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Theology of Tragedy

  Derik rushed through the halls of the imperial palace with reckless haste. With every step he took, Beatrice's body grew colder. Servants and knights cleared the way and whispered in his wake, but Derik didn't care. Kicking open the door to the physician's room, Derik shouted, "Beatrice needs help!"

  "Wha-" Initially startled, the physician quickly regained himself when he saw the state of Beatrice's body in Derik's arms. "Bring her to the bed, quickly!"

  "Please…Please!" Derik muttered over and over after setting Beatrice down and taking a step back to let the physician work.

  "Derik!?" James appeared in the doorway, drawn by the unease of the servants from Derik's panic. When he saw Beatrice's pale corpse, he demanded "What's going on here!?"

  The physician was scared to answer, but managed to say, "The Crown Princess…is dead."

  "Save her!" Derik shouted and grabbed the man by his shirt collar.

  "I can't!" the physician pleaded and gestured toward the corpse. "She has no pulse, she's malnourished, and her skin is as cold as an old corpse! I'm a doctor, not a priest of Sen!"

  "…Damn it!" Derik released the physician and knelt next to the bed. Tears fell down his cheeks as he stared at Beatrice's lifeless form. Why was the expression on her face so peaceful?

  "…What happened?" Despite initially lusting after only her body, James quickly found himself genuinely enjoying spending time with Beatrice. She would earnestly listen to his worries and troubles, laugh at his jokes, and offer him a shoulder to lean on where he wouldn't need to be the Crown Prince. Beatrice had wormed her way into his heart and now all he had left was her cold corpse lying on the bed.

  Derik softly spoke under his breath while his eyes remained fixated on Beatrice, "I…was on my way to visit Beatrice when Prince Terence asked to come with me."

  "Terence?" James felt dark thoughts infect the back of his mind and coil their fingers over his heart.

  "But when we got to the room…Beatrice…" Derik couldn't finish his sentence and his voice fell away. He reached out and held Beatrice's hand. It was as cold as ice.

  "Those…damned monsters!" James shouted and pounded his fist against the wall. The physician and servants nearby all jumped in surprise and took hesitant steps back to not get caught in James' anger. "It wasn't enough they used her as some idol, but now they take her from me!?"

  "…James?" Derik looked over at his prince, skeptically, since he couldn't understand what James was talking about.

  "Sure, she was a little thin, but she was still healthy!" James kept shouting as he cursed the 'monsters' for killing Beatrice.

  "What are you-"

  "The gods!" James shouted. Immediately, any servant that could, secretly started to leave once James began openly blaspheming. Not dissuaded, James continued, "I was with Beatrice this morning and she was fine! The only way she could get this bad this quickly is if those monsters that call themselves 'gods' intervened!" Tears rolled down James' cheeks and his fists clenched until his knuckles turned white. "This is why… This is why we need to break away from them!" An unhinged glint warped James' eyes. "Why do they get to arbitrarily decide if we live or die!? She was my princess, not their puppet!"

  "…" Derik was still reeling from Beatrice's death and he couldn't comprehend what James was spouting.

  "…Come with me, Derik," James' voice lowered as he stared at his bodyguard. "We need to get ready."

  "Ready?" Derik asked as he shakily got to his feet. "For what?"

  "You said my brother was with you when you found Beatrice?" James took a deep breath to calm down, but the unhinged glint never left. "He'll use this as an opportunity to oppose me."

  "What!?" It wasn't that Derik didn't believe Terence was against James, far from it, what Derik couldn't believe was, "He…would use Beatrice as an excuse for that!?" He didn't want Beatrice to become some kind of martyr for Terence's power play as he saw it as a disgusting lack of respect for her.

  "I wouldn't put it past him," James admitted as he longingly stared at Beatrice's corpse. Tearing away his gaze, James mentioned, "Which is why we need to be ready. I'll prepare an official announcement and inform my father, you begin rallying the royal guard and have them gather in the courtyard."

  "Why the courtyard?" Shouldn't they immediately begin positioning themselves around the palace to defend against a potential attack?

  "Because Andrew finally bore us fruit." James walked over to Beatrice and softly kissed her forehead.

