And in fact, when the Angel Kaoru had perished, not only was the country about to be annihilated, but the entire continent had been in danger. The thought of what would have happened if not for Fearsome Fran the Einherjar’s slaps was quite chilling.
“Praise be to Fran, great hero and guardian of the continent! Save us from the clutches of evil!” the king suddenly prayed out loud.
“Fran, O Fran! Fran, O Fran!” The rest of the room seemed to infer the king’s thought process and joined him by chanting in unison.
“When we consider the contents of The Angel Records...and the teachings of the Order of the Goddess Kaoru—they may be but one of many religious sects, but at the root of those records are the orphans who were raised by the Angel, Lady Kaoru. I understand why they would want to worship her as a goddess, but if we subtract that part from the narrative, the text regarding Lady Kaoru can be trusted in terms of accuracy. There are simply far too many similarities to ignore. In other words...” the king’s eyes shot wide open as he yelled, “That young girl named Edith is the beloved child of the Goddess Celestine and the new Angel who has reappeared for the first time in decades! But the Angel dislikes causing a commotion, so she’s been hiding her true identity...or at least, she seems to be trying. So, of course, we must respect her wishes and act as if we aren’t aware of the Angel’s existence. However...we must do everything it takes to make sure she is never displeased and that she doesn’t forsake our country and leave it for another. Understood?!”
The men fervently cheered and chanted, “Edith, O Edith! Edith, O Edith!”
And so, the royal capital had begun their preparations to welcome “just a stray priestess girl who they definitely didn’t think was the Angel.”
I booked a room at an inn to get some rest. I couldn’t use the rental we’d secured in the royal capital quite yet. There was a chance that someone had been trailing me after leaving the royal palace, and it would’ve exposed the hole in my story if anyone found out that I’d already rented a house in this city. For now, I had to keep playing the role of a stray priestess who just happened to stop by the royal capital for rest and fundraising.
Oh, I should sell some jewels so I have a record of procuring funds here...
I still had plenty of money, but I had to stick to the script.
There wasn’t much to note about my meeting with the king at the royal palace other than how overwhelmingly supportive they were of a mere priestess like me. They’d probably let me meet with him as a token of apology for the men who’d taken me there against my will. It must’ve been very rare for a free priestess to get the opportunity like that. What a nice king he was.
This place was all the way across the continent from where I’d made a mess of things back before the Item Box incident, and it’d been seventy-four years since then. There weren’t any TVs or newspapers in this world, and rumors wouldn’t even be recognizable as the original stories by the time they made it across the continent. The archives from back then were probably gathering dust in some storehouse somewhere, and there were very few people with accurate information from back then who were still alive and healthy by now. Not to mention, I was said to be a normal human in religious teachings—other than in the teachings of the Order of the Goddess Kaoru, but that was just a minor sect. No one would even fathom I could still exist looking just like I did back then; there weren’t any photographs in this world, and the only illustrations of me left had beautified me so much that they barely resembled me at all...like the face that was on Kaorun coins. Nobody would recognize me if that was their point of reference.
Besides, if someone who looked just like Queen Himiko was walking around in modern Japan, no one would stop her and ask, “You’re Queen Himiko, aren’t you?” That was pretty much what it meant for someone to ask me if I was the Angel Kaoru. No one would have the nerve to do such a thing unless they wanted to be thought of as insane.
The men who’d taken me to the royal palace were probably getting scolded by the Lord Chancellor, so all I had to look out for now was that aristocrat who’d sent people to attack me.
What was his name again...? Oh, that’s right, Count Tartus!
I’d used a truth serum to get that info straight from his own soldier, so it was definitely true. The lord had said he’d definitely take care of it, but he didn’t have any authority over Count Tartus or anything. In fact, there was a chance that Tartus’s country was in a superior position and the lord couldn’t do anything about it. Besides, would a nobleman declare all-out war against another noble family over a random stray priestess? Probably not. It was probably best to assume it had just been lip service to make me feel better at the time.
Even Count Tartus probably wouldn’t send a big group of men to attack me at the royal capital, but he could send someone to attack me in my sleep, drag me into an alley at night, or pick a fight with me head-on using his influence as an aristocrat. Still, his goal probably wasn’t to ambush and kill me, so I wasn’t too worried. I’d be fine as long as I had some time to act and he wasn’t gonna headshot me from afar with a bow and arrow or take me by surprise with a blade to the heart.