The Moving Saintesses (2): The Desert King's Shadow
While everyone immediately gathered upon learning I had come into contact with another person, Saintess Sirita smiled and pushed up her glasses as she spoke.
“You must have been startled when the page tore. But don’t worry. I possess a rather remarkable technique.”
When she simply brought the torn page back to the torn section, the book restored itself on its own. I already knew she could heal people’s wounds, but the fact that she could also repair objects was fascinating, so I looked at Mina.
“…If we applied that, couldn’t we make gloves that regenerate on their own?”
“I can’t do it.”
“Each saintess excels in different areas,” Sirita explained.
It seemed that, much like how Vespia’s nobles continuously inherited and developed certain magics, Sirita had been born with and cultivated this particular ability. By that logic, I wondered if Prince Rial might also possess it, but Sirita shook her head.
“You need not assume my brother possesses this ability as well. It is a power unique to me.”
“A mutation.”
“Precisely.”
Mina’s remark was rather rude, yet Sirita did not seem to mind. The saintess continued with a smile.
“My brother informed me that you had applied to use the library and immediately dispatched me to the information desk to assist you. Shall we go inside?”
There was no reason to refuse, and it appeared Saintess Sirita held the very information we sought. We followed her into a rather refined reading room, where we faced her alongside Noel, Mina, and Erica.
“…Um, so…”
“It is true that my brother and I share blood, but since I have already devoted myself to the Order, please address me as Saintess.”
“Um, are you sure that’s all right? Even if we call you that…”
When Noel hesitated over the form of address, the saintess answered at once. While Erica wore an uncomfortable expression, Sirita replied with a smile.
“It is perfectly fine. I renounced my royal status to join the Order. I do not wish to be treated as royalty by anyone.”
Sirita’s words were somewhat surprising. Such a statement was by no means ordinary. Though the Saras Order was renowned as a fairly large religious organization across the continent, its influence was not overwhelmingly stronger than that of any nation. A saintess still held considerable status—greater than that of most barons—but it was ultimately an honorary position without real military power.
In a situation where most people followed their own country’s royalty more than the Order, for a member of the royal family to insist on being treated solely as part of the Order meant she had voluntarily descended several ranks from the very top of society. There had to be a reason behind such words.
Saintess Sirita merely smiled.
“You must have many questions—about my family, about my relationship with my brother—but my brother and I maintain a close correspondence; we are not in a relationship where I simply receive and carry out orders.”
“Close correspondence…?”
“Usually, it amounts to me officiating his weddings. Nothing particularly special.”
So Prince Rial was a married man. After a brief pause, Saintess Sirita gave a playful smile.
“Well, I have officiated his weddings dozens of times, so perhaps it is not entirely ordinary.”
“…Is it true that he’s a womanizer?”
“It is true. That is why I ran away from home.”
The last remark seemed to be made in jest. We had not seen such behavior in the Kingdom of Vespia, but perhaps the rumors themselves were factual. Saintess Sirita soon returned to the main topic and opened the book. As she turned to the restored page, she spoke quietly.
“After yesterday’s Order meeting, I immediately realized that Saintess Mina had applied to use the library in order to obtain information. I was waiting here to secure it before the Sixth Saintess could arrive.”
“Why are you trying to stop the Sixth Saintess?”
“That saintess is affiliated with Count Abathus. Well, like my brother, she has a preference for handsome men. Her followers are all from the Abathus faction…”
“That is not something a saintess should speak of so carelessly.”
Sirita had been about to say more when Mina cut her off. The way she glanced at Noel, Erica, and me suggested she did not want the details overheard.
“It would dirty your ears.”
“…I agree. I got a little worked up myself.”
There seemed to be something extremely sticky involved. Saintess Sirita smiled and continued.
“In the end, the information will reach them as well, but after hearing my brother’s words and considering the circumstances, I believed that if Count Abathus obtained it, he would immediately try to discard or suppress it. That is why I secured it first. After all, I also serve as the librarian of this nation.”
“Is it acceptable for a saintess to serve as librarian?”
“It would never be permitted in another country, but the Gandharva United Kingdom has maintained deep ties with the Saras Order since its founding, as the Order helped unify the people as the state religion. While it is not particularly encouraged, both the Order and the kingdom find the appointment acceptable, so here I am.”
