The Holy 7th Special Task Force
One month before Altiera was formally made a combat nun.
The Imperial Central Church.
Beneath a high ceiling, the cardinals who formed the Church's backbone sat along a long round table. The documents set before them all bore a single title.
"This item was put forward by Elena Valentine, the Saintess of Revelation."
The priest reading the papers went on.
"The raising of seven combat nuns who wield demonic power has proceeded according to plan for the past eight years. In one month, all of them will be eligible for formal commission."
"I remain opposed."
A cardinal spoke at once.
"The Church, officially employing clergy who use the power of demons. Call it a special force if you like. The danger is still far too great."
At that moment—
Click. Click.
Heels sounded from the far end of the chamber. A girl with pastel-pink hair loose down her back walked out before the round table.
The cardinal in the seat of honor asked,
"Can you truly control those children?"
"In eight years, not a single instance of demonization or mental erosion has been confirmed."
Elena answered with perfect calm.
"My children are not the same as demons."
Another cardinal raised a hand. The one at the head of the table nodded.
"Speak."
"Eight years without incident is no promise of what follows."
The cardinal who had raised his hand looked at Elena.
"A demon contractor is human at the start as well. Then, at some moment, they erode. They collapse. In the end they become the demon."
"Even so, we can hardly dispose of children who have yet to cause a single problem."
"I am not proposing we dispose of them."
He tapped the documents with one finger.
"I am proposing we attach a safeguard."
Elena's eyes narrowed.
"The watchers you mentioned before?"
"One for each of the seven."
A low current of agreement moved through the chamber.
"We establish a unit to inspect them for demonization and mental erosion, and to judge when they can no longer be controlled. What do you say?"
A brief silence.
Elena asked,
"And if I refuse?"
"Then there will be no approval to activate the 7th Task Force."
Simple enough. If she meant to draw the blade she had spent eight years honing, she would also have to set someone at its edge.
Elena smiled, faintly.
"Who chooses the watchers?"
"Best if each cardinal recommends candidates."
"Then you'll simply pack the posts with your own people."
Several faces hardened.
Elena went on as if she had noticed nothing.
"Recommend whomever you like."
And she smiled.
"In return, I will be looking properly at their ability."
He nodded. No further objection came.
"You mean to accept?"
Elena let her gaze travel once around the table. The terms were not to her liking. There was, however, no other choice.
"Very well."
At last she answered.
"On those terms, we activate the Holy 7th Special Task Force."
And so the seven combat nuns were cleared for official duty. At the same time, a watcher was fastened to each of them.
The door opened. Inside, the pink-haired saintess who had made us what we were stood waiting, wearing the same smile as when we were seven.
"Welcome."
She looked us over.
"You've grown so much."
She wasn't wrong. Our bodies had certainly grown. I glanced sideways. Iresia and Videlia already looked one breath from a fight. Aselia was dozing on her feet. Golieta had her eyes locked on the sweets atop the table.
"......"
Right. Only the bodies had grown.
The saintess clapped once.
"Congratulations."
Elena's gaze traveled slowly over the seven of us.
"From today, you are combat nuns in full."
Elena Valentine. The woman's complete name, learned together with our formal commission.
"Saintess! Saintess!"
Iresia shot her hand into the air.
"So we can go outside now?"
"Yes."
"Really?"
Her eyes shone.
"We can kill criminals and heretics and demons and all that as much as we want?"
Our first day as proper combat nuns, and that was what came out of her mouth.
Elena did not so much as blink.
"There, now. Don't you worry, Iresia."
A gentle smile.
"There is a great deal of work waiting just for you."
"Haha! I can't wait!"
I wouldn't, if I were her.
Elena took one step forward.
"There's something I ought to tell you first."
She indicated the seven-branched marks on our shoulders.
"From this day, your official designation is the Holy 7th Special Task Force."
Of course.
"What you wear on your shoulders is the unit insignia."
