The Cardinal's Pursuit
I had just taken off my outer robe, hoping to relax a little after entering my quarters, when I suddenly heard my master’s voice.
“What the hell?”
“Ah! You startled me.”
Startled, I turned around to find my master had once again slipped into my room. I thought I had been careful about security, yet here he was. I had no idea how he kept getting in.
“When did you get here? And why are you in my room?”
“More importantly, why hasn’t she left yet?”
“Pardon?”
“Her! I’m talking about her!!”
He had appeared out of nowhere, and the first thing out of his mouth was “her”?
“You mean the dog?”
Even though I knew that wasn’t it, I asked anyway. He looked exasperated.
“No!! Bella. I’m talking about Bella.”
“You mean Cardinal Bella?”
It was shocking how casually my master referred to a cardinal as “her.” The disrespect was on another level.
“She said she was curious about the Labyrinth, so she decided to stay here a few more days. But is that really such a big problem?”
“It is a big problem!! Because of her, I can’t move around comfortably anymore.”
“Why can’t you move around comfortably?”
“Running into her is exhausting.”
“I heard you two were acquainted, but it sounds like you’re actually quite close.”
My master’s network of connections never failed to surprise me, but I never imagined it extended all the way to Cardinal Bella.
“We’re not close!!”
Yet his reaction to the suggestion that they were close was so dramatic it was almost comical.
“What’s with that reaction?”
“Ahem. Stop saying weird things. So when did she say she was leaving?”
“I’m not sure. It’s up to her, isn’t it? She claims she stayed because she’s curious about the Labyrinth, but I’ve never actually seen her ask a single question about it. I suspect there’s another reason, but I have no idea what it is.”
At my words, my master suddenly let out a deep sigh.
“I didn’t realize that bastard’s mouth was so tight…”
“That bastard?”
I was completely lost by his muttering. Seeing how frantically he was denying any closeness while jumping at the mere mention of her, a suspicion crossed my mind.
“Don’t tell me… the reason she’s staying here is because of you, Master?”
“Don’t accuse innocent people! I’ve already forgotten what her face even looks like.”
“That’s not a face people easily forget. The way you’re jumping around denying it makes it seem like there really is something between you two.”
“Anyway, I should get going. I’ll come by again later.”
“Where are you off to? Have you been doing the arm exercises I gave you lately?”
Since he could vanish in the blink of an eye whenever he felt like it, I hurriedly grabbed his arm.
“I’ve been using the arm you made for me quite well. Here, look. Doesn’t look much different now, does it?”
My master apparently couldn’t ignore the topic of his arm either, because he rolled up his sleeves and showed me both arms. Surprisingly, there was almost no difference in thickness or muscle definition between them.
“How did this happen?”
“Haha, if there’s no muscle, you just have to make some!”
It seemed he had been using the arm far more intensely than the exercises I had prescribed. Normally, overworking a still-weak limb would cause side effects, but since he possessed his own divine power, he must have roughly canceled them out with it. So that’s what he’d been up to all this time…
“You could have taken it slower.”
“I can already feel my body growing weaker with each passing day. I’m getting older, so aging is only natural. But losing an arm wasn’t part of my plans.”
I had never experienced true strength, so I couldn’t fully understand his feelings. Still, when I compared it to the way my own divine power would diminish with age, I could imagine how shocking it must have been. In that sense, my master was truly remarkable. He had accepted and acknowledged the reality of growing old.
“Now that you’ve confirmed the arm is fine, do you feel a little more at ease?”
“I don’t like that you overworked it to build muscle, but the condition looks good. At this rate, it’s practically the same as your old arm.”
“No, it’s different.”
“What? It’s different?”
I was startled, wondering if I had made some mistake in crafting it, but his next words put me at ease.
“Maybe because it’s a newly made arm, but this one is much stronger than the original.”
“When you said it was different, I thought something had gone wrong.”
“You’re supposed to be smart. How could you not realize what that means? Can’t you read the situation?”
“Pardon?”
“The arm you made is in peak condition. It’s like I’ve gone back to my twenties.”
“……”
I studied my master’s expression and thought back over his words.
“Wait… what?”
“Try not to do for me what you did before too often. If word gets out, some fool will start getting strange ideas.”
“Come on~ How could I even do something like that in the first place?”
Cutting off an entire body and remaking it? “Only a madman would do that. You’d have to slice off your own limbs.”
“I suppose so?”
“Besides, what’s the point of having vigorous arms if your lifespan is already set?”
All I could think was that he was worrying too much.
