The task of subjugating the red mist was easier than expected.

The opponent possessed excellent physical abilities, but in other words, that was all there was to it.

If forced to evaluate, it felt like a type that fought using various skills was charging in with bare-handed combat while their skills were sealed.

As your sword cut through the enemy’s neck, their body collapsed and spread around.

You, who had predicted this situation in advance, quickly retreated and avoided the mist.

The mist pursued you again, and you continued to evade.

Then the mist spread widely throughout the entire space and began to erode you little by little.

This was something even you couldn’t help. After all, you couldn’t not touch the air itself.

No, if you applied shield bashing well somehow, you might be able to create a temporary vacuum state, but it was difficult to maintain that continuously.

You, who decided to compromise and just think of it as a field effect or something, decided to choose the “Now is not the time” side among the two pasts visible before you.

Honestly, if it were just your personal preference, you would have liked the “Let’s overturn everything right now!” side, but that side strongly felt like it had been distorted by the red mist.

“—No, if we denounce heaven without clear evidence. The world will rather try to silence us and erase our existence. Before raising our voices recklessly, we must first secure solid physical evidence, and also build a foundation for people to accept it.”

At Sophia’s words, the school people followed her policy, though with regret.

There were some who rebelled, but instead of suppressing them with authority, Sophia persuaded them through long debates.

It was a truly strange sight to you.

The debates you knew were often won by those with loud voices and armed with the “Everything I say is right and you’re all wrong!” mentality, or both sides were armed with the same mindset, leading to various abusive language, mockery, and real fights.

It might be partly due to Sophia’s excellent speech skills, but it seemed that the culture of this city itself had a tendency to consider such behavior shameful.

Thus, time began to flow again.

Perhaps thanks to choosing rational and gradual change instead of violent and radical change, the Hubris school began to be accepted by people without much resistance.

Of course, not everyone tru’sted their words, but at least there were many who thought “Such a way of thinking could exist, or “I understand what they’re trying to say.”

However, the flow of time wasn’t entirely favorable to Sophia.

The first misfortune was that the elderly priest who had acted as Sophia’s strong supporter and mentor finally met his death after reaching the end of his lifespan.

At this time, it was customary for priests on earth to return to the Kingdom of Heaven after completing their term, but the elderly priest chose to remain on earth, breaking that custom.

Before meeting his death, he left these words to Sophia:

“Sophia. Originally, I took you as a conversation partner to teach you.

“Your words were hubris itself, but the holy power you possessed in your body was powerful. When we first met, you were just a child, so I thought it was just youthful impudence. So I tried to teach you ‘correctly’ and guide you to convert to the Kingdom of Heaven.

“I told people I would treat you as an equal, but inwardly, I was ignoring you more than anyone. I was right, and you were wrong. Like that.

“Isn’t it truly ridiculous? A debate is about acknowledging that you could be wrong, judging the right and wrong of what the other person has said, and accepting it if it’s worth accepting. I, who didn’t even think from the beginning that I could be wrong, was just a fool who hadn’t even properly equipped the basics of basics.

“But as I continued to talk with you, I, too, began to harbor doubts, even if just a little.

“God, the Kingdom of Heaven, the policies of the Kingdom of Heaven. What I had taken for granted until now began to seem not so obvious. That I had never deeply thought about it until now.

“In the Kingdom of Heaven, that was the ‘right’ thing to do. Don’t doubt, don’t judge with your own subjectivity, God’s will is so great that it can’t be fathomed with a mere human body. Just believe and follow.

“Whether those words are right or wrong, I can no longer know. However, I had this thought. Separate from whether those words are right or wrong… if someone tries to deceive people by abusing those words, there would be nothing more terrifying than that.

“Isn’t that right? If doubting, raising questions, even complaining are all blasphemy. If all those actions are defined as vices, calling them ‘hubris’. When someone speaks lies borrowing God’s name, who would dare stop them? Who in the world could proudly claim that it’s wrong?”

“Sophia, my most intelligent disciple who I taught, and the teacher who taught me. My friend who showed me the joy of conversation, and my daughter who showed me the joy of growth. I beg you, please be careful, and remember, we of the Kingdom of Heaven are far more powerful than you think, and they are also far more insidious than you can imagine.”

At the last moment.

The priest referred to the Kingdom of Heaven as “they” instead of “we”.

He worried about Sophia’s future until the very end.

Another misfortune was that the nation where Sophia lived entered into war.

In fact, war itself wasn’t such a rare occurrence.

To begin with, the City-State Alliance Doria was a place where the crisis of war with foreign nations frequently occurred.

After all, there was no place as uncomfortable to nations ruled by kings and nobles as Doria.

While noble blood itself was revered and guaranteed the legitimacy of rule, Doria rejected that basic premise.

It was fortunate that the entire continent was in chaos due to the aftermath of the old kingdom’s collapse when Doria was just settling in and building up its weight class; otherwise, it would have been trampled by others before properly establishing its foundation as a nation.

However, while the wars that had occurred so far were mostly in the form of Doria repelling external invasions, this one was different in that Doria launched a preemptive attack first.

Nominally, the reason was that Doria’s scholars were killed by the king of the enemy nation, but in reality, it was to seize the rich granary areas possessed by the enemy nation and the interests gained through trade routes.

The war ended in Doria’s victory, and they gained rights to massive wealth, food, and vast lands.

