Chapter 82
Chapter 82
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 82
Chapter Title: A Puppet's Pledge
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Shub’s tentacles were sealing Orelia’s ears, nose, and mouth.
Through the ear canal, past the eardrum, across the auditory nerve, and toward the auditory cortex.
Into the skull of the Holy Maiden Orelia, toward her brain.
***
Orelia clutched the cross-shaped necklace in her hand. She lowered her head, submerged to her waist in a crimson river.
“Do you enjoy killing people?”
“Your petty illusions won’t work on me.”
Orelia answered Dale’s question.
“That’s not it.”
*Flap!*
Several crows took flight, beating their wings as they soared into the sky.
“Look closely.”
“At what?”
Just then, her reflection appeared on the surface of the crimson river.
The ‘Maiden of War,’ drenched in the gushing blood of her enemies, her golden armor stained crimson, a twisted, ecstatic smile on her face.
The Crimson Holy Maiden.
“Valkyries are said to be incredibly beautiful, captivating, and possessed of a nature cruel beyond measure,” Dale said.
“Don’t you despise the Empire that took your father from you?”
“How…!”
“When the goddess’s revelation came, weren’t you overjoyed that you could finally take revenge on the Empire?”
“This is not my will…”
“This river of blood is a sea formed from the enemies you’ve struck down,” Dale said.
“And this is the result of raising that crimson river.”
──She’s the Empire’s whore!
──She never cared about this kingdom or the king from the start!
──That deceptive wench…!
Accusations against Orelia echoed all around.
Fingers pointed, negating everything she had built as a Holy Maiden, as the standard-bearer of a nation’s salvation.
“Was it worth it?”
“…”
“The entire kingdom burned, the king fled shamelessly using his people as human shields, and an immeasurable amount of blood was shed,” Dale said.
“It is a hell of your own making, Lady Orelia.”
“...!”
“The goddess’s revelation, your fanaticism and blindness, have driven this island to ruin.”
Screams began to erupt from all sides. She could see imperial soldiers pillaging their way across the island of Britannia.
A festival of slaughter.
“Ah, ahh…”
Orelia gasped weakly. The fate of one who proclaimed herself a puppet of the heavens.
“Is this truly the will of the sister goddesses of Sistina, who cherish love and mercy?” Dale asked.
“The goddess’s revelation brought ruin to this island, and you, Lady Orelia, willingly became the standard-bearer of this great slaughter.”
As if negating her very existence.
“When you were pinned beneath that pig, who offered you a helping hand?”
“…”
“Why do the sister goddesses, who cherish love and mercy, remain silent amidst this hell?” Dale asked again.
“Truly cruel goddesses, aren’t they?”
Orelia did not answer. No, she could not.
“But I am not like them.”
And so, Dale answered for her.
“I will grant you what you desire.”
He extended his arm toward Orelia.
“So that your actions do not end as meaningless slaughter.”
“...!”
“I will become your god.”
Orelia, sobbing in despair, looked at Dale’s hand.
“Together, let us bring down the Empire.”
There was a moment’s hesitation. At the end of it, Orelia opened her mouth.
“Your petty brainwashing won’t work on me.”
“...!”
Her previous agitation vanished as if it were a lie, and she spoke calmly. It was Dale who gasped in surprise.
“You told me to think for myself, my lord,” the Holy Maiden Orelia said from within the crimson river.
“──This is entirely my own will.”
Orelia’s will.
“Wrap your threads around my body.”
“…”
“I am prepared to accept my shadow.”
Orelia spoke with a nobility and will befitting the name of a Holy Maiden.
“By my own will, allow me to serve you.”
Orelia knelt. In the crimson river, the blood rose to her chin.
“So that in the shadows, I may become a sword wielded for your sake.”
Just like that, she drove the sword in her hand vertically into the ground. A knight’s oath.
“Please, allow me to become your puppet, by my own will.”
“…And what do you ask for in return?”
