Chapter 98
*
"I was a little surprised when I heard you'd be coming so suddenly."
The Nihirit estate in the capital.
I sat facing Father and lifted my teacup.
"I hear it hasn’t even been a week and you were already homesick."
"I missed the warm meals at home."
"Don’t you usually do the cooking in our house?"
"Ah."
Oops.
I forgot.
The place I am is the place where home-cooked meals are.
"I was joking."
"I see."
Sip.
Father's lips left the rim of the cup.
A faint wisp of steam lingered at his mouth for a moment before fading.
"How was the academy?"
"The students are more capable than I expected, and they follow my lead well."
Apart from being a little afraid of me, no one seemed to look down on me or ignore me.
After the last incident with the Russell count's family, it seemed they had acknowledged my abilities.
"Hah."
Father let out a long sigh.
"When I heard from a colleague in the judiciary that you'd shaken a count's household with just two letters, my heart nearly dropped."
"I'm sorry for causing you concern."
"Don't apologize. What phoenix is the sort of magical beast you can trap in a pocket? I know your talent better than anyone, having watched from the side, so there's no need to apologize for that. If anything, I'm proud of you as your father."
"Thank you."
"Still, tell your mother at least a little. The moment she heard you'd been put on the suspect list, she caused an enormous scene."
"...I'm sorry."
"I said don't apologize for that either."
Sip.
When the teacup was set down, I could see Father's lips, slightly relaxed.
"Well. Judging from the fact that you left Lady Felicia at the academy and came all the way here, I assume you have business as Director Shun. An urgent consultation, perhaps?"
"Not that, but...."
Scratching my cheek, I told him the details.
That I would be receiving a commendation for this case.
That as part of the reward, my biological parents' graves would be relocated.
And that before the reinterment, I had come to pay respects at my parents' graves.
And, as a bonus, that our family's title would be raised as well.
"...What did you just say at the end? I must have misheard you. Say that again?"
"The Nihirit barony is going to become a viscounty."
Hearing that, Father slowly stroked his jaw and muttered,
"Hmm... It's certainly the head of the house's duty to bring honor to the family.... Maybe it's time for me to retire too...."
"I haven't learned vision magic yet, have I? You can't retire until Freya has mastered it perfectly."
"There is a way to solve that problem too, but...."
Father kept glancing at me.
Then he seemed about to speak, but shook his head.
"It isn't important right now, so let's leave it. Right. You came to see your parents."
"Yes."
A raven mask on the corner of the desk came into view.
My finger slid over the beak of the mask.
"I think my parents would prefer me showing up like this."
Ever since long ago, whenever I came to visit my parents, I never forgot to bring this mask.
Julian is a black magic expert.
Doctor Shun is the Black Saint.
It only made sense that healer-priests like my parents would be prouder of the latter.
And after deciding to separate the identities of Director Shun and Julian.
I went to the grave as Director Shun whenever possible.
My foster father respected that approach too.
"They'll be delighted too. Before you were even born, they were always going on about auspicious dreams and prenatal education and all that. I wonder what kind of expression they'd make if I told them their child became a saint."
My foster father wore a wistful smile.
"Right. Rest up before you go pay your respects. So the academy has Lady Felicia filling in for Julian right now?"
"Yes. She doesn't come out of the lab unless she has a lecture, so there's no chance of her being found out."
"Then that's a relief, but...."
Father's eyes narrowed.
"But I do have one question."
"What is it?"
"Wasn't the reason you separated the identities to protect our family from those targeting Director Shun?"
"...Yes. That's right."
"Then is there any point in doing that now?"
"..."
The gist of what Father was saying was this:
Either way, whether it was Julian or Director Shun, it was all the same to the black mages grinding their teeth.
Basically, why not just come out with it in one bold move?
Honestly, I wanted to do that too.
But,
"Things are different now. It seems the Imperial Court wants to grant me a noble title."
The way they kept stressing that they'd give me a title if I did well as a professor made it obvious.
It seemed like they wanted to hand me a title and put a leash on me the moment I racked up enough achievements.
"While you're still a saint?"
"Yes."
"If that's the reason, then there's nothing to be done."
I still didn't understand the Imperial Court's intentions.
If this were the old me, I'd tell you to refuse the saintly position.
But why on earth would they want to give me the title only after making me a saint first?
"Good grief. You've had it rough too. So now you have to separate identities not because black mages are scary, but in order to receive two titles? Was that your idea too?"
Hearing that, I thought about my answer for a moment.
For the sake of my genius-character persona, maybe I should smile meaningfully and say it was all according to plan.
But that goes against my principles.
That day, I resolved that I would never deal with my family through lies and misunderstandings.
So I told the truth.
"Absolutely not."
