362. Branching Out (3)
362. Branching Out (3)
- 1 -
The audience chamber of the Rugnisah royal palace was wrapped in a calm silence from early morning.
In the cold dawn air, Adriana looked down at a small box and swallowed a deep sigh.
It was an object left behind by that strange woman, Philia Elskopf, the night before.
'Is this really okay?'
The events of last night felt unreal.
The moment when that black-clad woman had appeared, neutralizing all of the palace's barriers, and confidently declared she would show her the corruption of the Holy Kingdom.
Tok-tok.
Just then, a knock came at the door.
"Saintess, Bishop Loperna has arrived." "Show her in."
Adriana placed the box on the table and composed herself.
Before long, the door opened and a familiar figure entered.
"Saintess."
Bishop Loperna El Pantate.
She was a neat-looking woman in her mid-fifties, elegant, with her graying brown hair tidily pinned up.
A faint divine power shimmered from the cloak she wore over her bishop's robes.
"Teacher."
Adriana rose from her seat to greet her.
This woman was no ordinary colleague to her.
For when Adriana had received the saintess's revelation as a child, it was she who had guided her to the Holy Kingdom.
To her, she was both a mentor and a figure like a foster mother.
Even though Adriana occupied the most exalted position in the Holy Kingdom as the saintess, this was not someone she could greet while seated.
"It has truly been a long time. You have grown even more beautiful."
Loperna smiled warmly and gathered Adriana's hands in her own.
"You seem to be in good health as well, Teacher. To come all this way in person..."
"Of course I must. It concerns an important matter to be delivered to you, Saintess."
"Ah, where are my manners—please, sit."
The two sat facing each other.
The saintess's teacher looked around and marveled.
"Rugnisah certainly treats you with great respect. Even providing such a splendid audience chamber."
"I am receiving undeserved hospitality."
"No. This is a place that properly knows the value of a saintess."
There was a strange nuance mingled in Loperna's voice.
It was clearly a different sentiment from the gentleness that had once embraced her.
'...Arrogance.'
After realizing the nature of that emotion, Adriana unconsciously swallowed dryly.
"You, Saintess, naturally deserve this kind of treatment. Do you not?"
"Is that so..."
A glint of feeling that flickered briefly in her eyes.
It was not that of the mentor she had once respected.
It was the greedy gleam unique to those intoxicated by power.
'Teacher...'
The saintess clasped her hands together as she looked at her old teacher.
Within her mind, the events of the night before were replaying.
The matter of the box that Philia Elskopf had given her.
- 2 -
The previous night, the saintess's private chambers.
"How do you intend to prove that?"
Adriana's counter-question was laced with both disbelief and curiosity.
Though she herself was not aware of it, she was already being drawn in by Philia's unwavering confidence.
Of course, there was a basis for her decision to at least hear the story out.
'If she meant to kill me, she would have harbored murderous intent from the start.'
The saintess's eyes possessed a blessing that allowed her to read the hearts of those she faced.
That ability had not detected malice from the person before her, and furthermore, the other party was a strong individual who had reached her by piercing through the palace barriers by some unknown means.
'I must at least buy time.'
She had already sent a signal outside.
To keep her here until the people who had noticed this situation arrived, she first had to listen to what she had to say.
Of course, this was a somewhat naive judgment.
For she did not know that Libertas possessed the means to deceive even the saintess's eyes, and that the signal she had sent had already completely vanished.
"Take this."
Libertas took out a small, pretty box of sweets from her bosom.
When the box was opened, a sweet and savory aroma wafted out.
Inside were dozens of flower-shaped cookies with nuts beautifully embedded in pretty shapes.
"This is...?"
To Adriana, who looked at the sweets with eyes full of suspicion, Libertas smiled faintly, took one out, and put it into her own mouth.
Crunch.
"As you can see, it is not poison. You can see that too, can't you?"
Adriana silently nodded her head.
These sweets contained no poison of any kind—neither magic, alchemy, nor curse.
Even...
'Divine power...?'
There was even a power dwelling within them that was extremely similar to the power she used.
She did not know its identity, but it was a power that clearly felt 'holy'.
'Could it be, heresy...?'
As the saintess stiffened at a certain fact that crossed her mind, Libertas spoke in a low voice.
"But a 'certain guest' who will come to you tomorrow will certainly get an upset stomach after eating this. It will probably be a mild stomachache that an ordinary cleric could easily recover from."
"What do you mean...?"
"Listen to the end."
Adriana saw a kind of 'signal' in Philia's eyes.
A cold yet sharp warning and foresight.
"If he eats this cookie, and then receives divine power... his condition will rapidly worsen."
"Are you saying it is a poison that reacts with divine power?"
Adriana countered, her eyes sharply narrowed.
"No."
But her momentum faltered before Philia's gaze, which seemed to find her adorable.
"You will see for yourself what happens. Do not worry. He will not suddenly die before you can even lay a hand on him. No..."
Trailing off slightly, Libertas narrowed her eyes and continued.
Her voice was chillingly sweet.
"Rather, you might even want to 'dispose of' him yourself."
"What in the...!"
With those final words, Philia Elskopf vanished like smoke.
As if she had never been there from the start.
Only the box of small sweets remained alone in Adriana's hands.
- 3 -
"As you are well aware, Saintess."
Adriana raised her head at Loperna's voice.
"The Holy Kingdom has made a grave decision. It has been decided to declare the Grakheisen Alliance a heresy."
Her heart dropped with a thud.
