Chapter 4

2. The Princess Who Has Nothing Left to Her Name

It wasn’t common, but it did happen occasionally. If one used more power than their limits allowed, their mana or divine power would no longer recover.

“I had already prepared myself when I heard that hundreds of years had passed. Perhaps because I’m the Princess of Victory, I have more divine power left than I expected.”

“To be completely honest, the fact that you can walk and speak normally right now is nothing short of a miracle.”

Living an ordinary life would be fine. But if I used my strength the way I had on the front lines, His Holiness Celestia warned me that I wouldn’t live even another year.

“You fought on the battlefield for many years, Princess. Even if you consciously try not to use your divine power, you may end up using it instinctively. I’ll give you a divine-power control device, so please wear it at all times.”

The control device His Holiness personally fastened around my wrist was a thin silver bracelet.

I had only ever used artifacts that amplified divine power, so this was my first time wearing a control device. Surprisingly, it was quite comfortable. It gently kept my power in order without feeling restrictive.

Now that I had rested enough, it was time to hear what the Princess of Victory needed to know.

I couldn’t exactly meet the Emperor wearing pajamas, so I needed to change clothes.

The imperial maids came in carrying what looked like a mountain of dresses.

“W-W-What are all these?”

“The Princess of Victory Collection!”

“All of these are my clothes? I’ve never seen any of them before.”

“Of course you haven’t! They were all made after the founding of the Empire!”

The imperial maids explained with bright smiles that the Groxdel Empire held a competition to design clothes for the Princess of Victory.

“Every year, they select the outfit they think would suit Your Highness best. It’s a prestigious competition that has been held for over four hundred years!”

“Spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The designated season changes every year, so there are outfits for all four seasons.”

“They were kept in storage beneath the Central Great Temple, and His Holiness brought them here.”

As a demonstration, I tried on Dress No. 1, supposedly the very first one ever made.

It fit me perfectly.

Apparently, the dresses were made according to measurements estimated from my full-body portrait.

I had been a little worried about what I was supposed to wear from now on. The Goddess’s Cloud, the only clothing I had possessed, was a treasure and therefore had to be returned.

And now, all of a sudden, I had more than four hundred outfits for every season.

Incidentally, these winning designs were forbidden from being reproduced exactly, so there was only one of each.

The winning designers therefore changed the designs to make them somewhat simpler and used cheaper fabrics to produce versions for sale.

I had heard all the explanations, and now I had to decide what to wear today.

There were simply too many choices, and since I was in the imperial palace, I also had to consider proper etiquette.

Honestly, I had no idea what would be appropriate, so I asked the maids to choose for me.

After a heated debate, Dress No. 387 was selected.

It had golden embroidery along the hem and sleeves.

“Who should explain it to her, Your Holiness?”

“You, as a blood relative of the Hero, would be the most suitable.”

“You’re giving me quite a difficult task.”

“I did try to stop him back then. Besides, the one who caused the trouble should be the one to clean it up.”

“By Your Holiness’s logic, wouldn’t it be best for Licht to explain everything himself?”

As I listened to the Emperor and the Pope talking back and forth right in front of me, I couldn’t help feeling uneasy.

Neither of them seemed willing to be the one to tell me.

With no other choice, I nudged the Hero in the side.

“Please explain it to me briefly and clearly so that I can understand.”

He lowered his eyes for a moment, apparently contemplating how to put it.

Then he dropped a truth that made my head spin.

“The Holy Sword was destroyed.”

“AAAAAH! What did you say?”

“The Four Great Temples, which once stood in the east, west, north, and south, were also destroyed. The cost of repairing them is so enormous that we haven’t even been able to consider restoring them.”

“U-Ugh!”

The sheer absurdity of it made me dizzy for a moment.

The Hero caught me as I staggered, and divine power came rushing toward me from across the room.

“Princess! Calm down—no, I suppose there’s no way you could possibly calm down right now. Take a deep breath!”

I clenched both hands and followed His Holiness’s instructions, taking several long, deep breaths.

I regained my composure, but my stomach still felt sick.

The Holy Sword was destroyed?

What on earth had happened?

I narrowed my eyes and glared around the room.

This time, His Holiness Celestia began explaining the circumstances.

When Dietrich, the Hero who had fought alongside me in my era, went out to subjugate the Demon King, the Holy Sword was shattered while he was blocking one of the Demon King’s attacks.

“It was destroyed completely, including the hilt, beyond any possibility of repair. The attack was so powerful that Hero Dietrich even lost his right arm.”

Without the Holy Sword, the subjugation army had no choice but to retreat.

According to the records, by then, the Northern Great Temple and Eastern Great Temple had already been destroyed.

“During the period between the Hero’s death and the appearance of the next Hero, we failed to protect the remaining two temples as well. As a result, the Central Great Temple is now the only one left.”

“Didn’t you pray for a new Holy Sword to be bestowed upon you?”

“Of course we did. But as you know, Princess, the Great Temple is the foundation that gathers the Goddess’s power. Her answer was that there was not enough power remaining to create another Holy Sword.”

So that was why it had taken five hundred years to defeat the Demon King.

The Princess of Victory had been trapped at the Demon King’s Castle, and they didn’t even have the strongest weapon, the Holy Sword!

