Chapter 35
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Reverse Scale (2)
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"This pilgrimage is a falsehood."
A calm voice echoed through the courtroom.
Erzena looked at the people staring at her and continued.
"We are a crusade army marching to the northern continent to finish the holy war we failed to complete fifteen years ago."
The truth was finally revealed.
"All the evidence presented by the defense is true. The Church has been preparing for a long time to eradicate the Evil God Cult."
She pointed to the hundreds of documents scattered across the floor.
"Weapons, knight orders, and even I—we set out from the beginning with the goal of a crusade."
"But what about the civilians in the pilgrimage group...?"
"It's a disguise. We planned to disband them anyway once we reached the north."
Erzena revealed everything she knew without holding back.
She repeated it once more, as if imprinting it on their minds.
"We are not a pilgrimage group. We are an army intent on war."
A bombshell declaration brought a heavy silence down upon them.
War.
It was the one thing the Crossroad Kingdom despised with pathological intensity.
It was even written in the first clause of the treaty they had signed upon declaring neutrality.
[Passage across borders for the purpose of war or military action is absolutely prohibited.]
And now, the Holy Church—the largest religious organization on the continent—was trying to do just that.
"..."
"..."
No one opened their mouths.
But a single thought floated in everyone's minds.
'The Holy Church's Saintess has betrayed the Church.'
Everything Erzena had said directly contradicted the Pope's words.
In other words, she was defying the current Pope.
Mohaim's hands trembled at the unimaginable event unfolding before his eyes.
His face—the face that should have belonged to the most composed and level-headed soldier—was filled with shock, confusion, and doubt.
"Saintess... why?"
The judge, barely regaining his composure, managed to speak.
"D-Do you guarantee... that there is not a shred of falsehood in those words? Not even one?"
"Yes."
Erzena placed her hand over her heart as she answered.
"I swear it upon the Lord God."
The apostle of God had sworn upon God Himself.
That meant everything she said was truly the truth.
Conversely, it also meant every word from the Pope's side had been perjury.
The queen, realizing the situation, threw down her fan and shouted.
"Saintess!!! Do you have any idea what you're—"
But an even angrier, yet composed voice flowed from the crystal orb.
- Erzena.
The Pope glared at her from beyond the crystal orb.
- What is the meaning of this?
The kindly old man was gone.
There was only the face of a heretic inquisitor who had driven countless people to purge.
- Are you saying that I and the Church are lying?
A threat: retract your statement, or this is your last chance.
Instead of answering, Erzena looked briefly at the Pope and the people beyond him.
Dozens of gazes poured upon her.
It was nothing compared to performing on stage before a crowd.
But the weight was on another level entirely.
Hostile stares from those in power.
The plaintiffs, led by the Pope who had been favorable just moments ago, now glared at her.
A crushing pressure bore down on her chest, accompanied by anxiety over what would happen next.
It felt like walking a blade's edge, tightening her breath.
In that instant, Erzena realized who had endured this suffocating situation before.
'This... is what the Central Officer must have felt.'
It was exactly what Nathan Kell had felt just before denying entry.
Now she understood how much conflict and anguish he had gone through.
There had been an easy path.
Just one glance away, and there would have been no problem.
But he hadn't taken it.
Instead, he had faced the Pope head-on and declared to everyone.
[We will deny entry to the crusade army.]
Even knowing full well what consequences it would bring.
'It's so terrifying... how did you overcome this?'
It was too frightening; she wanted to run.
Even she, with her exalted status as Saintess, found these gazes overwhelming.
Yet he had endured to the end and come this far.
Even with his life on the line, without a shred of power.
Why?
[There are no exceptions. Not even for an apostle of God.]
Because he hadn't compromised.
Regardless of God's will or who the opponent was, the Central Officer had upheld what he believed was right to the very end.
Unlike her, who had blindly fallen into fanaticism and seen the world in black and white.
She took a moment to steady her breath.
'I want to be like you.'
Where did such courage come from?
She trembled.
Just standing against them felt like she might collapse.
Defying the one closest to God was utterly terrifying.
But she couldn't stop now.
Erzena lifted her head again.
She took one step forward.
Like the Central Officer.
"I no longer wish to impose our faith on the world under the pretext of some grand undertaking."
- ...This is God's will, Erzena. You would defy it?
"How can you claim with certainty that this is what He desires?"
One more step.
- This is God's will! I am God's will! This pilgrimage is a grand undertaking that must be fulfilled for the Church!
"It may be Your Holiness's will! Even my predecessor as Saintess, Tessa Linogritsa, must have believed the same! That the crusade is what He desires!"
Her voice grew heated.
"The Lord God Himself warned us twice. Who ignored that and became consumed by ambition? Who ignored those in need and poured every effort into war?!"
Something she could never have even dreamed of in her lifetime.
Challenging the Pope's authority.
"This is not a grand undertaking—it's a sin! The crusade army must stop."
Then she turned her head and looked at Nathan.
"Innocent people must not die."
She laid bare her most honest feelings in a quiet voice.
A brief silence settled over the courtroom.
The judge glanced at the Pope and said,
"Pl-Plaintiff... do you have any rebuttal to this?"
- Of course I do.
The Pope slipped his hand into his sleeve for a moment.
Then, dazzling holy power burst forth from beyond the crystal orb.
- Behold this holy power. It is a gift bestowed only upon those the Lord God loves.
