Enforcement (2)
“…I had wondered if I might see you again if I ever came to the capital, Brother. And here we are, meeting once more.”
The Saintess chattered on, staring straight through me with those unbearably intense eyes of hers.
I was dying inside, and yet she looked like she couldn’t be happier.
It was enough to drive a man completely out of his mind.
Kyaaak! Ugh! No! I hate this!
And on top of everything, that damned demon was throwing a full-blown tantrum. For the first time in a long while, my blood pressure spiked hard enough to slam into the back of my skull.
“Ah. Yes. I see. A pleasure. Well then, I’ll be on my—”
“Wait just a moment!”
I tried to hurry past her and escape, but of course the Saintess lunged forward and latched onto my sleeve.
“You’re not even a believer, Brother. So what brings you to the temple?”
“……”
“Have you perhaps taken an interest? Or is something troubling you…?”
Something troubling me.
Thanks to you, something troubling me just appeared about thirty seconds ago.
“Ahem. It’s nothing of importance.”
“Those rooms behind you are the guest quarters for visitors, you know.”
I could feel the Saintess’s burning gaze and suspicion-laden voice boring into my back.
A chill ran down my spine for the first time in ages.
My mind went blank. I couldn’t think of a single decent excuse.
Why the hell is the Saintess even here…
The idol of these cultish fanatics—the Saintess herself—was standing among ordinary worshippers in a ragged robe, without a single escort in sight.
And of all the moments she could have chosen, she had to run into me right as I was hiding in the temple for Rhea’s safety.
No—more accurately, she had caught me.
Could any of this really be a coincidence?
Suddenly I remembered our first meeting: the way she had rolled her eyes back and chased me like a woman possessed.
“Hmm. Sister Rhea, it’s been a while as well. Are you heading to the guest rooms with Brother Rohan too?”
When I hesitated without answering, the Saintess simply switched targets to Rhea.
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Rhea’s eyes darted left and right as she checked my expression for cues.
But Rhea was a believer. She nodded and told the truth.
“Yes. We’re on leave…”
“Leave? You’ve decided to spend your leave at the temple?”
The Saintess sucked in a startled breath.
But only for a moment. A peculiar little smile soon curved her lips as her gaze slid back toward me.
Oh, Goddess above.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
They say there’s no paradise where you run to hide.
I had thought I’d finally slipped free of Elena’s grasp for a little while—only to get snared by the Saintess before a single day had even passed.
She was going to stick to me like glue the entire time I stayed at the temple. I just knew it.
“Could it be that you’ve taken an interest in our faith, Brother? Oh, how wonderful that would be. Surely it was the Goddess’s love for you that guided your steps here.”
“Love, is it…”
“Yes! Love. The Goddess loves every one of us, you know?”
Love, my ass.
What part of this looked like love?
Damn it. What am I supposed to do about this?
I heaved sigh after sigh and stared blankly up at the sky.
Unlike Richmond territory, this place was essentially the Saintess’s home ground.
One careless slight and I could find myself in real trouble.
Well—before that ever happened, a mob of devoted believers would probably stone me to death first.
“Standing around like this won’t do. Why don’t we have a cup of tea with the Cardinal? I’ll arrange a seat for you.”
“I’m fine, thank you.”
“No. I’m not fine. What happened in Richmond is already quite famous within the main church, you see. Everyone wants to meet Brother Rohan.”
“I merely did what needed doing. Incidentally, what of the man called Phai-ton…?”
“Oh my? Are you changing the subject right now?”
“Kh-hmmm.”
I had tried to redirect the conversation as politely as possible, but of course it failed.
If anything, the Saintess only smiled wider—like a child who had just discovered a fascinating new toy.
“Since you asked, I’ll tell you. Commander Phai-ton is currently observing a period of penance. It seems the events in Richmond left him with a heavy sense of guilt.”
“Hmm. I see. He nearly burned—ah, purified—innocent people. The shock must have been considerable.”
“Truthfully, I’ve been observing a period of penance here myself.”
“In the capital rather than at the main order’s headquarters…?”
“Well, of course. Because I wanted to see you again, Brother.”
“……”
The Saintess seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself at my expense.
This leave of mine was well and truly ruined.
“Heheheheh.”
And then there was Rhea, smirking at me like she was having the time of her life watching me squirm. The sight of her made my head spin.
Right. Who was I to blame anyone else?
This was all my own doing.
Like the night before a storm.
Over the capital’s night sky—quiet, far too quiet—several Intelligence Bureau agents launched themselves into the air.
They crossed freely from rooftop to rooftop like the wind itself, and before long they gathered on the roof of the official residence where the Ministry of Finance staff were quartered.
