What Did I Just Hear? (2)
Wow. This is genuinely, mind-blowingly awe-inspiring.
Even if you tried, you couldn't make a face like that on purpose.
Shuri beheld the blissful, clown-ascending-to-heaven expression on Isaac's face.
Which was to say…
Sh*t, f***ing karma. Serves. You. Right.
…that was the face he was wearing.
So that's why the bastard suddenly asked me to explain Niger Sephet's personality.
Every bit of this had been reconnaissance — all of it to stick it to the man in the most devastating way possible.
And he even made Cardinal Verith show up in person…
Come to think of it, he might have deliberately provoked the man into coming himself. No — not "might." A hundred percent, guaranteed. Summoning someone in secret meant you had something that could be used against them. Isaac had plainly wanted to put the Gold Cardinal in an impossible position.
Indeed, watching Isaac make no effort whatsoever to hide his glee, Shuri tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling.
…We are NOT reporting any of this to the family.
He wasn't exaggerating — everyone would faint on the spot.
No, he'd probably faint first.
Grandfather. I take it back. That bastard needs to be disowned. Today, if possible.
Well… at this point, even Isaac should lie low for a while. This is about as much surveillance as anyone could ask for…
"Now then. Follow me to my quarters."
At Cardinal Verith's words, Isaac flashed a radiant smile.
"Oh, my sincere apologies. The Cardinal of Red has just summoned me, so I'll be heading that way instead. If you'd like to escort me personally, you're welcome to bring better terms."
The Gold Cardinal's expression was a sight to behold.
Shuri bit down hard on his lip.
"Did you just say… terms?"
Cardinal Verith's voice no longer carried a chill — it was pure magma now.
"Well, what can I do? A prior engagement sprang up just this moment. I'd need terms worthy of the honor to visit Your Excellency, after all."
He even stressed that the appointment had been made just now.
I'm losing my mind. I actually am.
A NOVICE is picking a fight with a CARDINAL! Where does it end?!
Grandfa~ther, please, I'm begging you, save me!
Hand pressed to his forehead, Shuri stole a glance at Cardinal Verith. And sure enough — after seven days of being stood up, seven days of watching Isaac barter his time away, seven days of handing over precious elixirs — the man looked utterly flabbergasted.
"The Cardinal of Red called for you? And just this moment, at that?"
"Yes, sir!"
At Isaac's cheerful reply, it was Niger Sephet who wore a bewildered look instead.
Wait. Father did order me to invite this guy…
He'd raised all manner of fuss, begging to be granted at least one meeting with Isaac. And yet…
How does this bastard know that? I haven't even sent the invitation yet.
It can't have come from Father directly, either.
And with good reason — just as Isaac had pointed out earlier, direct cardinal interference in novice affairs was strictly forbidden. A fellow novice like Niger, however, could meet his "father" under the pretext of inviting a friend, no cardinal title involved.
He wondered who Isaac had heard it from — but honestly, it wasn't bad news.
If things stay like this, Cardinal Verith blacklists me and my evaluation scores are ruined.
Novice evaluations were scored by team. If Verith buried them in extra work, every one of his teammates would suffer for it.
The guy's already under scrutiny because of the whole Skeleton King mess. No way in hell am I getting shoved aside by him.
A chill ran down Niger's spine, and he immediately began cozying up to Isaac.
"Th-that's right! I'm the one who's supposed to invite Isaac!"
If I bring Isaac to Father, he'll clean up the whole business with Verith's subordinates I got beaten, too!
"So this little brat… I mean, Isaac, will be coming with me."
"Hah."
One look at Cardinal Verith's vicious expression, however, and sweat poured down Niger in sheets.
…Yeah. That was a stretch.
There was a reason priests dreaded nothing more than an encounter with the #1-ranked cardinal.
Shuri knew his great-uncle's temperament all too well. Grudges filthier than a sewer and twice as long-lasting. Exclusionary to the bone. A perfectionist of truly spiteful caliber. Arrogant as a peacock. Take one hit, repay it a hundredfold… Wait. What? That's literally Isaac, what the f***!
Anyway — this was clearly not going to end with pleasant words…
"Very well. Then nothing can be done. Go."
