Chapter 70
Chapter 70
Cardinal Barneo sat at a desk inlaid with lavish gold ornaments and pressed a heavy hand to his brow.
His mind felt like a tangled knot.
He instinctively sensed that something had gone wrong.
'It's drifting away.'
Lily, who should always have been under his perfect control, just as she always had been.
He was certain that she was slipping, however slightly, from his grasp.
Paradoxically, that certainty had arisen from yesterday's prayer session.
'It wouldn't read at all. I couldn't see a single thing in that child's heart.'
She had dutifully shouldered the heavy slate.
She had dutifully endured that painful pressure.
She had made no complaints, no objections, and hadn't even shed tears to say that it hurt.
“That's not like Lily at all...”
Barneo murmured softly into the air.
Lily had always been a weak soul, tormented by wandering and doubt.
That was precisely why she had been perfectly suited to become a saintess of the great Church, someone who could steady such wavering.
'Did I make a mistake by sending her to the academy?'
It wasn't as though he had no idea what the issue was.
Legion Tour.
She probably saw the misery and raw reality of a true slum and started thinking too much.
'So I had tried not to show Lily the true abyss.'
Barneo himself had been the same in his youth.
A time when the established priests, while claiming to be God's representatives, applied extremely realistic, capitalistic standards to relief and mercy, and he found it bewildering.
On days when he returned from volunteer work, hadn't he suffered through the night because even lying down on the temple's hard wooden bed itself felt luxurious?
The saintess was certainly going through that same transitional spiritual confusion.
But.
'The Church's current circumstances aren't exactly favorable if she is to develop her own firm standards and convictions.'
The current pope had at most five years left to live.
Even that was a state of such frailty that each day could be called a miracle.
What was more, the pope had even quietly designated a member of his own faction as his successor.
'Unnecessary variables are a problem. Even the smallest ones.'
With that thought, Cardinal Barneo made the decision he had been considering since the moment he brought Lily in.
The saintess's withdrawal from the academy.
She had only enrolled a short while ago, but compared to the situation before his eyes, that was a trivial matter.
'The reason... yes, if I frame it as wanting to look toward a lower place, it'll sound quite beautiful.'
Just in time, there was more than enough justification.
All he had to do was announce that, after personally witnessing the real poor in Legion Tour, she was suspending her studies and devoting herself to full-time service and charity from now on.
That would also make for great storytelling to emphasize the saintess's devoted image in public.
Ding-a-ling.
Barneo lightly rang the silver bell on his desk.
As if waiting for the summons, the office door opened soundlessly and a nun came in with small, measured steps before bowing her head.
“Did you call for me, Your Eminence?”
“You've done well, Sister. It's nothing else—could you bring Saintess Lily here for me?”
Barneo gave the order with a benevolent smile.
He was eager to open the dazzling path of devotion that awaited the saintess as soon as possible.
“I need to discuss Saintess Lily's blessed future with her.”
“Ah, well... Your Eminence, the Cardinal.”
But the nun's reaction was strange.
The nun, who should have nodded obediently and left, was hesitating.
“What's the matter? Could Saintess Lily be very tired from yesterday's prayer?”
“That's not it... Saintess Lily hasn't returned to the temple yet.”
“...Pardon?”
A crack appeared in Cardinal Barneo's benevolent expression.
He turned his head and stared through the ornate stained-glass window.
“At this hour?”
The sun had already set, and darkness had thickened.
Though it was still spring and the days were longer, it was well past dinner time—an unreasonably late hour.
And she was still at the academy?
Barneo addressed the nun again in a low murmur.
“It seems she has an exceptional passion for her studies. But it's late, so it could be dangerous.”
“I apologize, Your Eminence. I should have paid attention to it.”
“There's nothing to apologize for. Send a carriage and escort at once and bring the saintess back safely.”
Barneo resumed his gentle expression and waved a hand.
