Seeds of a New Faith
"Did you wait long?"
"Even if I had, you'd have said no anyway, so what's the point of asking?"
After a wait that was, frankly, a touch embarrassing in its length, Lapis and Aria came walking out through the main gate. I had actually been about to answer no, but Aria's remark sealed my lips, and all I could manage was an awkward smile.
Right after that, the two of them moved to climb straight into the carriage, so I asked them to hold on a moment. Dana still hadn't arrived.
"……It's an honor to meet you, Princess Aria. Lady Lapis."
Fortunately, the wait hadn't been all that long. Dana, having packed only the most meager of belongings, offered her greeting with obvious discomfort, and Lapis and Aria received her with comparatively lukewarm courtesy.
「 Then let's go. 」
With everyone assembled, we loaded Dana onto the additional carriage she had procured on her own, pressed some coin into the driver's hand, and set off, leaving behind the Free Trade City where we had spent roughly five months. Thanks to the terrain I had once torn apart with Strength to Move Mountains, Spirit to Dominate the Age having long since settled into a proper carriage road, the journey would supposedly take three fewer days. Watching something I hadn't known how to handle at the time turn into such a positive outcome, I found myself thinking it was a stroke of fortune.
The territory we would pass through en route couldn't be reached in a single day no matter how hard we pushed the horses, so tonight, as expected, we camped. Of the four of us, Dana—positioned lowest in the unspoken hierarchy—had noticed this well in advance and was busily preparing the campsite, though she looked considerably clumsy at it.
"I'll help, so don't push yourself too hard."
"Th-thank you."
Unlike Lapis, who lent a willing hand, Aria extended no friendly gestures whatsoever. Was she trying to establish the pecking order?
「 Aren't you being too cold to her? 」
"Mind your own business. This is a matter of natural instinct."
「 I have no point of contact with Dana beyond our contract. 」
"Then don't let me be mistaken for a woman blinded by pointless jealousy."
Letting out a sigh, Aria continued as she watched Lapis and Dana getting along warmly.
"The talented people gathering around you are better off orbiting Lapis than me."
「 Why? 」
"Because if people gather around me as my hands and feet…… things will get quite complicated later on."
I had a rough idea of what Aria meant by that. But even if Aria's circle of retainers grew, Lapis was hardly the type to scheme and keep her in check. And conversely, there wouldn't be any nobles reckless enough to pull stunts using Aria as their backing—because the confession meant to carry the power of my Lingual Magic had never been initialized.
"People don't know the ways of the world. That's exactly why I don't want to hand them a pretext to cause trouble in the first place."
「 There's such a thing as fortifying your surroundings too much, you know. That comes with its own problems. 」
"Unless your heart changes and you start slighting me, no one would dare dismiss me for lacking retainers at my side."
It wasn't exactly wrong, I had to admit.
"Or is it that you're planning to change your heart somewhere down the line?"
At Aria's words, which all but forced the most obvious answer out of me, I gave a hollow laugh and wrote:
「 I won't. 」
For a mortal living on borrowed time to promise eternity was, in a sense, a contradiction. But then again—wasn't chasing that very contradiction all the way to life's final destination what love truly was?
The moment we arrived at the Imperial Palace in the Empire's capital, I made straight for my mother. Father, forgive me—but a son's first duty is to look after his mother.
"Rohen!"
After a light knock, I stepped inside, and my mother came rushing over at once, casting the dignity of the Empress entirely to the wind. She pulled me into her arms and began checking me over for injuries, as if her son—already a full-grown adult—still appeared to her eyes as the child he had always been.
"I'm truly glad you came to see me first, and I'd love to talk longer…… but His Majesty is waiting, so you should hurry along."
Since I had things to say to Father myself, I nodded and left the room. I intended to raise the temple's construction and the establishment of the elementary educational institutions ahead of my appointment to the Altair Duchy. Buildings don't simply spring up overnight just because an order is given, after all.
And of course, this time I would need to reveal the permanence-enchanted magic stones I had been keeping hidden.
"Is His Majesty inside?"
Having already activated Dialogue in advance, I spoke up before my father's chambers, and the knight guarding the entrance stepped aside with a quiet bow. Entering, I found Father at his work, and at the sight of me he broke into a pleased smile, urging me to take a seat.
"How was life at the Academy?"
"Uneventful."
After exchanging the usual round of small pleasantries, Father and I moved straight to the heart of the matter.
"Duke Asis and his wife are at the palace as we speak."
"For the wedding, I take it?"
"Yes. The date must be set precisely, and the preparations will need to begin soon."
"Understood. Then I'll pay a separate visit to Duke Asis and his wife later."
The words were exactly as I had anticipated, so I nodded without difficulty. Then, taking a sip of tea to wet my throat, I organized my thoughts and began.
"Father—no, Your Majesty. The revival of the Demonic Tree will come, at the earliest, in one to two years, and at the latest, around three."
