Inheriting the Protagonist's Role!
"Mmmgh..."
My eyelids lifted on their own under the warmth of the sun.
The first thing that came into view was Alicia's beautiful face, right up close.
At some point she had finished her work and returned, and was now dozing peacefully beside me.
Rustle—
The paper I'd been lying on crinkled loudly against my cheek.
"Mmf."
I hastily propped myself halfway up and stuffed the note into my pocket.
Did she see what was written on it?
Alicia's eyes snapped open.
"Are you awake, my angel?"
Her voice was so gentle it made my little commotion feel embarrassing.
"...Yes."
I answered meekly.
"One moment, please."
With eyes that seemed to drip honey, Alicia rose from the bed.
I need to get it together.
Shaking my head, I looked around. On the table lay the silver armor I'd shed, scratched and battered from what must have been quite an ordeal.
"Here, my angel. Turn around for me, please."
I obediently did as she said. Alicia picked up a brush and began slowly running it through my hair, smoothing my tangled, windswept strands into sleek order.
"We secured the forbidden relics and the ledgers from the three cardinals' secret vaults. The Cardinal of the Palace of Mercy orchestrated human sacrifices, the Cardinal of the Palace of Heaven distributed relics of an evil god, and the Cardinal of the Palace of Demons was leaking secret doctrine to the evil god's worshippers."
"You handled all of that last night?"
"Of course. Thanks to the mark you gave me, it wasn't difficult."
Truly the strongest of the Holy Radiance Church. She really did smash every last one of them.
"You weren't hurt, were you?"
Alicia answered my question with a kind smile.
"No."
"Thank goodness."
"Hehe, thank you for worrying. The Holy Inquisition will now root out everyone involved, and the three cardinals will soon be stripped of their offices."
Four cardinals of the evil alignment—all taken care of.
With that, the purification of the Holy Radiance Church was more or less wrapped up. Uprooting the remnants would take time, but with the cardinal lineage—the core of it all—gone, they wouldn't have much room to maneuver. The Holy Inquisition would probably clean them up without me and Alicia even lifting a finger.
Which meant it was time to move on to the next stage.
"Saintess."
"Yes, my angel?"
"I need to go to the Bern Kingdom."
"Very well."
"There's something I need to find there, so—hm?"
I'd been bracing myself to make a case, but Alicia agreed without a moment's hesitation.
"In exchange, I'm coming with you."
Alicia smiled softly.
"If you're moving personally, my angel, you must know something. Bern Kingdom is in terrible shape right now—rife with monsters and internal strife, or so I hear. I couldn't possibly send you there alone."
"Having you along would put my mind at ease, Saintess."
Really, it should have been me doing the asking.
"When shall we depart, my angel?"
"Whatever suits your schedule."
"I could leave today."
"Is it all right for you to pull away this quickly?"
Four cardinal seats sat empty—and she could leave today of all days?
"The Inquisition and His Holiness are the busy ones. I have little left to do. The Saintess is the Church's sword, not its politician."
Alicia declared this with perfect confidence.
"Then... would it be possible, perhaps, to find out whether there's a young mercenary named Luan in Georg, the free city of the Bern Kingdom? Using the Church's intelligence network?"
That's where I had to start, anyway.
"Of course. I'll inform the diocese responsible for Georg."
As expected. Nothing beats the Holy Radiance Church's network, stretching across the entire continent.
We departed that very afternoon.
"...This is a carriage?"
I stared up at the enormous white carriage waiting outside the Saintess's palace.
Six horses pulled it. The Southern Cross crest of the Holy See was carved into its body, and a densely inscribed sacred formation glowed with a faint light. It did have wheels, but looking closely, they weren't touching the ground—it hovered just barely above the road.
What is this, an anti-gravity carriage?
"The worse the security, the more you need to display your standing to avoid trouble. And..."
Pat, pat.
Alicia gently stroked my head.
"I couldn't have my angel uncomfortable. I made a special request to the Holy See."
The inside was even more impressive. A plush sofa, a small bed, even a wardrobe. Less a carriage than a traveling house.
I sidled over and opened the wardrobe.
A white priest's robe. A black priest's robe. A going-out dress with ribbons. Girlish outfits. Girlish...
"..."
I quietly closed the wardrobe and sat down in a chair.
The carriage departed. Perhaps because it glided rather than rolled, there was no rattle of wheels at all. Outside the window, the spires of the Holy Capital Astrum receded into the distance.
One of the twelve had collapsed overnight. Restoration would take quite a while—but if a single spire was all it cost, we'd gotten off cheap.
The Holy Capital's gleaming white walls vanished from view, and a vast plain spread out before us. As I gazed at the brilliant blue sky, a question occurred to me.
"Have you ever been to the Bern Kingdom, Saintess?"
"Once, as a child—back when the kingdom still stood intact. Though I hear it's changed a great deal now."
Well, fair enough.
The Holy Radiance Empire alone was enormous; even a Saintess would rarely have reason to travel as far as Bern, a fringe kingdom on the edge of the continent.
Tap, tap.
Alicia, seated on the sofa, patted her lap while looking at me. At her silent request, I lay down with my head on it, and she began softly stroking my hair.
Lying on those firm, supple, pillowy thighs... sleep came naturally.
And so the carriage rolled on along the great road.
