenly, she felt a vibration.
Thinking it was an earthquake, she opened her eyes and saw the Priestess, enveloped in a radiant light.
The Priestess, who should have been in her cell, was now standing in the corridor, surrounded by a breathtaking aura she had never seen before.
“Sister! Help me! Sister, please!”
She jumped to her feet and called out to the Priestess, but she didn’t respond.
The commotion woke the Warrior, who stared at the Priestess in bewilderment.
The Priestess, as if being controlled, began to walk slowly towards the end of the corridor.
At first, the Sage had thought it was a positive sign.
Perhaps the Goddess of Courage was performing a miracle, freeing them from the Demon Lord’s dungeon.
But her hopes were dashed a few minutes later by a piercing scream.
“KYAAAAAAAAH!”
A familiar voice.
It was the Priestess.
She wanted to know what had happened, but she was trapped in her cell, unable to see.
The Warrior, Rachel, in the cell across from her, was also tense, her eyes fixed on the end of the corridor where the Priestess had disappeared.
And then—
“Huff! Hah! Hah!”
The Priestess, her face pale, stumbled back into view, as if being chased.
She collapsed to the floor, her eyes meeting the Sage’s.
She clutched the rosary around her neck and began to mutter incomprehensibly.
“O Lord, why do you test me so? Why have you taken the life of this poor, young lamb…?”
Like a repentant sinner, she trembled on the floor, and then, her hand still clutching the rosary, she breathed her last.
She learned of the Hero’s death the next day.
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“…That’s all I know.”
The Sage concluded her story and looked at me expectantly.
I asked her about the part of her story that seemed suspicious.
“You said the Priestess was already enveloped in light when you woke up. Why did you think it was a miracle?”
“…Because the divine power was immense.”
The Priestess’s divine power had been reduced by 30% after losing her virginity.
But even so, she was still a powerful cleric. And for the Sage, who had witnessed her power countless times, to describe it as “immense,” meant that something truly extraordinary had happened.
Vanessa, who had been listening, said,
“Was it… a divine descent?”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
Divine descent was the ultimate ability of a cleric.
It allowed them to channel the power of a god, becoming a temporary avatar of the divine.
It was an incredibly difficult and rare spell, and those who could use it were hailed as saints, cardinals, or even popes.
The spell was also incredibly dangerous, as it required the user to sacrifice their own life force.
Sacrifice.
One of the core tenets of the Church of Courage.
Even a qualified user would suffer severe aftereffects, and an unqualified user would die instantly.
It seemed the Priestess had died from the backlash of using divine descent.
But the important question was, who had initiated it?
If the Priestess had used it of her own free will to kill the Hero, that was one thing. But if the Goddess had forcefully descended into her body and used her to kill the Hero, then it would prove my theory.
The Goddess was desperate.
This is getting interesting.
Having heard all I needed to hear, I had no further use for the Sage.
As I picked up the chair and prepared to leave, the Sage asked, her voice filled with a desperate hope,
“So, you won’t kill me now, right, brother?”
I waved my hand dismissively.
“I was never interested in whether you lived or died.”
With the Hero dead, she was useless.
And I didn’t have to do anything. The competent Demon Lord would take care of her.
I, a mere guest, had no authority to decide the fate of a prisoner.
After leaving the cell, I asked Vanessa as we ascended the stairs,
“Vanessa, what do you think the Demon Lord will do with them?”
Vanessa shrugged.
“Probably execute them.”
A fitting end.
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