Holy Night: My Husband is Definitely a Paladin - Chapter 271
Ever since she brought the mirror to the fortress, Cecilia had been waiting for this day.
The Mirror of Truth was an artifact with a rather peculiar ability.
It had no physical offensive or defensive powers, nor could it directly influence its target.
Yet its impact was undeniable.
The mirror revealed a personās true self. Naturally, that included the things they most wished to conceal.
Several hundred years ago, when Viscontiās chancellor was suspected of embezzlement, the king had him stand before this mirror.
The chancellor remained still. Yet, in the reflection, he was seated in an opulently decorated room, accepting a crude wooden box from a foreign emissary and tucking it into his robe.
When he cracked open the lid, the box gleamed with gold trinkets and various jewels.
At that sight, the chancellorās face turned deathly pale, and he cried out.
“No! T-That is not me! That wretched artifact is deceiving everyone with illusions!”
But in the mirror, he smiled in deep satisfaction as he sent the emissary away.
A moment later, he summoned a maid, led her to the bed, andā¦
Watching the lewd scene unfold, the king immediately ordered his knights to search the chancellorās house for the box and the maid.
Inside the box, they found the exact same jewels that had appeared in the mirror.
On the maidās body were the same marks, in the same places, as in the reflection.
The chancellor was executed on the spot.
The mirror was immensely useful, yet it was rarely used for one reason.
It did not show just one personās truth.
The knight who had beheaded the chancellor saw himself in the mirror, cruelly slaughtering his own pet dog for no reason.
The noble beside him, horrified, saw his own reflection strangling his wife.
And the person next to himā¦ and the one next to thatā¦
The mirror revealed the deepest truths people wished to keep hidden.
That was why the Mirror of Truth remained locked away in Viscontiās vault, covered in cloth.
After all, who didnāt have a truth they wanted to hide?
From the lowest slaves to kings themselves, every human being carried such a thing.
Thus, for a very long time, the mirror was only removed in dire circumstances.
Having read all these records, Cecilia now stood behind the mirror.
She had no intention of letting herself be reflected.
āThere has to be something!ā
Michael, whose hand turned blackened and charred the moment he grasped the Holy Sword.
The āHoly Swordā abhorred corruption. If it had reacted so violently, then surely, he had done something vile.
Ceciliaās gaze shifted to the woman standing before him, her face fraught with distress.
The lowly Purifier she despised most. Irene Rhodiam.
Screeech.
The moment she had that thought, a massive twisting sound rang in her ears.
Startled, she glanced around, but nothing seemed out of place.
This was the fortress.
The people standing around her were Viscontiās knights and the fortress pairs.
Yet suddenly, Cecilia could no longer remember.
Why was she standing here?
Why were the knights holding up the Mirror of Truth?
What was that?
Why had she wanted to reflect that person in the mirror?
SCREEEECH.
The twisting sound grew sharper, splitting her eardrums apart.
Cecilia clutched her ears and opened her mouth, butā
Her memories blurred.
Everything that had once been vivid sank beyond a thick fog, vanishing into obscurity.
The sounds of twisting, colliding, and scraping filled the world.
The noise was so overwhelming that her thoughts grew indistinct.
And thenā
————-!
A sound beyond description, the loudest of all, crashed over her and the entire world.
Though shapeless, Cecilia knew what it was.
It was the sound of something perfectly aligning.
At this very moment, the world had been completed.
