The Truth Revealed (3)
Noel could still remember it as if it had happened yesterday — the day, some twenty years ago, when his mother Henna, the spitting image of the Pope, brought home a child of unknown origin.
"What is this infant?"
"His name is Samael. From today, he is your child."
"...I beg your pardon?"
"What's the matter? It isn't as though you're incapable of siring children of your own."
"......!"
"You know the truth full well, and it must never come to light. Your brother Goel is a 4th-Tier piece of trash not even worth considering — you are the only one left for me to rely on."
"Mother, please don't concern yourself. As for the succession, an adopted heir would settle it just fine."
"Don't play the dutiful son in front of me. No one knows better than you do. Did you truly believe a flaw like that would let you defeat Adam?"
I know it all perfectly well. Noel knew, too, that his mother, hopelessly in love with Eli Eshua, had begged her own brother — the Pope — until she was married into the ducal house of Eshua. And he knew just how ruthless she was: after Goel she had borne a daughter, and had been perfectly capable of killing her own child.
Well, I can more or less guess why she killed the girl.
In any case, one fact remained unchangeable: as long as Adam existed, Noel would never become head of the family. And Adam had been flawless in every respect — character, ability, everything — as though some god had sculpted him to be a Saint.
So Noel had tried to take it by force.
By swapping the child.
The knowledge that a Saintess's awakening required a living sacrifice was something he had possessed through the Papal house from the very beginning.
And so, when the servants had all been slaughtered by the demons and only the infants remained, Noel had taken it as an opportunity handed down by God himself. Every remaining witness was killed. His wife? He had pretended not to notice her dying.
It had been a loveless marriage arrangement from the start — and no affection could possibly bloom for a woman carrying a child of unknown fatherhood. Had the baby been a daughter, there might at least have been some use for it, but a son without a drop of Eshua blood? Meaningless.
And so he had raised Kaya with the utmost devotion — first as a pawn to bring down the eldest son, and then as a pawn to kill Isaac.
Not that it hadn't grated on him, the way the Papal house — having caught on to Kaya's secret — had cooperated while simultaneously subjecting him to quiet blackmail.
"Looks like that Papal house of yours is the one about to fall first."
Noel was thoroughly delighted to have run into his cousin at the Papal Court. He grinned like a predator toying with its prey, blocking the path of the Gold Cardinal, who was clearly trying to slip away from him.
"My, my. What a sorry state you're in, Lord Hirei."
"!"
"You people are being cut off over the whole fake Pope affair, and everyone's trusting Isaac enough to hand him their commissions."
"!"
"What, am I wrong? This is a whole different order of magnitude from last time, when Blue walked off with every national project and you took the loss."
"......!"
"Good heavens — Gold, suffering a humiliation like this? Isn't it the first time in thousands of years? About to have the papacy snatched away too? So you were nothing but fools fattening up Blue for slaughter, were you? One Isaac, and everything's gone to ruin."
Finally, the Gold Cardinal's patience snapped and he seized Noel by the collar.
"Shut your mouth! It's because you can't do your one job that the Isaac brat runs rampant! Where was this tongue of yours when you were confidently promising to seize the headship and taking all our help?!"
Noel swatted the Cardinal's hand away without a moment's hesitation.
"You're the ones who failed. Why the hell are you barking at me? This is exactly why you should have awakened Kaya first, not Leah!"
"......!"
"And in the end, all you did was strengthen the other side! Think about it — if you'd awakened Kaya first, Isaac would have been made a living sacrifice and died on the spot!"
The Gold Cardinal glared at Noel with open disgust.
"So you have that much time to spare these days, that you come here to gloat?"
"Nope. I came to share something precious with you. Isaac pulled the Core right out of the God of Awakening."
"...What did you say?!"
The Gold Cardinal was struck speechless with shock. The God of Awakening had been burnt to complete ash — nothing remained of it. Hadn't the Black Cardinal, who had received the corpse for investigation, said as much himself?
"You're joking, yes? What am I supposed to do with this slab of fish meat?"
"Fish fle— Show some reverence before a god, Balrag. Rudeness is not excused merely because it is not the Black God."
