Chapter 150
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 150
At Hena’s request, Saraka decided to spare them. She couldn't bring the dead back to life, and taking a living one was a simple matter she could attend to at any time. For now, she would grant them a temporary reprieve.
The knights stood with swords drawn, waiting with bated breath for Saraka to speak. While she found it blasphemous for Gabriel to worship Evangeline instead of the Sun Goddess, she had no doubt that her own priests would follow her every word. After all, she was the merciful and majestic Bishop Marik—beloved by the Goddess herself.
Saraka began to speak in a quiet tone. With everyone holding their breath in anticipation, her soft voice easily commanded the room.
"To serve not the Sun, but one who has turned her back on the Sun, is a sin so grave that even death cannot expiate it. However… in accordance with the will of our merciful Goddess, I shall grant you a single chance. Make no mistake, there will not be a second."
Saraka raised her voice.
"On the other hand, I must offer my highest praise to those who have come to their senses, like Lady Hena, who broke free from Lady Rohanson's brainwashing. Lady Hena, thank you for finding the courage to speak the truth."
Saraka clasped her hands together as if in prayer.
"The Sun Goddess will surely cherish your righteous path, Lady Hena."
At her words, the swords aimed at Hena were finally sheathed.
Hena beamed at Saraka's empty flattery, deluded into thinking her betrayal would somehow serve a greater purpose. Saraka found it utterly hilarious that Hena was so blind she couldn't even recognize her own sister, choosing instead to antagonize Evangeline.
This was a play—a performance orchestrated by Saraka in her role as Bishop Marik.
The onlookers were stunned. To see one of Evangeline Rohanson's closest confidantes not only escape punishment but even receive praise for her "courageous testimony" was a clear signal. Exchanging uneasy glances, they quickly realized which way the wind was blowing and began scrambling to denounce Evangeline.
"Bishop, please hear me out as well! I—I have something to say about Lady Rohanson!"
"L-Lady Rohanson is a demon!"
"Yes, she's a monster!"
"The Rohanson Mansion is a den of demons! It deserves to burn to the ground!"
Seeing the tiny loophole Saraka had opened, they instinctively clawed their way toward survival.
The old butler, who had just been rescued from the inferno by Gabriel's men, pinched the bridge of his nose as he watched the disaster unfold. The silence they had maintained—bought by fear of Evangeline and the allure of money—crumbled instantly when weighed against their own lives and the authority of the Goddess's name.
It made the past complaints of outsiders, who lamented that the Rohanson servants were impossibly tight-lipped, seem like a farce. Dame Musetta, who had once tried and failed to bribe these very servants, watched in awe of Saraka's manipulative skill.
The servants whispered frantically, eager to spill every secret they had once kept buried deep in their hearts.
They were terrified that the knights might hurl them back into the raging flames or run them through with swords at any moment. Though their consciences pricked at the thought of selling out Evangeline, what little guilt they felt vanished when they remembered who had set fire to the mansion in the first place.
"Th-this one is definitely a demon too!"
They went so far as to brand Jelly, the very person who had just rescued them, as a monster.
"L-look at his wounds! If he were human, he would have died a long time ago!"
It was a stunning display of ingratitude, completely ignoring the fact that those wounds had been sustained while saving their lives. Jelly's expression soured, and he looked as though he wanted nothing more than to hurl the ungrateful wretches back into the fire.
Saraka relished the flood of information about Evangeline—information she had spent so long searching for. Though she had already heard most of it from Hena, she couldn't help but feel a thrill of satisfaction. This moment was proof that her choices had been entirely correct.
"That thing is a resurrected demon. Lady Rohanson is already dead. A monster awoke at her funeral."
Sure enough, several others who had attended Evangeline's funeral stepped forward to corroborate the story.
"Daisy, you were at the funeral too, weren't you? That's why you ran away!"
"But… but the young lady helped us afterward—"
"Nonsense! You're the one who said Lady Rohanson was terrifying before!"
Daisy tried to protest, but her terrified younger siblings clung to her, whimpering. The sight of the knights' gleaming, unsheathed blades paralyzed her. Yulma, whom Jelly had pulled from the flames and handed over to her, huddled in her arms. Daisy desperately wanted to defend Jelly and Evangeline, but she knew that speaking up now would cost her her head.
Gabriel watched the grim spectacle with a heavy heart. Saraka turned her gaze to him.
"What does the Knight Commander think?"
At her words, every eye in the crowd shifted in unison. Their collective gaze felt like a row of sharpened bamboo spears piercing straight through him.
