What Did You Just Say? (6)
“What did you say? Say that again—what did you just say?”
At the Holy See, the priests of the Gold Faith were doubting their own ears.
Their hands, which had been busily scribbling notes while leafing through scripture, had been frozen in place for some time now.
No, frozen was the best-case scenario.
“The Blue Faith's apprentice team has returned to the Holy Empire?”
“With the survivors?”
Th-they're going to have to settle this with scripture, aren't they.
The novice priest who'd come to deliver the report was drenched in sweat.
Serves him right, dealing with the Gold Faith priests, whose entire membership was ultra-elite, pureblooded nobility down to the last man. Just look at those eyes, treating even a few words exchanged with them as some kind of divine honor. He was scared just to give a report.
'Well, I can hardly blame them.'
“The Blue Faith team is currently en route to the capital. Upon verification, the team's headcount has increased—and every added member is one of the abducted survivors. We have also received reports that the survivors are being treated at the Holy See's monastery on the border.”
At the novice's report, the Gold Faith priests let out a long breath, their eyes unable to settle in one place.
These were men who demanded flawlessness in everything—no variables, no deviations. Elites who wouldn't rest until they finished at the very top, every single time.
The Gold Pentagon hosted by the Gold Faith was exactly the same way.
And now they were being told what?
“Blue survived the interference of the post horses?”
No, that wasn't even the issue here.
They saved the survivors? In the land of the mages??
'What in the world did you do, Eshua?'
And what on earth did that bastard do—the Fourth of Eshua, and those mages!
They were elites, after all. They couldn't help but see what kind of future this situation would bring.
At their expressions—so how exactly did this happen?—the novice priest quietly took a step back. He could only pray that no scripture came flying at his head.
“The truth is… the mages weren't able to attack at all.”
“Why not??”
“That is… among the survivors the Blue Faith team rescued, there was an imperial prince of the Magic Empire.”
Silence fell over the room.
And one second later, disbelief.
“…What did you just say?”
“Someone was there?”
“A prince. The youngest prince of Britannia… Hiberius Britannia……”
Silence fell again.
“…So you're telling me there was a prince among the people abducted by demons?”
The Gold Faith priests couldn't turn their heads away.
The air had turned razor-sharp.
Cardinal Verith's hand, tracing scripture from the seat of highest honor, had stopped moving long ago.
It was terrifying.
A nobleman whose immaculately slicked-back hair, every strand, every eyelash, might as well have been replaced with the purest, most precious things in the world.
Pale to the point that touching his skin might leave frost on your fingers, the Cardinal looked like a vampire duke—and right now, he looked ready to devour every one of them.
“Someone was there, you say?”
At that blade of a voice, the Gold Faith priests squeezed their eyes shut.
It was only natural for the Cardinal to be furious.
'Of all the people who could have been abducted, it had to be the prince of the Magic Empire!'
'This is insane!'
Worse, Isaac's team had been the ones to save him?
Do they even understand what that means?
'Enemy nation or not, he's still a prince.'
If played well, rescuing the prince could put the Magic Empire in their debt.
In other words: they'd sent those apprentices on a mission meant to kill them and humiliate them—and instead, the brats had racked up achievements beyond anyone's imagination!
'No. That's not the real problem here.'
The Gold Faith had laid a trap to make sure the Blue Faith team never came back. The mage assault. Apprentices who died in an ambush would be easy to clean up after.
That was their station. No matter how illustrious their birth, the moment anyone entered the Holy See, they were all reduced to the same lowly rank.
Apprentices were the very bottom of the hierarchy. The most wretched of statuses.
And yet…….
“Isaac Eshua has formally and forcefully demanded an investigation into the forces behind the mage attack. He has sworn to find whoever attempted to assassinate the prince.”
That damn brat?
He's playing it this way?
Apprentices were flies to be swatted—but a prince was another matter entirely.
The incident would be investigated thoroughly. Naturally, the trail would lead all the way to the backers. And then they'd be left unable to lift a finger.
No—if things went wrong, they might even end up wearing the frame of the prince's attempted assassination themselves.
At last, Cardinal Verith ground his teeth.
'Isaac Eshua.'
That brat's father had given him nothing but headaches too. Of course the son of that insufferable man would be the same. Father and son, a matched set, both of them…….
Just then, an attendant approached and whispered to Cardinal Verith.
“Your Eminence. The head of House Eshua has invaded the Verith estate and is raising havoc. He says he's here to take his son back……”
…No, so that makes three generations of them throwing tantrums.
Damn it all.
“Haah. Look at that. Beautiful. Just beautiful!”
Roman, the capital of the Holy Empire of Hella.