…He's sending him off with pleasant words?
"A prior engagement was in place. Regrettable, but unavoidable."
"???"
He's even ACCEPTING that garbage as a prior engagement?!
Shuri was dumbfounded.
Great-uncle is not the kind of man who does that.
Perhaps he simply didn't want to make an enemy of Isaac? No — impossible. This was the man who despised Isaac more than anyone alive.
Is there something else he's after?
Or was he simply such a shrewd political animal that he refused to manufacture gratuitous trouble with the Red house? Ugh, what is it? I genuinely cannot figure it out?!
Worse — the man was being considerate of Isaac, and that was somehow the most terrifying part.
"However. The losses your Red house inflicted upon Gold cannot simply be waved away. Starting tomorrow, I will see to it that your workload increases."
"!!"
And with that, Cardinal Verith vanished — leaving Niger Sephet stunned for a heartbeat before joy bloomed across his face as he turned to Isaac.
"We made it! We actually survived! Hey, brat. I'll let slide the little matter of you stealing my subordinate, so come to my father right this instant. If I bring you to him, we won't have to endure Gold breathing down our necks tomorr—"
Then Niger glanced to his side, and his face froze.
The tiny Isaac who was supposed to be standing right there had simply… vanished.
Niger Sephet's eyes nearly spun out of his skull.
"Where did this bastard GO?!"
The novice priests nearby broke out in cold sweat.
"Well, you see… Isaac said he was bored, so he went to go sleep."
"He said children need sleep if they want to grow tall…"
"What?! It's not even eight o'clock!"
No no no no!
In a panic, Niger Sephet sprinted into the dormitory. And there, in the middle of the vast common room, one tiny child lay sprawled across the seat of honor, snoring away like a satisfied king.
Niger desperately shook him awake.
"Hey! Get up! No — please get up! If you don't come, I can't get my father's help?! I'm begging you!"
Isaac did not so much as pretend to hear him.
"Ugh, what even is this."
"We're screwed…"
"Hey, quit whining and scrub. We can't go to field training until this is done."
"This is all Niger's fault."
"Quiet."
The Liturgy Hall of the Papal Court. The novice priests of the Red Faith scrubbed at the temple floors, scowls carved deep into their faces.
And the direction their resentful glances kept drifting toward was, naturally, a certain platinum-haired boy.
"Why are we suddenly on cleaning duty?"
"Beats me. Word is Niger got wrecked by Isaac Eshua and came back with this garbage assignment."
"Ugh, seriously. This doesn't even count toward the evaluation."
"Hah? Then why'd he pick a fight with Isaac Eshua in the first place? Because of Niger, the rest of us are eating penalties too!"
"I heard Blue's team already received a subjugation mission, on the strength of the work Isaac Eshua submitted."
"Should we… switch factions?"
"Hmm. Thinking about what happened at the Ordination, Blue might not be a bad bet."
"…"
YOU SON OF A—!!
CRACK!
Unable to bear another word, Niger Sephet snapped his quill clean in two. Seated at the Liturgy Hall table, he ground his teeth at the very thought of Isaac's face.
In the end, Isaac never woke up. And naturally, Niger's chance at his father's help went sailing out the window with him.
"You couldn't even bring Isaac Eshua with you. And with incompetence like that, you dare ask me for help?"
The very next morning, Gold buried Niger under a three-day avalanche of drudgery: scrub the temple, scrub the latrines, scrub the offices, prepare the priests' breakfast — an all-you-can-eat buffet of chores.
"Is he out of his mind?! The Gold Cardinal?!"
"AAARGH, those petty, stingy Gold bastards!"
"Hey! You there! If you can't even finish your assigned coursework, you don't get to complain! Collect one penalty and now you want a second?!"
Uuuugh!!
At the Gold priests' bark, Niger's face crumpled. Buried under Gold's workload, he hadn't been able to complete the coursework assigned to his novices either — so of course his teammates were lined up to curse his name.
I need to take first place here if I'm ever going to stand tall against Gold and Black.
