Forget Tradition (1)
"I'm sorry, did you just say Leah reached the 9th Tier?!"
The unexpected joyous news threw House Eshua into an uproar.
"At last! The girl has finally reached the 9th Tier!"
"The Matriarch will be overjoyed as well!"
The elders and senior councilors rejoiced as if they might lose their minds with delight. And small wonder—a Saintess's awakening in the Saintess clan carried immense meaning. It was the family's dearest wish, and a real, tangible power to rival the Pope himself.
"The seat hasn't sat empty for sixteen years, has it?"
"Yes—having even a single 10th-Tier awakening changes the family's standing completely!"
"Finally we won't be looked down on just because we lack a Saintess!"
As the household celebrated the dispatch from the Holy See, Noel sidled up to Benyamin.
"Kaya is right on the cusp of the 9th Tier herself, but it seems we were one step behind. My congratulations, Brother."
"Thank you."
Yet Rillai watched Benyamin read the letter with a puzzled expression, for his face seemed somehow off.
He's overjoyed, but there's something strangely sorrowful in his face.
Why?
Hadn't Benyamin wished for Leah to become Saintess more than anyone alive?
Why?
Was it because, once she became an official Saintess, she would march off to fight the Skeleton Demon King in earnest? Was he afraid she might die?
No—there was something stranger afoot.
"The lady of the hour is nowhere to be seen. Where's Leah?"
"...Well, the thing is, the moment Lady Leah received the letter, she departed straight for the Holy See."
"Oho! She must be thrilled to become a full Saintess. How proactive!"
The elders beamed, but the holy knight delivering the message looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"That is... rather than joy, she looked truly, deathly pale... I have never once seen the young lady wear such a face in all my years."
"And why the Holy See?"
At Rillai's follow-up question, the knight lowered his voice to a whisper.
"That is... the 9th Tier appears to have been a mistake......"
I'm sorry—a mistake??
Something was definitely wrong here.
And the strangest thing of all was—this.
THUD. THUD. THUD!
"!"
The knights stationed at the manor were moving with unusual urgency. Not only those in the middle of training—even the squads out on external missions had suddenly returned and were gathering their gear.
As the commander who led the Blue Faith's knights, Rillai could hardly contain his bewilderment.
Worse, they kept snapping to attention and saluting him the moment they crossed his path!
"Sir Rillai! All Blue Faith knights have answered the Head's summons!"
"The vanguard has already departed for Berith!"
"......???"
Now what in the world was this about?
A summoning order from the Head of House was the highest command of the Blue. Naturally, every cleric under its banner would drop everything and move on such a supreme directive, but—
"Father summoned the knights?"
Without a single word to him?
"What alert stage? Are we at Dive?"
"No, sir. Breaching."
Breaching the surface? Full battle posture?
"He has ordered preparations up to the Hit-run stage."
"!"
At those words, the other members of House Eshua went pale with shock.
Breaching—the act of a whale leaping high above the surface—was Blue Faith jargon for revealing oneself in order to attack, though it was also used on occasion in defensive engagements. In other words, it was a stage they saw often alongside the covert-maneuver state of Dive.
But Hit-run was another matter entirely. Like whales defending their calf, it was a strike formation devoted to a ferocious, merciless assault.
And they were prepping for that?
And their destination was Berith—House Berith, the Pope's own line?!
"Why on earth?"
As if to answer that very question, a familiar face appeared.
"Because I'm the one who asked him to go."
"?!"
The newcomer was none other than Isaac.
Isaac strode in boldly and announced to his family:
"I asked Grandfather to retrieve the Pope's Stigma."
"I'm sorry—the Stigma?!"
Everyone was struck speechless.
And with good reason: the Stigma was the badge of the Pope, a sacred relic capable of summoning gods.
He was telling them to take the very symbol of the papacy by force?
Had the child gone utterly mad?
But Isaac merely smirked, as if the fuss were beneath him.
