Forget Convention (2)
"Haha. Hahahahah."
Benyamin was in the middle of a complete mental breakdown.
Rillai couldn't help but stare at his older brother strangely.
"…Brother? What's the matter with you?"
He couldn't quite bring himself to ask if he'd lost his mind. Benyamin, who looked as if his screws had come entirely loose, clasped his hands together with grave seriousness.
"It seems the young lord requires reeducation… no, I believe we must simply select a new young lord."
"I'm sorry, WHAT?!"
Rillai recoiled in horror, but Benyamin was too busy clutching his face in despair to notice.
"Isaac has gone astray……."
"Wha—what?!"
"I knew the boy had no character whatsoever, but this isn't just rock bottom. His soul must have been switched somewhere along the way……."
"Bro-Brother?"
"Did the Skeleton Demon King's soul slip into him or something?"
"What?! Even from you, Brother, that's going too far…!"
But Benyamin, having heard Isaac's words spill out without a shred of concealment, seemed to be sinking ever deeper into worry.
"A slave… a slave, he said……!"
Wait. Forget awakening the Saintess—isn't it the young lord's education that's urgently needed here?!
Now I understand why the Cardinal of Red is so fond of Isaac. At this rate, I'm so worried about the Blue Faith's future I can't even bring myself to become a Living Sacrifice.
"What exactly do you mean, he needs reeducating?"
"Isaac told his own uncle to become his slave."
At that, the utterly devoted Rillai burst out laughing. Pfft.
"Surely you're joking. Our Isaac is so kind, so pure, so clear and clean of heart… I'd say he's the gentlest child alive—practically an angel. There couldn't be a sweeter boy anywhere."
No? That look was dead serious, though?
That was the gaze of a Demon King fully prepared to swallow his uncle—no, the entire Blue Faith—whole.
But Rillai, seemingly deciding this wasn't the point, pressed on.
"Brother. So what was it Isaac actually said? Why would you have to die to awaken the Saintess?"
At that question, Benyamin let out a weary sigh. So that's why this one didn't follow Father or the Order's knights and stayed behind at the estate. It was because of this.
"Fine. If Isaac knows, and Leah knows as well, there's no point hiding it anymore."
"!"
Once Benyamin explained the method of the Saintess's awakening, Rillai went ghost-white.
"What?! That's the condition for the Saintess's awakening?!"
So that's why Mother's expression always darkened whenever the true Saintess was mentioned!
"Th-then Isaac……!"
"Is trying to find a way that doesn't use that method."
Rillai's face brightened at once.
"So there is another way?!"
"No idea."
"…What?"
"Honestly, I can't even begin to imagine what it might be."
"WHAT?!"
Benyamin groaned and pressed a hand to his brow.
His father, at least, he could predict.
Father intends to seize the Stigma and delay the Saintess's awakening, I'd wager.
His father was the kind of man who would say the mission of hunting the Skeleton Demon King could simply stop. He probably had no special method either—if he had, he'd have said so long ago. That was why Benyamin himself had steeled his resolve.
But Isaac was different.
Isaac means to awaken the Saintess and capture the Skeleton Demon King.
If it were anyone else making that claim, he would have watched in awe and showered them with praise, but……
"Wormwood. I will find a solution without fail, so just bear with it a little longer. You have to live happily—as my slave… no, as Leah's father."
"…I cannot imagine, even in my wildest dreams, what Isaac will do."
No—honestly, I'm terrified!
"It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he said he'd cut off the Pope's head and offer him up as the Living Sacrifice!"
"N-now, surely he wouldn't go that far."
"Right? Of course. Surely not."
They say "surely not" is exactly what gets a man killed. And Shuri, at this very moment, was making his pupils tremble like a man in an earthquake.
Holy crap… Isaac, you little bastard, are you out of your goddamn mind right now??
Get ready to cut off the Pope's head.
You insane son of a bitch!! Where the hell did this note even come from?!
Shuri saw red and tore Isaac's letter to shreds, then burned it on the spot in case anyone might see it.
He wanted to believe it was a joke, but the situation was anything but ordinary.
"Lord Shuri! All forces are ready!"
"We can move in at any moment!"
"!"
They were deep inside Verite Territory. And the Blue Faith knights who were Isaac's personal slaves—no, the knight order sworn directly to the young lord, the Ghost Whales, had set up their siege lines.
Their eyes gleamed as they declared they could sever the Pope's head at a moment's notice.
"The Pope…! I have not forgotten the grudge of being turned away at the gates!"
"At last, the neck comes off!!! PWAHAHAHA!"
"Ohh! Time for the slaughter!"
Are these clergymen or the Demon King's army? Good grief.
Anyway—why are we here again?
The Pope is hiding out at a villa in Verite Territory right now. Guess the little rat didn't want suspicious eyes on him staying at the Holy See. Puhuhu.
Well, technically it wasn't a villa but a monastery belonging to Verite—but regardless, that was why they had come: the Pope himself had come to Verite.
And he scurried over all by his lonesome, too. Puhuhu.
Fine, great, he came alone. And that means we cut his head off, you lunatic?!
Shuri gritted his teeth as he entered the monastery where the Pope resided. His forces were holding the entrance, but the bulk of the Blue knights were already locked in confrontation with Verite's knights nearby.
Krang!Kaboom!
"Gwaaagh!"
"Kuhak!"
KWAAM!KWAAM!
Screams and the sound of the monastery exploding rang out from all directions.
But Shuri knew at once—every last one of those screams belonged to the Gold knights.
Sure enough, the Gold knights seemed utterly stunned by the Blue ambush. They had never imagined that the Blue Faith, of all factions, would strike first—and the skill of the knights was chilling beyond belief.
"Damn it! Raise the barrier of Exclusion!"
