Save the Boss (3)

"Uwaaagh."

The instant I used the Teleportation Circle, I rolled around on the floor, my stomach doing somersaults. Last time, the Face-Con Fox had done something to help me recover right away, but sadly, she wasn't by my side this time around.

She'd refused to come along, claiming that even taking a single step was beyond her in her current state. Normally I would have pushed the issue, but I owed the fox my life — and I was a beast who remembered her debts. I couldn't bring myself to strong-arm her.

And so I was forced to overcome the aftermath of teleportation through sheer grit alone. Uuurgh. Was I feeling worse than usual because my body was already in poor shape? It felt worse than the last time, anyway.

"My lady?"

Just as I was groaning inwardly, a woman's voice reached my ears. It had been a very long time since I'd heard it, yet I knew instantly who it belonged to.

How could I not? How could I ever forget the voice of the one who had stayed faithfully at my side, tending to my every need, ever since I'd possessed Lucy's body and up until the day I entered the Academy?

"Are you quite all right?"

As I staggered to my feet, I saw her eyes, brimming with worry. Erin.

"Loser Erin."

"Yes. Erin, your exclusive personal maid, at your service."

Erin was as devoted to her duties as ever, even though the person who used ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to torment her all day long had just come back — she had every right to show her displeasure. Truly, a talent wasted on Lucy.

"You seem terribly unwell. Shall I carry you?"

"Erin. If anyone's carrying her, then I—"

The moment Carl opened his mouth, Erin glared daggers at him. Whoa. Was she always this fierce? Last I checked, she was more like a stressed-out new hire barely surviving her first job.

"It is my role."

"...Yes, ma'am."

Before those eyes, even Carl had no choice but to fold. And so Erin, half-forcing me into her arms, showed me a gentle smile.

"Shall we head straight to the estate?"

No...

"Not yet. There's somewhere we need to go first, loser Erin."

There was only one reason I'd deliberately returned to the Arlen estate, knowing full well my stomach would turn ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠itself inside out on the way: to find the final member of this party.

Someone who could lift the curse controlling Karia.

Back when this was a game, that role usually fell to Phoebe. Blessed with the talent and ability worthy of the Church's Saintess, she was practically a cheat code when it came to purification and salvation like this.

She made the game so easy that most veteran players deliberately left her out of the party just to keep things interesting — that's how broken she was.

But I couldn't do that now. The Phoebe of today doesn't yet have the power to stand against a curse laid down by the Evil God of Fire.

I could probably manage it by stacking half a dozen workarounds together, but when I've already decided to coast through this on easy mode, why bother with desperate measures? Besides, I didn't want to pester Phoebe while she was resting.

And so I came to the Arlen territory to find someone who could stand in for Phoebe.

Because the most trustworthy priest I know is here.

Hello, Bishop.

"Hey there, blockhead Bishop. It's been a while, huh? Your face was already grumpy enough, but now you've got even more wrinkles. You look positively cantankerous."

"My, my. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠suppose working too hard lately has taken its toll."

Johann. Back when this was a game, this was a man who should have been rushing about the Holy Land of the Church of the Chief God at this very moment. Instead, a variable called the Arlen family had appeared in this world, and that was what had brought him here.

A zealous believer, utterly convinced that he must trust and follow the word of God and spread its goodness across the world — the Church's single most hardline figure. This was a man who would one day rise to the rank of Cardinal on sheer skill and reputation, defying every objection in his path. As a priest I could call upon, there was simply no better choice.

"Soul Academy is on break, so I knew you would return. Am I right to assume you've come here to train in divine magic?"

Nope. Not this time.

"Blockhead Bishop. Do you enjoy tormenting me or something? You're like a disgusting old fossil. And no, that's not why I'm here."

"Then...?"

Take a look at this.

"Look at this."

I activated the sound-blocking magic ring I'd received from Alsaetin, then tossed the documents in front of Johann. He tilted his head slightly, then picked them up.

At first he read with a puzzled expression — but before long, his face went stone-cold.

"...Where on earth did you learn of this?"

Who knows? Where indeed?

"Who knooows? The Church of our pathetic, scrub-of-a Chief God has so many holes in it, I honestly couldn't say~"

"Answer me seriously. This is no trivial matter."

Well...

"Well, keep reading. You're old, but I doubt you lack the strength to finish it."

"..."

What I had handed Johann was the result of Alsaetin's earlier investigation into the Church of the Chief God's dirty underside.

Time had run short, so he hadn't managed to secure definitive proof — but the documents were more than enough to conclude that the Church was up to something suspicious.

Johann read through them with a rigid expression, and at last set them down on the desk.

"Lady Alrn."

He did not panic.

Even though the documents made it explicitly clear that the Church was committing some manner of sin, he did not panic. Instead, he looked at me with eyes carrying neither pity nor irritation — only strictness — and spoke.

"What is your purpose in showing me this?"

Johann already knew everything written there.

He knew it in far greater detail than anything Alsaetin had uncovered.

It went without saying. A man with the ability and connections to claim the next Cardinal's seat could hardly be ignorant of what went on inside the Church.

What do you think...?

"What do you think I mean by it?"

