Okay, things should calm down a bit at the Church now, phew, I thought, relieved.
Yet, for some reason, I had a feeling that something really annoying was about to happen soon. Let’s hope it was just my imagination...
I’d decided to entrust the matter of Blanche to Nadia and Lydia, and told them as much as our group made its way to the big training field.
“I asked you two to stay here to protect the pope, but that’s not the whole story. I want you to stay in the Holy City to prepare for a potential confrontation with Blanche,” I explained.
“But we haven’t set foot in Blanche in over a year, sir,” Nadia remarked.
“I’m not asking you to gather information about them. I just don’t believe that the Dongahar situation was their only scheme. For example, I think it’s highly likely they’ll try to claim I’ve abducted you two.”
“But my sister and I were adventurers for more than a year before meeting you,” Lydia pointed out.
“People don’t care about the truth. They believe what they want to believe,” I said. “Today’s incident made me painfully aware of that fact.”
“That’s...” the sisters said in unison, but neither of them knew how to continue.
“Anyway, once Blanche learns that you two are the pope’s bodyguards, they’ll have a harder time trying to harm you,” I continued. “In the meantime, Lydia, I’d like you to learn spirit magic from the pope, and Nadia, I want you to exchange information with Lumina of the Valkyries.”
“Lady Luminalia?”
“She’s probably more aware of the situation in Blanche than you are, and things might evolve while I’m away,” I explained.
“Could you not simply give her an arclink crystal?”
I shook my head. “Lumina strikes me as the kind of person who won’t ask for help until she’s completely out of options. Besides, after today’s events, the Church’s knights and staff are most likely going to be busy cleaning up for the foreseeable future, so it’ll give me some peace of mind to have people I can trust stay back. If anything happens, you can always contact me through your arclink crystals.”
“I understand,” Nadia answered.
“But please let us accompany you to Illumasia one day,” Lydia added.
“Sure thing.”
All right, I’d successfully convinced the sisters to remain in the Holy City this time. However, there was still one issue weighing on my mind: Galba, who had barely spoken a word the whole time. Sorry for being a gossip, but I was really curious about his relationship with Catherine. Yet my gut was telling me that I shouldn’t talk to him now if I didn’t want to get dragged into a complicated mess.
Instead, I decided to re-analyze Dongahar’s farewell letter in my mind. The most pressing matter was absolutely the demonization experiments. First, there was the matter of Lord Wisdom. Illumasia had implanted a magic stone in his body to try and make him harness the powers of the demons. Then, there were the bandits my master had defeated near the forest that stretched from Merratoni into Blanche. According to him, they’d triggered their own transformation into demons after seeing they stood no chance against Brod. In other words, Blanche had already succeeded in turning people into demons.
This was precisely why I had chosen Illumasia as our next destination: There was still a chance to save the test subjects before it was too late. The only thing that worried me was that I had no idea how many people they had implanted with magic stones. I really didn’t want to kill anyone if I could help it. I could probably handle ten or twenty people, but if there were a lot more than that, things could get dicey for us before I could even think about healing the test subjects.
Besides, if the emperor was involved in the demonization experiments, we’d end up making an enemy out of him. Again, that would be fine as long as we managed to thwart his plans, but if we lost, the empire might falsely accuse Saint Shurule of attacking them. This meant that if the emperor truly was behind the demonization attempts, we’d have no other option but to defeat him. But first, I needed to have a long chat with Lionel and Ketty, as they were much more familiar with Illumasia than I was. Ideally, we’d just destroy the empire’s research facilities and call it a day. We probably wouldn’t face any backlash from the other countries for merely destroying a couple of buildings.
I still had no idea what to do about Blanche, though. Were the masterminds behind the demonization experiments the duke and his relatives, or Lord Kamiya, who had been trying to set me up this whole time? Unfortunately, I couldn’t reach any conclusion until we had more information, and that was frustrating.
Another question I had was why Blanche, a human supremacist nation, hadn’t attacked Yenice despite having allegedly acquired a power so overwhelming it could allow them to dominate the world. The more I pondered that, the more worried I became.
If I hadn’t had my encounter with the Wicked One and someone had told me that Blanche and Illumasia were involved in demonization experiments, I probably would’ve said it wasn’t any of my business and left it at that. But now that demons had begun appearing in Saint Shurule, the likelihood of someone I knew being in danger was getting higher and higher. I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t doing this to save mankind or anything grand like that—it was really just about my own selfish hope for a calm, peaceful life. At this rate, the world would soon be overrun by demons, which would put humanity’s very existence at risk. I had to act now, or I’d regret it until the end of my life.
“Better to regret something you’ve done than something you haven’t done. I’d have an easier time accepting defeat that way,” I muttered as I walked.
When we reached the training field, Galba went to talk with Brod, while Nadia, Lydia, and I boarded the airship and retired to our assigned rooms.
★☆★
Galba followed Luciel with his eyes until he disappeared into the airship before turning to Brod to relay the information he’d gathered. “I want to hope things will get calmer for Luciel, but it seems like it’s not going to happen just yet,” he said.
“Hah. It’s a bit late for that,” Brod replied. “So? What did you learn?”
The two of them checked their surroundings to make sure they were alone before Galba, a serious expression on his face, said, “It seems that the war between Illumasia and Luburk will soon resume.”
Brod clicked his tongue and clenched his fists, visibly angry. “Can’t they just stay put for once? Guess that’s asking too much.”
“It also seems the King of Luburk is the one pushing for the war to start again.”
“What? Surely, he knows that the empire isn’t a nation to be trifled with.”
“It’s Luciel’s fault,” Galba said.
“Huh? What does Luciel have to do with their war?”
Galba shrugged and shook his head, a resigned look appearing on his face. “He apparently healed a wounded noble from Luburk when he was in Neldahl and told him that Illumasia’s current Lion of War was a fake.”
A long sigh escaped Brod’s lips. “That was a massive blunder.”
“Luciel probably thought that just putting a contract on the noble to keep him from talking would be sufficient. He likely had no idea that Luburk possessed artifacts capable of reading memories and that they would use one on the noble.”
“Well, dangerous artifacts are classified as forbidden. Damn it, I should’ve warned him about them.”
“Even if you had and he’d been more vigilant, he couldn’t have known that the noble in question is close to the kingdom’s third princess.”
“No way...” Brod sighed, pressing his right palm to his forehead as he tried to organize his thoughts.
But before he could do so, Galba interjected, “Brod, this is the perfect opportunity to head to the empire while it’s in chaos. You should take Luciel and make your move now.”
“Why should I go to Illumasia? Besides, I can’t just leave my position as guildmaster vacant for several days.” He glared at Galba before turning his gaze away.
“You can leave Merratoni to Gulgar and me. You don’t want Luciel to keep getting targeted by the empire, do you? Not to mention—”
“Oh, just shut up,” Brod interrupted him.
“So?” Galba replied nonchalantly.
Brod answered with another click of his tongue. “Fine, I’ll go. But it’ll be your fault if things get messy.”
“I know. Don’t worry; I’ll make the necessary arrangements for you to return to Merratoni.”
“Have I ever told you I hate this ruthless side of you?”
Galba chuckled. “I’m flattered.”