“The fall of the Empire.”
Orelia answered. Dale nodded his head in silence.
***
Once again, a kingdom had fallen.
The war was over.
Even in a desperate situation where they had lost nearly half their forces, had the Holy Sword Master’s son captured, and offered up vast amounts of military supplies…
Under the command of none other than the ‘Black Prince,’ the royal capital of Reims fell into the hands of the Imperial Army.
It was a victory of miraculous proportions.
Officially, Charles VII was executed as a traitor to the Empire, his head displayed in the public square.
In addition, a meeting was held to decide the fate of the ‘Holy Maiden Orelia.’
***
Some time later, the high command of the Imperial Army in Burgundy had gathered.
A conference to deal with post-war matters, including the treatment of the vanquished and other affairs on the island.
Fortunately, few wished for the Holy Maiden’s death. And the Holy Sword Master, twisted by his obsession with eugenics, desired only one thing.
“Orelia’s claim to sainthood is a blasphemy against the Sistina faith.”
The Holy Sword Master spoke, not bothering to hide his piggish, hideous desires.
“Please, grant me permission to make her pay the ‘price’ for her foolishness.”
He spoke without his usual finger-pointing or condescension, with a politeness akin to addressing a superior. The subject of his address was the hero of the Imperial Army’s victory and his master, bound by a giass.
“Are you planning to rape her and have her bear your child?”
“After all, there could be no more definitive proof to deny the ‘Holy Maiden’s sainthood’ than to take her virginity.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Dale murmured as if it were someone else’s problem.
“Does Cardinal Nikolai agree?”
“According… to canon law… for a ‘Holy Maiden’ who has received a divine revelation to lose her purity is, without a doubt, proof of a false revelation.”
Cardinal Nikolai of the Sistina faith nodded.
“Based on doctrine, purity is an essential requirement for the sister goddesses when choosing a ‘woman’ as their servant.”
Count Brandenburg’s face lit up.
“Precisely.”
The Holy Sword Master shot up from his seat and raised his voice.
“That is why, as one who can negate her sainthood, there is no one more suitable than I, the wielder of the Holy Sword.”
A desperate struggle to get his hands on the Holy Maiden.
“Hee hee, I wonder how you plan to take her purity with that tiny plow.”
Lady Scarlet let out a detached, mocking laugh.
“Aren’t you more likely to desperately protect the Holy Maiden’s virginity?”
“That’s true.”
Dale nodded as if he had expected as much. It was not a joke or a taunt.
“As the most suitable person to negate the Holy Maiden’s sainthood…”
His expression was utterly serious.
“I, too, cannot hide my grave concerns regarding Count Brandenburg’s ‘size.’”
“I quite agree.”
There is nothing so ridiculous as trying to interpret religious doctrine seriously. However, the weight of the Sistina faith in this world was not to be taken lightly.
From the Church, which still wielded influence within the Empire, to the Holy Maiden, who had rallied the independence army under the banner of a national savior, all invoked the name of the sister goddesses.
“I will do it.”
And so, Dale spoke.
“I will take the Holy Maiden as a prisoner of House Sachsen and negate her sainthood.”
“...!”
“Oh my.”
Lady Scarlet burst into a delighted laugh.
“It’s true what they say, you can’t judge a man by his looks.”
The Holy Sword Master’s expression froze over. An indescribable humiliation and disgrace, compounded by the anxiety that he might lose the Holy Maiden just like this.
“How dare you, how dare…!”
For a moment, a storm of aura he couldn’t control began to rage.
The Holy Sword Master’s face began to twist into that of a beast.
“Have you forgotten?”
But Dale’s voice was cold as he spoke.
“The giass concerning all military operations, as well as the ‘treatment of prisoners.’”
“Ha, hahaha…!”
The Holy Sword Master burst out laughing.
“Yes, you’re right,” he said after his laughter died down.
“But the war is over.”
There was no longer any need to be bound by the giass.
