A Reason for Distrust
The moment James arrived at the Italian airport, his freedom of movement began to shrink.
“Wow. The Vatican’s hospitality is impressive. Am I being arrested right now?”
There were guards in ceremonial uniforms seated on either side of the back seat James had been placed in, and he was being whisked straight to the Vatican with them in tow.
“Given the nature of the matter...”
Vatican guards had been waiting from the very point where the plane carrying James and Priest Stefano landed, and Stefano, seated in the passenger seat, kept turning around to speak to him.
“...”
James felt less like a guest and more like a suspect being hauled into police custody.
“...You did pack my luggage properly, right?”
“It’s only clothes...”
A suitcase without the Holy Grail in it was not exactly a matter of interest to Priest Stefano.
“There are clothes in there that my girlfriend gave me. They’re important to me.”
“...I made sure they were packed safely.”
“Is the Pope inside?”
“That... we’ll discuss once we’re in.”
Even though a crowd of tourists was waiting to enter the Vatican, the car James rode in passed through without so much as a basic inspection and drove straight into Vatican City.
Vroom.
“Sigh.”
James looked at Priest Stefano, who was clearly tense, and said, “Now, relax...”
The one who should have been tense was James, yet he was the one worrying about the priest.
“How am I supposed to relax? I said I was bringing back the Holy Grail, and James is showing up with nothing!”
“Why don’t you send word to the Pope inside?”
“Today you’ll be meeting with a cardinal. The Pope is tomorrow.”
“Oh. Really?”
I wonder if Su-ji would believe a cardinal either.
“You can’t bluff your way past a cardinal the way you might with me. You’ll need to be very clear about things.”
“I’ll decide after I see the situation.”
“...”
Priest Stefano glared at James with narrowed eyes, then led him to the cardinal’s office.
“Oh, Stefano.”
“Cardinal Andrea. I brought him.”
“Hello. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Cardinal Andrea. I’m James Kane.”
“...You found the Holy Grail? Oh... Lord.”
Even though he had not yet laid eyes on the Grail, the cardinal was already flushed with joy as though it stood right before him.
Was I worrying for nothing?
From the moment Priest Stefano had brought up the Holy Grail, James had been watching him through mana. He had wanted to know whether the priest might be a man who spoke falsehoods with a straight face and could not be trusted.
Bright, deep green...
But the color James saw in Cardinal Andrea was the clearest and most vivid he had ever encountered.
Not a trace of darkness. Priest Stefano’s color was practically pastel by comparison.
Stefano was quite a deep green himself, but he still fell far short of Andrea. When James compared them to Colt, whose color he trusted without question, it was easy to imagine just how astonishingly trustworthy the two clerics were.
No wonder they’re clergy...
“Cardinal Andrea, may I ask for a photo with you? I’ve admired you for a long time.”
“Haha. Of course.”
James took a picture with Cardinal Andrea, intending to send it to Su-ji, while Priest Stefano took the photo with a somewhat reluctant look on his face.
“...I’m taking it. One. Two. Three.”
Click.
“Thank you, Father. Now then...”
James had intended to reveal that he was Merlin’s disciple and a magician, then show them the Holy Grail, but another man suddenly walked into the cardinal’s residence.
“Cardinal Andrea. I heard there was good news, so I stopped by.”
“Ah! Cardinal Augustino. Welcome.”
James turned as well to look at the newcomer.
“......!”
That man...
What surprised James was not that he recognized Cardinal Augustino.
That blackish-red color...
The aura radiating from the man was saturated with a deep, ominous black and a lurid red—colors one would expect to see only in a hardened criminal.
“Your contribution will not be forgotten in the Vatican, brother.”
“...”
James found himself wondering how a man like that could possibly become a cardinal.
“It is a great blessing not only for the Lord’s priests, but for Catholics around the world.”
“...I’m sure it is.”
Still, James could tell that the man was sincerely thrilled by the Holy Grail.
He’s earnest about the Grail... but he’s hiding something vile with absolute care?
James’s conclusion was simple.
