What Did You Just Say? (4)
"So you never saw it after all."
Rillai clutched his face in despair.
Having finally fed his nephew five hundred Julius fruits, Rillai dropped his head in defeat.
The body of the Skeleton Demon King?
It hadn't appeared.
No wait—it was only the Skeleton Demon King's body that hadn't appeared, right?
"Good heavens, and after eating all that, his little bottom is perfectly fine. If anything, he looks even healthier than before."
At his nanny Asili's words, Rillai sank to the floor and clutched the earth in anguish.
"Our Isaac…! His bowels are magnificent…! This uncle could not be more proud…!"
Are you actually proud about that?
Isaac kept sucking away at his bottle.
Well, whatever. Thanks to his uncle force-feeding him whatever Julius-grown fruit it was for half a month, things had worked out fine, he supposed.
Something about raising affinity with divine beasts, was it?
He didn't know the reason, but with no diarrhea to speak of, he could absorb one hundred percent of the fruit's nutrients. This was a fruit most people couldn't eat no matter how much they wanted to, after all.
Not that he cared much for divine beasts of the filthy holy faction.
Back in his Demon King days, he'd rationed out premium mealworms to the demon children—no, wait, that would be the enemy faction's beasts, but times had changed, hadn't they?
In the holy faction, divine beasts were treated as rare spirit-beasts, serving as instruments of war or partners.
They say divine beasts are especially the exclusive patent—and the breadwinners—of the 'White Faith.'
Well, roughly speaking, each faith apparently had its own distinct weapons and holy arts.
So building affinity was a good thing.
If I want to crush the Pope—and the gods beyond him—it's essential.
Anyway, he'd been wondering why his uncle was despairing so hard over failing to extract the Skeleton Demon King's body, when—
"Young Master, it seems the Family Head has arrived. He's summoned everyone to the banquet."
"…Damn it. Too late, huh?"
Apparently it was connected to the Family Head's arrival. The whole manor's atmosphere had completely changed.
Even now, being carried to the hall in Rillai's arms, he could feel it.
"Good heavens, it was really true—the Family Head came home…!"
House Eshua's knights and priests stood speechless before the Family Head's divine beast, which looked just like a great white whale.
"Taranbloom!"
"To think he'd return in the middle of his pilgrimage."
Why? Is the master of the house coming to his own house really that shocking?
The old man probably just wants to sprawl out and sleep in his own bed for once.
"Honestly, I am surprised. I didn't expect him back until the Skeleton Demon King was found."
Damn it! Turn right back around! Fall over from arthritis already!
But the Family Head's return was more than enough to put everyone on high alert.
Naturally so—never mind the living incarnation that was the Matriarch, but the Family Head himself, Eli Eshua?
He was practically the king of every priest on the continent who followed the Blue Faith.
And a man like that had cut his pilgrimage short—all because of some Eshua runt?
"Isaac, sir, the Family Head himself came to see you—that's incredible! Eli is the head of the Blue Faith and one of the seven greatest on the continent!"
Yeah, great and all, but just another demon-hunter the Demon King has no love for.
Cardinals were, in fact, the highest-ranking clergy after the Pope. Legend had it that the Demon Kings of old were exorcised one after another by men like him.
And his grandfather was a cardinal?
Oh joy! How wonderful for me.
No, wait. He's a human of the holy faction now. As long as Melissa isn't around, I should be fine?
Melissa… damn it all.
What was it Rillai had said again?
The moment word reached him through the communication channel that he'd fed Isaac the Skeleton Demon King's body, the Matriarch had supposedly said:
"Cut it open."
"Pardon?"
"Cut the belly open. Take it out."
"…He'd die, Mother!"
"Hm? He won't. Split him open and stitch him back up, he'll be even sturdier than before."
"That is no way to speak of your son!"
"It's fine. I will protect every man of House Eshua. I'll make them all sturdier."
At those words, Rillai had despaired.
Either way, it was still talk of cutting him open!
And hearing this story, Isaac could only clutch the back of his neck with his rattle.
That woman's personality is as monstrous as ever. Damn it!
The Saintess had always been holy knights with the strongest bodies in existence, but Melissa had been exceptional even among them.
A genius of raw force rather than holy arts, she could turn any object into a weapon, and her transcendent combat instincts and physical prowess had long since carried her to a demigod's realm.
If she ever found out…
Pass into the light. Amen.
