Uninvited Guests
Anne was in an exceptionally good mood.
I'm so glad I go to the lake every day!
Ever since that being had given her a new life, Anne had made her way to the lake without missing a single day. She longed, desperately, to see it just once more. She prayed she might have the chance to say thank you.
Every day she spent her time in that empty place. It was one long stretch of waiting, with nothing promised at the end of it. And yet Anne never skipped a day. She always went at that same hour — the hour she had first met that being — hoping that someday they might encounter each other again.
It really was a god. It truly was a god...!
The moment of their first meeting rose unbidden in her mind. She had mistaken it for a monster and begged for her life, crouched down and trembling. Her parents, already gone from this world, had filled her thoughts. So had her little sister, who would have been left all alone. The despair of wanting to live and knowing she could not had been unbearable.
Looking back on it now, it was mortifying. How startled must it have been? It might even have been angry. To call a god a monster... she was lucky she hadn't been struck down for it.
"Sis! You're back!"
Rone, who had stayed behind at the house, greeted her sister with open delight. Anne set down her things and suddenly wrinkled her nose, sniffing.
"What's that smell, Rone?"
"This! Auntie came by and shared some of her stew with us!"
"Goodness. She really does look after us every single time."
Anne hesitated a moment, then gathered up two of the fish. The neighbor had helped them in more ways than she could count. This wouldn't repay everything, but it would be a start.
"I'll be right back, so keep an eye on the stew. And don't you dare start a fire!"
"I know that much!"
Anne slipped out of the house, laughing as Rone swatted at her in play. She knocked on the neighbor's door and waited.
"Who is it?"
"Auntie! It's me, Anne!"
"Oh my. Come in, dear. What's all this of a sudden...? What have you brought?"
"Please take these. I caught a lot again today!"
Anne smiled as she held out the fish, and the middle-aged woman smiled back. She had just been wondering what to make for supper, so the timing could not have been better.
"You seem to be in an especially good mood today."
"Huh? Ah! W-well, I caught so many fish, that's all!"
"There's been so much good fortune lately. We even saw His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire — a man most people go their whole lives without ever laying eyes on. Goodness. In all my years, I never once imagined I'd receive a gift from His Majesty himself."
"The Vermil— ahem! Isn't it because God is watching over all of us?!"
There was no question in her mind. Every bit of it was thanks to the Vermilion Bird. Anne believed that without a shred of doubt.
"Ah, that's right. Come to think of it, you wouldn't know, Anne."
"Know what?"
"Just a little while ago, more visitors came to the village."
Visitors? Could it be that Lord Del she had met last time, come back again?
"From the look of them, they seemed like priests. Snow-white robes, and they were even making the holy sign."
"Wow. I've never even seen priests before!"
"We've been getting a lot of visitors lately. The village is growing, too. It's a good thing."
Visitors who looked like priests. Guests from the Order. The news lit a bright spark of curiosity in Anne. Could they be people who had witnessed the same miracle she had? Had they come seeking to serve the great Vermilion Bird? There was no other reason priests would appear in a place like this.
She had meant only to stop next door and go straight home. But the moment she heard they were priests, curiosity stirred. She even felt a flicker of kinship — the sense that they might be like her.
Maybe I could just take a peek at where they are?
It wouldn't take long. Ten minutes at most. Rone would scold her for it, but she could weather that.
"...No."
Anne shook her head and went home. Once, she would have gone before those priests and offered prayers in search of a god. But this girl no longer felt the slightest need.
I have the Vermilion Bird.
There was a being greater and more benevolent than any god. With that one beside her, she had no need to go searching for a god in some far-off place.
"...And so God at last drove out the demon and bestowed light and goodness upon this land."
The woman in the snow-white robe spread her arms wide. When the tale came to an end, the children gathered around her burst into applause.
"Woooow...!"
"So God won, then?!"
"Of course. The Almighty could never be defeated, little brothers and sisters."
The woman smiled, gentle as a blessing.
"However. We humans are not gods, and so we cannot always win."
"W-we lose to demons?"
"Yes. We can be defeated."
"Uuuugh..."
"But so long as we do not fall, victory remains within our reach. That is why we offer prayers to God every day, and plead for His care to descend upon us."
And so, she finished, they must all offer their prayers each and every day. The children answered her with a bright, obedient yes.
"Now then, little brothers and sisters. Evening is nearly upon us, so run along home. Listening well to your parents is something God looks kindly upon as well."
