episode_0204

“You seem quite at ease, Viola Blossom… reacting so calmly as if you expected me to come here.”

Viola seemed composed, as if she had anticipated Jid or the Resistance would come to interrogate her to uncover the Order’s objectives. Seeing her composure, rather than fear, despite being captured by the Resistance, slightly surprised Jid. Viola then snickered and answered Jid’s words.

“That’s obvious. The Camilla Order would never lose to a mere remnant force like you. You’re racking your brains over our scheme, so what do I have to fear even if I am here?”

“Didn’t you think you might die or lose your mind from torture?”

“Never… To begin with, I’ve been doing the Order’s work with the intention of embracing the fate of death. All of us are the power and will of Goddess Camilla. Therefore, we who act for Her will are always ready to sacrifice our lives… unlike you.”

“Of course we’re different!!!”

As Viola taunted them, claiming they were beings ready to sacrifice their lives for Camilla at any moment, Jid clenched his fists and snapped at her. Then, covering his forehead with trembling hands to control his anger, he breathed heavily and spoke to Viola.

“They were all people living peaceful lives…!! But then you suddenly appeared, brainwashing people and causing all this chaos…!! Those people weren’t ready to die for a plan like you were…!! They were just silently living peaceful lives!!! Of course, you can’t compare them to you, who were prepared from the start!!!”

“That’s why you are weak and pathetic. If you also entrusted your fate to Goddess Camilla, you would have nothing more to fear… You still haven’t understood that you became heretics and are being judged because you made a foolish choice to resist Goddess Camilla?”

“Do you know how displeased people are with this situation, people who almost got killed by their brainwashed family or friends…? No… you wouldn’t know… because you, with your ears shut, don’t care about people’s worries and concerns!!! Do you know that people hurt by your atrocities outside are still screaming?!”

“Then you should have taken the hand Goddess Camilla offered…!! You should have accepted divine power and embraced the Order’s will!!! Then there wouldn’t have been such sorrow or pain… And you dare blame us for escalating that sorrow by needlessly resisting…? How dare you, rude heretic!!!”

When Jid shouted, asking if she knew how much pain people outside were suffering due to the Order’s atrocities, Viola merely retorted that if they had accepted the Order’s will, there wouldn’t have been such sorrow and pain, so it was their fault for choosing to resist. At Viola’s words, Jid, unable to bear it any longer, turned his back and spoke to her.

“Living beings are inherently free… They are beings who don’t necessarily have to accept your goddess… Just open your ears and listen to the screams of the victims of this incident. If you still think that way then… we can only perceive you as pitiful and foolish wretches who have lost all common sense.”

“Ha…! To keep blaming us for making this choice. You, too, should open your ears and listen to Goddess Camilla’s benevolent voice. Then you will also find peace.”

“Comfortable on the outside, but screaming on the inside? It’s better to choose death.”

Viola genuinely advised him to accept Goddess Camilla’s will, but Jid replied that he would rather choose death. In the end, he left the prison dismally, having gained nothing from Viola. Viola then wiggled her fingers, touching the shackles she had been breaking, hidden from sight, and mumbled.

“It’s not time yet… I’ll target the night, when they’re most off guard. If I escape from here tonight and inform Goddess Camilla of the Resistance’s location… Hehehehe… The bell announcing the eradication of heretics will ring out…!!”

Thinking of escaping late at night to inform the Order of the Resistance’s headquarters, Viola kept looking for an opportunity. As time passed and night deepened to midnight, on the very night Zeke and Aria were sleeping in Proserpina, Viola realized there was no one around. She unlocked the shackles and handcuffs she had been grinding with a stone for a while, then crushed the iron bars with immense strength and escaped from the prison.

