Chapter 83
Imperial Year 1049.
Spring, though the winter cold had not yet fully lifted.
A point in time before the announcement of the new saint and saintess.
The failed extermination season had caused a stir not only in the Empire.
Spring was the best season for thinning out the beast hordes that had sunk into winter hibernation as much as possible.
For that reason, nations other than the Empire also made active use of this period.
But this year’s extermination season was especially harsh on humankind.
A variant beast that appeared without warning.
By that one creature, humanity reached a new turning point.
And thus, the continent sank beneath a tide of mourning.
At the southwestern edge of the continent, the city-state known as the Holy Kingdom was no exception to this mood.
No, if anything, as the main stronghold of the Sun Church, it memorialized the victims in an even more solemn atmosphere.
“Let us pray today as well for those who could not return this spring.”
The elderly-looking priest atop the altar closed his eyes.
The archbishop bowed his head, purple vestments trailing down.
And below the altar, the people in the square also bowed their heads.
Smoke of remembrance rose from incense burners scattered throughout the square.
The incense smoke rode the chilly dawn breeze and drifted beyond the colonnade.
And in the direction the smoke disappeared, a building made up of twelve spires came into view.
The Apostolic Palace.
The pontiff’s residence, connected to the Great Cathedral at the heart of the Holy Kingdom.
The building where all the Sun Church’s secular and religious decisions were made had already been lit since dawn.
Inside that building.
There was a meeting room where twelve people each sat beneath banners bearing sword and goblet emblems.
And at the seat of highest honor in that room, beneath a banner bearing a sword and a torch, a middle-aged man rubbed his brow.
“Cardinals. I trust you all finished your dawn prayers properly?”
Pontiff Feret.
At the summons of the Sun Church’s venerable elder, the eleven cardinals nodded.
“Yes, Your Holiness. All cardinals are present.”
The dean of the cardinalate answered on their behalf.
The pontiff gave a brief nod.
“Good. Then let us begin, Cardinal Thomas.”
“Yes, Your Holiness. Today’s agenda concerns the miracle that occurred at the Empire’s northern gate.”
The Sun Church had an obligation to verify all miracles.
Its purpose was to distinguish whether something was God’s grace or a wicked heretic’s trick, so the faithful would not be led astray.
“For the matter at hand, let us refer to the report sent by the diocesan bishop of the capital.”
Cardinal Thomas turned over a sheet of parchment.
“First, it seems the center of this incident was a classification method called triage. A system devised by Shun Isa and perfected on-site by Bishop Lailik.”
“Hmm… merely changing the classification method dropped the mortality rate to one-tenth. It’s unbelievable even as I hear it.”
“We cross-checked it with the healers of the capital, and there was nothing false in the report.”
“I’m not doubting it. I’m merely astonished.”
The white-haired cardinal nodded.
One by one, the other cardinals chimed in as well.
“Triage... Sorting people by color to improve visibility, and discussing first not worldly rank or hierarchy, but only the urgency of life. It is a very admirable attitude in terms of faith as well.”
“And to think he left the conclusion to the bishop so the standard could be set by the majority of clergy rather than himself. Normally, one would want to monopolize such a great discovery.”
“Every time I hear of Shun Isa’s deeds, I cannot help but feel humbled.”
Not long after the meeting had begun, the cardinals’ opinion had already tilted toward “It is God’s grace.”
By now, based on his actions to date, Shun Isa had already been judged unlikely to be a heretic even among the cardinals.
He had made medicine and saved countless patients,
prevented that medicine from being abused by making it prescription-only through healers,
and even readily gave up the power that could have been gained from vaccine patents.
There was no reason to call such a person a heretic.
“If Shun Isa made it, I’m not surprised.”
“The report is a little too complimentary, so I’m somewhat suspicious. Under this system, would treatment of high-ranking heroes not be delayed, causing them to return to the front later?”
“On the contrary, return to the front was faster, and losses in manpower were much smaller.”
This was because triage’s goal was focused on initial treatment rather than complete recovery.
