218. The Price of Greed
218. The Price of Greed
Quite a few battles, large and small, broke out on the way to Shamaim. It couldn't be helped. Eight out of every ten people moving through the Holy Capital right now were probably puppets.
Of course, we never had to fight.
The Executors surrounding us—surrounding Yusopa, to be precise—dealt with every puppet.
Even so, Stella and Pina didn't seem to trust them, but they must have trusted my judgment at least, because they stuck close to my side and showed no intention of leaving it.
In many ways... a welcome sight.
Judging by the corpses, they'd been attacked by quite a large number, but they'd handled it without issue.
And on top of that, Stella and Pina—
hadn't they believed me without a shred of doubt when I said Eurasia had been a doppelganger?
Going one step further, Stella had even turned hostile toward the Executors.
How long have they even known me, to open their hearts like this? They're exactly the kind of girls who'd get stabbed in the back the moment they went anywhere.
So, so.
I shouldn't toss them away somewhere. I should keep them by my side.
Stella, Pina, and Sara.
Eurasia too.
"They must be very precious people to you."
"That's none of your business."
"Did I overstep?"
"I'd say speaking to me first at all is already overstepping."
"I... suppose so. Whatever the reason, I am a sinner, after all."
"Glad you know."
After arriving at Shamaim like that, Stella and Pina went through all manner of examinations before dozing off.
And now I was sitting at the head of the bed where the two of them lay, in the middle of sorting out my thoughts.
Since Pina's stamina had bottomed out, Sparkle had returned to the spirit realm too, so I'd have to stay awake alone for a while.
Not bad.
I could organize my thoughts and let my emotions settle a bit.
There was a lot to put in order.
Luna and Arisa... often acted emotionally. Now I understood a little of why.
Smiling bitterly, I pulled Pina's tail out of her mouth where she was chewing on it, and wiped the drool trickling from Stella's mouth.
"Still, seeing that your form of address toward me has changed from 'you' to the more formal 'you,' I will believe your anger toward me has subsided somewhat."
"Believe in that Yurphia you people love so much. Don't waste your faith on pointless things."
Yusopa smiled wryly at my words and whispered in a slightly smaller voice.
"Sara's injuries... prayers have begun, but it seems the results won't be known until late tonight."
"Don't you need to be there?"
"Regrettably... no. I am merely an agent of the Heavenly Principle and the one who announces the beginning. Regarding what comes after, I have no influence whatsoev—"
—I am merely the one who opens the door.
The words Luna used to prattle on about endlessly came to mind.
"Because you're the one who opens the door?"
I recited it back exactly.
At the same moment, Yusopa swallowed her breath.
I turned my head to look at Yusopa, and she was staring at me with wide eyes.
And sure enough, just as I'd expected.
In one of Yusopa's eyes was a familiar symbol.
A cross.
The cross that had been embedded in both of Luna's eyes was embedded intact in one of Yusopa's eyes.
"...You guessed what I was going to say."
"I guessed what's embedded in your eye too. Do you walk around with your eyes closed to cope with that somehow? You get around fine even though you can't see ahead. No, wait. You were holed up for ten years, so it must not have been inconvenient."
Blink— Yusopa blinked.
"Do you... know the power these eyes hold?"
"Of course I do."
I answered half-heartedly and rose from my seat.
"Let's talk about the rest outside."
"Does that mean you will trust us?"
"As if."
I'd decided to keep the kids by my side.
But now that I said I was moving to another spot, Yusopa couldn't help but think that way.
Of course I didn't trust them.
"A friend I can trust is coming."
At this very moment, the person more trustworthy than anyone else.
"I'm coming in."
Knock knock— Along with her voice came the sound of knocking.
Yusopa wore a blank expression at the act of knocking after announcing she was coming in.
Me, well... I'm used to it.
That person was always an oddball. Still, at this moment, that oddball side of her was welcome.
Chuckling, I moved my feet.
At the same time, the door clicked open.
"It's only been a few days, but it feels like it's been a long time."
"...Sorry I'm late."