“And please politely ask the academy as well. It would be a disaster if Saintess Lily were to suffer even a small injury on the road at night.”
“Understood. I'll relay that right away.”
After replying respectfully, the nun hurried out of the office.
Thud.
Once the door closed, Barneo instantly wiped away his signature gentle smile.
His gaze went to the dim sky beyond the stained glass.
Everything was proceeding smoothly.
Once the saintess returned, he would teach her holy renunciation by having her withdraw from the academy, and through that the Church would welcome its next pope without a ripple.
And so, about two hours passed.
'She's a little late.'
Cardinal Barneo was forcing himself to endure it with every ounce of patience he had.
Even accounting for the distance between the academy and the temple, two hours was more than enough time to make the trip.
The very moment he was about to reach for the silver bell on the desk again.
Bang!
Without even knocking, the office door flew open and the nun from before rushed in with a face drained of all color.
The nun trembled in place, unable to catch her breath, looking utterly at a loss as she nearly collapsed where she stood.
“Saintess Lily... Huff, huff...”
“Calm yourself, Sister. Take a deep breath. What on earth is the matter?”
Barneo soothed the nun in a stern voice.
Had a carriage wheel come off or something?
“Speak. What happened to the saintess?”
The nun replied in a voice so small it barely carried, both hands shaking uncontrollably.
“We went to fetch her, but... it seems Saintess Lily... absolutely refused to return to the temple.”
“...What?”
* * *
I just couldn't make heads or tails of it, so I kept rubbing my forehead.
It couldn't possibly be this ridiculous.
It was a combination of words that simply made no sense whatsoever.
“So, you're saying you want to turn the saintess into a runaway?”
“Taking the veil. She's twenty.”
“Well, that's not exactly wrong.”
Don't we usually consider the difference between running away and taking the veil to depend not only on age, but also on whether it's mutually agreed upon?
“And besides, why is Lily so carefree?”
Munch, munch. Smack, smack.
There, a pink-haired brat was stuffing jerky into her mouth until her cheeks bulged, along with the three bandits.
A full-blown political conspiracy was going on over where she would live.
Why does she look like she's got absolutely nothing in the world to worry about, just chewing jerky so neatly?
“Huh? Did you call me?”
Lily looked up at me blankly, then flicked the crumbs off the corner of her mouth with a finger and smiled brightly.
Seeing that spotless, radiant smile, I let out a dry laugh.
“You're plotting your own runaway plan and you don't have a single thought about it?”
“It doesn't matter! Ever since the day I came into Lord Cassian's laboratory, I've thought of that place as home anyway!”
“Then what about the temple?”
“That's... a dormitory? A workplace?”
Good grief.
Including the years before my regression, she'd lived there for twenty-odd years, hadn't she?
“Hehe. This place really feels like home! There's lots of delicious food, and it's warm! Lord Cassian is here too!”
“My, my.”
Viscountess Müller covered her mouth as she watched Lily grin so innocently.
There was a whole heap of mischievous amusement sparkling in her eyes.
Ah.
She's definitely trying to tease me.
“Just how do you have to seduce someone for my disciple to turn out like this in just a few days?”
“How would I know? I didn't seduce her.”
“Indeed, like father, like son.”
“Pardon?”
“I heard that when the Count of Corinth was in the thick of collecting noble ladies' hearts in high society, he used to say exactly that—that he hadn't done a thing.”
“Why are you saying such creepy things?”
No lie, I actually got goosebumps all the way down my spine.
Why did I have to hear stories here about my father playing the field when he was young?
I steadied my queasy stomach and drew a line.
“I know nothing about anything else, but talking about my father's love life makes me a little carsick, so this is a problem.”
“Don't worry. It wasn't love—just a string of one-sided courtships and unrequited crushes, and the Count of Corinth never left anyone even a sliver of room.”
Damn it, seriously.
I just couldn't make sense of it.
