The Reverse Scale (2)
"This pilgrimage is a lie."
The calm voice echoed through the courtroom.
Erzena spoke, meeting the eyes of everyone who stared at her.
"We are a crusade army marching on the northern continent to finish the holy war we failed to complete fifteen years ago."
The truth, at last, was out.
"Every piece of evidence presented by the defense is accurate. The Order has spent long years preparing for the extermination of the Evil God Cult."
She gestured toward the hundreds of documents scattered across the floor.
"The weapons, the knight orders, even me. All of it set out from the very beginning with the holy war as its goal."
"But then the ordinary people in the pilgrimage party—"
"They were a cover. We were always going to disband them the moment they reached the north."
Erzena laid out everything she knew, holding nothing back.
Then, as if to drive it in once more, she said it plainly.
"We are not a pilgrimage. We are an army built for war."
A heavy silence fell over the courtroom at the bombshell.
War.
It was the one thing the Crossline Kingdom hated like a disease. It was written in the very first clause of the treaty signed when the nation declared its neutrality.
The passage of national borders for the purpose of war or armed action shall never be permitted.
And yet the largest religious body on the continent, the Holy Church, had been about to do exactly that.
"..."
"..."
No one opened their mouth. But a single thought was rising in every mind present.
The Saintess of the Holy Church has betrayed the Church.
Everything Erzena said stood in direct contradiction to the Pope's testimony. Which meant she was now defying the Pope himself. The realization that something almost beyond imagining was unfolding before their very eyes made Mohaim's hands tremble. The face of the man who should have been the calmest and coldest of soldiers was filled with shock, confusion, and doubt.
"Lady Saintess... why?"
The judge, barely composing himself, managed to speak.
"Can you—can you guarantee that there is not a single word of falsehood in what you say? Not one?"
"Yes."
Erzena placed a hand over her heart as she answered.
"I swear it upon the Lord God."
The apostle of God had sworn on God Himself. Which meant that everything she had said was truly the truth.
By the same token, it also meant that everything the Pope's side had said until now was perjury.
The Queen Consort, grasping the situation, flung down the fan she held and cried out.
"Saintess!!! Do you have any idea what you—"
But an angrier—and at the same time calmer—voice flowed from the crystal orb.
— Erzena.
The Pope glared at her through the orb.
— What is the meaning of this.
The kindly old man was gone. In his place was the face of a heretic inquisitor, a ruler who had driven countless souls to the purge.
— Are you saying that I, and the Church, have been lying?
It was a threat: I will grant you one last chance—retract your statement.
Instead of answering, Erzena gazed for a moment at the Pope, and at the people beyond him.
Dozens of eyes bore down on her.
Compared to performing on a stage, it was nothing. But the weight was on an entirely different level.
Hostile stares from people who held power. The prosecution's party—the very people who had looked upon her with favor only moments ago—led by the Pope himself, were now glaring daggers at her.
A crushing pressure closed in on her chest all at once, along with the dread of not knowing what would come next. The feeling of walking on a knife's edge squeezed the breath from her lungs.
In that instant, Erzena realized who else had lived through this suffocating, deathly moment.
So this... is what the Central Officer felt.
This was exactly what Nathan Kell had felt in the moment before he refused them entry. Only now could she understand just how much he had struggled and agonized.
There had certainly been an easy path. One glance away—one moment of looking the other way—and there would have been no problem at all.
But he had not taken it. Instead, he had defied the Pope to his face and declared before everyone:
"I will refuse the crusade army entry into this kingdom."
Knowing full well what consequences it would bring.
I'm this terrified—how on earth did you overcome this?
She was so afraid. She wanted to run. These stares were a burden even for her, someone who held the lofty station of Saintess. And yet he had endured to the very end, and made it here. With his life on the line, and without a shred of power to his name.
Why?
"There are no exceptions at this border. Not even for an apostle of God."
It was because he had refused to compromise. Regardless of God's will, regardless of who stood before him, the Central Officer had held to what he believed was right until the very end. Unlike her—she who had been lost in fanaticism, seeing the world only in black and white.
She steadied her breath.
I want to be like you.
Where did such courage come from?
She was trembling. Merely standing against him like this felt as though she might shatter. The fact that she was defying the man closest to God terrified her beyond words.
But there was no stopping now.
Erzena raised her head again. She took a step forward.
Just as the Central Officer would have.
"I do not wish to force our faith upon the world any longer in the name of a great cause."
— ...This is God's will, Erzena. Would you defy it?
"How can you possibly assert that this is what He desires?"
Another step.
— This is God's will! I am God's will! This pilgrimage is a great cause that must be achieved for the sake of the Church!
"Then it's your will, isn't it, Your Holiness! Tessah Linogritsa, the Saintess before me, must have believed the same—that the holy war was what the Lord desired!"
Her voice rose, fiercer and fiercer.
"The Lord God has warned us twice already. Who was it that ignored those warnings and let ambition consume him? Who poured every ounce of strength into war while turning away from the people who needed help!"
Something she had never once dared even imagine in her entire life—standing against the authority of the Pope.
"This is not a great cause. It is a sin! The crusade must be stopped."
And then she turned her head and looked at Nathan.
"No innocent person should have to die."
She laid down her most honest heart, in a voice barely above a whisper.
A short silence hung in the courtroom.
The judge, watching the Pope's face carefully, spoke.
"D-do the, ah, the plaintiff's side... have any rebuttal to this?"
— We do. We most certainly do.
The Pope slipped his hand inside his sleeve.
And through the crystal orb, dazzling divine holy power came pouring forth.
— Look carefully, all of you. This holy power is a strength the Lord bestows only upon those He loves.
An aura nearly rivaling Erzena's own golden mist.
