The Steamless Scorched Rice Water Burns Hottest (3)
"What? A delegation came to Eshua?!"
At the butler's words, Rillai, who had been tending to Isaac, let out a hollow laugh.
"I never imagined they'd come all this way to fetch him in person."
After all, Rillai had been turning down every invitation addressed to Isaac for the past ten years.
The Papal Court had even offered him a priest's rank if only he would attend their banquets. The intent was so transparent it had been outright insulting.
They must have heard about Isaac's current condition and invited him just to mock him.
Indeed, the priestly rank they'd dangled had been an honorary one.
The kind of participation prize handed out to commoner children at festivals. Something far removed from the children of clergy families.
And what would that mean, if not mockery? That Isaac could never become a priest. And now, of all things, a Papal delegation?
The butler looked on with worry.
"Why would they go to such lengths to take the young master? Surely there's no ill intent...?"
"No, the people coming this time are fine. I know them well. They're scholars who train priests — recruiters, in other words."
"Recruiters?"
"Yes. Every priest counts when we're locked in a standoff with the demons, so they travel about searching for talent themselves. They can be trusted."
Priests were divided into two classes: elite clergy attached to the Papal Court, and monks serving remote provincial monasteries.
The ones required to sit examinations were the Papal Court priests, who held officer-grade standing.
And in truth, a Cardinal possessed enough power to make even a beggar a Papal priest on the spot — but by principle, one could not recommend one's own direct family for such a position.
And his father was hardly the man to break that rule.
"So, my father...?"
"Ah, yes. That may be why the head of the house agreed to the meeting, but..."
"But?"
"He said, and I quote, 'You little lunatic, what in the world is two hundred kilograms of chocolate and a hundred kilograms of candy supposed to be?'"
"...!"
Sweat poured down Rillai in sheets.
No — I hid it so carefully. How did Father find out?
The truth was that someone kept ordering chocolate and sweets in his father's name. With the recipient listed as Isaac!
In quantities of hundreds of kilograms. Daily, no less.
The culprit? Unknown!
Could someone be trying to harm Isaac?
It wouldn't be far-fetched. Confectionery was known as a symbol of corruption — poison to minors, who were vulnerable to temptation and addiction.
So absolute was the taboo that priests would never so much as touch it before coming of age.
Of course, the truth was that Isaac, sick to death of eating monastic gruel every single day, had ordered it in a fit of rage — but there was no way Rillai could know that.
I can't exactly return the deliveries, and Isaac devours every last bit before I can donate them to the neighbors...
Even now, the Skeleton Demon King's mana was seething. If Father learned that Isaac couldn't even manage to guard his own food, he would surely explode.
He seemed to have given up on Isaac, yes — but he still kept sending holy relics their way. Clearly he hadn't let go of hope yet.
"A-anyway, understood. I'll go greet the priests myself. It's a rare chance for Isaac to become a priest, after all..."
"I doubt it will do any good."
"Brother!"
Goel clicked his tongue and told Rillai not to go.
"I understand your wish to win Isaac a priest's rank, but those men won't be writing him a recommendation letter. Even if Isaac shows them his ability."
What kind of nonsense is that now?
"I know those scholars personally. There's no way they've come here with impure motives—"
At the look in Rillai's eyes, Goel smiled pityingly.
"No — three of them came. Two scholars, and one priest."
"!"
Rillai's face went rigid.
Don't tell me that one priest is—
"That's right. Father Elden, of the Pope's faction."
We're done for.
Rillai shut his eyes.
To put it simply, it meant that the one remaining man outranked the two scholars who had come to recommend Isaac.
And every recommendation letter had to pass through that man before reaching the Cardinals, the final approvers.
And that man belonged to the Pope's faction?
What did that mean, if not this:
"No matter how badly the two scholars want to write him a recommendation, if the third man blocks it, it becomes confetti. And do you really think the Pope's faction would wave a recommendation from Eshua through?"
Rillai, rarely, ground his teeth.
What a load of absolute garbage.
"Then if there's no chance of a recommendation, why would that minister come all the way here in person?"
"Using the recommendation as a pretext, he must have come to see Isaac's condition for himself."
"Sharp as ever. He's curious about the state of a boy who's shown his face to no one for ten years."
Goel smiled as if to say, surely you understand what I'm getting at by now.
Well, from Goel's perspective, this was simply about severing any possibility of Isaac becoming a priest — and as it happened, that dovetailed nicely with the honor of House Eshua, didn't it?
Rillai drew a long sigh from the depths of his lungs.
"I'll have to keep Isaac from meeting those priests."
"Right. They've come to fetch Shuri anyway. I'll deal with the delegation, so don't worry — just see to Isaac..."
But at that very moment—
"Um, excuse me!"
One of the attending servants, who had been waiting at the side, rolled his eyes nervously.
Goel glared at him with insolent contempt — how dare you interject — but—
"...I-I really must report something!"
"What is it."
"The truth is... Young Master Isaac has already gone to meet the priests!"
"...What?!"
"What?!"
Rillai and Goel were stunned, each for entirely different reasons.
"That child — when?! No, why!"
"That is... Young Master Shuri took Young Master Isaac with him, so..."
"WHAT?!"
Goel clutched the back of his neck as if dizzy.
My son, why would you do something so utterly pointless?!
Are you trying to hand all the good fortune to Isaac?!
Around that time, at the East Castle of Eshua.
A priest of the Papal Court was walking toward the annex alongside the two scholars.
As expected, the East Castle has no security to speak of.
He was one of the three who had come with the delegation in order to take Isaac away.
