The Saint's Awakening (3)
This little bastard??
Elai could only stare at Isaac, utterly dumbfounded.
And no wonder. His grandson was going around declaring that he didn't care if his grandfather died, and now he'd gone and let the Pope hear that the Eshua bloodline was being raised properly?
And on top of that…….
Boooh!
…He stole the Family Head's divine beast too? My divine beast?
Elai's gaze turned to the whale floating behind Isaac. Drifting lazily through the air as it nuzzled its face against the boy, the whale divine beast was none other than Taranbloom, the mount of the Family Head itself.
As the beast's master, Elai could hardly help but be dumbstruck. In fact, he hadn't sprinted all the way here at high speed for nothing. He'd tried to summon Taranbloom, but the whale hadn't responded today. He could have forced it, of course, but he'd left it be on the off chance the beast was in love…….
And it turned out Isaac had stolen it? The look Elai fixed on his grandson turned vicious.
"Isaac. Why is Taranbloom here?"
At that menacing voice, Isaac's thoughts scrambled. Ah, crap.
"W-well, you see, Go-dol was worried when Benyamin vanished, and he wanted to serve as an active force for the Blue Faith! So I had no choice but to bring him along. Please forgive me!"
…Really? Because those eyes were screaming 'I brought what's mine with me — what's the problem?' from every angle.
"Grandfather, please forgive Go-dol!"
No, you're the one who should be punished here.
"Go-dol is innocent!!!"
I'm talking about YOU!
"Enough of this! What crime could a poor, innocent whale possibly have committed!"
In the end, faced with that shameless gaze, the Family Head could only press a hand to his brow.
A clergyman committing theft…….
He felt the need for proper home education more keenly than ever before.
But that could wait. What mattered right now were the eyesore Gold clergymen standing before him.
"Sweep them away, Taranbloom."
At the Family Head's command, the whale's docile eyes changed in an instant. Then it swelled to the full size the Family Head usually rode it in and began rampaging.
KRAKOOM!!
"GWAAAH!!"
"AAAGH!"
Taranbloom's rampage brought the building crashing down, and the clergymen scrambled away, screaming.
Leaving the cleanup to his divine beast, Elai turned toward Noel. Amid the fleeing priests, Noel stood rooted in place, frozen stiff.
No — it would be more accurate to say he'd frozen solid the moment he laid eyes on Elai.
And sure enough.
"What are you doing here?"
"……!"
At his father's roar, Noel felt his heart plummet. The color drained from his face. He had never imagined that his father, who had gone to House Berith, would appear here.
Don't tell me — Isaac summoned him……!
But his stammering, tongue-tied panic lasted only a moment before Noel swiftly recovered his composure.
I have to choose my words carefully here.
"Th-the Saintess's awakening was said to be necessary, so I was observing the ceremony. Seeing as you were absent, Father."
Elai's brow rose in undisguised displeasure.
"Who exactly said the Saintess's awakening was necessary?"
"It's obviously necessary! Take the Saintess away from Eshua, and what's left of the family?"
"I had no idea you were so devoted to the family."
At Elai's words, Noel blinked his eyes earnestly, as if pleading to be believed.
"Devotion to Eshua is all I have ever felt."
"I see. And a man devoted to Eshua just happens to be leading a pack of Gold clergymen. What a lovely sight that is."
"……!"
"Since when have you belonged to the Gold?"
At his father's murderous voice, sweat poured down Noel's face. He understood instinctively: one wrong word here, and this could genuinely end very badly.
So he chose the most Eshua-appropriate answer he could.
"What are you saying? This is all for the Saintess's awakening……."
The Family Head glared down at Noel, furious.
"I asked when you sold the Blue out to the Gold, and when you made your contract with the Gold god."
Noel froze.
There's no way he saw through it all the way to that…?
At Noel's expression, Isaac, watching from the sidelines, let out a snort of laughter.
Well, he hasn't actually completed the contract yet, it seems.
Isaac could feel it — the man was trying to curry favor with the Gold to receive their blessing. Sure enough, a faint trace of the Gold blessing's energy clung to him, barely perceptible.
Guess the Gold Cardinal lent him some power.
He'd apparently tried to cover his tracks, but there was no hiding it from Isaac's or Elai's eyes.
"I'll let it slide for now, since there are more pressing matters — but I will not simply let this pass."
"……!"
At Elai's threat, Noel bit his lip. There was no way he didn't understand what was being implied. He would certainly be punished.
Elai soon moved toward the door, and the Gold clergymen reflexively tried to block him—
"If you don't want to die, get out of the way."
Under Elai's gaze, the priests felt their heads bow of their own accord, a strangled hup escaping their throats. They were scared, and scared was putting it far too mildly.
As Elai moved to open the door, Noel blocked his path. If he couldn't turn the Family Head's heart around now, things would become truly dire.
"Father, do not be swayed by personal sentiment!"
"!"
"I understand why you might wish to halt the Saintess's awakening! You want to protect your bloodline! But delaying the awakening of a Saintess who has openly reached the 9th Tier is, in itself, an act of betrayal against the gods and the Empire!"
Noel pressed on desperately.
"Even as we stand here, the Skeleton Demon King is slaughtering humans! Is the Saintess not the very herald who will slay the Skeleton Demon King and deliver mankind?"
Isaac, listening, was dumbfounded.
Well, to be precise, that guy's my knockoff.
