A Somewhat Suspicious Saintess
A Somewhat Suspicious Saintess
Tok-tok─
Cedric, eating a sandwich while working in his office, looked up.
He glanced at the wall clock; the hour hand already pointed to 5 p.m.
'......If so, the person knocking right now must be Captain Daniel Steiner.'
Around lunchtime, Daniel had requested a meeting, saying he had something to discuss regarding support for the northern operation.
Cedric had wanted to see his face anyway, so he'd told him to come at 5 p.m., and the knock came precisely on time.
"Come in."
At Cedric's permission, Daniel opened the office door.
Seeing the interior of the Deputy Chief of Staff's office for the first time, Daniel was struck by a strange sense of pressure.
The Deputy Chief of Staff's office was oddly devoid of any unnecessary objects.
Wherever he looked, he saw only a coat rack, a bookshelf, a fountain pen, a telephone, a desk, and various documents.
Ordinarily, one would keep at least one personal item from a hobby, like a golf ball or stamps, but there was no trace of anything like that here.
Only countless classified documents in file folders were packed into the bookshelves on both walls.
"You've come."
It was a low but sharp voice.
Cedric, seated behind the luxurious mahogany desk, glanced at Daniel and finished his sandwich.
Seeing this, Daniel tensed inwardly as he walked to the center of the office and saluted.
"I apologize for disturbing you during your meal. However, I have urgent matters to discuss, so I came to see you despite the discourtesy."
Cedric, having finished the last of his sandwich, took out a handkerchief, wiped his hands, and looked at Daniel.
His sanpaku eyes silently asked in the stillness. To state his business.
"......I shall be direct, as I do not wish to waste your valuable time, Deputy Chief. I would like you to withdraw the northern deployment support for my adjutant, Second Lieutenant Lucy, and Cadet Frien."
From Daniel's perspective, both were disquieting presences, so he wanted to keep them as far away as possible.
But Cedric, unaware of Daniel's true feelings, could only be puzzled.
Cedric swallowed the food he had been chewing and asked a question.
"Why."
If only he could just say, 'Lucy is a spy and Frien is not in her right mind.'
Suppressing an inward sigh, Daniel came up with a plausible excuse.
"My adjutant and Cadet Frien are barely adults. I cannot take women who have not yet shed the air of girlhood into a dangerous battlefield."
"I can understand Second Lieutenant Lucy, but as for Cadet Frien, I recall you had her with you when she was still a private?"
"At that time, the operational support was for defending our own territory. Compared to this upcoming mission in support of the Northern Front Army, which will penetrate deep into enemy territory, it was a relatively low-risk assignment."
It was an unexpected answer, so Cedric blinked once.
'How unexpected.'
He had thought Daniel was a cold-blooded man who wouldn't care about trivial matters as long as he could get promoted.
Seeing him step forward to protect his subordinates, Cedric noted a surprisingly humane side to him.
'They say even a hedgehog finds its own young soft.'
Caring for one's subordinates could be considered one of the important virtues of a commander.
Cedric found Daniel more to his liking, but he could not grant that request.
"I refuse. The Empire's ideology is to reward merit and punish failure. This principle emphasizes equality of opportunity. Therefore, refusing to send young women to the battlefield would go against the Empire's ideology."
Daniel had expected this much.
"Then I ask that at least Frien be removed from my unit's roster. She is a cadet currently in the educational course at a military academy. I see no reason to carry the burden of a mere cadet."
There was no need to assign a cadet who had not even been properly trained to the unit. It was sound logic.
However, Cedric saw boundless possibilities in the 'peculiarity' that Frien possessed.
"Captain Daniel. She is not a mere cadet. You must know this, having experienced combat together. I am referring to the fact that Frien's mana possesses a 'color,' unlike that of ordinary soldiers."
Daniel could not deny it. Frien had imbued her bullets with mana and fired right next to him when she had killed Colonel Jeremy.
"Frien's mana is black, a color that light cannot pass through. It is a highly heterogeneous phenomenon, given that ordinary mana is transparent or accompanied by a faint blue light. It could be called a kind of mutation."
Cedric removed the monocle he had been wearing and placed it on the desk.
"Shall we go off on a slight tangent? Since ancient times, the color black has been an ill omen, because it was the symbol of the devil. Superstitions about black cats or crows bringing misfortune also originated from that."
Cedric placed both hands on the desk and interlocked his fingers.
"Of course, that is nothing more than superstition. In this day and age, if someone criticized a person simply for having black hair or black eyes like yours, they'd be branded a madman. Isn't that right?"
"That is correct."
"However, mana is different. Especially if a child born into a clergy family were to exhibit black mana? They would have no choice but to be subjected to religious condemnation."
