A Regressor's Bucket List

Chapter 217 : Enthronement Ceremony (1)

“Haaam… Hmm?”

Back at the Guild House.

An early morning, the dawn's twilight not yet faded.

Stretching as she came out into the lobby, Loxy saw a newspaper lying on the dining table.

“This is….”

Rustle—

She carefully picked up the newspaper.

[Saintess. Executed.]

At the top center of the front page, a headline consisting of just two words was followed by edited text that filled the entire page.

Normally, it was a title so brief it would be criticized for its lack of effort.

But in this case, that didn't apply.

The ending for the article's protagonist was so self-evident that even Loxy, who had little interest in the Order Territory, could guess the contents at a glance.

“In the end….”

It seems she's gone. That woman—

As Loxy's quiet murmur revealed, the Saintess had not left the castle with U-jin that day.

To Loxy, it was a completely incomprehensible choice.

It meant she had chosen death for herself.

Despite having a clear path to survival right before her eyes, and even after learning that the very process that led her to choose death was a kind of puppet show orchestrated by Isaac Einstein.

She did not avoid the death that lay before her.

‘…Just why.’

What was the reason she had to go that far?

She hadn't been able to join the conversation then, but if she could go back, she wanted to ask.

…Well. It was impossible anyway.

“…Why did you have to do that, you.”

Posing a question that would never be answered, Loxy subconsciously scanned the newspaper's contents.

[Last night at midnight, the Saintess's execution was carried out. Unlike the usual public executions of the past, the Saintess's execution was conducted in the presence of responsible Order officials and a very small number of pre-selected observers from each region of the Order….]

A public execution of the Saintess was bound to be a burden for the Order.

Of course, there was the principle of public execution, stipulated by the Order's law, that all executions related to the Sin of Blasphemy must be conducted publicly in the presence of observers.

But the Saintess's influence was, after all, quite significant.

The scene of executing the Saintess in front of a large crowd could in itself cause unnecessary unrest.

The Order had already been working in all directions to quell the unrest caused by the Saintess's execution; carelessly proceeding with a public execution just to follow the rules could turn all their efforts into nothing in an instant.

Therefore, they used the loophole of selecting observers from all over the Order Territory to conduct a 'partially public execution' with only a minimal number of participants.

The result of this was that not a single photograph appeared in this major front-page article.

[According to the testimony of one of the observers, the Saintess had a smile on her face the entire time she was at the execution ground. From being blindfolded, handcuffed, and her feet bound, to standing on the executioner's square platform. Even at the very moment the death penalty order was being read….]

That seemed likely.

Whether she was happy or something else, Loxy couldn't know her exact emotions.

But she had clearly chosen death for herself despite having a way to live.

If she had been crying, it would have been even harder to understand.

“…At least she's consistent.”

Shrug—

“Though she's still a fool either way.”

[Thus, the Saintess met her end and did not resurrect….]

After reading a bit more of the text below, Loxy turned the page.

Flip—

What was written below was of no particular interest to Loxy.

Accomplishments, life story, birth, hometown, and so on.

They had patched together various miscellaneous facts about the Saintess to create a sort of 'tribute'.

What Loxy was curious about while reading the article was strictly related to the Saintess's death, not the Saintess as a person.

The quiet time of this deserted dawn felt too precious to waste on such useless content.

“……”

In contrast to the front page, which was filled with the single, massive headline [Saintess. Executed.], the second page recorded the reactions of people from across the continent to the Saintess's execution in an interview format.

- According to the testimony of observer A…

- From a rural village in the northern Order Territory…

- A lifelong follower of the Saintess…

- Someone who was born in the same village as the Saintess and shared a childhood with her…

“…So.”

There was a lot of content, but in the end, what people were commonly saying was one thing.

That the Saintess was executed, and the resurrection spoken of in the Messiah's prophecy did not happen.

It was a pity, but just like all the other 'Self-proclaimed Resurrected Ones' before her, the Saintess had lost her life and fallen silent.

And that was the end of it.

Was that really all there was to it?

‘…….’

She couldn't know.

Shake, shake—

Shaking her head once, Loxy held the newspaper a little further away.

It was to get a better overall view of the attached photographs, not the text.

Unlike the text-only front page, the second page had photos attached to each interview, seemingly showing people's reactions.

Contrary to Loxy's expectation that it would be nothing but sadness, the people's reactions were quite varied.

People shedding tears in sorrow.

People taking out their anger on an innocent wall, furious about something.

People who hadn't yet lost hope that the Saintess would be resurrected.

And so on.

The ways in which people accepted the Saintess's execution were incredibly diverse.