As if reading his thoughts, Rillai lifted Isaac high into the air.
"B-but you see, Mother truly cherishes the children. Especially the sons of Eshua…"
No, she's a lunatic!!
Is cutting open a baby's stomach normal to you?!
But whatever. It didn't really matter.
"Mother said she'd deal with the Skeleton Demon King herself—she said she found him partway through and would resolve it before returning."
Whoever it is, may they rest in peace.
Anyway, the Family Head was an important man.
If the Matriarch was the family's absolute guardian deity, then the Family Head was the CEO.
Funding, succession, political power—one of the people who could genuinely shape the future of 'Isaac Eshua' in all the practical matters that counted.
Above all, his Survival Origin was practically dancing with joy today, glittering atop the Family Head's head and the dining hall's candlesticks alike.
It was no accident that his Survival instinct had so heartily recommended this place.
Follow the Survival Origin, and wealth and glory shall be mine.
The goal of this life: luxury, and more luxury!
Best of all, Eli Eshua, whom he'd met in the dining hall, seemed—unlike Melissa—perfectly sane.
Between House Eshua's two supreme rulers, the choice was obvious!
Yes, no need to associate with the lunatic who orders babies sliced open…
"Burn him."
"…Pardon?"
"Are you deaf? I ordered you to throw that child into the fire and extract the Skeleton Demon King's body."
DAMN IT!! Survival Origin! What the hell happened to you!
This Family Head bastard is a lunatic in an entirely different way!
God damn it! Honestly, Melissa might be the better option!
At least she doesn't plan on killing me!
Reeling from this father's shocking words right on the heels of his mother's, Rillai seemed to despair as well.
"Father. That cannot be done."
Yes, good. You handle these lunatics, Uncle.
"An infant is far too young to be placed in the fire!"
Idiot! Putting him in the fire at all is the problem!
But at the Family Head's words, strangely enough, Goel bit his lip.
Why?
If someone ordered the baby burned to death, shouldn't that bastard be clapping and welcoming it with open arms?
Then why was he looking at Isaac as though the child had just won some grand prize?
Even the elders of Goel's faction looked genuinely startled.
"Family Head, that is far too great a reward for the child! The holy fire, for one who has not even undergone his Ordination…!"
"More to the point, he has no parents! A child who doesn't even resemble the Young Duke, with no proof of Eshua blood—how could you grant him such a fire!"
God, so what the hell IS this fire, you bastards?!
Soon enough, Goel spoke with a look of feigned reluctance.
"It's true that if you place him in that fire of the Blue Temple, even the Skeleton Demon King's body could be drawn out. At the very least, he might even receive the fire's blessing and grow stronger for it."
What, a blessing?
Weren't you bastards trying to shove me in there and cremate me?
No wonder the sputtering frog-face looked like he'd chewed on dung.
Of course that's the reaction when you say a baby's getting stronger through the blessed fire.
There's no way he'd wish for his nephew to gain power.
And sure enough—
"But that fire is far too much for Isaac. He should at least pass through the Ordination Ceremony first…"
The Ordination Ceremony was the rite that formally appointed graduates as full-fledged priests, much like the knights' investiture.
At that, the Family Head spoke.
"Ordination? By then, that child will already be bleached bones."
No, seriously, I finally become human, and this guy wants to turn me back into a skeleton.
"Besides, is it not impossible to physically extract the Skeleton Demon King's body from him? Even a mere fragment belongs to the strongest Demon King. Left alone, the child's life force will be drained away by the Demon King's miasma."
Nope, nothing's draining.
Actually, my skin's gotten so springy it's become a problem.
Do you have any idea how it feels to slap on Daddy's skincare for the first time in hundreds of years?
Anyway, it seemed the Family Head had come home because of the Skeleton Demon King's body after all.
Since it couldn't be extracted biologically or physically, he was borrowing the power of House Eshua's treasures.
And Goel found that profoundly objectionable.
Unexpectedly, though, this time even Rillai seemed to agree with Goel.
"Please reconsider the fire, Your Grace. If the child goes in, he could very well burn to death."
Ahh, there it is—Rillai, the devoted uncle.
That's right, that's right. I'll take good care of you later.
"If it comes to that, better to drown him in the water instead!"
You absolute—! What's the difference between cremation and drowning, you idiot!
But at Rillai's words, Goel flew into a rage.
