5.

The saintess, Seria, wore a grim expression as she entered the city.

The image of her always smiling brightly and treating people kindly had long disappeared, vanishing before the war even broke out.

Even so, people gathered like a swarm of bees, hoping to hold her hand just once.

"The saintess looks troubled."

"It's because black magic is plunging the continent into darkness."

"May God's grace be with you."

"Since the saintess has come, everything will be alright."

The aspirations of countless people.

But the responsibility of failing to live up to them weighed on her.

The burden the saintess had to carry on her shoulders was as heavy as her station—one that dared to represent God.

A woman chosen by God.

Her power was immense, enough to revive the dead with divine power alone.

"saintess! Please purify the vicious demon's dogs and bring peace to the continent!"

"Peace!"

However, the saintess's dark expression was not because she felt burdened by these people's expectations.

'The princess is not that kind of person.'

She wanted to say it, but she couldn't.

Because she, the saintess of all people, had no right to say such things.

It was the saintess who had declared, without changing a single expression, that she felt the energy of black magic in front of everyone—even in front of the princess and the Emperor.

It was too late to turn back now. That was why her expression couldn't be bright.

Yet God cruelly continued to grant this unworthy saintess infinite, unceasing divine power as if to say that whatever choice she made was his will.

Guilt and frustration. To shake those feelings off, the saintess gave even more to the people.

Breaking through the Holy Knights who were blocking the outstretched hands, she prayed for the populace.

"May blessings be upon everyone."

The divine power spreading with her prayer was so distinct that it visibly soaked the surroundings.

People knelt on the spot and prayed.

"Oh, God."

Darkness was descending and lurking all around. It was a burden hard to bear for those living ordinary lives.

To them, the saintess was practically the advent of God. Amidst the crowd, a small child's hand reached out toward the saintess.

With pure eyes and shabby clothes, the child was clearly steeped in poverty.

The saintess bent down and held the child's hand. She prayed for the child once more.

The child bowed their head deeply in gratitude. Perhaps out of shyness, the child turned and ran away quickly.

At the moment a faint smile bloomed on the saintess's dark face, she realized it simultaneously.

A foreign sensation in her palm.

She looked carefully and saw a single note clutched there.

She chased after the disappeared child with surprised eyes, but they were nowhere to be seen.

'What is this?'

She wanted to open it, but she felt she shouldn't do so in this place.

Avoiding the eyes of the Holy Knights, she carefully tucked the note into her bosom.

What could it be? It might be a note with insignificant content.

But at this very moment, in a situation where an incident involving black magic had erupted in the Kingdom of Akanda, would this note given to her secretly truly be meaningless?

The saintess, receiving the send-off of the people with an expression no different from usual, entered the accommodation prepared within the royal palace.

And in the dead of night, a suspicious shadow slipped out through the back gate of the royal palace.

* * *

At an abandoned house, located in the forest a fair distance from the castle, the door opened as the robed saintess arrived.

She gasped.

The saintess covered her mouth in surprise at the figure she saw.

"Have you been well, Seria?"

The princess, welcoming the saintess with her mask removed, spoke while trying her best to recall her old smile.

It was an awkward reunion, but hearing the greeting that contained not a shred of hostility or resentment, tears welled up in the saintess's eyes.

"Your Highness…"

What should she say? Over ten thousand words came to mind, but not a single one came out of her mouth.

"Why did you do it?"

To her, the princess threw a meaningless question. A question she had always wanted to ask at least once. Likewise, it was a pure question containing no resentment or anger.

"I'm sorry."

Knowing this, the saintess did not make excuses.

It had already happened. It was irreversible, and the saintess had become the primary contributor to the collapse of the Empire.

Apology, regret, reflection. It was a yoke she could not escape with any words.

All she could do was be brazen. But if she was going to be brazen, she shouldn't have come here.

Knowing that, Kim Buja had allowed the princess to face her directly.

"Will you only express it with words?"

And he, too, could step out confidently in front of the saintess because she was alone right now.

How she gave the Holy Knights the slip wasn't important.

It was time to talk. The fact that the opportunity had been created was what mattered.

"...Who are you?" the saintess asked Buja.

"Me? If what you said is true, since I'm protecting the princess, I must be a demon, right?"

He checked her disbelieving eyes once more.

"You know it, too, don't you? That the princess has absolutely nothing to do with black magic."

The saintess answered, "That isn't important, not anymore."

"You saw the battle at the gorge, and you must have heard, right? That she has no connection to black magic."

"That isn't important either."

"No, it is important."

And he was certain.

"Because this all happened because of you."

She remained silent.

"Because of that one word you spat out, submitting to that rotten temple, the Empire collapsed. The Emperor and Empress died miserably at the hands of the Allied Forces without even being able to protect their honor in front of the princess. Millions of soldiers, knights, and citizens bearing the name of the Empire died. The princess suffered all kinds of humiliation after being caught by slave traders while fleeing to promise a future, and she came all the way here to bow her head to the bastards who betrayed the Empire, just to grasp at the last straw of hope. Well? Is it still not important?"

The saintess was a pure child, just as the princess had said.