"Sure, it's the Pope's symbol—but it also carries authority equal to the Emperor of the Holy Empire himself. And you can't exactly leave the crest of the empire's supreme power in the hands of a man under suspicion of fraud, can you? Grandfather was gearing up for a war anyway, so I simply recommended that as his target."
Excuse me?!
Granted, by circumstance and justification, none of it was technically wrong—but apparently even the seasoned veterans present were left gaping.
Sure enough, Noel bore down on Isaac as if to seize him by the collar.
"You lunatic! Do you have any idea what it means to rob the Pope? Are you trying to make the entire faith our enemy?"
Isaac gave a little snort.
"Our enemy? The Red Faith and the White Faith both said they'd help."
"...I'm sorry, what?"
"And have you forgotten? I was granted investigative authority by the Cardinal of Red himself. He said I could do whatever I pleased."
[Ehhhh? I don't think anyone actually told you to wage war.]
'They didn't tell me not to, either. And if things go sideways, I'll just pin the whole thing on the Red Faith anyway~'
[Ugh. The Cardinal of Red really needs to know this is what you're actually like, Master.]
'He already does, doesn't he? After getting played that hard, anyone who hasn't figured it out is a lost cause.'
That seemed to plug the hole in Noel's rhetoric, because he changed tack.
"We're in the middle of discussing Leah's enthronement! Without the Pope's Stigma, the Saintess rite cannot be performed! The God of Awakening cannot be summoned!"
A Saintess's awakening was accomplished by summoning a god. And in the Holy Empire, the only power capable of fully manifesting a deity was the Pope's holy arts.
Which meant stripping the Pope of that power—Isaac's words amounted to declaring that no Saintess should be made at all.
"Did you become Head of House just to drag this family to ruin? You of all people know what a Saintess means to the Eshuas!"
"Ha."
Isaac didn't bother hiding his scornful laugh. If anything, he lifted one eyebrow in pure disgust.
"Spare me the act of doing it for the family. How about a little honesty for once? You want Benyamin dead."
"......!!"
Noel flinched, rare as that was.
Isaac smirked.
The moment I get enough dirt on you, you're finished.
But the barb had done its work, because Rillai and the other elders looked around in alarm.
"Isaac, what is that supposed to mean?"
"What does your uncle have to do with any of—"
"Well, it's been suspicious from the start, hasn't it? If the Pope's under investigation, he ought to be keeping his head down. Why, out of nowhere, is he holding a Saintess awakening ceremony at exactly this moment? It reeks. Any fool can see it."
"!"
"Apparently he hasn't grasped that he's the one being investigated. So until he does, we freeze not just his authority but the power itself—that's how he'll come to his senses."
Why, this little—!
"Which is why the Saintess awakening will be postponed."
Just as Noel opened his mouth to object, Benyamin stepped in first.
"Isaac, this is going too far."
"!"
"You know better than anyone how important a Saintess's awakening is. There's no need to block her enthronement as well. I don't know what possesses you to spread such reckless nonsense, but if you're going to be Head of House, learn to see the bigger picture. Attacking the Pope out of nowhere—shortsighted."
Benyamin rebuked him sternly, but Isaac only stared straight through him.
"Uncle."
"......?"
"Do you truly not know why I'm doing this?"
"......!"
Something in those eyes made Benyamin flinch in alarm, and he hurriedly whisked Isaac away. Once they were alone, he pressed him at once.
"What... no. How much do you know?"
"Hmm. I heard it from Grandpa, so... all of it?"
Benyamin pressed a weary hand to his brow. He finally understood why his father had so abruptly summoned the knights to march on Berith.
And he was furious with Isaac for it.
His goal was obviously to block the Saintess's awakening. To prevent the living sacrifice.
"I don't know how you found out, but this is the duty and the destiny of one born into the Saintess clan. Stay out of it."
Isaac's eyebrows shot up in pure irritation.
Stay out of it? This brat just told me to stay out of it?
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Benyamin's voice burned from within.
