Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Should Have Done What Needed to Be Done (2)
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"What are you doing? I said let's go already. Where's the guy who put those bastards up to it?"
"...Th-that..."
"We need to go see those guys from earlier first."
"...."
Aluerd hemmed and hawed, glancing around nervously.
A papal candidate who was this much of a nervous wreck...
Well, with the Pope right in front of him, it would be weirder if he wasn't nervous.
I immediately turned to Pope Uncle.
"Is it okay if we go?"
"Heh heh..."
I asked Klein Old Man the same thing.
Pope Uncle's reaction wasn't very reassuring.
"It's okay, right?"
"...It's not as simple as that."
"Pardon?"
What was this now?
The gods themselves wanted to meet those guys, and it was still complicated?
Klein Old Man opened his mouth, looking troubled.
"...It's embarrassing to admit, but the Church is in a very complicated state right now."
"I'll explain that part."
Judging by his expression, it was definitely more political talk.
Greedy people crop up everywhere, that's just how it is.
"Jeez..."
What could be so complicated...
Our old folks were like that, and now the Church too. So many tangled messes.
From my perspective, none of this seemed worth circling around so much.
"The Continental War claimed countless lives."
A story I knew well.
The war that devastated half the continent and killed more people than could be counted.
"The Church's situation was especially dire."
"Hmm..."
"All the priests in the Church threw themselves into the fray. Even the Saintess of that time."
Pope Uncle's face was filled with grief.
"We lost most of our forces on a massive scale."
From the sound of it, the damage really had been enormous.
Fewer than one in ten of the Holy Knights and priests active at the time had survived.
Given the Church's size, even that one in ten was a lot, but it was clearly a huge blow.
"Hoo..."
This was the first thing they'd said since I got here that I actually liked.
It meant the priests back then hadn't held back.
That's what you have to do if you're serving the gods, right?
"The previous Pope judged that we needed to rebuild the Church's strength."
That went without saying.
They had a different interpretation of the oracle regarding the Continental War.
They must have known the crisis wasn't over.
"The previous Pope and I found that strength in the fallen kingdoms."
Nobles who had escaped the vanished kingdoms with their lives.
They'd smuggled out a considerable fortune, apparently.
The Empire and other kingdoms were reeling financially, so it must have been a huge boon for the Church.
"Without that, it would have taken much longer for the Church to grow this large again."
"Mm..."
"The Church was a perfect refuge for nobles with nowhere else to go."
"So those people who came then..."
They'd become the Pope's opposing faction.
I could tell my guess was right when I saw Klein Old Man nod.
"Unfortunately, their capital... solidified their position."
Klein Old Man's expression was grave.
They must have given him a lot of trouble.
Even Aluerd had a rare angry look on his face.
"To be frank, that balance is on the verge of breaking right now."
"On the verge?"
"Because of the oracle."
Just receive the oracle, right?
Didn't seem like a problem.
"If the oracle doesn't come down, I'll have to step down as Pope."
"What..."
"Those behind you would be in a precarious position too."
The more I heard, the better it sounded.
A Pope who fails to receive an oracle steps down.
Then they drag Klein Old Man and Aluerd in with me and brand us heretics.
Total chaos.
"So we need to fix this...?"
What a tough homework assignment.
Maybe it was easier back in the elf forest.
Dealing with stray spirits is my specialty.
But this was definitely a tough one...
"Weirdly, it doesn't feel like a big deal."
Even while they were talking about the Church's situation, I hadn't felt anxious at all.
It just felt like it'd be a hassle, physically exhausting maybe.
"I think we need to see those guys first to figure it out..."
Those guys would be the starting point.
I'd been wanting to see that heresy inquisitor dude anyway.
Might be hard to see the instigator, but checking the captured ones should be easy.
My deliberation didn't last long.
I'd noticed something odd.
"...Huh?"
"...Chris?"
"Where's Serena...?"
"...Pardon?"
I looked everywhere, but Serena was nowhere to be seen.
"....?"
We'd definitely walked here together.
Right up until just before opening the door.
Pope Uncle spoke up with a strange look on his face.
"...No one else has entered besides you all."
"..."
"..."
"I thought I heard she came with you...?"
For a moment, Aluerd and I locked eyes.
What should we say?
Our faces right now must look pretty weird.
"Hey, Aluerd."
"This way."
***
"We've locked them away in a secluded spot."
The place Aluerd led me to was deep underground.
I wondered why they'd even built something like this.
Down corridors lit by torches, deeper and deeper.
I could faintly hear screams.
No, they were definitely there.
Aluerd's face looked off too.
"...Do you guys torture people first thing after catching them?"
