novelraw Chapter 178 : Chapter 178
Chapter 178 : Chapter 178
Chapter 178: Inquisition (5)
——Huu, and.
A faint spreading breath.
Smoke, not vapor, fluttered.
The garden of the Brilliant Sun Royal Palace.
Amid flowers cultivated through techniques decorating all sides,
Johanna murmured softly.
In the midst of her long robe, smoke flowed from the gap where Johanna's face should have been visible. Pitch-black smoke swayed following the direction of the winter wind. Without eyes or nose or mouth or ears, and without expression as well, Johanna extended her hand.
——Tap, and.
Johanna's hand touching a green leaf.
The moment black fingers touched the leaf without any gap,
——Rustle, and.
The leaf fluttered toward the dirt.
Having already withered.
Johanna's head tilted to the side.
Iris and Abel stood together. The Pope, a Duke, and the Sword Saint. Even the garden of the Brilliant Sun Royal Palace seemed modest for the empire's confidants to converse. Johanna walked forward with a slight smile. She passed Abel and Iris heading toward the garden's exterior.
"It is exactly as I wrote in the report."
Abel exhaled a sigh.
He spoke while following Johanna. About what he experienced in Portsmouth without falsehood. Even about the existence of the Demon King who had awakened enough to bestow grace upon an Intelligent Species.
Johanna laughed quietly.
The Demon King. It was not that she did not believe Abel's words, but somehow she laughed whenever she heard of the Demon King's existence. Like all subjects of the empire, Johanna too had encountered the existence of the Demon King through fairy tales based on prophecies.
"Of course."
Abel nodded once.
"You told me to experience two positions difficult to maintain together. Professor and Sword Saint."
"It was difficult."
Both guiding the children as a professor,
And facing Intelligent Species as the Sword Saint.
The entire process.
Abel murmured so.
"I seem to have committed many mistakes, and there were clumsy parts among them. Especially regarding guiding the children. However, I did not fail."
It was probably thanks to the children, and.
As Abel whispered in a small voice,
Johanna declared flatly.
Meanwhile, Iris looked around.
The garden's scenery continued boringly, but she could grasp it without difficulty. The smoke spreading from the robe surrounding Johanna. That was precisely Johanna's divine power. Divine power scattered in the air was secretly surrounding the Brilliant Sun Royal Palace.
"Yes, Your Holiness."
Iris lowered her head.
Inwardly she was certain. No one could hear the current conversation. If someone saw them, they would perceive black smoke surging. Thanks to Johanna's divine power distorting space.
Perhaps, no, certainly.
Even though she was not using techniques voluntarily.
Though Johanna could never control her own divine power.
"That is correct."
The former territory of the Kingdom of Vianchiel where the Parousia cult is stationed.
A Saintess is there, I presume.
Iris whispered so.
"It is information Abel collected from Lost Library. It is probably certain."
Interesting, interesting, and.
Johanna murmured in a low tone.
Meanwhile, an open area where Magestone vehicles were parked was revealed.
Among the orderly arranged Magestone vehicles, an exceptionally large and splendid vehicle caught Abel's gaze. A circular vehicle adorned with platinum. The private vehicle operated for Johanna the Pope, called the 'Shroud Of Turin'.
——Clang, and.
A golem revealing itself from inside the vehicle.
A golem with features exactly resembling Fabien opened the rear door.
Johanna boarded the vehicle first, and Abel and Iris followed. Two spacious seats facing each other. The moment the three people took their seats,
[Returning, Your Holiness.]
The golem's mechanically recited voice.
The Magestone vehicle emitted exhaust. As the magestone combusted, the vehicle began rushing forward.
Johanna whispered while arranging her robe.
Beside such a Johanna, sleepwear lay disheveled. Sleepwear with lively patterns engraved, seeming more like a girl's than a woman's.
Thus, smoke from inside Johanna's robe was emitted, and,
<……it was really really uncomfortable!>
——Suddenly──!
The disheveled sleepwear burst forth.
Filled with thick smoke.
"It is because Your Holiness's divine power is too excessive."
Johanna shouted sharply.
