“I would like to announce here today the culprit who assassinated Princess Ilina de Frisia, the First Princess.”
After Prince Oliver, the Second Prince Alois took the microphone to share a compliment for the current king’s health, shocking words burst forth from his mouth.
Alois had been evaluated as someone who had perfectly lost in the struggle for the throne against Prince Oliver. However, whether he truly fought with all his heart or not was a matter of split opinions among the nobles.
As a member of royalty, Prince Alois loved culture and elegance. But some voices suggested that he intentionally yielded the throne due to his excessive nature.
Rustle rustle.
People murmured, curious about what had stirred the once carefree prince to suddenly speak so harshly, but they began to focus on Alois’s words.
At first glance, I thought he was deeply interested in the arts. But what Ilise and Princess Ainis told me was something different.
Merely for survival.
He couldn’t defeat his brother, Prince Oliver, so he had just been pretending to be carefree while bowing his head.
To him, we had gifted claws.
So powerful, they could snatch even the nape of Prince Oliver, who was confirmed to be seated on the throne, away in the name of truth.
“That is! First Prince Oliver de Frisia!”
Once again, the crowd’s gaze shifted towards Oliver. I couldn’t see his expression.
Because I was quite busy moving as well.
Click clack.
The pocket watches on my wrist made an intense sound. I snatched the wrist of the priestess who was about to place a hand on the current king’s shoulder, pulling her close.
“Are you being appropriate?”
“Oh my, you’ve arrived.”
The priestess welcomed me with a bright smile the moment she saw me, even though she knew exactly what she was up to just a moment ago.
“First it’s Princess Ilina, and now you’re trying to assassinate the current king? Is that God’s will?”
“Of course. Everything is God’s will. The fact that I am being blocked by you right now is also the intention of the Goddess of Time bringing us together.”
With a bright smile, the priestess took a step back from the nearly blind king, whose eyes were half-closed.
“So, did you solve the problem? How did Princess Ilina die?”
“You already gave me the answer.”
“Mm-hmm.”
The priestess made a sniff sound while tapping her chin with her fingers. Like a professor grading a test, she demanded the answer from me.
“Princess Ilina’s symptoms were both the hint and the answer. Her blonde hair turned into brittle white strands, her skin riddled with wrinkles and liver spots, her joints failing, and her back hunched.”
I was convinced after seeing the doctor’s note stating that it was like she had aged dramatically.
“That’s not a terrible incurable disease nor the curse of the gods that priests talked about. It’s a future that comes to everyone, equally.”
Time flows fairly for everyone.
Resistance against it is powerless, and in the end, everyone meets the same conclusion.
Whether you are a beggar roaming the streets with nothing or a king sitting on a golden throne enjoying everything.
“It’s simply aging.”
“Hehe.”
“It’s not possible, right? Princess Ilina was only 20 years old at the time. So how did she age so rapidly in just a few days?”
Taking a deep breath, I tightened my grip on the snatched wrist. As a result, with a sickening crack, the priestess’s wristbone broke.
“I thought there couldn’t possibly be such a thing, but you showed me the answer.”
“You were focusing on me.”
When I first met the Goddess of Time, she had grabbed the tail of a cat that came to us while we were talking by the pond in the royal garden.
The cat struggled, and when she let go of its tail, it seemed a bit larger, and its neatly groomed fur became tangled.
As if only the tail had aged.
“If you really showed me the answer, then you must have prepared beyond that, right?”
“Well, to be honest, I’m not that much of a planned person.”
The priestess subtly averted her gaze.
Prince Alois revealed that Prince Oliver had tried to assassinate both Princess Ilina and the current king, and that the culprit was none other than the Goddess of Time.
“That woman right there! That witch! She was the mastermind behind trying to assassinate both Princess Ilina and my father, the current king, under Prince Oliver’s orders!”
Naturally, following the tip of Prince Alois’s finger, people’s eyes focused on the Goddess of Time. I could see Oliver’s face twist in an indescribable rage as he recognized me beside her.
Just when I was about to raise my objection, the priestess slipped free from my grasp and swept her wrist with her other hand.
With that, her previously broken wrist returned to normal. As if it had never been broken in the first place.
After rotating her restored wrist a few times, she raised her hand to greet everyone.
“Yes everyone. I am the Goddess of Time, who assassinated Princess Ilina upon the orders of Prince Oliver and was caught while attempting to assassinate the current king as well.”
Her audacious, lighthearted confession would have left few people fully grasping the gravity of her words at that moment.