Even if they were the enemy faction, torturing captives?
"....We don't do that."
"Then what's with these screams?"
The deeper underground we went, the clearer the screams became.
"What is this place for anyway?"
"...It used to hold necromancers. It's not in use now."
All sorts of things popped into my head.
Not that they were true; just my imagination.
You know how it is in stories.
Brutal torture devices for heretics.
"....Savage bastards."
"We don't torture...!"
Screams from a place that held necromancers? Obvious without looking.
Who else but Holy Knights would make someone scream like that?
"C-could it be Lady Serena..."
"Nah. Our Serena's so quiet and... sweet..."
How quiet was Serena the elf?
She barely talked to anyone but me.
"...."
At one point as we neared the prison.
Just as the guarding Holy Knights came into view.
The screams cut off abruptly.
And the Holy Knights' faces were pale as ghosts.
"A-Aluerd, sir..."
"...Please explain what's going on here."
I didn't need their explanation.
Serena emerged from the prison door.
"...Serena?"
"You're here?"
The others might not notice, but I could tell.
The faint upturn of Serena's lips.
She looked relieved.
"How'd you even get in there...?"
"...I told them who I was, and they opened the door."
"..."
The Holy Knights were watching Serena nervously.
She came with me, and she's a high elf, so they let her in?
Aluerd shot me a wronged look.
"See? As I said, Lady Serena..."
"You savage bastards."
"...Pardon?"
"Making Serena do the torturing?"
"....Pardon?"
Serena quietly came to stand beside me.
"I just had a little chat to make them more comfortable talking."
At Serena's words that they looked a bit off, I shot Aluerd a glance.
"...Just open the door."
I brushed past the door and stepped inside, spotting the guys gagged and bound head to toe in the cell.
Something odd emanated from the handcuffs binding them—probably to block divine power.
"Hmm..."
Their condition seemed fine at first glance.
Daunon here looked pretty good too.
"Wasn't he bleeding earlier...?"
Didn't he get hit by Aluerd and bleed?
"...I healed him."
At that moment, Daunon shuddered violently.
"Mmph...! Mmph!"
The nearby Holy Knights reacted the same way.
Aluerd seemed to be saying something, but I ignored him and examined them.
Just as Serena said, something was off about their condition.
"...."
They'd always lacked light, but now it was completely murky.
Like they'd turned pitch black overall...
And the density was deepening bit by bit.
"This is weird... It's worse than before..."
More wrinkles too, it seemed.
Definitely not this old-looking earlier.
Daunon here too.
And those Holy Knights over there.
All had very healthy faces.
But now they looked withered, like they'd fallen ill.
They seemed to sense it too, their faces desperate.
"....."
One Holy Knight was even staring blankly into empty space.
Like he was looking at something, but there was nothing there.
A perfect void, no spirits either.
"...Feels kinda familiar?"
Ever seen someone hallucinating?
Probably just like that.
A Holy Knight with divine power seeing things?
"Is this... retribution?"
I'd seen situations like this plenty of times.
People who refused to become shamans.
Or those serving gods but doing what they shouldn't.
They get retribution.
Hallucinations, unexplained illnesses.
For shamans, even their divine presence vanishes completely.
"...Divine presence gone?"
I urgently called Aluerd over.
"Hey, check their divine power."
I could sense lumps that seemed like divine power, but...
No way to know what it was like before.
"Has the amount decreased a bit?"
They flinched.
I could tell even without Aluerd's confirmation.
Every priest inside shuddered the moment I said it.
"It's really disappearing, huh?"
Aluerd looked baffled too.
"You okay?"
"Yes... I'm the same as always, but... their divine power does seem reduced."
This must be what they meant by paying the price.
"...Do you know what's happening here?"
"Hm?"
"Losing divine power is no small matter...!"
From the Church's perspective, sure.
They wouldn't know the full context.
"Do you know why you received divine power?"
"...Pardon? Because the gods bestowed it..."
"I mean, why did they give it to you?"
Aluerd fell silent.
Papal candidate or not, he hadn't pondered this.
"To heal the sick and protect people."
Know what shamans learn first?
Memorizing scriptures?
Reading fortunes?
Shaking the rattle?
None of that.
The first lesson is the proper attitude of a shaman.
Comforting the sorrowful, guiding to happiness.
Divining good and ill to help live well—that's why.
To avoid bad things and live right.
If the gods' attention is divine power, then this situation has another cause.
"You weren't using the divine power given to help people where it was needed, so no need for it anymore."
"...!"
But why was this happening now...?
"How do you even build up divine power? It's not something you're born with, right?"