Saintess Sirita smiled as she adjusted her glasses.
“…Therefore, I shall disclose the information. This is it—the Desert King. An existence long referred to by that name.”
A crude illustration depicted a colossal creature carrying an entire mountain on its back.
And I slowly read the page.
“It carries a mountain on its back and is longer than an entire kingdom’s row of houses…?”
“It is a record, so some exaggeration is to be expected. However, there are also views that it states simple facts. After all, the location mentioned in this record did indeed once host a small kingdom.”
The record dated back two hundred years. The content appeared to be a transcription of someone’s personal account.
[…Just as I finished my business and was preparing to travel to another country for trade, it appeared. Its mere breath scattered sandstorms, and smaller monsters fled from its enormous body. It continued swimming across the sand. The mountain it carried rose and fell over the desert sea.]
[Sensing mortal danger, I fled farther. From a distance, I watched. It was far larger than that kingdom. It showed no intention of fighting. Simply by passing by, the kingdom crumbled and sank into the sand.]
[That must have been the Desert King.]
“This reads like a novel.”
“The content does sound rather novel-like, but multiple records confirm its existence, so its reality is considered certain. If we go further back into ancient records, there even appear to have been tribes that worshipped it as a god—though they seem to have been buried and scattered by the sand.”
Saintess Sirita spoke quietly.
“No one has given it an official name. Judging from the descriptions, it is no different from a natural disaster. Or perhaps you have a better name in mind, Eisen?”
“…Bahamut?”
It was the name that came to mind for a giant land-dwelling fish. Saintess Sirita thought for a moment, then smiled.
“Let us go with that. The Desert King, Bahamut.”
“Then this monster is connected to the incident that drew us here, is that correct?”
At Noel’s question, Saintess Sirita fell into brief contemplation. Then she nodded.
“Given the circumstances, I believe that was my brother’s intention.”
“How unpleasant.”
“I apologize. My brother tends to believe that the greatest gains can be obtained amid danger.”
Saintess Sirita soon looked at us and spoke calmly.
“Count Abathus’s family, with whom my brother has long maintained ties, has recently become a noble house he finds concerning. My brother immediately gathered information and discovered that the Abathus family’s plan to expand into the weapons industry through the Cyclops golem had been nearly thwarted. While they had maintained power by selling beauty to countless nobles and generated enormous revenue through commerce based on those interests, the Abathus family also wished to build strength in preparation for times when the family itself might be in danger.”
“Strength to prepare for danger?”
“The Abathus family does not possess particularly outstanding combat ability, after all.”
Like a chimera covered in various creatures, they seemed to have accumulated numerous motives—longing for military power, a desire to distinguish themselves even there, and through that, to secure a solid business interest. Saintess Sirita continued.
“The Gandharva United Kingdom, given its origins, has many royal lineages and a large number of royals. My brother and I nearly died several times even as children… Pardon me. I am rambling about unnecessary matters. In any case, after seizing power, my brother desired a reliably controlled military force. That force was the Cyclops.”
After all, the Cyclops’s greatest advantage was its enormous power directly controlled by people. There was no reason for Prince Rial, a man of power, not to favor the same advantage that the Phoenix County and the Vespia royal family valued most highly. If his own people piloted it, that power would belong to him.
“And while he was considering how to make that power his own… signs of the Desert King’s appearance began to manifest. You may not have known, but there have been several large-scale monster attacks. Thanks to my brother’s wives taking command and resolving the situations, my brother gained a decisive opportunity to consolidate his power, but at the same time, the need to prepare for the approaching threat also overlapped.”
It meant that while they had to prepare for a potential invasion from the empire, whose borders touched theirs, signs of internal problems were also emerging. Though Prince Rial had acted somewhat arrogantly, perhaps he had actually been quite anxious and gambling behind the scenes.
“That is why he went directly to Vespia instead of sending an envoy. Even though he had just eliminated his final rival and risen to the position of First Heir—with the throne within reach—he still moved. Fortunately, there must have been some chance of success for my brother as well. There would have been information obtained through his wives’ intelligence network… And based on my speculation, he probably approached after coordinating with several influential figures in advance.”
