A Pure Nation
Satou here. I used to have a colleague who was way too fastidious for his own good. Of course everyone should follow the rules, but he was such a stickler about even the smallest details that it drove everyone else crazy.
“Staaars?”
“It just turned from noon into night, sir!”
Two young girls with animal ears gazed up at the starry night sky in surprise: Tama, with short white hair and cat ears and tail, and Pochi, with a brown bob cut and dog ears and tail.
“There must be a time difference.”
This comment came from Arisa, along with an exhale that formed a puff of white vapor. As a reincarnation with lilac hair that was considered unlucky, she had the modern-day knowledge to match her status as someone who was once Japanese.
“We’re at the western edge of the great desert now, which is very far away from where we were in Kuvork Kingdom a moment ago,” I confirmed.
We teleported here after a little girl with pale blue hair, possibly the goddess Parion herself, told me to “save the hero of this age.” Our destination was Parion Province, where Hayato the Hero must have been in trouble.
Our current location was the City Core room at the western edge of the continent, the closest place I could bring us with Unit Deployment.
From there, Arisa used Space Magic to bring us out into the desert.
“The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” Lulu remarked.
Personally, I thought her beautiful features and black hair could rival even the moon hanging over the desert.
“Yes, it is.”
As I responded, I remembered that in Japanese classical literature, this exchange could famously be interpreted as a confession of love.
But of course, as someone from this parallel world, Lulu wouldn’t know that. Never mind.
“You like it, too, Mia?”
“Hmm.”
The elf girl absently responded to my question.
When she gave a slight nod without taking her eyes off the sky, her pigtails shifted, revealing a peek at her slightly pointed ears.
“Master, my heat sensors have detected an abnormality. We should take action to prevent decline in body temperature, I recommend.”
This roundabout way of saying “it’s cold” was hardly unusual for Nana, a blond homunculus who was just over a year old.
Since the other girls looked cold, too, I handed out some warmer clothing from my Storage.
The desert seems to get a lot colder at night, in stark contrast to the daytime.
“Master, I disposed of all the monsters lurking nearby.”
Liza reported in with a cool expression.
The crisp moonlight reflected off the scales around her neck and wrists that marked her as a member of the orangescale tribe, as well as off her tail, which pounded against the sand when I praised her efforts.
“Will we be traveling by airship from here?”
“Good question…”
For the time being, Hayato and his party didn’t appear to be seriously wounded.
The hero’s information in my marker tab showed only a bit of lost health and stamina, which was well within the realm of expectation for a group that was aiming to defeat a demon lord.
Their current location was the Den of Evil, not Parion Province. They must have been in the middle of exploring some kind of demon lord hideout.
It might be a little while longer before they actually needed our help.
“I’ll use my Space Magic to bring us close to the Parion Province border.”
The fastest way to get there would be to use “Flashrunning” to go there and set a teleport point, then transport everyone with the Space Magic spell Return.
“From there, we’ll enter the province normally, by land.”
I figured we could start by heading to the capital of Parion Province, finding someone who knew Hayato the Hero, and getting information about his whereabouts.
I used my Ministry of Tourism guide to quickly find my way to the entrance of Parion Province, then brought everyone else along with me.
“Hmm? We’re still in the desert? Have we not gone very far, then?”
“No, Parion Province is nearly two small nations’ length away from the great desert. This is a small desert that’s technically its own territory.”
Based on what I saw from above, Parion Province was surrounded by the Great Barrier Wall, which bore a close resemblance to the Great Wall of China.
According to my Ministry of Tourism documents, 30 percent of Parion Province was desert, and another 50 was a sparse wasteland.
“Hey, as long we’re in the desert, let’s travel to the capital city on camels!”
“Camels? I mean, I guess I could make camel-shaped golems pretty quickly…”
“The city gates probably won’t open until sunrise anyway, right?”
Arisa had a point; there were probably still around three hours left before the sun came up.
Since we weren’t in much of a rush yet, there was no harm in enjoying ourselves while we waited.
I used the surrounding sand to create enough stone camel golems for each of us to ride.
“Satou.”
“Look at usss?”
“It’s Abarian Nights, sir.”
