Chapter 62
Chapter 62
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: Opening Their Mouths (4)
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The outskirts, away from the temple.
The holy knights stood armed, waiting in secrecy.
"Soon, when the time comes, the battle will begin."
"We have already completed all preparations."
The face of the holy knight issuing the orders was rigid.
The strange phenomenon had begun the previous day.
The divine power they had carried in their bodies their entire lives...
It was starting to diminish.
'...It's not just me.'
The holy knight receiving the orders was in a similar state.
Just yesterday, his smooth face had been free of wrinkles.
The hand of the holy knight, who had unconsciously touched his own face, stopped.
His face, too, had developed wrinkles.
'...What in the world is happening?'
There had been a meeting the night before.
All those gathered there were experiencing the same phenomenon.
Even those who had shown no abnormalities began complaining of strange symptoms as the day changed.
Without exception, their divine power was waning.
'We must finish everything before our power diminishes further.'
Would all their divine power truly vanish?
Many believed it was merely a temporary phenomenon.
But unease was palpable.
A premonition that everything might end just like this.
A voice pierced through his thoughts.
"Is it truly certain that the Pope has been abandoned by the goddess?"
"It is a fact."
The face of the holy knight who asked the question was filled with agitation.
"The current Pope has consorted with heretics on personal whims and even imprisoned your comrades for that person's sake."
"However, receiving the divine oracle should come first..."
"You fool... Do you think a Pope abandoned by the goddess can receive an oracle?"
The justification was solid.
The man he followed, Berte, was someone with exceedingly deep schemes.
He must have prepared several other contingencies besides this.
As long as it aligned with the goddess's will, the other priests had no choice but to quietly follow like these holy knights.
'Once this matter is settled...'
He could live a life envied by none.
The day he surpassed the empire's nobles was not far off.
"The time is approaching."
The sun would rise soon.
They would request the oracle accordingly, but it would not come down.
The divine power and prayers would be woefully insufficient for that.
"...I see."
A smile bloomed on the holy knight's face as he imagined the future unfolding before him.
Now that he thought about it, it was true.
Even if the divine power scattered, wealth and honor would remain in his hands, would they not?
"From a commoner to this point... It has been a long and arduous journey..."
As long as he held power, he could do without such divine power.
His comrades seemed to share the same thoughts, nodding with smiles.
They were his precious connections.
Excellent talents who would shape each other's futures ahead.
"I wish the sun would rise soon..."
"It will be a new morning, will it not? The true dawn bestowed by the goddess."
"Haha... Hm?"
Before he knew it, wrinkles had increased on his comrade's face.
The lustrous hair had lost its color, revealing grays.
He pulled at his own hair to check and found himself in the same situation.
"This white hair... Is it not a symbol of our hardships?"
From a mere commoner to his current position.
He had endured countless trials.
Seeing the grays as a mark of that made him feel rather proud.
"It's a pity we can't maintain our youth... But it will return soon enough."
Before long, worries about divine power had vanished from his mind.
Other desires had filled the void left by the departing divine power.
And at that moment.
A faint rattle sound echoed.
"...Go check what that noise is."
"Yes! Understood."
There was no need.
People approaching from afar were visible.
"Three people... No, four?"
It wasn't a great distance.
Yet his vision was blurry.
He should have been able to pierce through distances much farther with a single glance.
He flinched.
In that instant, his vision grew even blurrier.
That was not all.
The armor he wore daily felt heavy.
"...Is my body heavier...?"
"Strange... My eyes are dimming."
The people drew steadily closer.
A little more waiting, and he could finally recognize them.
"Lord Alard... And that white-haired one..."
He had received reports.
About the white-haired youth.
The key figure in this incident.
"In the end, he's siding with the heretics...!"
He had to capture that one.
The moment he tried to issue orders to the holy knights.
A cough burst forth.
"Cough...! Quick, seize that heretic..."
It was not his usual resolute voice.
All strength had drained... Like a rural bumpkin.
Even the thickness had thinned, producing an endlessly feeble sound.
"Fill it with something else, and you forget what was there before."
"You're the type who's desperate to fill it up."