  "You mean…"

  "We will show my brother and his followers that humanity doesn't need 'gods'." James turned and walked out of the room with Derik following close behind. "We'll turn this into an opportunity to finally break free from the temples! Humanity's future belongs to humanity, with the imperial family at its helm!"

  ***

  "Hear ye, hear ye! The Crown Princess is dead!" A crier rode on horseback through the streets of Solfin and rang a bell to get as much attention as he could. It had only been two days, yet the entire empire now knew of Beatrice's death thanks to Terence doing everything he could to spread the word. Magisters who could use wind magic sailed ships at full speed across the Helker and through the empire, stopping at ports to let off a few criers to spread the word. Finally, it was Solfin's turn. "Hear ye, hear ye! Saintess Beatrice is dead!"

  "…Dead?" Enjoying afternoon tea at a café was Olivia who looked out the window next to her when the crier passed by. She set down her tea cup and breathlessly muttered out, "She…died?" The protagonist was dead?

  "So that's what the palace was hiding?" Cassandra spoke to herself from her place sitting across from Olivia. She picked at a cookie on her plate and snapped it in half. "Even though I never liked her...death is a bit much." Another crier was riding past, so Cassandra leaned out the open window of the café and shouted, "What news of the Crown Princess?"

  "The Crown Princess was found dead in her room two days prior!" the crier shouted back as he brought his horse over to the window. "From what I was told, she was poisoned."

  "Poison!?" Olivia gasped and the other patrons all started gossiping over the news.

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  "But that wasn't all." The crier reached into his coat and pulled out a piece of paper that held his notes on the topic. "The poison was said to be an overdose of contraceptives, and her body was malnourished and covered in abuse markings." Terence sent out the criers with just enough information to not be wrong while also leaving out just enough to stir the hearts of the people.

  "…" Olivia was horrified and blankly stared at her tea.

  "Those pigs!" Cassandra scoffed after tossing the crier two silver coins before he left to continue spreading the word. "Four people sharing the Saintess and she's overdosed on contraceptives? I'd put my money on at least two of those four doing their best to make sure none of the others were her first child." Cassandra didn’t hold back as bitterness infected her voice and she leaned back in her chair with an annoyed posture. Her hair drills jiggled in agreement as she muttered, "Perhaps it's a blessing that her pain is over?"

  "…Why?" Olivia felt her stomach churn as she imagined the state Beatrice's body was found in. "They said they loved her, and they push her to die like that?" From her understanding of the various endings, the male leads genuinely loved Beatrice, so to imagine them poisoning her to the point of death was absurd.

  "You can't expect those four to know a thing about love," Cassandra dryly spat and gave a dismissive wave of her hand at the mere thought of the four male leads understanding love. "One sold his fiancé into slavery, the second turned his back on his wife to skirt chase, the third was a snake defiling the temples with his tricks, and the fourth is a wizard. Expecting anything out of them is beyond sense and shouldn't come as a surprise…yet…" Cassandra stopped herself as she felt uneasy about how Beatrice died. "Disgusting."

  "Even though she's a Saintess?" Olivia asked the question to no one as her fingers lightly tapped against her teacup.

  "Hm?" Cassandra looked up from her snack to see Olivia staring off into her tea. "What about her being a Saintess?"

  "I mean…Wouldn't Lady Alm do something about it?" Olivia looked up from her drink and into Cassandra's pink eyes. "She's her Saintess, her chosen among humanity, shouldn't that give her some kind of…I don't know…protection?" Finding Arlexia's Light had multiple opportunities for the main character to engage in combat against demons, and while she wasn't on par with the male leads, Beatrice was able to hold her own; especially during the four years of the reverse harem ending. It was hard to believe that she died so 'easily'.

  "…Not necessarily," Cassandra admitted as she took a sip of tea. Seeing Olivia's confused expression, Cassandra tried to explain, "While Saints and Saintesses are powerful people chosen by the gods, that doesn't mean the gods will go out of their way for them."

  "…Why not?" That seemed counterintuitive.

  "You'll get a different answer depending on who you ask since the temples have never given a definitive one." Cassandra gave a shrug. "In my opinion, it's for the same reason that they don't normally get involved in our affairs unless we call upon them: they just can't."

