Chapter 4. Flight and Service (9)
Chapter 4. Flight and Service (9)
It was decided that Glaria would stay at the church for the time being.
And so, Ria and I ended up spending time with Glaria during her stay at the church.
There was no particular reason—it was just that, in this church, Ria and I were, how should I put it, the people with the highest status.
Even though this had become a Theocracy, there was still no difference in rights between citizens in this country. It wasn't as if a nobility had been created.
But as always, that was just the law—it didn't mean class distinctions had vanished entirely.
Explicitly, our positions were merely that of nuns, but in practice, I was "the person scheduled to become a Saintess," and Ria was the person guarding me.
Which meant we were in a very good position to be at the side of Glaria, who was "explicitly" an Elf noble but "actually" a princess.
"First, we'll need to find a way to make a living."
Glaria said that during mealtime.
I had assumed that, given the impression of a princess, she wouldn't just eat anything. I mean, she was a princess. She would have tasted all the delicacies of that world—ah, excluding meat, of course—so I figured she'd have plenty of complaints about the food. But Glaria actually ate everything without being picky, and ate very well.
She even—
"What is this fruit? The flavor is excellent!"
—said Glaria, her eyes sparkling as she ate an ordinary strawberry. The church's meals weren't bad-tasting, and they didn't use poor ingredients, but they weren't exactly high-end either.
After all, wasn't this a place that served as an orphanage? The meals were designed only to provide proper nutrition for growing children.
So even when strawberries were served, they obviously weren't an expensive variety.
When we told her that, Glaria blinked.
"But...... in my country, this kind of fruit is very sour. Some are sweet, but the berries are never this large."
"Ah, I see."
Ria nodded.
Right. When people see the word "technology," many think of mechanical engineering, but in fact, there are many categories within it.
The sophistication of the machinery, the quality of the materials used to build it—medicine was technology too, of course, and so was a highly developed bureaucracy.
And beyond technology itself, the most important thing in seed development is, of course, the "seeds."
Apart from biological knowledge, what matters is how far you can travel and how many species you can secure. Without the capability to cross the sea and find new continents, modern-level seed development would be impossible.
"......I think I understand why Father kept contact with this world to a minimum. Once people started crossing over, it would have been impossible to control from that point on."
Given that her father hadn't asked this world for military support even in those circumstances, he must have wanted to prevent his kingdom from effectively becoming a colony. Though I wasn't sure how far the concept of a colony even existed in that world.
For reference, so far—at least against the "revealed" world—no war of invasion had ever occurred. No one from this side had crossed over to that side, and no one from that side had crossed over to this side.
Where civilizations had developed to a certain degree, they acted cautiously when encountering each other in the first place. If a group didn't qualify as a "civilization," then by this world's standards, they were essentially no different from beasts.
Though, how many times such "beast-like opponents" had appeared in this world was anyone's guess.
"......."
We ate in silence. If we chimed in on every one of Glaria's remarks, the weight of the topic would obviously sink deep enough to bore into the ground.
"Anyway,"
Glaria, who had been lost in thought, spoke again.
"So, I need to find a way to make a living."
"Doesn't this country provide support?"
"How long can that support last? My ultimate goal is to cross back through the Gate and return to my country, but there's no telling how long that will take. The people of this country might treat me like a princess at first, but if they decide I've lost my value as a princess, their attitude could change, couldn't it?"
That was indeed a princess-like judgment.
Glaria was quick-witted for an Elf. Of course, every so often she would display pride in her birth and refuse to do certain things, but in the end, she followed Lee Si-yoon's instructions and worked hard.
In modern web novels, a heroine with a bad attitude is merely an object of regret, ruin, and obsession. To become a romance target, she had to have at least the bare minimum of basic decency.
Hearing Glaria's words, Ria shrugged.
And just as she was about to resume eating—
"So, I was wondering, could you all help me a little?"
"......Us?"
At the question that came flying next, even I blinked in slight surprise.
The incident of us eating chicken outside in the middle of the night passed without anyone noticing.
As for Glaria showing a certain friendliness toward me, the people around us seemed to think it was because I was "the person who saved her life."
"Have you spoken to the government people?"
I asked just in case, and Glaria shrugged.
"I've mentioned it."
"......."
