The Banquet (3)
The Lighthouse Keeper, Eurypylos.
As the Great Warrior of the Holy Light Church, he was the longest-lived human on the Continent, and even if one expanded that range to the Outer Land, he still counted among the longer-lived of the transcendents.
Eurypylos was four hundred and twenty-eight years old this year.
Most transcendents who had lived long lives counted their age in units of a hundred years or fifty, but Eurypylos broke his own down to the second.
Four hundred twenty-eight years, seven months, twenty-one days, fourteen hours, twenty-one minutes, and eleven seconds.
Even now, in one corner of his mind, a second hand ticked on with a soft tick. He always calculated the time he had lived with absolute precision.
Counting time. Recording the years he had endured.
It was Eurypylos’s compulsion, and the way he defined himself.
Tick. Eurypylos frowned at the boy standing before him. A boy not yet twenty. Some might call him a young man, but from Eurypylos’s perspective it was all the same.
A mere twenty years. The very fact that a brat who had not even lived twenty years was throwing the Continent into chaos did not sit well with him. Change, of course, bred chaos. Chaos created variables, and variables forced him—the unmoving Lighthouse Keeper—to move.
Irritating.
Having to move at all filled Eurypylos with irritation. His power came from remaining still. Every motion drained a portion of that power, and even if the amount was tiny, to Eurypylos it was a chilling thing.
He could have held out another three hundred twelve years, four months, and twenty-one days; this present movement had already shortened that by roughly a month.
He hoped the motion would prove worth at least that much. Contrary to that hope, however, the situation began to turn strange.
"It seems the First Horn is of a different mind."
The instant the boy spoke those words, Eurypylos felt a chill. A cold gaze raked down his spine—like a blade laid against his skin.
He whipped his head around.
The gaze came from the summit of the First Horn Tower. Kilometers of empty air lay between them, yet the two transcendents ignored the distance and locked eyes.
…
Imperial First Horn Gerd.
The old man looked this way in silence. The only thing in his hand was a single sword. He neither swung it nor pointed it, yet the mere fact that he had drawn the blade was enough to freeze Eurypylos’s blood.
It was a warning. The moment you act any more insolent, I will swing.
The warning made Eurypylos blanch. He would go this far? Internally he calculated: if he clashed with Gerd here, how much time would it cost? The arithmetic finished quickly.
Two hundred fifty years.
Nearly eight-tenths of the time he had stockpiled. And this was the Empire. If the Empire’s five pillars intervened, even exhausting every accumulated year would not be enough.
"You."
Eurypylos glared at Najin.
Confusion edged the look.
"What in the world…"
Even from the Empire’s standpoint, open conflict with the Holy Light Church was something to avoid. The Church held faithful not only within the Empire but across the entire Continent. Normally, when a figure of Eurypylos’s stature in the Church presented himself “like this,” the Empire acknowledged the Church’s authority and always yielded a step.
He had never imagined that, over so trivial a matter as pressuring a single boy, he would have to watch the Empire’s face.
A star flared blue at the summit of the First Horn Tower. The star was warning him: drop that barrier at once and step back. Eurypylos ground his teeth.
That the cold-blooded man who had never even protected his own family—who knew nothing but the Empire—would go this far…
"The Church will not stand idle over this."
"Do as you please."
Gerd’s reply was curt.
"I likewise have no intention of standing idle while the likes of you raise your heads as if the sky itself were not high enough."
"Does that insolence represent the Empire’s position?"
"It is my personal view, though the Empire’s is not so different. I am the Empire."
In the end Eurypylos took one step back.
The barrier that had enclosed Najin and Eurypylos dissolved. Immediately afterward, Eurypylos realized the choice had been correct.
…
Beyond the vanished barrier, a woman was staring at him. At a glance she looked to be in her early twenties, a woman of indeterminate years, yet the Lighthouse Keeper knew exactly who she was.
Eternal Brilliance Horn, Cypria Gachevska.
The Empire’s great archmage fixed him with eyes lit blue. A brown-haired girl clung to her side; Cypria patted the girl’s shoulder and let out a short sigh.
"Sir Eurypylos?"
"Speak."
"I have no intention of slighting the Church or your authority, yet personally I find this evening’s affair rather unpleasant."
Cypria clicked her tongue.
"An uninvited guest crashes a banquet and menaces one of the guests. Do you realize that is an insult both to the host and to every person present?"
High officials of the Empire and nobles of countless great houses.
The Lighthouse Keeper could ignore all of them, but he could not ignore Cypria, who stood as their representative. She, too, was a transcendent of the same order as himself.
"Either enjoy the banquet,"
Cypria pointed outward,
"or wait until it ends."
Choose one.
2.
In the end Eurypylos withdrew.
He sat on a bench outside the banquet hall, apparently prepared to wait until the gathering finished. His expression looked thoroughly sour, yet no one paid the Lighthouse Keeper any mind.
To be more precise, no one could afford to look as though they were paying him mind. This was the Empire, and it was the Empire’s pillar, Cypria, who had driven the Lighthouse Keeper out. Approaching him now would be to slight the pillar’s authority.
No matter how great a religious figure one might be, anyone who lived with a foot inside the Empire had to stay in the good graces of its pillars. No noble wished to fall out of favor with Cypria, whose exacting nature was famous.
And so the banquet continued, leaving the Lighthouse Keeper to himself.
"Are you all right, Najin?"
"Yes, thanks to you."
Najin bowed his head in gratitude toward Dieta and toward Cypria standing beside her. Cypria nodded, satisfied, and patted Dieta’s shoulder.
"Guildmaster? Don’t worry. I’ve no intention of letting some religious fanatic ruin the party. We put all this effort into the banquet—we ought to enjoy it, no?"
