Ch.553553. Awakened Faith (2)

The scene before the gates was nothing short of chaos, just as the Captain of the Royal Guard had described.

Magia erupted everywhere. The territory’s residents, who had been stable under proper governance, had long been facing threats to their survival from this new internal danger.

Buildings that were believed to be safe suddenly burst into flames everywhere. Trusted friends transformed into monstrous forms, attacking with swords if they had them, or with their teeth if they had no weapons.

People either hid in places only they knew about or gathered before the lord’s castle where the most reserve forces were stationed, believing it would be the safest place.

“Open the gate, damn it…!”

“We should have left the territory earlier…!”

Merchants who had either believed the barony would be safe or had missed their chance to leave were busy converting their panic and fear into anger.

“They say the lord killed a demon! How could someone who can’t even find the Demonkin in his own territory kill anything!”

“If the new baron hadn’t come, this territory-wide disaster wouldn’t have happened! We should have remained under direct royal control forever!”

The territory’s residents were equally furious about the current situation.

The common people had learned how horrific the consequences could be when demons and cultists were involved during the Winter War.

Moreover, with both Masters absent from the lord’s castle and all the forces representing the baron’s family gone, the people harbored the false hope that they could somehow break through if they pushed as a mob.

Internal anxiety had shattered internal cohesion. Now, overwhelmed by emotional tidal waves rather than cold reason, they dared to challenge the lord’s castle.

“Look! More soldiers are lining up on the walls!”

“Stop this nonsense and open the gates, damn it! Are we the enemy? Are we enemies?! We’re just trying to survive here!”

While the gates were filled with the sounds of people’s grievances…

“Open the gates! Gatekeepers, open the gates!”

“As soon as the gates open, knights rush out and block their approach!”

“Archers, nock your arrows!”

Finally, the tightly closed gates of the lord’s castle began to open.

Knights rushed out onto the stone bridge that sloped downward from the castle, across the 3-meter-wide artificial lake surrounding it, pushing back the citizens.

“Step back! Anyone who doesn’t retreat will be considered an enemy!”

“Step back if you don’t want to die by magic!”

It was a confrontation between those with power and those without.

With archers densely lined up on the walls aiming their arrows at them, and knights shouting with faint killing intent, the momentarily confused citizens were pushed back beyond the stone bridge.

“For now, we’ve only forcibly suppressed their anger. This calm won’t last long.”

“…I know.”

“Trust in your resolve. If you cannot trust yourself, I will stand by your side. You can trust me.”

Tasha nodded quietly at the Captain’s words and slowly began to move forward.

“With so many soldiers here…! What’s so important about the castle? Go cut down the Demonkin right now!”

Even with increased forces, there was a limit to immediately eliminating enemies who suddenly transformed into Demonkin and went berserk.

Even Expert knights couldn’t detect the early symptoms or sense the strange energy.

“It’s safe in there…! If we get in and close the gates again!”

In a situation where they didn’t know who among them was a host, allowing so many territory residents into the lord’s castle—the very symbol of lordship—was unacceptable.

But their minds couldn’t reach that conclusion, nor did they want to. Their ears were filled with the wailing of those who were only despairing about their current situation.

“Silence!”

The Captain’s harsh voice enveloped the crowd.

His shout, filled with Mana, clearly registered in the minds of the territory’s residents.

As they fell silent at his roar, Tasha began to speak.

“I understand why all of you are anxious…!”

Countless angry eyes from the mob focused on her, who had once been nothing more than a thief from the back alleys.

She was afraid.

It felt as if their anger would trample and crush her inner self.

“The sudden eruption of Magia! The sad farewells and deaths it caused, and even the destruction of the territory! I understand it all!”

She squeezed her eyes shut and forced out her trembling voice.

If she didn’t at least pretend to be strong and shout, she felt she would collapse completely.

“So! You!! A vagrant from the count’s family living in the lord’s castle! You opened the gates to deceive us!”

“At times like this, we need to stand firmly together to overcome this crisis! Creating chaos inside the lord’s castle won’t change anything…!”

She shouted at the top of her lungs.

As if to shake the world.

“Such useless words! You’re crushing our expectations just to say that one thing!”

But what came back was…

Thud! Thud thud!

Though she held the right to speak, being of lower birth than anyone else who had come from the lord’s castle, they saw her as the easiest target. All their anger was expressed through stones thrown at Tasha.