“It just so happens that the report also mentions that. Damage control surgery? After that surgery, they heal the red patients just enough so they won’t die, then use the saved divine power to fully heal the higher ranks in order.”
“To heal only enough to keep them from dying and then cut it off in the middle... Come to think of it, that would be far more efficient.”
“But wouldn’t that require knowing exactly where that line is?”
“That’s why it’s a technique only Shun Isa can perform.”
The cardinals clicked their tongues one after another.
By now, Shun Isa’s abilities in pharmaceuticals were already well established.
However, his treatment abilities were still not properly known, so on that matter they still viewed things with some skepticism.
It was clear that this incident would sweep those doubts away.
“Isn’t there a possibility that the surgery was black magic?”
In one corner of the meeting room.
A cardinal with a scruffy gray beard spoke up cautiously.
Cardinal Thomas’s expression hardened as he shook his head.
“Tens of thousands of healers directly assisted at his treatment sites. None of them testified that it was black magic, so that is impossible.”
“But...”
The gray-bearded cardinal’s gaze fell upon the report.
“He saved someone whose jaw had been shattered, cut out the entrails of those with stakes driven through their bellies and those whose pelvises had been trampled by beasts, and even nailed together a person whose head was half destroyed and brought them back to life. Are you saying this truly isn’t black magic?”
“...Probably not.”
To be honest, even Cardinal Thomas, the dean, was unsure.
What on earth was the principle behind cutting out someone’s entrails and having them survive? What kind of technique was it that opened up the head and still let a person wake up perfectly fine? And what sort of magic could create a jawbone from ribs?
The most astonishing part was that a patient whose entire body had been charred black by lightning opened his eyes two days later.
As a living, breathing human being, not a ghoul or an undead.
If this wasn’t black magic, it was frankly even more frightening.
“...Probably... yes. Probably not.”
But the healers testified that they felt no magic whatsoever during the process,
and that they had directly treated him with their divine power during the surgery.
There was no choice but to regard it as an extension of holy magic.
“Then would it be fair to say this miracle can be fully explained by holy magic as well?”
“For now, that seems to be the case, Cardinal Thomas.”
Bang, bang.
The dean struck the desk with his gavel.
In response, the pontiff affixed his seal to the report.
With that, the church’s official position was settled: this miracle was not a heretic’s trick.
After the discussion on several other agenda items ended, a brief recess was granted.
During the break, the cardinals drank tea.
The topic of the day over warm tea was, without question, the first agenda item.
“Oh my...”
Cardinal Wendras Lister of the Healing Order.
The cardinal with a head round as the moon covered his mouth with both hands, unable to contain his surging emotion.
“If the report in the first agenda is accurate, then... has Shun Isa reached the truth of amputation surgery?”
Cardinal Wendras was an absolute devotee of amputation surgery.
In healing arts, if there is an injured area, there is a technique that swiftly cuts that area away and regenerates it with divine magic.
Though it has a trivial side effect: about a 30 percent chance of dying from the pain and blood loss,
the history of healing arts has advanced by making the amputation process less painful and faster.
The cardinal himself had spent his entire life honing that technique to greater refinement.
However, this amputation technique had its limits.
“Then he can perform amputation on parts other than limbs? Even on the head?”
Namely, that amputation could not be performed on anything other than limbs.
It was only natural.
No one can survive while having their torso cut apart.
But Shun Isa in the report had done exactly that.
He had cut out entrails, opened up heads, and saved patients.
To Cardinal Wendras, Shun Isa even felt like a prophet who had returned after glimpsing a fragment of the truth.
“Hah... I’d like nothing more than to go to him at once and learn that secret technique... It is the first time I’ve ever regretted being a cardinal and thus unable to leave the Holy City.”
Cardinal Wendras murmured as he looked up at the ceiling.
The cardinals who came from healer backgrounds also nodded, as if agreeing with his murmur.
Another observing cardinal pressed his brow as if complaining of a headache.
“As it happens, the treatment centers throughout the Empire are already having a hard time with that.”
“Why, what happened?”
