Published: August 15, 2025
Licht said, “Your Highness, excuse me,” and stepped back once more.
Escorted by several men flanking him, the town mayor was brought up onto the stage.
He looked worn out, dressed in tattered clothes, appearing pitiful. But for a commoner, this was normal attire. His movements were a bit unsteady, but at a glance, there were no visible injuries from beating or kicking. It seemed he hadn’t been treated too harshly during the winter.
He knelt before me, raised his face slightly, glanced at me for just a moment, then lowered his eyes.
In that brief moment, his eyes gleamed oddly. From his slightly narrowed eyes came a clear sense of disdain. It was a look of mockery, as if thinking that a merciful, young child could be easily manipulated.
…Back then, I wouldn’t have noticed the mayor’s scornful gaze.
Over the past year, having been immersed in noble society and learned to read the stoic expressions of the high priest and the unreadable smiles of my Foster Mother, I have grown somewhat. I’m not thrilled to feel growth from something like this, but I’m glad I didn’t let it pass without noticing.
“I, the head priest, did not know,” the mayor said in a pained voice, keeping his head lowered as he began his self-defense. He spoke at length, explaining that he didn’t know that attacking the small temple would be considered treason.
That claim was a lie. The mayor couldn’t possibly have been unaware. Fran had told me that at the harvest festival, Licht’s complexion had changed when told of the attack on the small temple. Since Licht, as an assistant, knew, the mayor must have known as well. He just planned to cover it up with the former head priest’s help. Because he knew it was “a serious matter,” he acted when Licht was absent.
I felt my eyebrows furrow unconsciously.
I’m sure the high priest behind me was wearing an even fiercer expression. The chills running down my neck aren’t just my imagination.
“You keep saying you didn’t know, but so what?” the high priest cut off the mayor’s defense mercilessly.
The mayor looked up, hesitated briefly, then must have thought I was easier to sway than the high priest. Fixing his gaze on me, he avoided looking at the high priest and continued speaking to me.
“Kind and merciful head priest who saved Hasse from ruin, all of this was simply to protect the town. I fully acknowledge my ignorance, but please have mercy on my actions…”
Since the mayor was someone who once led people, he probably knew how to raise his voice and choose his words to move the people. The crowd in the square began to plead, “Head priest, if possible, have mercy.”
…This is bad.
I thought so. If possible, I want to save the people of Hasse at the cost of only the mayor. If more people side with him, the number of those to be punished will increase.
“You even have pity for orphans, don’t you?”
The mayor began to talk at length about how I showed mercy and compassion to the orphans of Hasse, begging that the same mercy be extended to him.
Licht shifted his body slightly toward the mayor with a look that seemed to say, “Enough already.” I thought he was about to stop the mayor, but then Licht looked up, his face turning pale, and he stopped his movement.
Probably because the high priest glared at him.
Next, someone lightly tapped me on the back with a finger. I turned around swiftly and looked up to see the high priest’s eyes sharp and severe, but with a faint smile distorted at the corners of his mouth. A silent pressure of “Hurry up and finish this” bore down, and I twitched my lips.
…Now, what should I do?
I needed to steer this situation so that while maintaining the saintly image I had just created, it would be appropriate to punish the mayor.
I stared at the mayor, who was pleading with gestures and voice, then gently lowered my gaze.
“…Mayor, you ask for my mercy, but you regularly inflicted violence on the orphans, didn’t you? When I took in Thor and Rick, they were covered in wounds.”