A City Swallowed Whole
Needless to say, Cantares had hardly been sitting on his hands all this time.
The very day word arrived that a report had come in from Declan, the crown prince had called an emergency meeting.
"It isn't just the Lucain Kingdom—similar cases keep springing up in other nations as well. We've heard of three more just this week."
"When did those take place?"
"The most recent was last week. They're still being suppressed, but word is the ringleader of the riot has already slipped past the surveillance net."
Answering Kendrick's question, Cantares set a report down on the conference table with a sharp tap.
"They're tracking him, but they don't expect an arrest to be easy. An official letter has arrived asking for our cooperation, since he may have already crossed the border."
"So they've widened their field of operations."
Diana spoke calmly. "The timing is certainly convenient. The moment we informed the other nations, this breaks out."
"I'd call it less convenient than well-timed. They must have been preparing all this for quite a while."
Everyone nodded at Kendrick's words. If the information had been released even a little later, the damage might well have been far worse.
"We've agreed to share whatever we learn, so we should be hearing from them soon enough. And apparently that rascal has something to say as well."
Cantares turned his gaze toward the apprentice knight occupying one side of the conference room.
Meeting the crown prince's eyes, Arendt spoke up.
"We've heard back from the Neumann Merchant Guild regarding that mob business. Cutting to the chase—"
"......."
"We have a very big problem on our hands."
"Kugh—! Hk! Hrgh, hlk—!"
At the apprentice knight's matter-of-fact addendum, Cantares choked on a dry fit of coughing. The knight commanders, too, wore momentarily foolish expressions.
After coughing for a long while, the crown prince finally burst out, "Hey! How can you just say something like that so casually?"
The serious atmosphere shattered in an instant.
"That's what the guildmaster was briefed on this morning, apparently. It was such an urgent matter there wasn't even time to draw up a formal report, so I received the news by communication myself."
Shrugging his shoulders with perfect nonchalance, Arendt continued.
"Our investigator—or rather, Mister Declan. He entered the city disguised as a traveler, and he saw a statue of God Luce that had been destroyed."
"What? The statue?"
"Yes. The one standing in the plaza was damaged."
Laios's disbelieving reply was met with a flat answer.
"It's a large statue they put up in place of a proper temple, supposedly. It was covered in graffiti and its face was shattered. In any case, it was a sorry sight."
"Good grief......."
"The Security Department had apparently already fallen into their hands, too. There were men guarding the statue to make sure no one could restore it."
Kendrick's groan was swallowed by Arendt's next words. These were things that seemed impossible to believe had happened within the Holy Nation, the Callion Empire.
"He checked into an inn, and the innkeeper even tried to proselytize to him. Claimed there was a god out there so merciful and so great that Luce couldn't hold a candle to him."
It was a reference to Cernion.
"......."
A heavy silence settled over the conference room.
Only after a long while did Cantares manage to force out a reply, his face twisted. "This happened... here? In the Callion Empire, of all places?"
"Where else would it be? An entire city was swallowed whole. And God Luce was insulted, besides."
At an answer so cold it bordered on frigid, Cantares found himself at a loss for words yet again.
"A big problem" had been no exaggeration at all. If anything, it was the fellow delivering the news so flatly who was the truly frightening one.
"There was apparently a man going around spreading word of a new religion to the people. But by the time anyone noticed, he'd already left the city and headed somewhere else."
"And he's doing the same thing somewhere else now?"
"Presumably. When they asked for a description, they said he resembled the man who appeared in the Lucain Kingdom. A man covered in wounds, with plenty of strange scars."
Having given his answer to Laios, Arendt folded his arms and tilted his head.
"Beyond that, there are other unsettling movements—collecting weapons under the name of the Security Department, that sort of thing. Sounds like the whole city is one spark away from a full-blown riot."
"When did he leave the city?"
"About a week ago, they say. There's no telling where he was headed, but Mister Declan is investigating for now."
A week. More than enough time to begin plotting their next move—and then some.
A troubled silence settled over the conference room once more.
Had those people simply been bought with money, it would hardly have come as a shock.
But to abandon the god they had regarded as their foundation for their entire lives. The wavering of a human heart was something neither political power nor military force could ever control.
A chill crept through the chest.
Arendt gave a slight tilt of his head.
"To say this up front—I would prefer the temple stay out of this matter."
At the apprentice knight's words, Cantares frowned. "You want us to simply leave alone the people who joined the Evil God Cult and blasphemed Lord Luce?"
"The people who were conned are nothing more than victims."
Con men.
If the one carrying out the proselytizing was to be called nothing more than a swindler, then the people who fell for him were simply victims of a scam.
"Lecturing the idiots who got taken in by that sham religion is the temple's job, granted. But this is, at the very least, not the moment for them to step in."
Laios, who had been silent until now, finally spoke. "No riot or rebellion has actually broken out yet, so they are not targets for suppression. Bloodshed must be avoided wherever possible."
If word of this reached High Priest Theodore's ears, it would certainly not end quietly. The temple would never simply stand by while residents turned their hearts and joined a heresy.
But the others could not bring themselves to nod so easily.
