Chapter 188

Chapter 188

The crowd descended into panic.

The flames shooting into the sky lit every face, as if they meant to burn everything to ash.

The Nun slowly raised her head in a daze and stared at the inferno before her.

All the noise seemed to drift far away from her-from the moment the King was burned to death.

Fire… such familiar fire…

…

“Beg the god to calm his wrath!”

They dropped to their knees in a frantic rush, hoping this would extinguish the god’s anger.

But the fire only burned hotter.

Sweat slid down uncontrollably. Then someone cried out.

“It’s Prince Dennis… He blasphemed against the god! He questioned the one blessed by the god, and that’s why the god is angry!”

“It’s him! It’s him!”

“Throw him into the fire! The god’s wrath will be appeased!”

Tu Nan stood in a corner, her gaze dark as she watched the chaos unfold.

This was what a mob was: people without thoughts of their own, blindly following in their ignorance.

Drop a single spark into a haystack, and it would ignite in an instant.

The people’s fury had been set alight, and their anger was directed at Dennis.

“It’s him! He angered the god! Throw him into the fire!”

The King had thought that letting the people witness this sacrifice would allow them to see how favored he was by the god. In truth, what they had witnessed was him being burned into a charred corpse.

And now, they were going to throw the successor he favored into the flames as well.

Dennis looked at the restless crowd before him and took a step back in terror.

They had gone mad!

They were nothing but a pack of irrational lunatics. They did not care about the truth, nor whether he was truly guilty or innocent. They only needed to shove someone forward, using that to make themselves feel at ease.

Before, it had been the Witch. Now, it was him.

At long last, belatedly, he understood: perhaps this fire had been a trap deliberately set for him.

…Judy!

Where was Judy?!

He looked around in panic, but her figure was nowhere to be seen.

Dennis grabbed the Queen’s arm and pleaded, “Mother, this is a conspiracy. It has to be a conspiracy. Save me… If the kingdom loses its Prince, there will be no one to inherit the King’s throne. You can’t just let them do this!”

The crowd had already surged toward him, held back for the moment by the Soldier ranks.

Only, the Soldier ranks seemed somewhat hesitant too.

No one was unafraid of the god’s wrath.

They needed to push someone forward to extinguish that endlessly burning fire.

The Queen looked at him coldly, prying his hand off her arm. Her voice was utterly still, like a lake frozen over in winter.

“Haven’t you always looked down on me?” The corner of her mouth tugged upward. Leaning close, she whispered, “This country is rotten to the core. Let it be destroyed completely.”

Madwoman. Madwoman!

“You madwoman!” Dennis shoved her hard. “Have you lost your mind?!”

The Queen let herself fall to the ground and cried out loudly, “Dennis, I only wanted to advise you to respect the god!”

She raised a hand and wiped at tears that did not exist.

Tu Nan could not help letting out a snort of laughter.

The Queen’s acting was truly terrible, but the people’s emotions had already been ignited. This was undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire.

“Sacrifice him! Sacrifice Dennis! Only by sacrificing him can the god’s wrath be extinguished!”

Seeing this, the Soldier ranks exchanged glances, then simply stopped blocking the crowd.

They were afraid too.

The furious mob rushed forward, seized Dennis, and lifted him high above their heads.

Terror filled Dennis’s face. Fear flooded through his entire body, making him beg for mercy at the top of his lungs.

“I did not disrespect the god! Let me go! Help! Save me… Maria!”

They shouted for him to be sacrificed, their eyes fixed only on the blazing fire. They did not care at all what Dennis was screaming.

Dennis was carried to the edge of the pyre. Any moment now, the furious people would throw him into the flames.

Tu Nan glanced at Maria, who had been watching the show from the side this whole time.

She couldn’t have gotten too absorbed, could she?
She hesitated.

Then, in the final second before Dennis was about to be thrown into the flames, Maria finally spoke.

“Wait,” she said.

Everyone turned to her in confusion.

“We can wait, but the gods cannot!” someone shouted.

Maria’s brows drew together slightly, her expression almost compassionate.

“Dennis is my brother. I believe he did not mean to offend the gods.”

Dennis could hardly believe Maria was actually speaking up for him, but he was far too terrified now. All he could do was sob and beg at the top of his lungs.

“Yes… Maria, my dear sister, I was blind. I never should have questioned you…”

“Princess Maria, we know you are kind, but if we don’t kill him, the gods will never be appeased!” a rough male voice said. “He must die!”

“As the princess of this kingdom, I care for every one of its people,” Maria said firmly. “I am willing to take Dennis’s place as the sacrifice. If the gods are truly angry, then let me be the one to calm their wrath.”

A Weird hush fell over the crowd.

“Are you truly willing to…”

“I am,” Maria said firmly.

“Princess Maria, you are too kind.” Xu Duoyi suddenly rushed to her side and hugged her, discreetly slipping something into her hand.

Maria’s expression did not change as she tucked it into her sleeve.

Then she looked at the flames before her, and her legs nearly gave way.

…

“Does she think she really has the courage to walk in?”

Tu Nan paused, then looked toward the Woman who had appeared beside her at some point.

Nemesis was quietly watching Maria in the distance.

“She will,” Tu Nan said. “Didn’t you already help restore her magic?”

After Xu Duoyi sent out that letter, they had finally managed to wait until Nemesis arrived.

Nemesis fell silent for a moment. “She is Aphro’s child, after all.”

“No one knows that a Witch actually isn’t afraid of fire,” Tu Nan said calmly. “The women burned to death under the name of ‘Witch’ were nothing more than poor women who were a little different and had that label forced onto them.”

How could a real Witch be so easily captured by ordinary people?

And destroying a person was such an easy thing.

All it took was making everyone believe they were righteous enforcers of justice.

Driving someone to their death was only because that person deserved to die.

Dennis was the perfect example.

Most people were ignorant and blind. They could only see the illusion others wanted them to see.

Maria was not afraid of fire, yet she would still feel fear in the face of it.

Because it looked like a beast baring its fangs and claws.

The King’s corpse still lay off to the side, like a warning.

She took a deep breath.

…

“But she will still be afraid,” Nemesis said. “Afraid that I am deceiving her. Afraid that I haven’t actually forgiven her mother.”

“No one is fearless,” Tu Nan said.

Just as Nemesis had said, she was afraid too, which was why she had asked Xu Duoyi to give Maria that item with one final use left.

But Maria would still be afraid. Afraid that the item would be useless.

No one could calmly walk into a fire.

She hesitated at the edge of the flames.

The scorching heat made her skin burn in waves. She could almost smell the charred stench of flesh being seared.

“She didn’t actually have to do this,” Nemesis said with a frown. “If they threw Dennis in, she would still be the sole heir.”

“If that happened, perhaps the people wouldn’t trust her as much,” Tu Nan said, looking toward Emily, who was watching just as intently.

Yes. Emily had come too.

No one knew exactly what Maria and Emily had said to each other last night, but Tu Nan knew that since Maria had chosen to do this, she must have had her reasons.

Under everyone’s gaze, the noble princess finally lifted her head. Her delicate face shone beneath the firelight, so radiant it was almost impossible to look at directly.

She raised her leg and stepped into the flames without hesitation.