As knights drew their swords and shouted, and the Captain protected her, Tasha looked down at the stones rolling at her feet.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

“I-I shouldn’t have meddled—”

For choosing such a difficult path unnecessarily. For receiving treatment she didn’t deserve.

As the guard had said, just organizing the lord’s castle would have been enough.

She shouldn’t have meddled.

As self-loathing washed over her, she caught voices at the edge of her hearing.

“Stop throwing stones, you bastards! What makes you so special that you can throw stones!”

A vagrant from the slums with a long scar across his eyes, having lost one eye.

“You fat woman! She hasn’t even finished speaking! She came with soldiers, can’t you at least listen to her!”

A mercenary whose half face was completely covered in burns from an attack and fire during the Winter War.

“This girl personally held the hand of an old woman whose body was full of pus from disease and greeted her! You ungrateful people! What power does she have to be standing here!”

Even a gloomy woman who always kept her mouth shut while receiving food rations was now shouting and stopping those trying to pick up stones.

Seeing them from the bridge that stood higher than the ground they stood on, Tasha clenched her fists.

“Ugh…!”

She bit her lower lip with her front teeth and strengthened her resolve.

Feeling that the charity work she had undertaken as her adoptive father had instructed hadn’t been in vain.

As she felt a tear stream down her cheek, she shouted.

“I-I will…! Help everyone unite again by distinguishing between enemies and allies…!”

She would solve this situation.

“You crazy bitch…! Just because people praised you as ‘Sister, Sister,’ you think you’re really a priestess!”

Please stop this madness.

‘D-Divine Power…!’

She drew upon her Divine Power in front of numerous opponents.

“Ah—”

A distant headache enveloped her head.

This sensation, as if the connection between body and soul was weakening.

She grabbed the Captain’s arm to keep from falling, enduring even to the point of digging her canines into her lip.

‘I understand.’

Using Divine Power against so many people at once, she finally understood this ability to sense danger.

The direct territory was supposed to remain under direct control. After it changed to a barony, everyone’s fate changed.

Among them were those whose fates had been twisted more ominously by becoming hosts to Magia, sending her warnings to be careful.

With her limited Divine Power trying to sense so many people, the insufficient power was compensated by her life force, which was why it was so painful.

“…I need to go.”

“That crowd is dangerous.”

“You can protect me, can’t you? I need to show everyone clearly.”

“……”

“That I’m desperate and sincere enough to put myself among angry territory residents, that I can truly identify the enemy.”

Blood began to pour from Tasha’s nose.

“Just now, I found several people hiding. Please direct your killing intent at that person.”

“…After restraining them. You should rest for a while, my lady.”

Her title elevated from “you” to “my lady.”

The Captain walked into the crowd with Tasha, who looked like she might collapse at any moment.

“……”

Silence fell over the gathering.

Partly due to the Captain’s ice-cold gaze and the knights’ hostile expressions.

But even more so because…

“Haa……”

Tasha was gasping for breath and suddenly bleeding from her nose.

And the tips of her hair had turned snow-white, as if they had lost all vitality.

The person they had been throwing stones at and pouring all their hatred on until just moments ago was now walking toward them looking so weak she might die at any moment. They couldn’t help but react this way.

“…Over there…!”

Though supported by the Captain, Tasha’s image of squeezing out all her strength to move forward on her own legs…

It was like the devout steps of an ascetic moving forward for their faith.

Especially those who had received her kindness before pushed through the crowd to see her up close.

“…Captain!”

When she reached one person, Tasha’s legs gave out and she collapsed to the ground.

So exhausted that she knelt on both knees, bowing her head and gasping for breath. It looked so much like a priestess offering prayers before a god.

“W-what, what am I…!”

“…I apologize.”

The woman enveloped by the Captain’s suffocating killing intent was soon…

Now withered and emaciated by Magia.

“Restrain her! She’s not a trained soldier, so there might be a way to resolve this without killing her!”

The host was subdued in an instant.

And before her, with the tips of her hair turned the purest white, Tasha looked as if she was offering a devout prayer.

Those from the slums who quietly observed her current appearance couldn’t help but think that her present form resembled that of an ascetic practicing self-sacrifice.

Something welled up in their hearts from her desperate effort, and they couldn’t help but think:

“Ah—”

Tasha was a girl worthy of being called not just a priestess, but a saint.