Even if the territories bordering the Barren Lands were forbidden to hunt monsters, the monsters themselves attacked on a regular cycle. Nor could we simply sit back and take it—killing them was the only option, which meant the Demonic Tree's revival could be delayed temporarily, but never truly halted.
"I know that as well."
"The moment I take up my post in the Altair Duchy, I intend to advocate for the Demonic Tree's destruction."
"The case for destroying it has been made before, bit by bit. But Rohen—the magic stones that come from slaying monsters are woven far too deeply into how we live. If people had to give up that convenience overnight, countless voices would rise in protest and condemnation. It's not something an Emperor can say aloud, but…… most of the common folk are ignorant. No matter how much latent dread they feel, they'll feel the loss of their artifacts' convenience far more keenly than the distant, unexperienced revival of the Demonic Tree."
"Yes. I'm well aware of that too."
At Father's entirely expected response, I drew something from inside my coat and held it up.
"I have taken into my service a craftsman of exceptional talent whom I found at the Academy."
"……Do you speak of the daughter of Duke Demer?"
"No."
I shook my head.
"The magic stone embedded in this item—I used the power of Dragon Tongue to make it usable permanently."
"What?"
Since the amount of mana the stone itself contained was minuscule, Father activated the artifact to judge whether my words were true. And the artifact kept running—well past the span such a meager reserve could ever sustain.
"I naturally thought the same as you, Father. But with the arrival of a Permanent Magic Stone…… that would be enough to win the consent of many. Of course, looking to the future, the sweeping proliferation of artifacts in daily life as we have now would be difficult—but supplying enough to build public facilities and equip them would be entirely feasible."
Father let out a long breath.
"I wonder whether the Allied Kingdoms will truly agree. After all, the birth of the Permanent Magic Stone rests solely on your power. The history between them and us runs deep with resentment. From the very fact that its producer is you—the Emperor's son—they will be scowling."
"Even so, it must be done. We'll have no choice but to conclude a formal treaty through negotiations, whatever it takes."
Shaking my aching head briefly from side to side, I continued.
"But before that, I intend to build a temple and take the seat of Pope."
"A temple?"
"As you know, Father, most of the common people cannot read or write. The Allied Kingdoms will be no different. Those who study the history of the past and nurse resentment toward our Empire are, in the end, only the royals and nobles. The hatred the common folk carry is nowhere near so deeply rooted."
For the Empire to interfere directly in the Allied Kingdoms was impossible. But spreading a religion would be the exception.
"Isn't it strange from the start, Father? Slay monsters and demons, and magic stones emerge; inscribe magic upon them, and they become usable artifacts……
Could it not be a mechanism designed to exploit human greed—to ensure the Demon King's army revives again and again?"
"Perhaps the reason the first Emperor did not make the choice I am making was that the endless war had left every nation utterly exhausted. But we are starting from a different point—so why should we be bound to repeat the same cycle of sin?"
"Hmm…… I understand your meaning well. But Rohen. Do you know why the Empire and the Allied Kingdoms have, tacitly, suppressed religion and rooted it out?"
I was not ignorant of it. I had learned a great deal in recent years, and I had the knowledge of my past life besides.
The birth of a religion, in this world where feudalism still held sway, meant nothing less than the emergence of another class entirely. Should one bearing the blood of the imperial house or a royal line become Pope, church and throne would be one, and all would be well. But should another take that seat in later generations, the blade would surely turn back upon us.
"I am aware of that as well. But…… I cannot bear to watch this pattern repeat itself until my descendants, someday, fall to the Demon King's army. There's no guarantee, after all, that every time the Demonic Tree revives, someone will rise who wields the power of Dragon Tongue."
At my words, Father deliberated at great length before speaking at last.
"Very well. So long as we bind, in advance, the domains in which religion might ever spread its limbs, there is no need for immediate worry."
"Then I ask for the construction of the temple and the establishment of the elementary educational institutions in the Altair Duchy."
"The schools can be funded through taxation, but a temple's construction will find only limited support among the ministers, I'm afraid."
"I will bear the entire cost from my own purse. The money I have saved over these years—more than enough to build the temple."
Father took the certificate I offered and began to read—then his eyes went wide. Small wonder: an heir who had not yet even inherited the throne, holding a fortune in private funds. He would no doubt call it admirable. And at the same time, wonder just how such a sum had been gathered.
"Not a coin of it was earned dishonestly. The Prime Minister is involved as well."
"Was this your plan from the very beginning?"
"Yes."
"I had hoped to see this finished within my own generation, and spare you the burden……"
"It's all right. Born as I was a prince of this Empire, I have resolved myself to carry the weight that the throne entails."
I had a plan in mind for if the Allied Kingdoms proved tiresome enough to throw up obstruction after obstruction. There was also the Succubus's unique ability—the persuasion of baseless logic, planting ideas into minds as indisputable truth.
And if it truly came to nothing but catastrophe, then I would simply crush them by force. A primitive means, yes—but had its effectiveness not already been proven? Throughout history, a show of arms has always been the swiftest medicine, the shortest road.
The only trouble was that the backlash it bred was never small.