“I was thinking maybe, just maybe, we were called here to stop Ludie instead. Though, it’s not like all this thinking will actually get us an answer anyway.”
“Right…if we want to learn the answer, we’ll just have to wait for an explanation.”
If things developed just like they do in the game, then we should be getting one soon.
Not from Ludie, but from Sophia.
—Ludie’s Perspective—
I had almost never seen my mother look so serious as she led me into a living room where Father often spent his time.
Inside were Father and several guards. These were his most trusted soldiers, and they were powerful elites, some of the strongest fighters in the whole Empire.
Lilou wasn’t here; it was just me, Mother, Father, Claris, and their guards. The situation left me with a feeling of terrible foreboding.
Naturally, my intuition was right on the mark.
“Ludie, I’m glad you’re safe.”
“Of course, an attack like that was nothing. But what’s wrong, Father? You look so concerned.”
Father let out a small sigh. He urged me to sit down for the time being, so I did. Claris stood beside me.
“There’s a traitor,” Father said, waiting until I had taken my seat.
“What?”
“After you were first attacked, I had thought we excised all the filth. However, it appears that some remained.”
“It’s the Church of the Malevolent Lord, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. The Church,” Father said, looking pensive.
“What in the world happened?”
“We accidentally did exactly what our enemy expected us to do. I’ll explain from the beginning, dear.” Mother picked up where Father left off. “First, you know that a number of incidents happened all across the empire at once, right?”
“We were watching it on the news before we came here,” Claris answered.
Moreover, we had been caught up in the attacks.
“I’m sure you’ve already heard about this, Father, but we were attacked, too. If not for Kousuke, Lilou would’ve been in danger.”
Mother nodded at my words. “Lilou told us everything. We’ll need to thank Kousuke later.”
“Ahem, I suppose so. Lilou is unharmed, but she seemed a little tired. Must have been terrified. Right now, we’re having her rest with a guard nearby.”
I needed to go and check how she was doing after this.
“Thanks for the update on Lilou. Can you keep going?”
“We got a bit off topic there, didn’t we?” Mother replied before continuing. “With everything happening at once, it was too much for our regular forces to handle, so the castle soldiers were forced to help out as well.”
“I see.”
“But once the security slackened a bit, a thief got inside,” Mother said, and then Father continued the explanation from there.
“If they just stole magic tools or paintings, we could write it all off as the empire and imperial family being played for fools. The problem is what they stole.”
“And what would that be?”
“The key.”
“What key?”
“The key to pass into the Sanctuary.”
“!”
I was suddenly at a loss for words. The elven Sanctuary was a forbidden place that held dangerous items, along with a wicked and terrible presence that had been sealed away.
Everyone who lived in the elven nation knew about this presence. It was used to frighten young misbehaving children. However, there was an extremely strict condition to venture within the boundaries of the Sanctuary.
“I thought only the imperial family and a select few others were able to go inside?”
“The key is there for when the royal blood line is severed. The existence of the key should have been known only to me, Sophia, and a group of trusted elves.”
Trusted. If there had been a traitor among them, it must have come as quite a shock to Father.
Regardless, why had the Church of the Malevolent Lord stolen it? The Sanctuary only held dangerous items and that wicked elf who had been sealed… No.
“They can’t be looking to revive the Arch Elf, can they?!”
“That has to be it, I’m afraid.”
Mother nodded. If that seal was undone… The empire and Leggenze were in danger. Was the church trying to destroy both nations?
“We have to get that key back immediately!”
“Right. However, a considerable amount of time has already passed. The group who stole the key are a prudent bunch, so they must have already hastened to the Sanctuary.”
“All those terror attacks only just happened, though. There should still be time to stop them, right?”
Only a couple hours had passed since we were attacked. Given they had stolen the key at the same time and likely needed to prepare to break into the Sanctuary, it didn’t seem to me like we had lost much time at all.
“Apparently, they had several squads waiting on standby and handed the key over to them to immediately break into the Sanctuary. The remaining Church followers tried to attack us in an attempt to buy time.”
“We only just put them all down when you and your friends arrived, dear,” Mother added. After a small sigh, she continued. “Besides, you know just as well as I do that there are formidable monsters in the Sanctuary. You can’t just waltz through there without significant preparation.”
“…Were you able to gain any information from the followers you captured?”
Mother shook her head at Claris’s question.
“Talking to them drove home how the Church of the Malevolent Lord treats their pawns as disposable. We asked for more details, but it wasn’t that they wouldn’t give them, they just didn’t know anything. We decided it was pointless to try getting any more out of them.”
“Though we did interrogate them,” Father added.
“That’s awful…”
“The Church has to know we’ll get a squad of troops together on our end given enough time—and we’re doing just that.”
Father glanced at the bodyguard in front of him, who nodded gravely.
“Ludie, you know now the Church is targeting the Tréfle Empire. It seemed the main reason they were going after you was to use your corpse and blood as a means of entering the Sanctuary.”
Now it all made sense.