Holy. And the seven sins. A thoroughly contradictory name.
"What do they call it on the outside?"
"Quick as ever."
Elena smiled brightly.
"Publicly, it means that sacred light illuminates the world in seven directions."
"And in fact?"
"Who can say."
The corners of her eyes curved, just slightly.
"Isn't it exactly what you're already thinking, Altiera?"
"......"
She did have a gift for pretty labels.
"And all of you have been granted a new surname."
"A surname?"
"Kreuz."
Elena smiled.
"In official settings, you need only use that name."
Kreuz. A name that carried the meaning of the cross. A remarkably sacred surname to pin on those of us who used demonic power.
Altiera Kreuz, then.
Well. Better than no surname at all. It would not be the house I was due to receive in five years, though. The Kreuz of the present was less a family than a tag noting where we belonged.
"From here on, you will be sent out across the land."
Elena continued.
"Demons and heretics."
A brief pause.
"And matters the Church would find inconvenient to handle in the open."
Not the work of an ordinary nun, it seemed.
"Handle the tasks I give you well, and rewards will follow in kind."
Golieta reacted first.
"Food?"
"It won't be only that."
The disappointment on Golieta's face was impossible to miss.
Abarel asked in her place.
"Specifically, what will you be giving us?"
"Where would the fun be in knowing already? In eight years, have I ever been stingy with your rewards?"
Abarel considered it.
"You haven't."
"Then trust me this time as well."
"Understood."
Abarel smiled and bowed her head.
"We'll be in your care, Saintess."
Then an unfamiliar presence stirred at Elena's back. More than one.
"You may come out now."
The rear door opened. Figures in white clerical robes appeared one after another. One. Two. Three. They kept coming, until the seventh and last passed through the door. Exactly seven. The same as our number.
I looked them over without making a show of it. There was no wasted motion in the way they walked, and their stance alone said they had trained their bodies for a long time.
Not scarecrows, at least.
"Who are they?"
"The people who will be moving with you from now on."
"Colleagues?"
"That as well."
The end of the sentence sat wrong.
"To put it a little more precisely."
A bright smile.
Of course.
Iresia's brow twitched at once.
"Watching us?"
This time Elena drew the smile in a little.
"The existence of the Holy 7th Special Task Force is not itself a secret. From now on you will be operating in the field."
But.
"The true nature of the power you use is of the highest secrecy."
Nuns of the Church, hunting demons, while wielding the same power as demons. Not a story that improved by being widely known.
"These people know that fact. They will watch you, and if a problem arises, they will subdue you."
Elena looked at us for a moment.
The room went quiet.
"......What?"
Iresia's voice dropped.
Then one of the watchers drew out the silver relic hanging at his neck. It was shaped like a cross, with a blue gem set at the center. Within the gem, a faint light wavered once.
"A holy relic that seals demonic power."
I narrowed my eyes.
"Seals it?"
"Activated properly at close range, it can temporarily sever your power."
"The range?"
"A secret."
"The duration?"
"That as well."
"How many times can it be used?"
Elena laughed in the end.
"Altiera. Already looking for a way out?"
"My life is what hangs on it."
"Which is precisely why I am not telling you."
"......"
I did not like it. Not remotely. The moment that thing activated, all I would have left was my bare body and a single gun. And if I died in this world, there would be no next time.
Iresia asked more bluntly still.
"Why are you letting them walk around with garbage like that?"
"It was the condition on which the Church permitted your activities."
"Not something you ordered?"
"No."
Elena smiled and shook her head.
"A leash the cardinals fastened on."
She glanced once at the watchers.
"To keep you in check."
Then she laid a hand against her own chest.
"And to keep me in check as well."
Iresia's expression turned peculiar.
"So you don't like those bastards either, Saintess?"
"Is there a reason I should?"
"......"
"Even so, don't hate them too much. They are only doing the duty they were given."
