-9-
AFTER SHUTTING DOWN the God Slayer Knights, I made Ideo, Valeria, and Cardinal Wardell sit on the ground in a row.
“This is absurd… You were the fighters I spent my entire life preparing to fight against the higher beings. For you to be so easily defeated…” muttered Cardinal Wardell in a daze, his face pale.
“Cardinal Wardell…I’m really sorry, but they are nowhere near high-enough level,” I said. “You have no chance of taking the higher beings on at that level. Did you really think you could manage?”
“Th-there are five God Slayer Knights in total! They’re assigned to other locations and missions…they couldn’t return immediately! Gah, if they had all attacked at once, we might have had a chance!”
“No…you wouldn’t have. There’s a way bigger level gap than you think there is. Just give up already.”
If five level-300 people attacked at once, they might be able to take out Sopia or Ramiel, depending on how they fought, but that was only true for a five-on-one fight where they got a surprise attack. I didn’t know about Zero, but they probably would have had no chance against Nobunaga or Veranta. Besides, the Unseen Hand of the Gods wasn’t even working for the higher beings anymore.
“Like I said earlier, the Unseen Hand of the Gods is now standing against the higher beings,” I said. “I’m also standing against them. We have no idea what they’re going to come at us with. You should completely understand by now that Luperm isn’t capable of protecting the Staff of the Saint. Please…just give up and hand over the staff.”
“H-hmph, like I can believe anything you say! You’re working for those cursed higher beings! Even if you were opposing them, why should I hand over Lord Jonas’s staff to the likes of you?!” shouted Cardinal Wardell.
“Gramps…I’m sorry, but there’s no way we can defend the Staff of the Saint,” said Ideo. “As pathetic as it is, there’s nothing we can do if they come at us in force. I completely get that now.”
“Your Eminence,” said Valeria, “if the Unseen Hand really is opposing the higher beings now, then I believe it would be more advantageous to believe this person and negotiate peaceably. We have to keep the Staff of the Saint from falling into the hands of someone who would stop at nothing.”
It looked like both Ideo and Valeria thought it would be a good idea to give us the Staff of the Saint. Either that, or they decided resistance would only make things worse.
All three of them did seem to accept that the God Slayer Knights weren’t going to be doing anything against the higher beings, but it was Ideo and Valeria who were reconsidering their position, possibly because they were the ones who fully experienced how hopeless the fight we just had was.
I looked at Cardinal Wardell. Ideo and Valeria followed suit to make uncomfortable eye contact with their superior.
The cardinal pounded the floor. “I…I want to protect the true faith of the Church of Jonas… I dedicated myself fully, my entire life! But it still…came to this!” His voice trembled and tears spilled from his eyes. “This…this means nothing has changed from that day fifty years ago… Nothing! And if that’s the case…then what have I been doing this entire time?!”
Cardinal Wardell curled up and started sobbing.
“W-well, I think it’s incredible you managed to raise five peoples’ levels into the 300s! A-and I’ll do something about the higher beings!” I said.
“Aaaah, waaah, waaaaah!”
…It took nearly half an hour for the cardinal to calm down.
He spent his life working for the sake of the world and yet still couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t really say he was weak-spirited once I considered how painful that regret must be, but I was starting to think I could imagine the worthless, playboy Cardinal Wardell in his younger days.
Once he stopped crying, we somehow got him to lead the way to the Staff of the Saint again.
“We actually moved it out from beneath the temple a long time ago. It’s currently held in the palace where the head of the Church of Jonas, the pope, resides. We will have to head there, but not even I can enter the location where the Staff is held without the pope’s approval.” The cardinal was babbling as we walked back along the corridor from under the temple.
“You never even planned on giving me the Staff of the Saint…” I said with a sigh. Now there were more people I had to convince. We were in a fight against time, why did we have to keep going from one person to another?
“Do you think we can convince the pope?” I asked.
“I will need some time. I doubt he will give it up immediate—” said Cardinal Wardell.
“We don’t have the time to sit around waiting. Could you use your authority to retrieve it without anyone finding out?”
“I-I could not do something like that! And today is the day Lord Jonas departed the world. The pope will be making an appearance at the memorial. I’ll have to ask you to wait until tomorrow!”
We couldn’t really wait several days for an answer with how things were… But it was also hard to tell them to put a hold on the commemorative events so they could hurry up and get us the Staff. Though, considering what might just happen, that was probably the best option.
“…Okay, just give us a map of the palace. I’ll sneak in and take it. You just have to make sure it doesn’t turn into a big issue after the fact,” I said.
“Are you serious?!” cried the cardinal.
“I don’t like it either, but it’s the best option.”
“B-but, but…!” He pressed a hand to his head.
Just then, there was screaming from outside, and it wasn’t just the screaming of one or two people. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of people screaming.
“Wh-what’s happening?” said Cardinal Wardell in a panic.
“No way…have the higher beings already made a move on the palace?” I said.
We really should have hurried.