  "…" Olivia remembered the past when she had Arkin perform the Ritual of Legitimacy to prove Lucina was a Felswore. Alm knew the answer and had the power to prove it but waited until the ritual was enacted before revealing the truth. "But why can't they? There are plenty of examples of them interfering with our lives, and even the fact they grant us the use of magic and aura is an 'interference'. Why wouldn't they protect their chosen Saint?"

  "Like I said, they most likely just can't." Cassandra ate one of the cookies, looked up at Olivia, and muttered with a full mouth, "Even if you look at me like that, I'm not sure what else to tell you."

  "Why do you keep saying they 'can't', then?" Olivia pressed for an answer.

  Reluctantly, Cassandra explained, "As I said, this is just my own opinion after doing some research into the gods."

  "Research?" Olivia tilted her head to the side as she didn't think Cassandra was a theologian.

  "I…may have started looking into theology for a way to…counter a certain Harbinger who betrayed my friend," Cassandra sheepishly replied as she revealed her reason was to find a way to go against Lucina.

  "…Ah." A smile played across Olivia's lips.

  "A-Anyway!" Cassandra cleared her throat to refocus the conversation. "From what I found, the gods only rarely interfere with human affairs. Even though they granted us the potential to use magic and aura, they left it to the first users to figure out and document how it worked; the first Auristers had to learn from dragons while Magisters were completely on their own. They were very hands-off despite how important magic and aura is to our society." Cassandra picked up another cookie and bit into it. "The same can be said about Saints, just because they're here doesn't mean the gods will personally look out for them. Lady Alm let Beatrice look out for herself…and if she failed, then that would be that, as we now see."

  "And you think it's because something is stopping them?" Olivia asked for clarification.

  "Why else wouldn't they intervene?" Cassandra countered. She pointed the half-eaten cookie in her hand at Olivia, and asked, "The gods love us yet still allow suffering. If you had the power of the gods, wouldn't you do everything in your power to help the one human you chose to be your Saintess? Or, another question, wouldn't you use your power to make sure all sinners were immediately punished?"

  "…Solomon." Olivia still remembered when Cassandra told her about how Solomon was a wizard in disguise. Surely, Alm must have known Solomon was a fake and could have told her followers in R'eldrun before he gained so much influence and sway. But, if Alm did know, why didn't she do anything?

  "The gods have directly killed people in the past for spreading false prophecies." Cassandra finished the cookie. "Sure, they did it in a roundabout way by using 'natural disasters' but we all know they did it. So why not now? Why not fix everything themselves?" Cassandra picked up another cookie and studied its surface as she thought aloud, "It's almost as if there are things stopping them from doing so. Whether it's each other or some outside force, I don't know, but that's my speculation on the gods."

  "…" Olivia pondered Cassandra's words as well as her own experience with the gods. As Ayake Fukuda died, she heard a voice that she believed to be the god Zulm since they referred to Arlexia as 'my' Arlexia. A god pulled her into the world of an otome game which meant at least Zulm held considerable power, yet he still allowed things he didn't want to happen. Why did Arlexia need saving if Zulm had the power to rip souls through dimensions? Why not just do that to the male leads and be done with it? Or, better yet, if the wizards are so opposed to the gods and temples why not just get rid of the wizards? Why were the gods contradictory in their actions and inactions? Olivia couldn't help but chuckle, "You should become a scholar, Professor Lyllium."

  "Oh please, and wear such drab uniforms?" Cassandra mockingly joked as she flicked a hand through her hair. She rested a silk-gloved hand on her premium pink dress, and said, "It would be a crime to hide my beauty under such bland clothing." The two awkwardly laughed as they did their best to lighten the mood that was still sinking as the people around them couldn't stop gossiping about Beatrice's death.

  "Just what happened at the palace?" They whispered loudly.

  "Didn't the Crown Prince oust the previous Crown Princess for her? How could he let this happen?"

  "And to a Saintess, no less!"

  "It's an insult to the gods and our ancestors!"

  "…" Olivia and Cassandra silently sipped some tea. Many of the people who were gossiping looked angry, and Olivia rightly guessed that this was how Terence would start his coup. She mumbled under her breath, "Just why the hell did you bring me here, Zulm?"

  "…" As if answering her question, the gossiping stopped.