He flinched.
Locking eyes with the white-haired youth, the holy knight could not move.
The armor felt unbearably heavy, and those eyes seemed to pierce through everything.
"Seize them at once."
"B... But... It's Lord Alard!"
"He consorts with heretics and has been abandoned by the goddess! He is no longer a papal candidate!"
The Pope himself would soon change.
It was only natural that the candidate's position would not remain intact.
The voice rang out again, cutting off the holy knight's words.
"Abandoned by the goddess..."
The sword at his waist grew several times heavier with the rattle.
"Who was abandoned? Me?"
"Or you lot, who have lost your divine power?"
"You... you bastard...!"
The holy knight tried to draw his sword, summoning divine power.
But not a scrap of divine power responded to his will.
Not even a portion of what remained in his body obeyed him.
"Why is this..."
"The divine power isn't moving...!"
He turned his head and saw it.
His comrades' hair, now dyed gray.
Their wrinkled faces.
Bodies shrunken, unable to fill their armor.
A comrade, now with thinned, shriveled lips, spoke toward him.
"Why do you look like that...?"
"...!"
He raised his hand; the back had lost its luster and shriveled.
Divine power clearly remained in his body, yet what was this?
The divine power that had always preserved his youth no longer affected his body.
"Lost your power, so you can't even hold the sword?"
"..."
The face visible beneath the white hair.
A tremendous presence lurked within the expressionless features, chilling to the bone.
He flinched.
"The people you ignored swung their swords even as they died?"
"...You... bastard...! Stay back!"
The youth approached leisurely, hands behind his back, drawing nearer.
"People who couldn't even lift spears threw themselves willingly? Don't you have that courage?"
"What are you all doing...! Seize him now..."
It was not that he stopped speaking.
His voice was blocked, unable to emerge.
As if his throat had given out.
Nothing came from his mouth but the sound of leaking air.
"Those who have something to protect are granted power..."
The approaching youth looked the same.
But the figure reflected in the holy knight's eyes was entirely different.
Gape -
His mouth moved, but no sound came.
The sounds in his ears were strange too.
The form he saw with his eyes was abnormal.
The white-haired youth appeared exactly like an old grandmother.
A voice reached his ears.
"Do you know what you should have protected?"
Another voice echoed once more in his mind.
And that voice sounded like the youth's words, yet at the same time like another being's.
Two voices resounded in his ears and mind.
"You don't even know why the divine power isn't responding?"
The holy knight's hand began to tremble.
His standing body shook as if seized by convulsions.
All the wrinkled holy knights were the same.
The aura of the youth, who had felt like a grandmother, changed.
It was an atmosphere felt anywhere.
Like the ground he trod upon, or the food that always filled his belly.
His trembling face produced clattering teeth.
Could there be such a warm voice?
Yet to the holy knight's ears, it was more terrifying than anything.
"Gasp...!"
Gape -
Gape -
No one moved.
More precisely, no one could move.
Until the rattle sound reached right before his nose, all the holy knight could do was tremble.
The white hair drew near before his eyes.
When he met the pupils beneath it.
The holy knight saw.
The form of a grandmother, as if scolding him.
Before he knew it, the youth had taken the appearance of a grandmother glaring at him.
"Gasp... Wro... Wrong..."
The holy knight collapsed to the ground, propping himself with his hands and crawling backward.
His shrunken body couldn't even manage that.
His strength was far too weak to push away the heavy armor.
"Hel... Help..."
Fallen to the ground, turning his head, all he saw were comrades in the same state.
His neck, unable to lift his head, did not show the standing people.
He could only hear murmurs.
"It's Lady Iliya's voice...!"
"The oracle has begun...!"
"E... Everyone, we must follow Lord Alard!"
"The goddess has not abandoned His Holiness! We were the deceived ones!"
Footsteps quietly passed by his side.
Armor clanked following behind.
Gape -
Gape -
Footsteps echoed for a while.
Those remaining were all collapsed on the ground.
Painful groans and sobs leaked out.
But no one listened.
Mouths moved, but no words emerged.
As if sealed shut.