The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 174

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Part 2, Chapter 21

Medeia’s green eyes crossed between Rachel and the bleeding goddess statue.

Inside the goddess statue’s eyes, round wax mixed with red dye was hidden.

‘If you mix honey with wax, it slows down the melting speed of the wax.’

By calculating the time it would take for the mixed wax to melt at room temperature, she made it so that liquid would flow out at the moment when all participants had finished entering, making the goddess statue appear to shed tears of blood.

So that those who came to today’s proclamation ceremony could spread the news throughout the continent that the goddess does not recognize Rachel as a saint.

But just then, Rachel stepped forward earlier than expected, saying she would help Claudio, creating an even more dramatic timing than Medeia had planned.

She had used underhanded methods to corner the saint, so she might incur the goddess’s wrath. But Medeia was not afraid.

She had long since prepared herself to fall into hell.

* * *

Rachel could no longer endure it.

While she was trying to push the explosive called Claudio into Valdina, the other side had detonated a bomb outright.

‘That bitch is driving a wedge between me and the priests right now!’

How much hardship had she endured to regain the temple’s trust!

The countless sacrifices she had offered while enduring all manner of insults from black mages, trying to display absolute divine power, flashed before her eyes.

“I will reveal the truth!”

‘Surely she played some trick on that goddess statue. I just need to expose the manipulation. It’s fine.’

Rachel strode toward the goddess statue.

The moment she reached out her hand toward the goddess statue—

Crack.

The circular mirror positioned behind the goddess statue shattered.

For no reason at all, by itself. As if it would not allow Rachel’s hand to touch it.

‘Rachel, I knew that if you fell into my trap, you would try to expose the manipulation with your own hands.’

So Medeia had laid thin wooden boards under the floor where the mirror was behind the goddess statue and installed thin supports.

The moment Rachel stood right in front of the goddess statue, it would create vibrations to make the mirror shatter.

“Wh-what…?”

Rachel’s bewildered face was reflected in fragments on the mirror shards.

“Ah, the mirror broke when the saint approached!”

“It was when she reached out toward the goddess statue. The goddess is still angry.”

“Good heavens, what is all this about?”

The successive supernatural phenomena, far from exposing manipulation, only made Medeia’s claim that Rachel had incurred the goddess’s wrath more credible.

Rachel’s face contorted. She had to stop the suspicion spreading like wildfire among the audience.

“…Someone deliberately broke it. To trap me, to trap the Holy Kingdom—”

“A trap, you say? Saint, please be careful with your words. Do you mean that our Valdina deliberately tampered with the goddess statue to ruin this unprecedented celebration in Valdina?”

Someone among the Valdinians asked sharply.

It was shameless for the saint who had slandered their princess a few months ago to speak of traps.

“…Saint, please calm yourself. We will protect you and reveal the truth.”

The Knight Commander cut off the saint’s words and calmed her down.

Apart from the confusion, he inwardly swallowed a sigh at her clumsiness in openly mentioning traps at an official occasion.

Eventually, heated debates broke out over whether the successive supernatural phenomena were truly the goddess’s will or human trickery.

Then High Priest Paulo joined the war of words, supposedly for the saint’s sake, and the banquet hall quickly became chaotic.

And in a place where the gaze of the noisy crowd did not reach, a man who had been watching all this slowly rose to his feet.

A small pebble that had been rolling idly in the man’s large hand rolled silently between the flowerpots by the window with a soft sound.

“Everyone. We must not fall for those cunning tricks aimed at our saint! Those cowardly attempts to diminish her because they fear the power of the divine representative, ugh—!”

Paulo, who was raising his voice, could not finish his words and staggered.

Something hard had flown and struck his shin violently.

“High Priest! Are you alright?”

Paulo, who had collapsed to the floor as if kneeling, was so confused that he didn’t even notice someone passing by him with graceful steps.

“S-something just flew…”

As Paulo was fumbling on the floor, crack! A sharp shattering sound struck his ears.

People who turned their heads toward the sound were horrified.

“Th-the goddess statue…!”

The problematic goddess statue that had been shedding tears of blood at today’s proclamation ceremony had broken. Into pieces so small that its form was unrecognizable.

