Chapter 16

“I-I’m not going to eat him! Moon is my friend, and he’s hurt… so…”

The child who raised his face as he spoke was dressed plainly, but he had pale golden hair, green eyes, and an adorable face.

(He truly is about the same age as Aki…)

The face of Kana’s younger sister Aki, whom she would probably never see again, surfaced in her mind. She shook her head as though driving the image away, then ordered Kaō to move closer to the child. Suō, who had already gone ahead, also turned back to see what was happening and followed after them.

“Oh? So you were not planning to butcher the dead dog and eat it.”

At Kana’s words after she landed beside the child, the beast that had until then lain motionless on the ground suddenly barked. And it spoke in human language.

“I am no dog! I am Fenrir, a sacred Divine Beast!”

““What?! Fenrir?!””

““The one known as the Guardian of the Forest?!””

““So Divine Beasts really can speak human language!””

At the name Fenrir, the members of the extermination force immediately began murmuring excitedly, but Kana acted as though she could not care less and nudged the hind leg of the fallen Fenrir with the toe of her sandal.

“What a noisy dog. And why is this so-called Divine Beast lying around in a place like this?”

Moreover, why had it gone and acquired such an enormous wound across its belly? The one who answered Kana’s question was the child.

“A little while ago, a whole bunch of magical beasts came running from over there. I tried to run away, but I couldn’t get far enough… Moon fought them and drove them away, but there were so many of them, and he was protecting me while he fought… He managed to chase them off, but he got hurt…”

At those words, William and everyone in the extermination force visibly changed expression. There was little doubt that the creatures that had attacked them were magical beasts that had escaped when the party cleared the mana pool earlier. Kana naturally realized the same thing and looked slightly uncomfortable.

“Is Moon the name of this dog? Then, child, what is your name? And why are you alone in a place like this?”

The child hesitated slightly before answering.

“I’m True. Moon and I have been traveling for four days, looking for somewhere safe. But I don’t know why I’m here. I can’t remember anything from before that, and even my real name… Moon said that ‘True’ was embroidered into the hem of my clothes, so he thought that was probably my name…”

As True’s voice gradually grew quieter, Burley, who at some point had dismounted from Suō and come over to them, said,

“Saintess, I have heard that someone who suffers an extremely severe shock can temporarily lose their memory. Could that be what happened to this child? And perhaps this Fenrir happened to be nearby, took pity on him, and chose to accompany him?”

Considering everything she had seen so far, Kana thought that was entirely plausible.

“I understand your circumstances. But many magical beasts are nocturnal. What did you intend to do once darkness fell?”

“…I don’t know. At night, Moon and I always hid inside ruined houses or places like that, but now he can’t move… and I can’t leave Moon behind. He’s my friend…”

The boy lowered his head, tears welling in his eyes.

“Well, even wounded, this creature would not be easy to defeat. Even so, if you remain here without treating him, it is obvious that both you and he will eventually become prey. Here, move aside for a moment.”

Kana moved the child who had introduced himself as True off to one side and crouched down. She held her hand over the wound in Fenrir’s flank and began chanting Bhaiṣajyaguru’s mantra.

“On korokoro sendarimatōgisowaka, on korokoro sendarimatōgisowaka, on korokoro sendarimatōgisowaka.”

A soft light enveloped Kana’s hand, and Fenrir’s abdominal wound vanished in moments.

“Amazing! His wound is healed! Thank you, big sister! Moon, that’s great!”

“…Young lady, you have saved me. You have my thanks.”

“My name is Kana. Besides, it seems we bear some measure of responsibility for those magical beasts.”

Kana stood as she spoke.

“For now, the wound has closed, but you should still avoid moving him. He has lost too much blood. True, was it? Come with me. Since we are already here, I shall take you as far as the royal capital.”

“Huh? But…”

“It will at least be safer than staying here. Do not worry. This dog will come with us.”

Kana looked toward William and Burley as if to say there could surely be no problem with that. Both naturally nodded, so she promptly continued arranging matters.

“Then the child shall ride Kaō with me, and as for the dog… Suō, may I leave him to you?”

“…As you command.”

The reply was remarkably different from Suō’s usual energetic response.

“What is this? You sound terribly displeased.”

“N-Nothing could be further from the truth! Though allowing some dog to ride upon me is profoundly objectionable, that does not mean I dislike the idea…”

He merely worried that something so large might inconvenience the others riding with him, he added while looking toward Burley and the rest. Kana thought there was some merit to that concern.

“Dog. Can you not make yourself smaller?”

Since it kept loudly proclaiming itself a Divine Beast, Kana assumed it ought to be capable of at least that much. However—

“I have told you repeatedly! I am a sacred Divine Beast, not some dog!”

“Princess, I suspect a fool such as this could never perform anything as advanced as altering his own size.”

