Episode 108
One hour had passed since the Third Sanctuary, the only building in the Theology Department, was engulfed in flames.
Everyone had given up on extinguishing the fire when Caroline, her white hair billowing around her, appeared.
“My, my, what a commotion. I came to see what all the fuss was about.”
“Professor Caroline…! We’ve been looking for you!”
Julietta, as if she had just found her savior, clung to Caroline’s robe.
“Professor, please extinguish the fire!”
“This is the only building we have. We can’t just let it burn.”
“We couldn’t extinguish it!”
“Oh.”
Caroline, with a deadpan expression, lightly waved her staff, and the flames vanished.
The professors, except for Julietta, immediately rushed into the sanctuary. They didn’t expect to find any survivors, considering the collapsed ceiling, but they had to at least recover the bodies.
Julietta, watching them, anxiously bit her fingernails. Caroline, her voice casual, remarked,
“Quite a gathering for a holiday. I didn’t know the Heilan and Ravanta students were so close.”
Julietta flinched, stopping her nail-biting. She lowered her head, her voice filled with self-reproach.
“It’s because of the Calamity God prayer altars. We wanted to ease their anxiety and strengthen their faith through prayer. And then this happened. It’s all my fault.”
Her acting was impeccable. She almost sounded like she was talking about a prayer meeting for the God of Abundance.
Caroline, looking around, casually remarked,
“I see quite a few of my Magic Department students here. I didn’t know they were so religiously inclined.”
“Expanding their horizons is a good thing. And faith encourages generosity.”
“There’s no end to learning. I’m ashamed of my own teaching methods.”
“There’s no need for that, Professor. You’re already an excellent teacher.”
Julietta smiled, tilting her head.
An awkward silence fell between them. Caroline broke the silence.
“Julietta.”
“Yes, Professor?”
Julietta replied cheerfully.
Caroline’s playful expression vanished, and she spoke, her words swallowed by a sudden gust of wind. But Julietta heard them clearly.
“Right?”
Caroline tilted her head and smiled, mimicking Julietta’s earlier gesture. The smile vanished from Julietta’s face.
“…What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said.”
Julietta’s fists clenched, and she was about to retort when,
“Professor Julietta! We found Lucius! He’s safe!”
Julietta’s head snapped towards the voice.
Lucius, supported by a few professors, was walking towards them.
He was alive.
Julietta rushed towards him, her face alight with relief, and Caroline watched them, a thoughtful expression on her face.
‘So he’s the apostle.’
Elonia, who had left the prayer meeting before the fire, had said,
“The apostle isn’t the mastermind. He’s just a pawn.”
She had promised to explain later and returned to the Imperial Palace. Perhaps she had unintentionally done them a favor.
“The apostle… he survived…”
“It’s a miracle. He’s truly the apostle of the God of Resurrection, not the Calamity God…”
The devotees murmured amongst themselves, their faces filled with awe.
The fire in the Third Sanctuary had spread to the entire Theology Department building. It had raged for almost an hour, and the ceiling had collapsed. Everyone had assumed Lucius was dead.
And yet, he had emerged unscathed, as if reborn from the flames.
He looked like an angel resurrected from hell, a miracle heralding the rise of the God of Resurrection.
It was a perfect narrative, albeit unintentional.
‘Her Highness must have her reasons, but it’s best to keep an eye on Julietta for now.’
A mentor’s role was to support their disciple.
So she had to be even more vigilant than Elonia. She had given them a pawn, but she would collect her reward later.
Caroline, after observing Lucius for a long moment, left.
Lucius, sensing the disappearance of her intense gaze, turned towards where she had been standing.
“Apostle?”
Julietta called out to him, her voice laced with concern.
Lucius slowly turned to her and asked,
“…Professor Julietta, what were you talking about with her?”
Julietta, momentarily speechless, hesitated, a flicker of fear in her eyes.
“It was nothing.”
“Are you sure?”
“…”
Julietta remained silent, her expression troubled. Lucius was usually the one who was intimidated, but now, it was Julietta who seemed afraid.
Her brainwashing was supposed to be unbreakable. But whatever Caroline had said, it had shaken Julietta’s faith.
[Lucius, are you insane?! Why did you try to kill yourself?!]
Lucius ignored the voice that suddenly echoed in his mind and looked at Julietta, his gaze sharp and piercing, then stood up.
Elonia, having escaped the Theology Department building before Lucius, went straight to Artius’s office.
As expected, her family, always so worried about her, were in a state of panic.
“Elonia! What’s with the ashes? Are you hurt?”
“Your Highness, what happened?! Why did the spell wear off?!”
“Quickly, summon Chloe!”
Artius and the two knights fussed over her.
