While everyone immediately gathered after learning that I had made contact with someone else, Saintess Sirita smiled, pushed up her glasses, and said,
“You must have been startled when the book tore. But please don’t worry. I have a rather marvelous ability.”
When she brought the torn page to the ripped section, the book restored itself on its own.
I had known that healing a person’s wounds was possible, but the fact that restoring objects was possible as well was fascinating, so I looked at Mina.
“…If you applied that, couldn’t you make something like gauntlets that regenerate on their own?”
“I can’t.”
“Every saintess has different areas she excels in, after all.”
Similar to how the nobles of Vespia continued to pass down and develop certain kinds of magic, it seemed Saintess Sirita was the type who had been born with and developed this sort of ability.
Thinking of it that way, it occurred to me that Prince Rial might be able to do it too, but Sirita shook her head and said,
“You needn’t think that my brother possesses this ability as well. This is an ability only I have.”
“A mutation.”
“You’ve hit the mark.”
Mina had said something rather rude, but Sirita didn’t seem to mind.
Saintess Sirita continued with a smile.
“My brother informed me that you had applied to use the library, and immediately asked me to be dispatched as your guide and assist you. Shall we go inside?”
There was no particular reason to refuse, and it seemed the information we wanted was in that saintess’s possession.
We followed her, and a somewhat luxurious reading room appeared. Inside, together with Noel, Mina, and Erika, we faced Saintess Sirita.
“…Um, so…”
“It is true that my brother and I are related by blood, but I have already devoted myself to the order, so please call me Saintess.”
“Um, are you sure that’s all right? For us to call you that…”
When Noel hesitated over how to address her, the Saintess answered at once.
While Erika looked uncomfortable, Sirita smiled and replied,
“Of course it’s all right. I gave up my status as royalty and devoted myself to the order. I do not wish to be treated as royalty by anyone.”
Saintess Sirita’s words surprised me a little.
Because that was, in truth, not exactly an ordinary thing to say.
The Saras Order was famous as a fairly large order on the continent, but that did not mean its religious influence was overwhelmingly stronger than that of any nation.
A saintess did have a certain amount of status, and they were said to be treated better than most baronial houses, but in practice it was closer to an honorary position, not one that possessed military power or the like.
In a situation where many people followed the royal family of their own nation more than the order, for a member of a nation’s royal family to say she should be treated only as someone affiliated with the order meant she had literally descended several ranks from the very top of the hierarchy.
Unless there was something behind it, she wouldn’t say such a thing.
Saintess Sirita merely smiled.
“I’m sure you have many questions—about my family, about my relationship with my brother—but from the start, my brother and I have been in close contact, not in a relationship where I unilaterally receive and carry out his orders.”
“In close contact…?”
“Usually, that just means I officiate my brother’s weddings. Nothing special.”
So Prince Rial was a married man.
After thinking for a moment, Saintess Sirita soon smiled mischievously and said,
“Then again, since I’ve officiated dozens of them, I suppose it isn’t exactly nothing.”
“…So it’s true he’s a womanizer.”
“It is. That’s why I ran away from home.”
That last remark sounded like she was simply joking.
I hadn’t really seen that side of him in the Kingdom of Vespia, but were the rumors themselves true?
Saintess Sirita soon opened the book, as if to return to the main subject.
Then, opening to the restored page, Saintess Sirita quietly spoke.
“After yesterday’s meeting of the order, when I saw that Saintess Mina had applied to use the library, I immediately realized you were trying to obtain information. So before the Sixth Saintess could arrive, I secured it first and waited.”
“Why are you blocking the Sixth Saintess?”
“That saintess is one of Avatus’s people. Mm, like my brother, she seems to have a thing for beautiful men. Her attendants are all from Avatus…”
“Anything beyond that is not something a saintess should say so carelessly.”
Saintess Sirita seemed about to say more, but Mina stopped her immediately.
Seeing how Mina only moved her eyes to look at me, Noel, and Erika, it seemed she did not want us to hear the rest.
“It’ll dirty your ears.”
“…I agree. I got a little carried away myself.”
So there was something extremely sticky and unpleasant there.
Saintess Sirita spoke with a smile.
“In the end, the information will reach that side as well, but after hearing what my brother said and considering the circumstances, I thought that if Avatus obtained the information, they would immediately try to discard it or suppress it. So you may think of it as me securing it first and waiting. I also serve as the head librarian in this country, you see.”
“Is it all right for a saintess to be the head librarian?”
