Chapter 95
“Heh heh heh, well now. This is an excellent beverage.”
Even in the Papal See, where they preached restraint from desire, there was such a thing as fashion.
And this quarter's trend was none other than espresso.
“How much sugar do you tend to add?”
“Perhaps because I'm old, I tend to add quite a lot.”
“Oh my. Are you bringing up age in front of me?”
“Heh heh!! Saint, am I not getting on in years myself?”
More precisely, if they did not drink this, it became tantamount to denying their bond with the Heavenly Lord,
Apparently, there had even been cases of people teasing them over it, saying, “What, are you a heretic?”
Of course, they had done it as a joke, so the Pope had given them a token punishment and let it slide. At any rate.
“By the way, Saint. What on earth is that?”
“Ah, this?”
Since the Saintess had recently gone on an extended assignment as Sir Akion's escort… the Papal See's teatime was now enjoyed only by the Saint and the Pope.
Fortunately, both the Saint and the Pope liked coffee, so these days they enjoyed coffee at teatime instead of tea.
“It is called an iced Americano.”
“Americano…?”
“It was the coffee drink the Hero fellow cried out that he wanted to drink. I had forgotten about it for a while, but recently remembered it when Saint Akion mentioned it, so I made one.”
In the midst of all this, the Saint, unlike usual, brought over a coffee cup filled with ice.
Ariba, who had opened a branch in the Papal See, supposedly shed tears of blood when he saw it,
but what could they do when one of the highest authorities in the Catholic Church said, “One iced Americano.”?
If he says jump, you jump.
“So… I take it you find it tasty.”
“I thought it would be poor because the coffee flavor was diluted… but it is surprisingly drinkable.”
That was why Ariba had made the iced Americano Akion had instructed him to prepare in advance.
The Saint had accepted it and was drinking it.
- Slurp.
“Hmm. It really isn't bad.”
After trying it himself, the Saint understood why the Hero had so desperately wanted to drink iced Americanos.
To gulp down a cool cup of coffee like this when one was tired and worn out?
It would give you a tremendous boost of energy!
The Pope, watching this absentmindedly from the side, suddenly had a question.
‘There wasn't even any proper coffee back then… How did the Hero know about coffee drinks….’
There was a record in the histories of that time that the Hero had drunk coffee.
However, back then it had been powdered coffee, not something mixed with milk or anything of the sort.
A thousand years separated then from now, so how had the Hero known about Americanos?
‘And Saint Akion… how does he know about Americanos?’
The Pope's thoughts even reached the possibility that this Americano was actually the product of another human civilization somewhere in an outer dimension.
“Heh heh.”
“Hmm? Did you think of something good?”
“Ah, I was just wondering whether we could turn this into a tourist product.”
Surely it was just a coincidence.
And Akion was connected to the Heavenly Lord through the mark, was he not?
The Pope dismissed it as a mistaken assumption, thinking that perhaps the Heavenly Lord had taught him about Americanos.
“Heh heh. Talking about work even during your break.”
“Ha ha. Is it not my destiny?”
And so he said it, considering such worries a luxury when new matters came rushing in every day.
For instance….
- Bang!!!
“Your Holiness the Pope, Saint!!!”
“Hmm? Had you not gone back to Saint Akion's laboratory?”
“Saintess, why are you so agitated?”
“I need your advice, I need your advice…!”
Such was the sort of problem brought in by the Saintess in the prime of her youth.
“Ha ha, it has been a long time.”
“If I can be of help to the Saintess, this old man will lend a hand as well. Please, sit.”
“Thank you!”
Of course, the Saintess had devoted herself entirely to the Heavenly Lord.
There was no way she would come to them for the fresh, youthful troubles that girls her age usually had.
“So, what is troubling you, Saintess?”
“When was the last time I gave advice? Was it when I had just become a saintess? Heh heh.”
- Sip.
- Slurp.
The two of them, leisurely savoring another sip of coffee,
“Actually, I just realized something a little while ago….”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Hmm.”
“Every time I see Saint Akion, my heart starts pounding and I become embarrassed.”
- Pffft!!
“Cough?! Cough cough!”
“Ghk, cough, hack!”
Both of them ended up spitting out their drinks at the shocking subject of the consultation.
*
After cleaning the tea table they had made a mess of,
the Saint and the Pope, who had somehow calmed down, listened to the Saintess explain everything.
“And that is what happened.”
“I see….”
“I understand….”
To summarize,
“So, Saintess, you mean your heart flutters every time you see Saint Akion?”
“I have taken it to be nervousness.”
“In my view, the Saintess seems to have some sort of feelings for Akion….”
“Of course I do! He is Saint Akion!”
While insisting that she absolutely did not have romantic feelings for Akion,
from a third party's perspective, she was unmistakably displaying romantic interest.
- Swish!
- Swish!
The Saint and the Pope turned to look at each other as if they had rehearsed it.
‘Isn't she in love?’
‘It seems she is.’
And, amazingly, they communicated with nothing but their eyes.