Lowering his gaze, Kendrick answered with a troubled look. "Still, they could turn into rebels at any moment. Maybe not yet—but who's to say nothing happens while we're en route to them?"
Their opponent was the Cult of Cernion. With sweeping wanted decrees already in effect, lending an ear to that cult was a serious crime without question.
Once the crown prince fell into agonized silence, no one could readily open their mouth.
And yet, turning swords on unarmed civilians who lacked even a proper fighting force was hardly desirable either.
Just as the uncomfortable silence stretched on—
Tsk. Clicking his tongue, Arendt raised one hand and slammed it down on the table with a mighty BANG!
Everyone startled and looked up—straight into a pair of golden eyes brimming with irritation.
"Why are you all being so agonizing about this? We went to the trouble of digging all this up, and you'd let that fossil of a High Priest stick his nose in and complicate everything? I refuse to watch that happen."
That fossil.
There was probably not a soul in this entire world besides that rascal who would dare call the Empire's High Priest such a thing.
In the split second that the crown prince and the commanders gaped at a remark beyond all imagination, Arendt spat out his words in irritation.
"Dragon or human, whoever fights us is someone living on this land, and it's us who'll be rolling around dying—so why do you keep dragging gods into this?"
"Well, that's......."
"A statue is just an ornament carved out of rock. Are you seriously going to tell me that thing counts as Luce's actual body?"
The apprentice knight gave Cantares no opening to protest.
"If you're so offended by the statue being smashed and cursed at, then tell Lord Luce to come down here and clean up the mess himself. I'll keep my mouth shut after that."
"......."
"Otherwise, tell that fossil who does nothing but pray to stay out of it and sit quietly. Isn't the whole reason the throne and the temple are separate institutions so they can keep each other in check at times like this?"
It was blasphemy dizzying enough to make the eyes swim. And the most infuriating part was that not a word of it could be refuted.
"You're all worried about a rebellion that *might* happen. Nothing has actually happened yet. All we need to do is knock some sense into the morons who got swindled by a con artist, grab one of the loose threads, and squeeze them until they tell us where the hideout is. What is there to agonize over?"
Having unleashed an unusually long tirade, Arendt glared fiercely at Cantares, who met the apprentice knight's stare with an awkward twitch at the corner of his mouth.
"You... are you angry or something?"
"You're the one who kept getting on my nerves, Your Highness."
Tsk. Clicking his tongue again, Arendt swept his fallen bangs back with an irritated hand.
"And besides—can you not do the math? Even if they were taken in, every last one of them is an imperial subject. If we march out calling it a purge, all we'd be doing is carving our own flesh off with our own hands."
"Fine, fine, I get it! You're going to make my ears bleed, so stop! My mistake."
In the end, Cantares had no choice but to wave his hands in surrender.
Shooting the crown prince a displeased look, Arendt added in a voice that still smoldered with annoyance. "In any case, whatever's been stolen has to be taken back. That we need to kick those cult bastards' teeth in goes without saying."
"Haah... this temper of his, honestly."
Even a god said to make dragons tremble seemed to mean absolutely nothing to that fellow.
Cantares felt the tension drain from his shoulders before he realized it. It was because thinking so gravely about it all now made him feel like a fool.
Pressing firmly at his aching forehead, the crown prince let out an exhausted groan. "Do the math... Fine. If we weigh it your way, then yes—handling this on our own is the right call."
"Your Highness, do you mean that?"
"He's crude, but the brat isn't wrong. If this grows any bigger, containing it becomes the real nightmare."
Cantares nodded at Diana's question. "But if we're shutting the temple out, we have to resolve this flawlessly on our own strength alone. Is there a way?"
"We bring the morons who defected to the Evil God Cult back to their senses."
Making no effort to hide his lingering displeasure, Arendt gave that answer anyway. "Even if they're under the effect of an Artifact, there may be a way to break through it."
The memory-manipulation artifact, the Breath of Mnemosyne, could only activate if the target held faith in the evil god. That much was known to Cantares and the commanders as well.
"If that faith shatters, the Artifact's effect may vanish with it."
"That's true in theory, but it hardly sounds as easy as you make it."
"Well, it's come to this, so we might as well try."
Shrugging his shoulders breezily at Kendrick, Arendt added one more thing.
Seeing that, they were certain of it. Somewhere in that fellow's head, a plan was already fully formed.
Letting out a short sigh, Cantares nodded. "...Very well. For now, I'll trust you and leave it to you. Commander Kendrick, Commander Diana—the two of you will track down the man who left the city. And Commander Laios."
"Yes."
Called upon, Laios answered crisply. "You will take that doomed rascal to the scene yourself. I'll leave the method of resolution to your discretion—but there's no room to drag it out. Understood?"
The temple would learn of this news before long, so they had to move as quickly as possible.
"Yes, understood."
"And—Arendt."
"Yessir."
The crown prince shot a sidelong, unamused glance at the apprentice knight's breezy reply.
"...At this point, fine. Do it however you like. I'll handle the cleanup."
"You didn't need to tell me—I was planning on it anyway."
Faced with the immediate, guileless response, Cantares could only shake his head as if his head were about to split open.