Chapter 121 – The Weight of Sin

The queen’s throne room is the largest of the hundreds of spaces in the royal castle.

There now, all the members of the castle, including the queen’s servants and maids, as well as the Duke and the knights, had gathered there.

“Hello, Treasurer…”

“Yes… What did you call me for today?”

“Sure. I hope it’s not a big deal.”

The faces of the elves exchanging greetings are full of anxiety.

That’s right, shocking things always happened when Dake brought them together.

Thanks to this, the elves who were called to the place could not help but be afraid of what evil they would face this time.

“Hmm.”

The noise of a person clearing his throat brought silence to the noisy throne room.

The place where the elves’ eyes focused was on the queen’s throne. It was Dike standing in front of him.

“Everyone gathered together?”

When Kiella nodded in response to his question, Dake looked down at the elves with frightened faces and said.

“Everyone, welcome. The reason we gathered today is because Nermedia said she had something to say to everyone.”

Dake’s tone of voice is more subdued than usual.
Rather than providing relief to the elves, it was instilling greater anxiety.

“It’s a very important word, and it’s said that he put a lot of thought into it before standing up, so everyone, please pay attention and listen.”

Dayk stepped aside and Nermedia stood in the center of numerous gazes.

The elves were relieved for a moment by her seemingly fine behavior, but the atmosphere quickly became solemn when they saw their master’s dark expression.

Ner Mediah shook her neatly gathered hands as if she was thinking a lot, then carefully opened her mouth with her gaze down on the floor.

“Dear elf sisters, I stand here today to confess my sins and ask for forgiveness from you.”

“A sin…?”
“What crime did the Queen commit…”

“Dake previously told me about the goddess’s prophecy: that if a hero defeats the Demon King, he will become the leader of the kingdom…”

“…”

“And that I disobeyed the words of her goddess and killed her champion so as not to relinquish her position as queen.”

My lips are trembling as I say that.

The reactions of the listeners were largely divided into two categories.

There are those who fear that their uneasy premonitions will turn out to be correct, and those who have no idea what will happen yet.

However, the following confession changed everyone’s reaction to one.

“That is true.”

“W-What?!”
“That’s ridiculous! The queen can’t do that!”
“What did I just hear…”

The unbelievable story turned the throne room into a crucible of confusion.
Nermedia was a benevolent and righteous queen to all members of her kingdom.

Five years ago, she was a bit harsh in her appearance to the warrior and Dike, but this was also understood as an act for the good of her kingdom.

It was not a minor mistake for such a queen, and she had committed the greatest elf taboo of disobeying the words of the goddess, so it was natural that she could not be easily understood.

“A queen… Is a position dedicated to spreading the word of the Goddess and ensuring that all of her sisters can be at peace under the grace of the Goddess. But, intoxicated by the sweetness of her power and forgetting her text, I want to keep this position.” I made a choice.”

Nermedia’s confession continued in a still noisy atmosphere.

“Immediately after defeating the Demon King, I killed the hero and covered it up by taking advantage of the fact that the Queen manages the Book of Prophecy. I’m really… I’m really sorry. Ugh, uh…”

Tears burst out from the corners of my eyes.

She had once lived with her eyes averted from her own sins, but the past few months she had spent with her Dake had made her keenly aware of the weight of those sins.

“Oh my…”

Her daughter, who was watching her from the same place, also shed tears.
Rather than being thrilled by her mother’s conversion, she was relieved that her mother was able to change, too.

However
While the members of the knights and Kiella looked at her queen with pity, the reactions of her subjects and maids were quite different.

“The queen wouldn’t do that!”
“That’s right! Deke, it’s clear that the author threatened you to tell a lie!”
“Ah. How cruel was this, the queen…!”

They still can’t let go of their faith in their queen.

“I can’t take it anymore! I’d rather die than see my kingdom fall into your hands!”

“Let us take back the castle! If the wizards don’t come, we have no choice but to do it ourselves!”

“That’s right!”

Each word that comes out of each person’s mouth gradually coalesces, forming a huge anger.

Nevertheless, the reason Dake maintained his composure was because he had a sure means of turning the intensifying public opinion towards him.

“Everyone be quiet! I threatened the queen? Then I’ll show you the proof. Ner Media. Tell me the location of her prophecy.”

“…”

“Hurry.”

“…It’s in a secret underground warehouse that only I know about. There’s also the hero’s sword.”

“Okay. Go with Agnes and get them both.”

After a while, the women who had left the throne room returned to the throne.

In Agnes’ hand was the warrior’s sword I used in my past life, and in Nermedia’s hand was the goddess’s prophecy.

“Well, I brought you the book of prophecy. If you doubt the queen’s words, come out and read it yourself.”

The elves hesitated at Dake’s confident attitude.
Among them, the one who raised her hand was the head maid who taught Iril the language of the ancient elves.

“Can I read it?”

As I nodded, she came up to her throne with a nervous look on her face.

“Whoa…”

The head maid took a deep breath after receiving the prophecy from the queen.
Originally, the prophetic book could only be seen by the queen, who had the duty to preserve the words of the goddess.

