183. Please Maintain Some Dignity
183. Please Maintain Some Dignity
After all the Masters had departed, the Saintess descended into the Grand Temple's basement, where only a desolate aura lingered.
The vast underground cavity built to house a dragon was far too immense for a small human like her.
"Seems this conference was rather tumultuous?"
Just by looking around, she could immediately tell something had happened.
The table prepared for guests other than this cavern's master, McIntosh, had been smashed to pieces.
Traces of damage scored what had once been smooth pillars.
The basic rule was that arguments were tolerated but brawling was not, yet it seemed fists had been thrown nonetheless.
She had already guessed as much when Edmund of the Five Kingdom Alliance had left the Papal State last, looking thoroughly haggard.
But the fighting couldn't be helped, Saintess Carmel thought.
'If it was going to end up like this... I should have just stayed inside this time.'
Three Masters who normally never attended had shown up all at once, and she had already known what agenda item would be discussed.
It was not an issue the other Masters were likely to concede easily.
There was no way a simple consensus like 'let's all just defeat the bad guys together' was going to happen.
To begin with, few of the Masters themselves had a clear grasp of the Demon Church's true severity.
From piecing together threads of conversation, it was clear the one Master most alarmed by all this was Atlas.
The Demon Church had been relentlessly concealing its power ever since its forces were shattered during a war in ages past, so most people living in the present day still thought of it as merely a somewhat troublesome heretical sect.
They regarded them as vermin like rats or cockroaches—annoyances that could be crushed whenever they put their minds to it, yet were hard to exterminate completely.
So they only exterminated them just enough to keep them from scurrying into sight; they balked at the idea of turning the entire house upside down just to catch them.
If Carmel's God-given talent had been available, the atmosphere might have softened and progressed somewhat, but that was already a thing of the past.
[This world could be ending, and yet they do nothing but squabble over who gets to take a few more gold pieces... It is always exhausting.]
"They possess egos... and they have emotions, so it cannot be helped. That is precisely why we must discipline ourselves according to His word."
[Even the Masters, said to possess the strongest mindscapes in this world, bite at one another like beasts for their own gain. Even we dragons, whom all extol as higher lifeforms, are blinded by greed and spill the blood of our own kin. Is this horrible reality something we must simply endure...?]
A Master did not simply mean the most powerful person.
One could become a Master even without legs that could sprint a thousand li in a single bound or monstrous strength to shatter boulders.
The single greatest factor separating an ordinary person from a Master was mental fortitude.
The Aura Blade that had reached its pinnacle was the materialized form of the wielder's unyielding mindscape.
An indomitable spirit, impervious to any encroachment, manifested as the Aura Blade.
Masters were all strong simply because mighty bodies were more apt to harbor mighty spirits, nothing more.
Conversely, no matter how powerful one's strength, if the mindscape was not steadfast, one could never become a Master.
Precisely because Masters were humans who possessed the most formidable mental fortitude, McIntosh had believed they would never waver before a demon's temptation. So the news that the Sword Saint himself had been ensnared by a demon's trickery had come as no small shock.
"You know well enough that desire is not purely evil. It seems you have been quite weary."
[Yes... It was precisely the desire for a better life that allowed all races to advance. They created better technologies, better goods, and transformed their own lives to become better beings. But as long as such desire exists, demons will appear without end.]
"Therefore, it is we who must help."
[Many things are unsettling. Heretics have always been thus, but in these recent incidents, there are far too many things that defy common sense.]
McIntosh retraced the sequence of events one by one.
If one traced it back to the origin, it all began with the Dungeon Field Trip held for the academy's new students.
The Demon Church, seeking to swallow the entire dungeon for use as a sacrifice, had attempted to summon a Great Demon in the very heart of the academy.
At that time, Master Atlas—one of the Shadows of the Empire, who was undercover—had thwarted the ritual and defeated the imperfectly descended Great Demon Belphegor, sending it back to hell.
The second incident was the terror in the Clover Kingdom.
Sword Saint Adolf Roang, a Master of immense renown, had entered the Imperial Academy alongside the students of his own nation, the Clover Kingdom.
During the Swordsmanship Exchange Tournament, their original purpose, every Clover Kingdom student suddenly transformed into a demon and attacked the others. The Sword Saint fled, but likewise fell at the hands of Atlas, who had been lying in wait.
[Why the academy? There are countless places far more vulnerable to demonic attacks, places that could deal a crippling blow to society. Why insist on fixating on the academy?]
They had failed twice.
Even after attempting terror plots of that scale twice and failing both times, the Demon Church had carried out a third.
It was, without a doubt, extremely abnormal.
The Demon Church had lost a huge portion of its organization's strength as the price for its long seclusion in hiding.