“Ha ha.”
“Heh heh heh….”
The Saintess of the Catholic Church, whose faith stretched across the Empire and the entire continent… had set her heart on a man?!
Some chastity purists might draw their swords and come charging in, claiming their horns hurt.
“Saintess. Wait a moment.”
“Yes.”
The Saint and the Pope began discussing it between themselves, leaving the Saintess aside for the moment.
“Pope. Is marriage prohibited under Catholic doctrine?”
“That is true, but….”
Clergy were forbidden from marrying.
Of course, if they abandoned their divinity and ceased being clergy, they could marry.
In fact, every year there were always people who laid down their crosses in order to marry,
and the Papal See happily blessed their future.
“There has never been a saintess who did so in history, so, ha ha….”
The problem was that not a single saintess in history had ever done such a thing!!
People said that if a saintess who had devoted her life to the Heavenly Lord did so, how could the church maintain its dignity?
“Actually, there was one. My sister, that is.”
“Pardon?”
There really had been one.
She had been Saint Ray's younger sister, a woman who had devoted herself to the Heavenly Lord alongside him back then.
“You mean the saintess who supposedly fought alongside the First Hero? Saintess Alize?”
The Pope had memorized more than two thousand years of Catholic history by heart.
And naturally, he also knew by heart the records of the saintess who had fought alongside the Hero a thousand years ago.
“I understand she retired after everything was over….”
“In fact, it was because she was pregnant with the Hero's child.”
“Heavenly Lord, have mercy.”
And immediately after learning the circumstances behind it, the Pope felt his faith crack ever so slightly.
The Hero chosen by the Heavenly Lord had impregnated a woman who had not even resigned from her position as a saintess?!
“You seem to have misunderstood, so let me explain a bit more. My sister was the one who pounced on him first and made it a done deal….”
“Heavenly Lord, have mercy.”
“That is why it could not be left in the records. Sigh….”
Apparently, it had been the other way around~!
For a brief moment, the Pope wrestled with whether it might be all right for his faith to waver.
And come to think of it, the Hero had surely had a wife named the Primordial Dragon back then too?!
‘Heavenly Lord, is this really right?’
Unfortunately, no answer came.
At any rate, it was not technically a violation of doctrine, since she had quit being a saintess.
And had not the Heavenly Lord's daughter and the man chosen by the Heavenly Lord gotten married?
In any event, it had looked respectable enough, so even the people of that era had apparently found it difficult to criticize them, the Saint added.
“And if you think about it, we do not exactly forbid romance among the clergy, do we?”
“Ngh….”
And since the doctrine was essentially, “You may marry if you quit,” these days they did not rigidly crack down on romance among the clergy, either.
Looking more closely at the instruction to quit, its true meaning was to lay down the cross and take proper responsibility if one was going to get a lover.
“Saint, as you know well, if the Saintess were to resign, it would cause tremendous repercussions.”
But the Pope was the person in charge of administration among Catholicism's highest authorities.
He had to put the brakes on various kinds of runaway behavior.
“Besides, what about the cost of selecting a new Saintess? And how are we supposed to mediate the infighting among the denominations?”
“Hmm.”
The Saintess awakening to romantic love through the love taught by the Heavenly Lord was a joyful thing,
but she was currently the Saintess whom every Catholic believer trusted and followed.
If they enthusiastically supported such a Saintess saying, “I want to get married!” the trust in the Pope, the Saint, and Catholicism might plummet straight to the bottom.
“I know well that you regard the Saintess like a granddaughter. I do as well. All the more reason, then, that we must proceed cautiously.”
“You are right. I was being too hasty….”
Perhaps this was why one needed a rational colleague.
The Saint, who had been so preoccupied with marrying off his granddaughter, finally regained his reason.
“This is too important a matter to decide on my own. Above all… we have not even asked the Heavenly Lord.”
“Ha ha, indeed.”
Thus, for the time being, the two decided to soothe the Saintess as best they could.
In any case, the Saintess vaguely knew what her feelings were, and had probably come to ask about them while still hoping they were not what she suspected.
“It seems the Saintess was shaken for a moment.”
“Still, if you are confused, how about calming your heart a little and offering a prayer to the Heavenly Lord? I am sure He will answer the Saintess's question as well.”
“Is that so…? I suppose I should offer a prayer.”
The two guided the Saintess toward collecting herself, at least for the sake of the Papal See's immediate peace.
*
And the next day.
“……”
“……”
“……”
The three highest authorities of the Papal See had gathered again and silently stared down at the cups of espresso before them.
“U-uuuuugh….”
Of the three, the Saintess's face had turned red,
“Haaaaah….”
“The Heavenly Lord….”
while the Saint and the Pope could only let out sighs first.
“Oh? That would be good for Akion too, wouldn't it? All right, you have my permission, so love and date to your heart's content!”
Because the Heavenly Lord had appeared in all three of their dreams and given them a revelation that she was allowed to date Akion.
If Akion had found out, he would have been angry and asked why this was considered a present, but anyway.