“Neither the loan sharks nor the nobles have made any notable moves.”
“We checked the mercenary markets as well. No one on the list has hired anyone.”
“Just to be thorough, we investigated every merchant company they usually deal with. Nothing unusual there either.”
Listening to their successive reports, Marien—who had arrived first and been waiting—narrowed her brow.
No movement at all…
The last confirmed activity from the nobles had been a meeting at some back-alley tavern.
In other words, with a tax audit right on their doorstep, they had clearly been hatching some kind of countermeasure.
So why had nothing happened since?
What the hell were those bastards scheming?
As things stood, she couldn’t tell a thing—and it was driving her mad.
But we can’t maintain this level of alert forever either. This is getting troublesome.
Marien gazed down at the guards patrolling below the building and sank into thought.
There were a great many Ministry of Finance employees to protect, and the Guard’s manpower and resources were finite.
They simply could not hold this posture indefinitely.
Even if they forced it, people would eventually grow used to the situation. Tension would ease.
And once that happened, gaps would open—gaps that would inevitably lead to disaster.
This isn’t just bleeding people dry. It’s worse.
Without hard evidence, even the Intelligence Bureau couldn’t move freely.
Their opponents were nobles of the Empire, after all.
If it had been a quiet theft in the dead of night like last time, that would be one thing.
But they couldn’t strike first based on nothing more than a hunch that the enemy might attack the Ministry.
Senior said they might try to set fires.
Marien shifted her gaze to the water barrels prepared in one corner of the rooftop and let out a sigh.
Following his speculation that the enemy might attack with fire, they had at least taken fire-prevention measures throughout the area.
But honestly, given the current situation, she wasn’t sure it was the right call.
Because if the enemy truly intended that, they would need to hire people to start the fires.
And yet they had scoured the slums and the mercenary markets top to bottom without finding anything of the sort.
What would Senior have done…
Fidgeting with the dagger inside her coat, Marien looked up at the night sky.
And then—
In that instant, something shaped like a human figure shot upward into the heavens.
Moments later, silhouetted against the full moon, it began flying straight toward them.
“A mage!!”
Marien, unable to trust her own eyes, cried out to her subordinates in pure shock.
At the same time she yanked an emergency flare from her pocket and fired it into the sky.
But unfortunately, it was already too late.
Countless fireballs conjured by that unidentified mage were already streaking toward them.
“Everyone take cover! Now!!”
Marien and the agents around her scrambled and leapt off the building.
KWA-KWA-KWANG!! BOOM!!
A massive explosion tore through the spot where they had been standing only moments before.
And that wasn’t all. Brilliant flashes erupted across the residence and the surrounding Ministry grounds as flames roared skyward.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG! CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
“Fire!! Aaaaagh!!”
“Fire! It’s a fire! Everyone run!!”
Alarm bells pealed across the entire capital as screams erupted from every direction.
“Goddamn it! What kind of lunatic dares pull this in the middle of the capital…!”
It was unthinkable.
It should have been impossible.
The capital’s skies were layered with countless defensive spells and barriers.
And yet someone had ignored every last one of them to unleash magic on this scale.
Just what kind of monster had crawled out of whatever hole it came from?
“Rifle corps! Open fire!”
“Shoot! Keep shooting!”
Ta-ta-tang! Ta-tang!
The rifle corps scrambled into a counter-barrage, but hitting a mage floating in the sky with mere lead bullets was a fantasy.
“Defensive magic! Deploy defensive magic at once!”
“We have to put out the fires first! If they spread, we’re all dead!”
“Somebody help me! There’s people in here!!”
Ministry of Finance staff and other imperial officials who had bolted from their beds clustered around those who could use magic, throwing up defenses while fighting the blaze at the same time.
A m-monster. The enemy is a monster.
Marien staggered, staring blankly up at the figure.
Her hands were shaking violently without her meaning them to.
Terror and helplessness blacked out her vision.
But Marien, like Rohan, was an Intelligence Bureau agent who had endured brutal training.
She clenched her teeth, forced her mind back into place, and immediately moved with the other agents.
“Run! We absolutely cannot let that thing get away!”
At her shout, every agent in the vicinity scaled walls and vaulted buildings in pursuit.
But for all their effort—
The mage continued the assault until the court mages finally mounted a counterattack, then flew off into the sky in plain view and vanished without a trace.
N-no…!
Marien sank to the ground where she stood, hollowed out.
And so, that night, the Empire’s capital came under attack for the first time in its history—
and was swallowed by an unprecedented sea of fire.