C167
Mia had frozen and was biting her lips to the point of pain as she listened to their conversation. Marquis François and Albert continued talking.
"Marquis François, let's not waste money on doing good deeds for Mia. Instead, let's spend more money on buying slaves that can be killed. We need more power. Whoever the Saint is... we need power to kill."
Buying slaves for ceremonial sacrifices meant regaining control of their property.
Marquis François, pathologically obsessed with grooming and looking beautiful, hesitated for a moment, and Albert's forehead tightened.
"Some of the nobles suspect Mia, and it can be handled somehow. You can create sympathy and use public opinion against her. But if the real Saint appears, what Mia is doing now would be useless! Don't you know that?"
Albert's voice became harsher, and Marquis François nervously pursed his lips.
"Marquis, the more difficult the situation, the more you will have to catch the saint, kill her, and offer her blood, so that the anger towards you can be relieved a bit."
"I didn't give up on finding the Saint. The problem is that there's no one matching the list of those who participated in the incense ceremony. Did Albert find any clues?"
A heavy silence fell between the two.
At that moment.
"I know who the Saint is."
A cold voice cut through between them.
"How long have you been there?"
"Since before."
"By the way, what did you just say...?"
"Wait a moment! Mia Binoche, is it true? Do you know who the Saint is?"
Faced with Albert's urgent question, Mia nodded while licking the blood on her lips.
"Yes."
Seeing Mia's eyes gleam in a strange way, Albert was surprised inside.
In the past, seeing her serve from a distance, he thought she was like a puppet, but now she feels like a completely different person. Marquis François quickly grabbed her delicate shoulder.
"Who is the Saint?"
"… Deborah Seymour."
Mia's cold voice dropped like a glass hanging on the edge of a table shattering.
-------------------
"Is Deborah Seymour the one who wielded power in the incense ceremony?"
"Yes."
The 4th Queen leaned forward and looked very closely at Mia's eyes, which had a dangerous light, like shards of broken glass.
Boldly, she didn't avert her gaze even as the 4th Queen revealed her abyssal power.
"Mia, didn't you get on your knees with these lips to say thank you because I fixed that power for you?"
She pressed Mia's cracked lips, which were dripping blood.
"But why are you suddenly convinced that Deborah Seymour is the Saint? You'll have to come up with a reason for me to understand."
Mia spoke without looking away despite the pain.
"At the ball... the Crown Prince said there was a strong power at the center of the altar. Coincidentally, at the center were the Crown Prince and Princess Deborah, who were leading the ceremony."
"Mmm. Anything else?"
"More than anything, Princess Deborah has been obstructing His Majesty's plans in every way. It's as if she knows it in advance. Was it a coincidence that Princess Deborah's knights appeared and rescued the duchess when there was a rift in the Sky Forest?"
"…"
"If a rift occurs, the saint who blocked the demons during the incense has to reveal her existence again, but there has been no news of the saint who demonstrated that power until now. Moreover, the princess, whom I thought was a villain, turned out to be helping the orphanage by donating the scholarship she received from the academy and establishing a foundation. No matter how I look at it, the princess must be the saint who appeared in the incense celebration!"
Mia, who finished the long speech quickly, was left breathless with her bloodshot eyes.
"Mia. When a situation different from your predictions happened, you were just rejected after being inflexible each time. Since you don't want to admit your shortcomings, do you now feel like Princess Deborah has interrupted you in every way?"
The 4th Queen led Mia, who had wide-open eyes, with a cold voice.
"Above all, Princess Deborah is a young woman known to be a villain. Recently, several things have diluted the misdeeds of the princess in the past, but can she really be called a saint?"
"Really, she must be a Saint! Definitely!"
Excitedly, Mia said.
"Mia! Do you know what you're talking about?"
"…"
"You're telling me to kill Princess Seymour without any clear reason proving that you're right."
Faced with the question that pierced her heart sharply, Mia smiled with a strangely twisted expression.
"Yes!"
In reality, Mia didn't care whether the princess was a true saint or not.
"I could do better without her."
The moment she saw even the humblest talking about Princess Deborah, Mia felt a deep murderous intent.
Deborah Seymour.