“Other healers who heard about it from healers who had observed Shun Isa’s healing and returned are leaving their treatment centers one after another.”
“Goodness... have they lost confidence?”
“That’s not it.”
The cardinal pressing his brow shook his head.
“The healers who returned after observing can explain what they saw, but as for how they actually did it, even they themselves don’t know and therefore cannot properly teach it. So the healers, frustrated by what they hear, are applying to Shun Isa’s clinic in order to learn that technique in detail.”
Clearly, Shun Isa was not stingy about teaching his techniques.
If it wasn’t an urgent situation, he would explain everything and even teach the underlying principles.
However, the problem was that it wasn’t the kind of technique one could master just by watching it once.
In the end, the observing healers had no choice but to return to their home institutions and simply tell the truth about what they had seen.
— “Well, on the first day he opened up the abdomen, and on the second day he made a new anus that had disappeared, apparently?”
— “How?”
— “No idea.”
Since they kept hearing only the results without knowing the principles,
it felt to the healers like some kind of mad movie.
In the end, those half-baked explanations lit a fire in the healers’ hearts.
“I hear Mercure Clinic has no restrictions on which sects can apply, unlike the other treatment centers, so the competition is fierce.”
“...”
“Cardinal Wendras. The cardinalate is a lifetime post. You signed on, didn’t you? Even if you submit a resignation letter, they won’t accept it.”
“...What a pity.”
In a corner of the meeting room.
An elderly man with a scruffy beard seated beneath the compass and book banners adjusted his round glasses and skimmed through the report.
His gaze suddenly stopped on one phrase.
“This miracle aside, I have a question. The report says the clinics belonging to the Mercure Merchant Guild had an unusually low mortality rate compared with the other clinics. Weren’t those clinics mainly treating red patients?”
“Yes. We secured testimony from other healers on that as well.”
The dean of the cardinals continued.
“The Mercure Merchant Guild apparently uses a substance called Lax as a catalyst.”
“Lax?”
“The guild’s clinics periodically spray that substance throughout the building. They say using divine magic after spraying that Lax uses less divine power. I suspect it may be a catalyst like holy water.”
“Hmm... Would asking Shun Isa directly about the raw material of that substance be a great discourtesy?”
“It would.”
Taking a catalyst formula discovered or developed by a magician or healer would be a tremendous discourtesy.
It was practically comparable to stealing a grimoire.
“In that case, it’s unfortunate, but...”
“As for that, I have heard something. Apparently the guild freely sells that Lax substance.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. It apparently sold well in the old days, but no one ever bought it.”
“Then it may be good to have the treatment centers buy it from now on.”
To make a catalyst that was as good as a magician’s lifelong treasure available for anyone to purchase.
The clergy in the meeting room marveled at the breadth of Shun Isa’s character.
As the stories about Shun Isa kept flying back and forth among the cardinals,
Ding-ding—
a bell rang.
“Then we will resume the meeting.”
At the cardinal dean’s declaration, the cardinals covered their cooled teacups and fell silent.
“This next agenda item is the last one. And the most important one. The person who raised it was...”
The dean’s gaze briefly rested on the pontiff.
The pontiff gave a calm nod.
“Proceed.”
“Understood. This agenda item concerns the canonization of Shun Isa and his disciple.”
The meeting room filled with murmuring.
The dean lightly tapped the desk to quiet the commotion, then went on.
“In particular, I think we need to settle Shun Isa’s canonization here first.”
As soon as those words ended, a fierce-eyed cardinal raised his hand.
“Go ahead, Cardinal Stuma.”
“On that matter, didn’t we already conclude that he does not meet the canonization conditions?”
No one in the room gave Cardinal Stuma an uncomfortable look.
Because that was his role.
He was the cardinal assigned to verify doctrine, tradition, and the law.
Whether he liked it or not, his job was to challenge things first.
Cardinal Thomas, the dean, understood this well and only nodded calmly.
“That’s right. Shun Isa does not meet even one of the conditions for sainthood.”
When the Sun Church canonizes a saint or saintess.
There were five strict conditions that had to be met for that purpose.