Abel shrugged his shoulders with an expressionless face.
"I will obey the command."
Abel extended both hands.
He blinked his eyes with them folded over his lips as they were.
——Hmph, and. Johanna snorted. Then she turned her head toward Iris.
"I am listening, Your Holiness."
Iris nodded slightly.
Her expression that had been frozen solemnly soon loosened. Iris gazed at Johanna with a gentle smile.
"It is a fact Abel uncovered. They are cardinals who reigned in an era when witch hunts were rampant. As Your Holiness also knows……."
How uninteresting, and.
After Johanna murmured in a voice mixed with a sigh,
She continued in a low voice.
It must be so.
Abel thought with his mouth blocked.
Johanna had been sustained for a longer time than known to the public. Several beings recorded as past Popes were merely different forms of Johanna. That said, they could not be regarded as equal existences. That was because the time the ego of Johanna facing Abel had been awakened was not even a hundred years.
She was not alive according to her own will, and the time she had lived while perceiving herself had not been long in the first place.
"Of course, Your Holiness. That is precisely why."
I understand Your Holiness's position well.
Iris whispered so, and,
Johanna said in a firm tone.
——Slide, and.
Black smoke extending toward Iris.
Clumped black smoke grazed Iris's cheek. It seemed to stroke her briefly, but it also resembled the tentacles of deaths that had assaulted during the inquisition.
You must not let that child despair in this world.
If not, Saintess from another world.
If you truly……,
<……understand my position.>
* * *
There was an era when even death was entertainment.
There was an era when hanged witches were everywhere in the square, and people mocked while pointing fingers at such witches' corpses. The executions performed daily were merely one form of amusement. It was because they could find comfort in laughter while watching witches die. That they barely survived. That only they survived in this era.
Kill, kill, kill.
Kill the witches, kill the witches.
Hang the witches' necks in the square at once──!
Was that why.
The square was swelling with angry shouts.
Five cardinals stood beside the gallows, one woman advanced toward the gallows, and countless passersby were shouting while pointing fingers at the woman.
"Hello."
In the midst of this,
The woman heading to the gallows opened her mouth.
"We finally meet."
The woman's gaze tilted to the side.
A girl was captured in the woman's gaze. A girl with darkish skin was gazing at the woman with an expressionless face.
"I knew you would come."
——Jostle, and.
Hands pushing the woman's back.
The woman passed the girl and reached the gallows.
Her neck was hanged as it was, and as time flowed like that,
Kill, kill, kill.
Kill the witches, kill the witches.
Hang the witches' necks in the square at once──!
Angry shouts assaulting once again.
Time had not flowed. It was merely repeating.
"The past cannot become the present."
Thus, the woman passed the girl once again.
The girl's frozen expression crumbled briefly. The girl gazed at the woman with her eyes wide open.
"That it cannot become the future is also natural. The past is merely discarded after being carved out from time. The reason it can never be changed is because of that. It can only be recollected without being turned back."
"You are……."
The girl's mouth opened.
"……who?"
——Jostle, and.
Hands pushing the woman's back again.
The woman passed the girl and reached the gallows once more.
Her neck was hanged as it was, and as time flowed once again like that,
"Welcome. Saintess who recollects the past from the future."
Soon it circulated and began flowing again.
A specific time period of the past was repeating.
Thanks to this, the woman could speak to the girl.
"No, should I say now that you are imprisoned in the past."
Such things do not matter.
We have met like this.
I am truly glad I will die today, and.
The woman murmured.
Thus her neck was hanged once again, and,
"I am also a Saintess."
She whispered toward the girl once again.
"A Saintess who can foresee the future from the past."
Lilith Problem.
That is precisely my name.
"What is your name?"
"……Noel."
Noel Hadebarim, and.
The girl answered the woman's question.
"Good, Noel."
Lilith, the Saintess of Foresight, smiled.
Thus she whispered to Noel, the Saintess of Recollection.
"There are people trying to rescue you."
So let us talk.
That is all we can do.
Until they reach this place, we can only repeat.
All of this.
All the sins of this past.
"We can only repeat endlessly."