I listened for a moment, wondering what would follow, but Glaria merely tilted her head.
"Uh, so you're saying you only mentioned it?"
Ria asked with a skeptical expression.
"When you're working on something, isn't mentioning it to that extent enough?"
"What did they say?"
"They said they would look into it."
Didn’t that mean she wasn’t supposed to do anything until the review was finished?
I suppressed the urge to clutch my head and spoke again.
"Sister, you're of high status, aren't you? And...... well, your father must have sent you to this world hoping for your safety."
"That's not a problem."
Glaria said with a light shrug.
"I was a very skilled Wizard even in the kingdom where I lived. Besides—"
Glaria tilted her head as she looked at me.
"The person I have at least some acquaintance with in this world is you. Didn't they say you're a Saintess Candidate? And not just a candidate, but someone at the stage of actually ascending to the position of Saintess."
"......."
Glaria's eyes flicked to the side, so I followed her gaze—and there sat the Devil’s Advocate, Choi Su-bin.
Well, she hadn't heard it from the person herself; it must have come up while she was being briefed about this world.
Glaria was a princess. If she had received even the minimum education expected of one, she would know how important it was to understand the relationships among the people around her. And in that web of relationships, someone who could rise to become the head of a religion was a very important figure.
"So...... you're hoping I'll cooperate with what you're proposing, right?"
I asked, as if confirming.
"If you cooperate, I can offer my best help in return."
Glaria placed her hand over her chest and spoke confidently, as if making a declaration.
"Help?"
"First, I could help you become a Saintess. I am the kingdom's next—ahem, I hold a reasonably high position. When we return to my world, I could at least have a church built there."
Glaria, true to her upbringing as a princess of an absolute monarchy, offered a thoroughly absolute-monarchy-style justification.
The problem was that this was an extremely, extremely unappealing proposition to me.
I didn't know much about the religions of other worlds, but—
"......Hold on."
I set down my fork and knife and looked straight at Glaria.
"Is this related to that incident in your kingdom—something connected to the religion over there?"
"......."
As if my question had pierced straight to the heart of the matter, Glaria's smile deepened.
"I'll tell you the details once we've established a cooperative relationship."
......One hundred percent.
If there had been even minimal contact, there was no way this world's religion hadn't been transmitted to that side.
The royal family might have kept contact to a minimum and restricted information, but there was no guarantee that the information hadn't leaked out—not as "another world," but as "another country."
In the first place, even in an absolute monarchy, the power of the "king" was never truly absolute. Especially in a place like medieval Europe, the standing of the nobility could never be ignored.
"That would be difficult."
I flatly refused.
"......."
Glaria stared at me without so much as blinking. Her attitude suggested she wanted to hear my reason for refusing.
"Accepting a church means you want an agent to oppose the other religion that holds sway in your country, doesn't it? That's not a benefit to this side."
"Joining a war is a benefit."
Ria, who had been listening, spoke up.
"That's the kind of thing people say when they think this side has almost nothing to lose."
Glaria nodded at Ria's words.
"Father would certainly oppose it, though."
A king who had resolved never to borrow foreign power would do exactly that. Because once you let that kind of power in even once, you'd have to rack your brains terribly to drive it back out again.
In fact, the possibility of never being able to expel it was far greater.
"Our dynasty is in a situation where it can't help but collapse this generation anyway. That's what this rebellion is."
But if her father and family were all already dead, the story changed.
If it was solely for revenge, then it became an option she could choose. Because it wasn't about preserving the dynasty.
It was frightening, really.
"......But there's a catch."
Ria said, staring straight at Glaria.
"First, even if this country really did suppress the rebels in your kingdom, it couldn't 'occupy' the place for all sorts of political reasons. Right? There are all kinds of treaties, aren't there?"
"......."
This incident was, at minimum, known to the government. And there was a high probability that the governments of other countries had learned of it as well.
In that situation, if it became known that this country had attacked and occupied another country, things would spiral out of control from that point on.
"And more than anything."
Ria looked at Glaria with a cold gaze.
"You said it knowing she wouldn't do something like that. Hey, no matter what, is it right to try to use the person who saved you?"
Well, in the end, it just went to show that Glaria was an Elf through and through.
And a noble—no, a royal—at that.
To get through the political story, Lee Si-yoon's strength would be needed.