"I’m truly grateful, Lady Cypria."
"What for? This much is the least I can do."
With that, Cypria strode toward the center of the hall. Dieta smoothed a hand over her chest and glanced at Najin.
"Honestly, what were you thinking, acting so recklessly?"
"I have quite a few people I can trust."
Najin gave a short laugh and inclined his head slightly toward the distant First Horn Tower. Gerd was busily swinging his sword at the summit as though he had never been looking this way at all, yet Najin felt the old man’s gaze still lingering near him.
"Dieta."
"Yes, go ahead."
"Could you tell me more about the Lighthouse Keeper in detail? I think I’ll need more information."
"That’s fine, but…"
Dieta hesitated, then held out her hand to him.
"Finish the dance with me first?"
"I was planning to do that even without being asked. Any other requests?"
"I’ll think about those…?"
The music that had stopped began again, and Najin and Dieta finished the dance as though nothing had happened.
The banquet continued for a long while afterward. From the sidelines, excluded from the lively gathering, Eurypylos glared at Najin with eyes lit blue, but Najin paid him no heed.
What are you going to do if you glare?
I could give you information too. Why don’t you ask me? I know plenty.
…What?
Never mind. Forget it. It’s nothing.
Merlin grumbled and shot Najin a look full of dissatisfaction. What was her problem this time?
That’s one thing, but that Lighthouse Keeper doesn’t seem to know, does he?
Know what?
That I pulled Excalibur. I tested the waters a little, and he looked clueless.
Merlin nodded.
That’s true enough. If he knew you’d pulled it, he couldn’t act the way he is. Honestly, I don’t even understand why the Lighthouse is behaving like this.
The Holy Light Church’s principal deity, the Lighthouse that Illuminates All Creation.
By now I expected him to come to the Round Table and smash his head on the floor, or else take a completely hostile stance… something. But he’s doing nothing?
It was true.
The last time the Holy Light Church had entangled itself with Najin had been just before he became a Sword Seeker. After that the Church had neither threatened him nor even approached him.
They had simply fallen silent. Even though Najin held both the justification and the weapon that could destroy them, they maintained that silence.
Behavior that made no sense by any ordinary measure.
I did ask the Imperial First Horn for help, but…
Najin turned his gaze toward where Eurypylos waited.
I’ll need to confirm it myself.
He truly wanted nothing more to do with them.
He would have preferred that the only time he ever involved himself with them was when he smashed their main cathedral, yet for the sake of his purpose Najin temporarily suppressed his loathing of the Holy Light Church.
Why had Eurypylos come looking for him? What conversation did he want so badly that he would endure such humiliation?
It’s worth hearing out.
Of course, he had no intention of listening for free.
3.
After the banquet ended, Najin sat down opposite Eurypylos. At his waist hung the sword he had set aside while entering the hall. Hand resting on the hilt so he could draw at any moment, he looked at Eurypylos.
"So you’ve finally found the inclination to talk."
Najin immediately made as if to rise, signaling that he could cut the conversation short and leave whenever he chose. Eurypylos ground his teeth and jerked his chin at him.
"Sit. It won’t be a bad offer for you either."
Najin stared at Eurypylos.
The man was nothing like what he had expected. In countless books the Lighthouse Keeper was portrayed as expressionless, unfeeling, a detached being unbound by the secular world.
A human who had lived more than four hundred years on the Continent. And the Church’s guardian whom Najin would have to fell first if he ever meant to bring the Church down.
Until now Najin had imagined the Lighthouse Keeper as someone similar in feel to Gerd, yet the reality was entirely different. The man made no effort to hide his emotions and looked little different from any authority-drunk noble.
"As you know, I am the Lighthouse Keeper, Great Warrior of the Holy Light Church. I also act as the Church’s proxy."
"I am aware."
"Speaking in that capacity, I have a proposal for you."
"A proposal?"
Najin had to hold back the dry laugh that tried to escape.
"Very well, let’s hear it. What is the proposal?"
"I understand you have not yet received knighthood. Is that correct?"
"Not that I haven’t received it—I simply haven’t taken it."
"In any case, it means you are not a knight."
The Lighthouse Keeper tossed a banner onto the table with a soft thud. The banner bore the emblem of the Holy Light Church—the highest-grade insignia of a Holy Knight, which only High Priest Orlan and Lighthouse Keeper Eurypylos could bestow.
"Join the Holy Light Church."
He indicated the banner with his chin.
"I will promise you the post of Captain of the Holy Knights."
Considering the authority the Captain of the Holy Knights held within the Church, the offer was equivalent to granting someone a pillar’s seat in the Empire. And because it came directly from the Lighthouse Keeper himself, it could fairly be called extraordinary.
Extraordinary or not—
the moment he heard it, Najin could no longer suppress his laugh.
"Why are you laughing? Do you find my proposal amusing?"
"How could it not be?"
Najin tapped the table with his fingertips.
"I don’t much like saying this myself, but I am currently at odds with the Holy Light Church. You people have tried to kill me more than once and have tried to bury me. And now you suddenly promise me the captaincy of the Holy Knights?"
Najin let out a derisive snort.
"Are you joking? What, have you finally grown afraid? Afraid that I might—"
"What? What did you just say?"
The Lighthouse Keeper cut him off.
He furrowed his brow and cocked his head.
"The Church tried to kill you? What nonsense is that?"
Was he pretending ignorance? Disgusting. Najin barely restrained the urge to draw his sword and spoke again. Yet the Lighthouse Keeper only repeated the same reaction.
"This is the first I have heard of it. The Church committed such acts? That cannot be."