Mia, Tama, and Pochi appeared dressed in belly dancer–like costumes: bikini tops, loose pants with semi-translucent fabric, and decorations like coins and beads that jangled with every movement.
My first instinct was to warn them that they’d catch a cold, but the air around us was warmer than before. Arisa must have heated things up with Fire Magic.
“Hee-hee. What do you think? Sexy, right?”
Arisa approached in a similar outfit and struck a pose, looking a little self-conscious.
“You all look very cute.”
As I smiled at the younger girls, the older girls showed up behind them in the same getups.
“Master, am I cute, too? I inquire.”
“This is a little embarrassing.”
“You both look lovely.”
The outfit was especially showstopping on Nana, with her impressive proportions.
It looked a bit scandalous on Lulu, who was still on her way to adulthood.
“I do not think an outfit like this suits someone like me…”
“You look great, too, Liza.”
The costume took on an imposing air when worn by the strong and slender Liza.
I could definitely picture her doing a sword dance with a look like this.
“Well, shall we get going?”
The camel golems were too tall for some of the shorter girls, even when they knelt down, so I lifted them onto their stone steeds by the waist.
Once everyone was aboard, I activated the stone camels.
“Riding across the desert on a line of camels by moonlight… I feel like we’ve slipped into the world of Arabian Nights.”
“Should I have made djinn rings and genie lamps, too?”
It might be fun to travel by magic carpet, for that matter.
As we chatted among ourselves, we soon approached the border of Parion Province, guarded by the Great Barrier Wall.
For starters, I used the “Search Entire Map” skill to investigate the province.
Like Shiga Kingdom, it was broken up into several maps. The only one that revealed itself to me here was the Parion Province East Gate Area map.
Some 60 percent of the population was human, while 30 percent was a demi-human race I’d never heard of called “sandfolk.” The remaining 10 percent consisted of various scalefolk and beastfolk, as well as a small handful of fairy races. There didn’t appear to be any demons or reincarnations.
However, I did find a few dozen members of Light of Freedom, the demon lord–worshipping cult that caused chaos in the royal capital of Shiga Kingdom not long ago. I promptly used the Material Transfer spell to deliver a letter detailing this information to the east gate viceroy—or “holy warden,” as they were evidently called in Parion Provence.
I could’ve dealt with them myself, but since I didn’t know the particular laws of the east gate area and it would take too long to track down the non-member collaborators, I decided to drop that work on the holy warden’s lap instead.
“These outer walls seem to go on for ages.”
“According to my Ministry of Tourism guide, it’s called the ‘Great Barrier Wall.’ It’s so long that it circles around the entire territory of Parion Province.”
The wall had finally come into view.
“It also says the only way to enter the province is through the gateway towns on three sides of the territory.”
The gate in front of us was the eastern entrance.
Around the gateway town was a wall only about half the height of the Great Barrier Wall.
“So, the town sticks out from the Great Barrier Wall like a little island… If you broke part of the wall, do you think a giant face would be inside?”
“I’m gonna go with no.” I shut down Arisa’s reference to a certain titanically popular manga.
We joined the other people waiting at the gate, and once it opened, we were allowed into the east gateway town without any kind of process or payment. What a generous town.
Since this place was right in the middle of the trade route, there were people in all kinds of garments around.
The majority wore Middle Eastern–style fashions, with turban-like cloths wrapped around their heads like Cardinal Hozzunas, the man who caused the Evil God’s Spawn incident in the royal capital at the end of the year. Most of their clothes were in plain brownish and tan hues; perhaps dye was expensive in this area.
“Smells goood?”
“Pochi can tell, sir! This is grilled Mr. Sheep meat, sir!”
“Heh-heh. You still have much to learn, Pochi. It’s hard to tell with the strong smell of spices, but this is undoubtedly the scent of grilled goat.”
The main street just past the plaza at the town’s entrance was thick with the delicious smells of breakfast and snack carts, as well as with the enthusiastic calls of vendors.
Since Parion Province had its own official language, I gave everyone translation rings.
“You there, Mr. Foreigner! How about some of Parion Province’s famous goat-meat fried rice?!”
