Chapter 83
After stopping the carriage and checking outside, Zerman’s low voice came through the crack in the door.
“There are quite a few nobles here hiding their identities like us.”
Of course there were.
This was Rivier, the one who wielded the greatest power in the Epernia Empire.
The only person standing above the now meaningless Emperor. And now, the Crown Prince—her only rival—had dealt her a serious blow.
On top of that, the Bellaniv subsidy scandal, in which even nobles who supported her were harmed, had drawn great attention regarding the whereabouts of the funds.
Trust had already been broken. Nobles who were not her die-hard followers were far from foolish.
They had only sided with her because there was no one else to oppose her. But if they thought Khalid truly had a chance to defeat her, they would switch sides in an instant.
And there were many neutral factions that didn’t want to get caught up in a futile power struggle. Depending on how Rivier responded now, the power structure could easily change.
They’re not like the followers who bow and keep their mouths shut the moment she raises a hand.
Even if the nobles defected en masse, Rivier would still remain frighteningly high above them.
Because everyone gathered here in Razan was a devout follower of Bessia, longing for just a single word of blessing from her.
My heart tightened painfully.
Is this what it feels like to fight someone so far out of reach you can’t even touch them? Had Khalid been confronting Rivier with this same feeling all along?
As a dizzying sensation seeped in and blurred my vision, the crowd parted.
The tightly shut doors of the cathedral opened.
Like a symbol, the white hem of her robe—worn every time she stood at the altar—brushed in the breeze as she appeared.
Rivier stepped slowly out of the cathedral, head bowed.
The sunlight past noon gently glimmered over her silver hair.
Her face seemed imbued with a light more solemn and fragile than anything in the world.
She’ll say she’s heartbroken, that she’s saddened by this tragedy. One hypocritical tear and they’ll all forgive her.
Even if the nobles weren’t convinced, the massive crowd gathered here would fall for her words—Rivier knew that well enough.
Someone among the commoners shouted,
“Saintess! Did you truly not know about the Bellaniv affair?”
Another raised his voice,
“Where did all the subsidies go?”
The once-hushed crowd began to murmur.
I quickly glanced at Khalid.
He, too, had a hard expression, checking that the shouter wasn’t one of the people we’d planted.
Rivier stopped walking and slowly lifted her head to face the people.
Her expression, steeped in sorrow, looked as though those accusations had wounded her deeply.
Her radiant golden eyes swept slowly across the assembly.
Time stretched as silence thickened and she gradually claimed it as her own.
Some would see that gaze as delicate and sorrowful, but to me, her golden eyes were cold as biting ice.
And then—I saw it. Something flickered faintly within that gold.
A chilling sensation, like our eyes had met.
As Rivier fixed her gaze this way, she spoke in a graceful voice,
“…I’m sorry.”
Her soft words rang clear across the front of the cathedral.
“I too… was devastated when I learned of the recommendation letter incident.”
With both hands pressed to her chest and her eyes gently closed, she looked like a tragic heroine.
A sigh rippled through the crowd.
Rivier’s clasped hands trembled.
Then, as if exhaling something she could no longer bear, she said,
“…When I heard of the Bellaniv uprising, I felt fear. In my haste to help them, I urged you all to act without proper verification. It is a lamentable mistake.”
A lie. Utter nonsense.
“How could the Bellaniv uprising frighten the Saintess!”
Another voice rang out, perfectly timed.
Khalid’s brow twitched as he quietly ordered Zerman nearby,
“Find out who that is.”
It was already too late to leave things to flow according to Rivier’s plan without interference.
I watched Zerman vanish into the crowd, then turned my eyes back to Rivier.
And then—words I had never expected slipped from Rivier’s lips.
“Because before that… God showed me a calamity.”
My breath caught.
More than ever before.
Rivier’s voice trembled, her hands clutching her chest quivered—but…
Those vivid golden eyes were undeniably fixed on me. The eyes that symbolized holy power—were smiling at me.
Rivier was stabbing me with her gaze alone.
“A calamity? What do you mean?”
“Could it be… another disaster like the great flood in Bellaniv?”
“Good heavens! Another calamity will come?”
The massive crowd rippled with unease. The hushed air shattered in an instant.
“What calamity did God reveal to you?”
The earlier voice cried out again from somewhere in the throng—Zerman still hadn’t caught him.
Rivier staggered like someone struck by great shock and spoke,
“That calamity… it was too horrific to behold.”
My hand gripping the carriage window frame turned white from pressure.
“Corpses piled like mountains, the sky blackened so that holy light could not reach it. All I heard were screams and shouts… and the clash of steel…”
I couldn’t breathe.
No. That’s impossible. A lie.
My heart thrashed violently.
Thud—thud—each beat rang clear in my ears.
“W-war! It’s a prophecy that war will strike the land! Aagh!”
Thud!
The cry was cut short by a scream as Zerman finally seized its owner.
But the single word had already sunk deep into every mind in the square.
War.
My body trembled. Every curse I knew clawed to spill from my lips.
“…This is absurd.”
But the people were already painting a picture of calamity in their minds, branded by the “prophecy” of the holy one.
Imagining the gruesome tragedy of war, screams broke out here and there. Panic spread.
Because the prophecy of the holy bearer of divine power was, to them, the inevitable future. With a few words, Rivier had drowned the square in fear and terror.
I bit my lip, but shaky breaths escaped anyway.
Cold sweat trickled down my nape.
And Rivier—she wasn’t done yet. Slowly, she turned aside and spoke to the agitated crowd,
“I have also investigated the matter of the recommendation letters. How they reached such people when I wrote them myself… It required a thorough inquiry.”
At that moment, a burly man emerged from the cathedral, dragging someone behind him.
The limp body, arms bound behind the back, seemed unconscious.
Hair matted with dirt and blood, clothes torn to shreds barely covering the body. Bruised all over, skin split open with dried blood stuck to it.
A swollen face, split lips, broken fingers.
A long trail of blood from inside the cathedral proved she was still bleeding.
It was suffocating just to look at the horrific sight.
Even with her ruined face, I knew her at once.
Because she’d always been closer to me than anyone.
Jenna.
My maid, my friend, my family.
The breath almost tore from my throat. My nails dug so hard into the window frame I nearly broke it.
Rivier slowly turned her head to gaze at Jenna.
Then she sighed deeply, her face steeped in sorrow.
“This girl exploited my lack of memory of the great flood to steal the recommendation letters. Letters meant for poor disaster victims were twisted for someone’s selfish gain—I never imagined such a thing.”
Blood roared in my ears.
My throat locked up so I couldn’t utter a sound.
No. No, no, no. Jenna… Please…!
I couldn’t believe it. My body convulsed so violently that Khalid had to hold me down.
Even the onlookers were left breathless by the sheer brutality of the torture.
“It is my fault for failing to teach and watch over my own. Too late, I punished her upon discovering the truth… but she showed no remorse, trying to escape again and again.”
“Lies—!”
I could almost hear the snap as the restraint I’d forced on myself until now finally broke.
