"After all, since you're the Empire's strongest and the head of the military, why haven't you stopped the Empire's corruption? The capital you protect is literally at your feet, and yet it's decayed into this—what have you been protecting?"
"...A military officer must not interfere in politics!"
Budo fell silent for a moment before giving that reply.
Zeroy blinked, then laughed in anger.
"So that's it—you're choosing inaction."
From the start, she'd been puzzled: how could this country rot so badly while one of its rulers, the grand general, showed so little evil that even Hellfire couldn't burn him to ashes? Was it a lack of ability? He was supposed to be the strongest; was there some special reason?
In the end, it was simply inaction.
Indeed, when someone does nothing, it's hard for Hellfire to register evil deeds.
She wouldn't demand that anyone with the ability had to save the weak; Hellfire's judgments didn't work that way. She'd only dislike such people.
Unless the person had a duty to act.
But this nation split civil and military duties; soldiers had no responsibility for the people's livelihood. They only had to defend the state. Only failure on that front would trigger a judgment.
"Enough. I will cleanse every pest from this country and then build a new order."
"This process will be quick. The people won't suffer the ravages of war; in just a few days they'll live in peace and happiness."
"And the only sacrifices will be those pests."
"Even so, will you stop me?"
"Do you protect the throne, or the people of this nation?"
"...Protecting His Majesty and the Empire is my duty. No matter what, repelling foreign enemies must come first!"
Lightning burst around Budo.
Didn't he know the principle—secure the interior before repelling outsiders? No; it wasn't that he didn't understand, it was...
"You protect the throne, not the people. Don't try to dress it up so nobly."
She had spared him before because both Hellfire and Evil-Slayer's judgments gave Budo many positive marks.
As the Empire's grand general, he'd spent his life at war; whether for the people or the crown, he had indeed protected many from invasion, slaughter, and pillage.
Hellfire, therefore, hadn't consumed him.
Even knowing of his inaction, Zeroy had no intention of killing him.
But if you defend the crown and the nobility—thus shielding the pests who persecute the people—then you're complicit.
There was one thing Zeroy cared about.
"I saw in that great pest's memory: he appears to have murdered the previous emperor. He still controls the young emperor now. You saw that too, didn't you? As grand general, you may have known of this long ago."
"If you swore loyalty to the crown, why didn't you kill him?"
If he'd immediately slain the minister back then, this country might be far better off—and I wouldn't be here.
"...A military officer must not interfere in politics!"
"..."
Zeroy fell silent.
She was at a loss.
No way—this is divine stubbornness!
No, this is truly godlike.
She'd thought him a righteous man; after all, both Evil-Slayer and Hellfire had judged that he did many good deeds.
From what she'd learned from the people, his reputation had been solid—everyone said he was an upright grand general.
Yet he might indeed be upright, while his loyalty to the throne trumped all—then he'd simply bug out into inaction.
She'd assumed he was a blindly loyal fool, faithful without knowing right from wrong.
However, when it came to the young emperor being controlled and the old emperor being murdered, he'd kept silent.
All he could say was that a military man mustn't meddle in politics.
Had someone stamped a steel seal on his thinking?
Is this even human? This seems like the conduct of a low‑intelligence automaton.
Blind loyalty? No—hardly loyal at all.
How could a person be essentially righteous yet simultaneously unfaithful and ungenerous?
"Fine. Since things have come to this, if you shelter the crooked, you become an accomplice."
Zeroy drew her Striker blade and slashed at Budo.
Budo reacted swiftly—his earlier restraint had been to buy time to recover.
He raised his arms to block; the blade struck his armored gauntlets with a metallic ring.
Zeroy raised an eyebrow. "Empire's fool, you tried."
She increased the force by ten percent; the Striker she'd been held at bay by cut through in a flash.
Budo's arms and his Imperial Arms—Thunder God's Fury "Ademiller"—were severed together.
"—!?"
Budo stared in disbelief, momentarily forgetting even his pain.
How could the gap be so vast?
"Do you realize—if only you had done something, not been so stupid and slothful, if the country hadn't fallen so low, today's judgment would never have come. Whether you protected the Empire or the crown, they would have endured."
She did not speak lightly.
While she was slaughtering and letting the people judge their rulers, Zeroy felt the power of their faith enter her.
They recognized her; the little idols could absorb it.
At the same time, she understood why she'd appeared here and why the faith flowed so strongly.
It wasn't that someone prayed aloud to call her down.
It was that so many on this land had suffered persecution; they prayed for a god to change everything, a god to vent their hatred and repay suffering with suffering.
She had received the people's simplest wish—for justice, for revenge, and pain.
Why it was her who received it, she did not know.
"If so many were driven to despair, how could they not pray to the void? How could I not answer?"
—!?
Budo, pierced through the abdomen and falling to the ground, stared with bulging eyes.
At that moment, he understood everything.
Why the Empire suffered such calamity, why this incomprehensibly powerful girl stood before him.
The Empire had not been struck by mere thieves—it had been struck by... divine punishment!
"Ernest!!!"
Anger, grief, remorse—these emotions swelled in Budo's chest.
The surge of feeling split his wound, spraying blood and accelerating his death.
If only he had been flexible, abandoned the notion that military men must not meddle in politics in this special time; if only he had stopped Minister Ernest when Ernest did so many hateful things—yet it was all too late.
Right then, Zeroy cast a healing spell on Budo.
"Don't worry, you won't die so easily. You will die at the end of this Empire—go and watch with your own eyes how all you have guarded disappears."
...
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