Chapter 74
The cathedral of the Order.
Bishop Albato summoned Esther Sol Cilliad, a genius of the Order and a candidate for Saintess.
"Did you call for me?"
"Yes. Is Silvienne in good health?"
"She is still hale and hearty."
She was growing weaker by the day, but Esther did not bother to add that.
"That is good. The reason I called you is..."
A single newspaper.
Receiving it, Esther furrowed her brows as she read a certain passage.
"Adjudicator?"
Written there was a story about a man known as an Adjudicator.
A man she knew very well.
Callias von Zervan.
It was a story about him.
"He... has become a Count."
"The succession and appointment of titles for the Four Great Noble Houses do not require the Kingdom's permission. You are still unaware of the affairs of the North, are you not?"
"Yes. What happened?"
An orc raid. The appearance of a Warlord.
A fierce defensive battle.
The shadow of the Empire behind them.
And the hero who ended the war.
"Him?"
"According to the reports... so they say. The verification process is already complete. I too can hardly believe it, but was it not the same for you? He has changed, and he is still changing."
"Yes. He certainly was..."
However, this was quite a hard story to believe.
He, the Kingdom's greatest wastrel.
‘To think he dropped the Warlord's head.’
It is an old story.
In the North, they always fought against the barbarian tribes and steadily expanded the Kingdom's territory.
However, battles cannot always end in victory.
In the painful history of the North's defeats, the word 'Warlord' had always held a place.
"With the current Warlord dead, the North will be peaceful for a while. It is a good thing. The fallen soldiers will be able to close their eyes in peace as well."
"Yes, it is a good thing."
"To be honest, I am not certain if he truly beheaded the Warlord. I am not the type to easily trust reports written in ink. Hence why I called you."
"For what..."
"What was Callias like back then? Or should I call him Count Zervan now."
Regardless.
"What was he like? Did he have the strength to drop the Warlord's head? Did it truly seem like there was no help from a holy relic?"
"When he encountered me back then..."
His skill was, at best, just a bit higher than the Pilgrims.
Would he have even reached the level of a lower Paladin?
The sword aura of the Silver Blossom Severing Sword was a powerful strike, but if that was all, it wouldn't even reach the Warlord's neck, and would have been sorted out at the Great Warrior level.
‘But if I tell the truth,’
The Order suspects him of monopolizing the holy relic.
Her testimony could plunge him into danger once again.
Not that she cared much.
—Perhaps, no, maybe he was trying so hard to become someone befitting you.
Silvienne's words.
Made Esther hesitate for no reason.
‘Did he grow strong enough to behead the Warlord in that time?’
Could such a thing be possible?
Would it be possible with Saint Stella's sword?
Was it truly not the power of a holy relic? Questions arose one after another, but Esther simply left them all as doubts.
"I am not sure. I was clearly defeated, so I could not properly gauge his true potential. He might have been hiding his strength all along."
She did not lie.
Because it might indeed be true.
"Hidden his strength... Why do you think that is?"
"I think it might be because of the swordsmanship he learned. It is not an ordinary swordsmanship, but Saint Stella's Silver Blossom Severing Sword. He must have learned her swordsmanship since he was young."
It was an assumption.
An assumption that remained in Esther's heart. It was merely a simple assumption, but when it came from the mouth of someone named Esther.
That alone carried weight.
"He hid it thoroughly because he wanted to avoid people's attention."
That was also one of the reasons Esther did not speak much.
But it was not a lie.
Esther did not think Callias learned that sword in a short time.
Unlike the Order's Paladins, who relied solely on the power of their swords.
Stella's sword maximized only her own swordsmanship, so even if he learned it, it would have taken a long time.
"That makes sense. Even I would not have shown it carelessly if I had possessed Stella's swordsmanship since childhood. Rather, I would have acted like a wastrel to avoid gathering attention. Is that what happened?"
Seeing Albato let out a sigh of deep impression, mixed emotions surged within her.
She had only spat out a conjecture that seemed like a lie but was not, but she could not shake the feeling that she had somehow told a lie.
"Now that such a man is revealing his strength... a storm will brew."
An unstoppable bloodstorm.
"Esther Sol Cilliad."
"Please, speak."
Albato interlaced his fingers with a gleam in his eyes and asked solemnly.
"Count Zervan. Can you win him over to our side?"
"To the moderate faction?"
"Callias has become an attractive card, unlike three years ago. The radical faction will probably try to recruit him. Of course, Millimen does not know his true potential yet, so this is our opportunity."
The epithet of the Kingdom's greatest wastrel does not come off so easily.
Moreover, Bishop Millimen, the leader of the radical faction, would suspect that he still possessed the holy relic.
"It is better to recruit him before Bishop Millimen makes a different move. Even for our cowardly king, now is the time to avoid war."
If they utilized him, they might cleanly strip away Carpe's festering rot.
If only they could solidify their internal affairs, a ray of light might shine upon the kingdom shrouded in dark clouds.
To serve God was to serve the nation, and to serve the nation was to serve God.
* * *
The King's Audience Chamber.
Somewhat youthful.
And therefore, pitiful and unsettling.
A woman with neatly braided silver hair sat on the throne.
Carpe's cowardly king.
