After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

The townspeople had never seen the man; in other words, he may not have even come near any town, but was instead struggling alone on the national highway he had created.

Priscilla kept her head down, and the knights could not see her expression but could only hear her muttering to herself:

"No...this shouldn't be happening. Why would the royal family deceive us? Why?"

"...Witch-sama?"

"There was no massacre at all, those crimes were fabricated... Why is this happening?"

The witch's murmurs left the accompanying knights silent for a long time.

As they passed by the town's abandoned night school, they saw some exceptionally talented noble children recklessly displaying their magical abilities in the street.

This made the witch momentarily dazed—she remembered the real reason that had silenced her. The knight beside her then spoke for her.

"In the year 003 of the Imperial Calendar, His Majesty the Regent publicly declared that he would use steam technology to usher the Roman Empire into the industrial age. At that time, the talent gap between ordinary people and knights and mages would be further reduced. Naturally, in the industrial age, the people would no longer need the blessings of the gods, nor would they need nobles and landowners, nor would they need the royal family to hold real power. The army would become state-owned under the support of industrialization."

His Majesty the Regent's remarks offended many people, not only his enemies but also his former comrades.

Her Majesty severed ties with him because of his "impiety" remarks, and is now secluded in the Great Temple in St. Petersburg, declaring that she will only return to the world as a messenger and guide of God when he returns to God's embrace.

General Dreschka, that warmonger who only thought about how to fight and seize territory, was already an enemy of His Majesty the Regent. His statement that the army should be nationalized rather than controlled by warlords gave him a further push.

Scholars of noble birth chose silence due to family ties, and landowners fanned the flames to protect their assets—but all of this stemmed from the royal family...

The regent also bears the responsibility of educating the next queen. If the future queen were to endorse such views, the Roman royal family would cease to be royal; at best, they would become a noble family, and might even be reduced to commoners...

To avoid this worst outcome, the royal family, along with nobles, landowners, warlords, and religious leaders, joined forces, and our regent was thus sullied and removed from power.

As for us...we must now atone for our silence for various reasons.

Knight Robert looked up and sighed deeply. Even through the helmet, Priscilla could imagine the painful, contorted expression on the face of the middle-aged man beneath the visor.

She remained silent for a long time before shaking her head.

"...Robert. You are the most glorious knight of the Roman Empire. He even took an axe blow to your chest for you back then."

Sir Robert had saved Yang Hao's life years ago. During the unification war, Yang Hao shielded Robert from an axe blow from a barbarian, saving Robert's life with a severe injury to his left hand.

Because of that life-saving grace, Knight Robert swore allegiance to Yang Hao—and then, in the Quiet Incident, he chose to remain silent.

Faced with the Night Witch's warning, Knight Robert simply lowered his head and coldly retorted:

"Precisely because I am a knight, I cannot stand idly by and watch future knights be relegated to the same level as commoners. I admit that there are dark aspects to my heart that deviate from the code of chivalry, but—"

And you, Lady Priscilla, the Witch of the Night, what is your reason for remaining silent? Isn't it because in His Majesty the Regent's future, even a magician with exceptional talent cannot remain silent in the Silent Incident simply because of their talent?

You chose to remain silent for the sake of those exceptionally talented aspiring mages, because your current position is precisely due to your natural gifts! If His Majesty the Regent's industrialization efforts are truly completed, then mages might even cease to exist...

...You betrayed your lover for the sake of the mage, and I betrayed my master for the sake of the knight. We both chose silence because of the people we carried, and neither of us is more glorious than the other.

We are all shameful traitors. But we must bring him back by the 21st and make him regent again.

Otherwise, this country will perish.

As he said, none of those who remained silent were more honorable than the others. And indeed, it was pointless for the traitors to blame each other; they now had to atone for the sins of the nation.

The knight and the witch stared at each other in silence, each poking at the other's sore spots. But just as they abandoned their confrontation and prepared to continue their work—

On the other side of the street, Priscilla saw a familiar white figure.

That was Teresa, the nun from the village of Shkur, who believed in "light" rather than "the god of light"—she was currently leaving with a basket full of bread and necessities, and Priscilla occasionally noticed that her basket seemed to contain a brand-new razor and a pair of men's boots.

Priscilla and the knight exchanged a glance. They had found them.

Chapter Six: Mother Teresa's Good Mood, and the Queen's Unspeakable Speech

Today is a joyous day for Mother Teresa.

The men in the family finally came to their senses and stopped thinking about the Roman Empire. Instead, they obediently took their axes and went to the mountains to chop firewood.

Although Mother Teresa felt somewhat helpless seeing his blank expression, she thought it was better than continuing to ponder the dead end of the Roman Empire.

After all, the entire empire was originally composed of various human territories that were merged five years ago into the Roman Empire, which was dominated by the royal family, supplemented by warlords and popes, with nobles and landowners at the grassroots level, and ordinary people serving as fuel and consumables.

This newly established nation was inherently unstable from the very beginning. Moreover, those who could become nobles were not fools.

Everyone could see that from the very beginning of the nation's founding, he intended to reduce the influence and power of all social classes except ordinary citizens. But was it really that easy?

This will take at least twenty or thirty years to prepare—and after that, it will take even longer to implement... What's worse, his companions are more or less connected to those social classes.

As for Priscilla, the witch who also hails from the village of Schul, there's not much to say. She's a witch of exceptional talent, harboring the pride of a mage—upon hearing that he planned to reduce the gap between mages and commoners, and perhaps even make them indistinguishable, she probably already had other ideas in mind.