Thanks to the Holy See's crest emblazoned on its side, there were no inspections. Instead, diocesan priests came out to bow at every point along the way. We never needed to book an inn—every cathedral of the Holy Radiance Church was lodging.
This is why power is such a wonderful thing.
A fortnight after leaving the Holy Capital, the empire's signature white buildings gave way to structures of increasingly grimy hues. Along the roadside, lines of refugees trudged by under heavy burdens.
Which meant we'd reached the border.
That night, a report arrived from a nearby diocese.
"Your Eminence. A message from the Diocese of Georg."
A holy knight in silver armor knelt on one knee.
"Report."
Alicia set down her teacup. The knight spread open the parchment held in both hands.
"Upon reviewing the registers of the three mercenary guilds in and around the Free City of Georg, we found no young mercenary by the name of Luan."
I bit into a cookie and gave a small nod.
Figured.
I knew it would come to this.
"We also cross-checked similar-sounding names—Luen, Luane—but no one matched."
"Did you investigate those not registered with the guilds?" Alicia asked.
"We examined every young mercenary who had entered within the past month—the inns, the adventurer taverns, the weaponsmiths, the healing houses, even the back alleys of Georg—but again, no one met the criteria. All bore the same names only as old men or young children."
"Thank you. Please give the Diocese of Georg our gratitude as well."
"The honor was mine, to serve Your Eminence and the Celestial Radiant Spirit. I will relay your thanks to Georg at once."
With a courteous bow, the holy knight withdrew.
At least their work is impeccable.
Which settled it: the role of protagonist had officially fallen to me.
"Don't be disheartened, my angel. He may simply be hiding his name."
Seeing my frozen expression, Alicia must have misunderstood. She took my hand tightly in hers and whispered tenderly.
"No, there's no need to find Luan at all. It was a long shot—I knew it would turn out this way anyway."
I drew a long line through item three of my mental plan: find Luan.
Since there'd been no word about Luise yet, she apparently hadn't entered Georg. That appearance of hers wasn't something you could hide, after all.
A few days later, the carriage finally arrived at Georg.
It was starkly different from the cities of the Holy Radiance Empire. Drab gray walls and unpaved roads caked with dried mud, the acrid smell of smoke hanging everywhere—that was Georg's first impression.
Still, it was a free city in name, and people overflowed its streets. Armed mercenaries, merchants, and hollow-eyed refugees mingled in small clusters.
"Open the gates!"
The moment the guards at the city gate spotted the Southern Cross crest on the carriage, they scrambled to haul it open.
"An envoy from the Holy See!"
"A messenger from the Holy Radiance Empire!"
Once again, the carriage passed into the city without so much as an inspection.
"How dreadful."
Alicia sighed as she surveyed the city's interior.
"I know."
Half the shops had shuttered their doors, and in every alley people in rags huddled together. So this was what a city in decline looked like. The real scene weighed far heavier than any game illustration had.
Even a city like this had a Holy Radiance cathedral. It was one of the ways the Empire projected influence into other nations: seize ground under the pretext of relief efforts and farm goodwill. And that tactic worked all the more effectively in a failed state like this one.
Sure enough, people stood in lines holding out bowls at every Holy Radiance cathedral in Georg.
Clunk.
The carriage stopped before the head cathedral responsible for Georg. When the doors opened, the bishop and priests prostrated themselves toward it.
"Th-the starlight of the Lord upon this land! Your Eminence the Saintess, and the star descended upon the earth, the Celestial Radiant Spirit!"
There was an oddly palpable undercurrent of fear. Well—news of Alicia shattering the heads of four cardinals overnight in the Holy Capital must have spread long ago.
"Rise, Bishop."
Alicia said quietly. The bishop sprang to his feet.
"It is a true honor that you would grace such a humble place with your precious presence. Please forgive our failure to prepare more fully in advance—"
"It's quite all right. We need to settle in—might we have a room?"
"I shall empty the entire bishop's residence—"
"No. A single room of adequate size will do."
"Understood."
At Alicia's firm words, the bishop bowed his head again and again, sweating profusely.
"Oh, Bishop—are there any famous desserts in Georg?"
Alicia suddenly brought up desserts.
"We are known for our apple pie, Your Eminence. Shall I have some prepared?"
"Please do."
Alicia winked at me. It was awfully convenient, having someone who handled everything before you even asked.
And so three days passed, holed up in a cozy room in Georg's head cathedral.
With the apple pie the bishop had laboriously procured clamped between my teeth, I checked my status window.
The merit I'd gained from disposing of the three cardinals: fifty-seven.
Just over halfway there now.
Still a long way off from being able to use a Job Change. Should I just hit Enhance? Or maybe a Divine Protection, at least?
The impulse hit me several times a day, but I held out. I was more curious what would happen if I used Job Change on Luise. Patience bears the sweetest fruit, after all.
Click.
The door opened, and Alicia walked in wearing her going-out dress, her blue eyes shining.
"I found her, my angel."
"Luise?"
"Yes. The informants of the Diocese of Georg report that they've spotted a vagrant girl at the east gate, matching your description perfectly."
"Are they tracking her?"
"Yes. They believe she's about to head into the eastern slums—"
The moment I'd been waiting for had finally arrived.
"Let's go."
I sprang up from my seat, apple pie in hand.
It was time to inherit the protagonist's role.
