Chapter 76

“I’ve heard that the investigations of the Heresy Inquisitors are incredibly immoral and violent.”

“……”

“I also heard that some people, unable to endure the long interrogations, confess to crimes they didn’t even commit.”

-Whoa.

-Is it torture instead of interrogation? Damn.

Ilian didn’t deny it. Edelina continued, sounding resigned.

“I ran away because I thought if I got caught, it would be the end.”

“Ah, so you had another plan besides getting caught? Other than relying on the Saintess, I mean. Honestly, it’s a bit of a nuisance, isn’t it?”

“Th-that, well, I was trying to come up with a countermeasure…”

“Haha, I’m sure you came up with a great countermeasure.”

“Sir Ilian. That’s enough.”

Is he going to take responsibility if the protagonist’s mental health tanks?

I specifically called Ilian as a supporter because he has the highest affection for me and the lowest loyalty toward the Order of Ralphican. And here he is, already creating a crisis.

“I don’t think it’s a nuisance.”

-Oh, Saintess! T_T

-So touching.

“Then what, are you going to personally step forward and clear her of the charges?”

-Can’t she just do that?

-For real, she should use some of that back-end influence.

The expressions of Edelina and the protagonist turned awkward. They stole glances at me, checking my reaction. On the other hand, the Marquis stared at me with desperate eyes, making no effort to hide his expectations. I avoided their gaze and spoke.

“That would be difficult.”

“Wh-what? No, why? Why!”

Me stepping forward publicly or using my power to clear Edelina’s heresy charges…

To be honest, that is the simplest and clearest solution. In the game’s Saintess route, it was a method that was never executed because the protagonist and Edelina didn’t want to trouble Ivanke, so they never asked for help…

‘I thought, If it’s me, I can do it.’

Yes. Actually, I had already tried to put that thought into action. Before the protagonist arrived, I had personally sought out the Heresy Inquisitor in charge of Edelina’s case and made a polite request. But this was the answer I got:

“Gasp! S-Saintess! I am truly, truly sorry, but… once a report has been filed, I cannot handle it at my own discretion. If I may ask, does His Holiness share the same opinion?”

It seemed that even if it was the Saintess’s word, they couldn’t just fake their way through something involving their own lives. The Heresy Inquisitor acted far more cautiously than I expected. Naturally, since I had never asked for the Pope’s opinion, I ended up going through the trouble of visiting him directly.

And….

“You want me to officially recognize Edelina Peyers’s innocence? To drop the heresy charges?”

“Yes. I’m asking this as a favor.”

“Hmm, that puts me in a difficult spot. If Lady Peyers is truly innocent, won’t she be found not guilty at the heresy trial? Is there a particular reason to cancel the trial entirely?”

“……”

“Ah, please don’t think about stepping forward publicly. If you waste a revelation on such a trivial matter, the trust in the Saintess will crumble. Furthermore, the trust in the Order of Ralphican will also fall. And I won’t be standing by to watch that happen.”

Total and utter failure.

‘Dammit. Just thinking about it again makes me angry.’

For these reasons, no matter how much I hold the title of Saintess, I can’t save Edelina without a clear justification. There’s no need to tell them the blunt truth, though. It would only lower their morale for nothing. Besides, there’s no need to take such a difficult path.

“Since there’s no evidence, winning the case is a given. Better to get an acquittal fair and square than to use underhanded tricks.”

“B-but still!”

“Father! Please!”

“Those are very sound words. Professor Edelina’s movements have already attracted a lot of attention. If the Saintess suddenly clears the charges when the informant hasn’t withdrawn them, the world will think: ‘Huh? Isn’t Edelina Peyers a friend of Hereis Rubel, the Saintess’s companion? Could it be…?’”

As if he had never used that ridiculous acting tone, Ilian continued calmly.

“In the unlikely event that a scandal breaks out claiming the Saintess gave special treatment to Professor Edelina due to personal ties, it would be bad for both the Professor and the Saintess.”

“Is a scandal the problem right now?! Edel is about to die!”

“I’m saying you’ll get the scandal and Professor Edelina will die.”

The Marquis’s face contorted miserably at the stark reality. Then, as if something had occurred to him, he pushed off the sofa and stood up.

“Ah, right. How about bribing the Heresy Inquisitor! If the Saintess can’t step forward publicly, we can just bribe them secretly!”

Come to think of it, even before arriving here, the Marquis had been insisting on bribing the Inquisitor. Something about having connections. If it didn’t work for me, would it really work with money? Truly, he’s talking nonsense.

“It’s not out of the question. That might actually be more realistic.”

-??? Are you even allowed to say that?

Surprisingly, Ilian agreed with the Marquis. I was so taken aback that I found myself staring at him blankly. Fortunately, since a high-ranking member of the Order had just said something so scandalous, everyone else was too shocked to notice my expression.

Meanwhile, Ilian calmly explained his reasoning.

“The religious tribunal is conducted in a format where the Heresy Inquisitor judges and reports at their own discretion. This means their personal bias can sway the entire case.”

“I-I didn’t come here to be a nuisance to everyone like this. I came to claim my innocence. I want to stand trial fair and square. And honestly, I came here because I felt that if the Saintess personally observed the trial, I wouldn’t be treated unfairly. I didn’t come here to use underhanded tricks…!”

-Wait, shouldn’t you worry about surviving first?

-Life is what matters most.

So that was it. It seemed she wasn’t getting angry just to protect her pride in the moment. Come to think of it, she did say earlier that she ran away because she was afraid of being forced into a false confession. Seeing her consistency, she seemed to be sincere.