The salesman lifted the lid off an enormous pan, releasing the smells of butter and spices.
The delicious fragrance certainly activated my appetite. In addition to the goat meat, it also seemed to contain minced dates and some unfamiliar local vegetables; luckily, there weren’t any bugs involved, as far as I could see.
Since it appeared to be made with uncooked rice, it was probably more like rice pilaf than the fried rice I knew best.
“Hungryyy?”
“It smells so good that Pochi might go crazy, sir.”
“Ha-ha. Let’s get some breakfast from these food carts, shall we?”
“Yes, please!”
We bought pilaf as our main course for breakfast, as well as various other dishes.
Although eating with one’s hands seemed to be the norm in this area, most of us had trouble doing so without spilling, so we used our own spoons.
A little miffed, I vowed to master eating with my hands in the local style during our stay.
“What do you think this white stuff is?”
“It looks and feels like yogurt, but the flavor is more like sesame tofu…”
“I believe you’re supposed to scoop it up with this flatbread,” Lulu explained.
According to my AR display, it was Palif Bean Paste. It reminded me of hummus.
“Master, this is painfully spicy, I report.”
Nana showed me a bright red soup.
“Mew!”
“My tummy hurts, sir!”
“That’s quite an intense shade of red. It must contain a lot of peppers of some kind.”
“It’s pretty tasty, but it does make you break into a sweat.”
This was the kind of dish I’d prefer to eat in a cold climate.
“Radish and cucumber salad.”
“Ooh, it has grated cheese on top.”
Mia had discovered a colorful salad. It was eaten in a thin shell made from wheat flour.
The dish was topped with a citrus-flavored dressing, combining with the crunchy texture for a refreshing bite. There was a hint of something like bitter melon in it, too.
“Meat is still the best, sir.”
“Hear, heeear?”
Tama and Pochi held nearly two-foot-long skewers, packed with plenty of meat.
“Be careful not to injure anyone with those.”
“Aye.”
“Yes, sir.”
The pair nodded cheerfully in response to Liza’s warning. Watching them fondly, I dug into my own skewer.
While the meat had a rather strong smell and flavor, eating it in tandem with the salad Mia found balanced it out nicely.
All of the dishes were rich but delicious, making for an exotic and plentiful spread.
Hopefully, we could enjoy sightseeing a little longer before we had to meet up with Hayato the Hero.
“C’mon, lemme in! I’mma go see my dad!”
“Quiet down, brat! No one without an entry permit is allowed through this gate, no matter their reason!”
As we took in the sights of the crowded streets while making our way toward the gate of the Great Barrier Wall, we heard a young boy and a gatekeeper man arguing up ahead.
“That kid’s not gettin’ through.”
“Yeah, not when an entry permit costs a whopping ten gold coins. That’s a serious sum even for a full-fledged merchant.”
“Won’t they issue you an entry permit if you train enough at a temple?”
“In theory. But I heard you gotta do ten years of real tough trainin’ for that.”
“What about warriors? Can’t they get in to become temple soldiers?”
“They say you gotta be an ‘adept’ to get in.”
“Experts are in demand no matter where you go. I hear they’ll let in mages and craftsmen, too.”
“Well, at any rate, that kid’s outta luck.”
I overheard this conversation between some men watching the quarrel at the gate.
“I’m trying to work here. Come back when you’ve got an entry permit for me.”
The gatekeeper gave the boy a hard shove, sending him tumbling toward us.
A slight child with gritty ochre-toned skin, he was apparently one of the sandfolk I learned about in my map search earlier.
“A-are you all right, sir?”
“Are you huuurt?”
Tama and Pochi ran over to the boy.
“Nah, I’mma be fine. Thanks for carin’, though… Hey, are these ears real?”
“Mew!”
“You shouldn’t touch a young lady’s ears without asking, sir…”
Tama sprang back from the boy when he brazenly reached for her cat ears.
Pochi waggled a finger reproachfully at the startled boy.
“S-sorry, my bad. Didn’t think you’d mind so much.”
“Don’t worry, be happyyy.”
Tama’s flattened ears quickly perked up as she accepted the boy’s apology.
“Wait just a minute—he is injured. Mia?”