After failing so spectacularly, the logical course would be to target something more vulnerable or wait for another opportunity. Yet they kept doggedly targeting the academy.
Their movements were as if they were absolutely certain that if they just kept hammering away like this, the academy was bound to collapse one day.
[The Shadow is strange as well. What could he possibly have known to make him infiltrate the academy precisely at that moment? Of course, the academy is a critical facility, but it is not one whose direct strike would paralyze the Empire's ability to function. There is something hidden there that I am unaware of.]
To McIntosh, bound to this underground cavern and only able to observe the situation through reports, both the academy—subjected to constant attacks—and Atlas—who lay in wait there without a word—were suspicious beyond measure.
"Masters do have an unpredictable side to them."
As she wandered the cavern and passed by the area where the holy relics were stored, she discreetly produced a rosary from her sleeve.
[That rosary belongs in the second compartment from the left.]
"Ack?! W-What could you mean?"
Carmel's hand, which had been about to surreptitiously slip the rosary back, froze.
[You must have used it where necessary, so I shall let the matter pass. But next time, be sure to obtain my permission first.]
"Yes..."
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After exchanging brief greetings with Carmel and taking our leave, Teacher and I, along with Director, returned to the capital.
The first place we arrived at was the barracks of the Imperial Knights.
"Oh my... Lady Wendy, have you returned?"
"Yep~ Here, a souvenir."
Patra, a senior officer of the knight order who was wandering the barracks again today, startled the moment she spotted Teacher and snapped into a respectful posture.
Teacher pulled a small doll from inside her padded armor and tossed it to Patra.
"Where on earth did you buy this?"
"Some farmers made it for me when I was passing through Hamelrun in the east. Isn't it adorable?"
"Ah, Lady Wendy! It's been a while!"
"Have you all been well?"
"Yes!!"
Even though she was just walking through a corridor, regular members of the order began flocking around Teacher.
Even putting aside her position as a Shadow, Teacher—the Director's twin—was immensely popular.
Because she roamed the outside so often, many rank-and-file members had never once seen Teacher's face, but those who had seen her even once could never forget.
"Hey, I came back too, could you at least pretend to be a little happy about it?"
"We saw you last time."
I had very clearly returned together with her, but the reaction was exceedingly cold.
Had I really lived that recklessly?
"Oh my, look at me. Has Linda stopped by?"
"Yes, she already departed for the Imperial Palace, but she did drop by."
"It's a relief she came. I'll be leaving again soon too, so you should all know that."
"Will you be staying long this time?"
"I only came to stamp out for departure, so I'll leave right away. Staying only in the capital makes me feel so stifled I get restless."
Smiling, Teacher pulled out her identification tag.
The clock-in and clock-out stamps here were handled simply by touching your tag to a plate.
'I haven't stamped that thing once since I ran away.'
I really hadn't done it even once since leaving for the subjugation of Snow Country.
Having quickly finished the clock-out process, Teacher dragged me along and headed for her mansion.
.
.
.
.
.
Teacher lived in the same mansion as Director.
Even though it was the same mansion, the house was so large that one could say they lived separately without exaggeration, but originally, Teacher was said to have lived alone with her parents in their territory.
After both of them passed away from old age, the management of the territory was subcontracted to a professional, and the two of them came to reside exclusively in the capital.
Their registered address was still in the territory, but their actual residence was now the capital, for all practical purposes.
Even so, since one could not occupy a wide plot of land in the heart of the capital, their mansion—prepared a bit further out—was built on an extraordinarily magnificent scale to quench the thirst for success the two had endured since childhood.
Excluding the servants, just two people... no, since one of them was always roaming around, it was practically a mansion for one person, and yet it was excessively vast.
I had visited once before as well.
The senior officers of the knight order were occasionally invited whenever Director had something to celebrate.
I had never set foot here again after dashing off to Snow Country, but now—having returned after so long—I found myself in a tremendous crisis.
"I'll wait outside."
"And now you're trying to duck out?! Did I ever ask you to come inside together!!"
"Take your hand off my clothes and then say... that!"
"Just stay still and I'll let go!"
The moment we entered, Teacher made straight for the bathroom, abruptly stripping off the clothes she had worn throughout the entire journey.
I was flustered at first, but thought, 'Ah, she must be going to wash up since she couldn't wash properly while traveling.' So I was about to step outside for a moment when she suddenly grabbed the hem of my clothes.
First, she had ripped off her top in one swift motion, complaining that her body reeked from the long journey. If I were to turn my head in this state, her fair, teardrop-shaped, beautifully formed breasts would be fully visible in a single glance.
I was certain of this, because I had turned my head away the instant I glimpsed her smooth back.
"You... are you embarrassed of me?!"
"If you keep acting like this, I really might start to feel embarrassed, so please, have some dignity!"
The house maids managing the mansion silently went about their work.