An aura nearly rivaling Erzena's golden haze.
- More precisely, it is a blessing for those chosen by God and aligned with His will.
The queen hurriedly clasped her hands and closed her eyes at the sight.
- But look now. The Saintess has no holy power. What does that mean?
He, who had just justified himself with her holy power, now turned it into her weakness to attack.
- She has already been abandoned. God has forsaken that woman.
"..."
The most irrefutable proof.
- Do you think God would support everything Erzena Selaph has said?
This was one thing no one could refute about the Pope's words.
The Church judged a person's faith by their holy power.
How devoted and hardworking they were toward God, how deep their faith ran—it was ultimately determined by the power He granted.
And right now, Erzena had no holy power.
In other words, her words held no credibility.
- Do you know why He took your holy power?
The Pope spat the words.
- It's all because of your failings. Because you were lacking, because you didn't believe more deeply, because you weren't more devoted!
He blamed and resented her.
Turning all the fault onto her.
- Who would listen to the words of a Saintess forsaken by God?
A dagger to the heart.
At those words, Erzena shouted back.
"I don't need holy power!"
Words that surprised even herself.
But at the same time, she immediately understood why she had said them.
From the moment her holy power vanished, Erzena had truly been powerless.
The feeling of losing everything she'd enjoyed her whole life was utterly terrifying.
But she realized something.
A truth she only learned after becoming a powerless piglet.
'There are people in this world who live by faith without holy power.'
People who strove to uphold what was right even without belief.
She thought of them.
The people on the defense side, where she now stood.
And she realized they didn't wear those expressions.
Not faces of anger, but ones filled with resolve.
Eyes brimming with the unyielding determination that they wouldn't back down, no matter how scared or afraid they were.
"If we become so obsessed with holy power that we abandon the true path the Church should take, is that truly what the Lord God desires?"
Buoyed by their gazes, she spoke.
"Was ours a religion that branded nonbelievers as heretics and killed them while shouting about God's will?"
She muttered as if rebuking herself.
Those last words applied to her as well.
She wouldn't forget her mistakes.
She remembered the days lost to fanaticism.
Days of childishly wielding holy power on whims, declaring anyone who displeased her a heretic and casting them out.
That was why she now did what she must.
"If that's the case... if Your Holiness continues to claim your ambitions are God's will."
Erzena's hand slowly moved to her necklace.
The cherished necklace engraved with the Holy Church's emblem, which she had worn since her convent days.
'The symbol of my faith and proof of my belief.'
Something that had never left her body in twenty years.
She grasped it.
This necklace was no mere ornament.
It was everything she had accomplished until now.
And everything she would achieve in the future.
It defined who she was.
A symbol befitting the name of Saintess, and Erzena herself.
"I, Erzena."
She gripped it even tighter.
And with it, all of this.
"will no longer remain a Saintess."
She cast it away.
-Thud.
The ornament fell limply to the floor.
Without sparing a glance at the faded golden gem, she looked toward the sun beyond the window above and said,
"And I will start anew from the very bottom."
Let us start over.
Not as the Saintess Erzena worshipped for her fanaticism and stubbornness,
but as the maiden Erzena who truly loved God.
To do that, there was one last thing she had to do.
In a trembling voice, Erzena said,
"I hereby excommunicate myself."
To be reborn, she cast everything aside.
"Sh-She's insane..."
"Blasphemy...!!!"
Shocked exclamations erupted here and there.
A self-declaration of excommunication.
How irreverent, ominous, and profane was this declaration?
The courtroom buzzed at the unprecedented event.
Mohaim could barely stand, his face drained of color.
- You wench!!!! You think you can defy us?!
The Pope, unable to contain his rage, slammed the desk and roared.
- Don't think anyone will take in a woman forsaken by God!! You arrogant fool!!!
But in that moment,
-Whoosh.
A ray of sunlight pierced through the window, shining precisely on Erzena.
"Ugh...!"
"L-Light...!"
So brilliant it made everyone grimace.
Even the darkest corners of the courtroom were illuminated.
And that beam of light had a color.
A radiant, intense hue.
"G-Golden..."
"My God."
Everyone knew what it meant.
God had shone His light upon Erzena.
He had expressed His clear will toward the woman who had denied the Church, himself, and holy power.
Everyone froze at the contradictory situation.
"This is..."
Erzena was just as bewildered.
'What in the world is happening?'
A sudden baptism of light.
Something she'd never experienced before.
Even when chosen as Saintess, the light hadn't been this intense.
Unable to withstand the glare, she lowered her head and looked at her hands.
"!!!"
And she saw it.
The golden haze rippling in her palms.
She felt it.
A warm energy like sunlight.
She slowly turned her head.
Holy power filled the space around her.
Brighter gold than before.
"Ahh..."
Erzena intuitively knew her holy power had returned—not just fully, but greater than ever.
And at that moment,
-Crack!
A crack appeared in one of the sacred relics on the Pope's wrist.
- Th-The Bracelet of Paluva!
His holy power rapidly dwindled.
He hastily turned the crystal orb away, but the people had already witnessed it all.
Seeing that, Erzena quietly said,
"...This is His will."
The atmosphere shifted completely.
It was all too clear now.
Who truly had God's support.
Erzena's golden eyes sparkled with an unprecedented brilliance.
And then,
"May I speak?"
Nathan rose from his seat.
All eyes turned to him.
It was time to bring it to a close.