What Is a God?
Garnet regarded Olivia warily and asked,
"How do you think Regent Ferda would react if he learned the truth?"
Ferda had suffered greatly because of the scandal.
He had been stressed by the possibility that it might inflict some absurd wound upon Valdrova. Unable to resolve the matter alone, he had even gone to Olivia for advice.
That meant he trusted her.
And yet Olivia herself was the source of the scandal.
If Ferda discovered that the person he trusted had been the one who stabbed him in the back, he would be angrier than ever before.
"It would certainly damage the trust between us."
Olivia tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled.
She remained perfectly calm, showing none of the fear one might expect from someone facing future consequences.
"But you aren't going to tell him, are you?"
A weakness was no weakness if it could not be used.
Olivia already had something she could rely on.
"The first and final contract we made takes precedence over your loyalty."
"If you break that contract, you will disgrace your ancestors, and your actions will completely destroy your organization's credibility."
The first and final contract.
Garnet still remembered it vividly.
It had happened five years ago.
Although she had been an inexperienced leader at the time, Garnet was still a cool-headed businesswoman and had guided her organization skillfully.
The Black Bandana became widely known among those operating behind the scenes and proved that it was accumulating intelligence no one else could match.
Naturally, such an ability was coveted by those in power.
Valdemar Golt had also used every scheme at his disposal to bring the Black Bandana under his control.
But Garnet always made examples of those who attempted to seize them.
She showed the world that the Black Bandana was an organization no one could touch.
With one exception.
The person who shook Garnet was neither a famous ruler nor an ambitious schemer.
She was a doll-like little girl with golden hair and blue eyes.
To the public, she was a single pure blossom and a child with a brilliant future ahead of her.
Olivia Arken.
The first time Garnet met her, she felt a chill run down her spine.
The girl possessed mature, cynical eyes no child should have had.
And from her small, delicate lips came the words—
—I know that the Black Bandana was once the Empire's secret intelligence division.
It was a deadly secret even the current emperor did not properly know.
—So let us make a deal. Like you, I wish only to see this Empire collapse.
That was how the Black Bandana's first and final contract had been made.
The contract would end only when either the Imperial Princess or the Black Bandana ceased to exist.
"Besides, it is more beneficial for my relationship with the Regent to remain intact, isn't it?"
"..."
"Who would benefit if we destroyed that relationship over something so trivial?"
"Stop acting so smug and arrogant."
Garnet lowered her voice.
"I have been watching your actions over the past several days. You provoked Valdemar's jealousy, and you tried to manipulate Regent Ferda in subtle ways. How long do you think I will continue overlooking it?"
As a third party observing from a distance, Garnet had been able to assess the situation more objectively and carefully than those directly involved.
Yet Olivia remained unshaken.
"Provoking Grand Duke Golt's jealousy was necessary. Regent Ferda needed to see his ugliness so that he would not be deceived by that man's words."
She admitted that she had deliberately stirred his jealousy.
"But I have never tested Regent Ferda. Not even once."
"That is a lie—"
"I mean it."
Olivia cut her off firmly.
But Garnet still could not believe her.
"Are you saying that you were genuinely planning to marry Valdemar Golt?"
"Yes, of course."
The answer was so clear and immediate that Garnet found herself speechless.
As the head of an intelligence organization, Garnet gathered information from everywhere.
She could even determine whether someone was telling the truth by observing their movements and gestures during a conversation.
That was why she was certain.
Olivia meant every word.
Garnet knew what Valdemar meant to her.
Olivia hated and despised him. It would not have been an exaggeration to say that she had lived for the day she could plunge a blade into his heart.
She despised her own bloodline nearly as much.
She was the kind of woman who would rather die than live as the emperor's tool.
There was no possibility that she would willingly become the companion of her sworn enemy.
Garnet could not believe that her thinking had changed.
And so she became curious.
"What value does that man, Ferda, hold for you?"
If Olivia's thinking had truly changed, then Ferda had to be the reason.
Was he really worth going that far for?