"Yes, it doesn't matter, Your Highness. Leave this place immediately. Never dream of revenge again and live in a quiet place. That is the last kindness I can offer you."

She was saying this while unable to meet the princess's eyes. Could she be two-faced?

A child chosen by God, yet like the princess, a child far too lacking to experience the messiness of the world.

That was why he could breathe a sigh of relief. He could approach her with an easy mind.

The saintess flinched and was wary, but seeing Kim Buja unarmed, she didn't retreat.

Kim Buja, standing at a distance where they would touch if he reached out, smiled brightly.

Then, he patted her head.

"Dear child."

His solemn and heavy voice was full of mercy and benevolence.

It was doubtful whether this was the same person as the owner of that anger-filled voice who had been sarcastic just moments ago.

The saintess stepped back in surprise. She discovered it. Something that had been placed in her hair without her noticing.

She carefully took it out and checked what it was, looking at Kim Buja with surprised eyes.

"This is!"

A pure white butterfly with red antennae. The amount of divine power contained in the palm-sized hairpin was immeasurably large.

At the same time, her gaze turned to the princess.

The princess, who was still looking at her with the eyes of a friend she used to meet in the Imperial Palace.

Only then did the saintess realize why the princess did not resent her and why she persisted and tried so hard, even in a desperate situation where recovery seemed impossible.

"God…"

The word that came out carefully, hesitatingly, could not fully reveal itself from the saintess's lips.

"Saintess!"

A voice coming from afar shouted. The running footsteps clearly belonged to the Holy Knights.

The saintess's expression also became urgent. It was obvious what would happen the moment the Holy Knights discovered this scene.

"I didn't call them."

She hurriedly made an excuse to Kim Buja and stepped back.

She had to get away, away from this place.

But Kim Buja patted her head once more.

And he spoke to her leisurely, benevolently.

"Do not succumb to evil. I am always watching. Live for the people. Do not bend. Do not kneel to evil."

Along with his words, a light flashed beneath Kim Buja's feet as he returned to the princess's side.

Flash.

A flow of mana. Kim Buja and the princess disappeared.

The Holy Knights arrived only tens of seconds later.

"Saintess!"

"Are you alright?"

At the question, the saintess, clutching the hairpin in her hand, showed a bright smile for the first time in a year and nodded.

"My head hurt so much because of the black magic energy that I came out for a moment. I'm sorry for leaving without a word."

"Not at all."

The Holy Knights looked around suspiciously, but they couldn't find any particular traces.

Besides, this wasn't the first or second time the saintess had done something like this.

It must be a simple whim this time as well.

"Let's go quickly. The night air is cold."

"We will escort you."

Still, seeing the saintess's bright expression for the first time in a while, the Holy Knights sighed in relief and escorted her.

Just because the cult was rotten didn't mean all the knights, including the priests, were rotten.

But the saintess couldn't speak.

She simply made a vow.

'I will definitely set things right.'

The moonlight shone on the pure white butterfly pinned in her hair.

* * *

"Phew."

Watching the saintess return with the Holy Knights in the distance, Kim Buja took a deep breath.

Truly, it was cringeworthy acting that would never happen again in his life.

"The saintess, falling for this again... seriously."

If this were a drama, the broadcasting station's bulletin board would be plastered with curses by now.

'Where is such an idiot who believes such things? Is this what you call narrative logic?'

In fact, Kim Buja harbored anxiety even while attempting it. Thinking about it from his perspective, the script and direction were on the level of a low-effort voice phishing scam.

A princess who contracted with a demon, but the one by her side is actually God.

Even if the saintess knew the princess had nothing to do with demons, how could she believe this?

Of course, the saintess's secret, revealed by the princess, played a part.

The token she saw in her dream when God chose her. Presenting an artifact of the exact same shape was the biggest clincher.

"To think this would work."

If it didn't work, it wasn't a great method, but Buja had thought of a Plan B.

He had also installed a teleportation magic circle over a short distance at a high cost, preparing for a situation where the Holy Knights would swarm in like now.

"It was worth becoming dirt poor."

Starting with about 12,000 gold, including the 5,000 received upon starting Chapter 2-1, it wasn't bad considering he had less than 1,000 gold left now.

At the very least, looking at the kingdoms that could lend strength to the Empire on the current continent, it was as good as recruiting the force that would be of the greatest help.

Though he didn't know if it would actually be helpful. He hadn't even started worrying about when, where, and how to use them.

"Whew."

Such trivial problems could be addressed now.

He had passed the biggest hurdle. Now that it was done, the problems he had forgotten began to come to mind one by one.

"By the way, does God choose the saintess based on looks? She's no joke."

He hadn't had the mind to care about looks, but that didn't mean he had completely forgotten.

The saintess remained in his mind. Her features, seen right before his eyes, completely shattered Kim Buja's perception, which had denied that there could be another beauty in the world comparable to Jeong Seora or the princess.

Turning his gaze, the princess overlapped with her image.

The image of the two women standing together drew him automatically.

"Let's definitely set it right, whether it's the temple or the Empire. Those two must definitely be re-established."

Motivation welled up once again.

* * *

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