The Information Organization (1)

The letter sent by Countess Messianne contained nothing but a single sheet of paper.

"What kind of document is..."

Roland, who had been sneaking a peek from the side, was filled with question marks. He found it strange that a letter would contain only a single document without even a word of greeting.

However, once Aiden and Roland confirmed the format of the fully unfolded letter and the official seal stamped at the bottom, they both dropped their jaws in perfect synchronization and locked eyes.

Unfortunately, because Kalisa was not there, they couldn't be entirely certain of what the other was thinking, but sometimes, a mere glance is enough to make one's thoughts perfectly clear.

'The Holy Empire!'

The variant pyramid schemers that Kalisa had uncovered seemed to be professionals in this world, in their own way.

They were a group that had spent nearly their entire lives crossing borders and territories, pulling off bizarre and extraordinary scams. They had backstabbed the blue-blooded nobles so many times that they couldn't even be counted on one's fingers—which was perhaps natural, given that the vast majority of the era's wealth was monopolized by those noble figures.

However, the reason Aiden had specifically singled out Countess Messianne among all those victims and contacted her, promising to hand over the people who had swindled her fortune with their glib tongues, was because he knew the Countess's connections well.

'Still, I didn't expect her to hand over the results of the Holy Empire's Round Table Conference so quickly.'

It seemed that being extorted by those scoundrels had wounded her pride quite deeply.

Or perhaps,

'Or maybe she has developed a great interest in the talents of the witches.'

In truth, he had chosen the Countess specifically because he had wanted this outcome.

"Administrator, would you mind if I read what is written there as well?"

It seemed Roland was itching with curiosity. He judged that it was no small matter for a document containing the results of the Holy Empire's Round Table Conference to be delivered to someone responsible for a territory in the Empire.

"There's no need to be so tense. It's not a political issue."

"Pardon?"

Aiden gestured for him not to worry, but Roland still couldn't relax the tension that filled his face. He looked as if he were asking how a letter sent privately to an administrator of another country by an imperial decision-making body could possibly *not* be a political issue.

"It's true. It's a religious matter."

"...A religious matter?"

He had clearly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sent a letter to Countess Messianne saying he had caught the swindlers, so why did the reply come back as a religious matter?

No, wait.

Wouldn't a political issue be better? If it's a religious issue, isn't that even more hopeless?

And wasn't our Administrator non-religious? He had seen the holy power of priests—which was more miraculous than magic—with his own eyes, yet he had worn a face that suggested he had seen something bizarre rather than feeling any sense of piety. That expression was still fresh in Roland's memory.

Roland, who was blinking his eyes and organizing his thoughts, reached a conclusion within the short time it took Aiden to read a few lines of the document.

"......Is this related to the status of the witches?!"

Aiden looked at Roland, who had hit the nail on the head, with a fresh sense of wonder.

'He did say his major was politics when he attended the academy; his brain certainly works best in this area.'

It was a stroke of luck for Aiden that his three adjutants each possessed such distinct abilities.

He didn't say a word, but pushed the letter toward Roland as if to tell him to see it for himself.

Roland, as if bewitched, picked up the letter and began to read the contents aloud.

A new consultation and definition by the Holy Empire regarding what constitutes a religious order.

"The followers of the Moon Goddess, Argenta, are very weak in influence, their doctrines are not clear, and they have lacked an internal system, so they could not be recognized as an official order until now. Therefore, those who follow the Goddess Argenta have been called witches rather than priests and have been pointed at with scorn."

The reality of those who worshipped a god that could not be enshrined in the Pantheon because they were not recognized as an official order.

"However—."

But in all words and writings, isn't the core of the matter what comes after 'however'?

Aiden, who had been quietly listening to Roland's voice, felt a faint smile spread across his face.

"Although the power they possess may not be systematized, it cannot be seen as a power that goes against the natural order, so the Pantheon of the Holy Empire hereby notifies that it has been agreed that they shall not be defined as heretics!"

Clatter!

In front of the office door that Jamie had broken, as always.

Kalisa, who had been bringing in a teacup she had received from a maid, dropped it upon hearing Roland's reading, his voice having grown loud with excitement.

"...Ah."

Then, unlike her usual self, she opened her mouth and couldn't properly connect words to form meaning; she simply repeated the broken, choking sound of "Ah, ah" several times.

Cannot be seen as heretics.

Will not be seen as heretics.

The Goddess Argenta enters the Pantheon of the Holy Empire.

The children of Argenta are now priests, not witches.

Drip, drip—.

Tears began to overflow in droplets from Kalisa's eyes, which had always been filled with venom.

It was the second time.

The first was when he had stood against the Sun Church for her and her siblings, offering them land and promising to become their home. The second was now, when he had allowed her not just to eat and live safely, but to proudly show the god she believed in anywhere—not long after the first.

Humans are not beasts.

One cannot be satisfied merely by having a full stomach and a warm back.

That was why Kalisa cried and cried, far more intensely and for much longer than when she had first shed tears.

"That's expensive."

As she stood like a wooden post in front of the door, silently weeping, Aiden let out a small sigh and made a joke.

"...Administrator."

"It really is expensive. It's a porcelain set that the head maid bought with great effort."

"Thank you."