Granted, the two scholars had apparently gone straight to the head of the house like fools and been made to drink humiliation at the hands of that ill-tempered lord.
Well, all the better for me.
The two scholars' purpose was pure and simple: to bring Isaac back with them. But the man who had come along with them — Elden — was different.
He was an executive holding authority over the appointments of the Papal Court's new recruits, and he had come all the way here to Eshua deliberately.
Why?
To confirm the appearance of Isaac Eshua, who was the subject of endless rumor? To report that appearance back to the Pope's faction?
No — it was nothing of the sort.
That mattered too, of course, but he already knew Isaac's condition.
Cursed by the Skeleton Demon King, was it? Unable to use holy arts?
And the real reason he had come to the Eshua Duchy upon hearing that news was none other than — the Holy Spirit.
Yes, the Holy Spirit!
Good heavens — a king-ranked Holy Spirit!
Was that not a being that only Cardinals and His Holiness the Pope themselves could summon — and even then, through one-time contracts only?
And they'd brought it forth through a binding contract?
And what was more—
Of all things, the spirit they'd summoned was the Holy Spirit of Demon-Slaying?!
Never did I dream I would witness that legend with my own eyes.
It was the kind of thing that would set all five Great Families ablaze with greed. And that wasn't all — it was the kind of thing that could turn the honor and prestige of House Eshua upside down in a single stroke.
Eshua seems to be keeping it deliberately secret, but I'm nearly certain.
Every time he investigated the East Castle, where Isaac was said to reside, he grew more and more sure.
This is proof of a Holy Spirit of at least the highest grade.
Of course, Elden hadn't moved on those facts alone. As a professor who taught the lore of spirits, it was the whispers he'd gathered in the usual course of his work that had spurred him on.
A spirit of demon-slaying flame, with black hair.
Its name had been erased from the scriptures, but it remained in certain histories — a mighty existence still.
— The Warden of the Barrier of the God Realm —
Whatever the reason, a papal family collecting every Holy Spirit under heaven could never let such a thing go unpursued.
And if he stole it and carried it back to the Pope's faction?
I'd secure a fine position for myself.
His goal was to curry favor with the Pope's faction and win a seat of power. He couldn't spend eternity cleaning up after the mediocrities squatting in the important posts.
In raw ability, he was their superior, and yet—
Training greenhorn priests? Absurd.
And so Elden had procured a certain herb said to incapacitate a Holy Spirit.
Moreover, it was a rare plant still unknown within the Holy Empire itself — good enough that not even the people of Eshua would catch on.
And the preparations were already complete.
I never dreamed a herb with this much potency existed.
And when that herb met Isaac — a boy who couldn't even use holy arts?
Then the Holy Spirit's power would weaken, and the Skeleton Demon King's strength — the very thing the spirit was holding down — would go utterly berserk! The manor would be plunged into chaos in an instant.
The castle's been blowing up daily from the Skeleton Demon King's mana anyway, so this works out perfectly!
He would use that chaos to smuggle out the incapacitated king-ranked spirit. So go on — rampage!
By the time the head of House Blue arrives, everything will already be over.
And so Elden, arriving to meet Isaac, was just about to widen his eyes—
"Isaac? Say hello. These are priests from the Papal Court."
Shuri Eshua, who had guided them into the parlor, was, for some reason, sweating buckets.
What is this? Why is this boy — the one who brought us here — so nervous?
"F-forgive us for receiving you in such an old building, Professor. My younger brother grows terribly uneasy anywhere but the East Castle. The other buildings are, ah, rather... littered with Isaac's things."
"Er... no. It's quite all right, Eshua. Ah — young lord, I should say."
This was the model student who had never once shown this side of himself even at the Academy.
What is it? Why does he keep glancing around as if this building is about to explode?
"A-and! You must have been quite shocked by my brother's appearance!"
"...Well. Yes, I—no."
Shocked, certainly. The Pope's own messenger had told him directly, but he'd never imagined it would truly be the form of a nursing infant.
But that was of no consequence.
Quite the opposite — it was precisely because Isaac looked like that that he had prepared his plan to steal the Holy Spirit. And precisely because he was a child like that that Elden knew he couldn't control his own power.
Only...
"Pfff."
Why?
Why is he staring at me like that?
The two scholars had gushed over Isaac — so you're the one from the rumors! — but Elden was different.
Something about this child is wrong.
For some reason, the boy... no, for a child of a clergy family, the look in his eyes was rotten to the core. Not a shred of piety to be seen.
And that rotten-eyed little wretch was giggling — heh heh — to himself.
So these are the bastards who came to write my recommendation letter.
Physical growth and holy arts were things Isaac could manage even now, at will — but the priest's rank was the one thing he couldn't get on his own.
Which meant he needed these people.
Of course, Isaac had heard all of this from Shuri as well.
"Just enroll at the Academy and wait six years. Even if the scholars want to write you a recommendation, it won't get through easily."
"Why not?"
"Word is, the mid-level official who approves the recommendations belongs to the Pope's faction. Nothing from Eshua is getting past him."
"Ah. So that middleman's skimming off the top, is what you're saying."
"Exactly. And that official is one of the three coming today — Professor Elden. No idea why the Pope's faction came all the way here, though."
"Then if I get rid of the approver, nothing gets stuck in review, right?"
"...I'm sorry, what?"
"Mm. Niiice."
"No, wait, hold on. What exactly is good about that?!"
And if he secured them instead of waiting two weeks to save the Imperial Princess, wouldn't the processing go even faster?
Two witnesses doubling as letter-writers. One rescue target.
Isaac's eyes curved into crescent moons.
A priest's job, after all, was simply to save people. Wasn't it?
Right?