Pope Glacia (3)
"Yes. Even so, given your advanced age, to go to the trouble of making this journey yourself... I was rather angry on account of Sir William, but I had intended to request an audience once I'd settled in."
I snarked inwardly that the withered old hag should have just stayed put; I would have come to see her myself soon enough.
The Pope, who of course could not miss the real meaning behind my words, frowned more and more deeply.
"Aha. Is that so? Age, you say. Still, I believe my youth is comparable to that of the Empire's Saint."
Her youth was comparable to the Empire's Saint.
Sure. Nice words. What she really meant was, Our appearances aren't all that different, yet you dare treat me like some old woman.
She really couldn't stand being treated like an old lady just because she was a woman, huh.
I hated to say it, but at an age where she ought to admit she was a grandmother, watching her act like this made it clear this woman was stubborn to the bone.
Fine. Then I'd play just as shamelessly.
"Oh? If you're that young, then I suppose I can speak casually with you?"
"That is..."
"Outwardly your appearance is similar to mine, so I can't help but feel as if you're a friend of mine. How about it?"
Well then, shall we be friends, old woman?
She'd boasted herself that she looked young and around my age, so being friends should be fine, right?
At my words, the Pope's face became something like that of a hero who hadn't held a woman in a day.
Wow. It had been a long time since I'd seen a face like that.
The Pope was left speechless for a moment.
She'd dug her own grave by being stubborn.
Of course it could be taken as rude, but she herself had boasted of her youth, and given this woman's personality she couldn't very well bring up her age and position now and call it disrespectful.
Answering would probably be awkward for her.
"Hello? Isn't that far too rude?"
In the end that bastard Elias, who had been watching from the side, raised her voice.
Well. This psychological warfare was my victory.
Watching her defeat herself like this... this was something.
I felt like I'd gotten proper revenge for Noah's time. And while I was at it, maybe I should take a dig at Elias too.
I clapped my hands.
"Ah! Clearly Your Holiness really is young. Otherwise she wouldn't leave her house-guarding dog to bark like that."
I aimed the words squarely at Elias.
Honestly, it wasn't wrong, was it?
This woman Elias butted in far too much from the side. She needed to realize that her loyalty sometimes just annoyed the Pope.
"Wh-what did you say?"
Ah, what? Did I say something wrong?
Elias's face was flushing bright red.
No help for it. I shot a glance at Celia, who was standing quietly to the side as if dead.
"My own aide Celia is quiet and well-behaved, yet Your Holiness's dog is so exhausting. How can a mere knight raise her voice in a meeting between the Pope and the Saint? Or is she that arrogant because she trusts in her father's position?"
At my words the Pope's fists trembled.
How about that? Pissed off?
In the end the Pope had no choice but to take a step back.
"Yes. Be quiet, Elias. The more you carry on, the more you only soil my face."
When even the Pope refused to take her side, Elias hung her head.
I felt a little sorry for her, but that personality of hers needed fixing.
Truthfully, if she kept that personality, men would hate her something fierce.
It might fly in the Holy Kingdom, but if she ever had a man to marry, that heavy atmosphere and absolute obedience to the Pope would get in the way of marriage.
Ah.
Maybe she had no such thoughts because she was devoted only to the Pope.
"I-I'm sorry."
"Heh heh. Just as I heard, you're no ordinary one. Truly worthy of being the Empire's Saint and Taesa. How you resemble that man so perfectly. If that fellow had become talkative and a woman, he would be exactly you."
Why did she keep bringing up the dead guy?
I was already not Noah but Olivia.
Had Noah seemed that great?
"I don't know who that man is, but he must have been an excellent person. I even get the feeling he might have been a mage."
"Cough. Yes. Excellent, if one were to call him that."
What? There were plenty of excellent archmages.
"So then. I would like to hear why you summoned me. With the Founding Festival ahead, and officially acknowledging that the two powers should manage Cradle together... you've said a great many words, but honestly, that isn't the real point, is it?"
This was too cheap a move.
If my guess was right, this woman had likely summoned me with no particular thought at all.
Just intending to make a conversation partner. Like the Emperor.
"Yes. That's right."
The Pope nodded.
Since she'd admitted to summoning me under those conditions herself, what more was there to say? So I decided to charge straight ahead.
"Please speak honestly. What is Your Holiness's true intention?"
"I simply wanted to see the Empire's Saint once. That is all. If we can converse like this, then you should already know that the matter of establishing an independent Goddess Church is something the Saint of the Goddess Church must resolve herself."
"Yes."
Of course. All the preparations were already done.
Or rather, I assumed the Pope was handling it himself.
Honestly, by this point something should come of it. Even that idiot of a man would be making efforts to create a proper Goddess Church.
"Hoh. Is that so. Then may I return?"
"No, keep me company in conversation. You interest me too much. Besides."
"Besides?"
What else did she have to say?
"I sense a strange aura from you. As if I've seen it before. Leaving that aside, I feel you have the countenance of a person of destiny."
Me, a person of destiny? Celia was barely holding back her laughter beside me.
"Is that so."
"Perhaps you might marry my grandson and stay by his side..."
What kind of insane talk was this all of a sudden.
Had this woman truly lost her mind.
Was she trying to marry a person off to that scoundrel of a brat. I was saying I had absolutely no intention of doing that even if I died.
"I refuse."
