“Promise?”

“Grand High Priest, I am a very fearful person, and I worry that if my sister escapes the divine trial through some underhanded method, she might, out of vengeance, make me a sacrifice for black magic. So, Grand High Priest, please make one promise with a divine oath.”

The initiative had somehow shifted to Sybel, but the High Priest, blinded by the profit before his eyes, failed to notice even that.

The platinum coins filling the small pouch at this moment made Sybel’s words as good as a divine decree.

However, the High Priest knew the danger of a divine oath.

His divine power had already declined significantly due to his accumulation of various vices and neglect of prayer.

If his divine power decreased any further, he might lose his authority and have to step down from his position as Grand High Priest.

And now he had to make a divine oath that would cause a substantial drop in divine power if broken.

Just as the High Priest’s brow furrowed with doubt.

“When using the Oath of Truth to question Belinda Blanche three times, do not explicitly ask if she is a black mage. That is all I need you to swear to the divine.”

“…Is that all?”

“Yes, that alone will put my mind at ease.”

Sybel smiled kindly and removed his hand from the pouch of platinum coins.

“Very well. I swear to the divine that I will not explicitly ask Belinda Blanche whether she is a black mage.”

Thud. As the High Priest made this declaration, a golden light signifying divine authority flickered in his clouded eyes.

“Then I shall prepare the witnesses. I will see you next in court.”

Having secured the High Priest’s support, Sybel rose from his seat without hesitation.

Though his pouch was lighter than when he had arrived, it was a small price to pay.

After his plan to identify counterfeit casino chips failed, Sybel had no choice but to recall all chips and reissue them with a new design.

Naturally, this caused enormous financial losses, enough to make the Blanche family’s finances stagger momentarily.

But the misfortune did not end there.

“Mother… left a letter talking about my origins?”

Upon hearing the report from his injured aide who had returned, Sybel burst into hollow laughter.

If there is a God, He must truly despise me.

Otherwise, how could everything flow in Belinda Blanche’s favor?

However, he considered himself someone who defied divine fate.

“I-I saw with my own eyes that Lady Belinda controls ravens, monsters. Sh-she’s a black mage! The young lady is a black mage!”

“Come to think of it, there were several rumors. There was even a rumor that the young lady offered sacrifices in a blood-soaked room. When I think about it…”

The moment he heard Merry’s accusation, a thought flashed through his mind.

‘The ability to control monsters. If I could frame that as black magic…’

The assassination attempts on Belinda had failed repeatedly.

If Belinda crossed the threshold of the casino again before he recovered the finances lost through the casino, it would truly be irreversible this time.

If Sybel couldn’t kill her by human means, he had to do so even if he had to borrow the name of God.

“God’s will is truly unfathomable.”

Long ago, when he saw Belinda awaken her ability to protect herself from monster attacks.

Sybel lost his faith in God.

Not only did she have the noble bloodline he could never possess, but she also awakened an ability.

But ironically, that chosen bloodline would now strangle her.

And that day, news that Belinda Blanche had been accused of being a black mage, arrested by holy knights, and dragged to the temple struck the social circles of the royal capital.

***

Everyone in the royal capital was talking about one piece of news.

The same was true for the nobles gathered at the riding club.

“I hear that Lady Blanche must face trial immediately without even appointing a proper lawyer.”

“Hey, it’s not just any trial, it’s a divine trial. Lawyers are completely useless in the first place. Do you think a divine trial is the same as an ordinary trial?”

“Still, black magic? It sounds plausible yet absurd.”

“Wait, what about the dowry then? Will all of that really be returned to society?”

The head of the Dukoff family, Rechel Dukoff, was listening to people’s conversations while tending to leather for a saddle.

Belinda Blanche’s arrest two days ago.

And the divine trial proceeding tomorrow.

Everything was moving at an unusually fast pace.

Like looking at a river that appears calm on the surface but has rapids flowing underneath.

‘No, that’s not the most suspicious thing.’

She recalled the contents of the letter she had received three days ago.

Late at night.

She couldn’t tell how it had been trained, but a pitch-black raven instead of a pigeon had knocked on her window.

The content of the small note tied to the raven’s ankle was very concise.

[I will tell you the truth that will tip your golden scales. If you are confident you can handle it, please appear at the court that judges me.]

The truth that will tip the golden scales.