She must have rushed over, because the Flame Emperor's already voluminous red hair had grown even fuller, like a lion's mane, as she bowed her head.
"Wasn't it chaos on your end too?"
I'd torn up the paper the Flame Emperor had given me a while ago.
Even so, the fact that she hadn't come for over an hour meant something had gone wrong for her too.
If it was a problem in the current situation, it was obviously those damned puppets.
But it was a little strange.
They sent puppets to the Catacombs to tie up the Flame Emperor? That's a foolish move. If it were me, I'd have sent reinforcements to our side and killed us for sure.
Is there something in the Catacombs?
"...You speak as if you already know without me saying anything. You're right. Strange puppets swarmed into the Catacombs as well and latched onto this Flame Emperor."
"They'd have to be strange. A body turned into a puppet with a soul turned into a ghost shoved inside."
"If it's puppets and ghosts, then of course..."
"The Puppet Emperor and the Ghost Spear."
"The Puppet Emperor and the Ghost Spear... not entirely impossible."
Having said that, the Flame Emperor looked past my shoulder and grimaced.
At the end of that gaze, she was probably seeing Stella and Pina.
"They weren't hurt. Mild Mana exhaustion."
"Pina aside, if Stella's Mana was drained to the bottom..."
"She seems to have killed at least a hundred. Is it that the teacher is exceptional, or the student is exceptional? Isn't she growing too fast?"
"Nonsense. This Flame Emperor is a poor teacher. The student is simply exceptional."
Smiling faintly, the Flame Emperor slowly walked over and stroked Pina's and Stella's heads.
Once the Flame Emperor's worries had settled, I brought the conversation back to the main topic.
"Earlier I saw the Dark Venerable running rampant in the Holy Capital too. I don't know whether that was a puppet or the Dark Venerable's main body."
Four of the Six Pillars.
The Sword Emperor, the Ghost Spear, the Dark Venerable, the Puppet Emperor.
They were said to move puppets made by the Puppet Emperor's hands to carry out their work by proxy.
From what I saw earlier, even the small fry who attacked me were at Tier 4 to Tier 5 level, so a carefully crafted puppet would be at least Tier 6 or Tier 7.
Actually, I'm not certain.
For now, seeing that Sara... somehow managed to escape, I only guessed that the Dark Venerable hadn't gone all out.
"The Dark Venerable... if the Dark Venerable was there, it's highly likely he maximized mobility through his shadows. So that's how a board of this scale could be set up..."
Without any special explanation, the Flame Emperor fully grasped the current situation from just a few short words and grimaced.
"However, even if those three gathered, it feels far too sudden. An incident of this scale is no different from raising a banner of rebellion against the Empire—no, against the entire continent."
"Yeah. You're right. It seems like some existence unrelated to this incident got involved somewhere in the middle. Whether that existence... toyed with souls or sent Demonic Energy berserk, I can't say."
"A third party flipped the board...? Then what are they after?"
For a moment, memories of the past flickered through my head.
Before entering the Empire's underground waterways.
That is, before Pina was kidnapped—the information Silina had brought me flickered through my head.
A Black Wizard who leaked information to the collateral branch and stirred them up.
A Black Wizard who made some kind of deal with First Prince Anton.
A Black Wizard who leaked information about the underground waterway labyrinth to Ophelia.
A Black Wizard who left information containing Eustetia's secrets in Stella's room.
A bastard with unknown intentions who just seemed to cause chaos everywhere.
I had a feeling that bastard had caused chaos again this time too.
There was no clear evidence or reason.
But wasn't the pattern similar to back then?
"If it were a Black Wizard, they would welcome the Puppet Emperor's Shedding, and if they were an ally of humanity, they would not. But this incident seems to be neither. What do you think?"
"I think the same. He seems like a son of a bitch who just causes chaos... but I also feel like I'm missing something. It's ambiguous."
"It's still an unknown territory."
"Yeah. We can't even tell what he wants."
"Mm."
The Flame Emperor nodded slowly, then tilted her head and looked at Yusopa standing beside her.