"Don't you find the devotion of these good people of the Rohanson Mansion admirable, Sir Gabriel?"
Saraka was deliberately baiting him. There was no way he could feel anything but disgust as they slandered Evangeline, the object of his devotion.
"I know very well that you always strive to minimize casualties, Sir. That is why you rushed here today, is it not?"
She was right. Gabriel had rushed after her partly because of Evangeline, but also because he feared Saraka would unleash another bloodbath. Saraka knew this, having learned of Gabriel's character from Bishop Zabaniya. Personal feelings aside, Gabriel had been an upright, honorable knight before Evangeline entered the picture.
"The Knight Commander has always sacrificed only the single most guilty party to spare the rest. Surely you will do the same today?"
"Lady Rohanson is not a sinner."
Gabriel glared fiercely at Saraka, catching her underlying threat. To him, Evangeline was infinitely more noble than Bishop Marik, who slaughtered innocents without a shred of remorse. Evangeline Rohanson, who had answered his prayers with salvation, was far more innocent than this so-called servant of the Goddess who used human lives as leverage. Even if Evangeline remained indifferent to her followers, she was still the lesser evil.
"Do you doubt the testimony of these servants? Are you suggesting that I, Bishop Marik, coerced them into giving false witness?"
Even though Saraka had already decided to spare the servants, tormenting Gabriel was a petty way to vent her frustration.
"If you refuse to offer up Lady Rohanson, then I will have no choice but to execute every last one of them."
Gabriel's heart belonged to Evangeline. He trusted her. But what if his choice resulted in the slaughter of dozens of innocent lives?
Saraka was not bluffing. She would think nothing of reversing her decision and wiping out everyone here on a whim. Having pursued Bishop Marik's trail of massacres, Gabriel knew all too well what she was capable of.
"Come now, choose," Saraka urged.
"I…"
"Haha. If the decision is too difficult, allow me to help you."
Gabriel recalled a time when a demon had rebuked him, demanding he make his stance clear. If Jelly were in his right mind, and if Pudding were here, they would surely be badgering him, demanding to know why he didn't choose Evangeline without hesitation.
As Gabriel wavered, unable to decide, Saraka offered her "kindness."
Turning away from him, she looked over the servants and pointed to a man who had suffered severe burns and was receiving emergency treatment from another.
"I sense a wicked energy emanating from that man."
Before the words had even left her mouth, the man’s head was lopped from his shoulders. The woman treating him froze, her eyes fixed on the empty space where his head had been a heartbeat before.
She blinked as a warm splash hit her face. A moment later, the reality of death registered. Screaming in terror, she scrambled backward across the dirt. She wiped at her face, and the sight of crimson staining her fingers sent her into a fit of hysterical, breathless sobs.
Decapitating a human required immense strength; the act was purely a theatrical display of terror. It worked. The servants watched their colleague die in an instant, paralyzed with fear. Their chests tightened, suffocating them.
"What do you think you are doing?!" Gabriel roared.
"I simply could not stand by and watch his wicked energy infect the others. Oh, dear. It seems the blood has carried the contagion to that one as well."
Gabriel lunged toward Saraka, but her guards instantly blocked his path. In that brief distraction, another head rolled. In less than a minute, two lives had been snuffed out.
Saraka pointed to a third victim, and a maid collapsed to the ground. The veiled conductor of this grim orchestra pointed toward death once more. But as the fourth executioner moved, Uriel drew his sword and blocked the descending blade.
As Uriel prepared to strike back, Seraph, a fellow Pararos knight, stopped him.
"Uriel, stand down. If you harm her guard, you will only make things harder for the Commander."
Though Uriel looked displeased, he relented as he always did with Seraph, lowering his weapon without delivering a fatal blow. If he were to harm Bishop Marik's guard, they would all be branded as heretics seduced by Evangeline and hunted down.
Saraka did not mind that the fourth victim had been spared. Her only goal had been to prove to Gabriel that she was entirely willing to slaughter everyone associated with House Rohanson.
"I had intended to show mercy to these heretics, but at this rate, their wicked energy will infect them all, rendering my benevolence useless."
She would slaughter every last servant until Gabriel gave her an answer. This was her countdown. Gabriel gritted his teeth. Having rushed to the Rohanson Mansion in a panic, he had brought only ten knights with him. They were hopelessly outnumbered.
"You poor, wretched souls," Saraka sighed, her voice dripping with mock pity. "It seems Sir Gabriel has no intention of saving you."