William's Rebellion (2)
There was something perfect for scum like these.
Ignorant as dirt and strutting around on nothing but William's say-so. A few well-aimed personal attacks would be enough to make their blood boil.
So then—how best to go after them?
Hmm. Looking them over, every single one of them had a face that looked like it had given up halfway through forming.
"Those half-baked mugs of yours and you think you can threaten me? Know your place. Looking at those faces I can't even tell who you take after, but your parents must've been pretty damn ugly themselves, huh?"
"What did you just say?"
"What? You thought a Saint wouldn't talk like this? I hate ugly things more than anything else in the world. They dirty my eyes. Even a handsome bastard gets on my nerves when he eyes me like that. The mere presence of unfinished, disgusting orc rejects like you around me makes me sick. Do you honestly think faces like yours give you the right to speak to me? Hmm? If it didn't hurt, I'd want to pluck out my own eyeballs, scrub them clean, and put them back in just from looking at you."
I poured the insults out without a single gap, like an elf girl spitting spirit arrows on the wind.
Sure enough, every one of them had bloodshot eyes and faces flushed deep red.
Looks like they're angry.
Too bad I had no intention of going easy.
"This won't do."
"You're famous in the Empire, it seems. Probably just riding the Ashtar family's coattails. Well then—let us carve the fear of the Holy Knights straight into that body of yours."
The holy knights surrounded me.
No gaps, thorough as could be.
Good. This was getting fun.
I was glad I was Olivia. My rank, my house, my status, my sex—everything about me was tailor-made for this kind of work.
"Just so we're clear, you drew steel first."
"You Empire bitch! We went easy on you!"
Crack!
The self-proclaimed holy knight swung his sword; I caught it and smashed my fist straight into the bridge of his nose.
Wow. So these days the Holy Kingdom's holy knights can't even block something that basic?
No—wait. He was one of William's men, wasn't he? Then there was no need to count him as a real holy knight at all.
"I don't know what you think you're doing strutting around because of that blockhead, but I'm a mage!"
Bang. Bang-bang-bang.
Mana bullets punched clean through their armor.
The half-witted knights with holes in their plate collapsed right where they stood.
I didn't stop there.
—What was that noise upstairs?
—Is the Saint running wild?
—Let's go catch her!
Catch who? Who the hell did they think they were going after? Had William gotten so greedy for the papal seat that he'd hired street thugs like these?
Even if the Holy Kingdom was a rigid, closed-off bunch, you couldn't take the holy knights lightly.
The ones who'd joined Ashtar's expeditionary force had been proper elites. Even the priests who'd come along hadn't been pushovers.
Maybe the ones under William were just hired muscle from outside.
"Sure. I guess the papal seat can be pretty tempting."
It was an absolute position, after all.
Unlike other countries there was no bloody power struggle for it, no nation on the continent could treat the Holy Kingdom casually, and it was the one place no one could pull shady tricks on. On top of that, goods from every land flowed in naturally, making it a wealthy nation to boot.
Even so—had he really coveted his own grandmother's seat that badly?
"Guh. Seize the Saint!"
Everything else was fine.
I'd always thought so—aside from the Lily incident, becoming this body had brought nothing but advantages.
Far more comfortable than Noah's life. But still.
Apparently my looks made me look like an easy mark.
"Olivia-me seems to get looked down on quite a bit."
Well, of course.
Especially by trash like these—they'd dismiss me even more.
So I had zero intention of showing mercy.
Unlike when I was Noah and had to weigh every little thing as a Hero Party member, I wasn't giving any quarter this time.
"Kehehe. Saintess, it'd be better if you stayed quiet, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah. Preferably."
Bang!
"Gyaaaaaah! Gyaaaaaaaaah!"
"Wh-what? What's wrong with him?"
I put a mana bullet clean through the crotch of the so-called knight charging me.
Self-defense, pure and simple. I was the Imperial Saint, ambushed by Holy Kingdom holy knights—rebel ones at that.
And if my guess was right, the Mage Division would be moving by now. That woman who was the Pope would value the Goddess Church more than her own backstabbing grandson and would have already fled.
Which meant she'd naturally end up with the Mage Division.
If she went all the way to the Empire after that, the Imperial Goddess Church would plant roots on its own.
I still needed to think that part through a little more.
But since I'd already come this far, wasn't I allowed to take at least that much as a souvenir?
Thanks to William, this actually worked out nicely.
Back when I was Noah I should have beaten him senseless and driven him out—or better yet, corrected his mind. Since that hadn't happened, this wasn't a bad second option.
"Damn it. You fucking bitch!"
"See? You shouldn't have run your mouth."
The sight of him collapsing in a pool of blood was rather satisfying.
"I won't let this slide!"
"Won't let it slide? You lot?"
Thud!
One kick sent him rolling down the corridor. Really?
They were far too weak for holy knights.
With trash like this, what the hell had William been counting on when he started a rebellion?
He'd actually planned to revolt with these guys?
"Ah, you people are ridiculous. What in the world made you think this was a good idea?"
"Grrk..."
"You must have had some kind of backing to rise up, and it looks like you're even fighting the cardinal who commands the holy knights. How, exactly?"
They'd already secured the area around here. Something about it felt off no matter how you looked at it.
These guys beating real holy knights? Impossible. William wasn't completely brainless; he had to know this alone wasn't enough to swallow the Holy Kingdom.
