Cardinal Denian flinched and pressed his forehead against the floor of the carriage once more.
I have absolutely no idea what he means.
***
A few days earlier, in the Holy Kingdom of Solea.
I′vereturnedbecauseIcouldn′tstandthesorrystateofyoufools!I’ve returned because I couldn’t stand the sorry state of you fools!
Carthaeus had stormed in, bellowing at the top of his lungs. He was the very embodiment of divine retribution.
A bolt from the heavens had struck the heads of the corrupt Church leadership.
And that wasn’t a metaphor. It was an actual bolt of lightning.
CRACK!
They said that, in the past, divine power had been as potent as the Mage Tower’s magic. It turned out to be true.
It was on an entirely different level from the divine power of the present day, which could do little more than emit a faint glow and enhance one’s healing abilities.
Carthaeus had thoroughly purged those who had fallen into secularism.
Then he appointed priests who had devoted themselves faithfully to the Goddess alone as cardinals.
The Goddess’s first apostle, who had driven out demons and magical beasts and brought salvation to the world.
No one dared raise their head in defiance before Carthaeus, the first Pope.
Speaking of which, the Goddess’s spear…
When he’d heard those words, the first person to come to Denian’s mind was Iserna Airvayne, the hero hailed as the Goddess’s Knight, who had lived in the same era as Carthaeus.
Surely that can’t be the case.
How could someone who had lived more than three hundred years ago come back to life?
Her final deed was closing the last Black Rift to appear.
Did that mean a new being had emerged to inherit her legacy?
And not just anywhere, but right here in the Cradion Empire.
Isn’t that rather ironic?
The Kingdom of Bardia, which Iserna had sacrificed her life to protect, was on the verge of collapsing under the Empire’s pressure.
The Cardinal stole a glance at Carthaeus, who was gazing out the window.
Could the Goddess really have brought him back to life?
There had once been quite a few people who speculated that Carthaeus might have joined Iserna’s expedition.
After all, the time he’d mysteriously disappeared—having resigned from his position as Pope without giving a reason—coincided with the expedition’s departure.
However, Carthaeus claimed that he’d been resurrected from his grave with the mission of reforming the corrupt Church.
He insisted that he had nothing to do with the expedition.
Then again, if the expedition had returned, the entire continent would have been turned upside down by now.
Just who were its members?
Every last one of them was a renowned hero.
Given how quiet things had been, it seemed more reasonable to believe that a single person had been resurrected than that the entire expedition had returned.
While the Cardinal continued to mull things over, the carriage finally arrived at the Imperial Palace.
“Welcome, Your Holiness.”
Count Bellow, head of the Foreign Affairs Department, had come all the way to the carriage to greet them personally.
Despite the Pope’s visit being little more than an announcement rather than a request, the Empire showed no sign of displeasure.
If anything, they seemed intensely curious about the identity of the person who had been elevated to the papacy, with so many formalities skipped.
They couldn’t possibly imagine that Carthaeus was the first Pope.
Who would believe it?
They would simply assume he was an exceptionally capable man.
Most kingdoms on the continent worshipped the Goddess and respected the authority of the Pope, passed down from the very first.
And they continued to do so even now, when divine power had become so feeble that calling it miraculous was almost embarrassing.
Because it’s useful for governing.
What could be more effective than religion as a means of appeasing the people?
Pope Carthaeus merely gave Count Bellow a slight nod in response to his greeting before stepping out of the carriage.
He then swept his gaze over the towering inner walls surrounding the Imperial Palace.
“No matter how high you build them, they cannot even reach the hem of the Goddess’s robe.”
“……!”
“……?”
Count Bellow looked bewildered and turned toward the Cardinal.
“He means that the Goddess’s grace reaches every corner of the world. No matter how high the walls may be, surely they cannot escape it. Ha ha ha…”
Fortunately, the Cardinal’s desperate attempt to explain away the remark worked.
“Indeed. The grace the Goddess has bestowed upon the Cradion Imperial Family is boundless.”
The Cardinal sighed in relief and raised his head, only to find that the Pope had already strode off alone.
He hurried after him, but Carthaeus clicked his tongue without even glancing his way.
“All talk and no substance.”
“Your Holiness…”
They hadn’t even been in the Cradion Imperial Palace for five minutes, yet the Cardinal had already realized one thing with certainty.
His Holiness hates the Empire.
Much to the Cardinal’s dismay, this visit would be anything but peaceful.
It was the first step toward punishing those who had drenched the continent in blood.
***
Kay didn’t release my wrist until we’d reached the kitchen.
