Saintess (3): The Saintess and the Fallen Saint

The Proclamation of Heaven was a success—to call it a mere success would be an understatement; the results were monumental.

"How can there be such a warm and familiar light?"

"It is the grace of the Saintess... truly, her grace...."

"Saintess! Saintess!"

From the commoners to the nobles, who whispered, "She is a person who leaves nothing to be desired for the Crown Prince to appoint her,"

"Indeed, she truly seems like the very embodiment of a Saintess,"

and "I quite like the nuance of her being the Empire's Saintess, rather than just a saint."

The atmosphere was overwhelmingly positive, and the scene itself was orderly, devoid of any chaos. Though everyone was in a state of fervor, they remained calm, without a hint of excessive agitation. The reason this was possible was, naturally, Rowena’s divinity. Her desire for the well-being of the people had minimized the possibility of anything untoward occurring.

"Saintess! Saintess!"

"Wow... she is truly beautiful."

"Romper? Perhaps I should try believing, too. Since the Saintess and the Little Sun believe in it...."

That sense of peace naturally led to admiration. People began to feel a desire to have a religion of their own, to offer prayers—not to the old Romper Church, but to the Romper Church newly reborn within the Empire. The people's aspirations gathered under the faith that existed beneath the sun.

Whoosh.

Rowena realized that the people's aspirations were flowing toward her. The speed at which her divinity was filling her was on a different level compared to when she was in the Holy Kingdom. It was a sense of exaltation she had never felt, even in the place called the Holy Land.

"...."

The Saintess looked down at the people from the stairs, then slowly knelt, completing a posture of prayer. A prayer toward the sun. For the Crown Prince, who had disappeared while taking the Saint and the Saintess-to-be with him.

'May no adversity dare to harm him.'

He must be doing the dirty work in the shadows, unseen. Seeing the figures from the Holy Kingdom disappear simultaneously, she could roughly guess the situation. It was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a prayer from the Saintess toward the Crown Prince. Rowena hoped this prayer would reach him, and in reality, it reached the Crown Prince perfectly.

"Thank you, Rowena."

'I only read the novel up to about chapter 50, so I thought gods were just blindly powerful.'

The gods one generally imagines and the gods of 'Jupabae' seemed to have very different temperaments. But then again, in fantasy novels, gods appeared in various forms depending on the setting. 'Some gods are truly like Deus ex Machina, while others feel more like transcendent beings.' If one had to choose, the gods of 'Jupabae' seemed to be the latter. Of course, I didn't know if the former type existed, but what was certain was that Romper was the latter.

Fwoosh.

Sol Bellos. The power of the great prophet who was said to have swallowed one of the two suns in the past. As divinity imbued that power, I could finally inflict meaningful damage on the Saint.

Slash!

One of the Saint's arms was severed as lightly and pointlessly as if it were nothing. "Ugh!" Even though I hadn't needed to target Mirne anymore and had openly aimed for the Saint, Valerian, who hadn't even reacted properly, clutched his missing arm. He didn't even think to hide behind the large shield he had pulled out—I didn't even know when he’d summoned it—and instead reacted instantly to a pain he was feeling for the first time in his life.

"Raised like a flower in a greenhouse, were you?"

The sun outside the greenhouse would be very different from what he had imagined. 'I'll end this in one strike.' Because he lacked the regenerative ability he’d had before, Valerian couldn't move proactively. He subconsciously kept trying to pull his body back, which only resulted in him suffering even greater wounds.

'He's giving me distance to make it easier to swing.'

Expressing my gratitude to Valerian for adjusting to the reach of my greatsword, I immediately wrapped the power of Sol Bellos around the blade.

"Y-you're going to kill me! A war will break out! A war, I say!"

"Did you think you could live after baring your fangs at the Crown Prince in the Empire?"

"I am a Saint! A Saint of the Holy Kingdom! How dare you treat me like this!"

I didn't bother answering further. 'Summary execution.' The justification was sufficient. The system messages didn't react particularly, either. No, actually, it didn't matter if they did. I just had to kill him before he could reveal his true power, like the Grand Duke of the North.

'Sol Bellos has become easier to handle than before.'

Like a sword just before being forged, the blade didn't just catch fire; its very color changed. It looked as if lava had become the sword itself. A power that seemed capable of erasing everything imbued the blade.

-Only this sword... can fully withstand my power.

The moment I colored the blade, the Crown Prince's memories surfaced again. -But even so, what meaning does it have? Isn't it a meaningless power? A somewhat self-deprecating tone. This time, he wasn't talking to anyone. He was lamenting the situation to himself. 'Looking at how different he looks from me now, is this the past?' I muttered to myself and focused on the current situation.

Within the memories suddenly pouring in, "One Flash," the name of the technique the Crown Prince had used, escaped my lips subconsciously. Following this, the blood-red sword blazed white, and at the same time, I immediately realized what I had to do.

From top to bottom. The sword, raised high toward the sun, fell toward the ground. The target was the god who had descended into a human body. And at the same time, the Saint who had bared his fangs.

There wasn't even a sound of cutting. My sword swallowed all surrounding ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠noise. A hellish silence. In a space where no sound could be heard, the uncontrolled flames devoured everything around me like a madman.

Whoaaaaa!

My vision had long since been washed away in pure white. The Saint had hurriedly hidden his body behind his large shield to prepare for the horrific tragedy about to unfold, but even as he hid behind the shield to block the front, he was already effectively inside the flames.

Ssssss.

