The Flute-Playing Priest - (4)
Sophia was guided into the cathedral and immediately caught a scent.
The smell of wood, melting candle wax, and… the very scent she had been searching for.
Master is here.
Sophia was certain.
Leo was in this place.
She wanted nothing more than to burst through the door and see him right away. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Elise, the leader of their pursuit party, sat with a rather serious expression, staring at the elderly priest before them.
“You must have had a long journey. I assume you’ve come from Erebos.”
“That’s right. I never dreamed we would meet like this, Ignacio.”
Elise accepted the tea Ignacio offered and gave a faint smile. Yet her expression remained filled with doubt.
Ignacio. Within the Church, he was regarded as a living legend. Elise remembered how he had once visited her as a child and offered kind words, saying she would become a fine saint. For such a towering figure to be living in seclusion in this remote village…
“It seems the Saint Candidate is curious about this old man’s circumstances.”
Reading her emotions, Ignacio set down the teapot and smiled bitterly.
“It was God’s will.”
“God’s will?”
“Yes. For a time, the kingdom enjoyed peace and prosperity. The future looked bright.”
Ignacio paused, his gaze drifting to the children playing outside the window.
“Even in a small village like this, there are countless children who have lost their parents to famine. Rather than debating politics from on high, wouldn’t it be closer to God’s will to take in even one more child here?”
“…”
“That is why I retired and settled here. I opened an orphanage and took in children with nowhere else to go.”
Elise, listening, sensed something and spoke carefully.
“Then… is Priest Leo also from this orphanage?”
“He is.”
Ignacio nodded.
“I took him in when he was very young. I was the one who gave the nameless child the name Leo.”
“Then…”
“Yes. In truth, that boy never went through the formal process to become a priest. He simply learned by watching me and operated under the makeshift title of pastoral priest.”
Only then could Elise understand.
Leo had been a low-ranking priest with far too little experience to be assigned to Erebos. The reason he had been allowed to manage the small chapel attached to the Royal Academy was because his recommender had once held immense influence within the Church.
She also understood why he seemed unfamiliar with doctrine. During all those confessions, Leo had offered informal “counseling” rather than following strict procedures. It all made sense now.
So that’s how it was…
Meanwhile, Isolde felt a heavy ache in her chest.
She had always lamented being of common birth and having lived a difficult life, yet at least she had parents. She had grown up knowing the warmth of family.
But Priest Leo had been an orphan. Behind that bright, gentle smile must have lain considerable loneliness. And she had acted spoiled toward him without ever realizing it…
“By any chance…”
Sensing Isolde’s inner conflict, Ottilie spoke up.
“Teacher… I mean, Priest. Why did you come here?”
“Hmm?”
“Did you… come to get away from us? Because we were annoying… or you started to dislike us?”
At Ottilie’s blunt question, everyone held their breath. In a way, it was the question they had all feared most.
Yet Ignacio merely looked at Ottilie for a moment before smiling kindly and patting her head.
“You must have been very worried, little one.”
“…I’m an adult.”
“…”
The moment was awkward, owing to her unusually small stature.
Ignacio cleared his throat, withdrew his hand, and continued.
“You may rest assured. Leo simply came here to rest. He did not leave because he disliked or hated any of you.”
“Really?”
“Truly. From what I have seen of him all these years, that boy is incapable of hating anyone. If anything, he has too much affection for others—that is his only flaw.”
Too much affection for others. Those words brought both relief and guilt.
Whatever the case, it was a tremendous relief that he did not hate them.
The atmosphere finally relaxed.
“What was Master like as a child?”
It was Sophia who asked. An opportunity to learn something about Leo she had never known—she had no intention of letting it slip by.
But upon hearing the question, Ignacio gave a wry smile and rose from his seat.
“That… would be better heard directly from the person himself. He is in the room just behind us.”
Ignacio gestured toward the back room with his chin, as if to say the conversation ended there.
Everyone stood up at once. There was no longer any reason to delay.
“Saint Candidate, might I have a moment of your time?”
Just as they were heading toward the back room, Ignacio called out to Elise.
“…Do you have something to discuss?”
“Yes. There is something I must speak with you about privately.”
After a brief hesitation, Elise nodded.
Her reunion with Leo could wait.
More importantly…
“Does it concern Priest Leo?”
“It does.”
She was curious what words would come from this legendary priest’s mouth.
*
“Master!”
“Priest!”
“Teacher!”
Each of them used a different title.
Sophia and the others rushed in without even pausing to catch their breath. In an instant, the back room was filled.
Sophia in particular crawled forward on all fours as though she were a dog reuniting with its long-lost owner.
“Are you hurt?! Have you been eating? Has anyone been bothering you?!”