— To be precise, it is the power granted only to those chosen by God, those who walk in accordance with His will.
At the sight, the Queen Consort hastily clasped her hands together and shut her eyes.
— But look now. The Saintess has no holy power. What do you suppose that means?
The man who had wielded the Saintess's holy power as his justification only moments ago was now turning that very power into a weapon against her.
— She has already been cast aside. God has abandoned that woman.
"..."
The clearest possible evidence.
— Would God truly endorse the words Erzena Selaphe has spoken today?
On this point alone, no one could refute the Pope.
Within the Order, a person's faith was measured by their holy power. How devotedly one had served, how deep one's belief had grown—in the end, it was all determined by the power God bestowed.
And right now, Erzena had no holy power.
Which meant everything she said carried no credibility at all.
— Do you know why He stripped your holy power away?
The Pope spat the words out as if chewing gristle.
— Because you were wicked! Because you fell short—because you did not believe greatly enough, did not devote yourself enough!
He scolded. He blamed. He hurled every last fault of this whole affair onto her.
— Who do you think will listen to the words of a Saintess God has cast away?
The words drove a dagger into her chest. And at them, Erzena shouted out.
"I don't need holy power!"
Even she was startled by what had come out of her mouth. But in the same instant, she understood exactly why she had said it.
From the moment her holy power had vanished, Erzena had truly been a powerless creature. The sensation of losing everything she had enjoyed her entire life had been unbearable beyond words.
But she had felt something.
Something she had only learned after becoming a piglet.
There are people in this world who live by faith even without holy power.
There were people who sought to protect what was right even without belief. She remembered it now—the people on the defense's side, those standing where she stood at this very moment.
And she realized: their faces bore none of that fear.
Not rage—resolve. Eyes steeped in a sworn determination that no matter how afraid, how terrified they might be, they would absolutely never back down.
"If we are so drowned in holy power that we betray the true path the Church must walk—would that truly be what the Lord God desires?"
She spoke with those eyes at her back.
"Was our faith ever meant to be a religion that cries 'God's will' as it brands those who do not follow as heretics and kills them?"
She murmured it as if rebuking herself. And those last words applied to her own self as well.
She did not forget her sins. She remembered the days when fanaticism had held her captive. The careless days when she had wielded holy power according to her whims. She remembered the person she had been—declaring everyone who displeased her a heretic and casting them out.
And so, she did what had to be done now.
"If that is what you believe... if you will keep calling your ambition God's will, Your Holiness—"
Erzena's hand moved slowly toward her necklace.
A precious necklace set with the emblem of the Holy Church, worn since her days in the convent.
The symbol of my faith, and the proof of my belief.
In twenty years, it had never once left her body. She closed her hand around it.
This necklace was no mere ornament. It was everything she had built herself into until now, and everything she would build herself into hereafter. It told the world who she was. A symbol worthy of the name Saintess—and the very embodiment of Erzena herself.
"Then I, Erzena—"
And so she gripped the necklace tighter still. And she cast all of it away.
"—will no longer remain a Saintess."
Tap.
The ornament fell limply to the floor. Without so much as a glance at the faded golden jewel, she looked up past the window above and spoke toward the sun.
"And I will begin again, from the very lowest place."
Begin again. No longer Saintess Erzena, worshipped through fanaticism and obstinacy—but Erzena the maiden, who truly loved God.
And to do that, there was one last thing she had to do.
Erzena spoke with a trembling voice.
"I hereby depose myself."
To be reborn, she let everything go.
"Sh-she's mad..."
"Blasphemy...!!!"
Outcries of shock erupted from all around. A declaration of her own deposition—how unholy, how ominous, how perverse a proclamation could it be? At an unprecedented turn of events, the courtroom broke into tumult.
Mohaim, his face gone deathly pale, could do no more than barely remain standing.
— You wretched girl!!!! Do you truly believe you can defy us?!
Unable to contain his fury any longer, the Pope slammed his fist on the desk and roared.
— Do not think anyone will take in a woman God Himself has abandoned!! You insolent girl!
But at that moment—
— Fwoooosh.
A single shaft of sunlight pierced through the window and fell precisely upon Erzena.
"Ugh...!"
"The light...!"
A beam so brilliant it made everyone wince, flooding even the darkest corner of the courtroom with brightness.
And that light had a color.
Brilliant and blazing—
"G-golden..."
"Good heavens."
Everyone knew what this meant.
God had cast His light upon Erzena. To the woman who had denied the Church, denied herself, and denied holy power itself, He had expressed His will with unmistakable clarity.
Everyone froze at the contradiction.
"This..."
Erzena was just as bewildered.
What on earth is happening?
A sudden baptism of light. Something she had never once experienced. Even when she had been chosen as Saintess, the light had never been this strong.
Unable to withstand the brilliance, she finally bowed her head and looked down at her own hands.
"!!!"
And she saw it—golden mist shimmering in her palms.
She could feel it. An energy warm as sunlight. Slowly, she turned her head.
Divine holy power filled the air all around her—in a brighter gold than ever before.
"Ah... ah..."
Erzena knew in her bones that her holy power had returned in full—no, that it had returned greater than ever.
And in that very moment—
Crack!
One of the holy relics worn on the Pope's wrist split apart.
— Th-the Bracelet of Paluva!
At the same instant, the Pope's holy power rapidly guttered out. He hurriedly spun the crystal orb away, but the crowd had already witnessed the whole scene.
Seeing it, Erzena spoke quietly.
"...This is His will."
The atmosphere shifted completely. It had become undeniably clear—who it was that held God's favor.
Erzena's golden eyes sparkled more brilliantly than they ever had.
And then—
"If this officer may speak."
Nathan rose from his seat.
Every eye in the room turned to him.
It was time to put an end to this.