Even though this was an emergency, I couldn’t help but be nervous.

After catching her breath a few more times, the maid Chang adjusted her glasses with her trembling hands and began to read her text.

“When Elora is overflowing with laziness and pleasure and the moon turns red, a soul who cannot distinguish between destruction and pleasure appears…”

The maid, who had been reading aloud eagerly, saw what was behind her with her own eyes and covered her mouth in astonishment.

“Hmph!”

“Keep reading.”

“When the demon king is finally defeated and the body of the evil man who has been targeting this land is burned away… Harmoniere will completely belong to the hero, and the hero will become the leader of Elora, and eternal peace will remain in this land.”

Maid Jang, whose legs were weakened, sat down.

“Well, it was all true…”

Empty, nowhere-to-go eyes.
The head maid’s words immediately shocked the elves.

“Is the queen really a hero?”
“So she’s been deceiving the kingdom all this time?”
“How can you betray the entire kingdom…!”

Suddenly, the blame fell on Nermedia, not Dike.

“Isn’t the sudden increase in the appearance of monsters also because the queen killed the hero?”

“That’s right! The goddess said that when a warrior becomes a leader, peace will come to this land! The queen is greedy and disaster will come!”

“It’s clear that the royal wizards’ failure to return is related to the queen’s betrayal!”

“It’s all because of the queen! If you had handed over the leadership position to a hero, Dake, you wouldn’t have lost your throne to me!”

Nermedia’s face turned pale as public opinion became increasingly harsh.
Although it was a situation she had expected, she couldn’t help but be shaken when she saw the sudden change in attitude of people she had known for a long time.

But all of this is anger that she brought upon herself.
Her misunderstanding of something she did not commit was also a hardship she had to endure as the guilty party of her grave sin.

“S-sorry. I’m so sorry…!”

“Betrayer!”
“All this time, I only trusted the Queen…!”

NerMedia’s mind goes blank and she just keeps apologizing.
However, it is not enough to appease her sisters’ sense of betrayal.

Still, she forced her heavy lips to move in order to somehow ask for her forgiveness.

“I will dedicate my life to paying for the sins I have committed. I will inform the entire kingdom of today’s events… And hand over the position of leader to Dike.”

“To Dake?”
“What do you mean!”
“You can make someone who oppressed the royal family a leader!”

It was an extremely justified protest from the perspective of the elves who could not understand Nermedia’s intentions.

The one who suppressed their voices was Agnes, who was listening in silence.

“Everyone be quiet!”

At her cry and the sharp sound of her sword being drawn, the elves became quiet.

“Dake is the most suitable person to be the next leader among those present! He is the reincarnation of the hero who was betrayed and died five years ago!”

“What?”
“Dake is a hero?”
“What nonsense…”

The throne room was once again confused by another unexpected story.

At that time, Ner Media came to Dike and knelt down on her knees.

In both of her raised hands was a book of prophecy, and on top of it was the warrior’s sword that Agnes had given her.

“From now on, you are the leader of the kingdom. Please lead Elora in peace.”

Dake’s hand picked up the sword.
A somewhat plain design for a warrior’s sword.
However, the moment he was touched by his owner, he radiated rainbow-colored light, revealing his specialness.

“Yo, the hero’s sword is shining!”
“That can’t be possible!”

Dake paid no heed to what was being said and turned the sword around to examine it.

An amazing feeling that makes your whole body overflow with energy just by holding it.
When I first felt this sensation, I was only afraid of having to fight the devil, but now my heart was racing at the thought that I had finally done it.

‘It’s been a while since I felt this way.’

Now all that’s left is to receive the prophetic book held by Nermedia, who bowed her head.

With this, he can become the leader of the kingdom as the goddess prophesied and make amends for the injustice of the past years.

However, the words that came out of his mouth once again embarrassed everyone in the throne room.

“Ah, Nermedia. There is no need for the prophecy.”

“…Yes?”

“I have no intention of becoming king.”

For the past few months, he has been leading the kingdom with the elves at his side.
And what I felt was that leading not only a small group but also a tribe was very tiring.

“Give the prophecy to Iril. She is queen from now on.”

“Huh? Me? Me?”

Iril’s eyes widened when she was struck by lightning while standing still.

“But I’m not ready yet…!”

“It’s okay. We’ll be there to help you.”

“No! Then you would be going against the goddess’s prophecy again!”

Unlike the embarrassed princess, Dayk was unfazed.

“I’m human in the first place, so I don’t have to do what the elf goddess tells me, right?”

“Yeah, but!”

Iril wasn’t convinced, and the other elves also didn’t understand the situation yet.

That moment when no one could easily keep their mouths shut.

“Uh?”

A pure white light erupted from the pocket where I put my phone.

The light gathered at a certain point in the air and soon took the shape of a woman with long ears.

Brilliant as if the sun had risen in the throne room.

Although she was covered in brilliance and couldn’t see her features, Iril had already encountered this being.

“W-Goddess?!”