Who on earth could plan something like that?
I don't have the ability to see the future.
I just think of whatever comes to mind at the time and do what I can, right away.
It only looks like everything is fitting together neatly because of the misunderstanding-story buff(?).
"I was just incredibly lucky. May I ask why you thought that?"
"It's because of that black mage you took down last time, and the count family incident too. I wondered if everything wasn't playing out in the palm of your hand."
"How could that be? I'm always so busy solving whatever's right in front of me that I don't have the luxury of looking far ahead."
"Then that's even more reassuring."
Father's smile deepened.
"Because that's much more human."
"I think I'm human enough, though."
"That you are."
Father gave a snort of laughter.
"No matter what anyone says, you're my son."
*
After the short talk with Father.
I got into the car Otto was driving and headed to the family graveyard.
"We have arrived at the Necropolis."
"Wait here for me."
"Understood."
Necropolis.
The city of dead nobles and their servants beneath Sanctum Hill.
Naturally, it's not a place where undead roam.
Just a cemetery. One as large, wide, and complex as a city.
"Good day, old gravedigger."
"Oh, if it isn't the saint."
The entrance to Necropolis.
An old man with a shaggy beard and a shovel greeted me.
"Would you like a map or a guide today?"
"A map, please."
Necropolis is complicated.
Enough that a few people go missing there every year.
That's why there's a profession in Necropolis called a human GPS guide.
Naturally, a guide is a little more expensive than a map, but far more convenient.
The reason I still chose the map was simple.
"How many times do you think I've come here?"
Julian Schnabel, with Confucian propriety flowing through his veins, had come to pay respects here several dozen times.
By now, I was confident I could find my way without a map.
The map was only for possible contingencies.
"That'll be one silver coin."
"Thank you, sir."
After receiving the map, I stepped into the Necropolis alone.
I only brought Gregor, the holy knight.
"..."
He said he was coming with me to pay respects to people I knew, so he was keeping quiet as though he weren't there, matching the atmosphere.
"The floor where my parents are buried was the second basement floor, right?"
It was the floor where even among servants like head butlers and nannies, those who were as close as family were laid to rest.
On that floor, I just had to find my parents' grave like I was looking up a columbarium address.
"The Nihirit barony's section is... here."
With an expensive bottle of wine in one hand and a fruit that's hard to find in this smog-filled city in the other.
Just as I was about to enter Necropolis like that.
I made eye contact with a narrow-eyed man loitering on the common road of the second level.
He was a giant, nearly 2 meters tall, on par with Gregor.
"..."
"..."
"Excuse me, but may I ask you for directions?"
The narrow-eyed man cautiously addressed me.
The man held out a scrap of cloth.
"I'm looking for these people... I heard they're in the Nihirit family grave lately, but I'm having a hard time finding them."
The moment I saw that scrap, I had no choice but to gasp.
A dirty scrap of cloth embroidered with a raven emblem.
It was the emblem of the clinic once run by the Schnabel healer couple.
'Who...? '
Who was this man, really?
During the Southern War, my parents said they handed this cloth out to refugees.
As a way of passing on the kindness they themselves had received during the war, they told the refugees to hand this handkerchief to others.
It was like a reverse lucky chain letter.
So there was a high chance this man had received kindness from my parents, directly or indirectly.
'Was he here to pay his respects to my parents?'
In fact, over the dozens of times I'd come to pay my respects, I'd occasionally run into people like this.
Most of them were people who had searched the Necropolis in the Holy City, only to come here after learning the graves were in the capital.
'You can't know where nobles are buried, or who is buried where.'
They'd wander around nearby aimlessly, never imagining they might be at the Nihirit family grave, and then they'd run into me.
This man looked like one of those people.
"Ah, these days the world is harsh, so if I ask like this, it’s hard for you to answer right away, I know. I’m a pilgrim. Here, I even have proof of my pilgrimage."
The narrow-eyed man took a priest's certificate out from inside his worn robes.
[Junior Healer-Priest Simeon]
'Simeon? I feel like I've heard that somewhere... Ah.'
As I thought about it, I remembered.
The name my father muttered the day he found my parents' bodies.
— "I couldn't find that fellow Simeon."
Our parents were middle-ranking priests.
And our parents had a junior priest disciple named Simeon.
More precisely, something like a resident.
— "Couldn't he still be alive?"
— "I'd rather that were true. But he followed your parents so faithfully that I'm worried he stayed by their side until the very end."
At the time, my foster father did not look for Simeon's body.
After all, the ones he was close to were the Schnabel couple.
And there was no obligation to go looking for a resident too; they weren't that close.
Fortunately, my father's decision back then turned out to be the right one.
'So he was alive.'
I reacted at once.