Kaō spoke in a deliberately mocking tone while glancing sideways at Fenrir, who had ignored Kana’s question to repeat his claim. Apparently offended, Fenrir forced himself upright and barked.

“Do not insult me! I am a Divine Beast! Naturally I can perform something so trivial!”

“Oh? There is no need to become so worked up and make empty boasts.”

“It is no empty boast! If I say I can do it, then I can!”

Fenrir grew increasingly agitated at Kaō’s mocking words, but then—

“Then hurry up and do it!”

Kana’s shout was accompanied by a sharp smack!

When everyone looked, Kana was somehow holding her cypress folding fan, while Fenrir crouched with both forepaws covering his head. His tail had curled tightly and tucked itself between his legs.

((((She hit him… She struck a Divine Beast—the Guardian of the Forest—at full force without the slightest hesitation…))))

The extermination force stood frozen with their mouths open, but Burley, the other elite members, William, and those who had begun growing accustomed to Kana’s behavior merely pretended not to notice while privately sympathizing with Fenrir.

“Did you not hear me? Hurry!”

Kana tapped the cypress fan repeatedly against her palm as she urged him on.

“Whiiiiine…”

With a pitiful whimper, Fenrir’s enormous body rapidly shrank until he was roughly the size of a Shiba Inu. True stared in astonishment.

“Moon, you could make yourself smaller? Then if you’d gotten small earlier, I could’ve carried you somewhere safe… Ah, wait. Did you think that because I’m little, I still wouldn’t have been strong enough to carry you even if you shrank?”

“N-No, True! That’s not it! I can only do this because my wound has been healed! I never doubted your strength at all…”

As the now-small Divine Beast desperately tried to reassure his obviously dejected friend, Burley scooped him up into his arms.

“Ha, ha! Even at this size, he’s still a bit much for a young lad.”

Laughing, Burley ruffled True’s hair with his free hand.

“I’ll carry him. So don’t worry.”

With that, he walked toward Suō. Kana gave the child, who watched them anxiously from behind, a reassuring nod, then guided him toward Kaō.

“Then let us depart as well.”

Three Days Earlier — Royal Castle

Not long after Princess Kana, William, and the others departed, Shaila received word that a messenger from the Pope of the Grand Temple had arrived.

However, because the “ban on entering or leaving the castle” had already been strictly enforced due to the “mysterious epidemic,” the messenger was not permitted inside and instead handed over a letter through the barrier before leaving.

According to Aldridge’s report to Shaila, however, the messenger had apparently not departed quietly.

Declaring, “I have His Holiness the Pope’s protection, so I have nothing to fear from some epidemic,” the messenger had stubbornly attempted to enter the castle. Following Kana’s orders, her strange armored soldiers had apparently thrown him into the moat.

Fortunately, he had been rescued immediately, so the messenger escaped with nothing worse than being soaked from head to toe. Nevertheless, he had been absolutely furious, and when handing over the letter, he reportedly left with the parting words, “If something happens to the royal family in the future and His Holiness refuses you his protection, don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

The Pope, who had attended the Saintess Summoning ritual the previous day, had been unable to conduct the Saintess Investiture Ceremony he had planned because of the incident that occurred. Shaila therefore suspected that the letter delivered today concerned precisely that matter.

The current Pope, Saint Ambrose Blackham II, had been one of the strongest proponents of summoning a Saintess, but he had disapproved of the previous Saintess marrying a prince and believed that “a Saintess should remain a member of the temple for her entire life.”

This time as well, he had expressed considerable displeasure at the royal family’s intention to marry the Saintess to a prince, arguing that it was wrong for the royal family to monopolize the Saintess or exploit her politically.

(That’s rich coming from a man whose own every move is steeped in political calculation with the papal election five years from now in mind. Still, does the Pope truly intend to hold the Saintess Investiture Ceremony even after what happened? Though I cannot imagine Princess Kana obediently going along with it.)

Hoping that nothing troublesome would come of it, Shaila opened the delivered letter.

At first glance, it merely stated that the Saintess Investiture Ceremony would be held and provided a date one week later. Yet at the end, under the Pope’s name, it was proposed that after her investiture, the Saintess live at the temple rather than the royal palace.

The letter emphasized that the Saintess’s own wishes would, of course, be respected, but judging from Kana’s behavior the day before yesterday, the Pope had probably concluded that the Saintess harbored strong resentment toward the royal family.

He apparently intended to seize this opportunity to draw the Saintess into the temple—and, by extension, into his own faction.

The image of Blackham II surfaced in Shaila’s mind. He was somewhat younger than she was and had won the papal election three years earlier through a combination of his somewhat unusual ability and his political skill, thereby attaining his present position. Consequently, he enjoyed considerable trust and popularity among the faithful.

More importantly, while priests capable of healing injuries were not particularly uncommon, very few could heal both injuries and illnesses. Blackham was one of those rare priests capable of curing disease as well, earning him considerable support among high-ranking nobles. Of course, anyone wishing to receive treatment from him had to make a substantial donation to the temple.