Even Prince Oliver, who had been venting his anger at me, was now looking at her in confusion and fear.
“How did I assassinate her, you ask?”
There was no time to react.
She placed a hand on the king’s shoulder, causing the king’s waist to bend sharply. His hair was falling out, and wrinkles deepened.
Queen Isabel de Frisia, who was sitting next to him, quickly tried to stop her.
“This is how it was done.”
Now, in reverse.
The king’s waist straightens.
The visible lines of age disappear, and the hair that had fallen out begins to grow back thick.
The king, who had been breathing heavily with half-closed eyes, regained life and stability in his breath.
“Haah!”
The ailing king, nearly on the verge of death, was startled by his transformation and began to look around in shock, as if he were in the same state he had been before he fell ill.
“Did you see? This is how I assassinated Princess Ilina.”
A heavy silence fell, so thick you could barely breathe.
Seeing the results of magic, countless people stared at the king. Shortly after, a torrent of scorn erupted.
“Arrest her!”
The first to act was, of course, Elise, who had been waiting. She grabbed the sword Bertia had prepared and immediately charged at the startled Prince Oliver, knocking him down and subduing him.
“Priestess! You! How dare you!”
Prince Oliver’s desperate scream echoed in the banquet hall. The Goddess of Time winked at him, even while lying on the ground.
“I told you, I thought I could give you a proper farewell.”
Then she gave a courteous bow.
“Farewell, Prince.”
“You wretched!”
Light burst forth from the ring Oliver was wearing. A ring imbued with magic that royalty possesses. I had seen it used in a way that enabled physical enhancement and teleportation, but…
Crack!
“Uugh!”
An agonized scream filled the air. Elise’s sword had cleanly severed the finger of Prince Oliver wearing the ring.
“You let your guard down here, didn’t you? Clearly, you got too excited to think straight, brother.”
If only he hadn’t been distracted by the Goddess of Time, he would have activated the ring’s magic to resist at the moment Elise charged in.
However, realizing he had been backstabbed by the very hunting dog he raised, Oliver was unable to maintain a calm mindset.
And thus, he was easily subdued.
‘Oliver has been subdued.’
He wasn’t able to fight back directly, instead lying on the ground with his fingers sliced off thanks to his sister.
The one action I needed to take here was simple.
I had to subdue the Goddess of Time.
“I didn’t expect you to confess so easily. Thanks to you, I brought the situation here smoothly.”
Originally, I should have pointed to the Goddess of Time, explained her powers, and presented detailed evidence regarding the assassinations, but…
Her voluntary confession while clearly demonstrating her powers to the audience ended the incident more anticlimactically than expected.
“No, I’m glad to achieve what I wanted as well.”
“What?”
As I was about to charge, I felt a sense of foreboding from her voice. Unlike her usual light smile, she wore a strangely alluring grin as she asked.
“Would you raise your hand for me? Daniel McLean.”
“……!”
I couldn’t hear.
No, it wasn’t just my hand.
My entire body wouldn’t move.
As if my time had stopped.
“Don’t worry, I prepared diligently to ensure nothing goes wrong with your body. It’s just a simple formality. I need to know everything about you, chosen by God as the savior. Only then can I serve you.”
A white light burst from her hand and the ticking sound of a clock echoed louder. I thought I was being taken advantage of in my helpless state, but her hand gently placed itself on top of my head.
“I will tell you everything about me, so please, show me everything about you.”
She began to delve into my mind.
Then.
After what felt like a mere moment to everyone in the banquet hall,
She removed her hand from my head and immediately clenched her fist, swinging it fiercely.
Something that wasn’t like her at all.
So violent, rough, cruel.
“Ugh!”
Blood gushed from my mouth.
I rolled on the ground, dropping onto the table where food had been placed, instinctively realizing that a few ribs had been broken, but that wasn’t what mattered.
“Heresy! Heresy! Heresy! Heresy! Heresy! Heresy! Heresy! Heresy! Heresy! Heresy!”
The clocks on her wrists rattled as they shrieked.
Incredible teeth clenching, drooling, with bloodshot eyes and veins bulging on thin skin. The violent energy overshadowed the entire banquet hall.
She appeared as a figure that could only be called a demon.
“You vile demon! Magical beast of heresy testing the gods! I will tear your flesh! Smashed your bones! Drench the earth with your blood! God has called you here to take me! You use this insufficient body to cover up your flaws!”
She screamed as if she had broken down somewhere.
“Today! Right here! I will condemn you!”
