KFBRV Pt 2 Ch 24

She possessed zero reason to fear the consequences of her lies.

She knew exactly how to siphon another Purifier's energy, and as long as Odette remained alive, there was an abundance of power to steal.

[Raphael] "Hmm. Saintess. That is a difficult story to believe."

As anticipated, he countered her claim immediately. Though his tone remained characteristically gentle and warm, stripping away any aggressive edge, it was an undeniable rebuttal.

[Raphael] "A Purifier's rank is determined by Transcendents assessing their scent. Multiple Transcendents must evaluate the density of the fragrance the Purifier emits across several trials. If you indeed witnessed an ocean in your dream, you never would have received a mere A-class rating."

He spoke soothingly, as if correcting a confused child.

[Raphael] "Furthermore, an ocean...... Even Saintess Rosaline never witnessed an ocean in her Awakening Dream. We merely hypothesize that orchestrating a miracle on the scale of the late Lady Albrecht's might require an ocean-level capacity."

[Charlotte] "Priest......"

[Raphael] "Perhaps you misunderstood your dream, Saintess?"

Despite his patronizing tone suggesting she was merely mistaken, his eyes betrayed a sharp, calculating intrigue. He was clearly eager to hear her next words. It was a deliberate strategy.

When a difficultly confessed secret is casually dismissed as false, a person naturally feels slighted and defensive, prompting them to explain themselves even more aggressively.

This reaction intensifies when the skeptic is someone perceived as trustworthy and accommodating, like a High Priest.

He probably assumes I'm a naive, uneducated country girl. He thinks treating me like this will make me blindly spill everything.

However, despite her appearance, she had lived a life significantly longer than his.

Easily seeing through his pathetic manipulation, she manufactured a deeply bitter expression and replied.

[Charlotte] "I apologize for wasting your time with useless stories, Priest. If you find it so difficult to believe, you need not trouble yourself to believe it."

He maintained his benevolent facade, but the unexpected response caused his eyes to waver with genuine fluster.

[Charlotte] "Please forget everything I just said, Priest. We should be preparing for the memorial service anyway. If you could direct me to a place where I might change into the tunic, I will follow."

A microscopic tension stiffened the corners of his mouth. From this point on, he would be the one begging her to confess.

I just need to drag this out and deliver the information at the exact moment he becomes absolutely desperate.

Human nature dictates that the harder a piece of information is to extract, the more blindly they believe it to be the absolute truth.

---

After stepping out into the brightly lit corridor to inspect the seal, Rolf continued to pace the area nervously.

[Rolf] "Haaah. What in the world am I supposed to do with this?"

While he needed an expert to verify its authenticity, his gut instinct screamed that the seal in his hand was the genuine artifact.

The intricate, impossibly delicate engraving clearly belonged to a master craftsman, and the bronze material mirrored the exact composition used three centuries ago.

Furthermore, the velvet pouch contained photographs of Kuchler and his wife, the fugitive Young Countess.

While their overall impressions differed, a close examination of their facial features revealed an uncanny number of similarities to Odette.

Thinking back, she always bore a striking resemblance to the Count, which was precisely why no one ever questioned her adoption.

To think the resemblance stemmed from actual, shared bloodlines.

I must conduct a far more rigorous investigation into her lineage.

Though he needed to confirm several other details, his mind was already heavily leaning toward accepting her claims as absolute truth.

Above all, with the Albrecht family's fortunes currently in utter ruin, Odette possessed zero logical reason to falsely claim their bloodline.

Now that she wields a power as a Purifier that no one can ignore, what possible benefit could she gain from returning to the Count's estate?

The velvet pouch contained two additional photographs—images clearly taken mere days ago, depicting his son at the butler academy and his young grandson.

A dizzying wave of vertigo washed over him. These photographs served as a blatant, inescapable warning: don't take her words lightly.

It was an absolute threat that the moment she seized the title of Countess, she would annihilate his entire lineage.

Rolf clutched his head in agony. Just then, voices drifted toward him.