One. They must never have contracted a contagious disease.
Two. They must be born with a sacred symbol on their body.
Three. They must possess at least twenty times the divine power of the average high-ranking healer.
Four. They must be able to use a top-grade divine miracle scarcely recorded in history.
Five. Their divine power must recover on its own even without prayer.
The titles saint and saintess were the church’s guarantee that someone was the finest healer of the age, above even a high-ranking healer.
It did not matter how many there were in one era, but because the church’s prestige was at stake, they could not help but be cautious in canonization.
At this point, achievements were only reference material in the canonization process, not conditions.
That was why Shun Isa had never been canonized as a saint until now.
“As you know, Shun Isa satisfies none of the five. That is why we have not blessed the medicines he has created thus far, correct?”
Even so, they could not ignore those great achievements.
So until now, the church had taken the roundabout route of blessing his medicines instead of Shun Isa himself.
But at this moment, the pontiff was proposing to break that long-standing custom.
“Your Holiness. Might I have overlooked some verse in the scripture?”
Cardinal Stuma’s stern gaze turned toward the pontiff.
The pontiff slowly shook his head.
“The scripture contains no passage regarding this.”
“Then why are you suddenly making such a proposal?”
“Because this can no longer be delayed.”
Pontiff Feret’s weary voice rang through the meeting room.
“Shun Isa performed miracles of holiness without using divine power at all. And on a scale that would require dozens of top-rank healers. He even accomplished resurrection, something even top-rank healers cannot do. At that point, is divine power really such an important factor? Weren’t those five conditions merely standards for gauging ability?”
The meeting room fell silent.
No words of rebuttal came.
There are already three saints and three saintesses in this age.
But none of them could perform miracles on the scale recorded in the report for Shun Isa.
“...”
Cardinal Stuma let out a low groan.
Cardinal Wendras clasped both hands together, pressed them to his forehead, then lowered them again.
“I have no objection to Your Holiness’s words.”
One cardinal said flatly.
“Nor do I.”
Another cardinal.
Agreement grew one by one.
But the votes in favor still had not reached a majority.
It was clear that Shun Isa was an extraordinary figure,
but that did not make it easy to casually change rules that had been upheld for the past thousand years.
Besides, the moment they made one exception, they would have to face countless disputes later.
They could not help but be cautious in their choice.
But just as the cardinals who had not yet agreed were hesitating, the pontiff spoke.
“We have received information that the Empire is preparing to grant Shun Isa a noble title.”
In an instant, the air in the meeting room froze.
“A noble title...?”
“That is correct.”
The cardinals’ expressions all hardened at once.
In principle, someone with a noble title cannot become a priest, and someone who becomes a priest cannot receive a noble title.
This was the result of the Empire’s principle of separation between church and state intersecting with the doctrine that the eldest son who serves God must not be loyal to the emperor.
For that reason, the Empire did not, as a rule, bestow titles on those who had proven their abilities through holy magic.
Because it already knew the church would take them anyway.
But now the Empire was breaking that unwritten rule.
“Shun Isa... a noble title?”
The cardinals’ minds went blank.
Even if Shun Isa became an imperial noble, the balance of authority over healing arts would not tilt toward the Empire.
Shun Isa had been favorable toward the church all along.
But that was not the problem.
The real problem was that the church might lose him completely.
At that moment, the cardinals found that, at some point, they had come to regard Shun Isa as one of the church’s own.
“...Such a thing must not happen.”
“If that were to happen, we would become a cardinalate that would go down in church history as a disgrace.”
“Honestly, the canonization was already too late.”
“Tradition exists for people, after all.”
The cardinals nodded in agreement, one after another.
Even Cardinal Stuma, who had opened the floor, was in agreement.
He was even urging the pontiff with his eyes.
As if asking what he was waiting for and why he wasn’t deciding quickly.
In response, the pontiff slowly rose from his seat and said,
“Then... let us decide unanimously here and now. We will canonize Doctor Schnabel as the Black Saint.”
And thus, the most unprecedented saint in the church’s history, one without divine power, was born.