“And you know how much trouble it was just to make one arm. There’s no reason for me to listen to nonsense about reattaching all four limbs.”
Asking me to restore his youth? I had neither the intention nor any reason to grant such a request.
“Still, how good is the performance exactly?”
I needed to understand the situation properly so I could be cautious if I ever performed similar treatment again, so I asked for more details about the arm’s condition.
“When I swing a sword with this arm, I get the strength I had in my twenties.”
“And with the other arm?”
“I get the strength I’m used to.”
“Is this a permanent change?”
“It’s been consistent ever since the muscles fully settled in.”
“It might change over time, so please manage it carefully.”
Since the arm had been created entirely with divine power, the fact that it possessed strength comparable to his youth wasn’t entirely inexplicable. A new arm behaving like a new arm made sense. However, true power ultimately came from the entire body, so the feeling of increased strength was likely mostly psychological. Perhaps the brand-new joints simply made every movement feel lighter and more responsive.
Knock knock knock knock knock!!
Suddenly, there was an urgent pounding on the door.
“Hm? Who could that be?”
Was it Melody?
Bang bang bang!!
“Yes, I’m comi—mmph!”
The frantic knocking made me think something serious had happened, so I hurried to answer. But my master suddenly covered my mouth.
“Shh!”
“Mmph?!”
“I’m leaving. If anyone comes asking about me, say I was never here.”
“???”
The only person who knew he was here was me. Why would anyone suddenly come looking for him through me? It made no sense, but I nodded anyway, hoping he would at least remove his hand from my mouth. Only then did he release me.
“Is the person outside looking for you, Master?”
“Probably.”
“How would they know you’re here?”
“She’s always been good at finding me. I think she has some special method, but she never tells me. Anyway, you absolutely must say you haven’t seen me.”
With those words, my master leaped out through the open window. So that’s how he had been getting in and out—through the window.
I’ll have to start securing the windows more thoroughly from now on.
Even after he disappeared, the urgent knocking continued, so I quickly opened the door. The person standing there was staring at me with a flushed face.
“He’s inside, isn’t he?”
“Cardinal Bella, what brings you to my quarters at this late hour?”
Our words overlapped perfectly. Her immediate answer was as good as a confession to my question.
“Who are you talking about? I was alone in here.”
Master… So they really are close after all.
Otherwise, there was no way the woman who had been smiling so sweetly just a few hours ago could wear such a terrifying expression now.
“Don’t lie to me. It won’t work. Where is he? Tell me right now.”
“You won’t get any answers from me.”
“May I come in and look for myself? Did he run away again?”
At that moment, Melody, who had been standing behind Cardinal Bella, stepped forward.
“You must not enter a man’s room so casually.”
It seemed she had rushed out after hearing the cardinal pounding on my door. Her hair is still wet. She must have come straight from the bath…
She had been guarding me all day and was surely exhausted. For something to bother her even after she had gone off duty—it would have been strange if I hadn’t felt irritated.
“I have no interest in Priest Arthur. The only person I’m interested in is that old man!!”
“Old man?”
She called my master “old man”?
“He is my benefactor. He picked up a street urchin who was eating garbage from the gutters and raised her into a saintess. Yet that same person keeps avoiding me. I want to repay his kindness, but he refuses to accept anything from me.”
It must have been a painful memory she wanted to hide, yet she spoke of her past without hesitation, as if she couldn’t bear to lose sight of my master. From her appearance alone, I had assumed she was a refined lady raised in luxury, but she was full of surprises.
“Ah…”
“Everyone reacts like that when they hear my story. Because I carry myself with such grace, many people assume I was gently raised from childhood. Anyway, could you please help me repay this debt? It has been a burden on my heart for my entire life.”
“If he refused, perhaps he has his reasons?”
It seemed strange to insist on repaying a favor when the recipient clearly didn’t want it. Repaying kindness was simply about expressing gratitude, wasn’t it? But if the person in question didn’t welcome that expression of thanks, then forcing the issue would only become a nuisance.
Still, I invited the clearly frantic Cardinal Bella into my room. After thoroughly confirming that my master was not hiding anywhere inside, she seemed to lose all her energy and looked utterly dejected.
“He ran away again…”
“Hmm.”
I was starting to worry she might actually cry when she suddenly looked up at me.
“Priest Arthur, won’t you help me?”
Help her?
“Me? How?”
“Please let me meet him. It’s always like this. I go looking for him and he runs. I go looking for him and he runs!!”
If he disliked her that much, wouldn’t it be better to just give up on repaying the favor? But Cardinal Bella had apparently been chasing after my master for a very long time, and she showed no sign of giving up.