Marble dust rose thickly over the white fragments that had crumbled down.

And through that distant smoke, a man revealed himself.

With a sword in one hand, not even trying to hide that he had destroyed the goddess statue.

“My sword…!”

A temple knight near Paulo let out a short breath. The knight’s face turned pale as he saw his empty scabbard and his sword in the man’s hand.

He hadn’t even felt the presence of that man drawing his sword.

“How dare you destroy the sacred goddess statue! You scoundrel! What kind of outrageous act is this!”

High Priest Paulo raged at the man.

The goddess statue symbolized the divine presence.

The divine statue was evidence of the belief that the goddess was connected to them, and furthermore, it was a symbol of faith offered by believers regardless of nationality.

In other words, it was the goddess herself.

‘But he openly destroyed it?!’

In Paulo’s sixty years of life, he had never met a madman who openly destroyed a divine statue.

“You filthy heretic! Are you not afraid of divine punishment! You’ll only realize your sin when you stand on the pyre!”

Paulo ranted and raved.

But the Temple Knights and Agemas straightened their backs with instinctive tension.

None of them had noticed the man’s presence at all until he approached the goddess statue.

Then the man who had been standing quietly began to move. With each step he took, the dark silk cape on his shoulders spread out like the shadow of evil malice.

The chandelier’s light fully revealed the delicate movements of muscles rippling over his steel-like back.

The long legs extending smoothly below his sleek waist and perfect thigh muscles seemed to writhe with intense energy on the verge of explosion.

His slow yet unceasing elegant steps, like the footsteps of a predator hunting prey, made everyone around hold their breath.

Though the man held nothing in his hands, the threatening tension he emanated made even the surrounding air taut.

The man standing before the broken goddess statue gazed at Rachel.

It looked as if he, having destroyed the goddess statue, was now targeting the saint next.

Rachel froze without realizing it.

“Protect the saint!”

The Temple Knights swiftly surrounded Rachel. And they all drew their swords toward the man in unison.

“Drawing swords at a banquet, what kind of rudeness is this!”

Diangel frowned at the sight of the Temple Knights taking battle stances as if an assassin had appeared.

‘Are those bastards determined to ruin our Valdina’s banquet?!’

Setting aside the man’s presence, if those temple knights swung blind swords while supposedly protecting the saint, who would take responsibility?

However, the man lightly turned his head as if he couldn’t feel the sharp hostility of the Temple Knights directed at him.

The man who glanced at Paulo, Rachel, and the Temple Knights one by one smirked, lifting the corner of his mouth.

“If all those who bear the name of god are this foolish, the Holy Kingdom’s path to reclaiming its former glory will be distant indeed.”

His rich voice, full of mockery, openly jabbed at the Holy Kingdom’s most sensitive weak spot.

Toward the Holy Kingdom whose influence still reached across the entire continent.

Former glory.

It referred to the golden days when the entire continent was once in the hands of the Old Church.

The man paid no heed to the Holy Kingdom people’s fury exploding like their sore spot had been struck.

“You scoundrel!”

“High Priest.”

The man curtly cut off Paulo’s angry shout.

“Trickery is like this. Breaking, shattering—”

His black shoe heel stepped on fragments of the broken goddess statue.

“The foolish nature of humans is to be satisfied only by destroying.”

Crunch.

The faint sound of fragments being crushed to powder under his feet sent chills through everyone.

“Tears and such trivial messages that neither kill nor break anyone are only fitting for that gentle one, as you know better than anyone, don’t you?”

Pointing to the sky with his extended index finger, the man’s unhesitating informal speech to the elderly High Priest was surprisingly natural.

Like a ruler born and raised with everyone beneath his feet from the beginning.

Among the shocked people’s gazes, only the man’s golden eyes shone clearly.

His gaze briefly swept over the broken part of the Goddess Statue.

Looking at the pile of fragments and the floor beneath them, his lips seemed to curl up slightly with a knowing expression.

At that moment, the Knight Commander who had been on edge with the other knights hesitated. It was because he belatedly recognized the man’s face.

“1st Prince?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————