*For iron bars meant to imprison a Saintess, they’re truly flimsy. The arrogance you felt after defeating me will lead you to ruin… The Order’s flame will burn the heretics!*

Inwardly, she thought that all that remained was to reach the Order and inform them of the Resistance’s headquarters. She smiled with pleasure, thinking they would be swept away by the Order’s overwhelming power. Viola then continued running towards the outside of the cave. She was wearing armor and carrying a spear, but it didn’t matter. She figured she would receive new ones from the Order and sweep them all away. Just as Viola was casually fleeing to the outside…

“Waaaaaaah!!!”

“…Damn it… When will this ever end…?”

“……?”

Through a hole in the cave passage, Viola heard the sad cries of a child and the sighs of several people. She looked inside through the hole. There, people who had barely escaped the Order’s influence were trembling in fear, complaining and lamenting about when the Order’s invasion would end. Some people were severely wounded, and some children were searching for their parents. But even seeing them, Viola’s conviction was incredibly firm.

*Hmph… If they believed in Goddess Camilla, they wouldn’t need to be so anxious, so there’s no need to listen to the laments of those who foolishly walk the path of heretics. I must quickly head to the Order. To eradicate all heretics in this world—*

“I can never forget… my brother suddenly calling me a heretic and cutting off my right arm with an axe… Thinking about that time… Ugh…”

“…My mother, devastated that her son was a heretic, simply made an extreme choice… She wasn’t that kind of person to begin with, but because of this damned Order… our family instantly crumbled…”

“……”

*There’s no need to listen further.* Viola was clearly thinking this when she heard people talking about how their close ones had harmed family or friends by wielding weapons against them. She stopped in her tracks for a moment. And at that moment, the young children began to cry even more sadly.

“Mommyyyy!! Where are youuuuu… Waaah!”

“Why are those kids separated from their parents?”

“…Don’t even ask… Their parents were brainwashed by the Order’s influence… And then they were supposedly called by the Order… After that, contact was lost. What did the Order do…”

“Oh, how pitiful… They have to live in this scary world as siblings…”

“They’re not siblings… That little kid’s parents were brainwashed and apparently rushed at the resistance members on the Saintess’s orders. But then, while attacking us… they missed their footing and fell to their death from a cliff. Those damned people of the Order… What grudge do they hold against us to do this…”

Listening to the people’s sighs and laments, and the wails of children searching for their lost parents, Viola’s mind went blank. Especially when she heard that the children had gone through such terrible things at such a young age, and that it was because of the Order, Viola’s firm conviction began to waver slightly. Viola then shook her head hard to clear her mind, remembering Jid’s advice to open her ears, and headed back towards the exit.

*No… No…!! The Order wouldn’t do such things to children…!! Yes!! Those children were possessed by evil…!! That’s why they’re receiving divine punishment!!! Otherwise, how would you explain this—*

“Mommy!!! Where are you!! Daddyyyyy…..”

“Damn it!!! My sister died at the Order’s hands…!! Those damned Order fanatics!!! Why are they killing the very people they brainwashed?!”

“Brother!! No… No!!! Aaaaargh!! Why is the Order so persistently tormenting us, damn it!!!!”

However, as the laments of people clinging to the bodies of their loved ones, another child who had lost their parents, and others plunged into despair continued to pour out through the hole in the passage, something began to change within Viola’s heart. And at that moment, she was greatly disconcerted when she began to see her younger self before her eyes.

*That’s…*

*Mommy… why are there wars…? Daddy… why did you leave me…?*

Standing before the graves of her parents, who had been tragically killed in a past war between nations, Viola dazedly asked them why the war had happened, even though they were already bones. And as that image overlapped with the desolate faces of the children beside her, Viola hit her head with her fist, trying to maintain her sanity.