Daniel, who had roughly grasped what was being said, nodded his head.
"Cadet Frien did not voluntarily enlist. There must have been external pressure."
"I'm pleased you understand quickly. Yes. Cadet Frien was abandoned by her family. They semi-forcibly sent her to the military to prove she is not a child of Satan by demonstrating a patriotic spirit. In effect, it was no different from sending her off to fight the enemy and die."
"The reason you are suddenly telling me this......."
Cedric opened a drawer and took out a letter.
It was Frien's application for the Northern Front Army support deployment.
"Cadet Frien, who had been living while desperately trying to deny that she had been abandoned by her family and her house, met someone she could newly rely on. It appears that person is you."
"Your Excellency? I am most certainly not a person Frien can rely on."
"Is that so? The letter says you offered her considerable comfort in the detention center, and even when conducting operations together in the north, you did not discriminate against her for using black mana?"
Daniel was somewhat dumbfounded.
In the detention center, he had just made idle chatter to kill time, and the reason he wasn't surprised when she used black mana was simply because he had known about it beforehand through his game knowledge.
But from Cedric's standpoint, Daniel's feelings were not all that important.
"Captain Daniel Steiner. I shall put it plainly so you understand. While black mana may be subject to religious condemnation, in the military, it is well deserving of praise. This is because it holds strategic value in itself. Do you understand what I am saying?"
Black mana, which light cannot penetrate, could facilitate concealment just by scattering it around.
Therefore, based on its high strategic value, he was telling him to mold Cadet Frien into a talent suited for the battlefield.
'And why am I the one who has to do that?'
Daniel wanted to refuse, telling him to have some other capable person do it, but Cedric's eyes were resolute.
If he pressed the issue here, he might needlessly provoke Cedric's anger.
In the end, Daniel saluted, swallowing his reluctance.
"I shall comply with Your Excellency's words."
Satisfied, Cedric returned the salute.
"Good. If your business is done, you are dismissed."
Lowering his hand, Daniel turned, walked to the door, opened it, and left.
Seeing this, Cedric leaned back in his chair and let out a low chuckle.
'It's like watching the Chief of Staff from the old days. Nervous in front of a superior, yet managing to spit out everything he needs to say.'
Cedric knew. Such people were never swayed by power.
It had truly been a long time since a talent he wanted to nurture had appeared like this.
*
At the same time, Frien and Lucy were in Daniel's personal office.
Lucy had come to the office to organize documents, since it was nearly the end of the workday.
As for Frien, she was killing time because Daniel had told her to wait in his personal office and promised to relay the results after his meeting with the Deputy Chief.
Sarak─
Frien, who had been standing with her back against the wall, cast a sidelong glance.
The sight of Lucy sitting in her seat and skillfully organizing documents was somehow enviable.
'The position of Captain Daniel's adjutant should have been mine.......'
She wasn't in a good mood, as she felt like her place had somehow been stolen.
Perhaps feeling that gaze, Lucy paused her work and lifted her head.
Their eyes met.
"......."
"......."
In the eerie silence, it was Lucy who spoke first.
"What are you thinking about so intently?"
At the businesslike tone, Frien answered curtly.
"Nothing. I was just wondering what reason Second Lieutenant Lucy had for applying for the position of Captain Daniel's adjutant."
"There is no particular reason. If I had to find a reason, it would be for the glory of the Empire."
It was an immediate answer.
In truth, she had applied because this position was the optimal cover for carrying out her role as a spy, but she couldn't say that.
Lucy had succeeded in completely hiding her true feelings, but Frien couldn't help tilting her head.
This was because she had a vague feeling that Lucy was lying.
It was more intuition than instinct.
It was Frien's own discernment, which wasn't always accurate but was mostly correct.
"Second Lieutenant Lucy? I grew up under my father, who was a priest. So I attended worship service every day. When the service was over, those who wished to confess their sins would usually remain. They would follow my father in to make their confession."
Lucy, wondering what this was about all of a sudden, stopped sorting the documents.
"So when I was young, I used to play a game of guessing who among the many people at worship would go to make their confession. The accuracy was quite high. No matter how reverent and upright their prayer appeared, a shadow would be cast over the faces of those hiding sin."
Tap. Lucy closed the file and looked quietly at Frien.
Frien likewise did not avoid Lucy's gaze, looking back at her directly.
Tick─
After a silence so deep that the ticking of the wall clock was clearly audible, Frien walked over to where Lucy was sitting and placed her hands on the desk.
"But strangely, I can see it."
Frien slowly lowered her head and stared intently at Lucy's face.
Their emotionless gazes met, and the space around them froze over.
In that atmosphere, as if walking on thin ice, Frien quietly moved her lips.
"The shadow cast over your face, Lieutenant."