Charge! Into The Luktia Holy Papal State!

It was morning, with bright sunlight falling down.

Liricia, Rāna, and I were in Lux, the capital of the Holy Papal State.

Lux was located inland but faced a great river. I had thought we would arrive around evening, but because Rāna had raced up the great river at tremendous speed, we had already reached Lux.

Perhaps because she had eaten a Jewel Orb and powered up while we were crossing the sea, her speed seemed to have increased too.

The cityscape of Lux looked as though the entire city had been built like a temple. White buildings and white churches.

The buildings facing the main street had tall, thick pillars supporting their roofs. The roads were entirely covered in white stone pavement. Even the outer wall surrounding the city was white.

In the center of the city, a massive cathedral towered over everything. If I remembered right, the Catacombs dungeon was beneath it.

However, we were surrounded outside the city by knights in white armor. We were surrounded in a semicircle right after coming ashore from the boat.

They were probably members of the Sacred Knight Order that protected the capital.

I took out the paper the King had written for me from my breast pocket and held it up. Liricia and Rāna stood half a step behind me.

“I am Alec, the Savior’s Proxy recognized by the Fortis State Church! I have business with the Pope! Open the way!”

My words made the knights stir.

“What is a Savior’s Proxy!?”

“The Fortis State Church, you say?”

“Lies! Don’t be fooled!”

“I can’t get anywhere talking to you. Let me meet the Pope.”

“What!?”

“What do you intend to do by meeting him!?”

“We cannot let you meet His Holiness!”

The knights all denounced me at once.

Just as I was thinking this had become troublesome, one man pushed through the knights and stepped forward.

He looked like an elderly man. He wore a noble blue robe that indicated a priest or bishop.

With a severe expression, he denounced me.

“Former Hero Alec! You are absolutely forbidden from entering the Luktia Holy Papal State!”

I was inwardly pleased that someone who seemed to have a high position had appeared. No matter what I said to underlings, it would not get through.

I lowered the sack from my back and took out Mani, the unconscious fanatic.

“I’m glad someone who seems capable of understanding has come. This man called Mani deceived the prince of the Fortis Kingdom and created a subspace.”

“What did you say! I do not know this man! False accusations will become an international issue!”

The elderly priest was surprised when he saw Mani, but he stubbornly argued back.

I took out the crystal ball from my magic bag.

“This is the proof! —Replay!”

When I held up the crystal ball that contained Past Vision, countless screens appeared around us. Images began playing on each of them.

—Mani approaching Prince Yoanes.

—Mani handing over a mysterious medicine.

—Mani contacting an elderly man in blue clothes and an old man in purple clothes.

The sacred knights opened their eyes wide in shock.

“What!?”

“No way!”

“That can’t be!”

The priest shouted in confusion.

“This is fabricated! Kill him, kill him. Kill him!”

He shouted while pointing at me, spittle flying from his mouth.

The knights were shocked and bewildered by the sudden order.

I placed my hand on the hilt of the sword hanging at my waist and looked at the priest as I asked,

“So. As the Savior’s Proxy appointed by Fortis, I’m going to search for the Sacred White Dragon’s Jewel Orbs on my own. You have no complaints, right?”

“Do it!”

When the priest shouted the order, about three knights attacked.

Most of the knights looked at one another and did not move.

I drew my sword and exchanged blows with one of the knights. As befitted a holy knight, he used the same holy sword techniques as me. However, my skill level was higher. After lightly exchanging several blows, I struck the knight’s head with the flat of my sword and knocked him down.

Liricia swung her silver flail and pulled a knight down.

Rāna dashed forward at incredible speed while scattering her long white hair. She punched one knight in the stomach and sent him flying. A small fist mark was left on his armor.

—Wait, isn’t that mithril armor? Just how strong is Rāna?

Apparently, only three of them had obeyed the priest’s words, while the other knights stood there in a daze.

Only the priest kept shouting with his face bright red.

“What are you doing! This man is an enemy! He defiles the name of God! Do it!”

However, the Sacred Knight Order did not move.

Then, a sharp voice suddenly rang out.

“Wait!”

A hoarse yet clear voice resounded.

“T-this voice!”

“No way!”

“His Holiness!?”

The knights turned around and looked behind them.

I turned my gaze too, and saw an old man with a bald head walking over while his purple robe swayed. Perhaps he had run part of the way, because he was slightly out of breath.

When he came in front of me, the Pope smiled happily.

“Should I say it has been a long time? Former Hero-dono.”

“Yeah, it has been a while. You’ve aged quite a bit, so I didn’t recognize you for a moment.”

Back when I was acting as the Hero, I had traveled all over the world defeating monsters.

Naturally, I had also come to the Luktia Holy Papal State. I had met this man too. Back then, he still had hair, and I don’t think he was the Pope yet.

And he was also the very man in the purple robe whom Mani had contacted.

The Pope gave a wry smile while stroking his deeply wrinkled face with a withered hand.

“I did try making myself around ten years younger, you know.”

“So you did.”

