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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Saintess! Saintess! I have a question for you…!”
“Cornelia, close the door, please.”
“Acting Mayor! You can’t! I must ask the Saintess something!”
Thud.
The door closed, separating the noisy outside from the quiet within the mansion.
Finally, a reprieve from those paparazzi-like reporters who relentlessly pursued me.
For the time being, I planned to stay here, in the Briam Mansion.
“Saintess…”
“I… I finally did it.”
“You filed the complaint?”
“Yes! And those investigators are being so bothersome, but I brushed them all off! What could I possibly tell them? I haven’t thought about any specific details of the incident.”
Cornelia gaped at me, speechless.
I understood her reaction. My actions were that outrageous.
“Will… will the investigation… proceed…?”
“It will. The Saintess’s words carry more weight than you think. It’s not even clear whether the incident actually happened or not, but once the Saintess accuses someone, they have no choice but to launch an investigation.”
“Saintess, but once the investigation is over, everyone will know it was all a lie.”
“I know. I’ll be branded a liar, and my position as Saintess will be greatly shaken. Even so, it had to be done.”
Cornelia sighed, and I flinched.
I felt truly sorry for her. I owed her so much. Now, I had even committed this false accusation, something she vehemently opposed.
Of course, I had my reasons, but…
“Have you eaten?”
“No…”
“Come in. Don’t just stand there. I’ll prepare a meal. Do you want to use my room?”
“Yes, yes. Thank you…”
Cornelia readily offered me her room, no questions asked.
I was so grateful, I almost cried.
She even remembered my discomfort with staying in the former mayor’s house, offering me her own room, free from his presence. Her thoughtfulness warmed me.
Why was she so kind to a troublesome woman like me?
Cornelia was too kind.
I buried my face in Cornelia’s pillow. After a while, I trudged to the dining room.
Cornelia was alone in the spacious room. She must have dismissed all the servants.
The meal began. The dining room was filled with the clinking of silverware, otherwise silent.
After a long while, Cornelia hesitantly spoke.
“Um… may I speak frankly?”
“Please do. There’s no need for formality between us.”
“Saintess, I think this time, you’ve clearly crossed a line. It’s not just any crime, it’s an attempted rape of the Saintess, a crime punishable by death. You could ruin someone’s life. I’m worried… that this will not only damage your own standing but also cause great trouble for that person…”
Cornelia trailed off, avoiding my gaze. She was scared. She had reason to be.
I was initiating an investigation based on a false accusation, with no evidence.
“I have to find him, even if it means doing this.”
“What do you plan to do… once you find him?”
“I… I want to apologize…”
“He won’t accept your apology. His hatred for you will be so great, he won’t even hear it.”
She was right.
He had left because he was tired of my clinginess and bothersome behavior. Imagine his shock when he returned to find out I was pursuing him for attempted rape.
How disgusted would he be? How much would he hate me?
“Withdraw the complaint before it’s too late. You can still say it was a misunderstanding. You can make it go away.”
“I can’t… I’m sorry. Despite your advice…”
The conversation ended there.
Cornelia didn’t try to persuade me any further. But I could sense her disappointment. Disappointment in me. Disappointment in the Saintess.
The anonymous letter urging the Papal Office to stop the investigation… she must have sent it.
She was trying to help me, trying to protect my reputation.
I should tell her. She deserved to know.
“I’m finished.”
Cornelia pushed back her chair and stood.
I desperately grabbed her wrist.
“Wait.”
“..?”
“I have something to tell you.”
Even if she wouldn’t believe me. I had to tell her. I was afraid our relationship would be irrevocably damaged if I didn’t.
After clearing the table, we stepped onto the balcony. The beautiful cityscape of Cologne stretched out before us.
“Where should I begin… It goes back quite a while.”
“Take your time, Saintess.”
“Do you know where I’m from?”
“Of course. Britannia, isn’t it? You came to the Holy Empire as a refugee during the Republican Revolution…”
“You’re well-informed. When I was young, the revolution broke out. My parents were executed, and I was sent into exile. But the entire journey, I was surrounded by this nauseating stench. I asked what it was, but the servants wouldn’t tell me. They covered my eyes, preventing me from seeing. But the more they tried to hide it, the more curious I became. So, I secretly opened my eyes and peeked outside. I saw a gentle hill in the distance, with white smoke rising above it. I didn’t know what it was back then. But when I grew older, I realized what I had seen. It was a mountain of corpses.”
It was a terrible era.
Britannia was consumed by hatred and rage.
Innocent people, like my parents, were executed for the crimes of corrupt nobles. Even the commoners who protected them were killed by the thousands. It was an era of madness.
In contrast, the Holy Empire, where I sought refuge, was a nation ruled by reason and logic.
Nobles didn’t exploit the commoners, and commoners didn’t rise up against the nobles.
Of course, the Holy Empire was far from a perfect nation, but that was another story.
“Later, I started to wonder about something. I knew the hill was made of corpses, but what was the white smoke rising above it?”
