The more they oppose, the more it shows that I am doing the right thing

"Prince Cersei," the attendant cautiously said, "you have been standing here for a long time, we should catch up with the main force ahead."

"Just wait a moment."

Cersei Milton tilted her head and smiled, resting her chin in her hand, as she gazed out of the carriage window, bored.

Farol.

Dawn had already broken, yet there was no sign of light in the sky.

Late autumn had ended, and early winter had arrived. The reeds by the Maria River were coated in a layer of white frost. The cold wind rustled as the reeds swayed along the riverbanks creating grayish-white patches. The damp and massive gates of the city wall slowly descended, the alchemy gears creaked sharply, and the Golden Kite Knight Order's carriage team went ahead to clear the path.

On both sides of the road were the citizens of the Lower City District—the pollution of the stars had arrived, and the skin of these citizens had developed hard layers to various extents.

They gazed from afar at the wheels of the Golden Kite family, watching the nobles escorted by the army, and surged forward in madness, trying to block the carriages, begging the chosen Royal Family to take them away from this desecrated land.

"Please..."

"Radiance bless you... At least, let my child pass, sir, I beg you, please take my child away!"

"Great Emperor!"

"We too are the children of Radiance!"

"The children of Radiance cannot be abandoned—it is written in the Bible... you are defying the will of God!"

But they were all stopped.

The Guard Team placed their staves on their necks and shackled those who tried to struggle, making them kneel on the ground.

A saint from the Heresy Administration Bureau took out a scroll and paper and pen, his deep black military boots stood before all the residents, his gaze briefly passing over their forehead's horn-like or scale-like structures, and he bowed gentlemanly with an expression of regret,

"My apologies, you are not the children of Radiance."

He shook his head, "The children of Radiance would not have horn-like structures, they are symbols of blasphemous mutations. So, we have not abandoned any children, nor have we defied the will of God."

The residents of the Lower City District could not be allowed to leave—

Once one person left, it would open a gap, leading to a massive breakout.

Then the chaos would become uncontrollable, and the Chaotic Star would arrive prematurely.

Everyone would die.

So, for everyone to survive, for the dignified ones to leave safely, for the future of the Empire, it was [just] to make a small sacrifice.

Even suppression didn't matter.

"Sir, I beg you, I... I can stay here."

A woman squeezed her way out from the crowd, kneeling on the ground clutching the Judge's robe. She was dressed in tattered hemp clothes, born in the Lower City District, dirty and old, resembling a worn-out shroud wrapping her mutated, emaciated, famine-stricken body.

Despite this, she cradled a soft, pale-yellow silk cloth in her arms, pulling back the silk to reveal a baby inside.

The ragged mother looked up,

"My child, my newly born child, is still clean, a priest from the Radiant Holy See blessed him the day before yesterday, even God has said he is a child of Radiance, please take him away!"

The Judge lowered his gaze, reaching out to touch the baby, indeed, the child's aura was pure, wearing a blessed cross around the neck—an expensive item, well protected by the mother, likely why the child had avoided the star's pollution.

"I beg you." The woman was almost prostrating on the ground with a hopeful look towards the Judge, "Even Radiance has blessed him..."

"This is a Dark Son, madam," the Judge shook his head regretfully, "According to the criteria from above, our bureau must handle tens of thousands of Dark Sons every year, we cannot be mistaken."

"No, it's impossible."

The woman's pupils constricted as she tightly grasped the Judge's hand, "The priest said during the blessing that Radiance loved this child, no, you must be mistaken, look at him, look at how adorable he is!"

The mother's eyes were filled with hope, as if all the light in the world were before her, embracing her child as if embracing her entire world, holding onto the Judge's hand as if holding onto her entire world, looking up at the adult in front of her, this adult adorned with the Golden Kite badge, the smile at the corner of his mouth seemingly draped in holy light, such a figure was a saint, a saint would not abandon a child of Radiance....

"Madam, you are mistaken, and I am not."

The Judge tilted his head, still with that gentle and perfect smile,

"Our bureau has to handle tens of thousands of Dark Sons every year."

In the mother's increasingly bewildered eyes, he raised his hand, his fingertips lightly brushed over the baby's smooth cheek, finally resting on the cross around his neck, the saint tilted his head smiling,

"But every year, how could there be so many Dark Sons for us to kill?"

His smile sharply split wider at the corners, resembling a crescent moon, revealing a row of neat white teeth, his hand slightly tightened, snapping the blessed cross, stars fell from above, the pollution from the stars descended instantaneously, and the infant's body and soul, being the weakest.

In the mother's cries of despair, in the Judge's laughter, the child's joints crazily grew bursting through the skin, monstrous scales appeared on the smooth delicate cheeks, the baby struggled violently and cried, every inch of skin bursting with blood blooms, scales creasing with numerous tiny eyes forming.