"I was born the second son of House Eshua, but I had no talent. Even after your father—after my brother—vanished, I could not take his place."
"!"
"If only I had done my part, Father and the family would never have suffered over the matter of a Head of House in the first place."
Oh. So that's what this is about.
So, most likely, Benyamin had been carrying it with him all this time.
A second son who could never inherit the seat of Head. He had given his nephews and nieces his full administrative support, yet bitterness must have gnawed at him all the while. He must have cursed himself for being born Rank 0—forced to stand by and merely watch the Pope's line scheme and maneuver.
Not that he ever let it show.
Oh my, and here was the worthless second son who couldn't even inherit the family seat, tagging along?
To be treated as garbage even by a half-brother—how much humiliation had that been? All the more because, with the eldest gone, Benyamin had been the one forced to shoulder the duties of heir in practice.
Sure enough, Benyamin's eyes glittered as he spoke.
"The Saintess's awakening is the one thing even a useless man like me can do for this family. So don't interfere. This is my pride at stake."
But Isaac's eyes as he regarded his uncle were cold.
"And where does Leah's opinion fit into that?"
"...What?"
Isaac scolded his uncle right back.
"Leah didn't just reach the 9th Tier, you know. That's my guess, but she's probably been there a while. Five years at least?"
"What?"
"So why would she hide it all this time? Becoming a full Saintess should be a good thing for her. She values the one family she has left more than the family's honor—enough to trade the Eshua name for it. Doesn't she?"
"......!"
At those words, Benyamin's face crumpled into despair.
"Don't tell me Leah knows about the sacrifice."
"Why else would she sprint to the Holy See yelling it was a mistake? She's probably known since she was very small. They say she was always half-hearted about her Saintess lessons, after all."
"......!"
Benyamin let out a quiet groan.
There was a moment he could guess at.
Around nine years old, perhaps. The girl who had idolized the Saintess and thrown herself into holy arts with such fervor had, one day, turned listless toward her training.
Don't tell me she overheard what I said to my late wife.
His wife, a holy knight herself, had understood his resolve.
And so he had pushed Leah all the harder—drilled into her that she must become the Saintess.
What had his daughter thought, every time she trained to those words? Born into a cursed generation, the first girl the family had seen in ages—her burden must have been all the heavier for it.
Isaac spoke.
"Grandpa and I both refuse to do the awakening that way."
Right. A living sacrifice—what kind of idiotic living sacrifice? If you're going to do it, do it a better way. Squeeze the power out of the god, or throw the Pope in as the sacrifice instead.
"...And you have another way?"
"Probably. I think I can solve it."
No—honestly, I have to solve it.
If they went ahead and awakened her over Benyamin's corpse, Leah might well fall to darkness instead.
A Dark Saintess is unacceptable.
Maybe this was what his Survival Origin had been warning him about?
Eh, whether it is or isn't, who cares. I'm fixing it either way.
"So trust me. You absolutely cannot die, Uncle. I can't have you dying on me."
His nephew's words moved Benyamin deeply.
"Isaac. I had no idea you thought of me so highly......"
"You understand, right? I'm definitely going to save my money line—I mean, my uncle."
The only useful thing in this entire family is you.
The rest of these idiots would run the household into the ground the second they touched money—Skeleton Demon King fools, the lot of them!! Give me a rich family with a sane Head, that's all I want!
"So take good care of your health. You need to stay hale and hearty if you're going to work under me until the day you die—ahem, I mean, Leah will be happy too."
With that, Isaac seized Benyamin firmly by the shoulders.
"Uncle dear. I swear I'll find a solution, so just bear with it a little longer. You have to live happily—as my slave... ahem, as Leah's father."
So let's keep working penniless until you drop dead, hm?
"Yeth? Underthtood??"
"......"
Benyamin's face was a sight to behold.
...This kid. He really is thinking of me, right?
There's genuinely nothing sinister behind it, right?
Huh? ...Right??