Chapter 37
Mornings in the Holy Kingdom were always the same.
They wake up leisurely under the warm sunlight.
They wash up, eating a warm meal that was waiting for them.
And they head to the Temple to pray as usual.
But today was different.
“Lady Rowena! This is unacceptable! How can they dispatch you when the Saintess Competition is in full swing! We must protest this immediately!”
The order to be dispatched to the Empire fell like an eviction notice.
Now, as a Saintess Candidate, she had to prepare so many things for the Saintess Competition.
Rowena was by no means ignorant of what it meant to send her to the Empire.
Thus, the Priests who usually served Rowena burst into anger, but…
“What can we do? The aging Pope is finally starting to make mistakes. It means it’s time for a slow generational shift.”
Rowena calmly faced the current reality.
“Even if he is a child close to his heart, perhaps because he had no blood relatives… it seems he is deeply swayed by his affections.”
“Still, we must protest! If need be, I will go and…!”
“Balleryan must naturally have been involved in this matter. But what would change if we protest now?”
Rowena turned her gaze to look at herself in the mirror, continuing her words calmly.
Black eyes with a silvery tint and neatly styled black hair.
It was an appearance with colors far from what one would generally consider a Saintess.
“Then how about telling them to confirm the Saintess right now? Does it make sense to hand over the person who will become the Saintess as a prisoner to the Empire like this?! And as a means to erase suspicions of treason, no less!”
“Yes, I suppose so. What courage would the Holy Kingdom have to stand against the Empire?”
Although everyone knew through the banquet that the Empire had weakened.
Even so, who would dare muster the courage to walk into a dragon’s lair?
A dragon was still a dragon, even if it was old and frail.
The Empire was still the Empire, no matter how much it had declined.
[Besides, other places probably don’t know that the Northern Region was creaking due to treason.]
At most, they only knew that the Grand Duke of the North had died.
No one would know that the reason for his death was treason, and that because of it, the Empire was desperately trying to maintain the front lines.
They knew it was weakened, but since they didn’t know why, they couldn’t make a rash move.
How could the Holy Kingdom not know that taking a submissive stance in this situation could actually work to their disadvantage?
[No, they probably know, but… they’re just making a fuss to seat the woman he likes as the Saintess.]
There were no Official qualifications to be a Saintess Candidate.
However, it was an unspoken rule that one could only be registered as a candidate if one was devoted to the Romper Church.
But to ignore that and just brazenly push forward, claiming it wasn’t in the rules.
[No matter how crazy he is in love, this is too much.]
The Empire was currently in a situation where it had no choice but to treat its wounds.
Therefore, in this situation, rather than taking a submissive stance and begging for mercy.
They could have engaged in a tug-of-war through appropriate favors.
“I even heard the Empire completely rejected the gifts the Holy Kingdom sent to the Southern Region.”
“Yes, th-that is correct.”
“They should be discussing these things one by one to strengthen the relationship, honestly.”
How on earth did they come up with the idea of trying to do something to the Empire while being afraid of it?
She understood it, but seeing what they were actually doing only brought out laughter.
The Pope wasn’t originally like this.
Everything was ruined when his son suddenly fell into a late first love.
“…Lady Rowena, rather than that, we should immediately request the withdrawal of the Empire dispatch…!”
“No, I won’t do that.”
The ship was breaking down.
But the captain didn’t know the ship was breaking down.
Instead, he was laughing, saying, “Oh? The ship is sailing well even underwater?”
Despite the dissuasion of the surrounding crew, he continued down the ruined path.
Sinking was imminent.
“Well, our approach to Divine Power was different from the start.”
Where did Divine Power come from?
The Pope and the Saint believed it came from the sky.
They thought that Romper, the god of life, scattered Divine Power, and people received that Divine Power to use its strength.
However, Rowena didn’t think so.
“I didn’t know that saying Divine Power comes from the bottom… would be the start of such a long division.”
