4. Imperial Capital Lumentium - 08
4. Imperial Capital Lumentium - 08
And so the match was decided, just as I expected. My duel with Lucian concluded with my victory.
"...Haa, haa."
But it was a victory drenched in wounds. I'd accepted the duel thinking I could toy with an arrogant young lord like him one-handed. I never imagined that bastard Lucian might have reached the Master Realm. In that sense, I was the one who'd been overconfident, not him.
I nearly lost. No, it was practically a defeat. The only reason I won was that he let his guard down.
"....."
Lucian had said to me: You are strong. Therefore I won't let my guard down. I'll come at you with everything I have. And that wasn't empty bluster. He followed through on his words completely.
But at the very last moment, the fool dropped his guard after all. He assumed the fight was over after crushing my right foot, and he tried to finish me off with his strongest technique. In his own way, he clearly wanted a knightly, romantic ending. And that was precisely his undoing.
"...You moron. Trying to show off."
He used a large-scale technique without ever grasping the principle behind the Flowing Star. And the price of carelessness was brutal. His technique was turned against him, and he ended up sprawled on the ground like that. My victory was little more than sheer luck. If we fought again, it wouldn't end this way.
"Kain!"
At that moment, Aria came running toward me from where she'd been watching.
"...Aria."
I tried to greet her with a smile as she dashed over. I'd remembered how she'd pleaded with me not to get hurt before the duel. I must have made her worry more than I'd thought, so I figured I should brace myself for a scolding.
But then—
Piiing—
"Kh, haa..."
My legs buckled on their own. Only for an instant, but my vision swam. When I came to, I was on my knees on the ground.
"Kain!"
Aria had a look like she was about to cry as she rushed to me. Blood was streaming from my nose and mouth.
"...Well, damn."
That was the price of using power beyond my means with an untrained body.
"Kain! Are you all right? Are you badly hurt?"
"...Aria, I'm fine. This is just from taking a hit from that bastard earlier."
I meant to crack a joke about going to kick him while he was down, but the situation wasn't nearly that relaxed. The truth was, my body was nowhere near fine. My vision had been spinning for a while. I couldn't even properly focus on Aria in front of me. At this rate, I wouldn't be in any position to curse at that groaning Lucian sprawled on the ground.
"...Haa, Aria. Sorry, but could you go to those scary-looking men standing over there with swords and ask them to call for a doctor..."
"No, I don't believe that will be necessary."
A voice I'd heard somewhere before cut me off. Before I could respond, someone placed a hand on my back.
[The Goddess bestows Her covenant upon those who revere Her.]
Fwaaash—
From the hand resting on my back, a sacred light burst forth and enveloped me. In that moment, a warm energy from the light began to suffuse my entire body.
"...Ah."
Every wound remaining inside me began to close at a rapid pace. No, it went far beyond simply healing wounds. It was an unreal sight, as if the hands of a clock were being turned backward. Watching gaping wounds instantly restore themselves to their original state was enough to fill anyone who saw it with awe.
'Good heavens.'
This was truly extraordinary Divine Power. With Divine Power at this level, it could rival the Saintess ten years from now. Was there someone in this world besides the Saintess who possessed such incredible Divine Power?
"The healing seems to have taken effect to some degree. Try moving your hands and feet."
Just as she said, I moved my right foot, the one Lucian had crushed moments ago. I felt no pain. My body's current condition was identical to how it had been right before my duel with Lucian.
"Is your body feeling all right, Kain?"
"Ah, yes, thank y—"
The moment I turned around to look behind me, my face stiffened involuntarily. Standing behind me was the one person I had thought I would absolutely never encounter in a place like this.
Her face was exactly the same as it would be ten years from now, without a single change. Pale violet hair reaching her waist, two beautiful eyes as though inlaid with emeralds, elegant yet refined features. ...And a meaningful smile whose depths were utterly impossible to read. It was unmistakable. She was definitely someone I knew well.
Before I knew it, I'd called out to her in a voice that sounded like an idiot.
"...Saintess?"
****
Saintess, Ariel Tiere.
Born with the most powerful Divine Power in human history, the woman called the very incarnation of the Goddess. The first servant to be granted a Divine Authority by the Goddess herself, proving her to be the Goddess's own child, for her faith reached the ends of the heavens. At the same time, the highest-ranking cleric the Church boasts of, and its mightiest shield.
The Divine Authority she received from the Goddess, the Radiance of Protection, is said to repel all profane laws by momentarily removing her from the present world. And I knew all too well that there wasn't a single speck of exaggeration in those words. Because during the final battle against the Witch, the Radiance of Protection the Saintess deployed was the foremost contributor, preserving the lives of the expedition force time and again against the Witch's absolute attacks.
However, that was all a story of the future. As far as I knew, in this current time, she had gained a certain renown thanks to her characteristically immense Divine Power, but she had not yet been granted the title of Saintess. Furthermore, I had known her to be residing in the Holy See, the Church's heartland. So why had she appeared here?
Whether she knew I was staring at her in shock or not, the Saintess wore a leisurely smile on her face.