Even if the Holy Grail is returned to the Vatican... there’s a one hundred percent chance it’ll disappear again.
“I can only imagine how delighted the Pope will be...”
“That’s why I had to be careful myself.”
James lifted his empty hands and said, “That’s also why I came empty-handed. You can’t just carry an important sacred relic around carelessly, can you?”
With that, he quietly erased the option of showing the relic to Cardinal Andrea and Priest Stefano right then and there.
“Then where is it being kept?”
At Cardinal Augustino’s calm question, James smiled faintly and turned to Priest Stefano.
“What did I say about who I’d be showing it to?”
“To the Pope...”
James had already said that he would reveal the truth about the Holy Grail only to the Pope.
“I can trust him.”
“Mm.”
“I’m just the type who doesn’t trust people easily. Can’t be helped.”
When Cardinal Augustino’s gaze shifted to Stefano, the reply came immediately.
“I tried to persuade him on the way here, but he wouldn’t budge.”
“...I never imagined the Vatican would be so little trusted. Hah.”
His heavy sigh might have stirred sympathy in another man’s heart, but his color was still blackish-red.
People’s insides and outsides can be so different.
On the surface he wore a mournful expression, but to James he remained an icon of distrust.
“James. To reassure the cardinals, at least tell us roughly what’s going on.”
“...”
James gave Priest Stefano a look of apology, then seemed to think of something and opened his mouth.
“Ah. As for where the Holy Grail is hidden...”
Cardinal Augustino pricked up his ears.
“It’s in Las Vegas.”
“!”
“!”
“!”
James looked at the three clerics’ shocked expressions and added an explanation.
“I’m from Texas, but until recently I was living in Las Vegas. I made my living there performing magic shows.”
Because of Cardinal Augustino, James could not tell the truth. If the man had not been here, he would have taken the Holy Grail out on the spot and shown it to them.
“That’s all I’ll say about the Grail. I’ll deliver the true location of the Holy Grail only to the Pope.”
“But the Pope will tell us anyway...”
“Wouldn’t the Pope only tell those he can trust and have them bring it back?”
“...”
While Cardinal Augustino pondered the matter in silence, Cardinal Andrea and Priest Stefano spoke up.
“Of course. The Pope will send cardinals and priests he trusts.”
“I’ll do my best to be included among them.”
“That’s a matter for the Vatican, so I wouldn’t know.”
But Cardinal Augustino kept pressing him relentlessly about the Grail’s location.
“Then the Holy Grail is at the house where you used to live...”
“No comment from there on.”
“...”
Cardinal Augustino looked displeased, while Priest Stefano tilted his head in confusion.
James’s words sounded strangely familiar, because he remembered saying them himself.
James, be a little more serious about the Holy Grail...
And then he suddenly realized something.
“!”
He looked back at James, who smiled faintly, and felt certain of it.
Is there nothing in Las Vegas?
Though James had said he wouldn’t say another word, he kept talking anyway.
“You’d be better off not trying to search the place I used to live. It’s not my house; it belongs to someone else. And while I wouldn’t keep something important in another man’s home, wouldn’t it be extremely rude if someone trespassed without permission? Any homeowner would be pretty offended by that.”
“As if the Vatican would do such a thing.”
“Right? Then let’s call it a day. I’ve already met two cardinals, and I have nothing more to add. Priest Stefano, please show me to my lodging. That long flight exhausted me.”
“Ah... yes, brother.”
James’s expression, as he left the two cardinals behind, had gone cold as ice.
“Jame...”
Priest Stefano shrank back so much that he could not even finish calling after him.
“Father. Don’t speak to me right now.”
“Ah... yes.”
So the two of them walked in silence until they reached the Vatican’s guest quarters, and once they arrived, James pointed at Priest Stefano’s bag with one finger.
Looking at his own bag, Priest Stefano immediately understood what James wanted.
A bug detector?
James nodded. Only after the device had been installed did he speak.
“...When did Cardinal Augustino become a cardinal?”
“You asked me to bring this out just to ask that?”
“There’s more important business to discuss, so don’t turn it off.”
“Ah... very well.”