There had to be something else.
"Damn it, no choice. We just won't tell Sir William. The Saint isn't some ordinary bitch—we have to kill her!"
Now they were talking about killing me.
Hmm. Good. So there really was something. Figures.
"Got some kind of drug? The kind that makes mana run wild?"
"Saint. You brought this all on yourself."
Their bodies suddenly darkened.
I'd thought they were just heavily armored. So that was why.
Their muscles swelled dramatically as well.
Main transformation?
Using demonic energy, then.
A drug that forced a person's mana to go berserk.
Normally something like that put a huge strain on the body, yet they were using it so casually. Maybe that was why they'd wanted to keep it secret.
Either way, it didn't matter.
I could already smell the filthy stench of the Four Heavenly Kings.
"Die!"
"You got your ass kicked by the Saint and now you need drugs just to win?"
I casually caught the punch he threw with everything he had.
Looked fragile, did I? Hmm?
What a pity. Had I really looked that weak?
"What the—how did you catch that—"
"Wow. All that fancy talk and then you get wrecked by a punch, that must suck. What happens if you lose even with the drug?"
Empty heads, so a few words goad them into swinging. They lose the fistfight and pop a pill. Now even that fails—hilarious.
Time to end this.
From the outside it would look like the holy knights had ambushed an inn.
Anyone could see I was the one who got jumped first.
Crunch.
I burst the arm of the holy knight right in front of me.
"I don't know what you people are imagining, but this is my specialty."
"Wh-what... what did you just do..."
What did I do? I just casually twisted it until it went crunch.
"I told you. I'm the specialist here."
Crrrack. Crrrunch.
The bodies of the drug-amped holy knights began to twist and warp, then—pop!—they burst.
Not particularly grotesque.
They'd been sucking down demonic energy; the drug hadn't fully settled into their bodies yet. Detonate the mana and all you get is liquid demonic energy spraying everywhere.
"So? What exactly did trash like you think you could do to me?"
"Ghk? What is this... this power? A d-demon? No—what the hell is this?!"
Oh. Looking pretty shaken.
Of course. A Saint couldn't possibly be like this.
Honestly, wasn't this just an amateur trying to show off in front of a pro?
"You dare strut around without even knowing who I am? You did something worth dying for, so die."
If you did something worth dying for, human or demon, you die.
"H-how can a Saint... th-this is impossible..."
Yes. Be surprised. They never dreamed I could be worse than them.
Too bad. Should've known when to quit. Tsk tsk.
"You saw it, so now you have to die even more."
Crunch! Crack!
Yes—when killing enemies, the best way is to plant fear and terror first.
Better than just crushing them with raw power is making them understand, right before the end, exactly whose strength they'd dared to show off in front of.
And once I'd finished them all, I got curious about outside.
"There's probably some fighting going on out there too."
I glanced out the window. Our nuns had the holy knights completely subdued.
Right. Real holy knights were one thing. The fact that these ones were getting pinned by nuns meant they weren't the genuine article.
Caught them before they could even use the Main transformation.
By now even the Holy Kingdom people would have realized William was behind this.
"Lady Olivia!"
Celia arrived right on cue.
Had she settled the matter with Kise?
"How did it go?"
"Kise and the Mage Division have gone to escort the Pope. What are you going to do?"
Meaning, what was I going to do about the Holy Kingdom.
"Hmm."
"Interfering too deeply in Holy Kingdom affairs could be dangerous, couldn't it?"
"Yeah. It's dangerous. You're right about that."
Interfering in another country's internal affairs was exactly that—interference.
I didn't particularly care.
"This is an emergency, but we are here as representatives of the Empire. If a fight breaks out with William, the capital will find out."
True. If we failed to thoroughly suppress William, it would get dangerous.
But there was another way to look at it.
Temporarily evacuating the Pope to the Empire and then eliminating William was a good option. And once Holy Kingdom affairs were involved, the Kingdom would have no choice but to step in as well.
One of the Pope's unique authorities was the right to summon the Kingdom's armies.
If the Empire—the Kingdom's ally—was also entangled, William would have a real headache on his hands.
That was why even the Pope hadn't seen this coming.
She never imagined William would actually go this far.
For William to seize the initiative he needed the Pope first, but the Mage Division was there, and so was the cardinal who was the Pope's loyal hound.
"First of all, I'm the young lady of House Ashtar."
"Yes."
"And I'm the Taesa."
"That's right."
"And that person just got ambushed by holy knights under William's command."
"Then you mean—"
The justification was already complete.
Everything was ready to tear into the Holy Kingdom—or more precisely, to crush William and catch whoever was behind him.
"Haven't we already finished stacking up the casus belli? Whether we take the Pope back to the Empire or smash William flat, it's already over."
"You're truly incredible when it comes to diplomacy and politics. But Lady Olivia, you hate this kind of thing because it's a bother, don't you? You're the type who only cares about the Four Heavenly Kings problem."
Exactly. That was why I hadn't even protested when the Emperor told me not to interfere in the war.
They said they'd handle it themselves. And if I really wanted the authority to step in, I'd have to announce that I used to be Noah—everything.
So all I needed to do was deal with the Four Heavenly Kings, the enemies of mankind.
In other words, this whole affair was connected to the Four Heavenly Kings.