"Oh my, Saintess, you say? I believe that's far too grand a title for someone like me. I'm merely one of the countless clergy in the Church. Ah, my name is Ariel Tiere. Please, just call me Ariel."
"...My apologies. I was briefly confused. Sain— no, Ariel."
"Fufu, I'm joking. There's nothing at all for you to apologize for, Kain. So there's no need to bow your head like that."
So saying, Ariel comforted me with a truly benevolent smile. Anyone else might have been moved to their very core by her gentle and warm heart, but I wasn't. Now and in the past, I'd always found the woman called Ariel somehow unsettling. That relaxed, gentle smile always seemed to me like something I simply could not understand.
"Um, Ariel. May I ask you one question?"
"Yes, anything. Kain."
I lobbed a question at Ariel, who was just beaming at me with a broad smile.
"Why are you here? I'd heard from rumors that you rarely leave the Holy See..."
"Oh? Does it displease you that I'm here, Kain?"
So saying, the Saintess tilted her head slightly.
"No... that's not..."
It's because it's strange. The Saintess Ariel I knew disliked noise and preferred spending her time quietly in a still, tranquil atmosphere—a woman who was practically the model of a profoundly uninteresting person. The combination of a boisterous, crowded banquet hall and Ariel struck me as being like placing mint on top of chocolate. In other words, utterly incompatible. However, I couldn't exactly blurt out knowledge from the future, so I scratched my head and tried to salvage the words I'd already let slip. But that was when it happened.
"Well said, Young Duke Estel. That's something I wanted to ask as well. I, too, am exceedingly curious about the reason she is here."
In that instant, my entire body stiffened rigidly at the voice from behind me. Why was this woman picking fights the moment she appeared as well? I barely managed to turn my stiffened neck and look toward the Imperial Princess. And in the next moment, I found myself at a loss for words in a sense entirely different from seeing the Saintess at this banquet.
'Good heavens.'
The Imperial Princess was wearing a dress. What she had on right now was a dress as pure white as snow. The bust was deeply cut, and the bodice clung to her figure, softly accentuating her beautiful curves. Moreover, the black waistband tied around her middle unmistakably revealed her slender waist. As splendid as a single flower in full bloom, I stared at the Imperial Princess in a daze.
'...This is really insane.'
For better or worse, I'd been in close contact with her for the past year, so I knew it well. The Imperial Princess had a personality that hated exposure. Throughout the entire expedition, she'd wrapped her whole body so tightly that I'd only ever seen her bare face and hands. And a woman like that was wearing a dress like this? Was this finally an omen that this godforsaken world was coming to an end?
As I was engrossed in such profound meditations on the apocalypse, the surrounding nobles, too, were unable to hide their shock as they looked at the Imperial Princess. But only for a moment; they quickly concealed those expressions and bowed to the Imperial Princess in salutation.
"We behold the Moon of the Empire."
"We behold the Moon of the Empire."
Thus, everyone in the banquet hall bowed their heads in greeting toward the Imperial Princess. Yet, insolently enough, there was one person present who did not bow to the Imperial Princess. That person's identity was none other than Ariel. Without erasing the leisurely smile on her lips, Ariel simply gazed directly at the Imperial Princess's face.
"...Ho-oh?"
The Imperial Princess looked at Ariel as if she found her utterly ridiculous. And in turn, Ariel did not avert her eyes from the Imperial Princess either. Thus, the gazes of the Imperial Princess and Ariel collided in midair. Neither woman looked away from the other.
"...How insolent. Ariel Tiere. By all the rumors, I had heard you possessed a compassionate heart that looked after all people, but seeing you in person, I suspect the rumors have been greatly distorted. Can someone with such a stiff spine possibly carry out service for others?"
"You exaggerate. We are those who have already offered everything to the Goddess. Did you not know that 'looking after all people' also means not bowing to any one specific person?"
At those words, the Imperial Princess's brows rose. In truth, Ariel's point was correct. In principle, clergy are servants of the divine and thus are not required to bow to mortal authorities. Yes, in principle. In reality, there were almost no clergy who put that principle into practice.
"...Interesting."
The corner of the Imperial Princess's mouth lifted. This was, indeed, the reaction of someone who found it interesting. In turn, the smile lingering on Ariel's lips deepened a level further. And I, caught in the middle of that battlefield, was on the verge of going mad with anxiety.
"How very interesting. Ariel Tiere."
The Imperial Princess shifted her gaze away from Ariel and suddenly looked straight at me.
"Young Duke Estel, what do you think? Whose words do you consider to be correct? As an honored noble of the Empire, I would like to hear your esteemed opinion."
At the Imperial Princess's abrupt question, the nobles' gazes all converged on me as well. They, too, wore expressions that looked genuinely curious about my answer.
"....."
Without realizing it, I looked over at Ariel. Incredible as it may seem, the only person who could save me in this situation was Ariel. When I sent her a truly desperate look, Ariel gave a gentle nod as if she understood everything.
"That's right, Kain. Whose side are you on? Please make it clear, here and now."
"....."