And once again.

She could feel the extent of the Saintess's influence.

Even the photos attached to this article had probably gone through a first round of censorship by the Order, with anything potentially too provocative being rejected.

If she could see such passionate reactions even in the toned-down versions, she couldn't begin to imagine how chaotic the actual streets were when the news of the Saintess's execution spread.

Though it probably wasn't reported, there must have been quite a few who visited the cathedrals, expressing their opposition to the Order.

It was surprising to think that all of this happened despite the Order's efforts.

…But.

Ssk—

Loxy thought that such a chaotic atmosphere wouldn't last long.

Because the third page, which she had just turned to, was mostly filled with articles related to the 'Beastkin'.

“……”

One might think the third page was relatively less important.

But today was the day the Saintess's execution had taken place.

For the third page to be filled mostly with articles about the Beastkin despite that…

“…They'll retake the front page by tomorrow.”

It meant that an event related to the Beastkin Nation, one that would capture people's attention, would soon fill the front page of the paper.

[[Breaking News] Reconstruction of the Beastkin Nation Confirmed. Enthronement Ceremony Announced for the End of the Month.]

Well, it wasn't something she couldn't understand.

The efforts the Order had made by dragging out the Saintess's execution for over a decade weren't for nothing.

It was a task that a massive organization had poured its heart and soul into for a long time.

Beyond the simple mechanism of delaying the execution, they must have worked in many unseen ways to cool people's interest in the Saintess.

The decision to finally carry out the execution was made because the Order had judged that public interest in the matter had dropped to its limit.

The evidence for that was abundant.

For today, the day of the execution, articles about the Beastkin Nation had been pushed from the front page.

But for the past several months, even after the execution date was announced, the hottest topic that always occupied the front page was news related to the Beastkin Nation.

Of course, the fact that the Beastkin Nation's base guild, the one currently gathering the most attention, was the one she belonged to didn't make the situation particularly pleasant.

But that was the reality.

“……”

By tomorrow, an article about the Beastkin Nation's base guild would likely occupy the front page once again.

This wasn't just some clumsy inference; Loxy was sure of it.

Even if it didn't happen naturally, the 'Order' would make it so at an organizational level.

They had been pouring effort into matters related to the Saintess's execution for this very moment—for the past few months, or to be precise, for over a decade.

If they couldn't even change the front page of a newspaper after setting the stage so perfectly, it would mean the Order was incompetent.

‘…….’

The 'mysterious guild' located at the final destination where the Great Migration of the Beastkin had stopped, in a region no different from the Unexplored Lands at the edge of Kunlun, and to which the Order had granted a guild permit for the first time in 100 years.

For the past few months, the Order had bundled all the curiosity surrounding the Beastkin Nation and directed it here.

It was a very deliberate diversionary tactic.

To overshadow the Saintess's execution, they needed an event with even greater impact.

And the alternative they found was the Beastkin Nation being rebuilt through U-jin.

On the day of the Beastkin Nation's Enthronement Ceremony.

A rumor had already spread far and wide that there would also be an official briefing about the guild.

It wasn't officially reported, but it was being treated as fact, perhaps because the Order had started the rumor itself.

All eyes were on the Beastkin Nation's Enthronement Ceremony.

It was even planned for the enthronement ceremony to be broadcast live via the Order's Satellite Magic, connected to each cathedral.

Something about it being a process of respectfully observing the birth of a new power within the Order.

The excuse sounded nice, but it was obviously due to a massive, Order-wide effort.

Needless to say, rather than a pure intention to celebrate the enthronement, it concealed the Order's ulterior motive to quickly erase the word 'Saintess' from the minds of its people.

“……”

To Loxy, the situation was obvious.

People would turn their eyes to a new topic and forget the Saintess.

…From her position of knowing a little more than others, the only thing she could do was to remember the Saintess.

Thud—

“…What could she have said?”

Loxy muttered, a scene suddenly coming to mind as she set the newspaper down.

She was referring to the conversation between U-jin and the Saintess, right before they left the outer castle where the Saintess had been confined and returned to the Guild House.

『You…….』

No, calling it a conversation was a bit inaccurate.

The Saintess was the one who spoke, and U-jin had merely listened, his expression hardening, before leaving.

Loxy wanted to ask U-jin about it herself.

But on the way back to the Guild House, he had maintained a dark expression she had never seen before, so she couldn't bring herself to just ask.

“…Will a day ever come when I find out?”

Loxy murmured quietly and shook her head.

Outside the window, the sun was rising.

Until the Beastkin Nation's Enthronement Ceremony.

Two weeks remained.