"…I chose the easiest path."
Celestia's fingers slowly tightened.
"I used him."
Silence followed.
Not ordinary silence.
Not the kind that came when people simply had nothing to say.
This was the kind of silence that came when words themselves stopped making sense.
A child somewhere in the crowd blinked and looked up at his father with confusion. Several nobles stared blankly toward the platform as though they had misheard something. A church believer frowned deeply, his lips parting slightly before closing again.
No one spoke.
No one knew how to.
Because the Imperial Princess had just admitted to using someone.
Using Razeal.
For years, people had known him only as a disgrace, a shameful stain upon the empire, a weak man whose name brought disgust and ridicule wherever it was spoken.
Yet now…
The very people who had stood against him were standing before the entire empire and saying something completely different.
The minds of the people below seemed to stop.