Though there was no sender, she could immediately tell it was a letter from Belinda.

However, what was incomprehensible was the content written in the letter.

The court that judges her?

At the time, she thought it was some abstruse metaphor and couldn’t find an answer, but soon her question was resolved.

The next day, news that Belinda Blanche had been accused of being a black mage struck the royal capital.

What was strange was that Belinda’s letter arrived the day before the accusation, as if foreseen future events.

“Hey, Count Dukoff. Are you going around the course today?”

After pondering momentarily at the club member’s question, Rechel shook her head.

“No, I have a trial I must attend tomorrow, so I need to hurry and prepare from now.”

***

The divine trial takes place in the most sacred and splendid location in the Grand Temple.

It was a place where people could directly witness the power of God.

Belinda entered the Temple of Judgment, with its dizzyingly high ceiling and stained glass windows on all sides, boasting dazzling brilliance.

As she stood on the antique platform installed in the center of the temple, dozens of gazes from the audience seats, arranged in a circle like a colosseum, pierced down at her.

This was the judgment delivered by God’s representative.

The judge was the Grand High Priest, who could use “the Eye of Truth,” God’s power to see through all falsehoods.

“Defendant Belinda Blanche, hear this. You stand before God as a criminal, accused of being a black mage.”

With the judge’s solemn declaration, the divine trial began.

Two judicial officers, whose role was to investigate and interrogate the defendant to reveal the crime, summoned witnesses they had prepared one by one to the court.

Among them, the most zealous was a woman who introduced herself as Belinda’s personal maid.

She explained how cruel Belinda had been normally and raised her voice, claiming she had clearly witnessed Belinda controlling monsters with her own eyes.

Throughout all this, Belinda remained silent and even appeared bored.

As if watching a terrible play.

After all the witnesses prepared by the judicial officers had finished their testimonies, the judge finally spoke.

“As God’s representative, under the divine power that sees through all falsehoods and reveals the truth, I cast three questions upon the defendant.”

The Eye of Truth gives a person only three chances.

In other words, it meant that a person who has been judged three times by the Eye of Truth becomes free from divine power.

Therefore, the questions the judge asked the criminal after declaring the Eye of Truth always had to elicit clear and definite answers.

At last, the judge drew upon his divine power.

The holy light emanating from him resonated with the stained glass windows all around, illuminating the interior of the temple cozily like afternoon sunlight.

After savoring the exclamations of awe bursting from here and there, the judge asked Belinda.

“Belinda Blanche, I ask as God’s representative. Do you control monsters as your limbs?”

Belinda looked up at the judge for the first time.

Just as a smile-like expression flashed across her face, which had been wearing only a dry expression until then.

“Yes, I do.”

Belinda gave an affirmative answer.

The Eye of Truth immediately discerned the black and white of her words.

“It is the truth.”

The Temple of Judgment became tumultuous for a moment.

“My goodness, she controls monsters!”

“How could she commit such an atrocious act!”

Belinda, unconcerned with people’s shock, continued to look directly at the judge and said.

“Before receiving the second question, I have an objection.”

“…I allow it.”

“I control monsters, but that is by no means the fruit of black magic. It’s merely a byproduct of my ability!”

“How is an ability that controls monsters any different from black magic!”

One of the judicial officers standing on either side of the judge shouted as if he had been waiting for this.

At this sight, Belinda twisted the corner of her mouth.

While the Blanche family’s ability was remarkable enough to be recorded in the ability encyclopedia, it wasn’t particularly well-known to people.

This was because no ability awakener had been born in the past 100 years.

‘No, what’s 100 years? Since Adelia Blanche concealed her ability awakening, it’s an ability that’s been forgotten from people’s memories for almost 150 years.’

Yet the high priest, who wasn’t even a citizen of the Genos Kingdom, denied it outright without even asking what kind of ability it was.

He must have taken a bribe from Sybel.

‘In <Hirome>, the temple wasn’t this corrupt. Did Jusepe clean up the corruption after becoming the Grand High Priest?’

While thinking such thoughts without any sense of crisis, Belinda continued.

“That will be the focal point of this divine trial. And it seems everyone here has one misunderstanding.”

Belinda leisurely surveyed the circular gallery.

Upon finding Sybel among them, Belinda opened her mouth with a mocking expression.