“I never thought the Heavenly Lord would… give permission.”
“Ngh… it feels like what happened with my sister is repeating itself…!”
The Saint felt as though a trauma switch had been pressed, but… if the Heavenly Lord said to do it, what could he do but obey?
“I-I, with Saint Akion…!”
“Sigh. As long as you are human, this is a feeling you will have at least once in your life.”
And at this point, the Saintess recognized that her feelings were romantic affection for Akion.
“So, what was it about Saint Akion that made you fall for him?”
“L-l-love him?! How could you say that?!”
How had she dared to develop feelings for Akion? How, and why?
“I-if I had to name something… first, Saint Akion is kind, even when he grumbles.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“And he looks after me over little things I never expect, notices discomfort I try not to show and takes care of it, and usually gives in to even my unreasonable demands….”
“Oh.”
“He never wastes his leftover money, tries to give as much as possible to the poor even when reinvesting it, tells those he has helped not to repay him because it was nothing, and rather than taking pride in such humility, he is even more humble because he tries not to let it show….”
“Ooh….”
The Saint and the Pope had already heard enough once she reached the finer details,
but the Saintess's praise of Akion continued without end.
“And although he dismisses Lady Goldie's admonitions as nagging, he follows every one of them; although he pretends not to listen to the Tower Master's words, he remembers everything and looks after it all; although he complains constantly, he completes Lady Aysirel's training; and he always patiently teaches Her Highness Princess Flare whenever she asks an engineering question—.”
“I understand, I understand. At any rate, it is clear that the Saintess likes Saint Akion very much.”
Isn't she completely head over heels?
The Saint and the Pope were dumbfounded.
“No, I'm not!!!”
“Ha ha, it could not be more obvious, Saintess.”
Otherwise, why was she praising every last hair on Akion's head like that?
The two could only laugh heartily at the Saintess's desperate denials.
“In any case, since the Heavenly Lord has given His permission….”
“Ngh, I suppose we have no choice but to help.”
What else could they do?
It was a romance approved by the Saintess's mother (the Heavenly Lord), so there was no reason for the Saint and Pope to stop it.
“So… how many people have feelings for Saint Akion? I have heard that Lady Aysirel and Her Highness Princess Flare have an engagement being discussed. And according to the information coming in, Miss Goldie also seems to be quite close to Saint Akion.”
“We need to know the people around him to make it easier to win him over. Saintess, share your information with us.”
Might as well help her, then.
That was why the two asked the Saintess, as colleagues helping her romance along.
To be honest, was there not a duke's daughter and even the Emperor's youngest daughter around Akion?
It would be a formidable challenge… but the two still decided to do their best to make the Saintess's love come true.
“Well… the Tower Master also seems to….”
“Hmm?”
They had not known that one of the Empire's pillars had feelings for Akion, either.
The family of the Primordial Dragon who had brought peace to the Ilias Continent.
And when the subject of the dragon, Tower Master Lidasid, came up, the Saint and the Pope began to break into a cold sweat.
“Saintess.”
“Yes, Your Holiness.”
“Then when the Tower Master linked arms with Saint Akion… are you saying it was not a display of her powerful backing, but that she had personal feelings for him?”
Please, let that be a lie.
“Yes. When we women were together last time… the Tower Master seemed to have feelings for Saint Akion.”
“Oh, Heavenly Lord, have mercy.”
“Ameeeen….”
And once they became certain this was a Hell-level difficulty, both the Saint and the Pope crossed themselves before the Heavenly Lord first.
They wondered why He had given them such an arduous trial.
“Now that things have come to this, I suppose we will have to use that method….”
At this point, it was all or nothing.
They said poison had to be subdued with poison, did they not?
Now that an overwhelmingly powerful rival called the Tower Master had appeared, they had to place an overwhelmingly powerful weapon in the Saintess's hands.
“Have all the Mother Superiors assemble!”
“Sigh, we have no choice.”
Women knew best about fights between women.
And the nuns of the Papal See were, surprisingly….
“You mean the Saintess has found someone she likes? Heh heh heh, you have come to the right place….”
There were quite a few noble daughters who had entered after being cast out by their families.
Wasn't becoming a nun one of the possible fates of a defeated lady in a romantasy?
“Now, Saintess. Try this on.”
“H-how am I supposed to wear something with the shoulders cut out like this?! And why on earth do you even have something like this?!”
“For someone like me who was cast out by her family, it is the only thing I have left to remember him by. Sob sob….”
“U-uhh…! All right. Out of respect for your sincerity, I will try it on just once….”
But she could achieve through the Saintess what she herself had failed to achieve?
She could live vicariously through her??
And with someone as blessed as Saint Akion???!
“Heh heh, how innocent….”
“Let's dress her up incredibly cutely and make Saint Akion fall head over heels…!”
“And if a child is born between the two of them, heh heh heh…!!”
We simply can't resist this.
And so, under the Papal See's nuns' mad makeover(?) campaign, the Saintess gradually transformed.