-6-
WE FOLLOWED Lisl to the temple, then waited for her to come back after checking with Cardinal Wardell.
“…What do you think, Kanata? Will we get to see the cardinal?” asked Pomera anxiously.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure. Sopia said Cardinal Wardell was a fool perfectly fine with doing shady deals behind locked doors, so I had thought it would be easy enough to recover the relic of the Church of Jonas. But at least this Holy Knight seemed to think of the cardinal as an upright follower of the Church, so I was starting to doubt my assumption.
“Well…if it doesn’t work, then we’ll sneak below the temple,” I said.
“Wouldn’t doing that after coming this far be the same as if we confessed we were the ones who did it?” asked Pomera.
“As long as they don’t have any evidence, then even the worst-case scenario would be fine…”
It’s not like I wanted to do that, but the situation was what it was. The fate of the world was in the balance. This was much better than the higher beings getting their hands on the Staff of the Saint.
Lisl came back from checking with the cardinal while we were talking.
“Hey, you there. His Eminence said to let you in. But don’t you dare do anything rude,” she said to us.
The three of us looked at each other and let out a sigh of relief. It looked like we might get away without resorting to thievery.
We followed Lisl further into the temple.
Cardinal Wardell’s room was a beautiful place. There were relief carvings of angels and dragons on the door and walls. A huge stained-glass window depicted a magic user holding a large staff with a crowd of people around him. That must be Saint Jonas and his disciples.
There was a man wearing a solemn robe with his back to us in the middle of the room, looking up at the stained glass.
“Your Eminence…I’ve brought them,” said Lisl, and the man slowly turned to face us.
“You’ve journeyed here as messengers of the Sopia Trading Company. Or, I suppose it would be more accurate to say messengers of Sopia, the World’s Recordkeeper. Either way, I have been expecting you,” said the man.
He…was a sturdily built old man with a balding head. I could only guess he was over eighty years old.
“Um…you are Cardinal Wardell?” I asked.
“I am,” he replied quickly, his expression questioning why I was asking.
“N-no way! W-we were told Cardinal Wardell is…a long-haired, feeble, irresponsible, cowardly playboy!” cried Pomera in a fluster.
“Pomera-san, you can’t say that out loud! I mean, I get why you’re surprised, but…!” I said.
“You impudent…! Cardinal Wardell went out of his way to make time for you despite how busy he is right now, and you treat him like this! I’ll cut you all down!” said Lisl, her face beet red as she drew her sword.
“I-I’m very sorry! It’s just, we’re a bit confused!” I said, desperately trying to calm Lisl.
Cardinal Wardell was staring at Pomera with his mouth agape, but then he let out a deep sigh. “I see. It seems it’s true you’ve come on orders from Sopia herself. I had hoped this was some sort of joke.”
“Huh…?”
“The last time I met Lady Sopia was fifty years ago. At the time…yes, I did dress rather flamboyantly and have fun around town… I was the troublemaker of the church, benefiting from the influence of my deceased father to go run wild. Considering who I was, it’s no wonder I would be insulted like that. I can never truly atone for my past.”
“Fifty years ago…?” I said, thinking back to what Sopia told us.
“He’s a cowardly, greedy, philandering, corrupt member of the clergy. The only thing good about him is his face, birth, and judgment. So he should listen to reason. He’s a long-haired pretty boy with a thing for gaudy decorations. You’ll know him when you see him.”
So, she met with him “not that long ago”…?
“Ah…right, based on Sopia’s life span, that really wouldn’t be that long ago,” I said.
Sopia was over ten thousand years old. I heard she was the oldest of all the high elves…the oldest of everyone in
the Unseen Hand of the Gods even, by a lot. From her perspective, fifty years really wasn’t that long ago.
During that time, it seemed Cardinal Wardell had experienced so much in his life that both his appearance and behavior had changed drastically. We were lucky he was even still alive. If things had been really bad, we could have found ourselves dealing with someone two generations removed.
I had been thinking that Sopia was the real ruler of this world, since her massive trading company had spread its roots throughout the world during her long life, but maybe I overestimated her. It was clear that in exchange for living so long, her ability to grasp the flow of time had faded.
I wish she’d actually do her job and record the world properly.
“That old elf really screwed this up,” muttered Pomera quite bitterly.