“Perhaps they were burning the bodies…?”
“That’s what I thought, too. But the smoke from burning bodies is black.”
“What?”
“Yes, it’s black. I heard it from someone. But the smoke I saw was almost transparent white. I couldn’t figure out what it was. Time passed, and I was deployed to the battlefield.”
“You mean the Britannia conquest?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
That’s right.
I participated in the war that destroyed my homeland, the very place I had escaped from.
The crusade, led by the Holy Knights, conquered Britannia in just ten weeks.
“One night, the crusader camp was attacked. The battle raged all night. When the sun rose, the battlefield was covered in enemy corpses. And then I saw it again. White smoke, shimmering like a mirage, rising above the bodies. I asked others, but no one else had seen it. Only me.”
“Was it… souls?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen that kind of smoke rising from the bodies of people who died in hospitals. I think it only appears above the corpses of those with strong resentment. The reason I’m telling you this long story is…”
She wasn’t really listening, was she?
She looked skeptical.
I decided to get to the point.
“Because that smoke… it’s rising from Cologne right now.”
White smoke, thick like smog, shimmered in the air. It had been like this for days, but I seemed to be the only one who found it strange.
“I’m telling you it’s dangerous, but no one believes me. Only one person has ever believed me unconditionally, and that’s Yoo-jin. I have to find him.”
I had to find him, no matter what. Even if he hated me for it. I had a bad feeling that many people would die if I didn’t.
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“Two weeks ago, the Papal Office received a complaint from Saintess Jill Diner. She claimed that a man named Yoo-jin, a resident of Hameln, attempted to rape her and fled. The Papal Office took this seriously and launched a secret investigation… But there were several suspicious aspects. First, Yoo-jin’s residency registration was relatively recent. Second, there were no witnesses. Of course, no one dared to question the Saintess directly, but including His Holiness, we Cardinals suspected that she fabricated the accusation. But now it seems… he wasn’t a completely fabricated person, was he?”
Nicholas pulled out a piece of paper and showed it to me.
Sure enough, it was a sketch of my face, my composite sketch. She had drawn it quite well. Except for the nose, it was so accurate, one might think she had drawn it from a photograph.
I never knew Jill had such talent.
“The Saintess drew this herself. What is your relationship with her?”
“Relationship? I don’t even know her.”
“Don’t play dumb. I’m here to help you. So, please tell me the truth. Are you really saying you’ve never met the Saintess?”
“Yes. I’ve never even been to Hameln.”
Surprisingly, it was all true.
In this loop, I hadn’t met Jill face-to-face.
I had sent her a letter warning her about the assassination attempt at the cathedral, but there was no proof it was from me. I could claim I had no connection to her, and it wouldn’t be a lie.
“Do you have any idea why the Saintess would accuse you? Have you done anything that might have earned her resentment?”
“No. I’m just a wandering mercenary. I occasionally read about the Saintess in the newspapers, but I have no connection to her.”
“This is driving me crazy. Why would the Saintess target a mercenary she has no connection to…?”
I was the one going crazy.
This crazy woman! I saved her life, and this is how she repays me?
I barely managed to suppress my rage in the Cardinal’s presence, but I felt like my blood pressure was about to explode.
This wasn’t like her.
Jill in the first loop was certainly immature, but I had made her that way, with my tailored strategy, turning her into a spoiled brat.
Sending spam mails worldwide to find me was already beyond normal, but even then, she had her limits.
The truly insane Jill was the one who ordered the invasion of Petenburg in the sixth loop, not the Jill from the first loop.
Was there a reason?
Was there a reason why she had to find me, even if it meant framing me for a crime punishable by death?
I had to contact Cornelia. She would know about Jill’s recent activities.
“I understand that you have no connection to the Saintess. I’ll take care of this, so don’t worry. However, you must keep this meeting a secret and promise never to set foot in the Holy Empire again.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Your Eminence.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“I must enter Cologne. I have people to meet and things to do.”
I had to contact Cornelia. I had to make sure she was safe. And she would know about Jill’s recent activities.
If Jill had a reason for this madness, I needed to find out what it was. And I couldn’t forget about searching for Belphegor’s main body.
I couldn’t turn back now.
“You insist on entering? Even if it means being arrested and potentially executed for attempted rape of the Saintess?”
“Yes. It’s that important.”
“What could be that… This is becoming quite complicated. It was already difficult enough to get past the checkpoints…”
Nicholas sighed, taking off his glasses and frowning.
He snapped his fingers towards the door, and it opened.
A heavily armored knight entered.
“This is a Holy Knight I trust. You must stay with him at all times and follow his instructions. He’s the only one who can protect you in case of emergency. Do you understand?”
The Holy Knight stood at attention beside us. Shining armor. Glossy blonde hair and blue eyes. And a handsome face.
The moment I saw that face, I froze.
“Greetings. I am Solra Artemisia, Vice-Captain of the Holy Knights.”
It was Solra, the Holy Knight who would later fall from grace and become one of the Four Heavenly Kings.
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