The Holy Grail
As soon as Jake ended the call, he hurried to greet his visitor.
"Please, have a seat, Father Stefano."
The priest Stefano, whom Jake had contacted from the Vatican, had arrived in Korea.
"We did say that we hoped things would move quickly on our side, but…"
"I was just speaking with the client about that very matter a moment ago."
"…Then I was getting ahead of myself for no reason. In that case, could you tell me who he is?"
"Our client isn’t particularly eager to buy the land. Once that matter is settled, we can bring him before you."
"…So the client wants more than ten million dollars for the land."
"I don’t know exactly what the Vatican City wants, but…"
Jake brought the subject up on purpose and watched for a change in Stefano’s expression, but the priest kept his face perfectly blank.
"…If this negotiation goes smoothly, then we’ll be able to ask for his cooperation in the matter that follows."
"I’ll offer twenty million dollars."
It was doubled in an instant.
"!"
"Brother Jake. Now bring him in."
"…Yes. At that price, I don’t think there’s room for further negotiation."
With a soft whirr, James stepped through the automatic doors and into Sotheby’s.
…Twenty million dollars.
James had rushed here to meet the Vatican’s representative at Sotheby’s the moment he heard the figure twenty million dollars. With that kind of money, even if the gold coin auction failed, he could still buy a house in Seoul.
If they’re willing to spend twenty million dollars on some useless piece of land, then of course I’d come running whenever they called.
"Mr. James, this way, please."
Following the employee’s guidance, James was led to a conference room, and before long Jake entered with a priest.
"James, this is Father Stefano. He oversees the Vatican Museums’ affairs."
James quickly stood and extended a hand.
"It’s a pleasure to meet you, Father Stefano."
"Brother James. The pleasure is mine."
"…"
What the… why is a priest looking at me like that…?
Stefano’s eyes burned with a heat that made his words of welcome feel almost mocking.
"Jake. Would you excuse us? I’d like to speak with James alone."
"Ah. Yes, of course. I’ll leave you to it, then…."
After Jake closed the door and left, Father Stefano took a small electronic device from his bag, set it on the table, and switched it on.
Click. Beep. Beep. Whirr.
"?"
The priest saw James’s curiosity and explained.
"This is the latest equipment for neutralizing wiretaps. I thought this would be a conversation worth keeping secret, so I brought it."
"You’re certainly thorough."
Still, James didn’t think he’d be having any secret conversation with the priest at all.
I don’t know anything they’d want to hide.
His master Merlin’s treasure chest had been full of all sorts of jewels, but it didn’t seem as though the Vatican had gone to all this trouble just for treasure. James was already reaching the conclusion that the Vatican wanted something else entirely—something he had no idea about.
You’ve wasted your money.
But apparently that still wasn’t enough, because Stefano then took out an old-fashioned tape recorder and set it on the table as well.
"This older recorder isn’t affected by anti-tapping devices. Would you mind if I recorded our conversation?"
"Do as you please."
Stefano activated the recorder, and his first question began.
"I’ve heard that you were the one who excavated King Arthur’s coin."
"Yes, that’s right. I dug it up myself."
"Did you find it alone, or did you have help from someone else?"
"No one else knows. Only I know about it, and I excavated it alone."
It felt a bit like being interrogated, but perhaps because he had already experienced a real interrogation in England, James answered without much concern.
"Good. Then did you only find the coin, or were there other relics as well?"
"…There were others."
"!"
Just as I thought!
Stefano’s conclusion matched the one he had carefully reached after reviewing the matter step by step.
The gold coin from King Arthur that the client had put up for auction certainly held considerable value, but Stefano had suspected there might be something else hidden away in addition to the item being sold.
James could almost hear Father Stefano’s heartbeat. At the mention of another relic, the priest looked as though he might leap over the table and grab James by the collar at any moment.
He’s really excited.
"Huu. Huu."
Forcing himself to calm down and suppress his nerves and expectations, the priest slowly spoke again.
"C-could you perhaps tell me what that other relic was?"
James smiled thinly.
"No comment. (Nothing to say.)"
The priest sprang to his feet, losing the composure he had barely managed to maintain.
"Easy there. I’m joking."
"Ahem. I revealed my feelings without meaning to. I apologize, Brother."
"You seemed so tense that I couldn’t help teasing you. I apologize too, Father."
"Yes. Yes."
"I need to know what you’re looking for before I can check whether one of the relics I have is the thing you want. If you just ask whether there’s something else, it’s hard for me to answer."
"Then it sounds like there are quite a few kinds of relics?"
"This time, don’t stand up again. No comment. (Nothing to say.)"
"…Huu."
As long as Father Stefano wouldn’t speak, James had nothing more to say either.
"Go on, then. You set up a machine like this because you clearly had something important to discuss."
"……."
Stefano stared at the anti-wiretap device for a long moment before speaking.
"Brother James. Can you keep a secret?"
"Would keeping the secret be enough?"
"…What do you mean by that?"
