Invitation from the Holy Kingdom (3)
It was only natural, of course. The Holy Kingdom itself was little more than a breakaway from an old kingdom, so those knights had no choice but to pull out once their homeland came under threat in the war against the Demon King.
"Wow. That's impressive."
"There's nothing impressive about it. There aren't that many of them to begin with. And even those numbers are being wasted on their internal power struggles."
The Pope simply didn't care. Her attitude was basically, Go ahead and fight among yourselves if you want.
"So the Holy Kingdom is a pretty useless country too."
"The surprising part is that those idiots only fight among themselves. That's why other nations have no idea what's really going on."
Anyone who had actually visited the place—especially the envoys—would have a rough idea. But if you were just dealing with them on the level of ordinary trade, almost no one knew the truth.
"And even if they did know, the moment you say it's Goddess Church business, the conversation ends, right?"
"Exactly. That's precisely it."
"Wow. The Holy Kingdom really is its own little world."
My thoughts exactly.
"Right. And yet, because they fly the banner of the Goddess Church, they trade with countless countries and even receive tribute from some of them. So they've developed quite a bit in their own way."
"So is the Pope just a puppet, then?"
The Pope, huh. Not quite a puppet.
"She's not a puppet. Given her position, the priests have no choice but to obey her absolutely. All she does is declare that she doesn't care whether they wage civil war among themselves or not."
Even if I were Pope, I would have left them alone too. As long as they never turned their hostility toward her directly, she simply stayed out of it. In the end they were only sniping at each other under the surface with words, so it felt a bit awkward to step in and scold them over it.
More than anything, the Pope was old. She was simply tired of Holy Kingdom politics and had decided to leave them be.
"Is that country going to be all right?"
"There are so many factions, and even the private armies they raise are nothing more than knights kept for the sake of appearances—tiny numbers. Actual armed clashes are rare."
There weren't many of them to start with. Where else were they going to use those few soldiers? That, at least, was a good thing. The population was small, and as priests they could only raise so many private troops under any legitimate pretext. Naturally no faction had ever built a truly large force. After all, they still needed to maintain the outward structure of a Holy Kingdom for both domestic and foreign eyes. If anyone tried to use that handful of power for open violence, they would simply get dogpiled and killed by everyone else.
"William is probably the only exception."
"He's aiming directly for the papal seat, isn't he?"
"Exactly."
"Wouldn't the Pope step down by now? If it's so bothersome, there's no real reason for her to cling to the position."
True. Most people would. But she had occupied the seat of Pope for a very long time, and her feelings toward the Holy Kingdom ran deep. She wasn't about to hand it over to just anyone.
William? That pretty-boy grandson of hers was all surface gloss. He was openly lusting after power, and if she simply passed the throne to him it would become outright hereditary succession.
"The problem is that her grandson is completely useless. He's nothing more—and nothing less—than the typical prince of a royal family. So she's probably planning to let whichever faction wins become the next Pope."
"And those people would do any better?"
If this were the Empire it would be a catastrophe, but for the Holy Kingdom it actually worked out fine.
"At least they're fighting inside the Holy Kingdom's laws and frameworks—on their own stage. She figures the country will keep functioning properly that way."
They still followed the Holy Kingdom's rules while they fought. That alone was enough for the Pope to believe that if any of them became Pope, the Holy Kingdom would remain the Holy Kingdom. Relations with neighboring countries had also been decent lately, so from her perspective things weren't particularly bad.
"Well… I suppose that makes sense."
"All we have to do is go see the Pope and leave. Nothing more."
"Understood."
We had no business sticking our noses into another country's affairs. The Demon King was gone, we already knew the real situation, and now that I was an imperial citizen myself there was no reason left to interfere.
The Holy Kingdom.
It was the greatest religious nation on the continent, sharing borders with countless other countries. Forests and gorges every bit as formidable as the Great Forest itself protected it, and the entire nation was encircled by a massive wall.
If you traced the Holy Kingdom's history back far enough, it had begun with the Goddess Church priests who split off from a kingdom. Over time, foreigners seeking a religious life, refugees, and even politicians who had lost power struggles drifted in and settled there, until the place finally took on the full structure of a nation.
That was how the Holy Kingdom had managed to endure until now. Inside it, however, the bloodlines of those old politicians did nothing but bicker and claw at one another for control of its power.
And yet the woman who could be called the true leader of the Holy Kingdom—Pope Glacia—was perfectly at ease.
After all, none of it posed any direct threat to her.
"Your Holiness. A letter from Holy Knight Commander William."
Her close aide, the holy knight Elias, approached holding a scroll in one hand.
"What does it say?"
She already knew. That useless grandson of hers was spouting nonsense again. Honestly, she would have preferred he simply stayed outside the country. Instead he had suddenly returned and started demanding the papal throne as if it were his by right. As Pope, she found the whole thing thoroughly tiresome.
What is so special about this seat, anyway? Thanks to that guy I got to leave the Holy Kingdom for a while and it was wonderful… Ugh.
That guy. The mage Noah.
Once, when she heard that a member of the Hero Party was claiming the title of High Priest, she had summoned him. To be frank, the arrogance of it was intolerable. The office of High Priest was something that could only be granted through the Holy Kingdom, no matter what anyone said. And for someone of completely obscure origins to go around calling himself High Priest? As Pope she simply could not let that pass.