The other Saint candidates were off training in distant regions — and in particular, the geniuses of the West and North, the very ones who hadn't even appeared at the Ordination, were out there. Not that he even needed to look that far; Kina Berith already enjoyed an overwhelming lead, the Prince who devoured the entire board single-handedly.
As if Kina Berith alone weren't aggravating enough, now Blue comes out of nowhere?
At this rate, his team was guaranteed last place in the Pentagon evaluations. And the only person who could fix this was a fellow cardinal — his own father.
But to get Father's help, I have to drag that brat to him first.
So Niger Sephet had staked out the Liturgy Hall, waiting. Every novice was required to pray before beginning their daily duties — camp out here, and Isaac had to show up eventually.
Isaac appeared six hours after Niger had started waiting.
"What's your deal, huh? Why are you glaring at me?"
"…I would rather die than believe this is your fault."
At the sight of Isaac and Shuri, Niger Sephet's blood pressure shot through the roof.
That mangy dog!
A priest — no, a member of one of the Five Great Faiths — was supposed to rise before dawn and pay his respects to the god! Niger had even factored that in and been waiting since the crack of dawn. So how, HOW, could this bastard not show up until noon?! What is wrong with you?!
"Hey! Niger! What took you so long?! We have a mission! You took on all that extra work and now you're going to be late too?!"
Worse — the bastard had timed his arrival for the exact moment Red's team was heading out on an assignment!
"AAARGH!"
And so, as Niger spun around and stormed off, Isaac grinned like a cat that had gotten into the cream, while Shuri let out a long, mournful sigh.
He mapped out Red's entire schedule just to deliver this insult at the perfect moment.
What a vicious creature. Worse — the man never prayed to any god, ever. Terrifying.
How does somebody like this fill up his divine power in the first place?
Divine power was essential for casting holy arts. But divine power only accumulated through acts of faith.
Don't tell me he's secretly performing acts of devotion in private…
"Whisper. That Molech fellow still needs more education. Keep feeding him New Gold Pills."
…Or maybe he was chosen by an evil god, and his divine power grows the more evil he commits.
Meanwhile, Isaac himself was looking straight at Niger Sephet's spy. Guilt-ridden over her betrayal, the woman kept her head bowed toward him.
"Young Lord Isaac. From this day forward, I will be loyal to your every word. So please — I beg you to grant me just one request!"
Venya.
Niger's attendant — no, his lady's maid, wasn't it?
Among the Five Great Ducal Houses, it was common practice not to force priestly ordination on such retainers, but to train them in combat and attach them to the direct line as bodyguards, letting them qualify as priests along the way.
She came as a bodyguard, so she's at least 5th Tier.
In a word: an extremely, extremely usable asset.
Never mind that the reason she'd been carrying around those hidden elixirs was to smuggle Gold Pills to Niger — a scheme Isaac had caught red-handed, forcibly shoving the pills down her throat.
"If by 'request' you mean meeting the Cardinal of Red…"
"Yes…! Please, I beg of you!"
"Why? Last I checked, my job is to thin out my rivals, not the reverse."
"Please! Don't say that…! Meeting His Excellency the Cardinal of Red would work in your favor as well, Young Lord. Gold is brutally harsh toward Blue — they will never, ever grant you a King in the Pentagon tests."
"What?"
"In fact, no Eshua has ever taken a King in the Gold Pentagon. Is that not so?"
At that, Isaac looked over at Shuri with a genuinely is-this-for-real expression. Shuri sighed.
"It's true. Fourteen years ago, my uncle Rilai took four Kings in his novice trials… and the only 'Citizen' grade he ever received was from the Gold Pentagon. People thought a Fivestar was finally appearing after decades — and then it came out that Gold had deliberately tanked him, and it was a colossal scandal."
Citizen is basically the lowest grade there is, isn't it? The only thing beneath it is Skeleton, which means outright disqualification.
Even granting that relations between Gold and Blue are dog sh*t, that is discrimination worn as a badge of honor.
But Venya shook her head — fourteen years ago had been mercy, she said.
"…A Citizen grade would be a good outcome, Young Lord. You might simply fail outright and be sent back to the Academy."
"Why? Because lots of priests die in the Gold and Red trials? Means nothing to me."