Needless to say, the saintess of the St. Peter's Great Temple in that parish was a fanatical follower of the God of Light. In her heart, there was no other sun in the world besides the God of Light—to expect her to support Yang Hao's policies back then? That's absurd.

The relationship between that founding general and him was one of mutual exchange of interests. Even without publicly announcing the plan to nationalize the army, the warlord would eventually stab him in the back...

And among them... the most pitiful is the heir to the Roman Empire, who is now still a little girl and the next empress.

The next empress is in a rather awkward position within the Roman royal family. Her parents died in an accident while hunting early in the history of the nation, and she now has two guardians in name only—one is Yang Hao, who has been exiled, and the other is her uncle.

Mother Teresa had never met the Queen's uncle. But based on her understanding through divine magic, he was a man as treacherous as a viper and as cunning as a wolf.

(I don't know if it's just my imagination... but it seems that before the Silent Incident, I heard that when Yang Hao went to the diocese to negotiate with the border elven kingdom, the little queen left in the palace [never spoke again], and didn't even [speak] in front of the world...)

Mother Teresa's face was clouded with worry. She was convinced that Yang Hao had definitely cultivated people to speak on his behalf, and that he should concentrate the vast majority of his power on the Queen and the Royal Army...

But why is the Queen silent? Under his tutelage, she couldn't possibly be so foolish, nor could she truly abandon him, who was like a second parent to her...

If Priscilla and the others would remain silent because of their position, then why would the Queen...?

...Theresa fell into deep thought.

Soon she began to feel relieved that Yang Hao had finally stopped thinking about these things.

Just thinking about it gave her a headache, let alone providing a way to untangle this tangled ball of hemp thread.

In her opinion, this ball of hemp thread should not be untied.

It would be more practical to just burn it down.

"Sigh—never mind, let's not think about these things anymore... His boots are almost worn out, um, I'll buy those here... His razor is too dull, I can't sharpen it no matter what I do, so I'll buy a new one too... All that's left is bread, candles, firewood, a blanket, and a lantern..."

Yang Hao goes out to chop firewood, sometimes going to very far places. If he uses a torch for lighting when he gets home, it risks starting a wildfire, so he still needs to buy a kerosene lamp.

Although the price increase made the kerosene lamp much more expensive, which pained Theresa, it was a necessity.

At worst, I can just pretend to convert to the God of Light and celebrate Mass while I try to earn more money.

She hummed a song whose name she couldn't quite place as she walked out of the city.

But just as she was in such a good mood that she started thinking about "what to eat tonight," she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the Roman royal flag seemed to be rising faintly at the location of the town's teleportation hub.

......

An extremely ominous premonition suddenly welled up from the bottom of my heart.

Mother Teresa casually glanced back, making sure several times that there were no followers behind her.

"...No way, don't tell me they're over...?!"

Her expression changed abruptly, and she murmured to herself as she ran even faster toward the monastery.

............

Meanwhile, in the royal palace of the Roman Empire, the young empress, attended by her maids, was preparing for her upcoming public speech upon assuming the throne.

In reality, she didn't need to do anything. She just needed to be dressed up by the maids like a doll, and finally, after being led to the podium by the head maid sent by her uncle, her duty as a doll was completed.

She didn't even need to speak.

Because she cannot speak.

"Sir, we are ready."

"—Except for the head maid, you may all leave."

Yes. Best wishes.

After the maids finished dressing the Queen, they left at the Queen's uncle's command.

The head maid remained in the room, calmly observing the Empress's uncle. She placed one hand on the Empress's trembling shoulder and took a deep breath.

"—Is this okay?"

The elegant and poised head maid didn't utter a sound, yet a voice identical to the Empress's could be heard emanating from her stomach.

The Queen's uncle simply nodded in satisfaction.

In this way, he can then legitimately make decisions for the entire empire through the "Empress's Voice" without becoming a target of public criticism.

...but that's not enough.

At best, he only gained a legitimate right to speak. How to solve the upcoming drought and famine in the empire, how to resolve the border conflict between the Elven Kingdom and the diocese, and how to deal with the covetous eyes of the powerful nation across the sea—these are all still major problems.

The Roman Empire now needs that regent.

Chapter Seven: Nun, Witch

After learning where Yang Hao might be, Priscilla and Knight Robert decided to visit him as soon as they finished their rest.

It's not advisable to bring too many people this time.

On the one hand, their purpose was not to "arrest" but to "request," so they naturally could not visit with a condescending and intimidating force.

Moreover, the town needs to retain some staff for emergencies, and important consumables also need to be supervised—they don't believe the townspeople can fulfill this supervisory responsibility.

After all, those townspeople were scoundrels who would dig up even the steel blocks underground to supplement their household income.

On the other hand, Priscilla felt it was necessary to talk to Yang Hao... and also to talk to Teresa.

She knew she had made many mistakes in the Quiet Incident, but if possible, she hoped to use this opportunity to make amends...

No matter what, they still share the bond of lovers. As long as he still cares about the common people, as long as he remains the man she remembers who would do anything for humanity...

She could then use this renewed relationship to atone for the mistakes she made before.

......

After leading the Imperial Knights to the outskirts of Shkur village, Priscilla did not proceed towards the abandoned village, but instead followed a dirt road at the foot of the mountain outside the village that was almost completely covered by weeds.

She knew where Mother Teresa lived, and she also knew that Yang Hao would be there if nothing unexpected happened.

But when their group finally reached the mountainside at dusk and could finally see the dilapidated monastery...