“Hand over the Holy Maiden to me at once, young heir of Sachsen.”
And this was enemy territory, surrounded on all sides.
“If you don’t, you will not leave here alive, no matter if you are the heir of Sachsen.”
The pig-headed man said. Lady Scarlet remained coldly silent.
“Ah, is that so?”
But Dale’s expression remained remarkably calm in the face of the Holy Sword Master’s threat.
“Did you say the war is over?”
He simply took something out from his coat.
Two documents.
“Unfortunately, the war is not yet over.”
One was a document bearing Dale’s signature as ‘Supreme Commander of the Imperial Army,’ and the other bore the royal seal of King Charles VII of the Kingdom of Britannia.
“This is an ‘indefinite ceasefire agreement’ signed between our Empire and the Kingdom of Britannia.”
An indefinite ceasefire agreement.
“...!”
Astonishment dawned on the beast’s face.
“Separate from the victory the Imperial Army is so proudly trumpeting, legally, until this document is destroyed…”
──The war is not over.
“As the sacred oath dictates—it’s not over until it’s over.”
Dale smirked. The pig king with the face of a beast shouted before the sacred oath that even he could not defy.
“How dare you pull such a cheap trick…!”
“I-It’s not a trick.”
It was Cardinal Nikolai who hastily cut him off. An elder of the White Magic Tower and a cardinal of the Sistina faith. And at the same time, Dale’s puppet, branded with a giass of absolute obedience.
“Acc-According to the canon law that defines the giass… Y-Young Lord Dale is correct.”
“Are you daring to betray the Empire now?!”
He was not ignorant of the weight of that act.
“Oh, you needn’t worry.”
Dale shrugged and smiled.
“This document will be destroyed the moment I ‘safely’ enter the ducal castle of House Sachsen.”
“...!”
“The destruction of the document will be carried out in the presence of Cardinal Nikolai, as will the dissolution of the giass.”
Dale continued.
“The task of negating the Holy Maiden’s sainthood will also be carried out in the presence of Cardinal Nikolai, so—”
“...!”
The name of a cardinal of the Sistina faith was not to be taken lightly.
Dale’s puppet, upon whom he had carved the ‘Oath of Absolute Obedience’ in the Library of Hell that day. The insurance he had taken out for just such an occasion was finally paying off.
“The Holy Sword Master has nothing to worry about.”
By the time he realized it, the Holy Sword Master was already trapped in a spider’s web from which he could not escape. And it was not the kind of web that could be broken by strength or force.
***
“Young Lord Dale has returned!”
“The war hero of Britannia has returned!”
A new moniker was added to the titles that adorned the name and fame of the ‘Black Prince.’
“Cardinal Nikolai…”
That very war hero of the Empire spoke from inside the carriage heading toward the ducal castle.
“Relay my words to the Empire and the Holy Sword Master exactly as I say them.”
To the man before him.
“The ‘indefinite ceasefire agreement’ with Charles VII has been terminated.”
He said, pointedly unfolding the two documents in his hand.
“Furthermore, the Holy Maiden’s sainthood has been negated, and her execution by fire was carried out at the Sachsen ducal castle after a ‘lawful trial.’”
“…B-But we haven’t yet!”
“We haven’t done anything yet, you say?”
Dale tilted his head.
“Your heart doesn’t seem to be saying that, Your Eminence.”
“...!”
At those words, Cardinal Nikolai’s expression froze. The Holy Sword Master was not the only one caught in an inescapable web.
Within that inescapable web, Cardinal Nikolai silently bowed his head.
***
The independence of the island of Britannia ended in failure.
The Holy Maiden, too, had her sainthood negated by the loss of her purity and was sentenced to be burned at the stake on charges of witchcraft after a lawful trial.
In the frozen lands of Sachsen, the standard-bearer who saved a nation was reduced to a few handfuls of ash.
This was the final record of the Holy Maiden, as relayed by… Nikolai, a cardinal of the Sistina faith.