The Unmoving Stars
The affairs of the Holy Kingdom. The Holy Kingdom itself was a nation of the gods, built around a colossal religious order that had existed since time immemorial. Despite the grandiose titles attached to it and the legends handed down through the ages, the Holy Kingdom was far more ordinary than outsiders imagined. It was simply a land under heavier divine scrutiny and interference than most, a place slightly more blessed than its neighbors. The only real peculiarity was that it was ruled by a Pope rather than a king... Even that distinction barely touched the lives of ordinary citizens, making it difficult to call it a striking difference.
However, that was only by the standards of ordinary citizens. To the Saintess—a figure of immense power within the order and known as an existence closer to the gods than even the Pope—the Holy Kingdom was the most tiresome place in the world.
“...Yulia.”
“Yes, Saintess.”
Her escort knight, Yulia, responded instantly to the revered Saintess’s call. She kept a glowing mana orb floating above one hand, patiently awaiting orders. Arie stared at her with clear displeasure before speaking.
“Must you be so petty about it?”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean?”
Even as she answered, Yulia subtly showed off, making the mana orb swell larger. This was homework assigned by their practical combat instructor. Arie had long since forgotten the man’s careful explanation, but she remembered the mana orb he had demonstrated in vivid detail. It had maintained a perfect sphere without any external supply, its flow of power both circulating and eerily still at the same time. To her, a complete novice when it came to mana, it had looked like an impossibly advanced technique.
That was why, when he told her to perfect an identical orb before the break ended, she had nearly dismissed it as a joke.
...Unfortunately, he had been completely serious.
Arie let out a small sigh and shifted her gaze to the mountain of documents stacked in front of her. These were the consequences of her insistence on enrolling at the Academy.
“Hehe... Damn church...”
“Saintess! What kind of vulgar language is that?!!!”
Yulia practically bounced with indignation at Arie’s irritated mutter, but the Saintess simply ignored her, skimming through the papers with practiced indifference. The Pope’s workload must be far greater than this. How does he handle it all...? Is it because he’s a Transcendent?
It was work she had begun the moment she arrived in the Holy Kingdom, yet she had barely finished half. Unlike Yulia, who merely stood guard at her side, Arie had a literal mountain of tasks beyond the paperwork. As a result, she had no choice but to watch her escort spend her time openly refining the mana orb.
Seeing Yulia practice so diligently, Arie thought to herself, At this rate, she might overtake me...
No matter how adorable her little sister was, Arie had no intention of losing to her. She resolved to dive straight into training the moment she finished the truly important duties.
Arie began speeding through the documents while Yulia continued generating mana orbs beside her, experimenting with one technique after another. Time flowed steadily as they each focused on their tasks.
Before long the sun began to sink toward the horizon, and the word “quitting time” swelled to its largest size inside everyone’s heads. It was then that a visitor arrived for Arie, who had been buried in paperwork for hours.
Knock knock!
“Enter.”
Yulia was the first to respond to the polite knock. All matters concerning the Saintess passed through her escort, so receiving guests had always been her responsibility. Though the boundary had blurred considerably at the Academy, now that they had returned to the Holy Kingdom she was determined to fulfill her proper role once more.
The firmly closed door soon opened, and a figure in priestly robes entered with careful steps.
“I greet the Saintess.”
“What is your business?”
Despite the dignified greeting, Arie made no effort to hide her busyness, waving the priest over in a perfunctory manner. Yulia’s lips twitched for a brief moment, but perhaps mindful of the other clergy present, she said nothing and let it pass.
The priest skipped any pleasantries and went straight to the point.
“The Pope summons you.”
“For what reason?”
“I was not informed of any details. He simply instructed that you come to the Papal Palace the moment you received the message.”
The Pope handled most of the Holy Kingdom’s internal affairs and external activities. As the highest authority in the order, he would not summon the Saintess—another supreme authority—without good cause. The fact that even the priest had not been told the reason meant the matter was of such importance that it could not be allowed to leak.
“Hmm. I understand. I’ll head there immediately.”
Arie, who had grasped the situation at once, dismissed the priest and began preparing to leave for the Papal Palace.
“I’ll go alone, so wait here, Yulia.”
“Understood.”
Yulia, who would normally have insisted on accompanying her everywhere, let Arie go without protest. Part of it was the assumption that the Holy Kingdom itself was safe, but the decisive factor was that the summons had come from the Pope. No matter how close an escort she might be to the Saintess, she was still only an escort... She understood very well that inserting herself into conversations between the highest figures of the order would be presumptuous.