[Raphael] "I misjudged the situation, Saintess Charlotte. Hearing your account just now, it seems entirely possible that you are indeed an S-class."

Charlotte?

At the mention of that name, Rolf carefully crept toward the source of the voices, meticulously silencing his footsteps.

[Raphael] "Aside from the dream, is there any other reason you are so certain of your S-class status? If so, I would very much like to hear the specifics."

Fortunately, Rolf was positioned in a blind spot, hidden from their line of sight. Unaware of his presence, the two continued their conversation.

S-class? What are they talking about?

[Charlotte] "Truthfully, I also orchestrated a miracle the moment I awakened. A miracle even grander than the one Lady Odette performed."

Her confession sent Rolf's heart plummeting into his stomach.

Based on his expression, the man in the High Priest's robes sitting across from her experienced a similar shock.

[Raphael] "......Is that, is that truly the case?"

[Charlotte] "I speak only the absolute truth, without a single shred of falsehood. The only reason the story never spread is that I lived in an isolated mountain village."

For a High Priest to fail to mask his expression so completely. Rolf's heart hammered against his ribs, thrilled by the sheer magnitude of the intelligence he was eavesdropping on. He held his breath even tighter.

[Raphael] "Are there any other witnesses who observed this miracle?"

[Charlotte] "Tragically, no...... When I awakened, I was entirely alone halfway up the mountain, gathering herbs."

[Raphael] "Mmm."

[Charlotte] "However, I can prove it even without witnesses. Priest Raphael, not a single Calamity has manifested since I appeared, has there?"

Raphael nodded slowly.

[Raphael] "It is true that no Calamities have appeared over the past two years. And that timeframe does perfectly align with your awakening, Saintess...... However, that is likely closer to a mere coincidence—"

[Charlotte] "It is no coincidence. It is directly linked to the miracle I orchestrated the moment I awakened."

At her words, the benevolent warmth vanished entirely from the High Priest's face, replaced by an intensely serious, calculating expression.

After a moment of profound contemplation, awe washed over the High Priest's features. Rolf knew his own face mirrored the exact expression.

[Charlotte] "On the day of my awakening, I destroyed hundreds of Calamities, Priest."

And Rolf's awe shattered into absolute horror the moment he heard her next words.

Hundreds of Calamities...... she says?

A Purifier actively destroying Calamities? Such a phenomenon had never been recorded in history.

Eradicating Calamities fell strictly under the purview of Transcendents. A Purifier's sole role was to heal those Transcendents.

Furthermore, hundreds of them? That was a staggering volume that would take even the most powerful Transcendents years to eliminate.

[Charlotte] "I was gathering herbs on the mountain. Suddenly, I developed a severe fever and leaned against a tree to rest. In an instant, the sky turned pitch black. At first, I thought it was just an incredibly fast-moving storm cloud, but it was actually hundreds of colossal Calamities blotting out the sky."

[Raphael] "Dear God......"

[Charlotte] "You know where my village is located. It sits in a basin surrounded by mountains, making it impossible for Transcendents to reach quickly. I couldn't expect salvation from anyone."

[Raphael] "That must have been incredibly terrifying, Saintess."

[Charlotte] "They began violently siphoning my energy, and I was actually pulled into the air. Just as I thought I was going to die, a brilliant light erupted from my body. When I regained my senses, the Calamities were completely gone, and I was lying in an ocean of light."

The High Priest pressed for details.

[Raphael] "If such a massive horde of Calamities blackened the sky, surely at least one villager must have witnessed it."

[Charlotte] "It's an incredibly remote village, so the population is sparse. The few residents who do live there are all very elderly. Moreover, it all happened so fast. The sky darkening and the miracle I performed both occurred within a mere span of minutes."

Rolf strained his ears to catch the rest of the story. Her tale sounded utterly absurd at first, but the more he listened, the more persuasive it became.

Ultimately, after eavesdropping on their entire conversation, he reached a single conclusion.

The only person capable of fighting on equal footing against Odette, who had awakened as an S-class Purifier, was Charlotte.

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