Like a Third-Rate Novel
A tremendous crack split the air as something shattered in a vast, empty space.
More collisions followed — impacts, breakage, the violent music of things being destroyed — until at last there came only the ragged sound of someone dragging air into their lungs.
"Aaah... How loathsome! How loathsome! How loathsome!"
A woman's scream, thick with madness. And it was not madness alone. Jealousy, hatred, every venomous feeling she possessed set the very air around her trembling.
The girl she despised. The girl who had stolen her love.
And so she had taken everything in return.
She had stolen her blessing, stolen her voice, and bound her will. She had taken her family, taken her friends, taken the place she belonged, and left her to suffer.
She had tormented her and tormented her, until at last she meant to complete her revenge — by chaining that wretched, shabby creature she so despised to the girl who had stolen her love.
Yes. It had all been going so well.
It had been going so well...!
"Why?! Why are you smiling?! Why do you look so happy?!"
Everything had started to go wrong.
The flower bud she had cursed and cursed, watching it wither day by day, was gathering its strength again — preparing to bloom into something beautiful.
"You are not allowed to smile! You are not allowed to be happy!! Aaaaaaagh!!"
She had pointed and jeered at that suffering, soothing the wound of her lost love with the sight of it.
And then all of it had come undone.
"It's your fault! It's all your fault!!"
A tiny light had appeared, unbidden, at the side of the one she hated. Drawn to that light, the girl had begun to claw her way out of her misery, reclaiming everything she had lost.
Her voice. Her family. Her friends. Her place in the world.
And the will to take it all back and be happy.
"I lost the little amusement that was supposed to comfort me for the pain of losing my love!! And now I have to feel this agony all over again!!"
Of course she had tried to eliminate the interloper.
She had set him against that stupid clown, but for some reason the power she had granted the clown began to wither, and the attempt failed. She had unleashed a horde of monsters, but he stubbornly survived that too.
Why not simply lay her own hand on him, the way she had taken the girl's family and friends?
She had already tried.
But her power had no effect on the interloper whatsoever.
It had been deeply unsettling. The degree varied depending on the conditions, but her power always took hold, at least a little. That was how she had been able to drive the hated girl's family away from her. Asem>As long as he was a being of this world, there was no reason her power should fail to touch him at all.
And that was not the only problem.
Merely coming into contact with the interloper caused the influence of her power to dwindle, bit by bit. The girl she hated slowly reclaimed what had been stolen from her, and the power granted to the clown was shaved away, piece by piece.
The interloper had begun to feel like the very source of a plague.
"If only you weren't there!! If only you weren't there!!"
She could not act directly. Every attempt to eliminate him had failed. She needed a sure method of getting rid of him.
And as she turned the problem over in her mind, a thought occurred to her.
"That's right... I still have that..."
She remembered. Did she not have an enormous number of words at her disposal?
"I don't know how far I can get milking an existence that's already dead and gone... but it should have some effect, shouldn't it?"
And so she hoped they would be of help.
That they would play along with her lie, and drag him down...
"The World Tree Church, you said?"
Julius's eyes widened at the name his half-sister had just spoken.
The World Tree Church. Frankly, it was not a name the royal house of Pallazinia welcomed with any particular warmth.
The Kingdom did recognize the World Tree Church as its state religion — but that had been true only in the earliest days of the nation's founding. The Church of the present was something else entirely. Abuse of ecclesiastical power was the least of it. There was the indiscriminate rejection of every other faith. Even the current climate of beastkin hatred had been whipped up by the Church more than twenty years ago, and had since settled into something like common sense.
Even though one of those who slew the Demon King four hundred years ago was a beastkin.
A people once praised as heroes had, through the Church's backroom maneuvering, been reduced to a race that could scarcely walk with their heads held high. Well — that had nothing to do with the matter at hand. Julius set the thought aside and looked at his half-sister.
Princess Yuril opened her mouth.
"The Church's movements have been unusual."
"Those people being suspicious is hardly news, is it?"
"Please take a look at this."
Julius accepted what Yuril held out to him. It was something like a proclamation, written on splendid, expensive paper. He began to read what was inscribed there.
When upon the Blessed Land a black demon breaks the seal of the Demon King, and the world is steeped in darkness,
a Hero shining in silver shall appear, cast aside the demon's interference, and be joined with his beloved crimson Priestess.
He shall vanquish the demon and seal the Demon King once more —
and the world shall know peace again...
"What even is this?"
"What does it look like to you?"
"Did some wealthy fool take this expensive paper and scrawl a third-rate novel across it in oversized letters?"
Julius's face was a study in disbelief. Yuril sighed.
"That paper is a proclamation the Church has been distributing in every city."
"......I beg your pardon?"
The incredulity on Julius's face curdled into something closer to outrage.