“Mmm, on it.”
We moved away from the crowded area near the gate so that Mia could use Water Magic to heal the boy.
“Thanks a bunch. You’re pretty cool for someone so small.”
The blunt-mannered boy appraised Mia.
Her elf ears seemed to catch his interest, but he didn’t try to touch them this time; clearly, he’d learned his lesson from Tama’s reaction. He seemed like a good kid deep down.
Hmm?
My AR display gave the boy’s name as Raito.
While it seemed fairly common for names in Parion Province to end in to, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Japanese spelling of the English word light.
Out of curiosity, I checked for signs that he might be a reincarnation. He didn’t have any unusual titles, or abilities known as Unique Skills. In fact, he only had one skill, though it was a rather odd one: “Intuition.”
“I heard you arguing with the gatekeeper. Why do you want to go through the gate?”
“I’mma find my dad, s’why.”
“Your father?”
“Yeah, ’cause my mom died in the epidemic. I’mma tell my dad her final message.”
“Do you know where he went?”
“The holy city. Haven’t heard from him since he got called there by the Great Sage.”
The “holy city” referred to the Holy City of Parion, the capital of Parion Province.
“If I see your father, I’ll let him know you’re looking for him. Could you tell me his name?”
“My dad’s name is Iyusahk. Pretty weird, right? Says he’s from some foreign land.”
I took his word for it. Since I’d just arrived in this area, I had no idea what made the name unusual.
At any rate, I did a search for that name, but I didn’t find anyone on this map or any others nearby that I had available.
“Master, couldn’t we perhaps take this young man along with us to the holy city?”
The kindhearted Lulu seemed to sympathize with Raito’s plight.
“Hey, you’re pretty nice for such an uggo.”
Raito promptly repaid Lulu’s kindness with more rudeness, which turned her expression downcast.
“Watch your mouth, you blockhead!”
Arisa bopped the boy soundly on the head.
“Owww! Damn, you’re one violent chick.”
“You deserved that for calling Lulu ugly. You shouldn’t say things that will hurt people’s feelings.”
“What, did that hurt your feelings?”
Lulu gave a tiny nod.
“Gotcha. Sorry ’bout that. My mom was always gettin’ mad at me, too. ‘Think about what you’re about to say before you say it, why don’t you?!’ …Man, she was always on my case. I’mma… I’mma make my mom mad all the time… I don’t care if she kept on yellin’ at me, I just wish she was still here…!”
When Raito started to cry as he thought about his mother, Tama and Pochi looked flustered, unsure how to help.
Arisa handed him a handkerchief to wipe his tears, and he blew his nose with a cartoonish honking sound.
“Master, permission to bring the larvae along? I request.”
“Well, I suppose they say chance meetings are the result of karma. Let’s bring him with us to the holy city.”
It seemed like this problem could easily be solved with money, anyway.
“They let us through awfully quickly.”
As it turns out, we didn’t even need money to pass through the gate.
My Shiga Kingdom Vice-Minister of Tourism medallion was enough to get us permission to enter, and they gave Raito a permit to accompany us when I said I would be his guardian.
“Hey, you must be a real bigwig. That gatekeeper guy was bowin’ like crazy.”
“Yes indeeeed?”
“Master is a very, very bigwig, sir.”
Tama and Pochi looked pleased by Raito’s enthusiasm.
“There’s another town in here, I report.”
The streets beyond the gate were populated primarily by temple staff in plain clothing and caravans of merchants.
Somehow, the whole area had a somewhat somber religious tone.
We headed for the outskirts of town to find a stagecoach to the holy city, as recommended by the gatekeeper.
“Low?”
Mia was right: The inner wall around the town was quite low.
“You’re not kiddin’.” Raito looked up at it. “Any old monsters could get over that wall.”
“Gah-ha-ha-ha, don’t you worry your little head about that.” A hearty-looking merchant caught wind of Raito’s comment and ambled over to respond. “Parion Province here is protected by the pure and holy power of the goddess herself. You won’t find any monsters here, no sir.”
Wow, that’s impressive.
Sure enough, I checked my map and didn’t find any monsters in the area.