Elonia calmly dusted off the ashes from her hair and replied,
“I’m fine. I started the fire.”
Artius’s eyes widened in horror.
“You started another fire? At the academy?”
He was starting to worry about her future career path. Was she aspiring to be an arsonist, not an Empress?
Elonia, seeing his horrified expression, clamped her mouth shut. He had every right to be concerned.
Even Caroline, after escaping the Theology Department building, had asked her,
“Your Highness, do you dislike the academy?”
It was unfair.
The only fire she had intentionally started was the one at the Rossi estate. The others had been accidents. And this time, it had been Lucius who dropped the candlestick.
But that wasn’t important.
“I didn’t kill the apostle. He’s not the mastermind. He’s just a pawn.”
“…We’ll talk later. After I make sure you’re not hurt.”
“Ugh, you’re so overprotective.”
Did he really think she was that fragile?
Elonia, after washing up and receiving a clean bill of health from Chloe, finally told Artius everything that had happened at the prayer meeting.
About Lucius being the apostle, but also a pawn, and about the self-proclaimed god, Tristan.
Ricardo, who hadn’t expected Heilan to create a false god, was shocked.
“Wow, those idiots…”
“Watch your language, Ricardo. There’s a child present.”
Ethan scolded him, and Ricardo grumbled that she had also used the word “idiots.” They were acting childish, despite being knights.
Artius silenced them with a wave of his hand and asked Ricardo,
“If their goal is Chelon Heilan’s resurrection, isn’t that good news for you, Ricardo Harriott?”
“Huh? What nonsense…”
Ricardo almost blurted out his true feelings, but Ethan’s glare made him quickly correct himself. He cleared his throat and said,
“…I mean, that’s ridiculous, Your Majesty. How can a dead person be resurrected? And there’s no body.”
“Are you sure you don’t care?”
Artius’s eyes narrowed.
“You became my daughter’s knight because you missed Chelon Heilan.”
Elonia’s eyes widened. She hadn’t expected him to bring this up in front of her.
She had been scolded by Ethan for the same reason, so it wasn’t unusual, but Elonia, her conscience pricked, anxiously glanced at them. Ethan also tensed.
Ricardo, who had always been so casual and flippant, surprised them all by speaking with unexpected sincerity, his jaw clenched.
“I’ve always hated Heilan. They almost killed me during the war, and my master hated them too.”
He finally voiced the resentment he had kept bottled up inside, then smiled, his expression almost innocent.
“I don’t care if Her Highness resembles my master anymore. Even though she kicks me sometimes, I like it here. It’s better than being alone, with only my master as family. So don’t worry, Your Highness, Your Majesty, and Ethan.”
Even Ricardo, the usually sly and mischievous Ricardo, couldn’t fake that expression.
Ethan, as if offering comfort, patted his back hard. Ricardo retaliated by elbowing her in the ribs.
Elonia looked at Artius, who finally seemed to understand.
“…It seems the situation favors Heilan.”
Artius sighed.
He was also in shock.
Tristan, the self-proclaimed god, was supposedly more powerful than even Chelon Heilan.
He couldn’t think of anyone who fit the description. And if he was that powerful, why hadn’t he appeared during the Continental War?
And now, an apostle who had survived a fire on the day of a prayer meeting announcing the arrival of the God of Resurrection? It was a perfect narrative.
Elonia suddenly spoke,
“Let’s use religion as well.”
“What?”
Artius’s eyebrows shot up. Ethan also looked confused. The only one who seemed to understand was Ricardo.
“An eye for an eye, a god for a god?”
“Yes. But we’ll use a real god, not a fake one like Tristan.”
Ravanta had its own god, Madicte, the God of Abundance.
“Let’s hold a festival in Madicte’s name.”
“A festival?”
Both Artius and Ethan looked puzzled.
A festival? In the middle of all this? Elonia explained,
“We’ll hold a festival for Madicte to increase his divine power. A god’s power is determined by their influence. Even if the Ravanta people aren’t religious, if everyone knows Madicte’s name, his power will naturally increase. Right, Rica?”
“Yes. And Madicte isn’t just a figurehead. He won’t let a fake god like Tristan steal his followers.”
In short, they were going to appease Madicte and prevent Tristan from gaining influence in Ravanta.
They weren’t distributing food and gifts during missionary work for nothing.
A grand festival to feed the people would be far more effective than distributing prayer altars and preaching about hope.
‘And a god’s power increases when they’re called by their name, not their title.’
Tristan’s name was still unknown to most people.
So the name of the festival would be…
“Madicte’s Harvest Festival.”
…Elonia, who had criticized Caroline’s naming sense for “Chelon Heilan Theories,” was now guilty of the same crime.