Transformation (2)
The priestly Ordination Ceremony, bestowed by God. The knightly Knighthood Investiture, conferred by the Emperor.
The knights' investiture was presided over by the Emperor, symbol of the Sun, and held at noon on the first day of the Founding Festival in the meaning of "a great beginning" — while the priests' ordination was presided over by the Pope, symbol of the Moon, and held on the final night that closed out the festival, in the meaning of "glory and succession that ripen for all eternity."
And both of them were among the Holy Empire's principal sources of power. It was no accident that appointments were made on the nation's most glorious days of founding.
And what did that mean?
In a word, it meant that absolutely hordes of spectators came flooding in for the ordination ceremony.
Well, with the Empire standing against the demonkin, the ordination was always a hot topic anyway — and this year promised to be more talked-about than ever, but……
"If it's the young lords of House Eshua, aren't they Lady Leah's brothers?!"
"Urk!!! Lady Kaya! I swear I'll get close to her brothers and pay you my respects, Lady Kaya!"
That was the thing.
To the hot-blooded young knights, the existence of Isaac and Shuri was a golden opportunity to get close to the Saintesses they idolized as elder sisters.
"The young knights have come swarming in droves again this year, I see……"
"Well, the Saintesses of Eshua are popular, aren't they……"
The servants preparing the ordination sighed.
House Eshua had always been famous for its unearthly, celestial beauty. It wasn't for nothing that demonkin who laid eyes on a Saintess lost their souls and got carved down on the spot.
They say the God of Beauty personally intervened with their appearance, just to create a flaw in the Skeleton Demon King.
The problem was that the very target of that subjugation had shown no reaction whatsoever!
Worse — the Skeleton Demon King, who was supposed to fall for them, never did, and everyone around him lost their minds instead!
"Woooah! Lady Leah!"
"Lady Kaya!"
"Please grant us just one glimpse of you!"
Exactly like that.
And the Saintesses weren't just pretty faces — they were geniuses of martial power who led the holy knights themselves. It would be stranger if they weren't popular.
And so the men of House Eshua, who inevitably received holy orders, had to suffer trial after trial at the hands of the knights' adoration.
"Good grief, the men of Eshua have it rough. If they're untalented, they get dragged off to a forced wedding the moment they're ordained; if they're talented, they die young."
At this point, even the Skeleton Demon King had to be thought of as petty.
"Oh, but the most cursed of the lot is young lord Isaac."
"Right, he's ten, and they say he's still a baby in every way? He's adorable toddling around, but honestly it just breaks my heart."
"Exactly. He's going to be laughed at all day today too… Huh?"
The servants carrying in the banquet dishes blinked wide-eyed. It was because of the two men who had just brushed past them.
"D-did you just see that?!"
"Wha—? One of them was Lord Shuri Eshua, but who was the other one?"
"Are you kidding? Who else in this Empire has platinum-blond hair!"
"…What?"
"WHAT?!"
The stunned servants couldn't shut their mouths.
Around the same time, inside the banquet hall.
The graduates receiving holy orders this year stood in neat rows. Dressed in identical priestly vestments, they murmured restlessly among themselves — and every single one of them was murmuring about the same thing.
"Hey, where'd Shuri Eshua go? Off changing his baby brother's diaper?"
"Is the little brother planning to make a grand entrance last, since today's supposed to be his big day?"
The graduates produced in holy arts this year numbered five hundred in all.
Among them, the faction of the ducal house of the Red Faith had been waiting with bated breath for Isaac to come toddling in.
Seriously, giving holy orders to a ten-year-old? Isn't that going too far?
Are they mocking us?
But none of them could say a word about ability — because, of all things, the person Isaac had rescued in the dining hall had been one of their own Red faction nobles.
One careless word, and they risked looking like they were slighting the Red ducal house — house that owed Isaac a debt of gratitude.
So they poked at someone else instead.
"You're the top graduate, Hawk, but everyone's fixated on that little baby instead. Must sting, huh."
Every head turned toward this year's valedictorian.
He was a student with green-tinted hair — an overwhelming genius who, in seven years, had never once missed a perfect score on the written exams.
And yet the top spot in the entire year belonged to Shuri Eshua, ranked second-place student.
And now it was Isaac Eshua's turn.
"Sidelined by Eshua yet again. Doesn't that just burn you up?"
"Well, even if I had complaints, what chance does some backwater viscount family have against the high nobility?"