"Simeon, I apologize. Let me show you the way."
I would have liked to show how glad I was, if I could.
But it was hard to do that while wearing a mask.
Instead, I simply led him along calmly.
The road to the Nihirit family section.
Simeon followed behind me and Gregor, asking cautiously,
"...Aren't you the Black Saint?"
"The public has been kind enough to call me that."
"How do you know these people?"
As if waiting for that question, I also took a handkerchief out from inside my robes.
The last gift my parents left me.
"I received many blessings from these people as well. Blessings I could never repay even if I spent my whole life."
Though I can't remember their faces.
Still, the favor of bringing me into this world is something no one can repay with anything, wouldn't you say?
Simeon, who had been silently staring at the handkerchief, said,
"...Saint, were you in the South by any chance?"
"Do you know what the very first medicine I made was? Or why I signed a contract for that medicine with Mercure Trading Company, which is backed by the Nihirit family? I think that should answer your question."
"...I see."
The narrow-eyed priest nodded.
This was the story prepared by the Inspection Bureau.
Doctor Schnabel had received great kindness from the Schnabel healer couple.
Moved by that kindness, he created quinine,
and then, just as the Nihirit family head discovered the couple's bodies and reported that they had been laid to rest in the family grave,
So, as repayment to the Nihirit family, he sold the patent for quinine to the Mercure Trading Company, which they backed.
That was the history fabricated by the Inspection Bureau.
Of course, because perception manipulation was such a precarious thing, they left it as history known only to those in the know.
"Could even the surname Schnabel itself have been inherited in accordance with their wishes...?"
"No. That's just a coincidence."
For reference, even the Inspection Bureau didn't bother touching that.
The surname Schnabel is surprisingly common among commoners.
To put it in Korean terms, it's not quite as common as Lee.
Roughly as common as Song.
It's not as common as Johnson, but it's the kind of surname you run into occasionally if you look.
So rather than forcing a surname change, they decided to leave it alone.
Simeon seemed to let it pass without any suspicion.
"Please follow me. I came to visit them as well."
"Thank you."
Simeon hugged the scripture tightly to his chest and followed me.
Before long, we arrived at the Schnabel couple's grave.
[Elia Schnabel / Arian Schnabel]
'I'm here, Father. Mother.'
Since there were eyes watching, I offered a prayer in my heart.
I laid out the fruit and liquor I had brought.
This isn't really a custom here, but out of habit from my previous life, I always ended up paying respects like this.
"...These fruits."
"I was told by the Nihirit family head that these were the fruits you liked."
"You certainly did like grapes."
"Do you know them?"
"...They are people I deeply respect."
Simeon answered forlornly.
Apparently, our parents had been beloved mentors to their resident disciple.
Simeon laid the lunar scripture before the grave and said,
"I was originally a mage, but I awakened to the divine late in life. Enraptured by that ecstasy, I threw myself into late-blooming faith... and thanks to that, I was able to meet such wonderful people."
He seemed to want to hide the fact that he had been a disciple.
So I pretended not to know.
"It seems you were on the same battlefield as them."
"Yes. It was the hardest... but it was the most rewarding moment of my life."
After that answer, the man was silent for a while.
Simeon knelt before the grave and offered his prayers.
When he finished, he straightened his shabby priestly robes and stood up.
And then, speaking to me,
"Saint. There's something I've been wondering about all this time. I would like to hear your expert opinion on it."
"If my limited knowledge can help, I'd be glad to."
"Then let me ask."
He drew a breath.
"Is it the will of the gods to punish evildoers who defy the will of the gods?"
"That depends on how you define that evil, but in most cases it would be considered good."
"Then is keeping doctrine also the will of the gods?"
"That’s a bit difficult. If we assume humans don’t misinterpret it, then yes, you could say so."
"Right. It's hard to be certain that humans are actually following doctrine properly."
Interpretation can be distorted.
Even if the word of God is perfect, the ones interpreting it are imperfect humans.
This was a question often discussed in the church as well.
Simeon seemed to agree with that.
"Then conversely, can we be certain what actions clearly go against doctrine?"
Ironically, that is something we can know for sure.
Once you've gone far enough beyond the bounds of good, there's no need to know where good begins.
"There is probably one thing I can be certain of."
"Then..."
Simeon's voice trembled slightly.
As if he were pouring out emotions he'd hidden away.
"Then... if we were to punish evil men who clearly defy the will of the gods by using a method that clearly defies the will of the gods, how would the gods see it? Would they praise the punishment of evil first, or hate the act of blasphemy first?"
"..."
"Please answer me. Are the gods beings who cherish the good, or beings who protect their own authority?"
His narrow eyes widened slightly.
Only then could I look inside,