[Clara von Agatha Bright]
Silver hair branded with a holy stigma from God.
Sacred silver pupils.
The head and eyes gifted by God were a divine grace that allowed one to comprehend all things in the world and see through their logic.
Proof of the royal bloodline.
"I greet Your Majesty."
The King of Carpe, whose even eyelashes had turned silver.
Clara greeted him with a gentle face, even as she saw the stiff neck of her subject.
"Archbishop Alhamtra. It has been a while."
"Yes, seeing Your Majesty grow more mature with each passing day, it is truly God's grace. I, Alhamtra, am once again reminded that God exists."
Whether she knew the Archbishop's hidden meaning or not, the King of Carpe, for whom the throne seemed too large, only offered a silent smile.
"The reason I wished to see Your Majesty is none other than this. The recent rebellion in Alior. Although the Prince has suppressed it, the damage is severe. And in the West, the Empire's spears are diligently digging into Carpe's wounds. Is it not time to make a decision now?"
It was not a tone one should dare use toward a king of a nation, yet Clara said nothing.
‘Tsk.’
A powerless king. The cowardly king Clara.
A king who could not make any decisions.
That was how the public evaluated the King of Carpe.
"What about Prince Chloe?"
"...With the earnest efforts of the Order's personnel, he is now in a deep sleep."
"I see. You have worked hard."
The mad prince, Chloe.
He turned Alior into ruins, and even that did not satisfy him, causing much slaughter and disturbance until he barely fell asleep recently.
Once he fell asleep, he would be quiet for a few months, so it was a relief if anything.
"Your Majesty, more importantly than that--"
"Archbishop, I am not feeling well today and am tired. Could you please withdraw?"
"...For today, I shall."
The Archbishop glanced at the knight standing firmly beside the king and rose from his seat.
The kingdom's guardian sword.
Viktor.
And beside him, the owner of Trista.
Gerald.
As long as the two swords guarded her.
No one would touch the cowardly king.
Screech. Thud.
Staring at the firmly closed doors of the King's Audience Chamber, the Archbishop walked down the hallway.
As he walked down the long hallway, nobles and clergy gathered around him.
"We must seize the failure of Rution as an opportunity, but the king is too cowardly. It is simply a matter of moving a small number of troops to the West."
Then everything would be over.
"If only that old man wasn't beside the king, it would have ended long ago. How annoying."
Even the Pope is not what he used to be.
"Archbishop. Actually..."
"Callias?"
"Yes, that bastard is ruining our work for the great cause."
"What should we do with him..."
Is he complaining to him because he cannot handle a single wastrel?
With the nation's officials being this useless and thoughtless, how could the country function properly?
"Do I have to crush every single bug myself?"
"I-I'm sorry."
But as if he had never been angry, the Archbishop patted the noble's shoulder with a gentle face and said.
"There is no need to be sorry. If you don't want to see something, clean it up; if you don't want to hear something, cover your ears."
"Then..."
"I will take care of it, so do not worry. I shall resolve it just as I have done until now."
"Hearing you say that, I can finally feel at ease. If you were to take the high seat, Carpe would not be pushed around by the Empire like this..."
The Archbishop smiled without a word.
‘What foolish fools.’
That is why the country is in such a state.
Without even realizing that what they were doing was eating away at Carpe, they were bowing their heads like that.
Truly a vain country.
Not even realizing they were on the path to ruin, the vassals had no center, and the king of a nation made no decisions.
"The country is bound to fall."
"Pardon? What did you just say?"
"Nothing. I just had a different thought because the weather is fine."
A thought slightly different from theirs.
He merely painted a different scenery.
"Then that wastrel..."
"Must be eliminated. If it disrupts our great cause, no matter what it is."
"For God. For the country."
"For God, for the country!"
* * *
『Kingdom Quest』
[Empire's Spy]
◆ Kill the Empire's spies and save the kingdom that has entered the path of ruin.
◆ Number of spies killed: 7/?
"It's going smoothly."
It was smooth because he was still catching the puppets. Swallowing about half of the assets acquired as a byproduct while cutting off their heads was also satisfying.
"If I clean up the Thunder Wolf Dragon, that's 40,000, and I had about 10,000 in my possession, and the money I sorted out while cutting down the nobles this time is 30,000."
Roughly 80,000.
A staggering sum.
Normally, he would have converted it into physical goods for transportation, but Callias had no reason to do so.
Because he had shoved it all into his subspace.
"Where are you going to use all that money? Shall I manage it for you?"
"I refuse."
"Why? You're supposed to roll gold coins, not stack them. Leave it to me, and I guarantee a profit of over 30 percent!"
"What's the commission?"
"Half of the profit!"
"I refuse."
"Then 30%! How about it?"
"Make it 10%."
"That won't even cover labor costs! 25%!"
"20%. I don't need more than that."
There was no need to doubt Helena's skill in rolling money.
She was a person who would produce money one way or another.
Even the current house grew because Helena had gotten her hands on it since she was young.
This was deeply attributed to the innate ability of the sword she possessed.
"Alright, 20%! How much is the investment fund?"
He had 80,000 gold coins in his possession.
"Let's start with 20,000 gold."
"Eh! What about the rest?"
He had a use for the remaining 60,000 gold.
To gather the rats, one must scatter bait.