So she had called him in.
"Do you think being a member of the Hero Party gives you the right to style yourself High Priest?"
"I never did."
"…?"
He claimed he had never once called himself that. At first she couldn't make sense of it. Then she learned the truth: while healing people in place of Saint Siria, others had simply started calling the Hero Party member a High Priest on their own.
It was the most ridiculous story she had ever heard.
Still, because of that incident she had grown interested in the man named Noah. Age had long since removed any romantic feelings from the equation, yet she found herself wanting to get to know him better—one of those people who, for reasons you couldn't quite explain, simply left a favorable impression. Noah was that sort of person.
"Yes. It says Ashtar has decided to send a young lady of their house."
"Hmm. Ashtar is willing to send a young lady so easily?"
She had said she wanted to meet her, but it wouldn't have mattered if the girl never came.
"Your grandson claims he persuaded them personally."
"That's pure bullshit."
Of course he was trying to claim the credit for himself—trying to look good. Sure, if you only looked at his face, the boy could probably charm a woman or two. But by every rumor she had heard, this particular young lady was the kind most men wouldn't even dare look at twice. There was no way she would fall for him so easily, and there was even less chance that her grandson had managed to build any real relationship with the ducal house in such a short time. More likely he had twisted the orders she herself had sent and somehow created a misunderstanding with the Ashtar family.
"Your Holiness, how can you speak of him that way…"
"Speech or whatever—am I wrong?"
She wasn't wrong in the slightest. Everything that came out of her grandson's mouth was pure nonsense. The only thing that actually mattered was this: the Imperial Saint was coming to the Holy Kingdom. That was all she needed to know.
"Ahem. Ever since Lord Noah visited once before, Your Holiness has been speaking far too…"
The woman recalled the time the Hero Party had come to the Holy Kingdom. Noah, then a member of that party, had been thoroughly rude. Many priests had tried to pull the Hero Party onto their own side, yet the Hero himself had tried to turn that around, and Noah—with that peculiar way of talking of his—had instantly built excellent relations with the priests. The Pope herself had been no exception. Especially after meeting Noah so often, she had even begun picking up his speech patterns… and now things had come to this.
"Too this, too that—whatever. Fine. In your opinion, what do you think the Imperial Saint will be like?"
Would she really be the power-drunk villainess everyone claimed when they finally met face to face?
"From what I've heard, her personality is rather… formidable."
"Mm. I've heard the same."
They said the young lady was the real power behind the Imperial Church. There was a Pope, of course, but according to everything Glacia had learned, the Saint was the one pulling every string from behind the scenes. The problem was that it wasn't really a church at all—it was closer to the Saint's private military organization. They raised nuns with no regard for doctrine whatsoever: combat nuns, nuns who committed slaughter. And behind the scenes they embezzled money under the pretext of being a church.
"Which is exactly why we cannot officially recognize them."
"Pardon?"
The Holy Kingdom might be a mess itself, but to recognize a church that kept a Saint like that as a proper religious body? Impossible.
"No."
"Ah… are you referring to that earlier talk about recognizing the Imperial Church?"
Come to think of it, there had been some discussion: if the Imperial Saint came to the Holy Kingdom, they might or might not recognize the Imperial Goddess Church. That grandson of hers—William—had almost certainly taken something that was never even an official discussion and told it to the Imperial Saint. He had probably used it as bait. Of course he had.
"Anyway, that's why I want to see her first."
The Pope drummed her fingers lightly against the edge of her desk.
Just how thoroughly had the Goddess Church fallen apart? She might as well take a look.
"According to our information, recognizing the Imperial Goddess Church is absolutely out of the question. How can that woman even be called a Saint? And their Pope is nothing but trash who uses his position to skim money and molest women."
The Pope she had seen before had certainly looked that way. And yet… even that piece of trash seemed to possess some strange power—whether the Goddess truly blessed him or not.
"That's true enough. But that Pope fellow is no ordinary man either."
"Pardon?"
"I don't know if he'll ever come to this country again, but if he had grown up properly he might have become a real Pope. No—if he had been born in the Holy Kingdom, he probably would have. The problem is he was born in a barbarian nation that has gone a thousand years without any proper religion."
She hated making that kind of distinction, but any country that contained that Emperor woman really was a barbarian nation. Walking around naked in the Imperial Palace, keeping strange monsters underground, stripping half the time or swapping clothes with her maids… it was no different from savages in a military tent who had abandoned every pretense of hierarchy and just beat each other up for fun.
"Even a man like that receives the Goddess's blessing?"
"Apparently so. Divine power is divine power, after all."
From the things he said, he almost seemed to possess a faint foresight or an instinct for danger. Or perhaps it was less religion and more pure superhuman ability. Either way, he was no ordinary man. With proper training he would at least have become a priest who knew how to fight demonkind.
"That's enough about the past. For now, let's just prepare to receive the Imperial Saint."
"How do you wish to handle it?"
How, indeed. Elias knew her well enough by now. Of course he did—she had used him to sound out every visitor for years.
"We'll receive her lavishly. She's a noble young lady, after all. And considering how much the rumors inflated someone like Noah, we should test the waters first. What do you think of having a cardinal greet her?"
"Yes. I will inform my father."
Pope Glacia and Elias decided they would welcome the Imperial Saint.