“Exactly. Anyone who already knew about her violent streak seems to know it well. I heard she even grabbed another noble girl by the hair and fought her—right in the middle of a gathering packed with people.”

“Tsk.”

Cardinal Stella, convinced she had seized the momentum, swallowed the laughter that threatened to spill out and pressed her argument even harder.

“In the first place, I have doubts about that holy power. Was it really holy power?”

“What are you saying? If it wasn’t holy power, then what was it?”

“I heard her older brother is a fairly capable magician.”

“Are you suggesting he caused that phenomenon with magic? That was clearly holy power!”

“It wasn’t mana at all! How do you explain the children who survived because of her holy power?”

In the end, the dispute returned to square one.

No one who spoke had any intention of backing down, so the argument had no choice but to drag on and on.

“.......”

Pope Brissel sat in the seat of honor and watched it all in silence.

He took neither side. He offered no opinion at all.

Because he had no idea how this would turn out.

What she had displayed was clearly holy power. And it was extremely strong holy power.

It was never the kind of magic Cardinal Stella claimed.

Cardinal Stella herself surely knew that perfectly well. And yet she was still acting like this...

It can’t be helped.

If they wanted to make Camilla’s words into a lie, they had to diminish her holy power somehow.

She’s still an uncomfortable existence.

He wanted a saintess desperately, but it was a poisoned chalice. Drink it wrong, and you died on the spot.

“God spoke to me. He told me to seize every single person I named without leaving even one behind, and burn them alive in roaring flames so they repay their sins.”

Her voice kept circling in his head.

Whenever he recalled the expression on the young lady of House Sorpel’s face—staring straight into his eyes as she said it—his body trembled without his consent.

Lately, he even had dreams where his own body blazed, and he screamed.

More than anyone, he was the one who wanted her to never accept the post of saintess.

But he couldn’t openly take Cardinal Stella’s side, either.

If they tried to frame Camilla Sorpel as a heretic and it backfired, their own sins might end up exposed to the outside world.

His cautious nature made him hesitate.

KNOCK KNOCK.

A moment later, the door opened carefully, and a high-ranking priest hurried inside.

After bowing respectfully to everyone, he carefully set something down before the Pope.

“What is this?”

“It was sent by Lady Camilla Sorpel.”

“Lady Camilla?”

“The saintess?”

Everyone in the room turned their eyes to the box placed before the Pope. What on earth had Camilla sent?

CLICK.

Pope Brissel carefully opened the box.

Puzzlement settled over the faces that looked inside. A single dagger lay in the box.

Why would she send a blade like that here?

“W-Wait a moment!”

“That...!”

The expressions of the puzzled people began changing fast.

“No way—this is!”

“That crest is...!”

“Ghk!”

A small dagger worked in silver. Everyone recognized what it was at a glance.

How could they not? It was a blade they saw several times a day.

“Isn’t that the Sword of Judgment?!”

In the central corridor of the Papacy stood the statue of Saintess Arena. What the statue held in its right hand was the Sword of Judgment.

The sword believed to have been lost along with her death long ago was now lying right before their eyes.

“H-How is this possible...?!”

“Wasn’t it written in the scripture?!”

“The scripture?”

“Before Saintess Arena passed away, she definitely said it. That when a new saintess or a saint appeared, the Sword of Judgment would return as well.”

“Th-That’s...”

Of course they all knew it. That was exactly why none of them could speak easily.

If the one who brought back the Sword of Judgment was Camilla Sorpel, then wasn’t that proof she truly was a saintess?

“But how will you prove that’s the real Sword of Judgment?”

Cardinal Stella raised an objection on behalf of those thrown into chaos.

“Th-That’s right!”

“To deceive us, it could have been made as a counterfeit.”

Voices around her hurried to agree.

Because if that truly was ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) the Sword of Judgment, then everything they had insisted on—branding Camilla a heretic—would collapse into nothing.

And honestly, it was hard to believe. The blade the order had failed to find for so long appearing in a situation like this felt deeply suspicious.

“What are you hesitating for? You can just confirm it.”

“Confirm it...?”

“You all know what power the Sword of Judgment possesses.”

The Sword of Judgment wasn’t merely a symbol because a saintess once used it. The blade had a special ability.

If you held it and confessed the sins you had committed, the sword issued a punishment fitting those sins.

However, in very rare cases, if someone spoke the truth and sincerely regretted and repented their sins, it delivered no punishment at all.

In other words, the sword judged the sincerity of the person.

But if the one holding the Sword of Judgment tried to deny their sin with a lie? If they tried to conceal their crimes to the very end?