Just as the crowd around him was working itself into an excited fever over that remark, Niger Sephet shut it down.
"Shut up and get ready."
"Niger…!"
Niger Sephet curled his lips upward.
"The Eshua brat may be able to use holy arts, apparently — but he's still just a baby in diapers."
"True. Can you imagine? Getting called up and toddling to the front on those little legs. What a sight."
"If anything, showing up here is his own downfall. One look at that cursed body of his and everyone will jeer him off the stage."
In other words: when Isaac was called by name and came toddling in, they would all laugh in his face.
That alone would make this ordination ceremony worthwhile. It wasn't as though Niger Sephet had any fond feelings for Isaac in the first place.
His impression of the Blue Faith was already rock-bottom — and then there was Isaac Eshua?
Did they think he'd forgotten what that little bastard had done to them inside the Saintess Treasury? Because of him, ten years ago, he'd taken such a beating from his own family.
"I still don't know what Father was thinking, accepting a recommendation from the Blue Faith of all people……"
And then it happened.
BANG!
"!"
The great doors swung wide open, and the roaring banquet hall fell silent in an instant, as though the noise had never existed.
The students mid-joke, the guests deep in small talk — every last one of them swallowed hard and snapped into proper posture.
What appeared were the Five Faiths, the Five Heads of House.
Gold, Blue, Red, White, and Black — five Cardinals marching in unbroken line toward the head table, in that order.
Everyone bowed their heads as if in worship.
The black vestments fluttering in disciplined folds; the footsteps fierce yet perfectly restrained.
Their presence alone was so overwhelming that one's head bowed of its own accord.
So those are the Cardinals…!
The heads of the Five Faiths!
The men who had destroyed countless Demon Kings in the past — and who now, incredibly, were the only ones capable of subjugating the Skeleton Demon King himself.
To the young priests, they were idols incarnate. Though, well, it seemed at least one of them was nursing a headache of his own.
"Well, well. How rare — the Blue Faith arrives late to its own ceremony."
The Red house's head smirked at the head of House Eshua, whose appearance was, for once, in complete disarray.
"You still weren't here a minute ago. I'd assumed you weren't coming at all."
"Go to hell."
Eli, head of the Blue Faith, straightened his slightly askew stole and swallowed the curse rising in his throat.
Dammit all. Because of that grandson of his, at his age, what was he even doing?
So it had been a bit much, running that distance in twenty-three hours.
And with accidents kept cropping up along the way, forcing detours on top of it all… that damned brat of a grandson!!
The moment he found him, he was going to yank out every last hair on that head!
Indeed, Rillai, who had arrived with him, was taking his seat in equally rare disheveled uniform.
The junior knights who recognized Rillai gasped, and Goel, who had arrived earlier, recoiled at the smell of sweat.
"What is this disgrace? You're a duke's man, not some commoner."
"I… my apologies. I was afraid of being late, so I abandoned my holy beast and ran here on foot, and……"
"You ran? That entire distance?!"
Aghast, Goel hastily fumbled for water and offered it — but even as he did, Rillai was spiraling in despair. None of that mattered now. Not his exhaustion, not any of it.
Isaac, where on earth are you…!
He had asked, entering the hall on the off chance, whether anyone had seen the little one — but no one had.
"Brother, did you not see Isaac?"
"Why would you look for him here? I thought you said he was at the estate with you?"
Rillai buried his face in his hands.
Isaaaaac!
He's not here?! He came all this way?!
"Come to think of it — did you see Shuri anywhere?"
"Shuri??"
"His turn comes before yours. Where has he gone?"
Meanwhile, the head of the Blue Faith, now seated, seemed to read a strange undercurrent among the students.
"The mood in here is odd."
At that, the Red house's head beside him chuckled.
"Well, wouldn't it be? We've got an absurdly record-breaking youngest ordination recipient this year."
"Ah, Shuri."
"Pfft."
As the Red head laughed, the Blue head shot him a look of pure disgust, as though regarding a piece of garbage.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing at all. See for yourself."
"?"
At that moment, the atmosphere in the banquet hall shifted.
"His Holiness the Pope enters."
"!"
With those words the doors opened, and a man clad in pure white from crown to heel stepped inside. At a glance, he looked about the same age as the head of the Blue Faith.
And following right at his heels was the Pope's grandson, Kina Berith — and behind him, a long procession of priests filing in row after row.
It was nothing less than the march of a throne.
