Ch.880I Need to Think About This for a Bit.

Justification.

It was like Jerusalem.

In the sense that it seemed like nothing, yet was everything.

…What does that mean?

At first glance it might seem like mere wordplay, but in reality, nothing was more important.

Especially in matters of national importance like war, whether one had proper justification could be so crucial that it determined victory or defeat.

Wars overflowing with justification often achieved dramatic comebacks even when initially disadvantaged, while wars without justification made victory difficult to guarantee even for the strongest nations.

The morale of soldiers going to war, the reactions of other countries, even the response of enemy nations—all were greatly influenced by the legitimacy of the stated justification.

That’s why nations going to war would create justifications even if they had to stage events.

To insist to all who watched that this war was just and righteous.

Doesn’t a true powerhouse need no justification?

Yes, Hersella would say that.

She actually said something similar, and it wasn’t exactly wrong.

A true powerhouse… someone who could easily overcome turning the whole world against them after waging an unjustified war.

Such a powerhouse wouldn’t need to worry about justification.

People value justification ultimately because of the anxiety that without proper justification, they might lose.

So if you’re confident you can defeat everyone even if the whole world becomes your enemy, justification doesn’t matter.

Young dragons typically had that mindset.

Since they never worried about dying, they went around massacring thousands and tens of thousands just because something displeased them.

Of course, contrary to their delusions, they weren’t invincible, so they often ended up getting stabbed and falling to their deaths.

In other words, unless you’re much stronger than a dragon, you should pay attention to justification even when causing trouble.

The same applied to me.

—-

To be honest, I was confident I could attack the Celestial Dragon Palace, slaughter all the Dragonborn, and still survive without any justification.

The Celestial Horse Protector Persiella or whatever might be tricky, but the rest would probably be at most at the level of those Omayong Dragonborn or whatever they were called.

The problem was that I needed to consider more than just my own safety.

Though I hadn’t wanted it this way, I had become the Saint of the Church of Astraea and the Queen of Hestella.

In other words, every move I made had the fate of the Church of Astraea and Hestella hanging in the balance.

Countless lives.

‘That’s the problem…’

I slightly bowed my head, pressing my forehead while tapping off cigarette ash.

After finishing bathing with Leonore, washing each other’s backs, and returning to the room, I sat in a chair at the tea table, chain-smoking while deep in thought.

Worrying about the justification issue she had pointed out.

If I were alone, I could have headed to the Dragonic Kingdom without hesitation.

I was now undisputedly humanity’s strongest knight.

If others questioned what kind of atrocity this was, I could just mock them to come at me if they had a problem.

But as Queen of Hestella, I couldn’t do that.

As Leonore said, Hestella was a newly established country just beginning to take shape, so we couldn’t afford to ignore others’ perceptions.

Like many new nations, Hestella might appear splendid on the surface but was actually extremely unstable.

The nickname “Second Holy State” was merely a facade.

In reality, it was barely maintained through my prowess and reputation, the support of the Church of Astraea, and Leopold’s goodwill and assistance.

So I had no choice but to worry.

Our reputation was already slightly damaged from accepting Ka’har refugees, and now to wage war against another country without justification?

We could easily be branded as a troublemaking nation worse than Clan Aishan.

If that happened, even Leopold would find it difficult to firmly support us, and the growing Church of Astraea would also suffer a major blow to its image.

After all, the figurehead of a church pursuing order and justice would be directly contradicting the church’s core values.

If the Dragonborn of the Celestial Dragon Palace were evil ones massacring innocent people, it would be different, but that wasn’t the case, which made it very difficult.

The evil Dragonborn were only killing opposing righteous Dragonborn; they weren’t harming uninvolved civilians.

Probably because their leader Persiella was actually the sister of Dragon King Cylude.

That was the problem.

The righteous-evil conflict might seem like a battle between legitimate authority and evil gangsters…

But in reality, it was the opposite—a political struggle between a warlord organization threatening state power and a royal-sponsored criminal group.

Leopold probably knew this and therefore wasn’t intervening.

Intervening in the conflict to eliminate the evil Dragonborn might appear to be punishing villains, but in reality, it would destroy the Dragonic Kingdom’s state power and hand the country over to a warlord coalition.

The result would obviously be an even bigger mess. The righteous Dragonborn weren’t entirely good either.

If they were truly good, would they have coveted royal power, causing Cylude to support the evil faction?

The righteous Dragonborn had their own greed and ambitions, which led to the current situation.

Therefore, I needed to prepare an appropriate justification to attack the Celestial Dragon Palace.

If I used my power to destroy the Celestial Dragon Palace and hand the Dragonic Kingdom over to the righteous factions, all resulting problems would become Hestella’s responsibility.

Being branded as people who attack other countries without reason and create chaos would instantly make us international pariahs.

Of course, they wouldn’t actually invade us, but even just cutting or reducing support would be fatal for Hestella.

As a newly established country, we had countless expenses.

Eleonora was a capable regent, but… having been born an imperial princess and lived as the wealthy Queen of Panam, she had issues with financial management.

Her sense of money was skewed, you could say.

She did her job well, but seemed completely unconcerned with how much budget was needed for that work.

As if she had no concept that money could be insufficient.

Chancellor Lambert was somehow supporting her to avoid bankruptcy, but even that would be impossible if support was suddenly cut off.

So, to bring down the Celestial Dragon Palace, we needed a reason that would prevent criticism even after turning the Dragonic Kingdom into chaos.

—-

“…So, you want us to think of that reason?”

“Yes. You catch on quickly. And if you can come up with a method too, even better.”

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t find a suitable answer, so the next day I gathered all our core forces and asked if anyone had good ideas.

Demian and Millia, Ophelia and Nigel, Joshua and the masters of Landenburg.

And Frider, who was leisurely lying on the guest room bed enjoying were-claw crafting.

“My IQ is 140, your IQ is 60. With our combined 200 IQ plus everyone else’s thoughts, shouldn’t we come up with at least one useful idea?”

Frider and I together only amounted to 2 people’s worth, so she wouldn’t be much help, but the others might be different.

“Lena, your sister is talking nonsense again. Can’t you cast a healing miracle on her head?”

“Hmm…”

After thinking for a moment, Lena extended her right hand, summoning a scarlet holy light.

“O sun that embraces and illuminates all things, bestow your grace upon those suffering from pain.”

The healing miracle that followed. A bright, warm light descended like a halo on the head of the patient with brain problems.

“…No, not me, your sister.”

That is, on Frider’s head.

“Oh, I missed. Sister Frider was sitting too close.”

Lena withdrew the holy light with a slight smile, as if it had been a mistake.

Was it really a mistake? I couldn’t tell.

“Um, Haschal? So… by Celestial Dragon Palace, you mean those Dragonborn from before? You want to attack their base, and you need a reason for that.”

Millia raised her hand and asked.

“That’s right.”

“Can’t we just attack them? We can say it’s retaliation for what happened then.”

She was suggesting using their ambush during the Nidhogg subjugation as justification.

“About that…”

I shook my head. It was certainly a good justification, but unfortunately, we couldn’t use it as a pretext for war.

That matter had already been settled through negotiations with Leopold.

“Hmm… justification…”

“Even so… war with Dragonborn… won’t be easy…”

Those gathered in the conference room continued deep in thought, muttering to themselves or stroking their chins.

Time passed endlessly.