Chapter 98

EPILOGUE Guarded by members of the Virginal Father, Shiren crossed into the mountains that formed the national border. Along the way, they spent the night on the Japan side of the border in a bed-and-breakfast. A car was waiting for them, and they departed early the next morning. Shiren sat in the back seat with Sairi as the car made its way into the city. The Japanese streets stretched out before them, not much different from those in the Empire. But the Empire was now off-limits to Shiren. “You make crossing the border look so easy, Mom.” “Of course. You just need a little courage. And I also have a lot of people helping me in Oshiro.” “Helping you? Are there really that many people in the Virginal Father?” “That’s part of it. Half of the people in the Virginal Father right now are Sacred Blooded anyway. Not me, though.” “—What?” “For a long time, the Sacred Blooded have been infiltrating the Virginal Father in order to remake it. But the Sacred Blooded themselves have changed so much over the years, I don’t think the Jouryuuji family ever had a chance of noticing.” “Don’t tell me the Empire had a hand in this, too…?” It was an unbelievably elaborate plot. Shiren was at a loss for words. It was true that if the Virginal Father was to be snuffed out, the Sacred Blooded would no longer have any enemies. “Oh, it has nothing to do with that empire.” Shiren’s expectations were quickly undercut. Then what had overtaken the order? “You know, the Sacred Blooded aren’t a monolith. The ones taking part in the Empire are only a very small proportion of them. In fact, I’d say there are more of us across the country.” “That means…there’s a-another organization besides the Empire…?” Indeed, if it had been the Empire’s plot to infiltrate the Virginal Father, then Ouka and Alfoncina certainly would have known something. There were so many more hands at play here. “We believe that they’ve been warping the teachings of the Holy Church of the Sacred Blood. That’s why we’re building something else, the right way.” Skyscrapers began to enter Shiren’s field of view; Oshiro was a big city with a population ten times that of Akinomiya. “But, Mom, you’re not Sacred Blooded. Why are you…?” A simple question escaped Shiren’s lips. Sairi was genetically unrelated to the Sacred Blooded, so why was she taking part in such an extraordinary plot? “Well, that’s because…” The car stopped before she could answer. Before them was a great cathedral, its steeple reaching high into the heavens. Around the building was a throng of people wearing formal clothes. How many of them were Sacred Blooded? An older gentleman of good physique came to stand before Sairi. The aura about him suggested that he was a very important person. “A hearty welcome back from your long journey to you and your daughter, New Progenitor Alfoncina.” “What?! What does that mean…?” The man had, indeed, called Shiren’s mother by an unthinkable name. “Shiren, the ones who created the Holy Church of the Sacred Blood weren’t Sacred Blooded themselves—they were humans. They all prayed to the Goddess of Blood so that the Sacred Blooded and humans could stand together as equals. A family that inherits the great goddess’s blood is not just awesome, but holy.” Sairi gently stroked her hand across Shiren’s head. Almost as if to embed her teachings into Shiren’s body. “The descendant of Progenitor Alfoncina is me. And you…,” Sairi crouched down to look Shiren directly in the eyes. “…are the emperor. Of this country.” A great curtain hung in front of the cathedral. The Holy Sacred Blood Empire Founding Ceremony “We bought out a portion of Japan’s land ourselves and decided to make our own country. We got permission to do so as a retaliatory measure against the empire over there.” “I-I’m the emperor…?” “It’s not all that strange. You have Ouen’s blood in you. And one day, I’ll give my seat as archbishop to you. You’ll stand at the top of both the religious and civil spheres of power.” Sairi then added, almost as a joke, “And it isn’t fair that only Ominaeshi’s daughter gets to be emperor.” The bright rays of the sun woke him up. He immediately knew that he’d overslept. “Oh, sorry, Shiren, I don’t have time to make any breakfast today, so grab a pastry or something! You didn’t eat them already as a midnight snack, did you?!—Oh, right.” Ryouta didn’t need to think about Shiren anymore. He wasn’t even in the Fuyukura abode. He was in a hospital bed. He didn’t have it as bad as Sasara, but he was still injured. The clock told him it was past ten AM. He had slept late, probably due to his injuries. “I don’t have anything else to do…so I may as well turn on the TV.” It was unlikely there was anything interesting on at this hour, but it still hurt to move, and he of course hadn’t brought any books to read or anything to study for school. The normally careless Empire station had an unusually panicked tone the moment he turned it on. “Oh, it must be because of yesterday—” But the words on the screen were completely different than what he had expected. Holy Sacred Blood Empire Founded in Oshiro! “What…?” He couldn’t comprehend the words on the screen as the image shifted to a close-up of a lone girl wearing a magnificent dress. It was the Holy Sacred Blood Empire’s first emperor. Shiren the First.