Olivia answered Garnet's question.
"Do you... believe in God?"
It was an abrupt question, but Garnet answered nonetheless.
"I do not."
"When I was young, I believed in God. I was a devout follower of the Alte faith. Alte's teachings were so warm and beautiful. I truly believed that my mother, who died after giving birth to me... had been embraced by His light and gone to the realm of angels."
She folded both hands over her chest and smiled peacefully.
"But... I woke up when my sister died."
Her smile shattered.
"Do you know what I did while my sister threw herself from the railing and the adults were busy making political calculations?"
"I went to the cathedral and prayed. According to the miracle of a certain saint, his daughter returned to life after praying faithfully to Alte for seven days."
Olivia recalled that time.
The young girl had prayed so devoutly that she forgot to eat or even comb her hair.
"So I believed that if I also prayed sincerely for seven days... my sister would return from heaven, just like in the myths, appearing beyond the cathedral's stained-glass windows with baby angels beside her."
With each passing day, the young girl's dream seemed closer to becoming reality.
"But nothing happened."
Reality was always cruel.
"Alte did not answer me."
Even though her beautiful hair had become so tangled and damaged that half of it had to be cut away.
Even though her knees had turned blue from kneeling and had nearly become paralyzed.
Even though the little girl had endured more pain than a child should ever have been forced to bear.
Alte did not answer.
That day, the rose-colored lens of innocence through which the girl had viewed the world shattered.
The world's ugliness was exposed, and the deeper she dug, the more she realized how thoroughly the world she inhabited had been stained with filth.
"Those who do good should be rewarded, and those who do evil should be punished. Yet God has never once punished this Empire. That was when I finally understood."
Words no saintess should ever utter.
"That there is no such thing as God."
"Those are hardly the words one would expect from an apprentice saintess who has reached the Fourth Circle."
"I suppose not."
Olivia placed both hands over her lower abdomen and smiled blissfully.
"I thought... perhaps I should give up on my dream."
There was a pulse dwelling within her core.
No matter how devoutly she behaved, Alte had never chosen Olivia.
"Then Lord Ferda came."
It had been Ferda who elevated her status to that of an apprentice saintess.
"Even when he was told to sacrifice me... he refused to abandon me until the very end."
Her mind filled with the image of Ferda.
As she politely clasped her hands together, Garnet witnessed something she could hardly believe.
Is that... a halo?
The proof of faith said to appear only to saints.
Thinking she might have imagined it, Garnet looked again, but it vanished as though it had never been there.
"A god is… a being who answers my faith."
Alte had not answered every prayer.
Ferda had always answered Olivia's faith.
"He was… the god I was meant to worship."
The sight of her lost in rapture sent a chill down Garnet's spine.
"How did you… become like this, Your Highness?"
There had been something unsettling about Olivia even when they first met, but never to this extent.
It was as though the brighter her light became, the deeper the darkness within her grew. She was becoming increasingly twisted.
At Garnet's words, Olivia smiled faintly.
"You wouldn't understand even if I explained it."
Olivia turned sharply and walked toward the shelves of medicine.
Garnet glanced at Akad and asked,
"What are you going to do with him?"
"We must follow the law."
Olivia answered.
"Looking at this room, there are two possible ways the public will perceive Akad Dvelung."
She raised her index finger.
"First, that he was evil by nature and felt no remorse while torturing and murdering commoners. That would make him a typical demon worshipper."
Garnet knew that he was not actually a demon worshipper.
But the public, when confronted with something like this, would need a simple label.
In that sense, calling him a demon worshipper made the matter easy to understand and easy to become enraged over.
It would also be enough to damage Valdemar's image.
But there was no possibility that Valdemar would fail to realize that.
Olivia raised her middle finger as well.
"Second, that a perverted demon follower disguised himself as the virtuous Marquis Akad Dvelung and pretended to serve as Valdemar's right hand. That interpretation would prevent Valdemar's reputation from suffering too much damage."