"The Demon King was completely annihilated over four hundred years ago. Unsealing the Demon King... there is no seal left to break."
The Demon King had been sealed, once. But the Demon King who broke that seal had been utterly destroyed in battle against a party led by a beastkin. Two of the members of that party had been Founding Queen Olivia and Martial God Calidos.
When Queen Olivia established the Kingdom of Pallazinia and ascended the throne, she had delivered an address. That speech was still preserved by the royal house, and its contents were famous enough to appear in every manner of historical text. It stated, in no uncertain terms, that the Demon King had been completely annihilated.
And in the four hundred years since, the name "Demon King" had sunk into history and little more.
And now they were going around spouting nonsense that the Demon King had never been destroyed at all — that a seal was about to break?
Was this not an open challenge to the royal house of Pallazinia?
"They haven't merely been distributing proclamations. I've heard they've been gathering crowds and delivering speeches as well."
"Has the entire Church gone mad?"
"Which is why I wanted to ask... I heard the Church came looking for you a few days ago, Julius."
At that, Julius thought back. Come to think of it, two days ago, people from the Church had come asking to see Prince Julius.
"Did they happen to tell you anything?"
"Ah... well, sister."
Yes. They had certainly come. Julius simply hadn't met with them.
Or rather — he hadn't been able to meet with them. And he was not particularly eager to explain that to his half-sister.
A cold sweat beaded on Julius's brow as he glanced at Jess, standing beside him. Jess was sweating too, his face drawn tight with tension.
"I... did not meet with them."
"I see. Might I ask why?"
"W-well, you see."
Honestly, it was a little difficult to say. How was a member of the royal family supposed to admit that he had slipped out with his escort knight for a bit of unsanctioned recreation?
"I... simply didn't wish to see them, so I declined."
"Is that so..."
Yuril studied Julius's face with narrowed eyes, then turned her head away. Julius let out a silent breath of relief, thinking he had just barely gotten away with it.
"Sister... does Father know about this proclamation?"
"Yes. A report was already submitted this morning."
"And what did Father say?"
"As one would expect, he intends to protest to the Church directly."
Well, of course he did. This was tantamount to an open challenge to the authority of the Crown. Julius had known the Church was capable of overreaching — but he had not expected them to dredge up a plot this stale and use it to pick a fight with the dignity of the state.
"Luna and Aine are away, but you and I will be in attendance."
"Will we? When?"
"Tonight, after dinner. His Majesty said he would summon the Archbishop of the capital church."
"Oh... tonight, then?"
"Yes. Given the nature of the matter."
After two days of thoroughly enjoying the festival and unwinding, Julius's head began to ache all over again.
Yuril rose from her seat with a faint smile.
"Well then, Julius, I'll take my leave and begin preparing. And do try to keep those little outings of yours in moderation."
The audience chamber of the royal palace. Upon the throne sat a bearded man, his expression grave and imposing. The face itself was stern and unreadable — but anger sat plainly in his eyes.
His name was Galarus Oldin Pallazinia. King of the Kingdom of Pallazinia.
Beside him sat Queen Selveria Rir Fallazinia, her expression frozen stiff, and the prince and princess were positioned nearby. Beyond them, the Chancellor, the Grand General, and a host of other officials occupied the chamber with faces equally rigid.
"It has been some time, Your Majesty Galarus."
"Archbishop Marconi. It has been some time."
A middle-aged man in priest's robes, his white beard grown long, entered the audience chamber and offered his respects. King Galarus accepted the greeting — but the anger in his eyes did not so much as flicker.
"Then let us come straight to the point. Archbishop. Have you anything to say regarding this paper?"
"Ahh, so Your Majesty has seen it as well!"
King Galarus's voice was heavy with fury. The Archbishop, looking at the paper in the King's hand, brightened instead.
"If Your Majesty has already seen it, that will make this much quicker! This is a crisis that extends beyond the Kingdom — it is a crisis of the entire world, Your Majesty!!"
"......"
Does this man even properly grasp what is wrong with this paper? The King found himself frowning despite himself.
"How fortunate that I should have the chance to speak of this oracle here in Gransen, the Blessed Land itself!"
"...An oracle, you called it?"
"Yes! What is written here is an oracle bestowed by the World Tree Yggdrasil!!"
This third-rate novel of a story is supposed to be an oracle? A deep crease settled between King Galarus's brows as his mood darkened further.
"This is, without a doubt, an oracle from the World Tree, warning us to prepare for the Demon King's revival! And so we have conducted a large-scale investigation in Gransen, the so-called Blessed Land!"
"......"
"And now that the results of that investigation have come in, I was just on the verge of requesting Your Majesty's cooperation in resolving this situation!"
"Cooperation? Cooperation in what, exactly?"
Archbishop Marconi spread his arms wide.
At the Archbishop's words, the expression on every face in the chamber twisted.