It was already a foreseen matter. Yet the reality that war was drawing near made her tense.
"All the saintesses must unite and support this statement. Other bishops have already gone to Lady Lucia and Lady Clementine."
Adriana unconsciously hunched her shoulders.
'She seems like a different person...'
Loperna, who had always been nothing but kind to her.
Her voice now carried a stiffness unlike before.
A fact she could not have known back when they had been exchanging letters of well-being.
Feeling as if a stain was spreading across her heart, Adriana straightened her back as much as she could.
"You must fulfill your duty as a saintess and devote yourself to the Holy Kingdom. You must return as much as you have received. Adriana."
But Loperna continued speaking.
Without paying any heed to Adriana's tense state.
'Something is wrong.'
She bit her lip slightly, but finally managed to open her mouth.
"It has been so long since we last met, and it feels like you are only speaking so stiffly. Let's at least have some tea and talk. Teacher."
"... Ah, indeed."
A pinkish gleam flickered minutely across the pupils of Loperna, who blinked her eyes.
But Adriana, who had not noticed it, forced a smile as she reached for the box of sweets.
"I apologize, Saintess. I spoke only of work."
"No, it is understandable."
Adriana, wearing a faint smile, called for a maid and had tea and sweets brought out.
The refreshments, neatly arranged on the tea set, were beautiful in themselves.
But to her, knowing that something secret was hidden within them, they looked like poison.
"The cookies are very pretty. Where did you get them?"
"I'm not... quite sure myself. I received them as a gift."
Suppressing her trembling voice as much as possible, Adriana stared at the refreshments the maid set down.
"What a shame. If there were any left over I would have wanted some too."
"You will be staying a few days, won't you? Before you leave... I will ask."
"Hehe. Thank you, Saintess. Hmm. The fragrance is really nice."
When Loperna brought the sweets to her mouth, Adriana had almost unconsciously reached out to stop her hand, but she barely managed to exercise patience.
Crunch.
"The taste is truly wonderful."
"Yes, it is."
To the extremely tense Adriana, the taste of the cookie felt like dry flour.
"Urgh..."
When Loperna's face began to contort a moment later, Adriana felt her heart sink and rose from her seat.
"Teacher? Are you all right?"
"No, no. My stomach suddenly..."
"You must have indigestion. I'll help you."
Holy power is inefficient when used on oneself.
Thanks to that, the saintess could naturally reach out her hand to her, but she could not help but hesitate before drawing up her power.
Because Philia's words came to mind: that if Loperna received her power, she would feel even greater pain.
With this very hand, she had to inflict pain upon the mentor she had once respected.
To confirm the truth.
'... No.'
The light in Adriana's eyes sank coldly.
If Philia's words were true, then the existence before her was no longer her teacher.
She was merely a disgusting 'heresy' wearing the mask of a teacher.
'... I'm sorry. Teacher.'
Her hesitation ended.
Fwaaat—!
Pure white holy power burst fiercely from her hand.
A warm and gentle light that should originally heal wounds and restore the body.
But.
"Kuaaaagh...!"
The next moment, Loperna's scream filled the audience chamber.
The body of the Holy Kingdom bishop began to tremble as if convulsing, and a strange power erupted from her form.
Something pink, sticky and disgusting.
"Th-this is..."
Adriana stepped back in astonishment.
It was a power familiar to her eyes—and a power that should not have emerged from a bishop.
'Astaroth...!'
The hue of that power which often flowed from the bodies of those who followed that 'Duke of Obsession,' the ones who constantly swarmed the shores of Rugnisah.
Crack!
At that moment, Loperna's forehead split open.
What rose from within was a black horn. The quintessential symbol of the demon tribe, a 'demon'.
"Oh my god...!"
Adriana's face was colored with shock.
'Philia's words... were true.'
The corrupting hand of evil had indeed stretched into the Holy Kingdom.
"What... is this...!"
The most shocked of all was Loperna herself.
The symbol of the demon tribe sprouting through her own forehead.
Why on earth? How could that be growing out of her?
"It's not true! Saintess! It's not!"
Her voice had already changed from usual. As if something else was mixed into it.
"What is it that you deny? Clear evidence lies before my very eyes."
Adriana's voice had turned cold.
"It truly is not! I know nothing of this!"
Loperna denied it with a shriek.
She was sincere.
She too had absolutely no idea that Astaroth's power was dwelling within her body.
Astaroth's encroachment was so secretive and insidious that even the victims themselves did not notice it.
The biggest problem for her now was that the one who had witnessed her state was none other than the saintess.
As a normal cleric, she should have asked to be healed, but she began to search for a way to cover up this situation.
'I must silence the saintess's mouth, that mouth......!'
Having made that resolve, Loperna's eyes tore fiercely, spreading sideways, and her face distorted as she gradually began to transform into the shape of a demon.
「Saintess...! If only you would just keep quiet—!」
It was at the very moment the beastly snout was about to let out a terrible sound.
Thud.
Everything stopped.
"Is it not a pitiful thing."
Within the frozen world, an exceedingly calm voice flowed into Adriana's ear.
A soft and gentle voice.
When she came to her senses, she saw the black-clad woman, who had placed her hand on Loperna's shoulder before she even realized it.
"The existence of a teacher who actively seeks to use her own disciple, without even realizing she herself is being controlled."
Philia. She was there.
"Do you believe my words now, Adriana."
She asked with an expressionless face.
"... What should I do?"
Adriana could say nothing else.