Iresia thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Yeah. That's fair."
Simple. Astonishingly so. But Elena had not lied, either. A leash the cardinals had put on us, and at the same time a leash they had put on her.
Which does not make us the same side.
The fact that one more leash had been added to my neck did not change.
"Which unit do they belong to?"
"The Central 13th Heresy Inquisition Unit."
Not even trying to hide it.
The watchers stepped forward. The seven of them spread out until each stood before the person they would be responsible for. A large man before Iresia. Before Aselia, a man so plainly diligent that the word arrived uninvited just from looking at him.
That one drew the short straw.
And one person came to stand before me as well.
A young man. Neatly cropped hair. A stiff face. Eyes that gave nothing away.
He spoke first.
"Valen."
"Altiera Kreuz."
Valen held out his hand. I looked at it for a moment, then took it. Solid. Old weapon-calluses were set into the palm and along the joints of the fingers. A man who had been in the field far longer than his face suggested.
"I'd rather never have cause to use the relic."
My gaze went to the silver relic at his throat.
"On that, we are of the same mind."
"......"
The hands parted. The one who watches, and the one who is watched. There was no reason for a first impression to be warm. Still, this was a man I would be stuck beside for years. Like it or not, he had to be factored in.
Elena said,
"From now on, the basic arrangement is two to a pair."
Missions for the task force would come from Elena. Surveillance and reports would follow the separate chain of command of the Central 13th Heresy Inquisition Unit. Elena was the one who gave me the work. Valen was the one who watched whether I went mad while doing it. Two different people, each with a hand on a leash.
"In ordinary times, stay at the church or convent of your assigned region. When a mission comes down, you move together."
Each of us a region. Each of us a watcher. Now it was truly time to scatter.
Elena handed out the envelopes she had prepared, one by one.
"Your assigned region and place of residence are written inside."
Valen accepted the envelope meant for us. Only an emblem signifying the east was stamped on the outside.
"Confirm the details after you depart."
Elena added it with a smile.
"Some of it isn't meant for other eyes."
Secret orders as well, then.
Before we left, we traded brief farewells with the sisters.
"Sister."
Golieta caught my sleeve.
"Bye."
"You too."
"Okay!"
Luceria smiled and waved.
"Bye, Sister."
Abarel lifted a hand. Aselia was already slung across her watcher's back. Videlia looked at me once and simply walked past.
Iresia grinned with her greatsword over her shoulder.
"If we get the chance, let's meet again, Bang Sister!"
"Not for a while."
I meant it. For eight years we had been in each other's faces nearly every day.
After we left the monastery, Valen did not hand me the envelope until the building had vanished completely from sight. When the seal broke, two sheets came out. The first was a formal deployment order.
Altiera Kreuz and Watcher Valen shall proceed to the Empire's Eastern Archdiocese.
The two shall abide by the laws and discipline of the local archdiocese, and shall remain at Luvern Cathedral until a separate order is issued.
"The east..."
Valen murmured it under his breath. For the briefest instant, his expression seemed to set.
"Is there a problem?"
He returned at once to his usual blank face.
"No."
A short answer. I looked at him once more and did not press. The formal order held nothing else of note.
The problem was the second sheet. Red lettering across the top.
Valen, having seen the words, turned his gaze aside of his own accord. Beneath the heading, only a single short sentence was written.
"......"
I turned the paper over. Nothing. That really was all of it.
"What's it say?"
"If it were something I was permitted to say, they would not have marked it a secret order."
"Fair enough."
Valen did not ask again. An order very much in Elena's style. Find the method yourself. Bring back only the result.
The trust of the Eastern Archbishop. Not bad. Recognition from the highest authority of the local Church would make the work considerably easier to carry out. And, handled properly, it would become a connection with use for me as well. Work done because Elena ordered it. No need to let it end as only that.
The way to earn a person's trust is simple.
Become someone they need.