“I’m sorry if I interrupted something, Captain.”
“No.”
I let out a small sigh before answering.
“If you’d really been in the way, I’d have sent you flying right there.”
“Hmm. I suppose you would have.”
“Still, it’s pathetic of me to use you as an excuse to run away.”
I’d never been so cowardly in my life.
“I feel like I’ve encountered a formidable enemy who’s really going to make things difficult for me.”
At my muttered words, Kay let out a snicker.
…Maybe I should send him flying after all.
As if he’d read my eyes, he hastily composed himself and spoke.
“That prince seems sincere.”
“You think so, too?”
“Yes. And…”
Kay hesitated for a moment before speaking again, this time more cautiously.
“I got the feeling he might have at least a vague idea of who we really are, Captain.”
“Hmm…”
Whether Kay’s suspicion was right or wrong, it wouldn’t be surprising.
The day I’d met Elhardt, I’d mentioned teleportation magic without realizing how much the world had changed over the past three hundred years.
I’d also used magic right in front of him to repair his chains, and taken things out of my spatial bag.
So even if he hadn’t figured out that I was Iserna Airvayne, he must have realized I was someone extraordinary, with abilities from that era.
“What were you going to say to him earlier?”
“Who knows… I’m sure I was going to say something, but…”
I tilted my head.
“Now that I think about it, I’m not sure anymore.”
“You weren’t going to say something like, ‘I’m three hundred years older than you,’ were you?”
“Ugh…”
Suddenly, I could feel an enormous gulf between Elhardt and me.
Even though, in terms of the time we’d actually lived, there shouldn’t have been much difference.
“It’s a little… awkward, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It’s pretty shameless, actually.”
Kay frowned.
“On the prince’s part, I mean.”
Huh? Not mine?
“I was definitely rooting for you to find love, Captain, but why am I so unhappy about this?”
“…You’re asking me that?”
“I can’t help wanting to find something to hold against him.”
I could hardly believe my ears as he boldly declared that he would mobilize the information guild to uncover Elhardt’s fatal flaws.
“So please, wait until then.”
Wasn’t he taking this joke a little too seriously?
“I’m not joking.”
“Now isn’t the time to waste manpower looking for Elhardt’s flaws. We have much more urgent matters to deal with.”
“Matters more important than your love life?”
…Kay, what had gotten into him?
“Actually, I was just about to tell you. There’s someone in the Cradion Imperial Palace we need to be especially wary of.”
I explained in detail to Kay about the demon I’d sensed when I was alone with the Crown Prince, as well as everything related to his mana.
“If you let your guard down, you could get yourself into trouble, too. Don’t approach him carelessly.”
“Understood. I’ll be especially careful when gathering information on the Crown Prince.”
“Good.”
He finally seemed to have come to his senses.
“Oh, and the Crown Prince. He looks exactly like Mikhail. Like a twin.”
“What? Really?”
I nodded.
“Though their personalities seem completely different.”
Kay blinked as he looked at me, then cautiously asked,
“Captain… are you all right?”
“Yeah. I know he’s a different person.”
“Are you sure? I’ve heard about the founding king’s disappearance, too…”
“You mean, what if he disappeared and then reappeared, just like us?”
“Yes. Isn’t that a possibility?”
I’d been about to say that it couldn’t be the case because their mana scents were completely different, but then I suddenly remembered what had happened earlier.
Elhardt’s mana scent had changed overnight.
Whether it was the body, the mind, or the soul…
People changed when they were subjected to a shock.
If Mikhail had been relentlessly subjected to something unbearable—
If his body had been tormented and his mind and soul worn down—
Then it wasn’t impossible that his values could have changed completely, causing his mana scent to change drastically as well.
But…
After thinking it over carefully, I told Kay,
“I’ll look into the relationship between the Crown Prince and Mikhail myself.”
I was certain there was no one better suited for this than me.
“Ah!”
Kay, who’d been lost in thought for a moment, suddenly clapped his hands.
“That works out perfectly.”
“What does?”
“If the Crown Prince is connected to demons, we’ll be able to find out quickly.”
His meaningful remark brought something to mind.
“Carthaeus?”
“Yes. The new Pope of the Holy Kingdom will be visiting.”
The new Pope.
Well, given his personality, he’d probably turned the place upside down the moment he arrived.
“When?”
“Hmm… He said he’d come to see you as soon as possible, Captain, so it shouldn’t take more than a few days.”
Kay gazed into the air as though calculating something, then flashed a sly grin.
“Though he might have already crossed the Imperial Palace gates by now.”
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