Scapegoats (2)

"What are you doing here, Saintess Safelia?" The emperor squinted.

Safelia smiled gently and bowed. "Sorry for interrupting, Your Majesty, but I'm here in the orders of my Goddess. It's to the incident of today."

"… Is it so?" The emperor narrowed his eyes. "However, you don't need to worry. I plan to punish the culprits as they deserve."

Safelia frowned. She could understand the meaning between lines of the emperor's words.

In other words, he was telling her that the church should not interfere with this.

But who was Safelia?

She was the saintess of one of the strongest gods in the world. To be honest, she did not carry the slightest bit of respect towards the emperor.

Plus, although she truly wanted to watch how I was sentenced to death, as my slave, she was forced to interfere.

Thus, she shook her head.

"I fear that is impossible. Your Majesty, apologies for being impolite, but you know nothing about the cause and effect of this. Besides, it's obvious for everybody here that you are thinking of using this crisis to play a farce."

"Insolent!" One of the ministers shouted in rage. "Who do you think you are to talk to the emperor like that!?"

"I'm the Saintess of Order. A servant who hears the voice of the Goddess. My words are the words of the Goddess herself!"

The hall fell silent instantly.

The words of Safelia… They were a bit extreme.

Several ministers looked at each other with heavy expressions. They noticed that his situation was becoming more complicated.

"… Miss Safelia, are you saying that the goddess is dissatisfied with me?" The emperor asked with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

But Safelia seemed like she did not see it. She just glanced at the emperor indifferently and nodded.

"Yes."

"… Is it so?" The emperor chuckled softly before falling silent.

But a powerful killing intent started to leak from his body.

The emperor was enraged.

In fact, the relationship between the Imperial Family and the church had been very strained recently. Although when the empire and the church were very close when the empire was founded, the long years had caused rifts to form between them.

After all, the church was like a small empire inside the empire. It was not something any emperor was happy to see.

As for the church, they were obviously dissatisfied when the empire tried to undermine them.

And now that Safelia was saying these words in public, it was the same as the church saying the current emperor was not suited for the throne.

If the situation continued like this, it could end in a war between the empire and the church.

Fortunately, my father was not a complete idiot. Now that the war against the Daemon Empire was about to start, he did not dare to go at war against the church too.

Hence, he forced himself to suppress his killing intent and sighed.

"Tell me, Saintess. What does the church think about today's incident? Will you give me an explanation about the two thousand deaths?"

"Two thousand deaths? Hahaha, Your Majesty, as I said, you know nothing. Just in the empire, there are more than ten thousand deaths. And there are many more deaths in the rest of the world."

"!!!"

Several ministers opened their eyes wide. Even the emperor was surprised.

"… Explain."

Safelia smiled.

"Your majesty, do you think Headmistress Evelyn or the Princess are the culprits behind this? No, the one that killed these people was the goddess herself."

"Huh?"

"You know that the church also participated in this operation, right? The truth was that the goddess herself was paying attention to this. When Headmistress Evelyn and the others caught the two thousand people, the goddess used them to try to locate the culprit behind it. But when she was about to locate him, the culprit discovered that something was wrong and severed the connections ruthlessly, killing all the people connected to him through the seeds."

The emperor frowned, pondering Safelia's words.

"… Why the goddess wanted to find that person?" He asked.

"Because he is a treat to the world. The goddess believes he is a person trying to dominate this world. In fact, your majesty, you should be thankful to Headmistress Evelyn for discovering this situation, otherwise, the empire would have faced a crisis soon. Just think about it, even now, that person had already controlled more than two thousand people just in the capital. Five years later, that number could have reached tens of thousands. By then, if they rebelled and tried to usurp the throne, are you confident you would have been able to stop them?"

These words raised a commotion in the hall. Several nobles started to mutter to themselves, realizing that this situation was not so simple.

Even the emperor frowned. He had not paid much attention to this and only thought that this was a good opportunity to get rid of Claus and the others. But now it seemed like he had a problem in his hands.

Even so, he did not want to give up the opportunity to get rid of us.

"… I understand your words, Saintess. But even so, someone must take responsibility for the deaths. Otherwise, how am I going to calm down the citizens when they learn that their loved ones were killed?"

"I see. Don't worry, your majesty, the church will help you with that. However, you can't touch the princes or Miss Evelyn."

The emperor narrowed his eyes.

So, it was this after all.

He finally confirmed that the church's intent was to protect us!

"… Saintess, remember that the church is forbidden from interfering with the empire's politics."

"Your majesty doesn't need to care about the church's intentions," Safelia said gently, but it was clear she was disregarding the emperor completely!

To her surprise, the emperor said nothing. Instead, he moved his gaze, towards Dina, Evelyn, Ysnay, and me.

When he saw we were completely calm, he knew he had failed today.

Although to be honest, he did not have much hope since the start.

When the trap in the Forest of Wolves failed, he realized that killing us was not going to be so easy.

Thus, his intention today was to force us to reveal more of our cards.

Particularly, he wanted to know more about Ysnay's power.

However, he ended learning of something completely unexpected.

The church was incredibly strong. If we truly had the backing of the church, it meant we had become a treat to him.

But at the same time, it gave him an opportunity to take care of us.

"Claus, Dina, you should consider it well. The Imperial Family will not allow the church to take control of the empire."

I narrowed my eyes. Is it a warning?

So it's what you are planning now, huh.

Certainly, Hidden History will not allow the existence of puppet princes controlled by the church.

However, father, you have still not realized that the situation is already out of your control.

And the fact that you failed to get rid of us today is more meaningful for some people than you think.