A kind voice. A warm smile. She was the very picture of a devout priest. The children promised they would and went rushing off toward their homes.
The priest watched them go, then turned and walked the other way. The smile that had graced her lips was gone as if it had never been. All that remained was a coldness that scarcely seemed human.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
According to the rumors, all manner of things had been happening in the north. A year ago, a Demonic Dragon had met a sudden end. The Empire had announced that the Knight of Steel had been the one to slay it. And yet the discrepancies were impossible to ignore. The damage had been far too slight for a battle against a Demonic Dragon. They had not recovered so much as a fragment of its corpse.
After that, a subjugation force from the Order had come to this place, accompanying an Imperial investigation team. The reason, they said, was the appearance of some being that defied easy explanation. And most recently, the Emperor himself had paid a sudden visit. The details were unclear, but he had supposedly abandoned every last one of his official duties to come. For what reason? To what end had he traveled all the way to the north?
Every last one of those events must be connected to that crimson being that appeared in the Imperial Capital.
This village, she had heard, was the largest in Nosland. If so, some account of what had happened would surely have reached it. That was the judgment that had brought the priestess in the white robe this far.
The priestess — no. Ada, a member of the Twelve Divine Generals, had come all this way.
"You've come, Sister Ada."
"How did it go? Children might have known something, after all."
Eleven Divine Generals were waiting at the place she arrived. Every one of them wore the same attire — snow-white robes. The only distinction permitted them was their names. Beyond that, they revealed nothing of themselves to the world.
The reason was simple. They were the Spear of the Order. A spear has no need of fame, nor of praise. It need only pierce through evil and silence it for all time.
"Sister Intianus. Unfortunately, it seems your opinion was incorrect."
"So you obtained nothing, then."
The young, by their nature, are unpracticed in the art of lying. There are the rare few who are not, but they are precisely that — rare. The rest will tell you everything if you only shake them a little. That was why Ada had been chosen from among the Twelve Divine Generals and sent out. She was a bitterly cold person, but she was skilled at remaking herself. And as the youngest of the Divine Generals, the children were bound to take to her.
"No. It is not that we obtained nothing at all."
Quaidro, the second strongest among the Twelve Divine Generals, uncrossed his arms and went on.
"It has been confirmed that the Emperor of the Empire paid a visit here. And quite urgently, at that. On top of that, he is said to have distributed gifts among the people of this village."
"And what, exactly, did you obtain from that, Brother Quaidro?"
"A ruler does not scatter gifts without purpose. They are not like our Order. If they distributed something, there is a reason. Here, it was most likely to turn people's attention elsewhere."
Their Order was nothing like those earthly rulers. Quaidro's face was full of conviction as he spoke. Intianus murmured that of course it was so, and made the holy sign. A few of the other Divine Generals recited a prayer under their breath.
"Hold."
Ventu — the one among the Twelve Divine Generals who read the aura of evil more keenly than any other — stopped his brothers and sisters and sniffed the air.
"There is a scent about."
"Have you finally caught the scent of evil, Brother Ventu?"
Intianus and the others leaned forward with open anticipation. Quaidro gathered his holy power and readied himself for battle.
"That it is not. The scent of evil is not like this. Yet neither is it of the Order. This is, without a doubt... yes. The air of a pagan faith."
"So the rumor was true — that the north is so barren, its people lean on things other than God."
A few of the Divine Generals made no effort to hide their discomfort. They were the ones among the Twelve who held the most unyielding religious views. To them, a pagan faith was no different from heresy.
"Brothers and sisters. If it is not the worship of an evil being, then embracing pagan faith as well was the conclusion of the Council twenty years ago."
"Sister Ada. Are you taking the pagans' side?"
"I merely stated the conclusion of the Council."
A taut, uneasy opposition stretched among the Divine Generals. Had someone not intervened, it would have turned into an outright quarrel.
"There. Over yonder. The pagan scent comes from there."
Ventu rose and pointed. The outskirts of the village, where a handful of houses stood. And among them, the smallest and most unremarkable of the lot.
"Let us go."
At last the Twelve Divine Generals rose to their feet, and they started toward the little house.
"Sis. Hey, is something going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"Your face is sparkling all weird."
"...This?! You're teasing me about fish oil on my face, aren't you!"
"I'm not! It's really true!!"
Toward the place where two sisters laughed and chattered in perfect happiness.