*No…!! No!!! Snap out of it!! The Order… the Order has a great purpose of unifying the world!!! It is my mission to aid that noble cause so that wars don’t happen…!! And it’s the way to repay the Order’s grace for taking me in and raising me…!! I must never waver…!! Sacrifice is inevitable to achieve this great feat!! Yes… inevitable… it is…*

Viola tried her best not to waver, believing that her path was righteous, and that the Order’s will was the most noble and war-ending task. But the moment she tried to rationalize it, telling herself that sacrifice was inevitable for this work, she realized that thought contradicted her past self, who had mourned her parents’ deaths in war. Her eyes wavered as confusion washed over her. And at that moment…

“……? This is…”

Viola discovered a makeshift memorial beside her. Various items were placed on the makeshift memorial, and Viola unconsciously reached out her hand to the items. And at that moment… whether it was the result of Viola’s wavering conviction, or because Viola’s divine power was also strong… the emotions of the deceased, remaining in their mementos on the makeshift memorial, traveled through Viola’s divine power and reached her mind. Suddenly, she began to feel the grief, complaints, despair, and pain of many people within her body.

“….!! Aaaaargh!!! Aaaaargh!!!”

She could have been discovered by others, but Viola had no time to think of such things. The divine power that managed Camilla’s emotions, unconsciously manifested, kept forcing Viola to recall the emotions and pain the deceased had felt. Viola, to her shame, who had previously disparaged the Resistance as weak and pathetic, now agonized as she was forced to recall their emotions and pain. One person had died by the blade of a loved one, leaving behind resentment, another left behind guilt for failing to save a precious one from the Order. And yet another left behind grief for all their loved ones dying before their eyes.

“What’s that sound? Who’s screaming like that all of a sudden?”

“Seems like it’s coming from the makeshift memorial.”

At Viola’s screams and wails, those resting inside came out one by one, gathering to see who was screaming. She risked being discovered by the Resistance, but Viola couldn’t even bear the emotions and pain of the deceased, so she had no time to care about that. She tried to overcome their uncontrollable sorrow and pain somehow, but the pain of those who did not believe in Goddess Camilla, whom she had so underestimated, could not be underestimated at all. Thus, Viola accidentally read the memories of suffering of countless people, equal to or even greater than her own, through divine power, and she finally realized that she was the one who was truly pathetic. And because she had also contributed to them leaving such grief, her faith and conviction vanished, replaced by overwhelming guilt.

*I fought to end war… Yet, ironically, I was waging war. What have I become…?*

“……? Wait a minute… that purple hair… Isn’t that the Saintess the angel captured? They said she was confined deep in the cave…”

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry for everything…”

“……?”

The people had no idea why Viola, whom they didn’t know at all, was prostrating herself, weeping and apologizing. Viola realized that all her actions had inflicted the greatest wounds, or even more, on others. She realized that everything she had said until now, as Merzel had stated, was born of her ignorance, and as Jid had said, were pathetic words uttered by a fool who had lost all common sense. Only now did she realize her mistakes and open her ears to the victims’ words. As dawn broke, Jid and Cecilia, who had returned from patrol, were bewildered to see Viola sitting on a chair next to the makeshift memorial, completely out of her mind.

“What on earth happened that she’s not in prison right now, but sitting there so forlornly?”

“W-we don’t know either. She was apologizing and harming herself in front of the makeshift memorial… We were truly bewildered?!”

“What…? Self-harm…? But wait a minute… That woman, who should have returned to the Order after successfully escaping… Why is she guarding the makeshift memorial now?”

Jid, Cecilia, and everyone else couldn’t understand why Viola was completely out of her mind next to the makeshift memorial. Then, a child cautiously approached Viola and offered her a cup of water. As Viola turned her eyes to the child…

“Ah… Aaaaargh!!! Waaahhh!!!”

“….!!! Th-that person is doing it again!!! Everyone, stop her at once!!!”

“…What exactly happened last night…”

As soon as Viola saw the child, she began to have a seizure, and people frantically rushed to stop her. Jid couldn’t possibly understand this situation. The reason Viola was having this seizure was because she had previously killed a child in the name of eradicating heretics. The current Viola had indirectly learned the victims’ perspectives through the emotions remaining in the mementos. The realization that she had killed innocent people, including unsuspecting children, came as such a great shock that she couldn’t possibly bear it. With the help of the people, Viola was able to calm down, wrapped in several blankets. Seeing her, Cecilia, as if realizing something, approached Viola with a greatly horrified expression and asked.

