-8-
WE FOLLOWED Cardinal Wardell down a dark passage below the temple.
“The Staff of the Saint is held ahead,” he said.
“Thank you for your cooperation, Cardinal Wardell. I was wondering what your connection with the Sopia Trading Company was, Sopia didn’t tell us much.”
“A long time ago, I received a similar request to this one, just it was direct from Lady Sopia herself. She said I must comply, as it was the higher beings’ will… Ha ha ha, please don’t ask what happened. It involved something at the heart of the Church of Jonas, though not to the same extent as this time,” he said, his shoulders slumping.
“At the time,” he continued, “I accepted the contract with Lady Sopia to satisfy my own greed, because I was selfish. There has not been a day since that I don’t lament the foolishness of my younger self. Though…I never did have a choice to begin with. Fifty years passed as I trained and grew my experience…and still, just like then, I am buying peace at the price of the Church of Jonas’s dignity. You need power to make people listen to your will, your ideas. Integrity will never make up for a lack of power.”
Cardinal Wardell seemed sad.
I might have approached this without realizing how serious it was. While this was the least problematic route, we were still forcefully taking away the pride of the Church.
We just couldn’t leave the Staff of the Saint in the protection of the Holy Knights, since we didn’t even know how powerful it was. They wouldn’t be able to protect it from the higher beings’ influence that might come. Just like Cardinal Wardell said, integrity wouldn’t make up for their lack of power.
“It sounded like you know about the higher beings,” I said. “I didn’t think you’d have heard that much.”
“…Yes, I know. I also know that the miracles and god that the Church of Jonas worships are nothing more than a play enacted by the higher beings. Do you find it humorous, messenger of the Sopia Trading Company, how I have been shown behind the curtain, yet I still squat timidly and maintain that exact illusion? But it is because of this twisted world that the people need absolute salvation! That is what I believe in!” Cardinal Wardell clenched his fists, his voice trembling.
“Actually, I think it’s incredibly admirable.”
There was nothing anyone could do about things even if they learned the world was made just to be a plaything for the obscene higher beings. There was no need to spread that cruel truth.
“I just didn’t think you would have changed so much, you’re like a different person,” I added. I’d heard he was a cowardly hedonist with no sense of responsibility, but the reality was the exact opposite.
“And he got bald too!” cried Philia.
“Ph-Philia, that’s rude! I-I’m so sorry, Your Eminence!” said Pomera as she quickly covered Philia’s mouth and bowed to the cardinal.
Yeah…his appearance might be the most drastic change, I thought. Sopia said he was a long-haired pretty boy. Can’t believe he’s actually a bald old man.
“I do appreciate…that you listened to the fleeting request of an old man earlier,” he said. “My apologies, but I haven’t yet asked your name. The little lady seems to be Philia, and the magic user is Pomera, but…may I ask your name?” Cardinal Wardell was walking ahead of us, but he stopped.
“My name’s Kanata.”
“Kanata…? I see. I don’t dislike you, Kanata, but it is quite unfortunate that we had to meet under these circumstances.” He turned to face us, his deeply wrinkled face distorted with hostility.
“Cardinal Wardell…?”
Just then, I sensed someone approaching from above, from the ceiling.
I immediately moved backward, and a pair of people clad in black armor landed between us and the cardinal.
“Oh, come on now, you really saying this pathetic bunch are the Unseen Hand’s vanguard? I’m insulted just getting ready for them,” said one of them, a tall man.
“Above a certain point, powerful people don’t rely on their appearance,” cautioned the other, a short woman.
The man had a large, brutish sword and the woman had a slender rapier. Both of them wore cold expressions and their eyes glinted red, even in the dark.
“Cardinal Wardell…what’s this about?” I asked the cardinal, who stood behind the two in black armor.
“Gah ha ha ha! This means I’m not going to bend myself to the higher beings’ will! I spent my entire life nurturing these two, using any means necessary, whether that be forbidden magics or powerful elixirs. They are the Holy Knights of the dark meant to fight against the higher beings…they are the God Slayer Knights! I knew that long-eared dog of the higher beings would come back to meddle again!” Cardinal Wardell spread his arms and laughed maniacally.
“What?!”
His meek demeanor up until now was just an act. He pretended he was sucking up to the higher beings and led us here below the temple, with the goal of using these God Slayer Knights or whatever to defeat us.
And the Unseen Hand of the Gods wasn’t even working for the higher beings now!
I’d decided it was too difficult to explain that part, so I hadn’t mentioned it, and that was biting me now. He wasn’t going to listen to me at this point if I tried to explain.
“Didn’t I say earlier that you need power to make people listen to your will?! Fools! I have obtained that! You are sorely mistaken if you thought I would just hand over the Staff of the Saint! My Lord Jonas, watch over us! We will defeat the foul people who set the stage for this wicked play, and then we will bring true faith and salvation to this world! The first step toward that goal is testing whether or not my God Slayer Knights can fight against the Unseen Hand of the Gods!”
It looked like even him sending the Holy Knight Lisl against me wasn’t just a last struggle made out of faith. He wanted to confirm first that I really had strength on level with the Unseen Hand.