Half of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the shield turned to smoke and vanished, and as much of the shield as had disappeared, so too did the Saint's body. There was no more regeneration. The divinity imbued in Sol Bellos was a divinity that denied gods. It was divinity, yet it denied divinity. The divinity of the Saintess, who had acknowledged that even gods were beneath the sun, was nothing short of deadly poison to a god. It was divinity that had emerged only from humans, for humans, and built up by humans.

"Kuaaaaaaaagh!"

Even though half his body was gone, the Saint was still moving. Normally, it wouldn't have been strange for his life to have ended instantly. No, to be precise, the Saint's life had long since ended.

The one screaming right now wasn't Valerian, but Romper. However, that Romper, too, was now meeting its end. The divinity imbued in Sol Bellos.

It was the moment a human killed a god. 'Is it over?' The Saint was dead. Romper had vanished. Since the message mentioned it, there were no variables. Ssssss. As soon as the situation ended, the sword regained its original color. It returned to normal without me even retrieving Sol Bellos. Did the sword store power on its own? 'I'll have to look into this later, too.' I muttered to myself.

"I was clearly within the damage range of One Flash... I'm surprised you're still alive, having not even run away."

I looked at Mirne, who was just standing there, unable to do anything. I hadn't aimed for her, but the damage range of One Flash itself was enough to wipe out everything in the vicinity. It should have been a power that erased everything without leaving even ashes. Yet, despite being within that range, Mirne was perfectly fine. As if she were using a solo invincibility cheat.

"Since the Saint committed a crime within the Empire, the Pope who came with him will not be able to avoid the consequences."

Mirne still said nothing. She was just staring at me blankly, as if she were in shock. 'Looking at how she didn't take any action after I told her to stop, were there no such cases in the original work?' Come to think of it, I couldn't understand why Mirne was here in the first place. I had brought her along because she came with the Saint, but...

"It's fortunate that this happened before you were recognized as a Saintess; if you had been officially recognized, you would have had to answer for this, too."

"...As a Saintess-to-be, I would have found it difficult to escape responsibility."

"Have you finally decided you want to speak?"

"I apologize. Your Highness, the situation was so urgent... I dared not follow properly."

"For someone who says that, you tried to pressure me on purpose when I told you to stop."

"That is... because it was the divinity of the Romper Church, it seems it tried to stop according to the will of the god Romper, contrary to my own will."

Why on earth did she come here? 'Because there was content like this in the original? Or did the transmigrator-exclusive perk tell her something?' As various thoughts crossed my mind, "Don't think you can get away with just that excuse." I grabbed Mirne by the hair and slammed her head into the ground.

Thud!

"Eek!"

If I didn't intend to kill, I could still inflict damage. It was nonsense to say I couldn't even inflict damage. 'I only thought about it, but it really works.' As soon as Mirne writhed in pain with her head buried in the floor, rumble, rumble, rumble. The spirits beside Mirne tried to move immediately as if they had been waiting, but—

"No! Don't! Nobody do it! Absolutely not! I was the one who did wrong!"

Mirne desperately blocked them. This was a shame. 'I was going to farm more spirits, too.' Since the spirits around Mirne weren't under contract, I could have caught and taken them the moment they revealed themselves. But for that to be blocked... I smacked my lips inwardly.

"How did the Crown Princess of the Maserin Kingdom come to an Imperial event? If you had come in the guise of a Saintess or a Saintess-to-be, that would be one thing, but is there a reason to sneak in hiding your identity like this?"

I immediately pressured Mirne. "If you don't speak clearly, I will ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠use this as a pretext to destroy the Maserin Kingdom."

Currently, the probability of destruction was 60%.

It was 50% now. 'May perish? It talks like a weather forecast.' Is it like, it might rain, or it might not? While I was having miscellaneous thoughts, I waited for Mirne's answer.

"T-that is." Mirne said, "I heard rumors that black mages were active in the Empire... so I was investigating secretly...!"

She brought up something I hadn't expected. 'Black mages?' There were things like that in the Empire? I hadn't heard of such things even in the recently improved security reports. 'But if Mirne says there are, then there are.' Because she was a transmigrator protagonist who had read the original work and possessed a body in the novel. So, in other words, Mirne's words meant—

'...Does this mean black mages are scheduled to appear in the Empire in the future?'

It meant the Empire would fall into chaos in the not-too-distant future. But since I knew in advance, it was fine now. I just had to wait for them to start their activities and then find and kill them. 'Where she heard the rumors, why she tried to investigate secretly... I'll have to bring her to the Imperial Palace and ask about these parts.' I wanted to dig deeper, but it was inefficient to keep asking in a place like this, especially since I had disappeared in the middle of the Proclamation of Heaven.

I decided to move locations first. "I will hear the details at the Imperial Palace."

"Y-yes...!" Mirne also said she would follow, so just as I was about to move to the Imperial Palace—

"...Valerian!"

The Pope appeared long after all the situations had ended. I had moved quite a distance away, so how did he find me right away? 'Did he guess where the divinity had disappeared?' While I was speculating, "Valerian! Valeriaaaaaaaan!!!" The Pope passed me by and hugged Valerian, who had only half his body left.

"...Guh."

The Pope seemed to understand the situation immediately, and while hugging the Saint's body tightly, he slowly bowed his head. The shield that was only half left. And the surroundings, where traces of battle were clearly felt.

"...Are you going to erase the Holy Kingdom?"

The Pope omitted all preambles and got straight to the point. I easily summarized for the Pope what would happen to him in the future.

"What sin have the innocent people who know nothing committed?"

"The Holy Kingdom will now be under the management of the Empire."

Since the Holy Kingdom had tried to swallow the southern part of the Empire, the Empire would swallow the Holy Kingdom in return. It was a very simple principle.