The Saintess Candidate, Rowena, believed that Divine Power came from the bottom.
People’s beliefs accumulated, shaping a god.
She argued that Divine Power was the god, formed by those gathered wishes, rewarding the people in return.
If their thoughts were different, they should have thought about coordinating their opinions instead of scheming to kick her out like this.
“I should rather just take everyone with me.”
“Pardon?”
“If I go alone, my people left here will all be isolated, and I can’t bear to see that.”
“…Couldn’t you come back again?”
“If I come back, we can all come back together. What would be the problem?”
Then she should let herself be kicked out obediently.
Instead, I’ll take all my people with me, okay?
[Even if it’s not okay, what are you going to do about it?]
It’s too late to change your words now anyway.
+++++
“…So the Saintess Candidate is currently coming to the Southern Region of the Empire?”
“Yes, that is correct. They are sending her with a full load of gifts… Moreover, it is said that not only the Saintess Candidate but also the Priests who follow her are coming.”
“Hah.”
I let out a laugh of disbelief at the report I heard.
[I knew they were taking sides, but I never imagined they’d give away something so valuable.]
Furthermore, from what I heard, the Saintess Candidate who was coming was not only the most prominent among the candidates.
But also a woman who had been judged as a Villainess. They were just handing over such a talent to us?
[I can’t even fathom how much they want to make Mirne the Saintess.]
Seeing the way Saint Balleryan acted, I did feel that the Holy Kingdom would definitely be ruined.
But I never imagined the time would come this quickly.
“Quite a large number of personnel are moving. There are many gifts as well, so I was wondering if we should attach a separate escort for them.”
“An escort? Why should we provide protection when the Holy Kingdom is the one sending them?”
While I was having those thoughts, incomprehensible words entered my ears.
“Are you telling me that the Holy Kingdom didn’t attach… any Troops at all to the Saintess Candidate moving to the Southern Region?”
“Yes, that is correct. Of course, there are some Troops normally attached to the Saintess Candidate… but they are absolutely not enough to protect the entire group.”
As soon as the Official’s report ended, I pondered for a moment.
“Teo.”
“Yes! His Royal Highness the Crown Prince! Your Highness’s First Staff! Teo is ready to carry out your orders at any time!”
I called for Teo.
But.
“Y-Your Highness! Th-This Servant too! This Servant is also ready!”
Arveda, who had been quietly watching Teo from the side, seemed to have caught some sort of competitive Spirit.
No, next to Teo.
Thud.
In front of Teo, she raised one hand high just like him, making her presence known.
It wasn’t like kids raising their hands when crossing a crosswalk. What was this?
“If we take a large number of people, we won’t be able to properly figure out the Holy Kingdom’s intentions… Teo and Arveda, the two of you go and observe the situation.”
“Yep!”
But since it wasn’t a big deal, I gave the order right away.
“Your Highness.”
“Hmm?”
Suddenly, Arveda glanced up at me with hesitant eyes.
“This Servant has spent much more time with Your Highness than that one… so this Servant simply cannot understand why you called that one’s name first and this Servant’s name second…”
“…”
She continued her argument in a very cautious tone.
No, she was actually paying attention to that?
[Was this something that required that level of detail?]
Still, she was the easiest to talk to among the Executioners, so why couldn’t I humor her this much?
“Arveda and Teo, the two of you go and observe the situation.”
“Ahem! This Servant! Has received your order!”
“And call me the moment you notice anything suspicious.”
“Yep!”
If I had my way, I would have liked to watch the Saintess Candidate move from the Holy Kingdom to the Southern Region from start to finish.
But there were too many things I had to do right now for that.
[The Restriction is very convenient, but it’s a shame it’s not a cure-all.]
The Restriction that made your head explode if you rebelled.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t omnipotent.
The conditions were very strict, and the strictest Restriction of all was that they had to be from a similar school of Magic.
It was only possible between wizards, and only when they had learned similar Magic, by mutual consent.