"You would defile the waters of Eshua with the Demon King's miasma! Do you have any idea what that place is, that you'd toss such a child into it?"
You lunatics! Before all that, throwing a baby in water kills him!
I can't even cast underwater breathing magic yet!
But the fire and water they spoke of seemed to be extraordinarily special treasures.
Sure enough, the elders who disliked Isaac began to pile on.
These were, after all, the very people trying to drive Isaac out.
"The fire and water of the Blue Temple are both among House Eshua's secret arts, used to raise the Saintesses of old."
"And you would use them for a boy—worse, a boy whose abilities have never even been proven—all to keep him alive?"
Yeah, the harder they fight it, the better.
It just means I absolutely have to get my hands on it.
And right on cue, Rillai shot back.
"Haven't his abilities already been proven! He achieved that much in the treasury!"
Goel scoffed.
"Shuri was right there beside him. I'm told the boy spent most of his strength protecting Isaac. Defeating the demon spawn—that was all Shuri's doing as well."
"!"
Where the hell did that lie come from!
"And didn't the children who were present give testimony? That Isaac defeated the demon…"
"Saint candidates or not, they're still children. At an age when they can't tell fantasy from reality, how would they know who truly earned the credit? A child might easily mistake the power his Saintess mother lent him for his own."
This guy?
Rillai stared at Goel in sheer disbelief.
Granted, if Isaac won the Family Head's favor here, Goel's faction would suffer. Defending Shuri was understandable enough—but fabrication was just low.
But there had been no one in the treasury but the children, and the demon's rampage had severed communications.
There was no evidence to refute any of it.
That was when it happened.
"Family Head. Isaac used the sacred flame to burn something belonging to the Pope."
"Forgive our boldness, but in our eyes, he is a child worth raising as an heir."
The elder's eyes gleamed with grave sincerity.
Though they currently served as House Eshua's advisors, they were the legendary Sword Saints of the continent. And men like them never so much as broached the subject of succession.
That was why the Family Head looked genuinely surprised.
For the elders to go that far…
In truth, he hadn't come to see Isaac out of any high opinion of the child.
Only to ensure that 'another' child wouldn't die in House Eshua and fill the Matriarch with guilt.
And however the boy had managed it, he had walked out with the Skeleton Demon King's body—a modest reward was due.
After this affair, he was a child Eli would never set eyes on again anyway.
But something belonging to the Papal house, was it?
The moment the Family Head's gaze shifted, Goel ground his teeth.
Unlike the Matriarch, the Family Head was a cold man—and precisely because of that, a terrifying one.
Given the right conditions, a man who could raise a speechless infant to the headship of the Blue Faith and no one would blink.
"Did you truly burn it?"
"Yes! It was nothing less than the blue sacred flame!"
"Blue?"
"Yes! The Papal house brought Isaac a gift, and…"
Goel hastily cut in.
"It must have been the elder and Rillai who burned it!"
"!"
Their incredulous stares swung toward Goel.
"Brother! Weren't you there on the scene as well?!"
"We keep telling you, we didn't burn it!"
Goel sneered at his brother as though he were a hopeless fool.
"There's no proof either way, is there? I'll admit, I've thought well of Isaac since the treasury affair, but frankly I can't believe that. You're the one who brought in a child of unknown origins without any vetting, Rillai. How do we know you didn't light the flame yourself to push Isaac toward sainthood?"
"Brother! There were dozens of witnesses on the scene! Isaac burned the Papal house's…"
"You and the elder. Pretending a child cast the flame when you lit it yourselves—isn't that easy enough to do with your eyes closed?"
By that point, the elder and Rillai were on the verge of exploding.
What can I even do—there's no way to prove it!
After all, no one in their right mind would keep something belonging to the Papal house, an enemy of House Eshua.
"If only that medal had survived, it would have been the proof…!"
"So true. My apologies—it was my blunder, throwing away the medal."
Goel apologized while snickering openly.
"I honestly assumed it was Rillai who'd done it. I hurried to dispose of it so my dear brother wouldn't be held to account by the Papal house later—never imagined it would turn out like this. We're still searching the waste incinerator for it, so sooner or later…"
But then it happened.
"The medal? You mean this?"
…What?
In an instant, Goel's face froze, and every eye in the room swung to the Family Head.
With perfect indifference, Eli Eshua set a metal object down on the table.
"Found it on my way here."
At the sight of that object, every expression in the room changed.
No way—that's—!