“Are you… perhaps regretting all the actions you took in the past…? And that’s why you can’t raise your head now…?”

“……”

“Y-you idiot… Why did you do something you couldn’t handle either…”

“……”

As Cecilia genuinely pitied her and embraced her with both arms, Viola simply wept silently, blaming herself. Thus, the girl who had lost her parents to war in her childhood had dreamed of creating a world without war, but in the end, she realized that her actions had contradicted that dream and only felt emptiness.

BONUS: [200th Chapter Afterword]

Hello everyone! This is Photon, the author serializing “The Black Saintess”!

We will soon be entering the final battle.

I remember initially debating whether to make this up to Part 4 and call the battle-heavy sections the “climactic chapter,” but I ultimately decided to divide it into four parts.

I’m also considering re-serializing “The Black Saintess 2” later… but I’m not sure yet.

Anyway, for this 200th chapter afterword, I’ll talk about a few things and then conclude.

1. Five Years Later

The fact that time flows differently in the Levalude Facility and that Zeke and Aria would be dropped into a world five years later was decided from the very beginning.

This was because, in this side story, which has fewer chapters than the main story, I pondered how to have the other characters reunite after a long time.

So, why did I set such a long period of five years? I decided on five years to quickly develop the characters, and because the Order needed a long time to engulf the world, a lengthy period of five years was necessary.

2. The Order’s Statue

In fact, this statue has appeared a long time ago, hasn’t it?

The statue in Paren Forest, which appeared when Krischa was first encountered, is precisely the statue of Goddess Camilla.

It was already mentioned in the Levalude Facility arc and was speculated upon, but to be clear, the statue in Paren Forest is indeed the statue of Goddess Camilla.

Through this, you can glimpse the fact that the Order has been placing statues in various locations for a long time.

(Those tenacious ones.)

3. BGM

Actually, the most important thing while writing this novel was the BGM.

The atmosphere of the main novel next door was already entering a gloomy chapter, so I needed BGM to keep my spirits up.

So, I arduously searched for and played BGM, writing the novel within that atmosphere.

So far, it’s been quite helpful.

4. Divine Power and Magic Power

It has already appeared in the main story of Dimensions and was mentioned in “Where Can Demons Live?”, but both powers originate from will.

Demons, thanks to being naturally born with magic power among these, can use it without any problems.

However, it is a power with great risks for humans to use, so almost all humans can never use magic power unless they learn how to handle it by experiencing most of Cecilia’s memories, like Zeke.

On the other hand, divine power can also be used by humans, and Camilla used this to embed her divine power into various living beings, waiting for the opportune moment. And thanks to that, the Order became a formidable enemy.

Since these two powers can be antithetical to each other, a person who uses magic power, like Cecilia, can sufficiently block even Camilla’s divine power if they resolve to block divine power with magic power.

5. Is there no more exploration content?

Due to entering the final battle, Zeke and Aria will not have the leisure to explore for the time being.

That’s because Tesia and Rikarin, who belong to the Order, have now attacked them.

Things might truly become chaotic now.

I will conclude the discussion here. It’s almost been two years since I started writing this novel.

Thanks to your interest and love, I believe I’ve been able to successfully upload over 200 chapters of this novel without any issues.

Honestly, since it’s a novel I wrote a long time ago, when I reread it, I sometimes even found myself perplexed and laughing at why I included such lines.

The problem is that if I revise it too much, it interferes with the subsequent story progression, so I’ve been making minimal corrections recently.

(This is the author who already made a mistake in age calculations and later corrected it.)

Anyway, we’ve truly reached the final stretch now.

Will Zeke and Aria truly be able to defeat the Order?

Please continue to support us until the remaining chapters, everyone.

And thank you!