Maybe the goddess was more powerful than I realized.
“Well, unless you go poking around in the underground ruins we call the Dens of Evil. Long as you stay out of there, you’ll be safe.”
Although I couldn’t find the underground ruins in a map search, I did see several small empty areas ranging in size from that of a human to a horse-drawn carriage. These must be the entrances to the Dens of Evil.
“And seeing as we steer clear of the Dens of Evil, our trade caravan is safe as they come.”
Apparently, our stagecoach to the holy city would be traveling with his caravan.
We were also joined by carriages full of craftsmen and kids who were temple soldiers in training. Every one of the kids had some kind of Gift—a special hereditary skill.
“This whole situation smells like trouble.”
“Easy-peasy.”
“Yes, Mia. As long as Master is with us, we are in no danger, I confirm.”
It’s nice to be trusted so completely.
“Despite all their claims of safety, they’ve certainly assigned plenty of guards.”
“Well, even if there aren’t monsters, there could still be bandits and such.”
Liza still looked suspicious, despite Lulu’s reasonable response.
“Gah-ha-ha-ha, you’ll not find such lawless miscreants in our great holy land. Any nonbelievers foolish enough to try it are doomed to be sucked into the ‘dreaded depths beneath the sand,’ thanks to Goddess Parion’s divine punishment.”
Is that some roundabout way of saying they’ll go to hell?
“At any rate, our caravan is safe, that’s for certain. Rest easy, relax, and enjoy the ride without any fear, I say.”
The merchant must have really overdone it on the foreshadowing there, because next thing you know…
“We’re doooooomed!”
…a swarm of mummy-like monsters surrounded us in a cloud of sand.
“Master, did you see their stats?”
Looking alarmed, Arisa whispered in my ear.
“I’m checking them right now.”
According to my AR display, the mummies were monsters called “Sandstorm Soldiers,” ranging from level three to six with inherent skills like “Physical Attack Resistance” and “Regeneration.”
That wasn’t the problem, though.
“Swords don’t work on them! Sand just comes out of the cuts, instead of blood…!”
“Same for maces! The crushed body parts just grow right back!”
The mercenaries hired to protect the caravan seemed to be struggling against the monster swarm. Still, since they were high-level fighters and many of them had mithril swords or magic skills, they would probably manage somehow.
My biggest concern was the fact that their title column showed the Sandstorm Soldiers as spawn of a demon lord called the “Sandstorm Lord.”
That must be what Arisa was whispering in my ear about.
This could only mean one thing: There was definitely a demon lord in this land.
“Master, the mercenaries have succeeded in defeating the Sandstorm Soldiers, I report.”
Well, that’s good, at least…
“Mew?”
Just as Tama peered intently past the sand dunes, a huge number of red dots appeared on my radar.
A moment later, Raito cried out. “More enemies are coming!”
His rare “Intuition” skill was impressive indeed. It was slower than Tama’s sharp senses, but faster than Mia’s “Spirit Detection” at noticing the enemies’ approach.
Clearly it wasn’t entirely reliable, though, given that it didn’t detect the first wave of enemies.
“Those beasts called for backup!”
Mere moments after the first wave of Sandstorm Soldiers fell, a far larger swarm appeared from beyond the sand dunes.
Though some of them looked like scorpion-people instead of mummies, apparently they were all still Sandstorm Soldiers.
“Run for it!”
“Too late. We’re surrounded!”
“This is terrible! You must do something at once!”
The merchant leading the caravan looked pale at the mercenaries’ cries.
“Master, is it all right if we lend a hand this time around?”
Arisa was already pulling a staff out of her Fairy Pack.
“No need.”
“Oui, ouiii.”
“I hear horses coming, sir.”
Tama and Pochi pointed toward the dunes just as a group of Parion Province’s Temple Knights came into view.
They must have come to help after one of the merchants sent up a signal flare when the first wave of monsters attacked.
“Look! Knights!”
“The Temple Knights have come to save us!”
The merchants and mercenaries alike lit up with hope and waved at the knights.
“They’re quite skilled, I see.”
Liza observed the knights in battle approvingly.