Isaac was doubled over, cackling, at the words of Asili, the nanny who'd come out to meet him.
“So the Fourth bastard was holed up in the Verith family's villa? And Grandpa smashed his way in there?”
“Yes. The moment he spotted the Fourth Young Master in the study, he grabbed him by the hair and hurled him across the room.”
Well, it wasn't as if the Papal household would ever open the door for him, so not bothering to summon the attendants and simply blasting the door off its hinges on the way in was just a bonus.
Isaac doubled over laughing again.
He'd always known his grandfather was no ordinary man, but his personality was genuinely top-tier.
'Still, I never dreamed he'd charge straight into the Papal household.'
Birds of a feather, indeed. He was exactly like Melissa.
“No, he says he at least sends word before visiting, so he's ten million times better than the Matriarch……”
What's the point of sending a letter ahead when the man himself arrives first?
“And he says he's a hundred million times better than some people, since he only shatters the door instead of the whole wall.”
Door or wall—either way, you smashed something, didn't you?
“Still, I never expected Grandpa to go that far.”
“Don't even get me started. The moment he read your letter, the whole estate erupted. The head of the house was furious as well.”
Apparently, during the two months Isaac had been gone, the head of House Eshua had thought of nothing, dreamt of nothing, but Isaac's letter.
In fact, going by what Asili the nanny had seen with her own eyes—
—Has it come?
—No.
She'd asked whether any letter had arrived from Isaac. Then after lunch—
—Still nothing?
—Nooo.
And after asking at lunch, she'd come by again that evening—
—Are you certain nothing was sent?
—Yes…….
—Why hasn't he sent anything?
Apparently, the head of the house wanted Isaac's letter. Obviously, he'd been worried sick about whether the boy was alive or dead.
And then the letter had finally arrived, containing…
—Grandpa. I almost died. Fourth Uncle tried to kill us. He even brought mages to do it.
…a message like that.
—You lunatic!
The head of the house had told Isaac to come back alive, and that was all. The mission could fail, so long as he returned.
And instead—what?
Forget a stranger—someone from his own family tried to kill his grandson?
The head of the Blue Faith raged, and Goel, uncharacteristically livid, shot to his feet.
—You're not Isaac, you know! He tried to kill his own nephew—his own blood!
—Brother! What are you saying! Isaac is your nephew too! Love him equally!
—Rilai, for the love of all that is holy, shut your mouth!
At that story, Isaac clutched his belly and roared with laughter, every inch the man whose plan had come together.
Excellent. Very good!
Step one to becoming head of the house: stir the pot from within so the enemies can't form an alliance!
“Even Benjamin, the brain of House Eshua, lost his temper—rare for him. Since he's the one in charge of the treasury, the fallout will be considerable.”
“The what?”
There was a guy like that in Eshua?
But Asili went pale as she recalled the scene at the estate.
—Whose side is this bastard even on? Has he decided to ruin House Blue?!
—Master Benjamin?
—If Isaac fails his mission or dies, it's a massive blow to House Eshua's image. This bastard gets no inheritance! Give him back to society!
—I'm not dead yet.
—Father, please remain silent! This is a matter for the treasury!
—You ungrateful wretches, all of you?
At that, Isaac had flown into a rage like a madman.
YOU INSANE HOLYMEN!!!
“If you're going to hand me back to society, hand me to me! Here! To this innocent victim!”
That settled it. He'd have to hold a re-education session and get the inheritance distributed properly.
That aside—a steward of the assets, hm? So there was a lovely uncle like that lying around all this time?
Isaac seemed to have developed an enormous curiosity about the family members he'd yet to meet—but Shuri, for his part, just sighed.
“Why, of all places, did the Fourth Uncle have to be at the Verith villa……”
“He was there on purpose.”
“What?”
“He was staying with the Gold Faith as a way of saying don't you dare betray me.”
“……!”
Because Isaac could see the cunning scheme underneath, he scoffed, amused.
He hadn't seen the man's face yet, but that was a head that rolled very well indeed. And a rotten piece of trash to boot.
[Sounds just like you, Master.]
Asili smiled wryly.
“Thanks to that, the Gold Faith must be in quite a bind as well. And with the New Year coming, the entire Eshua direct line will be gathering at the main house—so you'll be meeting the Fourth as well……”
At Asili's worried expression, Isaac tilted his head.
“Why? What's wrong?”
“It's just… with this whole affair, and everything else… I can't shake the feeling that the Fourth means to kill you, Young Master Isaac. It frightens me.”
“Kill me? His own nephew?”
“Yes. He said that since you already carry wounds from the magic beasts, you could take one down on your own, didn't he?”
Isaac, sprawled out lazily, rolled his eyes.