"Then you should have brought back the Core instead. I'd have treated it like a mermaid, then."
"A... mermaid......"
"In any case, this will be of little help to you."
"Enough. Investigate it. Find out whatever there is to find."
"Ah — if it still had its Core, I might have taken a greater interest in your people."
What? A Core?
That bastard is completely out of his mind.
The God's Core.
To put it precisely, it was a fragment of a god's very origin — the final power that gods left behind for humankind. Normally, humans offered up tribute and used it graciously: to bring a bountiful harvest, to cure disease, to strengthen armies. It took many forms.
But whatever form it took, with a Core in hand, anyone could be powered up without condition. Who wouldn't see that they meant to use it to raise up the Black house?
And Isaac had taken it??
When the hell did he even—
Noel let out a derisive snort.
"He's apparently using it to power up his knights. And himself."
Figures. Being the God of Awakening, that's the use it's better suited for anyway.
The Gold Cardinal's eyebrows twitched.
"Besides — Isaac's weakness lies in the healing holy arts of the White faith. Surely that covers it?"
"Why, you...!"
The Gold Cardinal barely stopped the double stream of curses from flying out of his mouth. That brat was exactly like his father — obstructing him at every single turn!
In truth, now that evidence of the fake Pope had come to light, the Gold Cardinal had intended to swiftly acknowledge it and proceed with the papal election — the Conclave. His plan was to elevate Kina as quickly as possible. Right now, she was the only one who could ascend to the papal seat.
And now, what?
Noel smiled venomously at the sight of that expression.
"So this time, I'll be the one helping you. I'll take care of Isaac for you."
The Gold Cardinal dismissed him outright, as if the very idea exhausted him.
"With the God of Awakening gone, what could you possibly do? Don't tell me you mean to fight him head-on. You? You've truly resolved to have your head taken by Duke Eshua, haven't you?"
Noel gave a short, contemptuous laugh.
"Don't you know? The God of Awakening that died this time was the God of Awakening of Light."
"!"
"There is one more God of Awakening. The God of Awakening of Darkness. A hidden secret, deeply sealed within House Eshua."
"......!"
"It wields tremendous power, but they buried it because mishandled, it's a straight road to becoming a dark priest. Its awakening works exactly the same way, too. It seizes a living sacrifice. The only difference is — it will hunt you down until it eats one."
Noel trailed off there, as if that much should be enough, and named his price.
"So you people handle Father. I have poor compatibility with Father."
The Gold Cardinal looked at him in sheer disbelief.
"Why should I listen to a word you say?"
"Oh, come off it. It was all fine when you were using me, but now it's me who has to die? Do you have any idea how many of your weaknesses I'm holding? Who was it that trafficked with demons and orchestrated the attack on our eldest brother? Want me to dig the whole thing up and expose it?"
The Gold Cardinal's eyes bulged.
"You dare incite the murder of a family head? You will not get off with mere expulsion for this."
But Noel puffed up with triumphant confidence.
"Eshua will never be able to touch me. Because they all believe I am the Saintess's father."
Meanwhile, Isaac was snickering to himself.
Ohh, what a fine piece of material has landed in my hands.
To think Noel of all people had swapped out his own child. This was excellent material to bring the entire Noel camp crashing down in one stroke.
No — why stop at Noel? This was a chance to sweep away the whole opposition in one pass.
Well, this other thing comes first, though.
Isaac drew out the golden lump of light he had torn from the God of Awakening's body beforehand.
At the sight of it, Shalach, his king-grade holy spirit, clicked his tongue.
[Ripping that thing out and storing it was a royal pain in the ass, I'll have you know. And let me make one thing clear — don't think your payment ends with a paltry trifle or two.]
Kheheheheh. Sure, sure. I'll pay you handsomely.
Isaac had commissioned his own holy spirit to store the god's power for him. Even he couldn't bring himself to let Whisper swallow raw holy power, after all.
Only a holy spirit could hold something of this caliber.
And this being's origin was Awakening.
With just this, I can—
'Even without Saintess blood, every single one of them can be upgraded!'
And that wasn't the half of it.
'With this, I can finally reach the Transcendental Tier I've been longing for!'
