Blasphemous Grace - Chapter 58

Perhaps it was those words, or perhaps it was the magical physician her brother brought to her during her long anguish. She had buried that memory in absolute blackness. But now, a corner of that memory, shrouded under thick, heavy cloth, seemed to stir to life. Like something glittering in a pitch-black space devoid of light, impossible to look away from.

“Ah…”

Delonas’s movements, which had been going through the motions of cleaning, halted completely.

Was it really that boy?

She wanted to ask. Was it you? Are you truly that boy? Did you… recognize me the moment you saw me? She longed to ask.

But that opportunity, it seemed, arrived soon.

“The High Priest has commanded your participation in an outdoor ceremony.”

No—she thought it had arrived.

The outdoor Grand Prayer for the Dream Goddess Ephina was a ceremony the Order held periodically. But this particular Grand Prayer was convened outside the regular schedule. Yet priestly attendance was remarkably high, and not solely because a missive in High Priest Lekia’s name—‘We beseech your participation in this special prayer service for Ephina’—had been dispatched to every temple. The Order’s interior was already rotten enough; that alone would not have drawn such a crowd.

A single phrase had lured them:

[His Holiness the Pope will personally test how prepared the former Princess of Beakin is to become a servant of Ephina.]

On the surface, it seemed an act to expand the Order’s influence by even inducting the fallen imperial family. But that was not what the priests desired. Rumors of the ‘ritual’ involving Delonas—renowned as the continent’s peerless beauty—from the main temple had already spread sufficiently among the clergy. What might the appearance of that haughty princess parting her legs truly be like? Anticipating this, the prayer ground was already packed.

And Delonas, dragged to its very center, was bewildered.

“That is…”

The first thing she saw was the colossal statue of Ephina, its head bowed as if gazing down upon the assembly. Surrounding it, a violet dome shimmered, one that provoked a strange physical reaction within her. It was filled with a dense concentration of Ephina’s divine power. Instinctively, Delonas wanted to retreat from it, but the carriage carrying her passed straight through the dome’s boundary.

“……!”

A wave of mental fog washed over her, and Delonas staggered. Simultaneously, every sensation in her body began to sharpen acutely.

Was it because of that? Even the coarse cloth binding her hands behind her back, scraping against her skin, began to grate on her nerves. Not only that, she could feel the gaze of each gathered priest as if it were a physical touch.

—Clang!

The carriage halted, and she was promptly deposited onto a path leading through the center of a dais.

“Out!”

Paladins gruffly hauled her from behind the bars. They dragged her onto a black carpet laid between the multitude of priests, a carpet that stretched all the way to the dais and up to the feet of Ephina’s statue.

The statue wore a dress pure white from shoulder to waist, gradually darkening to black. As if an extension of that hem, black carpet and fabric swathed the dais. Upon it, Delonas, with her pale skin, was thrown down like an offering.

“The princess has arrived.”

High Priest Lekia’s voice echoed. Though he spoke without any magical amplification, his words seemed to resound. Was this a dream? Lekia, who had seemed to be bowing his head in prayer, was suddenly before her in the blink of an eye. With the tip of a ceremonial staff, he lifted her chin.

“Are you prepared to demonstrate your devotion to Goddess Ephina?”

“…….”

She had been dragged here without even knowing what such preparation entailed. She could offer no reply. But he seemed not to expect one. Lekia whirled around to face the statue.

“Goddess Ephina, we have come to smite the lowly creatures of distant lands who dared act in ignorance of Your will.” He pointed at Delonas. “She who led those vile beings. But now she claims a wish to follow Your will. Witness, we pray, the sincerity of her resolve.”

He then positioned himself behind Delonas. Setting the staff aside, he gripped her shoulder with a firm hand.

“Ugh!”

The force was enough to wrench a short cry from her. Unlike Lekia and the priests in their black vestments, she had been dressed in a white gown.

Before her, priests advanced. “When the Order was founded, Goddess Ephina personally imbued five sacred relics,” Lekia intoned.

One of the black-clad priests carried something on a silver tray. Other priests rushed ahead of the tray-bearer, seizing her legs.

“!”

Before she could react, rough hands forced her legs apart. Positioned at the edge of the slightly raised dais, her most intimate parts were exposed, fully displayed to the priests.