"Isn't 'I'm sorry' the timing for that?"

Kalisa knew that even that joke was a form of consideration, so her tears wouldn't stop at all, but—

"It's not pity, and certainly not compassion. I just created an environment where you can work, so there's no reason to be crying like that."

"...An environment where I can work?"

"Why do you think Countess Messianne went through the trouble of moving the Holy Empire's Round Table Conference herself? Because she was grateful to you for catching the swindlers who stole her fortune?"

That couldn't be it.

A sly fox like Countess Messianne, who still walked a tightrope between the First and Second Princes, would never show favor to a persecuted order just because she was grateful.

"For your information, Countess Messianne. She's non-religious."

Someone who inherited the blood of the Holy Empire, yet ironically, does not believe in God.

The only thing she believes in is one thing.

"It seems she's a person who will use you and your siblings quite valuably. Don't you think?"

It was information.

An emergency meeting was held.

Not only the three adjutants, but also the witches—no, those who would now be called priests of the Argenta Order—were present.

"So, Elders of the Order? Please, take a seat here."

When he called them into the meeting room and personally offered them seats, they blushed as if they were unaccustomed to it.

"Please, lower your honorifics, Administrator!"

It wasn't that they didn't know Aiden's habit of using honorifics with almost everyone unless they were very close, but it was still burdensome for them that their benefactor was speaking to them with such respect.

"Shouldn't the administration respect the church, and the church respect the administration?"

However, it was true that Aiden not only believed that religious people, excluding cultists, deserved respect, but he also preferred not to get too close if he could help it.

'It's burdensome.'

Even in his past life, where he couldn't know if the gods he served actually existed, the authority and power held by religious orders could easily crush any political power. In this world, where one could draw streams of holy power from their palms without any special training period as long as their faith was certain, Aiden was even more careful to maintain etiquette.

"I believe ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you have heard from Kalisa why I have gathered you here today."

He began to speak to start the meeting in earnest. Because he hated cumbersome formalities to the point of breaking out in hives when working, Aiden went straight into the main meeting.

The Elders of Argenta, for whom such meetings were rather unfamiliar, hurriedly flipped through the bundles of documents he had distributed in advance, steadying their bodies and minds.

"You must have all confirmed the influence Countess Messianne exerts on the Holy Empire."

A situation where the servants of Argenta, who had been persecuted under the name of witches for hundreds of years, were immediately recognized as a proper order just because they moved one high-ranking noble.

It is said that among the believers who heard the news for the first time, many could not sleep due to the turmoil ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠caused by such a simple, almost hollow event.

'Why wouldn't I know that?'

Even Aiden, who wasn't very good at distinguishing the subtleties of human relationships, didn't fail to understand that sense of desolation.

The faces of the brothers and sisters who had helplessly returned to a handful of dirt until now, that bloody history, had been resolved by a single letter from a noble who was merely born with blue blood.

To the parties involved, that simple resolution might have brought about even more misery.

Nevertheless, Aiden did not have the luxury of kindly soothing those hearts.

Because he couldn't miss this opportunity for those who had gradually built up a system and had now even selected 'Elders' to be completely incorporated into the system the world had created.

"It's a battle against time."

Aiden broke the ice first, but—

"I apologize, Administrator. I fear that because we, the lowly servants of Argenta, are ignorant, we might misinterpret the hidden intentions between the lines."

It meant they wanted him to explain it more easily.

A good attitude.

Aiden, who had met countless people whose necks stiffened the moment they gained a petty position, was quite pleased that people who were now Elders of a religion officially recognized by the Holy Empire were still lowering themselves.

"Countess Messianne's involvement in this matter could not have been simple, either."

"...Is that so?"

"The Countess is a noble of our Elteon and, at the same time, someone who has inherited the blood of the Holy Empire. Having influence in both empires that divide the Western Continent means, in other words—."

Aiden stopped speaking and looked at Kalisa.

"—It means she holds an ambiguous position in both, doesn't it?"

"That's right."

"Oh—!"

First, he boosted Kalisa's confidence in front of the Elders.

"Countess Messianne is someone who still has not clarified her stance amidst the intensifying struggle for the throne between the First and Second Princes."

"Why is that the case?"

When the Elder asked Aiden again, he continued his answer as if he had been waiting.

"It is because the Messianne family, which does not have a firm foundation in either empire, knows that this struggle for the throne will be their turning point."

"A turning point..."

Opportunities are meant to sprout amidst crises.

"Isn't it the fate of the Messianne family to weigh the balance between the two countries? But even if they collect information from all sides, it is not easy to grasp the truth of it, so they could not recklessly decide the future of their family."

"The truth of the information...!"

Only then did exclamation marks appear above the heads of Kalisa and the Elders. The fact that their god was not a heretic but was now enshrined in the proud Pantheon was not merely the whim of one high-ranking noble.

'He also took a risk!'

It was something that would have been absolutely impossible under normal circumstances.

"The timing was good, wasn't it?"

Aiden smiled brightly.

Looking at their benefactor, the servants of Argenta thought.

The 'lucky timing' they had obtained was not the empire's struggle for the throne, nor the desperation ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of a noble searching for information while walking a tightrope between them.

'It must be that we met this person.'