CH 181

The Tragedy of the Saint and Mia’s Ambition

“Hmm…”

In a corner of the Newmoon District in Lunatear, a murmur of an old man can be heard.

Ludwig Hewitt once used all his talents in the services of the Wisdom of the Empire, Mia Luna Tearmoon. Now he bore a grandfatherly air.

“Her Highness Miabel isn’t very good at studying…”

Stroking his now-white moustache, Ludwig looks at Miabel sleeping on the bed.

“She sleeps so well… But there’s still a trace of that person.”

Ludwig murmured as he gently combed his fingers through her silky hair on hers cheeks.

“Her Highness Miabel is still young.

He closed his eyes for a moment and relived the image of his proud mistress, Princess Mia, the brilliant wisdom that gave people hope.

“We need hope for the future. Like Princess Mia, we need a guiding light.”

They need a guide for the future of the empire.

Miabel, who inherited the blood of the Empire’s wisdom, was a person who could be the core for rallying the Empire’s subjects. It was Ludwig who wanted to let her acquire the minimum knowledge necessary for that.

“There seems like a long way to go…”

With a wry smile on his face, he sat down at his old desk. Several sheets of parchment are casually piled up there.

“Rafina Orca Belluga, huh…”

Ludwig has grown old and has already retired from the front line, but information still flows in to him, remnant of the days when he was still a minister.

Recently, he has made it a daily routine to ponder on the current world situation and the flow of the times that led to it, to figure out what caused them to fall into this mess.

“As I thought, the influence of Rafina on the world cannot be underestimated.”

Rafina’s Holy Aquarian Army has grown exponentially in power and was now becaome a force that dominates the lands.

By exposing rebels, thoroughly monitoring them, and suppressing them, they can achieve a temporary peace. But there was also a deep-seated opposition to her violent methods. As such, the continent was in the midst of a large-scale war.

“However, the original Saint Rafina should not have been so stupid as to be lacking in forethought, nor should she have been vicious enough to commit such tyranny.”

From the days when she and Mia were in school together, Rafina was a good person who had both great intellect and a mental poise. She was thought to be an excellent leader, comparable to her contemporaneous hero, the King of Libra, Sion Sol Sunkland.

“Just what happened that changed her so much…”

Although he asked the question, the cause of the change was clear to Ludwig’s eyes.

“The Holy Eve Festival… and the mass poisoning.”

Saint Noel Academy’s big winter event, the Holy Eve Festival. The indiscriminate terrorism that occurred there dropped the reputation of Saint Rafina to the ground.

It was something she deserved sympathy for. At that time, Rafina was extremely busy and often fell sick in bed due to extreme fatigue. A lapse in her scrutiny of the festival’s security measures was understandable, if not, defensible. Furthermore, the enemy’s schemes were also extraordinary in its scale and ruthlessness.

Rafina was certainly an intelligent person, but unfortunately, she was brilliant not a genius. She couldn’t see through all of her enemies’ intentions. The assassination itself was alarming.

Since she was dealing with a secret society called the Chaos Serpent, it was only natural that she would take precautions to prevent the assassination of important figures, including herself.

However, she was mistaken.

She never thought that the enemy would target not the students of St. Noel, but the servants. An extravagant stew dish served on festival days to reward their daily work. It never occurred to her that there was poison in it. She failed to consider it because even in her wildest dreams, she didn’t think such cruelty was possible. That there would be people who were willing to slaughter countless innocents just to damage her reputation. And their attacks on soft targets were quite effective.

Normally… nobles don’t care how many servants die. In the mindset of nobility, only their lives mattered. However, Rafina was the saint of Belluga. She was not in a position to abandon the commoners or the poor people.

Therefore… her title as the saint was tarnished.

The security of the noble students was perfect, but they cut corners on the servants… There were voices criticizing that. The reputation of the clean and innocent Holy Lady has been damaged. The wound was fatal for Rafina, who would never recover from it. The guilt assaulted her again and again. Slowly she changed, her suffering twisting her guilt into hate, until she transformed into the iron-fisted ruler she was today.

In order to hunt out the Chaos Serpents that hid among the populace, she has set up a draconian measure. To her, gray was just as incriminating as black. To root them out, she nipped them at the buds. As a result, the secret society Chaos Serpents was thought to be destroyed in a moment, but…

Ludwig recalled interrogating a captured Chaos Serpent within the Empire.

“Isn’t what you guys doing strangling yourself?”

When Ludwig asked that question, the man answered with a triumphant smile.

“Serpents don’t die, because this is what we are after.”

Ludwig was horrified when he heard those words. If the purpose of the Chaos Serpents were to destroy order, then surely what he is saying makes sense.

The Reign of Terror of Prelate Rafina was an attack on the order established by the Central Orthodox Church. The more Rafina acts coercively under the authority of the Central Orthodox Church, the more people’s hearts drift away from the Central Church. What was responsible for the order of this land, symbolizing God’s authority, was now being destroyed by Rafina’s own hands.

Then, some years later, Belluga will fall, and the surrounding nations will lose their basis for justice and fairness.

Only chaos remained.

“Chaos Serpents… A secret society whose purpose is to destroy all man-made order…”

Ludwig had to admit that the man was right. The world is indeed in turmoil.

“But if it’s Her Highness Princess Mia…”

He knows that what is doing is nothing more than wishful thinking. But Ludwig couldn’t help but think about it.

“With the Wisdom of the Empire’s ingenuity, would things have turned out differently? Only thing I know is that if she couldn’t do it, then nobody can. Her Highness was our only hope.”

If the student council president who managed the school events in St. Noel was Mia, perhaps they would be able to see through the evil schemes of the Chaos Serpents and save the world…

“If it was Her Highness Mia, the Goddess of the Empire, the Wisdom and the Shining Moon…”

“Huh? Ludwig-sensei…?”

“Oh, Your Highness Miabel… Are you awake?”

Ludwig turned a gentle smile to Bel.

“Did you just say something?”

“No, nothing. Did you sleep well?”

—

Miabel had barely heard what Ludwig said at that time. Therefore, Mia does not know. Also the conspiracy of the Holy Eve Festival. What would she have to do instead of Rafina to stop it. Without even imagining that Ludwig’s excessive expectations would weigh on her own shoulders…

“Leave aside the difficult election pledges for now… Ah, that’s right! I definitely want to serve my handmade mushroom pot at the Holy Eve Festival!”

And so on, Mia was thinking about disturbing things.