The moment the Holy Empire's other sovereign set foot inside, everyone rose from their seats, and even the Cardinals stood and bowed deeply, lowering one knee and their heads together.
"May the glorious blessing of God be with Hella."
With those words, the honored guests took their seats.
"We will now begin the conferral of holy orders. Those whose names are called, come forward."
At the usher's words, the students began to move.
The head of the Blue Faith, finally allowing himself a moment's respite, raised a glass of water and took a swallow.
"Isaac Eshua."
At that familiar name, the Blue head's brow furrowed before he'd even finished his water.
Really, with the Pope himself in attendance, what kind of sloppy handling was this? Couldn't they at least strike the name of someone who hadn't even shown up?
Dammit. Let's just finish this fast and get home.
The sooner he got back, the sooner he could track the boy down before he caused another disaster……
"Isaac Eshua. Is he not present?"
He's not, you little—
The Blue head waved a hand, as if to say move on, move on.
But the students' eyes were saying something else entirely. Their faces plainly declared that they'd already confirmed his presence here.
"I saw Shuri take the little one to the washroom."
"Oh, so he's hiding in there right now?"
Just then, the doors eased open a crack, and Shuri slipped quietly into the banquet hall.
Clutched in Shuri's arms was a baby's outfit — and the students who spotted it smirked.
"Looks like he finally dressed him in those baggy priest's robes after all."
The Blue head and the people of House Eshua stared in open suspicion, utterly unable to make sense of it.
…B-baby clothes?
What?
Why is he carrying that?!
Only then did the Eshua family catch on to something, and they shot to their feet.
Don't tell me—!
Shuri's classmates, meanwhile, snickered as he came to stand beside them.
"So where'd you ditch the baby brother?"
"…Shut up."
I didn't ditch him.
Dammit, at this point I couldn't ditch him if I tried. He's insane. Genuinely insane.
Shuri glanced sideways toward the doors.
"Isaac Eshua."
"Yes."
At the answer that rang out, the Blue head — who had been half-hoping he'd misheard — nearly spat out the water in his mouth.
Hold on. Did he just answer? That was an answer, right?
He's actually HERE?!
The doors swung open, and the moment platinum-blond hair came into view, the guests and students alike watched with bated anticipation. The students especially were primed and loaded, ready to jeer.
Creeeeak—
There it is. Right on cue.
Any moment now, the doors would open and in he'd come, toddling……
Huh?
…Why isn't he toddling?
No, wait a second—
"Isaac Eshua, present and accounted for."
WHO IS THAT?!
The students gaped in shock at the boy who had appeared out of nowhere.
A nondenominational priest's uniform of white and gray, tailored so precisely it might as well have been fitted to his very frame.
What stood before them was a boy who looked about twelve. Grown beyond all imagining from the child who, barely an hour ago, had been a toddler barely off the bottle.
And yet his striking features and hair color — the traits that had marked him from infancy — had not changed in the slightest.
If anything, it was as though time itself had simply been spun forward a dozen years on that exact same face… What the—
"Who is that?! Don't tell me the baby grew up into that?!"
"Isaac?!"
The hair color of the most celebrated founding ancestor in history.
The Empire's one and only platinum-blond hair fluttered lightly, and his limbs — boyish still, but stretched long and lean — promised a future that made one look forward to the man he'd become in a few years' time.
His entrance alone — striding boldly down the aisle — set the banquet hall abuzz all over again, though for an entirely different reason now.
Goel was stricken dumb; Rillai, who had leapt to his feet, stood with his eyes bulging round.
The head of the Blue Faith went on holding his glass, water spilling from it, completely unaware.
Even the Pope's people were staring at Isaac as if doubting their own eyes.
Impossible. Why does he look—
The reports had said, right up until today, that he was still trapped in that ominous toddler's form. Even Cardinal Verith and Kina Berith were regarding him with uncharacteristic bewilderment.
The guests murmured in a stir.
"Didn't they say the youngest of Eshua was cursed by the Skeleton Demon King and couldn't grow? That he'd hidden himself away for ten years because of it……"
"Then why does he look… perfectly, properly grown?"
Niger Sephet and the students, who had been all set to mock Isaac, instead looked as though their minds had simply stopped.
What the hell! What's going on?!
How does someone cursed by—
Don't tell me he BROKE the Skeleton Demon King's curse?!
And as the whole hall buzzed, the Pope's gaze turned toward Isaac.
Isaac looked straight at the Pope — and smiled, sweet and wide.