“Is this really the time to be worrying about your conscience?”

“S-she’s right, Edel…! Even the Commander of the Holy Knights says it’s okay…”

“I did not say it was okay. I am merely recommending it because there is no other way.”

“Ah.”

-What’s with that ‘Ah’? lol.

“Ah, right. Hereis! Wh-what do you think?! Should we bribe the Inquisitor, or just take the trial?! Think carefully. Edel’s life is on the line!”

Seeing things weren’t going his way, the Marquis called upon the silent protagonist as reinforcements.

“Yes. Hereis, you’ll make the right choice. I’ll do whatever you say.”

A flash of panic crossed the protagonist’s eyes for a moment, but his face soon turned serious.

Ring!

“Geez, both of them are putting so much pressure on me!”

‘To think they’d dump the decision on the protagonist.’

Regardless of what the Saintess says, the protagonist is truly the protagonist.

“Ah~ what should I do?”

-No idea.

-Bribing seems like a bad move.

-Go with the alternative?

“Usually, ‘another alternative’ is the right answer in these situations. Honestly, I’d want to just take the trial if it were me, but there might be a better way for the protagonist to catch them off guard.”

Ring!

“Wait, I have to choose this too?”

-There was a follow-up choice immediately lol.

-Nothing comes for free.

…I knew this choice. The Edelina heresy episode is a common event across all routes. And the correct answer varies depending on which route you’re currently on.

“An Oath~?”

Mo Je-won gasped and hovered the mouse pointer over the second option. Honestly, that was the first thing that caught my eye as well. After all, the Oath I used to clear my name of murder charges when I first possessed this body was benchmarked from this very scene.

“Is it this? Hmmm, asking the Crown Prince or the family estate seems totally wrong. If you exclude those, only the Oath is left.”

-An Oath sounds the most plausible.

-But can Edelina actually survive an Oath? lol.

-I feel like this is the wrong choice lol. Bribing or the trial might be better.

-It’s a trap.

“Ah~ stop being a hater. Anyone can see the answer is right here, what trap~?”

-You triggered?

-He’s getting complacent.

“Triggered my foot! Look, I’ll explain why the others don’t work. How are the Crown Prince or a Duke supposed to help Edelina in this situation? That would be a foreign power directly interfering in the Holy City’s affairs. Would the Holy City just say, ‘Oh, okay~’? I’m speaking based on logical reasoning, but nobody gets me. I’m truly hurt.”

-They could interfere. Edelina is a citizen of the Empire.

-Hmm, so only the Oath is left?

-But is an Oath really okay? Isn’t that just telling her to die?

-Hey, there’s someone right here who succeeded.

-Oh, right, the Saintess lol.

-But she succeeded because she’s the Saintess, right?

-They should have just taken the trial.

“No~ the way I see it, the trial is the trap. They keep emphasizing there’s no evidence, which makes it even more suspicious. Evidence is definitely going to pop up during the trial. That’s when the moment comes where you have to prove once and for all that you’re not a heretic. And that method is the Oath! Wow~ I’m a genius. I’ve played this game so long I’m reading the developers’ minds.”

-Hahaha.

-Hilarious.

-As if.

He actually got it right. Just as Mo Je-won guessed, the heresy trial won’t go as planned. The informant submits fabricated evidence to the court. Therefore, choosing the heresy trial leads to…

‘A depressing Bad Ending where Edelina is executed and the grief-stricken protagonist either makes an extreme choice or shuts himself away at home.’

But that only happens if you don’t know the evidence is fake. If I, as the Saintess, request an investigation into the evidence at the trial, the situation could change. Proving it’s fake is simple: you just have to check where the informant got those Magic Stones.

‘Well, the Oath isn’t a bad choice either.’

Didn’t I say it was the original correct answer? It’s fine to follow the original route. It might even be safer. It’s better to just go along with the protagonist’s opinion.

“See, I’m right! I’m doing this, okay?”

After a short announcement, Mo Je-won immediately clicked the option.

“…How about taking an Oath?”

-Gasp.

-Is this not it?

Actually, losing some Mental Health here is normal.

“Whhaaaaaaat?!”

Not only Edelina and the Marquis, but even Ilian’s eyes turned into saucers.

“An-an Oath! That’s just suicide! Do you even know what you’re saying right now?!”

-Uh, the Saintess lived through it?

-Technically the success rate isn’t 0%.

The Marquis immediately grabbed the protagonist by the collar. Even as his shirt was being crumpled, the protagonist didn’t back down.

“At a time like this when the Order is reacting so sensitively to heresy, taking a trial is too dangerous. And trying to bribe an Inquisitor when we don’t even know what kind of person they are is just as much of a gamble. If the Inquisitor turns around and reports us instead, it’ll truly be irreversible.”

Spot on. The bribery choice also leads to a Bad Ending.

“That’s why I thought it might be better to make a preemptive strike with an Oath.”

“Sir Hereis. It’s not my place to say this, but an Oath wasn’t made for people to survive it.”

“Ah, but there was a precedent. I saw it in the newspaper.”

At Edelina’s words, the gazes of Ilian and the protagonist briefly fell on me.

“That was… well…”

The two of them, who had signed a confidentiality agreement with the Order, could only twitch their lips, unable to speak the truth.

“Well, doesn’t it just mean you’ll be fine if you have sincere faith in Ralphican? Then I’m confident. And Hereis, I said I’d do whatever you wanted. I’ll trust you.”

“Edel!”

“So Hereis, what kind of Oath should I take?”

Ring!

“…Are you for real?”

A choice with zero hints and a ‘know it or die’ style. Mo Je-won fell into despair.