After that, James drew out information about Cardinal Augustino one piece at a time, and eventually he was able to reach a conclusion.
Someone must have replaced him halfway through.
Otherwise there was no way to explain the blackish-red color James saw in him.
“Has Cardinal Augustino ever been away from his post for a long period of time?”
“Ah. He took a year-long sabbatical for personal reasons and recently returned...”
There’s also the possibility he was always this kind of man...
“What were those personal reasons?”
“...There was an accident. A serious traffic accident, and...”
“I see.”
If it had been a traffic accident, then even subtle changes in the face caused by plastic surgery would not necessarily be suspicious.
So he was swapped out then.
“Did his face change much?”
“...It hardly changed at all.”
“The fact that you say hardly means it did change, doesn’t it? He was injured in the face, I take it?”
“...I don’t understand why you keep asking about Cardinal Augustino, brother.”
“...”
James looked at Priest Stefano for a moment, then spoke simply.
“He’s a fake, Father.”
“...?”
“The real Cardinal Augustino must have died long ago.”
“W-what are you talking about...”
“I’m rather sensitive to lies. Cardinal Andrea and you, Father Stefano, were not lying, but every word out of his mouth was packed with falsehoods. The traffic accident was likely caused on purpose by someone, and another man who was meant to replace Cardinal Augustino probably took his place back then.”
“That’s absurd! Why on earth would you slander Cardinal Augustino like this?”
James had no further proof to offer, but the Vatican did not need proof yet.
“If I tell the Pope about the Holy Grail tomorrow, it’ll come to light easily enough.”
“...”
“If the Pope sends people to retrieve the Grail... then Cardinal Augustino will certainly hear the information as well. If he’s an infiltrator with other motives, he won’t let such an opportunity slip by. By watching his behavior, we’ll be able to find something different from his usual manner... or rather, from how he used to be.”
James still had no idea why the man was staying in the Vatican while pretending to be Cardinal Augustino. But once a major sacred relic like the Holy Grail had appeared, he could not imagine him remaining still. He had already rushed to Cardinal Andrea’s residence the moment he heard the news.
“N-no, that can’t be...”
“We’ll find out soon enough. So until then, please keep watch. You won’t lose anything by doing so.”
“...”
“For what it’s worth, there’s nothing in Las Vegas. You had already guessed that, didn’t you?”
“Well... yes. Sigh. I suppose I had.”
“I couldn’t tell the truth because he seemed too suspicious.”
“It’s an empty suspicion, brother. Before his sabbatical, the cardinal was entrusted with the affairs of the museum...”
“I’m not asking you to lie for me. I’m only asking you to pretend not to know for a few days.”
“Hmm...”
“If you do that, the Holy Grail and the Holy Paten will enter the Vatican. Do you understand?”
“!”
“I’m quite sorry as well. I was worried there might be someone suspicious inside the Vatican, but I never expected him to show himself so quickly. You’ll keep your promise, won’t you?”
“If it’s only for a short while...”
“Good thinking, Father.”
James barely had time to admire the beautiful Vatican quarters, decorated like a work of art, before he found himself recalling Cardinal Augustino’s words and Stefano’s account from earlier that day.
He was in charge of museum affairs before his sabbatical?
The new information Stefano had given him only strengthened the theory James had already formed.
So that bastard’s real target was the museum’s artworks and relics.
The Vatican Museums were packed with Egyptian antiquities, paintings by famous masters, and countless works of art. With more than a hundred thousand pieces in storage, stealing only a handful could easily net tens of millions of dollars. Art was easy to carry off, easy to hide, and convenient to move in the underworld. It was an efficient commodity.
Did he do all that by himself? No way.
However much he might be posing as a cardinal, this was not the sort of operation one man could handle alone. He needed help from both inside and outside. If he had gone so far as to stage a traffic accident and even undergo plastic surgery, then there had to be a massive organization backing the fake Cardinal Augustino.
“Heh. Now this is getting interesting.”
For the moment it was only a theory, but once he met the Pope tomorrow and the planned events began to unfold, everything would be exposed for certain.