Hyde Heads to the Nunnery!? #2
Palchea province lay fairly close to Fierenzo.
In the first place, the city of Fierenzo itself sat right between Durgien province and Palchea province.
"Hyde, I'm bored."
The Rem River that cut Fierenzo clean in half. As we headed north along that river aboard a fairly large boat, Milione Archibold whined like a kindergartener.
It had already been a full week since we left the city of Fierenzo. In that week, Milione Archibold had been quieter than expected—she'd even shown signs of trying to meditate in her room. But she seemed to be reaching her limit at last.
"I said I'm bored!"
Pinch—.
Standing on the deck taking in the nearby scenery, Milione pinched my side hard. Did Milione not know that the Archibold family had been completely wrecked?
"Miss Milione, please don't cause trouble and stay quiet. Right now, if the young lady causes an accident, there's no one left who can protect you."
In other words, Milione Archibold was like a kite with a broken string—slowly fluttering and falling from a great height. That was her situation now. She herself had to know it well.
"If you make it fun for me, I'll stay quiet, okay?"
I was a diligent priest, not a comedian or a clown. But a sense of humor was a fairly important item for a priest. If sermons were nothing but stiff and didactic, they grew boring. Pastors and priests also needed to train in speech that entertained the congregation like entertainers. Fortunately, I had a pretty good sense of humor.
"There is no tomorrow— do you know who said that famous line?"
"What's that supposed to be. Some quote. Socrates?"
"The answer is the mayfly."
Because it's a mayfly. A mayfly has no tomorrow. As I privately congratulated myself on a very funny joke, a vein stood out on Milione Archibold's forehead with a sharp snap—.
That meant she was angry.
"I'm so dumbfounded I'm getting mad."
Don't get mad. If you get mad, this boat will break and we'll all drown. Soon Milione let out a long sigh.
"More than that, stop with that weird honorific already. You keep acting so stuffy it just makes everything more tedious and boring. Just call me Milli comfortably."
"Even so, how could I casually address Miss Milione, the young lady of a prestigious house, so freely?"
"I said it's fine to do that."
"Got it, Milli."
"……"
Milli looked briefly flustered. She clearly hadn't expected me to drop the formal speech right away. I was the type who dropped it without a second of hesitation the moment I was told to. Soon the girl seemed to move her lips as if about to say something, then whipped her head around and stared at the flowing river water.
"Hyde, do you know anything about Palchea province? Isn't this your first time going?"
That was right. Just as the trip to Fierenzo had been my first, the neighboring province of Palchea was also a first. Still, I had knowledge from books, so I answered with as much as I reasonably knew.
"I hear that because it meets the sea, there are many cities with beautiful ports. I heard the Orleans count family has ruled it for generations."
Orleans. The family's flag emblem was a giant octopus—a kraken—wrapping around a ship. Prince of the sea. Manager of the eastern seas. Well, a family famous under names like that.
"I heard the Orleans count family reigned supreme on the sea until the Allied Kingdom became subordinate under the Unizer royal house. Their prestige must be quite something."
If the Agarpe count family of Durgien had been prestigious among the prestigious yet was declining because of the war twenty years ago, Orleans was the victor's house. Indeed, among the ships coming and going along the upper reaches of this Rem River, there were plenty flying the Orleans family's symbol—the kraken—on their sails. As I admired the sight, Milione Archibold spoke.
"I hear the Orleans family owns thirty ships."
"Amazing."
"Right? They're all merchant ships, but in wartime they can be armed as warships. There's even talk that Orleans will soon be raised to marquis by the Pope's order. Thanks to their merits in the war twenty years ago."
The war between the royal house and the Church that had broken out twenty years earlier. Its aftermath still seemed to be sweeping through this Allied Kingdom. It had been a war large enough to split the country in half. Corpses rolling across every field, maggots and crows swarming. Orphans, the sick, and widows multiplying wildly until nothing remained but lamentation, they said.
Disembarking.
When I stepped off the boat, the ground felt like it was swaying. After being aboard too long, the sensation of solid earth felt strangely wrong.
"So this is Veneto, which can be called the capital of Palchea province."
It was a beautiful city where river, sea, and urban life blended just right. Fierenzo had been quite large and splendid, but this place was glamorous to a similar degree. The sight of boatmen poling along the river channels that ran through the city even made me feel as if I had come to the European tourist destination of Venice.
"Where do we go for the Grande Nunnery?"
I looked around, trying to find something like a carriage. Milli immediately scowled hard.
"Why are you in such a hurry? We can go slowly. The Grande Nunnery is just a boring place. There's nothing good about arriving early."
Well, for you maybe! But for me it was the place where Psyche was. Thinking of getting to the Grande Nunnery quickly, meeting Psyche, and dumping Milione, I was already in an excellent mood.
Swoosh—.
Soon Milione raised her hand.
"See that island out in the sea?"
Caw, caw—.
Seagulls wheeled over the water. There really was an island there. It was a large stone island of black cliffs recognizable even from afar, and even though it was high noon under bright sunlight, it looked gloomy and oppressive.
