Ch.725Don’t Even Attempt What You’ve Never Done Before.

The city was half-destroyed?

That was an overly optimistic description. The Extrashafel I witnessed wasn’t half-destroyed—it was split in half and left for dead.

[It’s truly not an exaggeration to say it’s completely ruined.]

Hersella was right. Streets once filled with pedestrians now stood empty, with collapsed buildings and shuttered shops everywhere. Even the Imperial Palace and Grand Cathedral, symbols of the Empire’s prosperity, had their upper sections blown away, reduced to grotesque shells of their former glory.

“The Imperial Army has returned! The heroes who repelled the Ka’har are back!”

“Lord Median has returned!”

Even the welcoming crowd at our victory parade consisted of more than seventy percent soldiers. The few civilians visible all wore dark expressions, like Hush’s complexion.

Gloomy, dirty faces filled with nothing but sorrow and despair. A sight unimaginable just a year ago, yet this was now the reality of the Empire.

[Well, the signs of decline were there from the beginning. They must have all lost their minds to appoint a brute whose only talents are swinging swords and running his mouth as a professor.]

She’s treating me like some harbinger of doom. As someone who fought tirelessly for the Empire’s safety, I found this assessment profoundly unfair.

“It’s worse than I thought… The population seems to have drastically decreased. I wonder if they’ve all fled to other cities… or perhaps couldn’t escape. It’s hard to even call this the capital of the Empire anymore.”

Leonore sighed deeply as she looked around the city. Her expression was deeply troubled. It must be shocking for her. The hometown where she was born and raised had been reduced to this state—all because of her mother’s schemes.

“How devastating… Lady Saulite, please grant them your blessing…”

Lena, who had been giggling in my arms, also seemed shocked as she clutched her holy symbol and prayed with a pained expression.

…Should I pray too?

It was a fact known to few, even within the church, that I had received the Stigmata of Astraea and was a saint of order.

It wasn’t a position I had sought but one forced upon me, and I didn’t possess even a grain of faith to begin with…

Still, I had benefited from the stigmata in the Holy State, so perhaps offering a prayer would be the proper response.

‘Astraea, goddess of order and justice. I don’t know if you’re listening… but if you can hear me, please guide me to those responsible for this tragedy. So that I may strike them all down.’

So I prayed quietly with my hand on the stigmata.

The city’s residents, who looked no better than refugees, probably didn’t need blessings of justice—instead, I prayed for a chance to exact revenge on those responsible.

…I shouldn’t have done that.

– FLASH!

The inside of the carriage suddenly brightened, and a brilliant golden light spread through the window where the curtains had been drawn back. It happened too suddenly for me to react.

What the hell is this?

You weren’t this kind of stigmata before. Why are you suddenly asserting yourself?

“What’s that light…?!”

The crowd, which had been forcing a celebratory atmosphere, immediately began to stir at the sudden golden flash.

“Sister? What’s suddenly…?”

“Miss, what are you doing?! Wasn’t that supposed to be a secret?!”

Lena and Leonore turned to me with startled expressions as my chest suddenly turned golden.

Of course, I was in no position to answer them. Damn it, how do I turn this off? Would it stop if I cursed Astraea?

I hurriedly covered the stigmata, which was emitting light bright enough to hurt the eyes, with my right hand, but it wasn’t the kind of light that could be hidden so easily.

The radiance from the stigmata penetrated through my hand as if it were transparent, illuminating everything around us.

“That golden light…! It’s Astraea’s holy light! The goddess has bestowed her stigmata upon Lord Median!”

The priests attending the victory parade could clearly understand what was happening.

It was already too late to stop it.

“Stigmata? What does that mean…?”

“Behold! That pure golden radiance without a hint of cloudiness! This is not the holy power granted to a mere paladin!”

Some among them could even identify its nature just by the color of the holy light.

Judging by his attire, he seemed to be an archbishop from the Imperial Archdiocese… He was so surprised that he jumped to his feet and shouted with bulging eyes.

As if it were his mission to announce to the world the momentous fact that Astraea’s saint had finally revealed herself.

“Stigmata…! Then, that person is the saint of the Order Goddess…?”

“Inform the church! After Lord Elpinel and Lord Menes, a saint of Lady Astraea has been born!”

Perhaps gaining confidence from his reaction, priests from other denominations also began to move about in a commotion.