The Temple Knights showed skill on par with the elite Holy Knights of Shiga Kingdom as they made quick work of the Sandstorm Soldiers.
They all had a fair amount of skills, and not a wasted one among them. They must have trained under very strict guidelines.
“Damn, they’re so awesome!”
Raito’s eyes sparkled as he watched the Temple Knights in action.
“Master, look at that person—the one with the feathered helmet.”
It didn’t take long to figure out who Lulu meant.
The Temple Knight in question was wielding a sword that shone with blue light.
“A Holy Sword.”
The Holy Sword, called Blutgang, was probably left behind by a summoned hero of the past.
It was so powerful that it reduced the Sandstorm Soldiers to dust with even the lightest graze.
The Temple Knights made short work of the Sandstorm Soldiers and began healing the injured mercenaries with Holy Magic.
“Thank you kindly, O noble hero.”
The merchant addressed Mezzalt, the Temple Knight with the Holy Sword.
He probably assumed he was a hero because of his weapon.
“…Hero?” Lifting the visor of his feathered helmet, Sir Mezzalt curled his lip. “We are honorable Temple Knights. I’ll thank you not to compare us to some sniveling rat who cannot even finish off one measly demon lord.”
“F-forgive me, good sir.”
The merchant bowed frantically to the scowling Mezzalt.
After a moment, the Temple Knight led his retinue away.
Maybe he had some kind of history with Hayato the Hero.
“Wow, that guy turned out to be a real jerk at the last second.”
Arisa stuck out her tongue at the knight Mezzalt as he rode away.
Evidently, Hayato the Hero was fighting more than just a demon lord in Parion Province.
I was still scratching my head over which part I was meant to help him with, when our caravan reached the Holy City of Parion, capital of Parion Province.
“Boy, this place is lively.”
Once we exited our carriage and passed a quick inspection, we entered through the white stone gates of the holy city.
My “Search Entire Map” skill confirmed that the Light of Freedom cult was infesting this place as well; I’d have to report them later, once I found someone I could trust.
It was possible that some of their people might have disguise items that could fool even my menu, like Cardinal Hozzunas from the royal capital incident did. I even found a bishop named Shippunas with the same Brace of Stolen Divinity the cardinal had, so I put a marker on him, just to be safe.
“Happyyy?”
“Mmm, lots of spirits.”
The city was at a comfortable temperature and humidity level, no doubt thanks to the power of the City Core.
Even the intensely strong sunlight was gentler here.
“Welcome to the holy city!”
“You must be tired. Come and partake of our free clean water and food.”
“I pray thee, accept the benevolence of Goddess Parion.”
Lovely young priestesses called out to the travelers entering through the gates.
“Whoa, damn! All that food for free?!”
Raito yelped with delight, bolting toward the spot where they were offering free food.
The priestesses watched warmly as he gleefully dug into the water and flatbread that was handed to him.
“There’s fried fish over there, too.”
“And dates, tooo?”
The ever-hungry duo were already hot on the trail of food.
“There seems to be plenty of food for a place in the middle of the harsh desert.”
“It seems there is a plentiful water source here, I report.”
Liza and Nana looked around thoughtfully.
“You aren’t going to eat, good nobles?”
“Well, I suppose we wouldn’t want to be rude. Thank you.”
Once we’d partaken of some of the free food, we headed for the cathedral at the center of the city, where my map showed some of the hero’s party members.
The cathedral had four large domed towers, one in each cardinal direction, making for a landmark that was visible from anywhere in the city.
“It almost seems like paradise, doesn’t it?”
Lulu’s eyes were wide as we followed the main street toward the cathedral.
Everyone around us wore pleasant smiles, and white and blue flowers bloomed all along the roadside.
“Perhaps there’s some kind of event today?” Arisa mused.
There was indeed a crowd gathered in the plaza in front of the cathedral, as if at a concert hall.
“There are a lot of injured or sick-looking people, though.”
Maybe there was some kind of free healing event at the cathedral?
“The pontiff! The pontiff is here!”
At this cry, the entire crowd knelt and began praying on the spot.
We were among a handful of people who got left awkwardly standing around, unsure of the situation, but at least this gave us a good view of the pontiff and company.