"I thought as much. Still, his face alone..."
"I'm not the sort of person who marries based on looks."
If that guy were truly of an outstanding mage's bloodline, maybe. But he wasn't even that.
Moreover he was an unlucky bastard, and why would I in a stuffy place like the Holy Kingdom?
From the start I had not the slightest thought of marriage.
"So I was trying to arrange an unnecessary match for you."
"I intend to live without marrying."
Someone of my standing would probably still get marriage proposals even past marriageable age and heading toward ruin, since I was also the Taesa.
But for now I refused even if it killed me.
As for kids, I could just tell Noel to have them. That was why I'd paired Noel with the second son even though they didn't particularly match.
"Why? Originally the Saint was a princess, and the princess was Prince Aslan's fiancée, was she not?"
She needed to get her words straight.
"That was the past, not now. And isn't the position of Saint one that cannot marry?"
"But you are the Empire's Saint, are you not."
"Yes. The Saint title itself is an excuse to avoid marriage."
Ah, I don't want to get married.
Who did she think she was, trying to marry me off to some mongrel named William or whatever that I'd never even heard of properly?
"Hah."
"In the first place, Your Holiness knows as well, don't you."
"Then was it truly for embezzling money for your private army training ground?"
Why was she doing this. Someone who ought to know better was acting like this.
"Whether private army or money, behind me stands Ashtar, and the greatest of the continent. What would I lack?"
"Then why did you turn the nuns into combat nuns without even a proper doctrine?"
Aha. So she was asking about that.
Well, I could understand. She was a religious leader on this side, after all.
Still, I wasn't without things to say myself.
"No one knows how the war with the Four Heavenly Kings will turn out. Thus the Imperial Church is raising combat nuns to fight for the nation."
"Then the embezzlement?"
"Ashtar's money is only used within Ashtar, but what I embezzle is wrung from the Pope, and what that Pope wrings is the taxes of the Imperial people."
Why did I have to explain this to the Pope.
Irritated, my words came out blunt at the end.
"I suppose so."
"Those taxes are redistributed to orphanages and the poor. And that strange tax called the religious tax will soon be abolished as well."
From what I'd heard, Bernoa was on the verge of going mad right now.
Saying this wasn't a church but some bizarre group whose purpose couldn't be discerned. So he would reform it himself. The kids from the slums had reported that to me.
"Is it the opposite of what I've heard. Or is it a lie."
"I have no reason to lie to Your Holiness, and even if I did lie, I have no reason to explain myself, do I?"
I was an Imperial, not a citizen of the Holy Kingdom.
"Ha. Yes. That's right."
"Yes. I am an Imperial and Your Holiness is a citizen of the Holy Kingdom. Even the Emperor doesn't complain."
So don't complain to me either, that was what I meant.
At my words Elias's face flushed so hard it looked ready to burst, and because of that I treated the Pope even more casually.
"After all, no matter how I look at it, you're the same. The atmosphere, the way of speaking, and a fox-like cunningness, shall I say."
"Just who is it?"
"Noah, the mage of the Hero Party."
Honestly, I really didn't understand.
Just where was this person looking to say I was the same as Noah.
The gender was different, the equipment was different, and honestly I thought the personality was a bit different too.
Me, a fusion of Noah and Olivia, looking exactly like Noah was already strange enough, yet this woman had seen me for a single day—no, only through a short conversation—and seen me that way.
"Hmm. Good. A good meeting. At any rate, since you've come, the Imperial Goddess Church will receive a certain degree of recognition."
"Yes. Well. Please don't make a public announcement."
"I won't. I don't like the feeling of baiting that great Empire's Saint either."
This person already knew as well.
That the Pope herself stepping forward to recognize the Imperial Goddess Church would mean the Imperial Goddess Church would have to follow the Holy Kingdom's Goddess Church around.
So just making a gesture was good enough.
Even just this much, the Imperial Goddess Church had secured a certain standing.
"With this, may I return?"
The Holy Kingdom was just so stifling.
I just wanted to go back quickly. There was the Founding Festival issue, the Mage Corps issue...
Because of me alone, the Mage Corps's exchange this time seemed to have gotten a bit complicated. I felt needlessly sorry.
"Still, wouldn't it be better to stay a few days? You've come as a Saint in name. Returning right away wouldn't look good to other countries either, would it?"
"I suppose that's true."
She was cutting me off like this here. Like a reaction of being annoyed.
Fine. Then I'd stay a little.
The Pope left the inn. Only then could I breathe a little easier.
I hated to say it, but honestly I'd been a bit tense.
"Um. Lady Olivia."
She seemed worried that the damned woman might come back in.
Looking closely, her loathing for the Pope seemed to have reached its peak.
"Hm?"
"Your reactions have become even more like a girl's."
Calling me out of the blue just to say I'd become more like a girl. That was too much.
I myself was clearly feeling from the conversation with the Pope that I was different from Noah. Still, unlike me who was a fusion, perhaps the original girl's opinions were more important.
"What bullshit is that."
"No, I mean you've become like a girl. That uniquely feminine way of speaking. The way women mock each other. You were good at that."
I shrugged my shoulders.
"What's the big deal about that."
It was something the first Olivia used to do often. And I was Olivia too. Now that I was used to the body, I had to do at least this much.
Since the gender had become the same as well, a surprising number of shackles had been unlocked.