“I will pretend I did not hear that rather ominous story.”
So they had still been rivals until recently. …A slight suspicion arose that the pilgrimage had been suspended not because of the empire, but because the kingdom was essentially in a state of civil war. In any case, as the victor, Rial had recognized the impending disaster within his own country and used it as justification to travel to Vespia and turn it into an opportunity to obtain the Cyclops.
“He leaves no openings.”
“He must not. That is how one survives here. Or else abandon everything, like I did.”
Saintess Sirita spoke quietly.
“But now you understand. This competition of yours is not merely a confrontation between Eisen and Abathus. In the Kingdom of Gandharva, it is also a struggle to protect the nation from calamity through the victor’s weapons. And the Order’s position is…”
“…It seems they want to seize military power at this opportunity.”
Mina’s cold voice rang out. Saintess Sirita nodded.
“Saintess Mina is correct.”
“How unpleasant. They tried to put my merchandise on display without permission.”
“The Sixth Saintess has been working hard to shape public opinion. Even the First Saintess scolded her for it.”
Saintess Sirita spoke quietly.
“However, the Order’s desire for the Cyclops is somewhat different. It stems purely from the First Saintess’s will to protect people from the monster calamity.”
“Don’t bother dressing up the desire for fame.”
“…I will not deny it. That is the thinking of the elders and the other saintesses. In truth, I also thought this would be an opportunity to expand the Order’s influence a little more…”
At Mina’s words, Saintess Sirita readily admitted it. Yet, unlike the others, she had not begged for a golem, and now wore a slightly bitter smile.
“In fact, the First Saintess was honestly reluctant about obtaining military power itself. …However, the paladins who could be called the Order’s military force are, frankly, somewhat inferior in skill to ordinary knights.”
“And their numbers are small as well.”
Honestly, anyone with the martial prowess to succeed as a knight would join a knight order to make a name for themselves rather than devote themselves to the Order. It seemed the Saras Order’s situation was such that its members barely possessed enough strength to protect themselves.
“In any case… My brother deliberately took more time in this situation in order to maximize his gains. As a result, from the saintesses’ perspective, matters that needed to be resolved quickly remained unresolved, which must have been frustrating.”
Unlike Prince Rial, who was pitting me against Abathus to extract maximum benefit, the Order simply wanted to end the monster situation as quickly as possible.
“But the most important premise remains.”
“Whether the Desert King actually exists. That is the greatest problem.”
At Erica’s words, Saintess Sirita answered quietly. Then she spoke in a very small voice.
“…Four days from now. I can only tell you that the Order’s reconnaissance reported a large-scale monster incursion heading this way.”
Even if the Desert King itself did not exist, a large-scale movement of monsters corresponding to its precursor had been observed.
“It would not hurt to prepare.”
Erica spoke quietly, and Saintess Sirita nodded. Whether the Desert King existed or not, the monster migration was reality.
“My brother will likely give word through the professors tomorrow or the day after. After all, this is the season of frequent sandstorms, so the academy will not be able to leave until it becomes safe again. It will not be every defensive line, but he will probably ask the golems and chimeras to each take one line and provide assistance.”
“May we kick Prince Rial aside once this is over?”
Saintess Sirita gave a slight smile. She had given her permission. Still, a sigh came first.
“…If the situation is this tangled, we should not have come in the first place.”
“On behalf of my brother and the Order, I apologize.”
When I grumbled, Saintess Sirita nodded. But it was not her fault, so receiving an apology did not change anything. It was simply that an unusual number of puzzles had aligned this time. Each piece individually was a situation we would have encountered eventually.
“Truly. When it involves entire nations, so many hidden circumstances gather around a single matter.”
An astonishing number of factors were intertwined. The Kingdom of Vespia sought to keep Abathus in check. Prince Rial wanted to solidify his position and secure power to face the coming calamity. The Order sought an opportunity to repel the calamity and expand its influence. Yet—
“It is fortunate that what we must do is simple.”
In this situation, what we had to do was fortunately very simple and clear.
“We simply need to win overwhelmingly.”
That was all—defeating Abathus’s chimera with our golem. Only a very simple and trivial answer remained.