Since when were you this obsessed with the Skeleton Demon King?
But Noel knew better.
This argument will land with Father.
Creating the Saintess had been Eshua's ancient mission. As Family Head, Elai could hardly pretend not to see it — even if it meant a nonsensical contract demanding his own children as living sacrifices.
And in fact, the Family Head fell silent at Noel's words.
The Blue is a faith devoted to protecting the small and the weak.
But that sphere of protection did not include Eshua's own bloodline. The children of Eshua were, all of them, instruments for upholding the Blue — 'Guardians of the Faith.'
Which meant that allowing a Saintess who had already reached the 9th Tier to remain dormant was an absurdity. It was an act that violated the Family Head's very mission.
Even now, Elai knew Noel was right.
But.
-Please, never neglect your family. Your grandfather's fingers are also the weak ones you must cradle in your arms, together.
Elai remembered what Isaac had said to him long ago.
In Elai's silence, Noel decided he'd won, and smiled inwardly.
Eshua's mission?
Frankly, he couldn't have cared less about any of that.
What mattered was this: if Leah awakened as the Saintess, Benyamin would die.
The Papal house wanted his death, and beyond that — disposing of that eyesore of a second son? What a delightful prospect!
With Benyamin gone, the Eshua assets under his management would flow freely as well.
Well, I don't particularly like it, but the Eshua name is worth a fortune.
That would be true of any of the Five Great Families, but the Blue especially — thanks to everything its members had accomplished — stood as the most prestigious name on the continent after Berith.
Even now, lenders across the continent would extend credit on the mere word that one was a direct descendant of Eshua.
And so, eyes gleaming, Noel pressed his persuasion.
"Father, honestly, I cannot understand you. You have always been the most rigorous of anyone in your duties as Family Head. Brother Benyamin, too — if he is an Eshua, he surely understands his own mission well enough. Our people are born for this very purpose."
Isaac was thoroughly incredulous.
Ha. The one person in the entire family who gives less of a damn about duty than anybody else, and he's pulling this sanctimonious act. Unbelievable.
"So Brother Benyamin — no, all of them — would surely regard becoming a living sacrifice for the gods not as a tragedy, but as an honor. Has it not been that way all along?"
Yeah, no. Enough of this.
Leave him alone and he'll just keep spewing this garbage…….
Just as Isaac was about to move, sparks flashed before Noel's eyes.
CRACK!!!!
Elai's fist flew straight into Noel's face.
KA-BOOM!!
In an instant, Noel was blasted clear across the room, slamming into the wall in a spray of blood.
Not just his face — his neck, the shoulder blade connected to it, and all the way down to his spine. Noel's upper body shattered, and a scream-laced groan spilled from his lips.
Then Elai's voice, steeped in killing intent, rang out.
"Do not dare lay the mission of Eshua upon that rotten tongue of yours."
"……!"
The noble sacrifices of all those who had given themselves for Eshua over the generations were not something a creature like him could cheapen with his petty mouth.
Flustered, Noel gritted his teeth, as if to say this wasn't how it was supposed to go.
"Father, that's not—"
Elai delivered his sentence.
"As of today, you are forbidden from bearing the name of Eshua."
"……?!"
…Wh-what did you just say?
"At the same time, you are excommunicated from the Five Faiths, and permanently expelled from House Eshua."
It was a bolt from the blue. Noel's mind simply broke.
Stripping the Eshua name by the Family Head's authority. Excommunication from the Five Faiths by a Cardinal's authority! This was, for all practical purposes, being demoted to a common serf.
As Isaac snickered at the expression on his face, the boy sauntered over to Noel.
"There you have it."
Isaac ripped the blue jewel that all direct descendants of Eshua wore without a moment's hesitation.
"Maybe try behaving yourself from now on, hm?"
Driven to the wall by Isaac's taunting, Noel screamed that this could not be allowed to stand.
"It doesn't matter if you try to stop the Saintess's awakening! The news has already spread across the Empire! The people are hoping she will be the one to protect them from the Skeleton Demon King! To block this would be the downfall of the Blue itself! Just think of how they'll see us— khk!"
Elai hit Noel again, cracking his ribs.
"I believe I just said you are no longer an Eshua."
"……!!"
Elai then opened the door, gesturing for Isaac to follow. As they stepped inside, the observers within jumped back in alarm.
"The Saintess's awakening ceremony is in progress! No one may enter!"
"It is strictly decreed that no one but the participants may— KEHK!"
Isaac kicked the ceremonial priest clear across the room.
"You're the ones who broke the rules and pushed ahead without permission, you bastards."
"!"
They made for the site where the living sacrifice would be offered. On the way, Elai spoke to Isaac, almost as a word of advice.
"Much as it pains me to say it — Noel is right."
"!"
"Remember this well. When the god appears, it's over. Once the summoning completes, there is no stopping it. The living sacrifice must be handed over. So you must get Benyamin and Joseph out of there before it manifests."
But Isaac simply smirked.
I'm sorry — before the god appears?
Hmm, no. That wasn't really the plan.
See, I've gotta see that bastard's face for myself.
It had been sixteen years — sixteen full years — since the gods had beaten him and shoved him into this body.
Isaac had been waiting for this moment all along.
This would be the first domino in toppling the gods within the Holy Empire itself.
Everything until now was just an avatar, nothing I could actually punch. But this one's different.
So — which of the bastards would descend first? Kuk.