"I mean that if I happen to have the item you want, I might be willing to part with it for the right price."
"……."
After studying James’s eyes to determine whether he was telling the truth, Father Stefano licked his lips once and leaned back against the sofa.
"I’m afraid that would be difficult. This is too important…."
"…I don’t want to give you the same answer three times."
If Father Stefano wasn’t going to speak, James had no intention of speaking either.
"…But I can tell you an episode from the past."
"Oh. Like a game of twenty questions?"
"Please, just hear me out first."
"All right. I’m pretty good at this sort of thing."
James leaned forward, determined to get the answer right, and listened carefully to the priest’s words.
"As the Passover festival drew near, Jesus had his disciples prepare to observe it."
…The past, he said.
He had expected something from just a few years ago, but the priest was talking about something more than two thousand years in the past.
"When evening came, Jesus sat down at the table with the twelve disciples. Then He said that one of them would betray Him, and each disciple denied it in turn, insisting that it could not be them."
"…This is a much harder question than I expected."
James had no idea where he was supposed to find the answer, but Stefano kept going.
"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, offered thanks, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is My body.’"
…How long am I supposed to keep listening to this?
James began to suspect the priest was using the conversation as an excuse to proselytize.
"Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is My covenant blood, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from the fruit of the vine again until the day I drink new wine with you in My Father’s kingdom.’ After that, they sang a hymn and went to the Mount of Olives. This account of the Last Supper appears in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."
"Yes, yes. A highly credible Gospel that records the same event… incredible."
The answer carried the distinct tone of someone who found none of this incredible at all.
"Do you still not know what relic the Vatican is looking for?"
"What relic did you say appeared in all that just now, exactly…?"
But then James suddenly realized what Father Stefano had been trying to say.
…That’s what they were looking for?
The relic mentioned in the Gospel he had just recited was no exaggeration to call the greatest relic in history.
"Oh, my…."
James couldn’t quite bring himself to say the Lord’s name in front of a priest.
"The Lord will forgive you."
"…Huu."
Letting out a long breath, James suddenly found himself curious.
Why did he connect that to King Arthur’s coin and the Vatican’s relic?
"Father. That object…."
"Brother, even if you’re not Christian, calling it just an object is blasphemous."
"Fine. Understood. I’ll call it the Holy Grail."
Only then did Father Stefano give a small nod.
The Vatican was searching for the cup used at the Last Supper: the Holy Grail. That was why Stefano had so painstakingly recited the Gospel of the Last Supper.
"What on earth does King Arthur’s coin have to do with the Holy Grail?"
"After the Last Supper, when Jesus was put to death on the cross… Joseph of Arimathea received the blood of the crucified Jesus in the Grail. And the Knights of the Round Table made the search for the Grail their life’s greatest purpose."
"……."
"In case you don’t know, the Knights of the Round Table were King Arthur’s knights."
"I know that much."
He had simply not known that the Knights of the Round Table had made finding the Grail their goal.
"So you’re asking whether I found the Grail along with the coin."
"…That’s right."
Then the answer was already decided.
"I’m sorry, but…."
James retraced the treasures he had found in his master Merlin’s treasure chest.
There wasn’t anything in that chest that I’d call a relic except King Arthur’s crown. The rest was an old water cup and…
"!!"
Mid-thought, James remembered the rough, worn cup and plate he had found in the treasure chest.
…I used that cup for water now and then, and the plate for room-service food….
They had been old and crude, but because they were made of gold, he had cleaned them carefully and used them himself. They were simple, almost rustic pieces, yet the more he looked at them, the more he liked them, and James had come to treasure them quite a bit. That was precisely why he had never thought to regard them as relics.
"Brother. Please think carefully. You absolutely have to find it."
"N-no…."
James couldn’t bring himself to say that he was using it already. And he still couldn’t be certain.
I still don’t know for sure that my cup is the Grail….
Compared to a name as grand as the Holy Grail, the cup was far too old and crude.
"Could you tell me what the Grail looks like?"
"To be honest, even we can’t predict the Holy Grail’s appearance."
"At least give me a rough idea."
"But one thing is certain. The disciples who had abandoned everything and followed Jesus at the time did not have much money, and the ones who prepared the feast for Passover would have obtained a plain, rough cup. They would have known well enough, after serving as Jesus’ disciples for so long, that He did not care for anything flashy."
Exactly! My cup is rough, sure—but it’s gold! How could disciples with no money possibly have found a gold cup?
"But then we must also consider the Joseph of Arimathea you mentioned earlier."
Joseph of Arimathea, the man who appears in the Bible, was not one of Jesus’ apostles, but he was one of the many disciples who followed Him, and he was a very wealthy man.
"He was wealthy enough to buy a tomb for himself before he died. Since the tomb was close to the city of Jerusalem, the price must have been enormous. Even today, land near the city center commands a staggering price, doesn’t it?"
James also remembered being stunned by the housing prices in Seoul, South Korea’s capital.
"……."
Then obtaining a gold cup for a banquet would be easy enough….