Of course it had taken centuries when the Hero had to take down the Demon King’s neck all by himself.

Wait.

Then how on earth had Licht, the current Hero, managed to cut off the Demon King’s head?

Ordinary weapons couldn’t even scratch the Demon King’s skin.

The Goddess hadn’t bestowed a sword specifically for the Hero for no reason.

The Emperor was the one who answered my question.

“We overwhelmed him with sheer numbers. We gathered outstanding blacksmiths and craftsmen from across the continent and had them forge swords.”

“One or two wouldn’t have been nearly enough.”

“We made a total of one hundred swords for Licht over the course of twenty years. Ninety-nine of them broke during battle. Only the one made with the most expensive materials survived.”

Just as the Princess of Victory possessed an enormous amount of divine power, the Hero also had several special abilities that only a Hero could use.

One of them was the ability to possess an extradimensional storage space for weapons from the moment they learned that they were the Hero.

Even if the weapon in their hand broke, a Hero could immediately summon the next one and continue fighting.

As long as they still had weapons in their extradimensional storage.

“You really did manage to defeat the Demon King by some miracle.”

“Indeed. Not only I, but the rulers of the other nations as well, all think the same. His record of failures was quite extensive, after all.”

Licht was probably one of the strongest Heroes in history, easily among the top three.

Even under such unfavorable circumstances, he had ultimately secured victory.

Now, back to the main issue.

There was no Holy Sword, and the Great Temples had been destroyed.

There was no guarantee that the next Hero would be as strong as Licht.

For the sake of future generations, we had to find some way to solve this problem.

“According to the records, the temple is responsible for managing the Holy Sword, but only the Princess of Victory can repair it.”

“Is there anything we can do?”

Even though they were asking me with such desperate expressions, I didn’t have some miraculous solution ready either.

The proper method would be to completely restore all four Great Temples, then have the Pope and all the High Priests pray to the Goddess together and ask Her to bestow a new Holy Sword.

“I was a princess who had no choice but to fight on the front lines, so I mainly learned healing and combat techniques when it came to using divine power. I did receive some special training and learned a few other techniques in passing, but I’ve forgotten the ones I’ve never actually used.”

Let’s not expect too much from someone who crammed for an exam.

The very first technique the Pope from five hundred years ago had taught me was the Goddess’s Iron Fist, which involved concentrating divine power into my fist and launching it at a horde of monsters.

“I may be the Pope, but there could be information that even I don’t know and that Your Highness does. I’ll grant you access to the library and restricted archives of the Central Great Temple, so please…”

“I think I’ll also need the help of a priest who is highly knowledgeable about using divine power.”

“I’ll assign High Priest Avilus, whom you met earlier, as your assistant!”

“You may also use the Imperial Palace’s restricted archives whenever you need them.”

Huh?

Restoring the Four Great Temples was the Church’s responsibility, so it made sense for His Holiness Celestia to be so cooperative.

But even the Emperor was being extremely helpful.

The Demon King had already been defeated, so at least during the current Emperor’s reign, there shouldn’t be any need for another Holy Sword, right?

Perhaps he noticed the confusion written all over my face.

The Emperor immediately revealed a painful reality.

“The cost of making a single Demon King subjugation sword capable of withstanding a Hero’s power is enough to build an entire mansion and still have money left over.”

“Ahem. Be precise. A mansion in the Imperial Capital. For your information, the capital of the Groxdel Empire has the most expensive real estate on the entire continent.”

Now I understood why the two people at the very pinnacle of continental power were desperately asking me to do something about it.

Whether Emperor or Pope, no one could fight against a budget.

In the end, I made the same request to Emperor Payton.

I asked him to assign someone to help me.

“I’ll introduce Your Highness to the greatest scholar on the continent.”

“Oh, are you thinking of bringing Dr. Riepart?”

“He is the most suitable person when all factors are taken into consideration.”

The Hero gave me a brief explanation, since I knew absolutely nothing about him.

Dr. Elmaren Riepart was a genius scholar with a memory so extraordinary that he never forgot anything he had seen even once.

His nickname was the Walking Library.

“If it’s knowledge he possesses, he can immediately explain it in simple terms. He’s the best teacher you could ask for. His favorite field is history, too.”

“So if I ask him something I’m curious about, he’ll be able to teach me right away.”

“Yes. The doctor is currently conducting research at Groxdel Imperial University, but if he hears that he can meet Your Highness, he’ll come running like the wind.”

Well, of course he would.

If a scholar who loved history was told he could meet someone who had actually lived five hundred years ago, there was no way he would let anything else get in the way.

Anyway, had I finally heard everything I needed to know?

I looked at the clock.

Two hours had already passed.

So many important matters had been discussed that no one had touched the tea or pastries laid out on the table.

I picked up a cookie to eat.

But the Hero snatched it away in an instant.

After wiping the crumbs from my hand with a handkerchief, he broke the cookie in half.

He took one bite, waited for a moment, and then popped the remaining piece directly into my mouth.

Aah! He’s doing it again! He’s doing it again!

Without even realizing it, I had once again allowed myself to be waited on by the Hero as naturally as water flowing down a stream.

I screamed internally.