***

Howard Celsior watched the trial leisurely.

While many people anticipated what results the heretic trial revived after a hundred years would bring, only he was certain.

‘Hehehe, this will completely finish the Diart ducal family!’

Of the trial’s failure.

It wasn’t simply because no one had ever received a judgment of not being a heretic in trials so far.

‘No matter how much blood they pour on a fake sacred relic, it will be useless.’

The day before, Howard used his connections within the temple to bribe the priest in charge of the Chalice of the Sun.

To present a fake instead of the real one when the trial was held.

Even when Shailyn cut her hand with a dagger and dropped blood, Howard was still only leisurely.

However.

“The holy water turned blue! It means Count Sharofe is not a heretic!”

Contrary to his expectations, the blood in the chalice turned the holy water blue.

‘This doesn’t make sense!’

Shailyn glanced at Howard, standing up abruptly in shock, and managed her expression with effort.

If she wasn’t careful, laughter might burst out loudly.

The first of the two requests she had conveyed to Chester through Raviel.

That was none other than asking him to make fake holy water that would turn blue when blood touched it.

Making Howard’s efforts to replace it with a fake sacred relic meaningless, Shailyn had also used a fake.

Raviel, taking on the crucial role of bringing that fake holy water to the trial, declared calmly.

“With this, Count Shailyn Sharofe has been proven not to be a heretic. Next person, please come forward.”

“I’ll do it.”

Bartholomew came out with his back straight in a dignified manner.

His blood also naturally made the fake holy water turn blue. Benjamin, Dain, and Deborah who came out afterward were the same.

The color drained from Howard’s face in real time as he watched this scene, and the emperor frowned.

The situation was flowing opposite to Duke Celsior’s confident assurance that it would never fail.

“Even the last Lady Deborah has come out as not being a heretic. The trial will be concluded here—”

“Wait!”

Howard widened both eyes and cut off Raviel’s words.

Everyone’s attention focused on him.

In a way, he was the only third party who knew this trial result was false.

“This trial is invalid! Diart bribed people to manipulate the results!”

Howard, with veins bulging in his neck, pointed accusingly at the Diart family.

Shailyn made a flustered and displeased expression and retorted.

“You speak rudely. We’ve been locked in the imperial palace underground prison all this time and couldn’t meet anyone, so how could we bribe people to manipulate it?”

“Ha! What couldn’t heretics who have shamelessly deceived people for decades do!?”

Who was the real person who had shamelessly deceived people for decades and was acting like this.

Shailyn let out a hollow laugh. Howard, extremely excited, was desperately trying to find fault.

“It was strange from the beginning that you asked for a heretic trial! Knowing all along that things would turn out this way……!”

“Duke Celsior, stop it. Do we have evidence that we manipulated it?”

Bartholomew, unable to watch anymore, frowned and stepped forward.

It was Howard’s side that had first created and attacked with something that didn’t exist, yet it was absurd beyond measure that he was getting angry in reverse.

“You’ve acted from before as if our family must absolutely be heretic traitors.”

“Ha, when did I……!”

“But we’ve proven that we’re not heretics as you wanted!”

Bartholomew shouted sharply like a whip. Howard flinched at the heavy aura flowing from the aged body.

It was a dignity that he, having forcibly taken the position from his nephew to become duke, could never possess.

“Then you accept the results too!”

“That’s impossible. This trial was clearly manipulated!”

“On what grounds?”

“That’s because I switched the sacred relic……!”

With a fake.

Howard, almost making a mistake in his momentary excitement, barely swallowed his words.

If he revealed that fact now, it would be troublesome as it would give the other side another pretext to latch onto.

“Anyway! This trial cannot be trusted, so it’s invalid!”

“What kind of unreasonable argument is that!”

Benjamin frowned at the sight of him throwing a tantrum like a child.

“It’s not unreasonable! I know the whole truth!”

Howard stubbornly insisted while appealing to the emperor.

“If you think about it, there have long been question marks about the discriminating power of heretic trials. That’s why the previous emperor also forbade them, isn’t it?”

Since he couldn’t immediately present evidence that the results were fake, his plan was to point out the trial’s effectiveness and make it as if nothing had happened.

“There has never been a single result of not being a heretic in trials so far, but it’s too strange that it happened for the first time today!”

“What exactly is strange about it?”

Shailyn asked back in a calm but elegant voice.

“The sun god Solaris has bestowed blessings to save us who were wrongly accused of being heretics.”

She placed both hands near her chest and smiled with a moved face for all to see.

Howard shook his head vigorously with an incredulous expression.

“Looking at it, you’re not ordinarily shameless. You take exactly after your father!”

“Are you done talking now?!”

It was Bartholomew who got angry at those words.

He was quite upset that someone called his granddaughter, the apple of his eye, similar to that scoundrel of a son-in-law.

Shailyn, patting and soothing his agitated shoulder, shrugged.

“You have no eye for it. Everyone says I look exactly like my mother.”

Since she knew she didn’t really resemble him much except for her eyes, there was no damage.

Instead, she curled up one corner of her mouth diagonally and said bluntly.

“Rather, Lady Celsior seems to greatly resemble her father. In various ways.”

“……!”

Howard’s face contorted at the quite peculiar tone.

But he couldn’t respond because it would seem petty to interrogate a noble young enough to be his daughter about what she meant.

There was also the possibility that Shailyn might spout nonsense and cause harm to Johanna.

Howard, turning his head sharply, raised his voice to the emperor again.

“Your Majesty, please cancel the trial! This really doesn’t make sense!”

“Ahem.”

The emperor coughed long and hollowly, narrowing his brow as if troubled.

“Your Majesty, Duke Celsior’s demand is unjust. We participated in the trial honestly, so please make a wise judgment.”

Shailyn also pleaded without backing down while naturally moving her position near the window.

The outside had been unusually bright since earlier. She, noticing the reason, deliberately stood with her back to the window.

Then it looked exactly as if bright light was bursting out from behind Shailyn.

People who unconsciously gave their attention to this tilted their heads in puzzlement.

“Huh? Doesn’t the sunlight seem stronger than usual somehow?”

“That’s right, it looks twice as strong.”

“As if a halo is shining on Count Sharofe……”

Her silver hair sparkling in the sunlight was beautiful and mysterious like stars.

It was when most people were staring at her in a daze.

“Everyone look outside!”

Someone sitting near the window stood up abruptly and shouted.

“There are two suns!”

“What? Is that real?!”

“Gasp, it’s really true? Two suns have risen in the sky!”

People who stuck their heads out the window shouted in shock.

No one would know, but this was precisely Shailyn’s second request.

Since ancient times, there had been a legend in the Trisen Empire that when the sun god descended, two suns would appear in the sky.

Judging that she couldn’t completely escape the current situation with just the heretic trial, she decided to use this to create a dramatic situation.

If she made another sun appear as if the sun god had come, people would feel that this trial was carried out by divine will.

‘Fortunately, the tower master stepped forward at the right time.’

She was simply grateful to Chester, using magic from the outskirts of the capital to create an optical illusion.

Meanwhile, people who were completely unaware of this fact showed the reactions Shailyn intended one by one.

“Solaris has come!”

“This is incredible, we must quickly offer prayers!”

“The sun god has surely descended to save innocent people!”

“Then, the Diart ducal family and Count Sharofe are Soliens recognized by Solaris?”

Looking around the bustling courtroom, Howard felt a sense of defeat.

Some people were even kneeling and crying while praying.

‘D*mn……!’