The woman with a languid and arrogant tone lives her own life, enjoying precious and good things as if they were a given. She receives admiring looks and easily intercepts even what Mia worked hard for.
"—I wish she would die... I want to kill her."
So, when Albert said that the Saint must be captured and killed, Mia felt a cruel impulse.
"Hahaha!"
The moment she unintentionally murmured her true feelings, the 4th Queen began to laugh heartily as if it were amusing.
It was a terrifying sight, as if the devil were showing its teeth and laughing, but Mia didn't feel fear at all.
The unbearable sense of jubilation she felt for the first time made her heart beat so hard that her eardrums hurt.
"I just liked your good and pure appearance that reminded me of a Saint, but in reality, you have a rather insidious interior."
Mia has been moving passively like a puppet.
She has justified herself by saying that she had no choice but to participate in their plans, helping in the kidnapping and murder committed by the witches, and she has treated herself as a victim, hiding her desire to escape the fallen nobility and rise above it.
But not now.
She wanted to get rid of all the annoying things, like the princess, and have everything she wanted in her hands.
And the 4th Queen felt a sense of happiness when Mia frankly revealed her desires.
"You used me as bait to lure the real Saint, so this time do me a favor!"
"Oh. Will you even haggle with me? You're the first to show your thoughts. Yes, you have to have that kind of ambition for us to work together."
"Will you kill her?"
The 4th Queen narrowed her eyes.
Killing Princess Seymour was not an easy task, but Mia's argument was not absurd at all.
Deborah Seymour's movements prevented her plans from going well, and she has been a thorn in her eyes all this time.
Moreover, recently, there has been an incident where the witches who kidnapped a baby with divine power disappeared without even knowing who the mysterious assailant was.
"And what if it's intentionally hidden that she is the Saint...?"
She opened her mouth at the thought that suddenly came to her mind.
"Yes."
The 4th Queen said, looking at Mia, who couldn't control her joy and was smiling.
"I will kill Deborah Seymour as you wish."
--------------------
A cold and bitter wind wildly shook the tree, but I didn't have time to feel the cold because I was confined to the room.
After the debutante ended, I rested for a long time and just lay under a warm blanket.
"Sister, are you sick?"
Every time he entered the room, Enrique looked at me lying on the bed worriedly.
"You don't have a fever...."
Enrique, with his little hand on my forehead, tilted his head.
"I'm not sick, I'm doing my best to be lazy. Would you like to join me?"
Enrique, lying down next to her as if imitating her, fell asleep shortly after, and I fell asleep listening to the regular breathing of the child.
"It's that dream again, isn't it... Strictly speaking, it's a memory, not a dream?"
The reason I kept sleeping was also because of Nayla's memories.
"I think I didn't even sleep because of these dreams."
The strange thing is that the more I recover these memories, the more I get used to the divine power.
I've only slept, but I'm getting stronger.
Every time Nayla used the divine power in her dreams, I could directly experience how she controlled that great power. It was like reliving the swimming lessons I learned a long time ago when I became an adult.
"By the way, the situation in the dream is becoming more and more chaotic."
After leaving the desert with the man resembling Isidor, Nayla unpacked her belongings in a small southern village and was attacked by a huge monster before she could relax.
Because there were quite a few injured, Nayla was very busy.
But unexpectedly, it wasn't the strong demons that put her in great danger, but the slave traders who attacked the Saint.
"She's a Saint, we can sell her to a high-ranking knight at a high price."
However, just before they take her away, a man appeared like a relief pitcher, and annihilated the slave traders in the blink of an eye, then wrapped Nayla up like luggage.
"Your god is a selfish bastard who asks you to save others' lives without giving you the strength to protect yourself. Or are you being held back by that God?"
".... Do not blaspheme against the Lord."
"Don't be shy and think first about protecting your body. I'm not your babysitter, and I can't always be by your side."
"I have few motor skills and little physical strength, so I can't handle weapons well. I also envy your great power."
Then the man looked at me with a subtle expression.
"In the ancient Tegea Empire, during the reign of Emperor Silas, there was a priestess named 'Danae'."
Danae.
[This book is dedicated to my dear Danae.]
"The name in the introduction to the mana formula...."