Hm. He had, technically, lied to his nanny.
Imagine telling her that an apprentice had taken down a demon from fourteen years ago all by himself. To a high-ranking knight, that would smell hideously suspicious.
So he'd glossed it over—claimed that because of his old wounds, Eshua's sleeping draught had worked on the beast relatively easily.
“Then it's possible the Fourth laid a curse as well. One meant to strike the moment you cut down a magic beast.”
…A curse? Is that Fourth bastard even a real Eshua? Is he not a complete lunatic?
[I don't think you're one to talk, Master.]
What's that supposed to mean?
[You're far worse, Master.]
Shove it. I'm the nicest one in all of Eshua.
But Asili looked terribly worried.
“The Fourth is obsessed with claiming the seat of head of the house. He may mean to eliminate you preemptively, Young Master, now that you've begun to stand out……”
“Don't worry. I do have wounds, but they weren't from a holy knight. Just wounds from the wild, that's all. No curse attached to them.”
At those words, Asili was shocked.
If a holy knight hadn't been the one to pin it down, then it was no magic beast that could be taken easily!
“Then you truly, purely took it down yourself……!”
“That's what I said. Well, I'll have to bring it to the Holy See before this counts as settled.”
The Gold Pentagon scored apprentices based on the spoils they brought back. The highest score won.
“A magic beast of this caliber should earn an absolutely enormous score. Better be careful not to lose it.”
Soon Asili seemed struck by something, and bowed her head as if in apology.
“I will escort you as well. And… I must truly thank you for capturing that demon.”
“Why, Asili?”
“That demon is my enemy too, in truth. Back then, Master Rilai and I were on the same Blue Faith team as apprentices—and the friend of Master Rilai who was murdered at that Gold Pentagon was my own eldest brother.”
“Ah.”
So that's how it was.
“Of course, there was one more demon fourteen years ago, and I must find him too……”
Nope. That one's a True Demon. You people couldn't catch him if you tried.
And the fact that the True Demon released that magic beast fourteen years ago in the first place bothered him. Wasn't it almost as if he'd been trying to lure out Rilai, or the people of Eshua?
'Well, for my part, if he comes to me, I get to rack up achievements. Good news all around.'
How dare a fake Skeleton King—that kind of trash—get ideas above its station?
Anyway, the mission was more or less wrapped up now. All that remained was to return safely and be evaluated.
But then Asili's eyes sparkled.
“It seems you have the talent of a holy knight, Young Master.”
Nope. Of all things, holy knights are the one thing I absolutely cannot stand.
Ash, whose powers were sealed and who'd been dragged along in Isaac's wake, nodded vigorously in agreement. To call the Demon King a lowly holy knight—what utter nonsense.
Asili eyed Ash with suspicion, narrowing her brow.
“Um, Young Master… there's something I've been meaning to ask. That person—who is she?”
Perhaps she'd sensed a demon's aura. Eyes that were usually quite docile now held a chill, green gleam—one that seemed to be picking apart her true nature.
Under that predatory stare, one that seemed ready to flay her skin from her flesh, Ash broke out in a cold sweat.
'An extremely powerful high-ranking knight.'
If she got caught, she might be exorcised on the spot.
And sure enough, at Ash's pleading, save me look, Isaac picked his nose.
“Oh, her? She's a big sis from the Magic Empire who tried to fleece me.”
“Yes! That's right! I tried to fleece… kof?!”
At those words, Ash screamed internally.
No! My King! Why would you say that!
When Asili's gaze turned deadlier still, Ash, feeling her very life threatened, floundered, begging for a correction—but Isaac, entirely unbothered, just kept picking at his ear.
'She is the one who tried to eat me, after all.'
“Anyway, don't worry too much about the Fourth business either. I know someone who can handle it for me.”
…Someone who can handle it?
Shuri shot Isaac an anxious look, but Isaac just tilted his head.
“Strange, though. There's one more place that should be in an uproar right now, but it's dead quiet.”
“One more place, Young Master?”
Just then, a letter came flying toward Isaac.
'!'
A letter borne on holy power, drifting through the air.
The moment Isaac tore it open, it leapt up into the air and began to glow.
Asili instantly drew her sword with lethal grace.
'That's a summoning-circle holy art!'
And not just any—it was a holy art for summoning an offensive divine beast. Vigilance was only natural.
But what appeared before them, unexpectedly, was a person……
A person?
And an exceedingly precious one at that……?
“Isaac Eshua! You claimed you'd show me something entertaining—what is the meaning of THIS!”
At the arrival of one thoroughly enraged individual, Isaac let out a snicker.
Well, well. Looks like our darling little prince of the Magic Empire has been moving along nicely?