“Even if the body grows younger, the heart does not. It was pointless.”

“Is that how it works?”

I, who had grown younger to twenty-four years old, was full of both energy and physical strength. I had the sense that my mind and body matched.

Maybe because I had not gone through hardships severe enough to wear down my heart, my heart had remained young.

Put negatively, it could also be said that my heart had not grown.

On the other hand, perhaps the Pope had gone through nothing but hardships. They said Church personnel affairs were a whirlpool of conspiracies and factional strife.

Apparently, one Pope who had come from poor farmers several generations ago had been described as “born like a dog, lived like a fox, and died as a lion.”

As I was thinking, the Pope cleared his throat and changed the subject.

“Let us get to the main issue. It seems my subordinate acted on his own this time. I apologize for my failure to supervise him.”

“You’re saying you weren’t the mastermind, and this was just your subordinate acting on his own?”

“Of course. However, my subordinate may have acted beyond bounds because he believed in God too fervently. I shall punish him later.”

“I don’t believe you.”

I shrugged as I said that.

The Pope showed a troubled smile.

“The Luktia Holy Papal State has no intention of fighting Fortis. Naturally, we have no intention of fighting you either.”

“Oh. Then even if I search around for the Jewel Orbs—”

The Pope interrupted me and took a small box from the hem of his robe.

When he opened the lid and spread the inner cloth, a golden glowing orb sat there like a jewel.

“This is what you want, is it not? I shall give it to you, so that you may believe me.”

“That helps—wait.”

I started to reach for the orb the Pope held out, then stopped.

I looked at Liricia and Rāna and asked,

“Is that orb real?”

“Yes, there is no mistake. It is a Jewel Orb.”

“Orb! Kyaa!”

“I see—then I’ll take it.”

I received the box containing the Jewel Orb from the Pope. It was a small orb that fit completely into my hand.

The Pope showed a smile so frightening it was unsettling and pointed to the boat placed by the riverside.

“Then, although we could not even offer you tea, please leave now.”

“Hmm? You’re hurrying us.”

“Yes. We are currently preparing various things, so I did not want you to enter Lux.”

“Preparing? —Ah, I see.”

The Holy Papal State had a dungeon. I assumed it was for the coming Dungeon World War preparations.

If I entered the city, the Holy Wave leaking from me might negatively affect their supplies and magic tools.

So that was why the Pope himself had come all the way here. It seemed he had even run.

Suddenly, I had a thought.

If I made a fuss here or used Mani’s person and the footage to threaten them, I felt like I could draw out better conditions for Fortis.

But I could not think of a clever enough plan to go that far.

Besides, rescuing the people trapped in the subspace was the top priority. There was no time.

As I was thinking that, the priest in blue clothes rushed over to the Pope.

“Please wait, Your Holiness! Are you saying you will forgive this man!?”

“Yes. Forgiveness is the role of one who serves God.”

“He is an agent of Fortis, which twists God’s teachings!”

“That does not matter in the slightest.”

“What!?”

The priest was shocked. I was shocked too.

The Pope showed an eerie smile and spoke as if gently admonishing him.

“When God is absent, there is no meaning in Fortis and Luktia fighting each other.”

“T-then! Are you saying what I did was wrong?”

“No, no, that is not so. You did very good work.”

“Truly?”

“Yes, because the true aim went unnoticed.”

“The true aim, Your Holiness?”

“It is this—Dimension Gate.”

The Pope pointed at me with a full smile that looked almost strained.

From the heavy ring on his finger, which was like a withered branch, a black wave surged out.

“What—!”

For a moment, I thought the small box containing the Jewel Orb I held had swollen up. But I was wrong. Something like black clouds spread from inside the box.

Because I was startled and could not move immediately, I was late escaping the spell. In the first place, I had been holding the box under my arm.

My body was about to be dragged into the black cloud.

“Run—Liricia!”

I shoved Liricia, who was beside me, away. From the recoil, my body entered the black cloud even further.

Even while panicking, I fired myself up and released Holy Wave with a “Hah!” But it was only sucked into the black cloud and did not disappear.

It was not the Darkness Attribute, but something else entirely.

I heard the Pope’s voice trembling with joy.

“This differs greatly from what I planned, but with this, the final and greatest problem has disappeared! I am the one who will obtain everything!”

I thought desperately inside my panicking mind.

—Obtain everything?

—More importantly, I can’t escape—what about Liricia?

—Gate—subspace—rank-up medicine—Sacred White Dragon—.

A flash of inspiration ran through my mind.

At this rate, I was completely cornered!

Then what I had to do right now was—

“Rāna!”

In exchange for my entire body being dragged into the black cloud, I forced only my right arm outside.

I threw the Jewel of Light to Rāna.

However, the last thing I saw was Rāna spreading both hands to catch the flying orb.

After that, I was swallowed into the black cloud at tremendous speed.

“Masteeeeeer!”

As Liricia’s high-pitched scream echoed in my ears, I was sent flying somewhere far away through pitch-black darkness.