“In another country, absolutely not. But in the United Kingdom of Gandharva, ever since its founding, the Saras Order has served as the state religion and worked to unite the people, so the nation’s history is deeply tied to the order. It isn’t exactly encouraged, but since neither the order nor the kingdom had any complaints about the appointment, I…”
Pushing up her glasses, Saintess Sirita smiled.
“…Therefore, I will disclose the information to you. This is it. The Desert King. A being that has been called that since long ago.”
Pointing to a page with an extremely crude drawing on it, the Saintess spoke quietly.
And I slowly took in the page with my eyes and read.
“It carries an entire mountain on its back, and even if the houses of a kingdom were lined up, it would be longer…?”
“It is a record, so it may be exaggerated. But there is also the view that it is a plain fact. Because there truly was a small kingdom at the place where this record says it was discovered.”
The time written in the record was two hundred years ago.
The contents themselves seemed to have been transcribed from a personal account.
[…After finishing my business, when I was about to travel to another country for trade, it appeared. With nothing more than its breath, it scattered sandstorms, and monsters great and small fled from its immense body. It continued swimming across the sand. The mountain it carried on its back kept rising and falling through the sea of the desert.]
[I felt my life was in danger and fled even farther away. I saw it from a distance. It was far larger than that kingdom. It did not particularly seem to intend to fight. Merely by passing through, the kingdom shattered and sank into the sand.]
[That must have been the Desert King.]
“Isn’t this a novel?”
“It certainly reads like one, but since several records confirmed the existence of that being, its existence itself was considered certain. If you go back to even more ancient records, there seems to have been a tribe that worshiped it as a god. Though it appears they were buried in sand and all swept away.”
Saintess Sirita spoke quietly.
“No one ever gave it an official name. Judging only by the descriptions, this is no different from a natural disaster. Or do you have a good name for it, Aizen?”
“…Bahamut?”
When it came to a giant land fish, that was the name that came to mind.
Saintess Sirita thought for a moment, then soon smiled and said,
“Let’s go with that. The Desert King, Bahamut.”
“Then, does that mean this monster is related to the matter that dragged us into this?”
At Noel’s words, Saintess Sirita fell into thought for a moment.
Then she nodded and said,
“Given the circumstances, I believe that was my brother’s intention.”
“How unpleasant.”
“I apologize. My brother… seems to believe that the greatest profit can be obtained from within danger.”
Soon, Saintess Sirita looked this way and calmly spoke.
“A noble that House Avatus, with whom he had long maintained ties, had recently begun paying attention to. My brother immediately gathered information, and learned that because of the golem called Cyclops, House Avatus’s attempt to enter the weapons industry had nearly been completely blocked. Their plan, that is—House Avatus, which had been earning enormous income through commerce tied to the interests and power they maintained by selling their beauty to countless nobles, also wanted to cultivate strength in case the house itself fell into danger.”
“Strength in case of danger?”
“House Avatus’s combat power itself is not particularly impressive.”
So they admired martial strength, wanted to stand out there as well, and also wanted to turn it into a solid rights-based business.
As expected of a chimera with all sorts of creatures stuck all over it, it seemed all sorts of reasons were stuck all over them too.
“The United Kingdom of Gandharva, perhaps because of its origins, has many branches of royalty and many members of the royal family. Since childhood, my brother and I nearly died several times… Pardon me. I’m saying too much that is unnecessary. In any case, after seizing power, my brother wanted military force that could be firmly controlled. That was the Cyclops.”
Because the Cyclops’s greatest advantage was precisely that it was immense power directly controlled by a person.
The Phoenix Count family and the Vespian royal family both immediately regarded that as its greatest advantage, so there was no reason Prince Rial, a man in power, would not prefer it.
If one of his own people boarded it, that power would become his own.
“And while he was thinking about how he might be able to use that power as his own… events that seemed to be signs of the Desert King’s appearance began to occur. You may not have known, but there have been several large-scale monster attacks. Because my brother’s wives personally led the response and brought matters under control, it also became the decisive opportunity for my brother to seize power. On the other hand, the situation also became one where he had to prepare for the coming threat.”
In other words, it wasn’t simply that the country bordered the empire and had to prepare for the empire’s next invasion; signs of trouble were also appearing internally right away.
Prince Rial had acted somewhat arrogantly, but perhaps, in truth, he had been quite anxious inside and had made a gamble.
“That must be why he went to Vespia himself instead of sending an envoy. Despite having eliminated his last rival not long ago and risen to the position of first successor, with the throne of the next king right before his eyes, he still moved. Fortunately, my brother likely did have some chance of success. There must have been information his wives obtained through intelligence work as well… This is only my guess, but I believe he probably approached after reaching prior agreements with several influential figures.”