While walls of cloth hid the pontiff from view in every direction, my map information stated that someone called Pontiff Zarzaris of Parion Province was inside. I remembered hearing that this person could use Prayer Magic.
…Hmm?
Among the entourage was one person in a black robe who looked more like a sorcerer than a priest. Though a hood hid most of the person’s face, I guessed from the peek of wrinkled mouth that it must be an elderly man.
He had an Advanced Recognition-Inhibiting item or something that blocked my “Analyze” skill; still, my AR display indicated that he was a level-50 mage. Judging by the outfit, he probably wasn’t a priest. His “Sage” title suggested that he might be a personal adviser to the pontiff or something of the sort.
His name was Sorijeyro, and he was probably the “Great Sage” that Raito mentioned.
“Mew.”
As I was reading the mage’s information, Tama suddenly pressed her face into my leg. She seemed anxious, or perhaps just overwhelmed by the crowd.
A chorus of cheers drew my attention back in time to see pure blue light glowing from within the cloth and spreading across the audience. The cloth fluttered, and I caught a glimpse of the pontiff within: a gentle old face with a flowing white beard.
“My wounds healed up!”
“Ooh, the coughing’s finally stopped…”
“My daughter opened her eyes…!”
The light seemed to be healing everyone it touched.
“Thank you, oh, thank you!”
“The pontiff is truly an apostle of Parion herself!”
“Huzzah for the pontiff! Glory to Goddess Parion!”
Tears streamed down the worshippers’ faces as they cheered in admiration.
The pontiff soon retreated from sight, still within the cloth.
I caught a tiny glimpse of his face as he left, looking somewhat nonplussed by the fervor of his fans. Maybe he was actually a pretty modest person.
“That’s just like my dad’s power.”
Raito stared after the retreating pontiff.
“Your dad could do that?”
“Sorta, yeah. It wasn’t nearly as strong, though.” Raito nodded at Arisa. “Hey, maybe my dad’s an apprentice to the pontiff now! I’mma find out!”
Before I could stop him, Raito dashed off into the crowd.
I didn’t see his father anywhere in my map of the city.
“There he goes. Should I go fetch him?”
“No, it’s fine.”
Technically, we were only supposed to take him as far as the holy city anyway. I’d be worried about leaving such a small kid on his own here, though.
Once we met up with Hayato the Hero’s friends, I resolved to find someone to take care of young Raito.
“That pontiff’s magic was awfully impressive, though. Do you suppose that was a taste of just how strong Holy Magic can be?”
“No, that was a Unique Skill.”
My map information showed that the pontiff had a special ability: Heal All.
“You mean he’s a reincarnation?”
“I’m not sure. I caught a glimpse of his beard and the hair under his turban, and it wasn’t purple.”
He didn’t have the “Hero” title, either, of course.
Although I guess he might have a single lock of purple hair, like Cardinal Hozzunas did.
“Given that he’s the pontiff of Parion Province and all, maybe he got a Unique Skill from the goddess herself, like a hero?”
“Good point. That would certainly win her plenty more worshippers.”
As Arisa nodded wisely, I saw Tama and Mia look up at the sky, ears pricking.
“Mew?”
“Satou.”
I followed their gazes and saw a rippling effect spread through the air. Then a silver ship appeared near the cathedral.
“Master, look!”
“Yeah, I know that ship.”
It was Hayato the Hero’s ship, the dimensional submarine Jules Verne.
“How blasphemous to approach the cathedral like that!”
“Even with the Goddess Parion’s favor, that’s still going too far!”
“We must send a strongly worded protest to the Saga Empire!”
The priests and Temple Knights in the plaza looked enraged at the Jules Verne’s sudden appearance.
“They’re headed for the pontiff’s room!”
Hayato’s party emerged from the hatch of the Jules Verne and leaped onto the veranda, setting up a ramp of sorts in between.
Then I saw Hayato himself staggering unsteadily across the ramp, supported by another member of his party.
A sort of black smoke was rising off the hero’s body.
Well, that can’t be good.
“Looks like something must have happened.”
“Yeah, this could be a bit of a problem.”
I hurried toward the cathedral entrance, with my companions following close behind.
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