CHAPTER 87……………………………

Holy Kingdom, Law King’s Court.

The priest returned, looking significantly different from when he had left, and shouted in an agitated voice:

“We must properly punish those unbelievers!”

The Holy Kingdom priest vented furiously about the unfair treatment he had received.

Just a few words relayed to him were enough for others to detain and oppress him so severely.

“Excommunication is the only fitting punishment for such people!”

“Fitting?”

A sharp voice cut through the throne room, slicing the air as the priest’s words echoed.

A cold, frost-like voice settled over the priest’s head, silencing him instantly.

“Who decides that?”

Click.

Footsteps echoed clearly on the floor, drawing nearer.

It was as if the Law King was giving the priest time to reflect on the meaning of “excommunication” and reconsider his hastiness.

“You?”

Daring.

The Law King’s gaze, commanding the priest to understand his place, fell upon him.

Only then did the priest realize he had been too agitated and had offended his master’s mood, and he hurriedly dropped to his knees.

“I-I apologize, Your Majesty. A lowly servant like myself dared to presumptuously speak of your noble will…”

The Law King accepted the priest’s deeply humble posture as proper.

“Pegasus, huh.”

Whether his subordinate had been humiliated or not, the Law King did not care in the slightest.

He gently adjusted the silver fox crest ring on his finger and thought of the Pegasus family.

A prominent grand noble family of the continent.

The only herbivorous beastkin among long-standing lords.

The problematic head of the house, Pelod Pegasus, who had introduced a family culture that stirred unnecessary ideas among the common folk.

“The previous head had quite a few issues.”

Before becoming the family head, when he behaved like a commoner, there were unfortunate matters that the Law King personally had to endure.

Still, after becoming the Pegasus head, his actions showed consistent hostility toward the Holy Kingdom.

Perhaps consistent is the right word.

“Ever since he produced the Sealing Orb and challenged the uniqueness of our Holy lineage… it’s been a problem.”

It was exactly at that time that the massive offerings from across the continent for purification rituals had slightly decreased.

The Law King, eyes lowered beneath long silver lashes, finally spoke:

“The heir of the Pegasus family, Lin Pegasus, manifested the power to eliminate monsters?”

“Y-Yes! Y-Yes! I witnessed it with my own eyes!”

At the forest during the Pegasus Hunting Festival, everyone present had seen monsters vanish in an instant from the light released.

The priest detailed everything he had seen to the Law King.

“Using the divine power granted to me, I performed the purification ritual, but the monsters revived and ran rampant again!”

The rebirth of the thorn-horned monsters shocked even the priest.

Purification rituals.

The Holy Kingdom’s authority and power stemmed entirely from them.

The only way to fundamentally eliminate monsters.

The sacred power granted solely by the gods to the noble Holy lineage.

Priests like him were merely its agents.

Yet that power had failed. Monsters remained unpurified.

Something had gone terribly wrong.

If such failures happened more than once, the very foundation of the Holy Kingdom would be shaken!

“Moreover, now that the heir possesses such power… Since the unpurified monsters were annihilated by Lin Pegasus’ ability… the unbelievers will surely chatter again, and I—”

“Enough.”

The Law King decisively raised a hand, cutting off the priest’s increasingly long-winded speech.

“You worry too much.”

The priest’s eyes trembled, thinking he was about to be scolded again.

The Law King, eyes curling like a fox’s, reached out to him with a gentle and benevolent expression.

“Because your faith runs deep.”

“Ah, Your Majesty!”

The priest pressed his forehead to the back of the Law King’s hand and murmured prayers under his breath, overwhelmed by blessing.

The Law King let him bask in his rapture for a while.

The power that made monsters disappear.

Given the Pegasus family’s already skeptical nature, it made sense to view the heir’s newly manifested ability with caution.

Yet, unlike the anxious subordinate, the Law King’s elegant smile graced his beautiful face.

Softly, his long silver hair swayed as he took a step forward.

“Lin Pegasus.”

At the sound of the Law King speaking the name of a child he had yet to meet, every eye in the audience turned to him.

“The child’s hair is also silver, like ours?”

Silver.

The color of the sacred divine beast lineage.

When the audience chamber was constructed, the light angle was carefully calculated so that the Law King’s silver hair would shine brilliantly on the throne.

“I want to see for myself.”

His lips curved gently, framed by a halo that made him appear almost divine.

After Lin awoke and fully recovered, the ceremony to award the Guardian Emblem—postponed during the Hunting Festival—was held.

“To the winner who hunted the most monsters in this festival, I bestow this emblem.”

The Pegasus child who best embodied the banner of the “Guardian Pegasus.”

“Lin Pegasus.”

A warm smile spread across Theodore’s face as he called Lin’s name.

Hehe.

Victory!

Despite her excitement, Lin maintained a composed expression—or at least thought she did—but her smiling mouth betrayed her pride as she stepped forward confidently.

“Well done, Lin.”

Whispering as he pinned the Guardian Emblem, Theodore made Lin beam with pride.

As Lin joyfully smiled, their warm gaze met.

Below the stage, the Pegasus family exchanged excited and thrilled looks, chatting animatedly.

“So amazing! To have an heir like this in our generation. This moment might become legendary, just like the founder’s story.”

“The heir’s beast form is a ‘Qilin,’ right?”

After the Hunting Festival, everyone knew Lin’s true identity.

The Pegasus family, who had thought their heir was merely a mutant beastkin, were thrilled to discover her true form.

“Not just any beastkin—a divine beast!”

“Exactly. With the power to annihilate monsters in an instant, if that’s not a divine beast, then what is?”

The Qilin.

Lin’s ability, once mistaken for an ordinary luminous power, was actually a sacred force capable of opposing monsters.

No family member questioned Theodore’s official announcement.

Even in the past, they might have—but everyone had witnessed it firsthand during the Hunting Festival. That alone was sufficient proof.

The Pegasus family took pride in being witnesses to that event.

The “divine beast” concept was already familiar, making it easier to understand than the newly revealed Qilin form.

“Until now, only the Holy lineage produced divine beasts. But now our Pegasus family has one too!”

“A new chapter of history is being written on the continent.”

And I was the living witness of that history.

The Pegasus family’s shoulders bounced with excitement as they processed the news of their heir’s Qilin identity.

Questions arose about the heir’s Qilin form, curiosity and admiration mingled.

“So now our family will take another leap forward? Like when the founder became a Pegasus, will we now be the ‘Qilin’ family?”

“Wow! If the entire family could possess the power that purifies monsters…!”

“Oh, no, that’s not how it works,” said one Pegasus, adjusting his glasses and sharing what he had already heard.

“The founder became a Pegasus from a horse, but the heir Lin was born as a Qilin. It isn’t inherited like family bloodlines.”

“Ah… that’s a bit disappointing.”

“Well, it’s still wonderful. Our future head possesses the power to annihilate monsters!”

The Pegasi agreed enthusiastically, shouting in unison:

“Yes! Exactly!”