"Blackmail... no, I suppose not. That would have been conceivable in the past, but the Lady Alrn of today would hardly act on evidence this flimsy. If your aim were merely to inform me, you would have anticipated my indifferent reaction. Which suggests your true purpose was to observe that very reaction of mine — though what comes after, I cannot say."

His judgment was spot on. That's our Bishop Johann for you — a grumpy old stickler, but undeniably capable.

When I nodded, the Bishop let out a long, deliberate sigh.

"Whatever it is you may want, let me offer one piece of advice first: I recommend you dig no deeper into this matter."

Why not?

"Why?"

"No matter how firmly Sir Benedict stands behind you, there are limits. I am telling you that your very life may be placed in danger."

Johann said he offered the advice out of the long affection that had accumulated between them over the years — and then he set the documents on fire.

The flame of divinity consumed the papers in his palm, leaving nothing behind but ash before winking out entirely.

"As you have seen, the Church of the Chief God is not a righteous place. Perhaps it once was, but today it is sinister and filthy to the bone. It preaches virtue, yet it has no desire for righteousness to actually spread."

So forget it. He would forget this matter, and I should forget it too.

Having said his piece, Johann swept the ash together with his hand and dumped it into the wastebasket.

"You are a capable Lady Alrn, so I trust you understood my meaning by now. If anything else weighs on your mind, ask me here and now. I have reinforced the sound-blocking magic, so nothing will leak outside. I'll answer most anything."

As Johann spoke, he regarded me with eyes that had, at some point, gone calm and unreadable again. Before answering him, I called for Grandpa.

What do you think?

Back in the game, Bishop Johann — to put it unkindly — was an old stubborn fossil and a blockhead, but to put it kindly, he was a man so relentlessly strict with himself that he couldn't help being strict with everyone else.

The greatest hardliner within the Church, who wished for the will of God to spread rightly through the world. The kind of man who believed that if the Church itself had to collapse for the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠true path to prevail, then so be it.

For now, knowing the odds were against him, he bowed his head — but when the time came, he would not hesitate to stake his life against the Church itself.

Whenever Phoebe chose to stand against the Church, this man had always become an ally. And I'm sure he still would.

The moment Phoebe confronted the Church in order to carry out her own brand of goodness — if Johann judged that possibility to be real enough — he would shield her without a shred of hesitation and offer up his own life to do it.

I couldn't say for certain whether this man was exactly the same as his game counterpart. I'd made that assumption plenty of times before and gotten blindsided more than once.

But one thing was certain.

Just as Grandpa had vouched — if Johann's faith was truly genuine — then he would become a rock-solid ally for Phoebe, who could no longer trust a single soul in the Church.

Someday, when the Church caught on that Phoebe had learned the truth, she would need people on the inside willing to help her, wouldn't she?

The Phoebe of the far future could handle everything by herself, but the Phoebe of today is still incomplete.

I have to secure someone to hold her up before then.

Who knows when trouble might strike? I don't want to watch someone I know come to harm. That's the whole reason I dragged myself here while fighting off teleportation nausea.

This conversation needed to happen sooner or later anyway, and now I had a favor to ask on top of it. Two birds with one stone, you could say.

Well then — shall I go persuade this old man who grumbles and grouses even while worrying over a brat he happens to be connected to, one with a bright future ahead of her?

Grandpa! Help!

Teach me? Excuse me, it's you who's terrible at this sort of thing, old man!

Grandpaaa! Heeelp!

After Lucy Aln had departed, Johann gazed at the cold tea in his cup for a while, then leaned back against his chair.

When Lucy had first shown him the documents concerning the Church's corruption, he had assumed she simply hadn't abandoned her old habits and was looking to mock him. The thought that she might be attempting blackmail hadn't even crossed his mind. Whatever she had been before, the Lucy of today was far too clever to puff herself up over material this flimsy.

Yet once everything was laid bare, Lucy's purpose had turned out to be something else entirely.

She had come here to protect her friend.

Having learned that Phoebe — the current Saintess she'd grown close to at the Academy — was a false Saintess, Lucy had come seeking someone who could pull the girl back up from the cliff's edge the moment she found herself in peril.

"You blockhead Bishop want to topple the Church from the inside, don't you?"

Lucy knew Johann's goal with perfect precision, though heaven only knew what manner of investigation and deduction had led her there.

To raise the Church back up from its rotten-to-the-core state.

It was the sort of claim that would have shocked anyone who overheard it, yet Lucy had declared it with utter confidence.

"This pathetic little heretic may be a scrub, but she's still the capable, capable child beloved by the Chief God — so I'm going to help you. In exchange, I have two requests."

Under ordinary circumstances, Johann would have shaken his head and declared that nothing which happened here today had ever taken place.

Considering how quickly she was growing, Lucy would surely be of use to him someday. But he could hardly throw a child so clearly beloved by God into danger. That was a task fit for an old man whose years were nearly spent.

And yet Johann had listened to her offer in earnest — and accepted it.

Because he had seen the cross hanging at her neck shine with light.

That brat who once ran wild through the Church halls proclaiming there was no god... to think she would grow into this. People truly do change, do they not. O great Armadi.

"Father Felbin. Are you out there?"

"Yes! Here, Your Grace!"

"An urgent matter has come up for tomorrow."

A salvation to perform for one afflicted by an Evil God's curse, was it?

I must give it my utmost.