Chapter 10
However, having been born and raised in Beakin—a place without even a religious order, let alone holy water, trusting solely in and living only by human capability—Delonas couldn’t possibly believe that.
But then.
“Uh…?”
The moment she poured the holy water onto a cloth scrap, since they had given it to her anyway.
Was it her imagination, or did the worn cloth scrap seem partially restored?
Staring at it with a surprised face, she rubbed it against the wall.
—Squeak, squeak.
Even the highest-grade detergent used by the servants in Beakin’s imperial palace had never shown such fragrant and powerful cleaning action.
Delonas’ eyes widened.
“So the rumors were true…?”
Not only that.
As she cleaned, some holy water splashed onto the scratches she had gotten here and there during her journey to this place.
—Ssss…
Along with a slight itch, the wounds closed as if they had never been there, revealing fair skin, didn’t they?
Her eyes widened.
Having grown up as a princess, she could hardly have learned to clean properly, but she knew how difficult cleaning was.
‘Let me try.’
‘Oh my, how could we let our noble princess handle such a thing? His Majesty would be furious if he knew.’
She knew it all too well because of her childhood days when she had played pranks with the palace servants, claiming to help with the cleaning.
The holy water, as the rumors said, was revolutionary.
And that realization stung Delonas’s heart.
[Holy water is omnipotent! Praise the divine authority!]
Even when such talk reached them, the Beakin imperial family dismissed it as merely the barbaric faith of a barbaric race.
And this was the result.
‘There might be a reason why so many people believe in it.’
If even she, who had been relatively neutral about the rumors of holy water, ended up like this…
Perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that Beakin would be overwhelmed by Archion, empowered by holy water.
‘Delonas, if only you…!’
“…”
But was that… such a grave mistake that it warranted losing her entire family?
She already knew that Archion and Beakin had been layering grudges over generations.
But her father, the last Emperor of Beakin, was a man who had tried hard to erase that enmity.
Unlike his older brother, the previous Emperor.
So she had heard he even reached out to Archion.
“…”
The people of Archion who saw him as a weak Emperor, as an opportunity, and pushed in.
That kind intention, which sought to erase generations of hostility and coexist, contrary to its purpose, caused her to lose her family.
Tears fell.
Was this now something she would have to do routinely?
Things like that, though difficult, didn’t matter.
More than that, the fact that in this world, there was no one left to talk to her properly…
That there was no one who would treat her… properly as a person…
It was so sorrowful and daunting, thinking only a terrible future awaited, that tears fell.
***
Ian, the current Pontiff of Archion in this generation, was a great man.
Not only did he possess more divine power than the previous Pontiff, who was said to have a great amount, but there had been no figure in history who wielded such immense divine power.
This was understandable, as not much time had passed since the emergence of the ‘Consecrated Bloodline,’ those born with exceptionally high innate divine power.
Except for the previous generation, the Pontiffs throughout history were not of the Consecrated Bloodline.
But until then, it hadn’t mattered.
Holy water, which could be created with divine power, until that point, was diluted and its uses were limited, such as for healing wounds.
Thanks to this, a Pontiff’s qualification was judged by the depth of their faithfulness toward the Goddess Ephina.
However, in this generation, all of that was overturned.
A Pontiff of the Consecrated Bloodline.
With the emergence of Pontiff Ian, who possessed divine power so potent it turned holy water—once little more than an inferior substitute for high-grade healing potions—into an omnipotent solution, Archion truly welcomed a revolution in every aspect.
“It seems holy water’s efficacy isn’t limited to just healing wounds!”
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