"By the way, who is this standing here?"
"A bitch."
"...I am Yusopa St. Johannidis."
Yusopa cleared her throat and bowed.
"I greet the Flame Emperor, one of the Six Pillars of the Empire."
"Mm."
Having received Yusopa's greeting, the Flame Emperor nodded dismissively as if it were nothing and approached me.
"...You're completely unfazed?"
"About what?"
"Well... she's the head of the Holy Kingdom in her own way, so I thought you'd at least exchange a few words."
"To this Flame Emperor, whether emperor or Patriarch, they are all just humans."
"What about me?"
"You are this Flame Emperor's precious friend."
At the Flame Emperor's immediate answer, Yusopa's expression became quite a sight.
Well... with a mindset like that, I suppose that's how she managed to maintain absolute neutrality.
"But... Eliarnes."
"Yes?"
The Flame Emperor, who had been hesitating for a moment, asked cautiously.
"Your mood seems heavier than usual... did something bad happen?"
"Do I look that way?"
"You look... very rigid."
If even the oblivious Flame Emperor noticed at once, what on earth does my face look like right now?
I raised a hand slightly and felt my face.
Is it... stiff? I'm not even frowning, and I'm even wearing the light smile I usually have when dealing with the Flame Emperor.
"Sara got hurt pretty badly."
"Who... harmed her?"
"The Dark Venerable."
And.
"A doppelganger of Eurasia came to us. That bastard understood Eurasia very deeply."
The Flame Emperor's face hardened.
Her lips twitched as if she were choosing her words.
Countless thoughts were probably racing through the Flame Emperor's head. The incident at Anketin, the story she'd heard in the Catacombs, the current state of the Holy Kingdom, the puppet attacks.
The pieces of information would connect cleanly, and the puzzle with holes in it would finally be completed, just as it had been for me.
And so she would realize.
"...Eliarnes. Hearing that, this, this Flame Emperor has... a truly, horrifying... and unpleasant thought forming in her head."
"You're probably right."
The Resurrection of Gluttony.
That Eurasia was at the center of it.
But there was one thing nagging at me.
Why? Why did they send the doppelganger?
The doppelganger had observed Eurasia until it completely understood her.
And then it had come to the Holy Kingdom.
It would have taken at least five days to understand her that thoroughly, yet it had come to the Holy Kingdom in that short a time.
Kidnapping.
Someone had kidnapped her after she went down to the main house, locked her up in a carriage heading to the Holy Kingdom, and kept her with the doppelganger.
And then they'd sent the doppelganger that completely understood Eurasia to us.
Why on earth did they send it?
If they hadn't sent it, we wouldn't have known something had gone wrong with Eurasia.
Did they not think one of us would be able to recognize the doppelganger?
To buy time?
To sow confusion?
Was it even them who sent it in the first place?
A doppelganger that completely understood Eurasia.
Could it have, simply, just... come running to save us?
According to Stella, the doppelganger had been covered in blood from the very start.
If so, had it escaped from somewhere?
Because it understood Eurasia. Because it copied all of her emotions and thoughts, had it had no choice but to do that?
Thinking about it at length... wouldn't do any good.
Either way, the fact that Eurasia was imprisoned somewhere in the Holy Kingdom was clear.
"This may be... a harsh thing to say, but I'm relieved you seem better than I expected..."
"Better to do something than collapse and blubber."
"...Right. Understood. This Flame Emperor will find Eurasia by any means necessary."
"I'd appreciate that. And please look after these two as well. I have a few things to discuss with this woman."
"I shall."
Having said that, the Flame Emperor thumped her chest with her fist and smiled very awkwardly.
"Trust this Flame Emperor, your friend."
"...Okay."
I chuckled and nodded, then looked at Yusopa.
"Where will we talk?"
Yusopa, who had been approaching me, whispered softly.
"I believe the Sanctum would be best."
The Sanctum.
The place where the Sacred Relics reside.
I'd been planning to get in there at least once no matter what it took.
"Not bad."