Seeing them rush frantically to their cathedrals, it seemed the news of my stigmata would spread throughout the Empire in less than an hour.

“Saint…”

“Oh… Goddess…”

As the priests made such a fuss, the residents who had been watching the victory procession with dejected faces began to kneel and pray with reverent expressions.

[Well done. You wrapped your stigmata in bandages to hide it, but you were actually waiting for such a dramatic moment to reveal it? Now the whole world will know.]

‘Shut up…’

I bowed my head deeply as I looked down at the stigmata that couldn’t be hidden no matter what I did.

Damn it. I shouldn’t have prayed in the first place.

They say trouble usually follows when you do something you don’t normally do, but I never expected such a disaster to occur immediately.

Astraea had screwed me over once again. Were you that displeased with me hiding the stigmata? If so, why not just tell me instead of doing this?

“Seriously, what are you doing all of a sudden? You said you couldn’t use holy power, was that a lie?”

“No, I just said one prayer…”

I clutched my head as I responded to Leonore’s interrogation with a tone full of indignation.

“You just offered a prayer and the goddess answered? That’s my sister! The goddess must truly favor you!”

Lena rejoiced obliviously. From a priest’s perspective, this would be a sacred, moving, and magnificent event worthy of praise. Even if she belonged to a different denomination.

“Yeah… she really does seem to favor you like her own daughter…”

Since Lena’s reaction was natural from her perspective, I could only sigh deeply without snapping at her.

“Not all daughters are favored… No, forget that—how are we going to fix this?”

Leonore, the prime example of an unfavored daughter, shook her head and asked.

Fix it? As if that were possible.

The light from the stigmata, which had been shining like the sun, was gradually fading, but the memory imprinted in people’s minds wouldn’t disappear.

“I don’t know, let it be…”

I took out a cigarette, lit it, and muttered with a sigh.

Yeah, let’s look on the bright side. At least now no one in the Empire can speak ill of me. I’m a marquess with the Empire’s strongest military power, and now I have divine authority on top of that.

—-

“You really… as soon as you return… another problem…”

There was someone who could speak ill of me.

Probably the only one in the entire Empire. Leopold, sitting in front of me.

After somehow completing the victory parade that had turned into a cauldron of confusion, I gave the Imperial Army a final order to return to their original barracks and immediately headed to the Imperial Palace.

To tell Leopold about matters I hadn’t included in the victory report and to discuss future plans.

As soon as he heard I had entered the palace, Leopold summoned me to his office. To the office on the second floor of the annex.

Perhaps because the newly constructed Imperial Palace had been destroyed again, he had returned to the First Empress’s annex that he had frequently used during his time as crown prince.

Who would have thought that after spending so much money on reconstruction, it wouldn’t even last half a year? The palace must be cursed.

No, it really was cursed. By an exceptionally vicious curse named Isabella.

…Anyway, the Leopold I met again had lost his former noble appearance and looked weathered by the hardships of the world.

He looked like a civil servant who had stayed up all week drinking alcohol.

Sunken eyes, gaunt cheeks, and an ashtray filled with mana herbs. The only thing that remained of his former self was his excessively flowing golden hair.

In fact, that hair was what had changed the most from before.

It was so perfectly done that there was no visible sign, but my keen senses had already detected it. A disaster had befallen his scalp.

[In the end, he lost everything. What a miserable sight.]

…Even I couldn’t help but feel sympathy.

—-

“Revealing your stigmata during the victory parade—what purpose did you have for doing such a thing?”

Yeah, what purpose indeed? How would I know?

“I didn’t do it. The stigmata shone on its own.”

I was innocent. I couldn’t be more innocent if I tried. If you cut open my chest right now, it would be white with innocence.

If I had known the stigmata would emit light, would I have prayed?

I was already annoyed enough with the ascetic priest trying to teach me doctrine. Now there’s no way out of it.

“The stigmata…? Then it was Astraea’s will?”

“I suppose so.”

I nodded and sat down in the chair opposite Leopold. I put on an expression of utter indignation to emphasize that I was also a victim.

Perhaps my sense of injustice was well conveyed. Leopold cleared his throat and leaned back, burying himself deeply in the backrest of the throne.

“…I understand, so please refrain from making such a grim expression. Anyone watching might think you’re a traitor plotting to assassinate me and seize the throne.”

“……”

Now I truly felt wronged.