Why the hell did these capitalist monsters, with premium butter slathered all over their tongues, get so thoroughly crushed by my father?
It was impossible to know what kind of magic my father had used—he was a man who would have looked perfectly at home playing a grand duke in the North—to make everyone reminisce about him so wistfully, like homesick souls.
I quickly cleared my throat to bring things back to the point.
“Ahem. Anyway. So, assuming we go ahead and make the saintess run away like that, what's the plan after that?”
At my question, Viscountess Müller curled up the corners of her mouth and answered.
“What do you think would happen if we kept Lily here at the academy instead of sending her back to the temple?”
“...The moment the temple gets involved, it'll get very noisy, I suppose?”
This is the Imperial Academy, but within the capital's tangled political board, it's probably the only gray zone that doesn't fully belong to any one faction.
“If the temple wants to enter here, it'll have to shoulder political risk. The moment that happens, every interested party in the capital will have a pretext to get involved in this matter. And.”
“And?”
“We've got more than enough people here who can perfectly protect Lily from the Church's clutches.”
“...Who? Don't tell me you mean me?”
“Not you—the one you've got on a tight leash.”
A leash?
What leash?
What leash was I even holding?
Just as I was thinking hard about it, Viscountess Müller gave a light snort.
“Why are you worrying so much after joining the faction of the best teacher every mage on the continent dreams of?”
“Ah.”
Only then did one name flash through my mind.
Iris von Evergarden.
The youngest genius professor in the academy's history, and the owner of absolute power capable of shaking the empire's entire magical system.
“So long as your teacher, Professor Iris, is holding out at the academy, there's no way the Church can forcibly drag the saintess away.”
Right. I understood what she meant.
But there was one thing I had to point out.
“But still.”
“Go on.”
“Lily isn't Professor Iris's disciple, though?”
Iris is only nice to me; seeing how she kicked everyone else out of the military tent, I don't think she'd give Lily any special treatment just because she's a saintess.
Viscountess Müller shrugged as if to say, Why are you asking me that?
“That's something the person holding the leash has to sort out.”
Yeah. I figured she'd say that.
As I clicked my tongue with a sour expression, Viscountess Müller looked at me with amusement.
“Fine. I'll somehow make it happen.”
“That's very reassuring.”
“But shouldn't we find out when Professor Iris is coming back to the academy first?”
No.
There's no way this woman would have pushed ahead without even checking the matter first.
“By any chance, did you look into when she'll be back as well?”
I only asked a completely reasonable and obvious question, and yet.
'What. Now what.'
Viscountess Müller's eyes blinked one after another.
Somehow it looked like she was pondering how to soften 'Did you think before asking?'—but that has to be my imagination, right?
“No way.”
“...Pardon?”
“You don't know that Professor Iris returned to the academy yesterday?”
Uh.
I really didn't know.
“I mean, I'm not supposed to be keeping track of my professor's schedule in real time, am I?”
“Aren't you a little too indifferent to your teacher, Cassian?”
“My teacher didn't tell me she'd come back either, so honestly we're even.”
“Even? With your teacher?”
Viscountess Müller clicked her tongue as if she truly couldn't believe it.
No, what am I, your girlfriend?
Or am I the teacher here?
'Damn this otome-world setting.'
What kind of teacher-student relationship is supposed to be normal if it isn't this sticky, as clingy as though they'd installed a location-tracking app?
I protested, intending to voice my grievances.
“A disciple is meant to grow by watching the back of their teacher. I don't need to pry into the rear.”
“That's amazing. If Professor Iris hears that, she'll be so pleased she'll probably strike your lab with lightning right away.”
“So it'd be great if you'd keep my lack of concern a secret from the professor.”
Viscountess Müller couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
She seemed to like my shamelessness very much.
I wish she wouldn't laugh.
It's not that I feel attached to her—it's that I've already become pretty attached, okay?
“Fine. Go persuade her quickly. I'll stay here with Lily.”
“Understood.”