Chapter 53: The Holy Queen’s Resolve

For Simona, that was hardly a pleasant memory.

It had happened five years ago, on the edge of the Black Stone Mountains in the Demon Domain.

A colossal tree had erupted from the earth. 

Its entire body was scarlet red; the area shaded by its branches and leaves was large enough to cover a small city. 

Its root-veins plunged deep into the ground like the arteries of the land itself.

Countless human cities had been forced to evacuate under the influence of its demonic aura. 

To investigate the Evil Tree incident, Simona had personally led an army to the site.

The Holy Queen had spent three months exterminating the monsters and demons beneath that tree.

That was the version of the story most people knew—the polished, whitewashed tale.

In reality,

During that battle, after Simona led the knight order in slaughtering countless demons and severing many of the tree’s branches, she reached a space where a pure silver power lay sealed.

It was unmistakably a holy, immaculately white power.

Yet it was guarded by a demon who radiated an eerie aura.

The demon had long purple hair and wore a black dress with white over-knee socks, resembling a divine being beneath the moonlit night.

Her combat strength was nearly equal to Simona’s own, yet she could draw endless energy from the Evil Tree.

No human except Simona, the Holy Queen herself, was a match for that demoness.

Simona remembered Lady Gabriella’s sacrifice. 

If it had been her, she surely would have sacrificed herself for humanity’s future as well.

To cover the army’s retreat, Simona had faced the demon girl alone.

The battle raged for three days and three nights. 

In the end, she was defeated and taken captive.

What awaited her was not torture or interrogation, but a far more humiliating punishment—one that crushed her dignity like an ant beneath a boot.

Dark power surged from the girl’s fingertips as she approached the barely-clothed, imprisoned Simona.

“Little Holy Queen, how does it feel to be filled with darkness?”

“…No, don’t!”

“You’ll pay the price for slaughtering my kin~”

Her body was branded. 

Day and night she was polluted by dark magic until her mind grew hazy. 

She even began to fantasize about submitting to the demons, about being corrupted by the curse and becoming one of them.

For the sovereign of humanity, the guilt was unbearable.

Yet that was not the most humiliating part.

She had been brainwashed and hypnotized by that demon girl, even forced to help repel human invaders.

She did not know how much time had passed before the demon girl, the Evil Tree, and that pure white power all vanished together.

The power that had been eroding the Holy Queen temporarily dissipated as well.

Only because of that was she able to escape with her life, and the war ended in humanity’s “victory.”

Even now, once every week, she had to purify her body with holy water to keep the curse of demonification at bay. 

That humiliation—known only to herself—had left an indelible shadow in Simona’s heart.

The sensation of being tainted by dark power felt strangely connected to the absurdity of her recent dream.

Simona instinctively opened her mouth to speak.

“Li…”

“Your Majesty Simona, your complexion looks terrible.” 

The Saintess had already risen and walked to her side.

“I’m fine.”

The shadow that had flickered in Simona’s eyes vanished in an instant.

She closed her eyes and pondered for a long while before opening them again.

“Saintess, this time I will accompany you on the campaign. I will settle things with my past once and for all.”

“Yes. As long as you are present, the Evil Tree will surely be felled just as it was five years ago.”

After confirming Simona’s body showed no abnormalities, the Saintess turned and left. 

The room fell silent once more.

Simona continued her thoughts, her gaze as sharp as a hawk’s as she turned toward the window.

Elsa and Gabriella were perhaps enduring treatment similar to what she herself had suffered.

If she wished to save them, it had to be now.

And there was also Tina, the Ice Saint.

To think she had infiltrated the Demon King’s Castle alone just to rescue Lady Silver-White Sword Empress—what admirable resolve.

“You have not betrayed the title of 【Four Saints】 that I bestowed upon you, Lady Tina.”

Gabriella was still alive.

If this time they could seize that pure power of the Divine Maiden and return it to Lady Gabriella, everything could still be salvaged.

Her eyes grew ever more resolute.

She stood, taking from the armor rack behind her a sword that blazed with golden light.

“Gabriella—for you, and for my atonement.”

…

Far away in the Demon King’s Castle.

Tina rose promptly at six o’clock, spent ten minutes washing and preparing, used magic to comb her hair, and changed into her maid uniform with its rather formal black-laced corset.

At exactly half past six, she arrived at the maids’ lounge and began her new day of maid duties.

The silver-white inverted triangle engraved upon her forehead—the mark of the 【Adjudicator】—shimmered faintly.

Yesterday, she had received a signal from beyond the Demon Domain.

A breach had been torn in the domain’s barrier, making magical communication possible once more.

The message came from Philina.

“The 【Evil Tree】 has awakened again. The Saintess and the priest corps have mobilized to subjugate it at the Black Stone Mountains. Her Majesty the Holy Queen is personally leading the campaign. Victory is assured.”

Before parting with Philina, they had agreed to use this method to threaten the demons within the castle.

Now, she—Tina—was Lady Silver-White Sword Empress’s weapon, the 【Adjudicator】.

If the Demon King could be threatened, she would soon face enemies at her gates and trouble from within.

That had been the original plan.

But she had lost.

Lost to Lady Gabriella—the Lady Gabriella controlled by the Evil God.

“Lord Demon King~”

“Demon King-sama♡ Good afternoon~”

In the second-floor hall of the residential palace, two silver-haired maids gracefully curtsied to Isabella, lifting their skirts slightly.

When the black dresses rose, the white plum-blossom embroidery on their thigh-high stockings was revealed. 

The beautiful sisters looked elegant and dignified, yet their alluring figures carried an undeniable sensuality. 

Black garter belts encircled their slender, full thighs—on the right leg for the elder sister, the left for the younger. 

Their white headdresses bore golden embroidery, as if signifying their rank within the maid corps.

They were the former Silver-White Sword Empress Gabriella and the former Grand Commander of the Holy Knights, Elsa.

Yet the straight black horns growing from their heads told a far heavier truth.

The sisters, however, ignored them as though they did not exist.

Isabella gave the pair a gentle nod and a smile. 

Gabriella followed behind her and began speaking softly with Elsa.

“Sis…”

“Hm?”

“My horns…” 

Elsa suddenly sounded on the verge of tears, crystalline droplets welling in her eyes.

“Why would they be strange? When your big sister grew horns, she was actually really happy, you know.”

“It’s just… having something sticking out of my head feels so unsettling…”

At that moment, Gabriella reached out and touched her little sister’s horn.

“Sis…? Nn!”

The instant her horn was touched, Elsa let out an adorable reaction—her delicate body shivered, her cheeks flushed crimson. 

She placed a hand on her head and shyly cried:

“Gu—!”

“How is it? Feeling any better? Can you get used to it?”

“Gu… I think… it feels a little better now.”

Only beneath her big sister’s gentle stroking did Elsa’s tension finally begin to ease.