The victorious general who started and won this war opened his mouth amidst the overwhelming cheers of the citizens, “This victory is not mine, but Doria’s, and yours! Because you supported and cheered for me, we were finally able to greet this glorious day! This is my sincerity, albeit small, that I convey to you!”

At his gesture, the soldiers began distributing a certain amount of treasures to the citizens.

The citizens shouted even greater praise and cheers.

When about a dozen people were dragged out tied with ropes, the cheers reached their peak.

“Everyone, look! These are the royals of the Kingdom of Ev that we fought against! The King of Ev fell into the absurd delusion of immortality and exploited the entire nation to realize it! Farmers were plundered of the crops they produced with blood and sweat, merchants had to keep filling money into his broken jar-like warehouse, and all the people had to continue living a life like punishment day after day!

“The people of Ev suffered endlessly, and the foolish king and his bloodline continued their abundant and lazy lives by sucking their blood! Without effort, they exploited countless people just because they were born as royalty! This is the ugliness of those who call themselves kings, and proof that we who fought against them are right! If we had lost in this war, these Ev royals would surely have tried to enslave us as well!

“But they were defeated, and now they’re kneeling before you like this! Now, please answer me! What punishment should we give them?”

It was a question, but at the same time, it wasn’t a question.

It was essentially forcing an answer by setting it with the preceding words.

And the citizens willingly responded to this ploy.

“”Kill them!””

“”Kill them!””

“”Kill them!””

“The cruelest death to the wicked oppressors!”

To begin with, the citizens of Doria didn’t particularly like monarchical nations.

While the other side had to check Doria even for the sake of system stability, that was the circumstances of those doing it, and there was no reason for those being antagonized to feel good about it.

There was no reason to hesitate when the opponent was said to be the bloodline of an evil tyrant. Denouncing villains was a pleasant act.

They shouted for the death of the Ev royals as if they were one, and the captured royals trembled in fear.

It was then, just as the victorious general was about to declare the execution of the sentence with a grin.

“—Of course, we should punish them according to the law.”

At the center of that madness, a woman stepped forward with a calm face.

At Sophia’s appearance, the victorious general.

No, Sophia’s older brother frowned greatly.

But that was only for a moment. He quickly gauged the atmosphere of the bewildered citizens, then spoke to Sophia with a suspicious attitude, “Representative Sophia, are you defending these royals now? Those who have committed countless evils? The enemies of Doria?”

“Yes, I am defending them.”

The older brother’s eyebrows twitched again.

He had intended to pursue if Sophia showed signs of embarrassment or hesitation, but she admitted it refreshingly instead, momentarily leaving him at a loss for words. However, that didn’t last long either.

“As a woman who doesn’t know much about fighting and has never been to the battlefield, this act might seem cruel to you. I understand that you sympathize with them. However, due to the foolish war these people started, the citizens of Doria had to shed massive blood. The price of blood must be strictly executed, and we must never ruin the great work with personal sympathy. This is an act of insulting those who died.”

It was a statement with various meanings implied.

First, he degraded Sophia’s words as “the opinion of an ignorant person who has never been to war”, and at the same time, created an intentional weakness for Sophia to easily attack.

It was the part about the justification for the war. Strictly speaking, this war wasn’t started by the other side first.

But this was an intentional weakness.

People didn’t like to admit their ugly points. If Sophia started to argue about the right and wrong of this war, it could be an act of turning the majority of citizens who agreed to the war against her.

“No, that’s not what I’m talking about. If we just kill these royals here without proper procedures, Doria will be ruined, so I’m pointing out that part.”

but Sophia lightly ignored such intentions of her older brother and captured people’s attention with a different topic.

“There are truly many monarchical nations on this continent. If they hear that the Kingdom of Ev has been destroyed and all the royals have been brutally murdered, how do you think they will react?”

“They’ll be scared of us and stop their current pathetic provocations and checks!”

“No, they will join hands and try to destroy us deliberately. After all, usually when monarchical nations fight each other, they almost never exterminate the other’s royals, but if they fight us, it will set a precedent that they’ll be exterminated.”

“That’s just your speculation, Representative!”

“Your words are speculation as well, General.”

As the two argued in the middle of the square, the citizens, who had been just excited and shouting for the execution of the royals at first, now began to share opinions with confused faces.

Some agreed with the older brother’s words, and some sympathized with Sophia’s words.

And in the midst of such confusion, Sophia whispered to her older brother in a small voice that others couldn’t hear, “I understand you want to gain new military achievements and power through successive wars, but that’s like a poisoned apple.”

“You…!”

The older brother’s complexion changed colorfully.

Shame at having his inner thoughts seen through, humiliation, and anger.

He gritted his teeth, but no longer insisted on execution, and after heated debates among the people, it was decided that the treatment of the Ev royals would be “executing punishments befitting their respective crimes according to the severity of each crime”.

You looked for signs of the red mist, but the opponent didn’t budge.

It seemed that despite having plenty of opportunities to intervene, it was staying still, planning to wait until you were sufficiently weakened before striking all at once, rather than charging in multiple times with clumsy power.

You didn’t mind.

Even if it came to that, you were confident you could smash it.

Suddenly, you looked at the appearance of the captured royals.

A young girl you had seen in a vision once was looking at Sophia with sparkling eyes.

***

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