“I heard something ominous just now, but I’ll pretend I didn’t.”
So he had been competing until very recently.
…A slight suspicion rose in me that perhaps the pilgrimage had been suspended not because of the empire, but because the country had actually been in a state close to civil war.
In any case, did that mean Rial, who had become the victor, recognized the disaster awaiting his country and used it as a pretext to come all the way to Vespia, turning it into a chance to obtain the Cyclops?
“There are no openings.”
“There mustn’t be. That’s how you survive here. Either that, or you give everything up like I did.”
Saintess Sirita spoke quietly.
“But now you understand, don’t you? This competition of yours is not simply a battle between Aizen and Avatus. For the Kingdom of Gandharva, it is also a desperate struggle to protect the country from disaster through the victor’s weapon. And the order’s position is…”
“…They sounded like they wanted to obtain military force through this opportunity.”
Mina’s chilly voice was heard.
Saintess Sirita nodded.
“Saintess Mina is correct.”
“It was unpleasant. Telling me to put up my product as they pleased.”
“That is because the Sixth Saintess has been working hard to shape public opinion. Enough that even the First Saintess rebuked her.”
Saintess Sirita spoke quietly.
“But the reason the order wants the Cyclops is a little different. It is purely the First Saintess’s will to protect people from the calamity of monsters.”
“Don’t go out of your way to dress up the desire for fame.”
“…I won’t deny it. That is what the elders and the other saintesses think. In truth, I also thought this might be a chance to expand the order’s influence a little more.”
At Mina’s words, Saintess Sirita admitted it obediently.
Considering that, Saintess Sirita, who had not pestered us to give her a golem, opened her mouth with a slightly bitter smile.
“In fact, the First Saintess was honestly reluctant about obtaining military force itself. …But the holy knights who could be called the order’s military strength are, to be frank, somewhat inferior to ordinary knights.”
“And few in number.”
Honestly, if someone had enough martial ability to succeed as a knight, they would enter some knight order and make a name for themselves, not devote themselves to the order.
In terms of military strength, the Saras Order seemed barely capable of protecting itself.
“At any rate… my brother’s attitude does include deliberately dragging things out in order to gain the maximum benefit from this situation. So from the Saintess’s perspective, I’m sure it was frustrating that something that needed to be resolved as quickly as possible was not being resolved.”
Unlike Prince Rial, who was trying to pit me and Avatus against each other to extract the greatest possible benefit, the Order wanted to end the monster crisis as quickly as possible.
“But the most important premise remains.”
“Whether the King of the Desert truly exists. That is the greatest problem.”
At Erika’s words, Saintess Sirita answered quietly.
Then, in a very small voice, she said softly,
“…Four days from now. All I can tell you is that the Order’s scouts have reported a large-scale swarm of monsters will be bearing down on this place.”
So it didn’t exist, but a large-scale movement of monsters that amounted to an omen had been observed?
“It wouldn’t hurt to prepare.”
Erika spoke quietly, and Saintess Sirita nodded.
Whether this King of the Desert existed or not,
the great migration of monsters was real.
“My brother will probably give notice through the professors tomorrow or the day after. In any case, this is a season when sandstorms are frequent, so the Academy won’t be able to leave until it becomes safe. He won’t ask you to cover every defensive line. Most likely, he’ll ask the golem and the chimera to each take charge of one line and assist.”
“Once this is all over, may I kick Prince Rial?”
Saintess Sirita smiled faintly.
She had given permission.
But the situation made me sigh first.
“…If things were going to get this tangled, I shouldn’t have come in the first place.”
“On behalf of my brother and the Order, I apologize.”
When I grumbled, Saintess Sirita bowed her head.
But there was no point in accepting an apology when it wasn’t her fault.
This time, an almost uncanny number of puzzle pieces had simply fallen into harmony.
Each one, taken alone, was something I would have had to face someday.
“Seriously. Once it becomes a matter on the scale of a nation, all sorts of hidden circumstances end up gathering around a single issue, huh.”
A frightening number of things were intertwined.
The Kingdom of Vespia sought to keep Avatus in check.
Prince Rial sought to solidify his own position and obtain the power to prepare for calamity.
The Order sought a chance to repel the calamity and spread its influence.
But.
“I suppose it’s fortunate that what I have to do is simple.”
In the midst of all that, it was fortunate that what I had to do was exceedingly simple and clear.
“I just have to win overwhelmingly.”
All that remained was the very simple, very trivial answer:
defeat Avatus’s chimera with a golem.