“Hehe, I’ll be back, Yulia... Shall I bring something delicious on the way?”
“That won’t be necessary. Please take care on your journey, Saintess.”
With that light jest, Arie departed. Left alone, Yulia quietly continued refining her mana orb.
The plainest room in the entire Holy Kingdom. Its owner, the Pope, had no fondness for decoration, so the already spacious chamber felt even more vast. Arie stepped into the mysterious space that was pure white yet somehow not blinding at all. She gave a slight bow toward the elderly man writing amid endless stacks of documents.
“It has been some time, Pope. What prompted you to call for me?”
“Mm, yes... It has been a while, Arie...”
Unlike Arie, who had not yet reached Transcendence, the Pope was a Transcendent who had lived through countless years. His sense of time differed from that of ordinary people, so the words “it has been a while” were little more than a courteous formality. To him, her absence had probably felt like nothing more than a brief outing.
“You must be wondering why I summoned you.”
The Pope rose from his seat and stood before her. Curiously, in the place he had just vacated, an avatar that looked exactly like him—yet composed entirely of radiant light—continued to examine the documents without pause. It was a considerably high-level technique that could be recognized at a glance, yet the Pope had executed it perfectly with no preparation whatsoever. Still, having witnessed it several times before, Arie was not particularly impressed. If anything, she was beginning to glimpse the underlying principles of the skill he had used. She had truly drawn near to Transcendence.
“There is something you must know in advance as the Saintess. That is why I called you here.”
“Is it a matter of great importance?”
“It is a matter that must never be leaked to the outside... under any circumstances.”
At the Pope’s words, Arie felt her body tense instinctively. Her intuition—while not as sharp as Hestia’s—was still quite keen, and it was now sounding a clear warning about the danger of the story she was about to hear. The Pope, as if he had anticipated her reaction, waited patiently for her heightened senses to settle.
Once she had calmed the anxious fluttering of her intuition, Arie lowered her head.
“Forgive me. Recent events have left me somewhat sensitive...”
“...It is because of that man, isn’t it...”
“......”
“Do not worry. The gods are always watching over you.”
Arie could not bring herself to say that even the gaze of the gods had been obscured that day. Since the gods themselves seemed to be keeping the matter quiet without informing the Pope, the events of that day would remain known only to her—unless she chose to speak of them. Yet if word of what had happened somehow reached others and spread throughout the Holy Kingdom...
She could only imagine the chaos it would cause among the citizens who lived their lives trusting solely in divine protection.
As the Saintess, I must at least prevent such a disaster.
Arie felt her shoulders grow heavy and let out a quiet inner sigh.
“Now that the greetings are finished, let us speak of the important matter.”
The Pope finally began to reveal the true reason for his summons.
“The flow of the stars is unusual.”
When he swept his arm through the air, the pure white room was swallowed by darkness.
Countless stars blossomed into existence, filling the void with their cold, distant light.
He gazed at the countless points of starlight floating in the air, absorbing each one as he continued.
“Yet the truly strange thing is... their movements are no different from before.”
“......?”
Arie tilted her head at the contradictory statements. In this world, the existence of stars was synonymous with the existence of gods. The gods looked down upon the world through starlight, and the clergy borrowed divine power by reaching toward those same stars. In other words, the stars were the very foundation, root, and essence of the entire religious order.
Among them all, the Saintess stood closer to the gods than anyone. She could read both their gaze and their will through the stars. Of course, that was only true when the gods chose not to conceal themselves. If they truly wished to hide something, even the Saintess could not perceive it.
The Pope, however, having already reached Transcendence, was different. He could read beyond mere emotion or intent; he could perceive the very history and flow of the stars themselves. No matter how diligently the gods tried to conceal their actions, completely deceiving the eyes of a Transcendent was no easy feat.
That such a being would gravely declare the situation “unusual,” yet claim the movements remained unchanged, was clearly anomalous. Arie turned the matter over in her mind before voicing her inference.
“You can read the flow of the stars, yet there is no movement?”
“More precisely, it means that although a flow exists, the gods have not moved at all.”
“...Is something like that even possible?”
“Since they too manipulate flows, it is not impossible. The problem is...”
The Pope sighed and pressed a hand to his forehead, his expression troubled.
The same phenomenon is occurring across every single star.