Driven half-mad by the thought, Isaac curled his lips into a wicked grin and activated the Core.
FLASH!
In the same instant, the power of the God of Awakening flooded into his body.
Isaac poured all of it into his Magic Core.
WHUMP!
His existing Magic Core had been more than strong enough already — but he had been squeezing his holy spirit dry like a sponge, frantically laying the groundwork toward the Transcendental Tier. And yet even all that effort could guarantee nothing, because the Transcendental Tier was precisely that kind of realm.
'But if I force-advance my Magic Core with the God of Awakening's power...!'
And then, in that moment—
Isaac's eyes snapped wide open.
"YES! It finally worked!"
[Ooooh!! My lord! You've finally done it!]
'That's right! The root I could never grow as a skeleton — it's finally sprouted!'
Did anyone know how one actually reached the Transcendental Tier?
At the highest step — the 10th Tier — growth simply ends. To put it simply, you arrive at the edge of the world, and there is nothing before your eyes but a sheer cliff. To cross that cliff into new land, you had to build a bridge. A root must sprout, a stem must rise — a bridge capable of stretching out in any direction you choose.
From that point onward lay the realm of the Transcendental Tier.
And it was an absolute nightmare to attempt in this wretched skeleton form!
'Only the root has taken hold so far, but the Transcendental Tier is now within reach!'
A foothold to advance beyond the 10th Tier had at last been laid. And so Isaac bellowed:
"There, look at that! Incredible, right? Didn't I tell you to trust me?!"
But Shuri and the knights, watching the scene, only narrowed their brows.
"...What are you doing?"
"...I don't detect any change, my lord?"
"What do you mean, what?!"
Met with gazes that treated him like a lunatic, Isaac was flabbergasted.
"Hey! K-Shuri!! You seriously can't feel that?!"
"...Feel what, exactly?"
"Do you have any idea what I just did with this? I grew a root, that's what! With this, it's lightspeed all the way to the 9th Tier!"
"...Huh?"
"To put it simply — I've built the stepping stone to the higher tiers!"
They tilted their heads as though he were speaking a foreign language.
"Ah, I know that one. The ancient training method, right? The one where you drive yourself to the absolute limit."
"Hey. If that's the goal, you ought to pray harder to the gods and receive their power instead. Why bother with some dusty old method? It takes forever and it's nothing but pain."
"WHAT did you say?!"
Isaac clutched the back of his neck.
'You absolute imbeciles!'
Praying to the gods has a ceiling!
Without this, you can never reach the Transcendental Tier!
"I went to all this trouble to raise you bastards to the absolute peak, huh?! With this — dammit! — you could beat mages, gods, AND dragons!"
But Shuri and the Blue knights, entirely ignorant of that fact, muttered among themselves.
"Our lord did say he would awaken us all, but... perhaps it truly is beyond the likes of us?"
"That's what I was thinking. The man killed a god and everything — what an impious believer."
Isaac trembled from head to toe in barely suppressed fury.
'Hah. Do you people have any idea how monumental this is?'
Not even noticing something of this magnitude.
'Backwards humans, the lot of them.'
[You are human yourself, my lord.]
'Shut it.'
"Anyway — you lot. You were all green with envy over Joseph and Benyamin awakening, weren't you? I'm the one who awakened the two of them, so you'll do exactly as I say."
"But..."
"I'll guarantee you this: the Benyamin and Joseph that I awakened will beat every last one of you."
"!"
"Even Rillai would lose to Benyamin or Joseph??"
"Wh-wh-what? Me??"
Rillai, who had been standing quietly to the side, went round-eyed, and the Blue knights laughed it off as a joke not to be taken seriously.
"...Oh, come now. That's a stretch — those two are 6th Tier and 5th Tier. Lord Rillai is 9th Tier, and we're all 8th Tier."
Isaac's blood boiled.
"FIGHT!!"
"Pardon?"
"What?"
"Fight them one-on-one, you damn blockheads!"
"WHAT?!"
Isaac's eyes burned like coals.
"Especially YOU, Kim Shuri! If I'm right, you'll all be put to work on the spot, immediately. And for you lot, it will NOT end with a slap on the wrist!"
...Say what now?