I moved a little closer to her.
Each time the distance shortened, the Saintess’s face reflected in the lens became a little clearer.
“Shall we take the guards you recently punished as an example?” “They were former knights who massacred civilians of another country.”
“Correct.
But they regretted the massacre on the battlefield and disobeyed their superiors’ orders from then on.” “Merely that amount of remorse cannot wash away their sins.”
I quietly looked around the grim and gloomy prison.
The place where the guards who disobeyed orders and were demoted stayed.
“Right, it might be impossible.
But you can at least give them a chance to atone, can’t you?”
I took out the guards’ roster.
The reasons they were demoted to this place were written in detail.
“Because they refused to massacre civilians, an implicit rule forbidding the killing of civilians was established throughout the army.”
They boldly disobeyed even the monarch’s command.
Then, having become thorns in their side, they were chased out to this place.
“They were mere soldiers, but thanks to their courage, hundreds of innocent citizens survived.”
I glanced down at the meal tray the guards had courageously delivered.
Ange must have starved for days, but she hadn’t touched the food.
“So why not give them a chance, too?”
Thanks to the cold solitary confinement cell, I picked up an untouched apple.
A luscious fruit that resembled the color of her eyes and dress.
“It’s hard to carry everything by yourself, isn’t it?”
The Saintess, who had shown no change in expression at my words until now.
Upon hearing that last phrase, she slowly blinked her eyes.
“Are you worried about me right now?” “Yes.
The more you sustain the brainwashing magic you’re casting, the more it eats away at your life force.”
In fact, when I assassinated Ange in the previous regression, her body was in a very weakened state.
To the point that it felt incredibly empty even after succeeding in stabbing her.
“I’ll help you.
So that the fair world you desire can come to be.”
Thanks to the aura sense from my time as a Sword Master, I could faintly see it.
Her form, still maintaining her brainwashing magic even while feeling terrible pain.
…
The Saintess slowly rose.
The red velvet enveloping her captivating figure swayed lightly.
“For you, a member of the corrupt nobility, to say you’ll help me…”
The moment Ange took a light step forward.
The distance I had worked so hard to maintain closed with laughable speed.
“I don’t believe the words of people like you who are all talk.”
With an arrogant touch, Ange lifted the glasses I was wearing.
Thanks to that, her blurry face began to come into sharp focus.
Skin like white jade and large, beautiful red eyes.
“So I’ll check for myself.
Your filthy insides.”
The white-haired woman gently caressed my cheek.
She was clearly two years younger than me, yet it felt as warm as a mother’s embrace.
Any ordinary man would melt before this beauty and warmth.
However, I already know.
That all of this ecstasy is highest-tier mental magic.
“If you want, see for yourself.”
Nevertheless, I didn’t tremble in fear at all.
Instead, I pulled her slender waist even closer to me.
Close enough to hear each other’s breath.
“Because my desire to protect this Empire is sincere.”
Rather, at my proactive move, Ange’s red eyes widened even more.
And then.
Everything in her field of vision began to change.
Into the childhood memories of Derek Minster.
The incident of being bullied as an academy student for being from a corrupt noble family.
The incident of getting into a fight at a bar and being beaten to a pulp by a commoner passed by like a film.
「Just as the rumors said, a pathetic life indeed.」
Returning to recent memories, the scene of him buying the position of prison warden unfolded.
However, it wasn’t for his private interest, but a resolution to truly work hard as the warden.
「Still, I guess he’s matured a bit with age.」
Ange snickered as if watching the antics of a worthless bug.
But.
She soon realized his memories weren’t limited to just this.
The Saintess tightly gripped the necklace around her neck.
She forcibly unleashed a powerful torrent of mana, enough to make her brilliant white hair shake violently.
「This kid.
Could it be he’s not an ordinary noble?」
If he were a simple ruffian, she wouldn’t have tried to dig this deep.
But, his confidence in visiting her despite so many guards dying.
That path piqued the Saintess’s interest.
「It’s been a while since something caught my interest.」
The mental magic barely lifted the dark curtain.
And then, the Saintess arrived within the unstable man’s memory.
***
“Waaaaaaaaah—!!!”
The enraged crowd toppled the Emperor’s statue.
Enraged by the sight of a fallen woman in the center of the plaza, they were destroying everything.
Ange knew who that woman was.
And also the man holding her in his arms, looking down at her with love-hate.
「That’s me…?」
In the memory, her own face looked more peaceful than anyone’s.
Like a Saintess who had achieved everything she desired and ascended.
“Thanks to you, I’ve achieved what I wanted.
Thank you, Derek.”
Derek was definitely the new prison warden she had just met.
When she peeked into his memories, he was a man determined to work diligently as the prison warden.
And, his actions were soon…
Identical to the figure she so admired and yearned for.
Even the scene where the ruin of The Empire was completed by him personally killing her, the Saintess.
Because everything was exactly as written in God’s records.
「Then, could it be…」
The fact that his most painful memory was the death of the Saintess herself.
Upon confirming that fact, Ange’s snow-white face began to flush red.
「Is this child the Prophet of the future?」
She covered her lips with her hand.
Even though she was already a transcendent being in magic, she couldn’t easily hide her excitement.
It was unstable because she had forced her way in, but the protagonists of the ecstatic scene before her were clearly herself and him.