"And what both interpretations have in common is that they prevent the Alte Order's authority from being weakened."
Whether they were demon worshippers or followers of the demon race, neither had any place in the Empire.
It would also allow them to argue that religion was not the only institution corrupted from within.
"And in either case, he has no reason to remain alive."
Olivia picked something up from among the countless bottles.
It was an oil lamp.
She removed the oil container and placed it on the table in front of Akad.
"You should go now. We must summon the priests of the Order and inform them of this atrocity, mustn't we?"
"What will you do?"
Garnet glanced at the oil lamp.
"I must perform the purification. Saints and saintesses are meant to protect others from evil and burn evil away. I may only be an apprentice, but I still have duties as a saintess, don't I?"
Because Garnet knew the world's darker side so well, she understood exactly what Olivia intended to do.
"Then…"
Garnet withdrew.
Olivia was now the only person free to move about the room.
She looked down at Akad, who sat there like a puppet.
She was smiling.
But the smile held no meaning at all.
It was empty.
"O merciful and sacred Alte."
She tilted Akad's head back.
"O Alte, who takes pity upon us, grant your sacred light to those who follow you and drive away the temptations of darkness."
She tipped the oil container over his mouth.
Yellow oil poured inside without resistance.
Olivia continued her prayer.
"Deliver us from the temptations and sins of this world with your light."
She dipped her index finger into the remaining oil and carefully rubbed it across his eyes.
"Even when darkness descends and traps us within trials, allow us to realize that a lamp still burns within your embrace, and proclaim that evil is destined to perish in the end."
Olivia gripped Akad's face with both hands.
"Purify evil with your sacred flame."
Golden fire blossomed from her fingertips.
"Divine Judgment."
Golden light erupted from Dvelung's body.
Violent flames burst from every opening in his face and began to consume him.
Whooooom!
The fire surged up through his throat with a deep roar, and his entire body trembled violently.
"Ah…"
Olivia let out a cry of wonder as she watched.
Akad Dvelung—the vile deceiver and Valdemar's trusted confidant—was burning by her hand.
The revenge she had once thought she might never achieve was being fulfilled before her eyes.
The Circle in her chest pounded wildly.
The golden light filled her with ecstasy.
Lost in rapture, only one name echoed through her mind.
"Lord Ferda…"
Olivia called the name again and again.
"Lord Ferda… Lord Ferda…"
As though whispering into the ear of a lover she had cherished for many years.
"I will make your dream come true… no matter what."
She offered a prayer to her god.
***
The Empire awoke to chaos.
The previous day, it had already been thrown into confusion by the revelation that a bishop of the Grand Cathedral had been a demon follower.
Contrary to expectations that nothing could cause greater turmoil, another shocking report emerged.
"Citizens of the Empire! Last night, another demon follower was discovered! His name is Marquis Akad Dvelung! And the one who uncovered him was Princess Olivia Arken!"
The agitators moved faster than anyone else, spreading the news throughout the Empire.
The inn where Ferda was staying was no exception.
He spent his morning listening to their proclamations.
They chose the version that damages his reputation less.
Ferda knew that the agitator belonged to Valdemar.
The moment the news reached the Order, they had constructed a response narrative and begun moving in an organized fashion before morning.
Their speed and coordination made them difficult to strike cleanly.
"Regent, you have a visitor."
Arwon's expression was tense.
Ferda did not need to ask who it was.
"Show him in."
"Pardon? Ah, yes…!"
Arwon went back downstairs.
Soon, the sound of several footsteps rose along the staircase.
An old man entered through the open door at the head of the group.
The look on his face was worth seeing.
It was like sugar added to the bitterness of black tea.
"Welcome, Grand Duke."
"You've caused quite an amusing incident."
Ignoring the greeting, Valdemar entered and took a seat without permission.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."
Feigning ignorance, Ferda raised his teacup.
"From what I hear outside, it seems your own close associate has caused an even more entertaining incident."
Valdemar's normally impenetrable expression twisted.
It was the perfect accompaniment to morning tea.
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