The enormous council hall of the Palace of Versailles fell into absolute silence in an instant.
All the parliamentarians stared at the pink-haired "girl" with fear and trepidation.
Among all those present, only this unreliable individual dared to act so recklessly. If it had been anyone else, they would've been scared half to death.
"No, Your Majesty!"
Astolfo instinctively turned off the screen and hopped backward a few steps. "My weird intuition is telling me that after watching this video, Your Majesty will become… strange!"
"Hm? What are you talking about?"
Her Majesty the Dark Saint looked at her with an expression as if she were watching a mentally challenged child, full of mockery.
"Heh… what a joke! A mere video could shake me?"
That posture made many parliamentarians tremble slightly all over, each of them overcome by a fatal excitement—the classic Jeanne-style mockery!
Astolfo scratched his head and muttered, "But… my intuition is usually pretty accurate!"
Even though it often causes a complete evaporation of reason, makes him incapable of keeping secrets, and forgetful of important things…
It also granted him a powerful skill—[Instinct], nearly prophetic in nature.
It had never failed before!
"Astolfo, project the video directly onto the main screen!"
Jeanne's golden eyes were full of disdain.
She didn't believe a single word coming from the unreliable pink-haired flamboyant femboy.
"Just so you know, I warned you already! Don't blame me if something goes wrong!"
Astolfo made his position clear once again.
Better to get that disclaimer out of the way—being trampled under Jeanne's heel wouldn't be fun at all.
Hmm… though imagining that scene… might not be so bad???
The projection began.
On the massive screen, line after line of automatically translated subtitles appeared—
[Chronicles of the Nameless Heroic Spirit!]
[No one knows your name, but your deeds shall live on forever!]
The paladins and parliamentarians all sneered.
How could someone with truly great achievements remain anonymous?
"Alaya?"
Jeanne murmured that name while seated on her throne.
One of the two great Counter Forces, the one known for screwing over humanity—was it real?
The video began.
Beneath a leaden, gloomy sky, a blonde girl and some villagers were under attack from a familiar enemy.
A parliamentarian couldn't help but exclaim, "Damn it, that's the invading army of Britain during the Hundred Years' War!"
"Could this be some plot by the British king?"
The parliamentarians instantly began whispering to each other.
The Hundred Years' War between England and France had lasted until Jeanne's appearance, when France was on the brink of destruction.
It was one of the country's greatest shames.
Everyone present was a staunch defender of France—no one could tolerate any insult to the nation of France!
The video continued.
The British invaders grinned savagely as they prepared to kill the young saint.
Then, a nameless man clad in a red cloak appeared, effortlessly sweeping through the battlefield and rescuing the saint.
And then—
This nameless man actually said:
[Claim that you received divine guidance, and rally all of France to fight together!]
[When a lie is believed by the whole world, you can even call yourself a god!]
[Come, let us carry the wishes of the dead and deceive the entire world together—make you truly into the Lord's messenger!]
The parliamentarians instantly shot to their feet, their faces turning bright red with rage.
"Blasphemy! This is heresy!"
"Your Majesty, I request we spare no effort in identifying the creator of this video!"
"We have every reason to suspect Britain is behind this conspiracy to undermine all of France!"
…
They could not help but be furious.
Because—
The words of the nameless Heroic Spirit clearly denied the existence of God!
He brazenly claimed that God did not exist, and turned Jeanne—originally a holy saint of the Catholic Church—into a liar who deceived the people!
More importantly—
The video's production quality was stunning, surpassing 99% of films. It was an outrageously expensive production.
Even a short video like this must have cost at least tens of millions of euros to produce.
Maybe even hundreds of millions or more!
Who else could possibly be willing to spend that much money to smear France and tarnish the image of Saint Jeanne?
That's right—only the nation across the Channel—
Britain!
As the room swelled with fury—
One of the Twelve Paladins, Roland, stepped forward and said loudly, "Your Majesty, this is clearly a British conspiracy, a retaliation for the Lancelot incident!"
Before the video was played,
This meeting had been held to decide how to deal with Lancelot.
He was originally a Frenchman, who—enchanted by the personal charm of King Arthur—willingly joined the Knights of the Round Table.
He became the famed Knight of the Lake, responsible for transporting food supplies from France to Britain.
That in itself wasn't much of a problem.
The issue was—he had an affair with Queen Guinevere, got caught by Agravain and Mordred, and the resulting fallout led to the deaths of Agravain, Gaheris, and Gareth.
It was one of the worst disasters to ever hit the Round Table.
After that, he kidnapped Guinevere and fled Britain, returning to his birthplace—France.
Upon entering the Heroic Spirit era, the Knights of the Round Table harbored deep hatred for him.
But under joint signals from Artoria and Jeanne, both nations began seeking peaceful cooperation.
The first step toward reconciliation had taken place just yesterday, when King Arthur publicly forgave Lancelot's betrayal.
At the press conference, the two shook hands and made peace, which made headlines around the world.
They thought it was over—yet who could've guessed such a video would suddenly emerge, one that insulted the Saint, insulted France—
And had now gone viral around the globe!
In every country, people were fervently discussing it.
The Speaker of the Parliament, Duke Laurence, suppressed his rage and said, "Your Majesty, we must identify the instigators behind this, and punish every participant involved—let the world see the dignity of France!"
Everyone's eyes turned to her.
With Her Majesty the Saint's overwhelming force and presence, surely she would take action and grant the harshest punishment to these conspirators.
But something was… off.
The great Saint of France was staring at the nameless Heroic Spirit in the video with her golden eyes.
As if she hadn't heard a single word they'd said.
Duke Laurence cautiously reminded, "Your Majesty, how shall we punish the creators of this video, as well as the actor who dared to slander you?"
"Oh? You want to punish him?"
The Dark Saint asked calmly.
Her expression was perfectly serene—there wasn't the slightest trace of the anger one would expect.
In fact—
Was that… mockery?
Duke Laurence replied without hesitation,
"At the very least, he should be sentenced to a hundred years in prison! If the death penalty hadn't been abolished, he should've been burned at the stake as a heretic!"
"Yes! Burn that so-called Nameless Heroic Spirit at the stake!"
"Capture him! Sentence him to death!"
The rest of the parliamentarians shouted in fury.
The entire council chamber was ablaze with righteous indignation.
"Heh… how ironic."
Jeanne suddenly let out a soft laugh, looking around at the crowd of furious parliamentarians. "This scene… is exactly like what happened back then."
Everyone froze, a dreadful realization creeping over them.
What… did Her Majesty mean by that?
Could it be… everything in the video… was real?
No, no—impossible!
There couldn't really have been someone who saved Jeanne and chose to remain nameless…
The confident Duke Laurence's pupils contracted, a deep sense of foreboding welling up in his chest.
In the next moment—
Jeanne's flawless face was ablaze with fire in her golden eyes, her voice booming through the entire chamber:
"Roar, My Wrath!"
BOOM—
Flames erupted around her, unleashing endless fury.