It would sever fingers, stab out eyes so they could no longer see, even cut out the tongue so they could never speak another lie again.

In the end, the hand holding the sword moved on its own toward the heart. And it forced the blade into the heart without mercy.

No matter how much you struggled to avoid death, it was useless. Until you took your own life, the sword would never fall from your hand.

That was how you paid for your sins—through a suicide that wasn’t quite suicide.

And because your life ended through suicide, the act most strictly forbidden by God, even your corpse could not be properly laid to rest.

You were cast out, branded as a being God had punished and abandoned.

“So why not test whether this blade is truly the Sword of Judgment?”

At the high priest’s words, the light in people’s eyes wavered.

Those insisting it was fake, and those insisting it was real—no one stepped forward to pick up the sword.

*****

[So how is it?]

“Better than last time.”

[Tsk. Like I thought, your stamina is way too weak.]

“I don’t think this is a stamina problem.”

[It’s stamina.]

“Yes, yes. Let’s go with me having weak stamina.”

The place they went to find the Sword of Judgment was a mountain that wasn’t particularly deep.

It surprised her a little that it was so close to the Central Temple where the Papacy stood.

Because Camilla also knew very well that after Arena died, the order had poured an insane amount of effort into finding the Sword of Judgment.

She had heard they searched every place Arena had ever set foot in during her lifetime.

No, seriously—how did you fail to find it when it was this close?

[Because they’re all holy-power impotent.]

Impot—

[If your holy power isn’t above a certain level, I set it up so you can’t find the entrance at all. So how would those pathetic idiots ever find it?]

Holy power?

[Where the sword sleeps is a cave. But if your holy power isn’t high enough, you’ll never be able to find the cave’s entrance.]

Why?

[Because I wanted someone with holy power as strong as mine to find that sword and use it.]

Then doesn’t that mean I can’t find it either?

[You have me.]

That means...

[How about you stock up on ice packs? Or I’d recommend taking fever-reducing medicine before you go in.]

In the end, she found the sword easily—but then she still had to be sick in bed for several days again.

She didn’t completely lose consciousness like the first time she used holy power, but the aftereffects of possession were unavoidable again.

In other words, the household went into an uproar again.

I think we should look for a different healer.

No, that’s not—

I agree. That seems necessary.

Why is that kid collapsing every time these days?!

It’s just the aftereffects of divine fever—

Lie down right now, Camilla!

Watching her fall ill in bed again, the people of House Sorpel grew extremely serious, and Camilla ended up sweating as she tried to calm them down.

[You’ll get used to it little by little.]

“...Why do I have to get used to it?”

She had no intention of ever using holy power for someone else again.

This time, all she did was briefly exert holy power while passing the cave entrance, so she ended with a mild bout of sickness—but there was no rule saying she wouldn’t collapse again like last time.

[They received the sword well, right?]

...Why are you changing the subject?

“Ugh.”

Still, this time, finding the sword was for me. And I was the one who said we should go find it. Fine. I’ll let it slide.

“They probably received it well.”

After finding the Sword of Judgment, Camilla immediately sent it to the Papacy.

Since they were yapping about her every day, she wrapped it nicely and sent it over as a way of telling them to shut their mouths.

[Who do you think will use it first?]

“I don’t think anyone will.”

Some people would definitely be suspicious, but no one would step forward to test the sword themselves.

“Is there anyone who can say they’ve never committed a sin, not even once?”

Probably not. And the ones trying to brand her a heretic because their own feet were on fire would keep their mouths clamped shut even tighter.

Since it would be hard to determine whether the Sword of Judgment was real or fake, it would naturally become difficult to keep insisting she was a fake saintess.

Because Saintess Arena had said it clearly before she died. The one who brought back the Sword of Judgment would be the next saintess.

“After I’ve gone this far, if someone still tries to run their mouth about me, I’ll tell them to grab the Sword of Judgment first.”

[That’s right.]

It didn’t seem like things would stay noisy anymore.

“Anyway...”

Camilla frowned and slowly swept her gaze around the room. Sitting on the bed, she slipped her feet down and stood.

WUUUUNG—

Light poured into the room, and someone revealed himself.

“I told you to stay in bed. Why did you get up?”

It was Ravi. Whatever he had done to the room, the moment she stepped down from the bed, he knew like a ghost and appeared.

“How is a person supposed to lie in bed all day!”

“Why can’t you? A patient should be lying down.”

“I’m already completely better.”

“Then where are you going? If you had somewhere to go, I told you to contact me.”

“I’m going to the bathroom. The bathroom! Are you going to follow me there too?”

“...I’ll call a maid.”

“No!”