“Then perhaps we could claim you escaped at that point and say that the church used a substitute corpse through a lack of willingness to admit to it,” Aura suggested, assuming that it would be rejected.
Indeed, the man shook his head firmly. “We cannot.”
“I thought as much,” she admitted with a shrug.
His reaction confirmed her initial information. In his view, the church imprisoning him was not, in itself, wrong. The church was a group of priests, so should sometimes offer guidance to those priests that belonged to it, and if he was given that guidance, he was willing to change.
However, Yan felt that there was nothing wrong or excessive about his words, but conversely felt like the church had deviated from its initial teachings, and he wanted that discussion to happen. If he had escaped from imprisonment, then it would mean that he had changed how he thought about things for his own sake. Uppasala’s intelligence had come to the conclusion that even if he had come upon an opportunity to escape, he wouldn’t have taken it, and it seemed they were correct.
“Which means there are issues remaining. You did not escape, and yet you also have no memory of what happened towards the end. This is a definite advantage for the church. If they know you have no memory of things said during your imprisonment or at the time of your execution, they could demand you prove your identity by relating those words or else call you a fraud. No?”
“I cannot deny the possibility.”
In fact, that was his main concern. The church was in itself as influential as a country on the Northern Continent. Such influence allowed them to make white into black. Even the slightest hint of gray would be treated as fully black. No matter how Yan himself claimed he was the real person, if that influence labeled him a fraud, that would be how he was seen.
Aura scowled internally as the priest thought. Personally, she cared little if he was labeled a fraud. All she needed from him was activity and chaos on the Northern Continent. If, by some remote flight of fancy he insisted he could not immediately return and needed to wait for a chance while regaining energy here, that would be the worst possible outcome. She wanted the dangerous man in the North no matter what.
While those thoughts were swirling around her head, the mercenary—who had remained silent other than his translations so far—raised his hand slightly. “These are my own words,” he started. “Pardon, but I would say it is a simple case of ‘he said, she said.’ Perhaps we could overcome it with information gathering and predictions?”
“Hm. Explain in more detail,” Aura replied.
The commander did so. “Of course. While remembering it makes my blood boil, the information I gathered says that treatment in the dungeon got gradually worse. It is common for people’s memories in such situations to become unreliable. In fact, it is strange for such a thing not to happen. Furthermore, with no third party, it is possible for the church to lie. Actually, they will lie. They will say he repented just before the execution and begged for forgiveness. In which case, I believe all we can do is claim a ‘truth’ that suits us.”
They could question those who believed in the priest within the church about what happened to him, then using that information, he could predict how he would have reacted. Claiming that those events were the truth and that any missing information was simply due to missing memories would work.
“I see. Not a bad suggestion,” Aura replied, seeing how it could work, then offered some advice despite internally wanting to send them back to the Northern Continent at once. “There are still concerns, though. Continuing the argument assumes that both parties have equally influential voices. If either is overwhelming, the debate breaks down and one side is taken as fact. Would that be acceptable?”
It seemed unlikely that either man would fall for simply suppressing any of her doubts and claiming it should work. Also, she was not entirely happy with going so far as to use her secret spell and then having the church simply declare the revived man a fraud and refusing to engage with him.
The priest looked bothered, agreeing with the concern, but the translating mercenary spoke with surety. “Again, these are my own words, but I believe such a thing is unlikely to happen.”
“Hm. Would you explain?”
“Of course. Priest Yan underestimates his own influence. The church’s influence on the Northern Continent is great, and generally its believers believe the church’s claims. However, there are people who separately believed in him. They will trust his words. At the very least, those who we meet directly will understand it is truly him.”
His words were proud, enough to discomfit even the priest in question. The mercenary continued confidently.
“In his homeland of Bohevia, there is a great number of people who will believe him, including those in the palace and church. Within the capital where the university is, they would be an overwhelming majority.”
The queen forced the corners of her lips to remain in place. That was perfect. If he was right, that was practically ideal for Capua. Despite both sides being influenced by the church, Yan’s country and a country where those led by the church would all but fall into conflict.
Of course, with how much faith the mercenary had in the priest, taking it at face value would be dangerous. Regardless, it was a perfect situation for the priest to return to the Northern Continent.
“There could be no better result than for you to be able to return home. However, as I said, this was not something I expected. My plan was to teleport the commander with your corpse back to the Northern Continent. If it suits you, I can simply do the same for both of you separately.”
The first half of Aura’s speech was completely made up, but the latter was the truth. While she had schemed for a potential resurrection of the priest, she was unable to tell the mercenary as much, so she had made no preparations other than to restore the corpse. Therefore, it would be rather unfortunate for them to ask to recover and see how things went here.
There were only a very small number of people within the country who knew Commander Yan was in the room. The pair would be unable to leave the room, and bringing both sustenance as well as anything else required for daily life would be difficult. The greatest inconvenience was that there was no toilet there. The best result would be for the two of them to leave before they had to answer the call of nature.
Fortunately, the mercenary simply smiled. “That would be fine. Moving clandestinely is my specialty. I would have simply carried the corpse, but now he is alive. If anything, it will be less difficult.”
Things would be different if the priest had weakened to the point he was on the verge of death, but although he had lost weight, he could still stand and walk. It would be far easier than carrying a corpse around.
“Very well, then. Assuming you are in agreement, Priest Yan, the commander can explain the teleportation. Your destination will be Logfort in Uppasala. We have a certain degree of contact with their leadership, so even if you are discovered, they should turn a blind eye. It would only be tacit tolerance, though—the best course of action would be to remain undiscovered, so I ask that you move as quickly and secretly as is practical.” She had already informed the commander of all of this, but repeated it again for the priest’s understanding.
The mercenary repeated the words dutifully to the priest, who nodded and then spoke to Aura directly. “Áno, rozumím jejímu veličenstvu královně.”
Of course, Aura didn’t understand what he’d said, but his firm expression and the bow he gave suggested it was meant to be an agreement.
The translation from the mercenary was essentially what she had expected.
“Yes, understood, Your Majesty. The rest of what I have to say are my own words. We will do as you ask. I am not going to repay your aid with hardship,” he said earnestly.
Given their behavior, Aura decided that there wouldn’t be any issues from them. “Very well. This is the final thing I can do for you. I pray for your fortune.”
With that, she sent both Yans to the Northern Continent.