"…But the one presiding over the Gold Pentagon this time is Cardinal Verith?"
"So what?"
"Uh? Wha—? Yes? No, I— er…"
As the flustered Venya darted a helpless glance at Shuri, he let out a long, deep sigh.
Right. The only person in this whole conversation who doesn't know about that scandal is the perpetrator himself.
In the end, Shuri leaned in and whispered to Isaac.
"Cardinal Verith wants you dead. Out of a personal grudge."
"…He's the one who gave me the Gold Pills."
"Which he may well have handed over as blood money, fully intending to kill you. The Papal house is very attentive to appearances, after all."
Isaac gave a hollow, disbelieving laugh.
Pff. Fine. How deep can a human being's grudge possibly run? Murdering a mere ten-year-old child, really—
"Your mother was once engaged to Cardinal Verith. Then your father took her from him."
…F***. Yeah, I'd want to kill him too!
I'd want to tear him limb from limb!!
Isaac pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose.
"Granted, it was a betrothal between houses more than a personal one, and nothing improper ever came of it… but over that affair, the Papal house severed its support to Blue — openly, and with malice aforethought."
So THAT'S why the bastard has hated my guts since the day I was born?!
"To be fair, nothing could officially be held against anyone at the time. But Cardinal Verith loved your mother, lost her without so much as holding her hand once… you can imagine how a man like him would take it."
Subordinate, I'm so sorry!
Just go ahead and escape on your own! Please!
At the look on Isaac's face, Venya's own lit up with hope.
"If you would simply pay your respects to His Excellency the Cardinal of Red, the Gold Pentagon will be no trouble at all. So please…"
Isaac's eyes glinted.
"Hm. You know what? Fair point. Not a bad deal."
Because come to think of it — wasn't the Red house the very prison administration currently holding his subordinate captive?
Handle this well, and he might learn exactly where his subordinate was being kept before the Pentagon ever began. Perhaps an opportunity to spring him would even present itself.
Granted, the Cardinal of Red had the face of a puff adder and Isaac had every intention of never meeting him…
"Just a quick meeting couldn't hurt… huh?!"
And in that very instant, a black hand shot out of who-knew-where, scooped Isaac clean off the ground, and carried him away into the sky.
The Papal Court. The chamber of the Gold Cardinal.
Spread across the lavish desk lay a thick tome bearing the sigils of the gods. And the page he had open was the one devoted to the Supreme God — upon it was drawn the Supreme God's emblem. The very emblem Isaac had drawn at the Ordination Ceremony.
The supreme power that not a single soul of the Gold Faith had ever drawn — the power none of them had even dreamed it possible to draw.
As he stared at that emblem, the golden light in Cardinal Verith's eyes warped and twisted.
Then — knock, knock. At the sound, the cardinal flipped the book shut with a flick of his wrist.
"Come in."
And with those words, the door began to open…
BANG!!
…No. It did not open. It shattered.
Isaac strode in through the wreckage he'd made of the door, eyes blazing.
"Wow, Your Excellency. All that posturing about manners, and yet not one shred of them. Just what exactly do you have your servants doing? I confess I never imagined kidnapping a guest mid-conversation was considered civilized conduct in this house."
Cardinal Verith stared at the demolished door, utterly flabbergasted. The look in his eyes said, plainly: Who, precisely, is the barbarian here?
"An unbroken colt. One that does not befit House Eshua."
Isaac arched an eyebrow.
This bastard opens his mouth and the insults come out immediately. He's asking for a beating.
And yet — every gesture of the man radiated an overbearing, frigid, flawless nobility. Clicking his tongue as if even a second wasted on pleasantries was beneath him, he spoke.
"I have no interest in trading greetings with the likes of you. Straight to the matter at hand."
Isaac scoffed.
Fine. I don't know why you were so doggedly desperate to see me, but we're enemies — it won't be anything pleasant.
"Yes, yes. Well, I can guess — you want to ask about the mountain of dog-sh*t reasons behind everything, I suppo—"
"Become the adopted son of Gold."
"Yes, I figured as mu—"
………….
……………
…What did you just say, you bastard??