  "…?" Olivia looked up from her snack and looked around. Everyone's head was hung low and not a word was being spoken in the once lively café. But what truly drew Olivia's concern was that it wasn't just the people who were quiet. Once bustling streets halted to a standstill, trees stopped mid-sway as the very wind halted, and the dull rolling waves of the ocean were silenced. The world was quiet. "Wh…What?" Olivia's voice echoed as if in a massive empty space. None of the guests were moving. "Cassandra, are you…?" Cassandra's head also hung low and her face was completely obscured by her long hair. "…Cassandra?"

  "…" The world was quiet.

  Olivia stood up from her chair, walked around the table, and reached out to grasp Cassandra's shoulder, "H-Hey, can you-"

  ***

  "-hear…me?" As soon as Olivia touched Cassandra's shoulder, she blinked and found herself standing on cold rock with a black sky above. Stars twinkled in the dark sky, and in front of her loomed a large planet with blue oceans and sprawling continents. Recognizing the continent facing her from various maps as North Kelica, Olivia realized she was staring at Pianeta; the planet she lived on. "…Huh?" Looking around, Olivia discovered that she was standing on a small asteroid that was just on the edge of Pianeta's gravitational pull. She was standing on Sailest's rings. "I-…!?!" Seeing that she was in space, Olivia panicked before realizing that she wasn't decompressing or turning into a human popsicle. She could breathe just fine and the temperature felt pleasantly cool against her skin. Tapping her shoe against the ground made a small dust cloud that idly fluttered as it dispersed into the vacuum of space. Every movement pushed and pulled her dress which freely flowed in the zero gravity environment. Everything was quiet. Turning to her right, Sailest loomed in the distance as it silently watched her standing on its rings. "H-How-"

  "…" The super storm, Sailest's 'eye', moved to look at Olivia. The storm dilated as it saw her and a black tendril shot out of the planet, reached out through the rings, and grasped Olivia by her waist.

  "Huh!?!" The tendril felt freezing to the touch as it wrapped around her and looked to be made of flesh as black as space and had thorns made of purple bone dotting its surface. Olivia was yanked off the asteroid with a blinding speed. Like an ice skater on the rink, Olivia skimmed across Sailest's rings as the tendril continued to drag her closer and closer to the gas giant. "W-Wait…" Closer and closer. "Wait! Wait! Wait!" Olivia hit Sailest's atmosphere and her ears erupted with a blistering cacophony of noise. Particles of dust and debris scratched and tore at her as the storms that raged across Sailest rended Olivia's flesh, yet she never died. She couldn't see. Did she still have eyes? She couldn't hear. Did she still have ears? She couldn't feel. Did she still have life? "…AGH!?!" Just as Olivia was about to pass out, she was dragged out of the storm clouds and into a layer of clear, calm air inside the gas giant. Above her loomed storm clouds that sparked and lit up the sky in a constant light show of lightning; yet not a single boom of thunder was heard. Thanks to the light from the constant lightning, Olivia could see what lay below her; a massive black blob the size of a small planet. Sailest's core.

  "…" The black tendril that pulled Olivia kept her suspended in the air above the core and seemed to be allowing her to catch her breath.

  "…?" Surprisingly, Olivia could breathe inside the gas giant and quickly started easing her racing heart to not pass out. And, now that she had a moment to collect herself, Olivia saw that the core wasn't perfectly round. The core was lumpy and had massive spires stretching off it that reached and disappeared into the storming clouds. The spires looked to be made of the same black flesh and purple bone thorns as the tendril that held her. Was it a plant made of flesh, or flesh that attempted to mimic a plant? "Where…!?" Olivia's world was flooded with purple light as the core split open to reveal some kind of… "Eye?" From the dark core opened a massive eye whose pupil was an unknowable obelisk made of black stone. The obelisk was covered with the shifting unknowable words that adorned the murals in the various temples across Pianeta. Despite having no way of possibly understanding the strange language, Olivia immediately knew what she was looking at as the unknowable words reached out, entered her mind, and spoke to her with innumerous chattering mouths that hid in the darkness.

  "Greetings, Stolen Soul," said Zulm; the planet-sized creature that dwelled as the living core of Sailest.

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