Very few people were born naturally capable of healing magic. Most priests gained the ability to heal by taking into their bodies a secret stone known as the 【Goddess’s Drop】.

This occurred during a ritual held once each year during the first month of spring as part of the Goddess Festival, when apprentice priests who had completed their training gathered at the Grand Temple. The ritual used a sacred chalice kept in the Grand Temple’s treasury.

Holding certificates proving completion of their three-year apprenticeships along with letters of recommendation from the Temple Heads under whom they had served, the apprentices approached the altar one by one and poured their magical power into the sacred chalice. If they possessed an aptitude for healing magic, their magic crystallized inside it into a “Goddess’s Drop.”

By swallowing that crystal, they became capable of healing magic. Its size varied according to the individual’s magical power, but most shone with a silvery-white light.

On rare occasions, however, the crystal was golden, and those who produced such a crystal gained the ability to heal both injuries and disease.

In exchange for gaining healing magic, however, they permanently lost the ability to use any other elemental magic they had previously possessed. Moreover, although only around one-third of apprentices actually became priests, there was never any shortage of applicants.

That was because becoming a priest depended on aptitude rather than social status. In addition, food, clothing, and lodging were guaranteed throughout the three-year apprenticeship.

As a result, temples attracted the third and fourth sons of noble families, illegitimate noble children with little magical power, and conversely, commoner children who possessed unusually large reserves of magic.

(The current Pope was born a commoner, if I remember correctly. There are rumors that his unusually great magical power comes from being the illegitimate child of some noble, but nothing has ever been proven…)

For the time being, Shaila had no choice but to write back that the Saintess had already departed with the extermination force to purify mana pools and that there was no way of knowing whether she would return within a week.

Then, shortly after the afternoon began, another report was delivered to Shaila.

This time it stated that none other than the Marquis of Blacker, Trisha’s father, had attempted to enter the castle grounds by carriage and had consequently been thrown into the moat along with his attendants. They, too, had been rescued immediately and escaped with nothing worse than being drenched.

Shaila sighed yet again after reading it.

Daryl Blacker was something of a conspiracy theorist who, whenever anything happened, became utterly convinced that Shaila and William were plotting to eliminate his daughter Trisha and his grandson Alton. In all likelihood, upon hearing about the epidemic this time, the marquis had concluded that “Shaila is using it as an excuse to arrange their deaths.”

(When the truth is the complete opposite…)

Nevertheless, sooner or later the marquis would have to be told the truth. Even knowing that, Shaila could not help feeling deeply reluctant.

Political maneuvering and ulterior motives certainly existed, but she also knew that the marquis genuinely loved his daughter and grandson.

(It seems I should have stomach medicine prepared instead of tea for my afternoon break.)

Shaila placed a hand against her stomach, which had begun aching slightly, as she turned to the next report.

(Every one of my captured men was killed. Damn it, that bastard betrayed me! Sure, I got a little greedy, but I didn’t deserve this! After all the times he’s used us for his own purposes! And now, of all times, I can’t even get out of the castle. This is worse than bad luck…)

The man ground his teeth as he ran through the dark, narrow passageway, furious at how completely everything had gone wrong.

(But even he shouldn’t know about this passage. It’s the most closely guarded secret there is. Heh. Just because I’m being paid doesn’t mean I’m going to report every last thing I know. If I keep my head down here for a while, eventually… Still, what a pathetic castle. There was barely any food in the kitchen. But I can’t afford to be picky. First I have to get out of this castle alive…!)

He abruptly stopped when he rounded a corner and found a figure standing there as though waiting for him.

“Who’s there?!”

The man panicked, wondering whether his pursuers had somehow reached even this place, but the face he saw belonged to someone he knew well.

“Oh, it’s you. Don’t scare me like that. Hey, do you have anything to eat—huh?”

His relief immediately turned to shock. Before he realized what had happened, a sword had been driven deep into his abdomen. Worse still, the other man twisted the blade and thrust it even deeper.

“Hey… what… what’s this… supposed… to mean…? Don’t tell me… you… betrayed me…? Then… those… others too…? Why…”

The man said nothing more. He collapsed and stopped moving.

“Shut up, you useless bastard. Just because you were a little older, you’ve spent all this time acting like you were better than me. By rights, I am someone so noble that a man like you should never even have been permitted to speak to me!”

As though venting years of pent-up resentment, the newcomer repeatedly kicked the dead man’s shoulders and back with heavy blows.

After kicking him for some time, his anger finally seemed to subside. He began dragging the corpse away while muttering cheerfully to himself.

“Now then, once I stick the knife used to kill those others into his clothes, I’ll have to toss him into the moat. Conveniently enough, right now everyone will assume he killed his companions, tried to escape, and was taken down by those strange armored soldiers. Ah, but before that, I need to –– his —– so that ––…”