“Ah, no… Lady Sophia? Please calm down. I’ve been eating well and haven’t gone hungry.”
I rose awkwardly and caught Sophia as she threw herself at me. She clung to my waist, sniffing me, then teared up with relief.
“You’re really here… It wasn’t a dream…”
“Of course I’m here. Where would I go?”
“You disappeared without a word! Do you have any idea how worried we were?”
I scratched my head, feeling wronged.
“I left a note. I said I was taking a short vacation and would be back…”
“When we read that note, we thought… you might have made some extreme decision…”
Isolde spoke hesitantly.
Leaving for somewhere far away. I trust you all.
The wording had certainly been open to misunderstanding.
Still, traveling this far in one go was no small feat. For four people to cross the continent must have required considerable effort.
“…Um, is everyone all right?”
Sophia, in particular, was covered in dust from head to toe, looking like a retriever that had rolled through a mud puddle.
“I-I won’t be a burden to you, Master! I won’t throw tantrums asking for food anymore! If I get hungry… I’ll just dig through the trash like before! I’m good at that! I can even eat spoiled food…!”
“…No… That… You should eat proper meals.”
Sophia sniffled and rubbed her face against me.
Ottilie finally seemed to relax as she fiddled with the key she carried.
In any case, they had come all this way out of concern for someone like me.
I couldn’t help but feel moved.
No, this isn’t the time for that.
Only two weeks remained until the start of Act 4.
Even if we returned to Erebos at top speed, it would take at least a week.
Time was of the essence.
“Come now, everyone, please have a seat. At least some tea…”
I offered chairs, intending to bring up the matter at hand.
“…Lady Isolde?”
I frowned. Isolde’s expression had stiffened strangely. Her gaze had shifted to something behind me.
Following her line of sight, I remembered something I had completely forgotten.
“Saje!”
Void.
The spirit wearing the appearance of young Isolde was beaming at everyone.
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, this was Isolde and Void’s first meeting.
I had kept it secret to avoid any potential incidents.
How was I supposed to explain this?
While I was still pondering, Void made a sudden move.
Grinning brightly, she dove straight into Isolde’s ample chest and shouted:
“Mama!”
The moment that word rang out, it felt as though the temperature in the room had dropped several degrees.
*
Meanwhile, in the cathedral courtyard.
Ignacio held a broom and looked at Elise.
“You were curious about Leo’s childhood, weren’t you, Saint Candidate?”
“Yes. What kind of child was he?”
She had expected a pleasant story. Instead, Ignacio gazed into the distance and answered slowly.
“In truth, Leo… that child was fated to die young.”
“…Pardon?”
Elise asked again. She thought she had misheard. Die young? Meaning…
“He would… die early?”
Elise’s voice trembled slightly. Ignacio sighed and explained.
“Though I now return my holy power to the heavens in my old age, when I first took Leo in, I was still revered as a saint. I could faintly glimpse the fate of a single child.”
“…”
“That child was not meant to live past the age of ten. His innate vitality was far too faint. And indeed… my prediction came true.”
“What do you mean, it came true? How could that possibly…”
Elise stammered in confusion. Leo was standing right there, alive—how could his fated death have come to pass?
That meant…
“Yes. In the year he turned ten, he contracted a severe fever and his breath ceased.”
“His breath… ceased?”
“Yes. There was nothing to be done. His heart had stopped, and he was no longer breathing. I covered him with a cloth to prepare the body and stepped away for a moment.”
Ignacio’s eyes narrowed.
“But when I returned, Leo was sitting up perfectly fine. His fever had broken, and his eyes were clear.”
“…That’s… possible?”
“Of course it isn’t. What was even more impossible was that the Leo who survived seemed like an entirely different person.”
Elise could not speak. A child who had died and come back to life. A child who seemed like someone else.
“Was that… a miracle?”
“It may have been a miracle. Or perhaps the blessing of a demon. If the Church had heard of it, they would have sent an inquisitor at once.”
“You didn’t inform the Church.”
“There was no reason to entrust a young child’s fate to fools. Life is something one forges for oneself. However…”
Ignacio’s expression grew heavy.
“His fate remained unchanged.”
“What?”
“Though his body revived, the time allotted to him did not increase. It was like pouring water into a cracked vessel. He may appear fine on the outside, but Leo still carries the fate of an early death. It is nothing short of miraculous that he remains alive even now, more than a decade later.”
“…”
Ignacio looked Elise straight in the eye.
“A life that should have been taken long ago is forcibly clinging to this world. Therefore…”
Elise’s expression hardened. She could easily guess how the story would end.
“You mean… Priest Leo… won’t live long?”
Ignacio simply closed his eyes in answer.