"What about that island."
"The Grande Nunnery is on that island. If I remember right, the boat between the island and this mainland only runs once a week. Even if we hurry, it won't help."
I see. When I checked carefully, it was exactly as Milli said—the boat heading to that "Stone Island" wouldn't leave for another two days. Unintentionally, two days of our schedule had gone free.
"Should we find an inn or something."
Is there even an inn we can stay at—? As I thought that, Milli frowned.
"Are you planning to make this Lady Milione Archibold sleep in a cheap inn like a bunch of vagrants? I'm the daughter of Archbishop Archibold."
"Didn't you hate your family?"
In the first place, your dad isn't an archbishop anymore. Of course it seemed he would be reinstated soon enough, but looking at the capricious Milione who flipped this way and that, my face tightened.
Milione said, "Hyde, there's a villa of the Orleans count family nearby. I remember going there before. We'll go there and stay as guests. We have more than enough standing for that."
Is that so? Hearing it again, it actually sounded like a perfectly good idea.
"Let's go, Hyde!"
"No—before that I need to stop by the church first."
Whatever city, whatever territory it was, always seeking out the church community first was my routine. With that feeling, I headed for Veneto's church. It was a stone building with blue paint on the roof—modest in size, yet that very smallness gave it a certain charm.
Creak—.
When I opened the door and stepped inside, priests with heads shaved smooth were waiting.
"Who are you?"
"I am Hyde, the priest in charge of Agarpe territory."
Jingle—.
I proudly displayed the bronze-plaque cross hanging at my neck. The priests looked back and forth between my face and one another's, then brightened with joy.
"Oh! A priest from Agarpe territory! And I've heard the name Hyde! My, a very famous person has come to visit our church again!"
The bald priest's name was Tarco. He wore a silver necklace and held the rank of bishop, so strictly speaking he was my senior, yet he seemed quite unpretentious.
"Veneto Church welcomes you. Young Lady Archibold, it is an honor to meet you. I find Archbishop Medici's demotion regrettable, but he will be reinstated soon."
"Nice to meet you, Bishop Tarco."
Swoosh—.
Milione greeted him with elegant, humble grace. Watching from a distance, the bronze-plaque priests murmured in admiration things like "Quieter than I heard" or "Pretty as the rumors said."
"So, Sir Hyde and Miss Milione—what business brings you to Veneto?"
"Young Lady Milione here intends to enter the Grande Nunnery for about a year. And I plan to make contact with the abbess by order of His Holiness the Pope."
"His Holiness the Pope…?"
Tarco looked thoroughly startled. Well, if someone told me I had to go to a nunnery by order of the President of the United States, I would be startled too. Pope Gregory's power and glory really were no less than an American president's.
Swoosh—.
Soon the bald Bishop Tarco gestured for me to follow. He led me to a quiet, secluded spot behind the confessional, checked the surroundings, and asked in a low voice.
"Is it perhaps because of Miss Lucy?"
"Lucy?"
"Miss Lucy Emma. I hear her condition grows more serious by the day. Now she even crawls upside down across the ceiling, they say. Possessed by a truly vicious ghost—."
"Ah."
So the name of the possessed woman was Lucy Emma. Milione had never given me the full details, so I was only now learning the name.
"I'll go and see the detailed situation myself. More than anything, whether she's truly possessed by a ghost or not, I have to go and look."
They called it possession, but wasn't it more likely schizophrenia? That was what I was thinking. To me like that, Bishop Tarco seized my wrist with a serious face and spoke.
"Miss Lucy—I met her myself about five years ago. I needed to go to the nunnery briefly to give a lecture. Speaking as someone who has seen her…."
Hoo— Bishop Tarco began to tremble violently. He dabbed at the cold sweat starting to bead on his forehead with a handkerchief, dab dab—.
"Brother Hyde. Absolutely do not listen to Miss Lucy's stories. It is a place where countless exorcists and priests have been broken and collapsed. That 'Stone Island' is dangerous."
That bad? But I wasn't particularly worried. Was I not Priest Hyde, more faithful and devout than anyone?
"If she's really possessed by a ghost, I'll drive it out in one go—bam."
I was confident. I was no half-baked amateur. Still, I could tell that Bishop Tarco of Veneto was a good man. I told him, "Please come visit the church at Agarpe Manor someday," and left the church.
When Milli said, "That was boring," and stretched long and slow—
Clatter—.
A carriage stopped right in front of us.
"Are you Priest Hyde and Young Lady Milione of Archibold?"
The coachman asked us. A small flag hung from the carriage, embroidered in purple thread with a giant octopus wrapping around a ship.
"We have come to escort you from the Orleans family. Lord Aaron Orleans and his wife wish to receive you as guests. Will you come with us?"
Aaron Orleans. And his wife?
"Is the wife's name by any chance Cathy Orleans?"
"That is correct."
So they really did get married? For real? As I was thinking how impressive I was, Milione Archibold yanked hard on my arm.
"Those two ended up getting married! Wow! This is going to be fun! Let's go already! Hurry! I said let's go!"