Given all these complicated settings attached to it, it seemed to be a penalty for the Restriction.
[Arveda said the Restriction she placed on Teo was practically the same as Teo placing it on himself.]
Did the author think the novel would become boring if they just went around placing Restrictions everywhere?
Still, we were able to secure a significant number of wizards, so it was useful in many ways.
Those with good abilities among the wizards were made to research Magic.
Or the system shone greatly in making them work hard to train successors.
Generally, it cost a lot of money to hire a Wizard and raise a Wizard.
But all I had to do was give them minimum living expenses with the promise of letting them live like humans.
It was yielding ridiculous cost-effectiveness.
[Besides this… starting with the railway… I can just ask the Northern Region and Western Region about the supply and demand of mana stones.]
Come to think of it, I had to stop by the Western Region too.
If I had my way, I’d want to quickly focus on stabilizing the Empire.
But they all reeked of something fishy, from The Center to the East, West, South, and North.
It seemed I would only be able to comfortably focus on internal affairs after checking them one by one.
[Silphiner is continuing to monitor the Eastern Region…]
I wanted to quickly restore the Empire to its former glory by continuing to unlock the Convenient Empire Status Window Tech Tree.
At that time, I wanted to dig up again the underground resources sitting idle in the Northern Region, and quickly process demonic beast byproducts to monetize them.
[Come to think of it, are the Barbarians who came to the Northern Region doing well?]
I needed to receive a proper report on this too.
I had been so busy lately that I hadn’t been able to properly stop by The Center.
[I should stop by The Center first before going to the Western Region.]
Why did the Empire have problems everywhere, starting from The Center to the East, West, South, and North?
Actually, in the case of the Southern Region, it was very ambiguous to call it a problem.
“Duke Barareum, you have truly been managing the Southern Region with integrity and uprightness. There was some minor bribery, but it’s not excessive at all compared to your hard work.”
“Th-Th-Th-Thank you for saying so. It is truly an honor, Your Highness.”
“To think you explicitly stated that even if you rebuild the Ducal Estate, it must be clearly built lower than the Imperial Palace… I didn’t know your loyalty ran this deep.”
“Your grace is immeasurable.”
“I want to see you for a long time, so I hope you lose some weight by the time I come next.”
“O-Of course!”
Should I say he was maintaining the position of the only normal person I’d seen so far?
If Duke Barareum had gone crazy, the Southern Region would have already been at the mercy of the Romper Holy Kingdom.
[He kept the line well.]
Duke Barareum had his head planted on the floor to the point where the fat on his entire body could be seen trembling.
He was this terrified when I praised him.
It seemed the Southern Region of the Empire always kept its eyes and ears open to news of the Empire.
“I will bring a reward next time I come.”
“I-I will make it a Family heirloom!”
“How can you say you’ll make it a Family heirloom before you even receive it, not knowing what it is? Anyway, I am well aware of your hard work.”
The conversation ended here.
[It would be right to go to The Center first.]
The moment I turned my body with that thought to head straight to The Center.
- His Royal Highness the Crown Prince! Your Highness’s Staff #1, Teo! I contacted you because there is an anomaly as Your Highness mentioned!
A message came from Teo.
- At Your Highness’s deep insight, I, Teo, am incredibly amazed…
- Just get to the point.
- Unidentifiable individuals have attached themselves to the rear of the Saintess Candidate’s group. It doesn’t seem like they have good intentions.
And the content of that message was exactly as I had expected.
[They probably didn’t think anything of it when they were only sending the Saintess Candidate.]
But for all the people following the Saintess Candidate to come to the Empire as well?
This wouldn’t be the picture the Holy Kingdom wanted.
If so, I expected they would try to ruin the picture.
The Holy Kingdom moved exactly like that, far too simply.
[From the moment they said they were sending her to the Empire, she was mine.]
I wonder how many Troops they sent.
[I hope they sent a lot.]
Today will be the day the Holy Kingdom’s Troops will be greatly reduced.