"Where in the world did these things crawl out from—gwah!"
"Kgh! They vanished again!"
It was no accident these were frontline-forged veterans; their movements were anything but ordinary.
Of course, this was only a minor monastery in Verite Territory—short-staffed compared to the main see, and thus more vulnerable to a surprise attack. But the Gold clergy were no fools either.
"Kgh! How the hell did these bastards get all the way into Verite?!"
"We never sensed a thing!"
The Gold Faith was an order specialized in barriers and defense.
Accordingly, detection barriers that registered every entrant had been woven across Verite Territory at all times. The moment anyone set foot inside, they would be noticed instantly.
If they were people of another faith, there was simply no way they could have slipped through unnoticed.
"How did they get past the barrier?"
"How? Simple. You should've lived honestly."
"!!"
A familiar voice, and then an explosion.
KWAAM!!
The Gold knights caught in the blue blast collapsed where they stood. Shuri turned deathly pale as he looked upon the culprit who had hurled them.
"Are you INSANE?! You're firing anti-demon destructive holy arts at clergymen?!"
Among the things strictly forbidden within the Blue Faith were lethal arts—holy arts used to attack human beings.
"There are anti-personnel arts for exactly that! Use THOSE!"
At that, Isaac clicked his tongue, as if to say that's exactly why you're so weak.
"Yeah, well, those bastards are the Demon race's underlings. My eyes see everything."
This bastard. The moment he becomes Saint, he's just going to declare everything he dislikes 'demonic,' isn't he.
Shuri pressed a hand to his forehead.
"You—if Grandpa finds out about this, you're going to get scold—"
"Isaac."
"!!!"
At the sound of his grandfather's voice from behind, Shuri flinched violently. He froze solid before Eli's terrifying face, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly.
"L-Lord Head of House! This is… that is to say…!"
"If you're going to do it, make sure no evidence remains."
KWAAM!!
Eli snapped his fingers, and an entire wing of the building simply flew apart.
Shuri screamed.
"Clean up the evidence of lethal arts being used properly."
Um, excuse me? Grandpa? There's no evidence left because there's NOTHING left. The building just ceased to exist.
But Eli paid it no mind and strode ahead.
"They won't die from anything this minor. They'll simply stay unconscious for a year or so."
Um… isn't THAT the bigger problem?
Shuri slapped the Gold knights' cheeks again and again, but they showed no sign of waking.
Before long, Isaac—feeling just a twinge of conscience—spoke to him.
"Get it together. Those bastards aren't idiots either; we have to finish it in one blow. If we go soft and half-hearted, the fight drags on and forces pointless bloodshed. Besides, the Imperial Family is all fired up and actively helping us—this much is the least they deserve."
"!"
It was true that they owed their entry into Verite Territory to the Imperial Family. The Crown had cast a camouflage spell that pierced the territory's detection barriers, guaranteeing the ambush's success.
Dragons really are something else.
No—that wasn't the point right now.
We have to strike the Pope fast and withdraw before the Gold Cardinal arrives here with reinforcements…….
That was the moment.
KWAAM!!
"!"
They flinched as they pressed into the monastery. With a thunderous explosion, the doors of the chapel-side hall blew apart. There was no need to guess whose doing it was.
Urgh…!
Shuri froze solid at the searing wave of holy power.
In all the Empire, there was exactly one person capable of wielding holy arts of this magnitude.
"I never imagined the Blue Faith harbored such rat-like treachery in its ranks."
The Pope!
He had apparently come out in person to face the commotion.
The moment the Pope emerged from within the chapel, Eli immediately pushed his grandchildren back.
"You two—seal the entrance."
It meant: let no one reach this place. The moment anyone engaged the Pope, a wind of blood would sweep through everything nearby.
At the same time, Isaac dragged Shuri along with an exasperated sigh.
"Ugh, seriously, Shuri Kim. I sent you the note, didn't I? We should've cut off the Pope's head ages ago."
What part of any of that—
Seeing Shuri struck dumb, Isaac looked down on him with open contempt.
"Yeah, cutting off heads really was too much to ask of you."
Shuri reached for his collar, then thought better of it.
"Forget it. Let's seal the entrance first. We have to finish this before the Gold Cardinal and the Gold reinforcements arrive from the capital."
He couldn't very well leave them to Grandpa's mercy.
"Should I ask Uncle Rillai where he is?"
"No. Rillai isn't coming."
"!"
Rillai had been deliberately left out of the deployment. Benyamin had ordered him kept at his side, so that he wouldn't go entertaining pointless notions.
Leah's in the White Cardinal's hands, so she should be fine.
Even if coming here was, in truth, for the sake of the Saintess's awakening.
Right. Then before the Gold Cardinal comes swarming from the capital, let's head ov—
But that was when it happened.
KWAAM!
Golden light poured down from the direction of the entrance. And at the sight of the figure it revealed, Shuri's heart nearly stopped.
It was none other than Kina.
She made it from the capital all the way here already?
Kina, uncharacteristically furious, was glaring at Isaac and Shuri.
"I knew the Blue Faith was shameless, but I never dreamed you'd cross the line this far. Launching an assault on the Pope himself?"
Isaac, as though he had predicted this very moment, shoved Shuri forward.
He hadn't dragged Shuri here for nothing.
"You block her instead of me."
"WHAT? Are you insane?! How am I supposed to block HER?!"
"Use this."
Isaac pressed something into Shuri's hand. It was an extremely suspicious object.
"What even IS this?"
"You won't be able to land a single hit on her."
"That's not what I asked!"
"Trust me."
Trust YOU?!
"More importantly, what are you going to do?!"
"This humble body has separate business to attend to."
Isaac let out a pfft of laughter and breezed right past him.